First off, I just want to say that I never imagined I would ever have this perspective, that being one of a car salesman. As I sit at my desk in my room listening to Eldar I'm asking myself, "How did I end up here?" But that's not what this post is about.
This is about what it's like to sell cars. There's a lot to suss out here so I'll start off with the daily routine.
Routine
So the overall schedule goes like this: we alternate daily shifts from 9-4 and 2-9 Monday through Friday and everyone has to work 9-6 on Saturdays. We also have three sales meetings a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 830. The salesman are split into two different teams (as evidenced by the 9-4 shift and the 2-9 shift) and these teams switch schedules every week. For example, today I'm working the 2-9 shift and next Wednesday I'll work the 9-4 shift. Does that all make sense? Good, now on to the day to day.
Beach Ford functions on what's called an up system which is designed to keep the competition between the salesman to a minimum. We have 3 people up front at all times waiting for customers as they come on the lot. Whoever is first gets to go out and greet the customer. After they begin working with the customer they "go down" and whoever was number two is now number one. Still with me? Good.
So the list rotates one spot every day so even though I started at the bottom, I move up on the list everyday until I'm the first person "up" on the day, then the next day I go down again.
When I'm not one of the three people up I have other things going on. We have a daily list of "to-dos" which are mostly follow-ups with customers ranging anywhere from 1 day to 3 years (yes I had to do a 3 year follow up for someone it ends up who didn't even buy the car from us that I was calling about). Some to-dos are easy, others are annoying. It's a little weird calling people you've never met and wishing them happy birthday, but it's customer care. Anyway, I just got distracted by a customer call and don't remember where I was going with any of this.....AHH that's right so once you get through all of your to-dos I'll either work on finding a vehicle for a customer which can take a long long time. I could explain more, but this section has rambled on long enough. On to the customers!
Customers
Customers, clients, suckers, it always feels weird to refer to the people buying the cars as either clients or customers because I've never thought of people in that context. For the record I don't, and have never, referred to or ever thought of a customer or anyone as a sucker. Which brings me to my next subpoint and a little exercise.
When you think of car salesman what comes to mind? Sleazy, underhanded, sneaky, coniving, untrustworthy, only cares about the sale. The list is probably longer but there is no denying that there is a stigma attached to car salesman and it's something I now face every day. Do any of the afformentioned adjectives describe me? I'm not perfect and not every customer makes these assumptions but it's still in my mind each time I go out to greet a customer. Whenever I approach a customer I always say a little prayer to myself, "Please, just give me a chance." Example:
One day a few weeks ago a couple pulled up and parked in front of the dealership. They got out of their car and headed over to check out one of Ford's new cars, the C-Max Hybrid. Nicknamed the "Prius killer" it's something Ford and me personally, are pretty excited about. I walk over there and introduce myself, "Welcome to Beach Ford, my name is Gabe, is this your first time to the dealership?" Harmless, right? " They respond with, "We had heard about the C-Max and wanted to check it out. Does this one come with the foot wave opening the trunk?" So far so good...kind of. As a salesman you really would like some actual back and forth communication, rather, as a person you'd like to be acknowledged when you ask a question anyway, moving on. "This model does not have that feature but it's a pretty exciting car, have you familiarized yourself with the vehicle online." Customer, "We just wanted to see it, might be interested in the future, but not this model." They start making their way to their own car. Me, "If you give me some more information about..." Customer, "No, I'd rather not give out my phone number, I don't want to be hassled all the time. Me, "Well, if you give me..." Customer, "No, I tell you what, why don't you give me your card and I'll call you." I hand over the card and thank them for stopping by.
They weren't inadvertently rude or anything, but all I wanted to do was help. Basically, they wouldn't let me do my job. If they would have let me finish my sentence I would have said, "If you give me your email address I'll email you once to find out what you're looking for in the C-Max and one more email to let you know when we get that vehicle in. Other than that you won't be bothered." Again, I get it, there are salesman who are incredibly sneaky and will do what ever they can to make a deal. But all I wanted to do was help. Not every customer is like that, but enough to make it frustrating. For what it's worth it was nice to have one customer say, "It's nice to meet an honest car salesman." Anyway. it can be very frustrating, but that's life.
