Some guys roamed the lot looking for ups. If you pulled your car onto the lot, or god forbid got out of your car to look at something, these guys could smell you from a hundred feet away. “Hi welcome to Joe Bobs’ Auto Emporium, are you here for the big sale? “ “ I am just looking sir, thanks though” You never really heard what they were saying. What you heard was I drive a crappy car and you need to convince me to buy this one. Sometimes while you were talking to the customer a rival salesman would walk buy and give the I am a nicer guy than him smile. This would be cause for a fight to the death but there was no time for that. The type of car they were looking at did not matter. It was a day of the week, we were having a sale, and they were going to buy that car. Not the right one for them, let me show them another.

No matter what process you used to find customers the purpose was always the same. Get them in the car so they could fall in love with it. Get them sitting at your desk so you could talk them into buying it. Finally get them out the door before they saw you sweat. People had their excuses for why they could not afford the car, or why they did not want to buy it. I always had a retort. People do not want to spend money, they need a little help. I told them how this sale was not going to last forever. I told them that another salesman had a customer that wanted that particular car. Sometimes I would pretend yell at my boss so that the customer thought I was really fighting for them. Truth is most dealers have a bottom price they will take for their cars and anyone can get that price. It was my job to try and get you to spend more, but in the end I would give you the car at the bottom price without much haggle.

Just because there was a bottom price does not mean that the price was rock bottom. I still wanted to make my money. Where I worked we never went below that price. On new cars the price was usually at or just above inventory price. Dealers make what is called hold back so selling a car for what they paid for it is not a bad deal. The inventory price a customer can see and the actual price a dealer paid is two different numbers. The difference is referred to as hold back. On used cars a bottom price was always set. This number in my dealership was usually the cost of the vehicle plus the cost of repairs plus two grand. Yes we were expected to make a two thousand dollar profit on used cars. I once sold a truck to a gentleman who begged and pleaded for us to throw in a bed liner. I told him no there was just no money in the deal for that. I mean we were giving him such a great deal. I think I made nine hundred dollars commission off of that sale.

My time as a car salesman only lasted a half year or so. I was ok at it. I think the lying got to me. “Hi welcome to Joe Bobs’ Auto Emporium, are you here for the big sale? “ There was never a big sale. I watched as the finance people would tell customers they had bad credit and had to raise their interest rates because of it. I watched a customer start crying because we would not lower the price of a car buy another 200 dollars. We had to make that two thousand you know. I told people there trade in was worthless because it had high mileage, and the next day I told a customer that the same car ran great and to not worry about the mileage. I despise sales people to this day. It has been almost nine years since I last sold a car. I have though bought a couple. I am a horrible customer.  I know all their tricks.