Would You Sell Mercedes for $7500/Month?

you're barely a sales person at Mercedes. You're rather a well paid order-taker.

Give advice on what options they have and sit politely when they exclaim that they want the ugliest version ever, or listen to a rich snob prattle on about how they need to buy their 17 year-old daughter a $48K CLK.

If I were you, I'd do it.

If you're mostly interested in quality of life imporovements ($$$$) for your family, I say go for it. It could be a good temporary move until you find a better-paying job in your field. Why not?

Take the money...don't be stupid.

I own two auto dealerships in the midwest. Be aware of a couple of things. Are you sure it is a $5,000 a month salary? Usually this is a training wage that after 1-3 months you are on full commission. Very few, if any, dealers will give you a salary. They expect you to sell cars especially after a short training period. If you are getting a salary it won't last if you are not selling cars. You will get fired or they will drop the salary. Do you have the offer in writing? How long does the salary last? What are the minimum standards to keep the salary?

Not to pick on you, but I question your attitude about sales. "I am not a salesman" and your comments about salesman being low, show you have the wrong attitude. Being good at selling cars can make you a ton of money but attitude is everything. You must be so pumped and determined and driven. Being in sales is a huge lifestyle choice and takes 100% comittment.

Since this is letsrun I'll use a running example. What do you think of a non-runner who says "I am not a runner, and I think runner's are geeks/crazy but I want to try a marathon." That is what you are saying about auto sales.

The fact of the matter is 85% of salesman don't last 12 months in the business. It is a fact. Any retail job is very tough. When you sell a car it is better than winning a race, when you don't sell it is horrible. Then pressure you face from the customers and dealership management can be horrible. The worst part about it is the customers -they will lie and treat like a door mat.

I thought lawyers and politicians were bottom of the earth. I personally know some very good , professional auto salespersons (domestic and foreign). And I admit, Ive done it before. Here is some sound advice.

Its a great job but you must work for it. That specifically means prospecting and following up with customers.

You must be a good listener. Its more important to be a sound listener than a fast talker.

Hours can be tough. Weekends are often the busiest times. You probably will get 2 days off per week, but its not usually on the weekend. Plus figure about 50 hours or more with many evenings working.

You have to deal/accept rejection and lying from customers. Its tough when someone sells you out for $50 or is using you to get a price for their local dealer, but its part of the business. You also will get many 'appointments' that dont show up. That sucks when you come in on your day off, or stay late and they dont show up. All the talk about salesmen lying, its the other way really-in my opinion.

That being said, no matter what brand you sell, some people will always look down on you(evidence by your own quote). You may sell a car as-is, give your customer the option of taking it to a mechanic, buying an extended warranty, and calling the previous owner. You explain all this and reiterate its a used vehicle with no warranty , and once it leaves the lot , the customer is responsible. 3 days later if the a/c quits or a check engine light comes on they want you to fix it despite all the options you gave them. Its even more frustrating when its a vehicle with a lot of miles(vehicles break down-often with no warning).

Your customers will want/expect you to make special excemptions for them. If the vehicle has a 4yr/50000 mile bumper to bumper warranty- they may want it covered even though it has 65000 miles on it. Yes its a double standard-if you told them the warranty dropped to 40000 miles they would be pissed but dont see the irony of their request. And often, your service department wont be able to help them out- and you are the bad guy, and you get the "I am going to tell everyone I know not to do business with you"

That doctor, or lawyer, that you have a 9:00 appointment with but doesnt see you until 10:15- he/she wont cut you the slack you give them. There will be a few that will leave and never come back because they dont want to wait 5 minutes while you are wrapping up with another customer(after all-they are only teachers).

So it can be frustrating, but its always rewarding when you get the thank yous and see how excited people can be about a new car. And the best compliment is when you get their referral coming in looking for a vehicle. A

And yes, even Mercedes have problems- thats why there is a big service department there too.

Its a great business but can be tough if you arent willing to put in the time or get the results. I love it.

Good luck.

"I am not a salesman"

Be very careful, as a self-described non-salesman on the letsrun record calling car salesmen bottom of the earth, this job is definitely not a good fit.

Most car dealers, even Mercedes, expect sales performance, meaning you will have to be a "salesman," no way around it. Car dealer GM's can be some of the biggest pricks around, this could easily be a hard-to-recover from soul robbing experience for you.

Take the commission $$$ with a grain of salt, and if you don't perform you'll be out on your ass in no time.

Run from this "opportunity" as fast as you can.

Be careful wrote:

The worst part about it is the customers -they will lie and treat like a door mat.

That's rich. Last time I checked I was the consumer, not the seller. In my recent car-buying experiences, it's the dealers and sellers who will do anything to make a buck. That's why I'm contemplating a higher end car next time. No real haggling: "This is the price if you want the car."

To wit: I bought a Ford Explorer SportTrac, and we had agreed that I would get the bed extender and hard tonneau cover (I was adamant about these two things from the beginning). I bring my truck in so they could install my tonneau cover. I come to pick it up and it's a cheap, soft, snap-on one. WTF! The words soft tonneau cover never cam out of anyone's mouth during the negotiations or sale. The sales lady hands me the extras ticket and it said Bed Extender and Tonneau Cover (soft) with the soft in completely different hand writing. That's not shady. Couldn't get the manager, sales lady or owner to ever reply to a call. What say you now?

I was replying to a person who wanted advice from someone in the car business about a career change. I responded to help him because he has a family in which to provide. I know nothing about your situation and it is not relevant to what he was asking.

