Another silly salesman story

[themadscientist]

I heard a lot of stories about dumbass dealers who had no knowledge of their product and just making crap like that up. Three people at the dealership I bought my car from owned BRZs including the dealer who handled my sale. They knew the car and when they had no display model, no local Subi dealer did, he let me mess around with his. You have to know your products because if you are doing the important task of listening to what the customer wants you can't align that to what you have in your product line because you don't know shit.

Similarly, when I was across the street at Nissan, the dealer there was also knowledgeable about his products. When I described what I wanted and told him I was cross shopping the BRZ/86 his shoulders slumped because he knew he had nothing in the lineup. He offered up the Z, but admitted he knew that wasn't what I wanted. I felt bad for the guy, a little bit angry FOR him that Nissan was similarly letting him down by denying him access to a market segment.

[why?]

Originally Posted by NemesisPrime909

While this is true in the life of a salesperson.
There is a line between being misinformed and outright lying.
This salesman crossed said line.
Lamborghini? how desperate can you be?

I agree lying is stupid and that sales person is probably clueless and desperate because he has not sold a car in a month or two. He'll have another job in a few months.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Selling cars is not like selling vacuum cleaners. The salesman only needs to know the basics and should not have to build excitement by showing the special crevice tool or how well the car will pick up little Styrofoam balls.
There are really two basic types of car buyers:
The utility driver - Wants a vehicle to meet their basic needs and has zero emotion involved. They state a need and the salesman should have enough knowledge to point them in the right direction to fill it. No more or less is required from them. Pushing a vehicle that does not meet that need is a waste of everybody's time and effort.

The special buyer - This is when emotion comes into play. Whether it be that fully loaded mini van or the stripped down sports car the buyer usually knows more about the car than the salesman. A good salesman will now just shut up and listen. The buyer will pretty much sell themselves as excitement builds. If the salesman catches clues that there is a better suited vehicle then they should of course mention it but need to be prepared to back away if the customer is not receptive. If the customer asks a specific question about the car that the salesman does not know they need to ensure they find the correct answer or risk ruining the sale.

Salesmen that fail to recognize these two separate types are destined to fail.

My son's bother in law sells cars. He started at Mazda, moved to Ford, then to Porsche, now at Mercedes and is being actively wooed by Land Rover/Jaguar. Needless to say he is very, very good at his job (Currently makes about $200K a year and gets to drive some sweet cars) and his skill is in demand. His sales motto is "shut up and listen"!

Yes exactly. That stuff is insanely hard. I tried selling and as much as I knew the vehicles I sucked at the people interaction and matching people with cars that suited them. Of course I worked at a crappy dealer that was extremely slow and I got no feedback or support.

I have an uncle that had a similar career path as you son's brother in law. He moved to North Carolina and tried to sell real estate. That failed. He is now selling Land Rovers and became the best salesperson at the dealership in just 2 months or so. Listening and the willingness to actually work hard and make phone calls are the two biggest factors he talks about. He always makes fun of the other sales people that clown around and do nothing when there are no customers in the dealership instead of being at their desks calling everyone they've ever talked to seeing if they decided to buy a car or not. Car sales is the biggest networking career of them all.

Originally Posted by themadscientist

I heard a lot of stories about dumbass dealers who had no knowledge of their product and just making crap like that up. Three people at the dealership I bought my car from owned BRZs including the dealer who handled my sale. They knew the car and when they had no display model, no local Subi dealer did, he let me mess around with his. You have to know your products because if you are doing the important task of listening to what the customer wants you can't align that to what you have in your product line because you don't know shit.

Similarly, when I was across the street at Nissan, the dealer there was also knowledgeable about his products. When I described what I wanted and told him I was cross shopping the BRZ/86 his shoulders slumped because he knew he had nothing in the lineup. He offered up the Z, but admitted he knew that wasn't what I wanted. I felt bad for the guy, a little bit angry FOR him that Nissan was similarly letting him down by denying him access to a market segment.

Product knowledge is helpful but the specifics weren't what was important. The willingness to listen and actually be honest was what you liked.

Don't be mad at Nissan for the dealerships fault. Any dealer can have used 86's or BRZ's as they are plentiful even though so few sell. The sales figures for the two cars are why these other companies are not trying to compete, these cars are not big money makers, and are more halo type cars.

[themadscientist]

No, Nissan has been showing a disdain for driving enthusiasts for far too long. I just need them to stay in business so I can finish rounding up enough spare parts for my GT-R and RS and then they can get bent.

[mdm]

Originally Posted by why?

Iwillingness to actually work hard and make phone calls
[...] being at their desks calling everyone they've ever talked to seeing if they decided to buy a car or not.

