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One thing I learned about the industry is that dealership salespeople are hired from the same pool as, say, McDonalds employees. These are not college graduates
by sgustard 4y ago
One thing I learned about the industry is that dealership salespeople are hired from the same pool as, say, McDonalds employees. These are not college graduates who have white-collar job offers. They join with no existing skills at low wage. Turnover is massive, the average sales agent leaves within a year. Meanwhile, the whole industry is pushing hard to adopt Tesla's model of fixed pricing and replacing people with software.
- phpthrowaway99 4y agoI went to a top US university in a stem degree. My coworker was a med student that couldn't pass the Mcats, but wasn't a bozo. Basically everyone had a degree, and everyone made atleast $100k. I personally made about $225k but as I said, I was pretty good. I know a person in Bay area car sales making $300k+. I assume there are many others. I assume you agree a McDonald's employee is not going to close accountants and doctors and lawyers and programmers on a car as often as an engineering grad would... And if that's true, why would a car dealership hire McDonald's type employees instead of slightly failed but still intelligent university stem grads? They don't cost more, since it's all pay for performance.
- skue 4y ago> My coworker was a med student that couldn't pass the Mcats That’s not a thing. The MCAT is used for admission into med school (equivalent to the LSAT or GRE).
- vl 4y agoIt looks like it was luxury brand dealership?
- yitianjian 4y agoRoughly $45k/car could be luxury depending on what years, yeah. A decade of car selling likely puts it in the 2000's at the earliest.
- phpthrowaway99 4y agoA German brand luxury dealership yes, but honestly just about everything applies the same at a Chevy dealership. The pay per vehicle is less on average, but the vehicles and customers are so much easier to deal with that you sell more per hour worked in my opinion.
- sicp-enjoyer 4y agoThat's true of most sales, including medical sales. But this is also why incentives for sales are highly tied to performance. You can't fake that skill. Fun fact, most surgeons learn to perform surgeries (in particular how to use new techniques and equipment) from sales people who don't have degrees. They often actually go into the surgery with them.
- cafard 4y agoThat has not been my impression of the sales staff on the comparatively few times I've been to dealerships (four times since 1991 or so).