A day in the life of a car salesman
Anyone who has ever bought a car has had to deal with some sort of salesperson, either a professional who works at a big-time dealership or just a private individual trying to sell their used car. Either way, someone is trying to sell someone else something. What else do they do when they aren’t trying to get people to buy a car?
According to Ryan Axtell, a salesman at Axtell-Taylor GM, it’s a lot. There is more than one way to sell a car, and Axtell knows that.
Much of his day is spent talking to people. Be it in person or on the phone. When people first come into the dealership, he tries to find out what brought them in and what their needs are.
“Every customer is different, and each sale is different. It’s never the same,” Axtell said. “I have to talk to know what they want.”
When no one is on the lot, his job takes him inside to the phones.
A good portion of his time is spent calling those who have come in or have a bought a car recently to see if they want to ask any further questions, follow up on how the car is working for them or inform them about new promotions. Most of the success that comes in car sales is found from referrals, Axtell said, and a referral usually comes from someone who has purchased a car.
For Tony Ortega, a salesman at Grant’s Auto Sales, his day is quite similar but some of his morning chores include checking cars for vandalism and getting vehicles ready for the day. Ortega also has to put time in his busy day for homework once he gets off, as he is a junior majoring in public relations.
Both Ortega and Axtell go through additional sales training such as learning about a new car that comes to the dealership. At Axtell-Taylor GM, salespersons are required by General Motors to take certification tests to keep “both hands on the wheel” when it comes to knowing the different features a car has. Grant’s Auto Sales has specific sales training that employees go through every Saturday, where Ortega says they practice salesmanship techniques and role play for practice.
At closing time, these salesmen may be done at the dealership but not as salesman, said Rex Hammond, also a sales representative at Axtell-Taylor.
“This isn’t a nine-to-five job. It’s a lifestyle,” Hammond said. “When we see a customer around town, we make sure things are still going well with their car.”
When most people go to work, they don’t have to worry about the “potholes” of rejection or “running head-on” with bad reputations, but for a car salesman, it’s all on the commute to success.
“Selling cars is a lot harder than people think. We face a lot of rejection,” Ortega said. “We can’t take it personally. We hear a lot of ‘no’s before we hear that one ‘yes’.”
Hammond estimates that about 30 to 40 percent of the people that come onto a car lot actually end up buying a car. With the many people that a salesman meets, he said it’s important that they personally separate themselves from the sale in case they do hear a ‘no’, because they don’t want to transfer a bad feeling onto their next customer.
It takes time to make a sale; Hammond has had sales that have closed in one hour, and others have taken up to a year before a customer drives away in a new automobile.
Rejection is a tough thing to handle, but Axtell said sometimes people come with a chip on their shoulder already because salesmen have the reputation of being pushy.
“Buying a car is the second biggest purchase someone will make next to buying a house, so of course they can be a little tense when they come in,” he said.
The biggest trick they play is trying to get a customer that may not like them to trust them as a salesperson, Ortega said. “Being a salesman isn’t pushing someone into something they don’t want, but helping them get the thing they want.”
Hammond, Axtell and Ortega agree that once someone has bought a car from them, they start to treat him or her as family. They want to make sure that everything is going well for their customers, and they know if they don’t take care of them, they will lose business.
From the first “hello” to the closing of a sale and everything in between, it’s never the same ride, but it’s all in a day in the life of a car salesman.