Quote:
Originally Posted by Summerwolf
You're definitely giving salesman, and dealerships in general too much credit. There is always a hierarchy, period. Yes senior salesman generally have more leeway when it comes to talking to the desk, but the desk still puts together the deal. The goal of the salesman is the product, the goal of the desk is the money (dealership wants to make money BTW), and the goal of the finance manager is to sell backend products and paperwork. I think being in sales, and doing it gives a different perspective from working in the dealership in any other position.
Also, I never said anything about walk-in customers.
Caveat* Owner operated / buy here pay here / certain small volume dealers may be different.... I'm strictly talking about the average dealership here.
|
i'm not giving anyone too much credit. Most people trying to sell cars suck. Most dealerships have no clue what they are doing.
Sales people don't need to know product. They need to know how to sell, and they need to know their inventory. Anything else can be looked up. There is a reason the title is sales person.
I've never been to any dealership that did not have the salesperson start the deal, and have a sales manager okay it or maybe step in to finish the deal. I've also never been to any decent dealership that did not have the sales people on pure commission, so believe me they care about the deal. I've been to many different dealerships and seen quite a few deals done.
I've never heard of any concept of anything called "the desk." You must be referring to something at a tiny dealership. At most dealerships. even the largest, sales people are grouped into teams under a sales manager. The sales manager has final say. That is the only hierarchy in most dealerships. There can be many managers at a dealership depending on how large it is, but they always have the final say on a deal. The sales managers can report to a number of different titled people depending on how a dealership is organized, from a general manager to someone who just oversees the sales people to the owner. It varies.
Now a smart sales manager knows who his best sales people are, because they are the ones that make their paycheck get bigger. That is just common sense. They also know the people that don't really need much help and know what they are doing. A sales manager wants to not get involved, because that means cars are being sold for higher prices and that makes everyone happy. And in all honesty a sales manager is usually worse at negotiating than their best sales people. Because if they weren't they'd still be on the sales floor. They are there just to make sure the sales person doesn't screw up, and to make sure everyone sells enough cars. They also need to keep in mind all the other bonuses each sales person can get, and they themselves can get, and then that the dealership can get. Because at each level there is a modifier and bonuses for selling specific number of cars.
Finance people are on commission as well. Every thing they sell can be negotiated, people sometimes do not realize this. They can also lose sales for sales people by being jerks. This is why good sales people want as little to do with them as possible. This is why a sales person who sells a ton of cars will walk in with the customer.
Walk ins are how most car sales are started. That is how dealerships are set up. It literally means people that walk in cold from off the street. A good salesperson still probably won't get the sale that day. I forget the specific number, but I know less than 50% of people who walk in dealerships buy the same day. This is where salespeople fail the most. They never follow up. A good sales person will follow up every week with everyone he has met with until they've bought a car. This is how a lot of sales are really made. And the smart salesperson will give people honest advice even if that leads the customer to buy from somewhere else, because those people will always remember that. Dealerships really really suck at teaching people how to sell and what that really means.
Even as a person who never sold cars before, I was told to start the deal and start the negotiations. This was literally the only real training they gave me, how to structure the deals they wanted. Only after I'd spent some time negotiating was I even allowed to bring it to the attention of the sales manager. As I said before, I've never seen any dealership operate any other way. I've seen people negotiate with salesmen for 4+ hours haggling prices down and down and only at the very end when it was obvious we were going to walk did the sales manager step in.
So like I've been saying it isn't as cut and dry as you said. Smart sales managers know their people. That is the point of having them there.