Most seasoned salesmen will know who will sign the deal or not as soon as you start talking to them. At that point, it is up to them whether they want to invest their time on you for a future opportunity that may or may not happen. Showing any implication of prejudice is a big no-no though and can turn into a PR nightmare for their employer.
If you want to be taken serious by a sales guy you are not familiar with, just say it straight you are in the market and will make a decision in an X time-frame. If you are simply window shopping, start with a dealer who is reputable with their customer service.
Loved the taycan. Of course they threw some redic lease number that started with 2 at me. I’ll be looking for a used one in a couple years for sure. I’m not ready for all electric yet though.
No surprise. I wouldn’t want to speculate on the depreciation for an all new Porsche model that also happens to be their first EV. And Porsche knows the only people leasing them right now are writing them off, so let the customer assume that risk.
IIRC Roadster leases came in Year 4 and Model S leases didn’t start until after 2 full years of deliveries - both exclusively from US Bank.
OMG, as I often tell (it’s in my user name) I sold cars for a living. The company never understood or appreciated my sales ability. One thing I learned many years ago is never judge a buyer. If they ask the right questions (like can we go for a ride), let’s go. Selling cars is a process. IMHO car dealers today want robots. It’s unreal how much fun it can be be when selling cars but it not easy! I wish I had you as an up.
My simple view, the vast majority of salespeople haven’t got a clue how to sell, a car is simply a commodity, you can buy an identical car from anywhere so just decide exactly what you want and buy online or from whoever is cheapest.
I’m seeing more and more unprepared salesmen and what are seemingly just “guys that got into car sales”. The frequency at which I come across a salesman that knows very little about the car I’m looking at is increasing.
I’ve been hunting for a truck lately and I am astounded at the amount of “salesmen” that I’ve encountered in multiple dealerships who cannot tell between a RAM Big Horn and a RAM Rebel just by looking at it. They have to go to the window stickers or tailgate to figure out what it is they are looking at.
From a customer perspective, these guys are wasting your time. They add no value to the chain as they don’t know much about the car and most can’t even quote you a price without starting to bring people from the back. Sometimes the first guy they bring from the back can’t do anything either and they have to bring yet another guy from the back. And these guys are all managers, directors, vice presidents, CFOs, CEOs and whatnot…
That’s all part of the game of wasting your time so you accept a high price to gtfo of the dealership. You shouldn’t have any questions for sales anyway. Do your research online and tell them to throw you the keys for the test drives. Throw them back the keys and email or call back with your offer.
I do the same thing too but for service. I have noticed that there is a difference in customer service and respect when they know you are in the business. Always the excuse of “you know how it is” when they know I work for a dealer.
Across the board it seems like it’s just a job to pay the bills. Not sure how they keep their jobs since so many are terrible.
Slightly different but I was trying to buy my wife a purse. There were a bunch of salespeople hovering over these couple other shoppers and clearly ignoring me. This young asian saleslady practically sprinted towards me. I mean some dude by himself looking at purses is prob not there to window shop but to buy. Most of the salespeople didn’t seem to understand that. Prob the fact that I look like a schmuck.
I mean, that’s the definition of most jobs. I know very few people that truly enjoy what they do. Out of the few people I know that do, some are lying, some have their own companies and do whatever they want and the some are extremely passionate about their work. I would say that 99.9% don’t enjoy/love what they do.
I don’t mind what I do, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t do it for free or for less money.
Sales people don’t get fired because it doesn’t really cost anything to keep them around. Most only get like $200-300/week salary and work 50-75 hours/week depending on the dealership. Even if the sales person spends his day in the bathroom, it doesn’t really cost much money.
Selling cars is pretty much the bottom rung of the sales ladder. If you are good at selling cars, you will be good at selling other things, which means your time selling cars will be short, as you climb up the ladder to better commission opportunities. I can imagine it must be hard for a dealership to keep a consistent staff, if you hire all rock-stars, your churn will be high, and if you hire a bunch of old-timers your volume will suffer. I think it’s a big part of what companies like Carvana and Vroom are betting on, and a reason for the success of a site like this, that the fundamental method of selling cars needs to change.
, Alex would love this.
. Take your vette or porsche to a porsche dealership and see if they let you play with the used toys.