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I recently asked a main dealer salesman if the optional cruise control was a factory or dealer fit option. His reply "No idea you will have to ask parts." No attempt by him to find out, and it could be the difference between a factory order or buying from stock. I already knew because I had asked the manufacturers customer sevice people, but that dealer lost a sale as the apathy may run through the organisation. Do other BRers do their own reserch? Is this treatment of customers typical? Will the situation improve as sales fall?
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Standard I'm afraid. My previous long experience of working with the new car sales trade is that most main dealer sales staff are either the willing and pleasant, but not very bright or knowledgeable, kind; or the arrogant, idle variety who know the customer is not just always wrong, but so stupid that they will swallow the most brazen lies.
Maybe 20% are interested, or professional, enough to learn about their and their competitors products to the extent that that know as much as or more than the average customer.
I've never really understood why it should be so - poor quality management must be something to do with it, a fish always rots from the head.
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The exceptions really stand out. Like the salesman who fully and accurately described a car to me over the phone - I was up there first thing the following morning (200 miles away), and arrived to find he's put the car into the showroom for me (it was raining outside) so I could go over it in the dry. And when getting the towbar fitted, he got parts to make up a spare rear numberplate [at no charge] just as a little extra. We did the deal in 20 mins - without any complicated negotiations, 'referring to manager' etc.
This was a week after going 120 miles to see the same model of car at a different dealer which had been described as immaculate - but had scratches all over the interior, had missed a service and was generally tatty. What a waste of time!
I know which I've recommended to friends!
Edited by Marlot on 12/10/2008 at 17:13
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Well, I went in to an Audi dealer in March for a service, the place was buzzing. In September, when the middle brake light needed replacing, it was like a ghost town. (2007 model)
They still have'nt fixed it. Thinking about alternative suppliers now.
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When buying my partners car we had popped into a dealership a few months earlier just to see what they had etc. Sales Manager was arogant and knew nothing about his product. When we were ready to do a deal I gave them the benefit of the doubt and popped in to see what they had etc. Met a wonderful sales lady who was very professional and knew her product well. Explained I was in a rush and she was happy to do a deal - no haggling, just a straight part ex price and 500 off the screen price. Very plesant experience, and as a result I will likely give them first shout if I am in the market for a VW again.
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Pay peanuts get monkeys,most people do not do any research,if they did you would find a lot less Vauxhalls,Fiats and Renaults etc on the road.Anyone that is any good in the motor trade soon realises their skills will pay a lot more for less hours and no weekends selling just about anything else.
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A friend of mine sells cars, and says that as soon as something comes into the showroom, the first thing he does is log onto some website caleld TrustyFred, or TruthfulBob, or SincereSid (something like that...), look at the car-by-car breakdown, and find out EXACTLY 'what to wacth out for', make sure everything is as good as it can be with the vehicle, and so he has all the answers when the punters come in...
He also goes back and checks for fuel economy figures, service stuff like cambelt chane intervals etc etc etc.
Does rather well out of it.
Homework pays off.
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When buying my partners car we had popped into a dealership a few months earlier just to see what they had etc. Sales Manager was arogant and knew nothing about his product. When we were ready to do a deal I gave them the benefit of the doubt and popped in to see what they had etc. Met a wonderful sales lady who was very professional and knew her product well.
Trouble I find is that sales people tend to move around dealerships and once you have taken delivery of your vehicle you are left to the mercy of the servicing department!
But I agree, I do find it very annoying when sales don't even know their own products. Some would say a good sales person could sell anything, be it a car or a fridge, but I find this lack of product knowledge unerving and makes me think they are out for every penny they can get......which I supposed they are!
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"Success occurs when preparation meets opportunity"
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I never worked directly in sales altho valeting was part of that department. However I did work for some time in the service department collecting and delivering customer cars as well as giving them a wash and brush up.
Dont ever underestimate how much effort some of us driver went to in order that cars got back to customers on time and all sorted.
The first few hours were spent getting 6-8 cars back to the workshop from all over the county, then we would be cleaning about 30 odd cars until early afternoon - at that point we are onto every car we collected, is it ready, any problems, if its still being worked on we then kept leaning on the mechanics to make sure they werent hanging around
( unpopular but it worked ), then onto front desk, is the bill ready, then what order do we take them back, can we borrow someone to deliver more cars in one go etc etc.
As part of that, we worked our hardest to make sure people got the correct service, that we knew if they needed the car back for a certain time, if they had an interest in a new car we would even source a brochure for them and drop it back with the car, the list goes on. AND we knew the cars inside out, passed on any info from the mechainc to customer etc etc.
Product knowledge, genuine effort to help customer and just being plain polite go a long way, to the extent that some customers would only deal with us rather than the front desk ( service departments seem to attract rude so-and-so's ).