I hate when sellers (of anything) keep calling me. I'll call you when I am ready or if I have a question. Send me an email if you must. Don't keep interrupting me in whatever I'm doing.

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by themadscientist

No, Nissan has been showing a disdain for driving enthusiasts for far too long. I just need them to stay in business so I can finish rounding up enough spare parts for my GT-R and RS and then they can get bent.

Well at least their marketing is hard at work with these new Nismo line of offerings in order to somewhat mask this "disdain for driving enthusiasts". I can't believe even the Keroppi looking Juke has a RS Nismo trim.

I've read on Jalopnik or TTAC (I forget) that Nissan is pissing off a lot of dealerships in the States with unreal sales targets and expectations, then end up just dropping them altogether.

[Norville Rogers]

Originally Posted by Packofcrows

Mine said my car was worth 30k+ because it was special edition from Japan...

1) It had TRD exhaust and intake....not special
2) Whiteout... 2014 stock FRS w/o body kit and such...

I told her its not special edition at all. She got angry. She also said it was really fast and a racing car. I said... no.... if something its a sporty grandma grocery car thats 4cyl. She then started talking about how many people wanted this one and how many have called in. I said, "not for that price (originally like $27k+). On and on it went until I told her I have been following development of this vehicle for over 6ish years. She then brought her boss down who basically really wanted her to make a sale and we cut a good deal.

It was funny lol

So she got a sale and did everything right. Read this back in five years time.

Maybe ten.

They saw you coming from space

[why?]

Originally Posted by mdm

I hate when sellers (of anything) keep calling me. I'll call you when I am ready or if I have a question. Send me an email if you must. Don't keep interrupting me in whatever I'm doing.

Unless of course you were into the dealership a few days ago and you were still undecided about what car you were going to buy. Or you bought a car from said salesperson and they were calling to see if everything was ok or if there was anything they could do for you. You know, good polite stuff good people do for each other. Cold calling people doesn't work very well, but I'm not talking about that.

[mdm]

Originally Posted by why?

Or you bought a car from said salesperson and they were calling to see if everything was ok or if there was anything they could do for you.

Hm, maybe... But in reality what would they be able to do for me at this point? I don't think it would be more than a standard canned corpo-question. Like grocery store cashiers, who often ask me if I found everything OK. Once or twice I told them about a product that was not there, or something like that, and they did not know what to say.

Originally Posted by why?

Unless of course you were into the dealership a few days ago and you were still undecided about what car you were going to buy.

How would a call from the saleperson help me? Buing a car is a pretty serious thing, so I obviously haven't forgotten that I am in the process. If I am not calling him that means that either I made another choice, or I still haven't decided, but not due to some missing information from him/her, otherwise I'd call them.

[themadscientist]

Originally Posted by krayzie

Well at least their marketing is hard at work with these new Nismo line of offerings in order to somewhat mask this "disdain for driving enthusiasts". I can't believe even the Keroppi looking Juke has a RS Nismo trim.

I've read on Jalopnik or TTAC (I forget) that Nissan is pissing off a lot of dealerships in the States with unreal sales targets and expectations, then end up just dropping them altogether.

Ironically, the only car I saw in there the other day that excited me at all was the Nismo spec,,,Note....

It's got a manual transmission, stiffer suspension and looks sharp. I would DD that. http://www.autoblog.com/2014/07/24/n...ismo-official/

[why?]

Originally Posted by mdm

Hm, maybe... But in reality what would they be able to do for me at this point? I don't think it would be more than a standard canned corpo-question. Like grocery store cashiers, who often ask me if I found everything OK. Once or twice I told them about a product that was not there, or something like that, and they did not know what to say.


How would a call from the saleperson help me? Buing a car is a pretty serious thing, so I obviously haven't forgotten that I am in the process. If I am not calling him that means that either I made another choice, or I still haven't decided, but not due to some missing information from him/her, otherwise I'd call them.

Except that is simply not true on either counts. A huge number of car sales are made on the second or third times going to the dealership. A salesperson that knows what he is doing can help anyone mid process, even if said person chooses a brand that salesperson does not sell. Or a salesperson could have received new inventory that the customer might be more interested in, and honestly just talking about such a gigantic process is a good thing for anyone doing it, even if the customer chooses to go otherwise.

Like you said, buying a car is a huge process and it is not going to happen in a few days. A few weeks and some friendly honest help from a salesperson can help both parties immensely.

[mdm]

I think a good salesperson should figure out that some customers are different, and in my case an email is OK, a phone call usually not.

[themadscientist]

What if he really wants you to buy the car?