Congratulations! You’ve Been Hired to Sell Cars! Now What?

Great! You’ve been hired to sell cars. Hopefully a lot of them. Where do you start?

Learn As Much As Possible

You’re new to the industry, even if you’ve worked in sales somewhere else, you’ve got a bit of a learning curve to get through. Where do you start? Start by learning what it is you are selling. What makes them different from the manufacturers? Do they focus on safety, performance, style…etc? What is it that makes them different from the competition, in other words, what is their unique selling point? Learn that and you have a decent place to start selling.

Next, if you’re new to selling, period. Pick up a good book about sales. You can find them at any book store or there are a ton of online websites and blogs that do a good amount of teaching. But the first person I read about that was in car sales was Joe Girard the “The World’s Greatest Salesman.” His book How to Close Every Sale is a bit dated, and you’ll tell right away, but there are nuggets here and there of useful information. He also wrote “How to Sell Anything to Anybody” and “How to Sell Yourself” that might be of interest.

Learn From Your New Co-workers
This might be a tricky one, but one that can be useful. In general, as a car salesperson, your income is primarily straight commission. With that, there comes a whole lot of competition with each salesperson throughout the showroom and even between departments. I’ve noticed that the lifers (the ones that have been selling cars for a long time) are the ones less keen on helping new fellows. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve never had any trouble getting along with people, so I guess I was fortunate enough that I got to learn from a few of those lifers.

If you are one of those lucky ones that get to learn from an experienced salesperson, follow them every chance you get, or even listen to how they talk to their customers. There is a science and an art behind it and there is always a reason to how and why they talk the way they do. Learn what you can from them and use what works for you. Try things out and experiment. Just because something worked for someone else doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.

Start Your Sales Funnel
A sales funnel (or a sales pipeline) is a term used in regards to the process of selling a car. Every customer you talk to starts as a prospect which is the widest part of the funnel. As you move towards the sale, customers will drop out of the funnel. But at the end, you will end up (usually) with a sale. So, essentially, the more people you talk to, the better chance of getting a sale and selling a lot of cars.

With every opportunity to talk to a customer (or in car lingo, an up) you want to move them further and furhter along the sales funnel. Sometimes people just aren’t ready and they drop off, and that is ok, but you want to get them as far along as possible.

So how does this process work for you? Simple.
talk to every person you see
introduce yourself
build rapport
ask a lot of questions
find them a car that matches their needs
test drive that car
write up the deal
negotiate
signatures
send them in to F & I
deliver the vehicle
This is a very simplified process that I will go through in more detail later but it gives you an idea of how the process works. Not every customer will make it to the delivery, some will not make it to the test drive and some won’t even want to do much talking. But it is your duty to talk to each customer you can. Eventually you’ll learn what to do to get them far along the funnel as you can, but being green to the industry, you got to build it up before you can move them out.

Test Drive the Cars
You’ve read the sales brochures, and the product guides. You have an idea of what the unique selling point is. Now get out in one of the cars and really know what that is. Does the manufacturer focus on performance? Push the car a little bit (within the limits of the law of course). Safety? Find out what makes it safe. But actually what you really want to do is get excited about the vehicle yourself. Find out what it is about the vehicle you like and why you would buy it. If you get excited about the vehicle, your customers will as well.

Talk to Your Superiors
They’re in management for a reason. Pick their brain. Ask for tips. Find out how they like to work deals. It’s their job to manage the department, find out how you can make it easier on them. Each dealership works differently, so find out how it works where you are.

Get Organized
Have an office? Set it up how you like it. Share a desk, ask your partner what will work. Make it comfortable and presentable too.

Make sure you always carrying a pen and have a pad of paper around, not to mention your business card too.

Have a binder or an organizer to keep track of your stuff. What I had in mine when I was selling cars was:

articles or printouts of reviews about the manufacturers cars
a log of all the customers that I had talked to, their phone numbers
a tracking sheet that would track my closing ratio’s and how well I could convert customers along the sales funnel (I’ll show you later what I mean)
I’ve seen some other guy’s and they had other useful stuff like:

suppliers contact information (body shops, tire stores…etc.)
their goals for the month
past customer’s information for referrals
calendar to keep appointments organized
But the one thing I think that is the most important thing to have is the tracking sheet. As my boss says, you can’t manage what you track. Get tracking. I’ll show you how soon.

Talk to Your First Customer
It’s got to happen eventually. Don’t be nervous, it isn’t going to help. Get out there and talk to them. When I first started, I was a wreck. I didn’t know what to say to them! It was my first day! What the heck do I know? It wasn’t much that’s for sure. But I eventually told them they were dealing with a rookie. At least it made talking to them a bit easier.

Talk to them not expecting to make the sale, but to just go through the process. That’s it, until things start to roll for you. You’ll be surprised how most people treat rookies. It’s almost like most people are very empathetic to newbies and lighten up quite a bit. There were those that were very ignorant and demanded to talk to the most experienced salesperson. I call them cowboys, cause they come in shooting and screaming. Give it a shot and see what happens.

Ask For Help
Starting out is tough. Why make it any tougher by not asking for the assistance of those around you, especially your managers. Your job is to sell cars. They want you to sell cars, otherwise what are you doing there? It’s their job to make sure you succeed. It should be one of their main priorities. When I was new, I was told that every person that I talked to got turned over to a manager. No exceptions. Reason was, obviously, they know what customers are like. Maybe your manager can think of a way to help you close the deal for you. Regardless, at least introduce your customer to a higher up. Your managers get paid on commission too.

Close Your Own Deal
Now, don’t flip all of your customers to your manmager just so someone else can close the deal for you and you keep all the commission. You’ll be seen as lazy and unable to do your job. I did it. Sure the deals got closed a lot quicker, but eventually your bosses will catch on and there will be a whole lot of crap to hear from them. Learn how to close your own deals, but use those around you to help…when necessary.

There’s no bigger rush than closing your first deal. My hands were trembling from excitement. The fact that someone trusted you enough to fork over $25,000 was a huge feeling. Nothing will give you more pride in the beginning than closing a deal yourself. You won’t get them all, but certianly every single one I did close myself was a rush.

Talk to Your Next Customer
Do it all over again. Once the deal is done, move on the next customer. Don’t rest and keep grinding them out. One thing all newbies need to learn (and I’ll admit, some days it hard for me too) is to stay motivated and keep going after your next sale. It’s a cycle that you do over and over. And if you do it well enough, you will be successful.

Congratulations! You’ve Been Hired to Sell Cars! Now What?

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