All this translates just aswell to sales staff and the best ones employ all the same ideals.
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Is this treatment of customers typical?
Not in my experience.
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A lot of sales staff in the motor trade seem to jump from manufacturer to manufacturer quite frequently - probably explaining why the product knowledge is weak.
One guy around here has worked for Toyota, Mazda and Vauxhall in the last 12 months.
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Last year when choosing my new car I went to my Ford dealer a few times. Most there knew nothing about the new Mondeo, e.g.
1. I asked when the Titanium was out. Salesman said "that's it over there". I reply, no that's the Titanium X. He says it's the Titanim with the X pack. Which was wrong. A colleague of his then comes over and correct him ;-)
2. I notice the efficiency rating chart for another car was wrong (like the ones you see on fridges). It claimed a company car driver paid benefit in kind based on 15% of the car's value. This did not take into account the 3% extra for being a diesel. He just did not understand this at all. So I logged a call with Ford and got a call from the project manager overlooking the release of the new Mondeo and had a nice chat.
Being interested in cars you are almost always going to know more than the sales persons. Same goes for computers, TVs (although John Lewis fairly knowledgeable) etc.
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when we where looking around for small hatch backs, a 1.25v fiesta would have been ideal.
they where just about to bring in a new model and we had fingers crossed for a resonable deal as we had no trade in and cash in our pockets...
we phoned up first to check a 1.25 16v would be avalable for a test drive....
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upon turning up for a test drive,,,,with 7.5k to blow,,,we where assigned a sales lad who said they didn't have a fiesta 1.25 but we would take "his" 1.3 for a run...
it had about 5 empty soft drinks cans in the foowells, and the rear parcel shelf was missing, and generally in a mess. He gave us the sell about a 3 year ford warrenty...i then replied its only 1 year ford and 2 year dealer,,,,he said i had got that wrong...until i pointed out the 1ft text written across the dealer window...
he wasn't interested in even throwing in carmats and wanted full price for the car and full price for the extras....
what a waste of time...the company we bought the car on the other hand was helpful had a clean car to drive and was interested in sellling a car, with some "toys" thrown into the deal...
the original dealer has since shut and its now and Aston dealer!!!
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i did once buy a 12months old 205, and took it back the next day to say that one of the 2 fog lights didn't work...the orignal salesman, laughed and "said nice they mate they only have one" i was a bit miffed at being "his mate" and told him to get off his bum and have a look.....upon looking under the car and seeing it had been fitted with 2, he ate his words and got it fixed...along with the leaking sunroof....well it was french hu....haha...(it seemed the original owner had fitted an extra fog light into the blank hole in the bumper...)
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There used to be a City & Guilds or some such qualification for the job. The only salesman I encountered who had it was very knowledgeable but most car sales "training"
seems to be picked up on the job.
In other fields, I am impressed by the product knowledge and friendly professional approach of Jessops staff, those at Furniture Village and most hi-fi and audiovisual salespeople and I can't think why car sales aren't better dealt with .
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Before we bought our i10 we went to look at a Mazda 3. Liked it, but no car available to test drive. Four months later, the sales guy 'phones up very casual and chummy, asking for my OH by his first name, wondering if we are still thinking about buying a car. I can only think things are getting a bit slow now and they are desparately chasing up people who showed an interest ages ago.
As bintag says, the staff in Jessops knows loads about cameras and lenses, and guys in video games shops are complete techno geeks who can tell you everything ever written about the PS3 or World of Warcraft. How come car sales people seem to know so little about what is often a fairly narrow product range?
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IMO it's because people who sell cars, like estate agents, are just salesmen.
The camera and games people like the product and so are knowledgeable. Houses and cars sell themselves or not. The person the other side of the desk is just calculating his commission. As far as I can tell, their training as more about selling than about product.
Happy to be put right!
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don't know if you guys have been watching the new series on fridays itv called "natural born sellers...."
there all the usual sales men and women you've come to err love....
some pushy others sells on "sex appeal"...
they get given 30mins training.,.then told to sell and told there commision.
last week was double glazzing and conservatories....so its people selling 12k extras with 30mins training.....
the previous weeks was sofas etc.....
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oppps sorry no cars mentioned....oh the best seller gets a Lexus for the week...there you go....
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Jason Dawe, the spherically-challenged used car expert, reckoned that his client base followed him from marque to marque when he changed which manufacturer he sold cars for.
Just goes to show how important the sales 'experience' can be.
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>...spherically-challenged...
Are you suggesting he's short of balls?
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I bought 5 x cars from the same man @ 3 x garages.
The last one was not from what it should have been and our business ceased after that.
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