The other posters also made reference to how difficult and unreasonable some customers can be. Have you ever been in retail? Some people are very unreasonable...there are a lot of crazy people in the world.

If you have problems with your local dealer it sounds like your first step is to look in the mirror. You sound like a "nut case" which might explain why nobody will call you back.

The retailer is usually very motivated to have happy customers but sometimes certain people are impossible to please. I suggest you look inward...you get more flys with honey than vineager. It will help you throughout your life and make it easier to get along with others.

Sounds like the funny, twisted logic that car dealers/salesmen use quite often. I didn't get something that was agreed upon, thus, I was upset. Car dealer's logic: you're crazy.A philosophizing car dealer--that's a first. Sit up there in your ivory tower and defend the shady actions of your management and sales team by saying it's the customer who is unreasonable.Or it could be: this guy got us to agree to a deal that doesn't make us enough money, how can we get some of it back? Ethics is a word car salesmen aren't familiar with.

You should also realize that you are competiting with your coworkers for sales. This is a problem with many industries like cars, furniture, financial services....you have to beat your competitors and compete with coworkers who are also trying to meet their goals. But the companies set it up to look like you failed, not them, so you will still be a consumer blaming yourself for failing.

Heres my story the other way. Sold a 1999 Toyota Corolla 79k on it Oct of '05. Customer bought the vehicle with a 3 month/3000 mile warranty- declined the extended warranty. Took it to his mechanic who gave it the green light.

Brings back vehicle march '06 with 88k on it- says the a/c does not blow cold. Mad as hell at me for selling it 'knowing the ac didnt blow cold' and wanted me to pay for the repairs. I reminded him he declined the extra warranty, his mechanic gave it the ok. Fortunately my boss reminded him the terms of the deal, and also asked if he wanted to help us out on the money we spent replacing the blower vent and power window motor that went out on his trade in- since he hadnt told us anything about it.

Still- to him Im the bad guy- but his trade in and the repairs we had to do - thats our problem.

Not trying to defend car salesmen in particular here, but really the problem with your position is its not car salesmen.

The proper quote is to most people, ethics are just not in their vocabulary. I would quess most customers if they knew their trade in had a problem but could get away with it- would.

Sure there are bad car salesmen- I just have been lucky to have always had pretty good ones.

A lot of people have noted that the hours can be long, and often quite unusual. I think this problem might be worsened at a Mercedes dealership as you are

a) dealing with a lot of professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.) that put in long hours and may not be as flexible

b) spoiled rich people that don't respect or care about your time/obligations.

I know personally the last car I bought, which was a Mercedes, I held the salesmen after hours on two occassions. It wasn't that I was being a prick, but that was the only time that I could get there. Just a thought, good luck with your decision.

THE CUSTOMERS LIE???!!!???? How about the Salesmen????

Give me a break.

I would rather go to the dentist than buy a car, the experience always leaves me feeling as though I need to shower twice.

Puh-leeeze!!!!

People lie. Not just the salesmen. I think most of us in retail would understand a car salesmens perspective about customers lying. Its bad enough hearing the crap and lies when the post christmas shoppers want to return opened electronics(an absolute no-no) or just flat out are trying to defraud you(honestly, they say, the box didnt have the digital camera in it). So I certainly can see where customers lie.

For the record, I would rather deal with my car salesmen any day over going to the dentist, or paying my divorce attorney $50 to write up a 2 paragraph letter.

Talk about getting ripped off, what about paying 7% commission to a real estate agent.

We have a saying in sales "Buyers are liars"

If you are looking for stability, do not go into car sales. Sales men come and go faster than you change your underwear. Sales does not equal stability.

Good money for the short run though! In my situation I'd do it, but hey, I'm not married and don't have kids. So....

You people going back and forth remind me of the radio show AutoScoop with Adam Goldfein & Joyce Littel. Adam often points out the games that buyers knowingly or unknowingly play. But he's fair. He also admits that the dealers also play games.

I think it's quite obvious that there are both good and bad, honest and dishonest salespeople and good and bad, honest and dishonest customers.

I just purchased a new car this year. I was trying to buy used but ran into several individuals (not dealers) who tried to hide major problems with their cars. One had essentially been totaled but CarFax didn't show any accidents. Fortunately, my mechanic pointed out the improperly repaired damage and saved me before I purchased. These individuals are the same people who are customers buying a car once they sell their used one.

I drove shit cars at dealers who promised to fix up all the problems once we had a deal. Sure they'll fix it. Why not just fix it before putting the car up for sale.

I finally decided to not buy a used near luxury car and buy a new lower level car. The dealer caused me some problems but was good in other ways. Overall, although my car isn't without problems that shouldn't exist and that the dealer doesn't want to repair, working with this dealer is probably as fair as it gets anywhere.

The only profession sleazier than real estate is auto sales.

Mercedes may be a better experience. "Be Careful" did offer some good advise about knowing the terms of your employment, aside from that he was full of shiite.

I had a good friend from school that was car salesman, great for a few laughs, but void of any ethical compass. This guy was very successful, and like many of his co-workers had zero respect for customers, basically viewed them as marks.

I have never dealt with a auto dealership that hasnt lied in some way to get a sale.... let me run that by my sales manager. Conversely there are some people who try to take advatage of retailers. However, it would probably take hundreds of years of consumer sleaze to tip the scale in favor of consumers, sleazy or not.