Career change? Car salesman

[Nato76]

I have a question for car salesman or anyone else that would like to comment. I am 28 yrs. old and have been working in the IT field for about 8 yrs. I just recently moved back to Houston and found a job working as a contractor for a chemical company. I got hired as a systems administrator. The job isn't bad, benefits are expensive, and the pay is a little under 40K. I was making about 50K in Va. It doesn't look like I will be moving up soon in this job and the pay isn't going to increase anytime soon. Recently a poker friend of mine told me that his job is hiring. I was curious since I never knew what he did but it seemed that he was doing well. He is a car salesman for a huge dealership working in the internet department. Basically he calls clients that went on the website looking for a car. No cold calling and no standing outside. He said in 2 yrs he has not made less than 6k a month. He asked me if I was interested and I told him that I would think about it. I don't know if this is the best place to be asking for advice but this is a car forum and I'm sure we have some car salesman here. My question is do you think it's worth making a career change? If he really makes 6k a month that would be almost double what I make. I have never worked off of commission in my life and I was in the military where I was used to getting paid every 2 weeks. I am ready for a career change since the IT field is so saturated. I also have responsibilites like child support, car note, etc. What do you guys think? Worth it?

[jakethebake]

I'd say this all depends on whether you think you'd be good at sales or not. Do you have a sales personality?

Good to see another Houstonian 2+2er. What part of town? What branch of the service?

[Nato76]

I was in the Navy. I finally moved back home and I stay in Clear lake area now. I love Houston. Well it's basically calling people that already are interested and registered on the dealerships website. The guys that work their seem to love it.

[meep_42]

You've been working 8 years in IT and only make 40k? Is that common?

-d

[Nato76]

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You've been working 8 years in IT and only make 40k? Is that common?

-d

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IT market is so saturated that I am lucky to even have a job. I have all kind of IT certs that include MCP,A+, Network+, MCSA, and MCSE. I am money motivated so I want to do something that will make me more money than what I am making now.

[Bluffoon]

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I have a question for car salesman or anyone else that would like to comment. I am 28 yrs. old and have been working in the IT field for about 8 yrs. I just recently moved back to Houston and found a job working as a contractor for a chemical company. I got hired as a systems administrator. The job isn't bad, benefits are expensive, and the pay is a little under 40K. I was making about 50K in Va. It doesn't look like I will be moving up soon in this job and the pay isn't going to increase anytime soon. Recently a poker friend of mine told me that his job is hiring. I was curious since I never knew what he did but it seemed that he was doing well. He is a car salesman for a huge dealership working in the internet department. Basically he calls clients that went on the website looking for a car. No cold calling and no standing outside. He said in 2 yrs he has not made less than 6k a month. He asked me if I was interested and I told him that I would think about it. I don't know if this is the best place to be asking for advice but this is a car forum and I'm sure we have some car salesman here. My question is do you think it's worth making a career change? If he really makes 6k a month that would be almost double what I make. I have never worked off of commission in my life and I was in the military where I was used to getting paid every 2 weeks. I am ready for a career change since the IT field is so saturated. I also have responsibilites like child support, car note, etc. What do you guys think? Worth it?

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I would ask myself the following questions:

1. Do I have savings to fall back so I can fulfill my responsibilities in case the new job doesn't work out?

2. Can I go back to my old job/get a new one if I need to?

I would also try to get hired part-time if I could to see whether it looked like I could make a living at the new job before I gave up my old one.

Good Luck

[groo]

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I would also try to get hired part-time if I could to see whether it looked like I could make a living at the new job before I gave up my old one.

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This is a good idea with many endevours, but not with cars sales. Pay plans tend to be volume based and therefore the job (and the pay plan) needs to be worked full time.

I spent about 2 1/2 yrs in car sales and it was very good to me. A few things to consider:

1) If you've never done sales before, be certain the dealership has a training program that you go through (at very least 3-4 full days) before you start. I mean sales training, not paper work training.

2) It would be highly unusual (though not unheard of) to start in the internet dept. People work very hard to get there.

3) Be ready to work very long hours. Even if you're only schedueled 40-50 hrs a week you'll probably be expected to be there 60-70. If you're not expected to be there 60-70, you'll need to be there that long to make the living you want.

4) Expect to work around people that are working 60-70 hrs a week and for mgrs that working even longer. This usually means sleep deprived, overloaded people that are usually grumpy. When they aren't grumpy they are they're just plain jerks. Remember they have to smile around customers , so they tend to take their frustrations out on everyone that isn't a customer.