Colleagues
This has been one of the more contrasted part of the jobs. Somedays everything is great, others not so much. The people make the environment, and for the most part everyone is nice, but theres always this underlying tension. In some cases they can be surprisingly helpful and polite and in other situations they are crude and vulgar. It's especially contrasted in front of customers, of course. Anyway, it can be tiresome being the new guy trying to "fit in" without engaging in any of the crude or extremely inappropriate comments that are made. Another thing is the language. After working at a Christian school in Tokyo where I'm pretty sure I had the foulest mouth around (relatively speaking), I wasn't quite prepared for the tone of the conversation that goes on with no customers around. I realize I'm not working in a Christian environment and that people are free to do and say as they please. But it's difficult for me to be the one who is trying not to swear because it rubs off on me and comes out when I'm not at work (ask my roommates during a Redskins game). Anyway, it's a frustration I'm trying to deal with. There are some cool people I work with, but only a few I would probably ever consider spending any time outside of the dealership with. It's a weird juxtaposition because I'm not there to develop any friendships, it's a job, but I am spending a ton of time there and am getting to know people because of proximity. All that being said, while there are some people I have a good deal of respect for, it's not the place I'd go to make friends.
Overall impression
So far it's been a mixed bag. I have people telling me I have all the potential in the world and could be one of the top 3 salesman at the dealership, but as it is I haven't sold anything in about 2 weeks. It's frustrating going to work everyday and basically not being able to do your job. On top of that I am spending a lot of time at the dealership trying to figure out a balance between my work life and my personal life. That has been a huuuge issue so far. I'm not playing as much as I'd like, I haven't seen anyone except my roommates and the Grice's in weeks, and it basically just feels like it's not me. One thing that just hit me was that in Japan, as contrasted to working at Beach Ford, I was working with people I'd consider friends. I feel like I'm struggling to trust anyone at the dealership. Everyone has advice, but everyone also has an agenda. I don't like being taken advantage of and I'm always concerned about what is in peoples (especially customers) best interest. If someone doesn't want to buy the car then they shouldn't buy it, I shouldn't force them into something they don't want.
*deep breath*
So there are struggles of course as there are with any job. I'm too knew at this position to really give an honest opinion of what it is actually like. I know that my view of the job will evolve over the next few months, especially if I start becoming mor successful. Right now I'm in a difficult place for multiple reasons, not just the job, but everything is going to appear a little tainted as a result. Such is life. I'll close with a quote from The Roots that's been playing a lot in my head recently:
"Dear God, I'm trying hard to reach you. Dear God, I see your face in all I do. Sometimes it's so hard to believe in. But God, I know you have your reasons." - from the song, "Dear God 2.0" of the album How I Got Over. (This album is amazing by the way. It's raw, real, very well done and well worth your time)
This is about what it's like to sell cars. There's a lot to suss out here so I'll start off with the daily routine.
Routine
So the overall schedule goes like this: we alternate daily shifts from 9-4 and 2-9 Monday through Friday and everyone has to work 9-6 on Saturdays. We also have three sales meetings a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 830. The salesman are split into two different teams (as evidenced by the 9-4 shift and the 2-9 shift) and these teams switch schedules every week. For example, today I'm working the 2-9 shift and next Wednesday I'll work the 9-4 shift. Does that all make sense? Good, now on to the day to day.
Beach Ford functions on what's called an up system which is designed to keep the competition between the salesman to a minimum. We have 3 people up front at all times waiting for customers as they come on the lot. Whoever is first gets to go out and greet the customer. After they begin working with the customer they "go down" and whoever was number two is now number one. Still with me? Good.
So the list rotates one spot every day so even though I started at the bottom, I move up on the list everyday until I'm the first person "up" on the day, then the next day I go down again.
When I'm not one of the three people up I have other things going on. We have a daily list of "to-dos" which are mostly follow-ups with customers ranging anywhere from 1 day to 3 years (yes I had to do a 3 year follow up for someone it ends up who didn't even buy the car from us that I was calling about). Some to-dos are easy, others are annoying. It's a little weird calling people you've never met and wishing them happy birthday, but it's customer care. Anyway, I just got distracted by a customer call and don't remember where I was going with any of this.....AHH that's right so once you get through all of your to-dos I'll either work on finding a vehicle for a customer which can take a long long time. I could explain more, but this section has rambled on long enough. On to the customers!
Customers
Customers, clients, suckers, it always feels weird to refer to the people buying the cars as either clients or customers because I've never thought of people in that context. For the record I don't, and have never, referred to or ever thought of a customer or anyone as a sucker. Which brings me to my next subpoint and a little exercise.
