A Look At The Car Salesman And His Tactics

A Look At The Car Salesman And His Tactics

Being a car salesman is often associated with unfavorable personality characteristics such as being sneaky and underhanded. However, these characteristics are not necessarily personal traits as much as they are part of the job. Because most car salesman make a living from the commissions earned from the sale of a car and have no base salary, every sale is money in their pocket. In order to make a living and care for themselves and their families they will use any legal means they are aware of to convince car shoppers to buy from them.

Being assertive, confident, competitive and driven by the potential income are inherent characteristics of almost all successful car salesmen. Competition amongst dealerships, manufacturers, new and used autos and even the salespeople who work at the same dealership surround the car salesman each day. Sales quotas mandated by the dealership and the manufacturer represent how much should be sold and are not necessarily based on consumer demand.

Downtime, or a time period when no customers are shopping their lot, is frustrating and difficult for salespeople-no walk in customers, no money. Experienced salespeople often use this time to research the industry and become intimately familiar with the models they represent. Being able to speak with potential customers in a knowledgeable manner is important to properly representing the dealership and its offerings, as well as helpful in gaining your customers trust. Some salespeople spend their downtime calling previous customers in hopes they will be able to convince them it is time to upgrade their vehicle-even if there is no obvious reason for them to do so.

Once a car salesman has successfully intrigued a potential customer with the idea of putting them in the shiny new car that they are obviously interested in, discussing financing the deal is typically done quickly and in a manner that on the surface seems to be in the customers best interest, though that may not be so. The salesperson's job now is to make their customer comfortable and manage and manipulate information and dollar amounts - sticker price, trade-in amount, customer's down payment amount and the amount the customer indicates as their maximum monthly payment amount.

A car salesperson's commissions are typically derived from the payable gross profit earned by the dealership. The higher the profit margin applied to the dealership, the higher the commission's payment to the salesperson. Using four distinct dollar amounts-the sticker price, the down payment, the trade in value and the monthly financing amounts-the salesperson will then begin negotiations and have the ability to manipulate the numbers so that the dealership makes the most profit and the customer is none the wiser.

If the customer insists their trade in is worth more, that figure is adjusted and subsequently either the monthly payment amount or down payment amount are adjusted to offset the difference. This manipulation of the numbers works for the down payment and monthly payment amounts too. This way, the customer perceives the salesperson as helping them get what they want and are often oblivious to the numbers game. This is usually done very quickly and involves your sales representative 'arguing' on your behalf with employees in the finance department. And of course, there idea is planted that the car of the consumers dream car may not be available tomorrow, so it is imperative that they buy now.

Car salespeople do not care for 'bargain hunters' that make their job more difficult. However, it is very important to shop around when buying a car, as prices can differ from dealership to dealership for the same car depending upon the financial flexibility and techniques used by the dealership and the salespeople to determine the price of the car.

An educated consumer is often the car salesman's biggest challenge. It is much harder for a salesperson to convince a customer of something if their customer has done their research and already knows the facts. The internet offers consumers the ability to research industry facts surrounding the value of their trade, the selling prices and MSRP of various vehicles and the features of a particular vehicle.

To help consumers determine which new car is right for them and where to buy it, Carseek.com offers their site visitors the opportunity to research vehicles and gather unbiased information as well as price quotes from dealerships in their local area. This can be done in the privacy of their own homes or offices, at a time that is convenient for them without any haggling, implied urgency or 'robust persuasion'. Carseek site visitors can even get insurance quotes for a particular vehicle which allows them to incorporate the cost of auto insurance into the true cost of buying and owning a new car. Carseek simply puts control back into the hands of the new car buyer and simplifies their search.