5) Be ready for weekly sales meetings that at most dealerships are weekly ass kickings.

6) The mgrs will tell you that you do not need to lie to people to cars to them, and then instruct you to lie to them so that they'll buy. They are under great pressure to produce numbers and they are making typically around $20k a month or more, so they don't want to lose their job.

7) Nobody will trust you......ever. People come to the store expecting to get screwed, if you don't have thick skin or you have trouble developing trust, then don't try selling cars.

8) Your paycheck will most likely be based on volume and profit. As competitive as the car market is right now there is no profit in new cars, so you want to sell used. Problem is new cars are much easier to sell, so there isn't as much volume in used. Be sure you can sell both.

All that said, I truly enjoyed selling cars. I enjoyed working with people everyday, I enjoyed building trust with those people and I enjoyed the paychecks. I finally decided to get out when I realized that I would never move up the ladder to were the real money is. Even though I was routinely salesman of the month, which led to salesman of the year, my mgrs didn't believe that my approach (treating people with respect and honesty) was actually effective. It was a great training ground for sales though, and used that training to move on and am now making twice as much money while working half as many hours.

Don't hesitate to ask any questions

[Los Feliz Slim]

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6) The mgrs will tell you that you do not need to lie to people to cars to them, and then instruct you to lie to them so that they'll buy

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7) Nobody will trust you......ever. People come to the store expecting to get screwed

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Awesome.

[Slacker13]

I know a few guys who sale cars for a living and they are always bouncing from dealership to dealership. Seems like a very unstable career to me.

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Basically he calls clients that went on the website looking for a car

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I think this position is a very low level position and I do not beleive you get full commission but I would verify that.

I just know from experience that you better have a nest egg put away before you change careers into a sales job and you really do need some sales skills to be successful.

But if you are really miserable in your job a change may be in order. Good Luck with whatever yo decide to do.

[groo]

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Quote:
Basically he calls clients that went on the website looking for a car


I think this position is a very low level position and I do not beleive you get full commission but I would verify that.

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In my experience it is considered a entry level management position, and tends to pay better commission.



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I just know from experience that you better have a nest egg put away before you change careers into a sales job and you really do need some sales skills to be successful.


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Many (though not all) dealerships will actually pay a guarenteed salary for your first 2-3 months. Typically when your commisions excede this, they will give you that excess also. Someone with an outgoing personality and a little bit of sales skill will easily exceed this guarentee.

[cbfair]

I recently made a career change into sales (not cars) for the first time. Given all your certifications, you're likely no stranger to this but you should prepare yourself to study constantly for a period of months to achieve success and years to maintain it.

Product knowlege, presentation skills and closing skills are vitally important and not always intuitive. Anyone who's money motivated and generally outgoing can be great at sales but most who try for the first time fail due to a lack of discipline in the area of study and practice. Plan to buy many books and digest them all. Keeping a notebook of daily interactions and lessons learned (usually through lost-sales) has helped me immensly.

Sales is also a field dominated by people with healthy egos; but a dedicated student must frequently check their ego at the door and ask for help from more experienced sales professionals. As soon as you think you've learned it all and can coast on auto-pilot, you might as well quit because your time is limited.

my .02,

cbf

[groo]

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Keeping a notebook of daily interactions and lessons learned (usually through lost-sales) has helped me immensly.

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An extremely large upside to learning sales in a car dealership, is that there is always a more experienced sales person, the sales mgr, whose income is dependant on your customer buying. These sales managers are unlikely to let you blow it. For all their other faults, they are great teaching resources and will make you a great deal of money. Since it makes their jobs easier and makes them more money, they want you to learn, you need to be a sponge.

Also you will go through the sales process many times most days and therefore learn it more quickly.



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As soon as you think you've learned it all and can coast on auto-pilot, you might as well quit because your time is limited.

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It is very common to see a new car salesman get off to a blazing start, only to "forget" how to sell 3-4 months in. It's usually because they have really "forgotten" how to be teachable. It's so common as to be a cliche, but it also seems to be a part of the learning process. Try to avoid this, it will cost you a lot of money.

[Nato76]

Thank you all for your comments. It is a tough decision. If I didn't have any responsibilities it would be an easy decision. I like to take chances but I have to really think about this one. Should I stay in a comfortable 9-5 job or take a chance to make a lot more money.?