When you think of car salesman what comes to mind? Sleazy, underhanded, sneaky, coniving, untrustworthy, only cares about the sale. The list is probably longer but there is no denying that there is a stigma attached to car salesman and it's something I now face every day. Do any of the afformentioned adjectives describe me? I'm not perfect and not every customer makes these assumptions but it's still in my mind each time I go out to greet a customer. Whenever I approach a customer I always say a little prayer to myself, "Please, just give me a chance." Example:
One day a few weeks ago a couple pulled up and parked in front of the dealership. They got out of their car and headed over to check out one of Ford's new cars, the C-Max Hybrid. Nicknamed the "Prius killer" it's something Ford and me personally, are pretty excited about. I walk over there and introduce myself, "Welcome to Beach Ford, my name is Gabe, is this your first time to the dealership?" Harmless, right? " They respond with, "We had heard about the C-Max and wanted to check it out. Does this one come with the foot wave opening the trunk?" So far so good...kind of. As a salesman you really would like some actual back and forth communication, rather, as a person you'd like to be acknowledged when you ask a question anyway, moving on. "This model does not have that feature but it's a pretty exciting car, have you familiarized yourself with the vehicle online." Customer, "We just wanted to see it, might be interested in the future, but not this model." They start making their way to their own car. Me, "If you give me some more information about..." Customer, "No, I'd rather not give out my phone number, I don't want to be hassled all the time. Me, "Well, if you give me..." Customer, "No, I tell you what, why don't you give me your card and I'll call you." I hand over the card and thank them for stopping by.
They weren't inadvertently rude or anything, but all I wanted to do was help. Basically, they wouldn't let me do my job. If they would have let me finish my sentence I would have said, "If you give me your email address I'll email you once to find out what you're looking for in the C-Max and one more email to let you know when we get that vehicle in. Other than that you won't be bothered." Again, I get it, there are salesman who are incredibly sneaky and will do what ever they can to make a deal. But all I wanted to do was help. Not every customer is like that, but enough to make it frustrating. For what it's worth it was nice to have one customer say, "It's nice to meet an honest car salesman." Anyway. it can be very frustrating, but that's life.
Colleagues
This has been one of the more contrasted part of the jobs. Somedays everything is great, others not so much. The people make the environment, and for the most part everyone is nice, but theres always this underlying tension. In some cases they can be surprisingly helpful and polite and in other situations they are crude and vulgar. It's especially contrasted in front of customers, of course. Anyway, it can be tiresome being the new guy trying to "fit in" without engaging in any of the crude or extremely inappropriate comments that are made. Another thing is the language. After working at a Christian school in Tokyo where I'm pretty sure I had the foulest mouth around (relatively speaking), I wasn't quite prepared for the tone of the conversation that goes on with no customers around. I realize I'm not working in a Christian environment and that people are free to do and say as they please. But it's difficult for me to be the one who is trying not to swear because it rubs off on me and comes out when I'm not at work (ask my roommates during a Redskins game). Anyway, it's a frustration I'm trying to deal with. There are some cool people I work with, but only a few I would probably ever consider spending any time outside of the dealership with. It's a weird juxtaposition because I'm not there to develop any friendships, it's a job, but I am spending a ton of time there and am getting to know people because of proximity. All that being said, while there are some people I have a good deal of respect for, it's not the place I'd go to make friends.
Overall impression
So far it's been a mixed bag. I have people telling me I have all the potential in the world and could be one of the top 3 salesman at the dealership, but as it is I haven't sold anything in about 2 weeks. It's frustrating going to work everyday and basically not being able to do your job. On top of that I am spending a lot of time at the dealership trying to figure out a balance between my work life and my personal life. That has been a huuuge issue so far. I'm not playing as much as I'd like, I haven't seen anyone except my roommates and the Grice's in weeks, and it basically just feels like it's not me. One thing that just hit me was that in Japan, as contrasted to working at Beach Ford, I was working with people I'd consider friends. I feel like I'm struggling to trust anyone at the dealership. Everyone has advice, but everyone also has an agenda. I don't like being taken advantage of and I'm always concerned about what is in peoples (especially customers) best interest. If someone doesn't want to buy the car then they shouldn't buy it, I shouldn't force them into something they don't want.
*deep breath*
So there are struggles of course as there are with any job. I'm too knew at this position to really give an honest opinion of what it is actually like. I know that my view of the job will evolve over the next few months, especially if I start becoming mor successful. Right now I'm in a difficult place for multiple reasons, not just the job, but everything is going to appear a little tainted as a result. Such is life. I'll close with a quote from The Roots that's been playing a lot in my head recently:
"Dear God, I'm trying hard to reach you. Dear God, I see your face in all I do. Sometimes it's so hard to believe in. But God, I know you have your reasons." - from the song, "Dear God 2.0" of the album How I Got Over. (This album is amazing by the way. It's raw, real, very well done and well worth your time)
Well, you're definitely getting some interesting stories and a unique perspective out of the deal! I'll be praying that opportunities for music, for teaching and for building new friendships in different settings will all come up.
ReplyDelete