I’ve thought of selling cars for a living for a long time. Having bought more cars than I can remember, I have learned how the game is played. I think I’d be pretty good at it. I work for myself right now so I could easily take a few months and try it. If it works, great, if not, go back to what I currently do. No real risk to me.
I know the hours would be kind of crappy since you’d need to work weekends since that’s when people go looking for cars. But I could live with that.
But one thing I can’t really figure out is what kind of money can one realistically make? I realize like any profession, there is a huge range, and lots of factors like location, what you’re selling, economic conditions, etc.
But just ballpark, what’s a reasonable expectation? If anyone who’s done it or currently doing it would chime in, I’d appreciate any info.
It all depends on the market you are in, the volume at the store you are selling at, the location of that store, the brand of vehicles you are selling, the comp structure determined by the people in charge and a number of additional factors. I’d say if you knock it out of the park the range could be anywhere between $40k-$250k.
Realize the industry experts are predicting a relatively flat SAAR for the next 3-5 years in the 17M range with historically high incentives that aren’t expected to go down. So that means if you are creative on the used vehicle side, there is more variable margin for success.
be thoroughly prepared to give up social life, nights, weekends, and holidays… and days off, but have good money doing so. lot of growth opportunity if you can overcome the high turnover people.
it depends on the store. for example, my location is central to a huge demographic, but the dealership is only 3 years old so it’s not as known, thus, we give better pricing, but for sales everything is a mini. very seldom do you make a front end on any car, even doing floor sales over internet. a mini can range from 50-200 depending on the store.
then you get a % of the backend. so say you have 20,000 in back, you get may 5-10% of that. then you have bonuses on weekends. then you have factory money (GM and dodge do that, not sure what other brands).
then there’s established stores. ie. theres a ford dealer down the street from me. they pack the front end of all their cars up to 5-10k. so if you get 25% of the front, you can make $1000 on one car. literally no two sales people make the same, and no two cars are sold the same.
there’s a very high turnover in car sales. even since i started, there’s only one person in my department that’s been here longer than myself.
@chevysalesgirl, would you say it’s better to sell volume (say 15 cars) at a lower price, or sell less vehicles (say 7) with a higher transaction price? Or does it again depend on the dealership + their structure? I’ve always wondered why some stores shoot for the high volume, lower transaction price, easy peasy deal, whereas others shoot for higher transaction, grind it out, less total satisfaction prices. Granted, I understand there are spiffs and other bonuses involved, but I would think volume with the manufacturer bonuses would be the way to go.
I do pretty well as a Sale Consultant. I have been in the industry for about 5 years now. My pay may be an exception ($200K+) as I sell CDJR (Primarily Jeep), then there is decent Manufacturer money and spiffs. I am normally pushing for 30+ car a month. On top of traditional leads, (Phone, Walk ins and Internet) I tap in our book of business (about 5 years back) to get previous customers back. I just hired an assistant to work them and she should account for about 10 to 20 more deals and push me a tier or two up to on the pay plan (the sweet spot around here for trade in and trade up is 2.7 to 3.5 years with 60% looking to make a move.)
It helps that sell out of one of the richest counties in the country (Loudon County Virginia) and within range of the the 2 others (Fairfax and Falls Church). Lots of additional income around here to blow.
We have a hybrid pay plan, Volume for new (these are normally loser deals) and Gross on used. My dealer is in the top 3 normally on volume in our business center on new. We push to get the manufacturer cash to justify our prices. I work a lot of hours, primarily by appointment, but it affords me a comfortable lifestyle.
