M
marx404
Let me first say that I love my Saturn. I believe that most people including
my own family love their Saturns. With that in mind and considering I needed
to do something different, I became a Sales Consultant, thinking that
because they are "A Different Kind of Company" who puts "People First" that
they would be uniquely different than say Nissan of Dodge or any other
garden variety dealership, in how they treat both customers and thier own
employees.
Long ago, I had a short summer stint as a new car salesman. After seeing how
they bilked and conned the unprepared and unsuspecting out of thousands on
new car deals and salesmen screwed each other over while pimp-like
management condoned such behavior. My coworkers stole my deals or coerced me
into splitting my deals when I did all the legwork, while management ran me
raggged and were not quite up front about my pay, losing me thousands of
dollars.
I ran away from that job after a month with my $150. paycheck (sans draw) in
hand vowing to disassociate from any such people again.
So decades later, a more mature me decided it was worth a try at Saturn when
after 20 yrs my last career got outsourced overseas. Definitely an
invitation to try something different.
With much marketing and support experience, Sales comes naturally to me,
especially with something I already fully understand and love. The past
month has been successful and I have joined the ranks of the top salesmen as
well as become the most hated newbie by my jealous coworkers.
My goal has always been to sell Saturns while as remaining honest,
knowledgeable and courteous as I can. Saturns are great and if you can relay
that honestly to buyers then you can be successful. Then there's the reality
part of it all. I think this article best describes it:
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html
For the most part, Saturn dealerships are honest with customers. In all my
naivety I had hoped that all of the shenanigans of other dealerships would
not exist at Saturn, but the truth is car sales is car sales and some old
traits just wont die no matter where you are.
Just my 2 cents: I still hope to be the best salesman I can while
maintaining as much personal integrity as possible and to be fair to all of
my customers (in other words, I will problably last only a few months at
this job, lol). I have always believed that as a customer myself that the
best customer is an informed, educated customer. Just some tips in case you
are ever planning to buy a new car:
Go online and read about the vehicle that you want. Cut your time short in
the dealership by coming in prepared knowing what you want and why you want
it. Otherwise you will end up spending hours only to have a salesman sell
you what he thinks is best for you. Knowing about the car will help you
decide what options you want to spend money on or not to.
Learn about any rebates or incentives Before you go to shop. Also, go online
and research the internet price of that car, you may save thousands!
Have a reasonable facsimile of your personal allowance for this vehicle. Be
reasonable and approximately pre-calculate financing costs, insurance, tags,
tax, etc at home the day before. Figure out by researching the car you want
online first, then you will be better prepared to know a ballpark of your
allowable expenses on a new car before you physically set foot in a
showroom.
These are some of the mistakes I have seen many customers make, costing them
alot of money. There is much more in the above article. You can also get a
good idea of what I have to endure each and every day as a salesman. Not all
bad, but it's all in a day's work - a 10 hour work day.
I hope that some of this helps you guys in your next purchase. In retrospect
to the second paragraph however, the pay is better but as I said before,
some old traits just wont die no matter where you are. I guess that fuzzy
feeling (alike that new car smell) just hasn't worn off yet.
my own family love their Saturns. With that in mind and considering I needed
to do something different, I became a Sales Consultant, thinking that
because they are "A Different Kind of Company" who puts "People First" that
they would be uniquely different than say Nissan of Dodge or any other
garden variety dealership, in how they treat both customers and thier own
employees.
Long ago, I had a short summer stint as a new car salesman. After seeing how
they bilked and conned the unprepared and unsuspecting out of thousands on
new car deals and salesmen screwed each other over while pimp-like
management condoned such behavior. My coworkers stole my deals or coerced me
into splitting my deals when I did all the legwork, while management ran me
raggged and were not quite up front about my pay, losing me thousands of
dollars.
I ran away from that job after a month with my $150. paycheck (sans draw) in
hand vowing to disassociate from any such people again.
So decades later, a more mature me decided it was worth a try at Saturn when
after 20 yrs my last career got outsourced overseas. Definitely an
invitation to try something different.
With much marketing and support experience, Sales comes naturally to me,
especially with something I already fully understand and love. The past
month has been successful and I have joined the ranks of the top salesmen as
well as become the most hated newbie by my jealous coworkers.
My goal has always been to sell Saturns while as remaining honest,
knowledgeable and courteous as I can. Saturns are great and if you can relay
that honestly to buyers then you can be successful. Then there's the reality
part of it all. I think this article best describes it:
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html
For the most part, Saturn dealerships are honest with customers. In all my
naivety I had hoped that all of the shenanigans of other dealerships would
not exist at Saturn, but the truth is car sales is car sales and some old
traits just wont die no matter where you are.
Just my 2 cents: I still hope to be the best salesman I can while
maintaining as much personal integrity as possible and to be fair to all of
my customers (in other words, I will problably last only a few months at
this job, lol). I have always believed that as a customer myself that the
best customer is an informed, educated customer. Just some tips in case you
are ever planning to buy a new car:
Go online and read about the vehicle that you want. Cut your time short in
the dealership by coming in prepared knowing what you want and why you want
it. Otherwise you will end up spending hours only to have a salesman sell
you what he thinks is best for you. Knowing about the car will help you
decide what options you want to spend money on or not to.
Learn about any rebates or incentives Before you go to shop. Also, go online
and research the internet price of that car, you may save thousands!
Have a reasonable facsimile of your personal allowance for this vehicle. Be
reasonable and approximately pre-calculate financing costs, insurance, tags,
tax, etc at home the day before. Figure out by researching the car you want
online first, then you will be better prepared to know a ballpark of your
allowable expenses on a new car before you physically set foot in a
showroom.
These are some of the mistakes I have seen many customers make, costing them
alot of money. There is much more in the above article. You can also get a
good idea of what I have to endure each and every day as a salesman. Not all
bad, but it's all in a day's work - a 10 hour work day.
I hope that some of this helps you guys in your next purchase. In retrospect
to the second paragraph however, the pay is better but as I said before,
some old traits just wont die no matter where you are. I guess that fuzzy
feeling (alike that new car smell) just hasn't worn off yet.
