Typical Day in the Life of a Car Salesman

Typical Day in the Life of a Car Salesman

The following time-line is a fairly detailed list of what an average car salesman may go through in a typical day working at a car dealership.

7:00 am

• Get up early and check the weather, it's going be a hot one, 102 degrees and muggy. State the "Car Salesman's Mantra," better get to the car dealership by 7:45 am.
• Grab something to eat on the way to the dealership, check social media sites.
• Arrive at the dealership, open up cars, move cars to display areas, blow up, and display balloons or banners.

8:15 am

• Go to morning meeting for the "pump up speech" by managers (or yelled at for the poor performance from the day before, you just never know).
• Beat a couple levels on Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, or whatever game you happen to be working on.
• Work the phones, text messages, and email. Follow up with your previous customers or cold call a few new ones..
• Complete thank you cards and write follow up letters to previous customers you've worked with. (Don't forget to ask, "Who they know needing a new car?")
• Get yelled at by manager for sitting at your desk and not being outside on the point (front of store waiting for drive-in traffic).
• Go outside and get on point to wait for ups (customers) to stumble onto the lot..

10:00 am

• Politely greet an up (customer) and get yelled at by the customer because they don't want any help.
• Have to keep trying to assist the customer so you don't get yelled at by a Manager for not taking control of the customer.
• Customer ends up leaving the dealership and you don't get their name, phone or address for the "up-log."
• Get yelled at by manager for letting the customer walk and your told you can leave too if you walk another one.
• Management has lot party. Salespeople must rearrange all the cars and trucks on the lot to give it a fresh look.

12:00 pm

• Go to lunch (make it quick you're paid by commission) can't make money if you're eating lunch.
• Slam down your lunch, come back to the dealership and get back on point.
• Get yelled at by sales manager for standing around and not being on the phones prospecting.
• Get on the phone and get yelled at by another manager for being at your desk and not out on the point.
• Get another customer, present and test drive 6 different cars in 100* weather.
• Spend 5 hours with the customer and the deal falls through because of financing (totally out of the salesman's control).

5:00 pm

• Go out back and throw rocks at the dumpster to clear your head about the last car sale you just lost to financing.
• Go back to the front of the dealership and get back on point.
• Management decides to get prepared for a Red Tag Sale for the upcoming weekend.
• You get in and out of hot cars with your fellow salesman to hang red tags from the rear view mirrors of every car on the lot.
• You spend another hour and a half standing out on the point greeting other salespeople's appointments as they show up on the lot (at least you finally beat that level on Candy Crush).

8:30 pm

• You finally get an up (customer) right before closing time. You meet, greet, sheet and qualify. You're ready to go home, but you have a good feeling about this one.
• You do a couple of presentations and test drive a couple cars. You finally get them landed on a car.
• You write up the deal and present the numbers to the customer. Being unrealistic, the customer grinds the heck out of you for the best deal possible.
• After several trips back and forth to the desk, the customer starts to get cold feet and begins making excuses that they're hungry and it's getting late (time for a Turn-Over).
• The sales manager calls you weak because you can't close your customer and embarrasses you in front of your peers.
• The manager catches your customer on the way out the door, says the exact same thing you did, and now magically agrees to buy the car (happens all the time).

10:30 pm

• You turn the customer over to the finance manager as you get their new car ready for delivery (too bad detail has already left for the evening, better roll up your sleeves).
• You now have the car detailed, fueled and ready for delivery and are waiting for the customer to get out of the finance office. (what is taking so long?).
• 3+ hours from greeting your customer, you deliver their new car to them.
• You end up making $100 mini commission because of some finance issue causing the profit on the deal to get cut (completely out of the salesman's control, they either cut the deal or lose it all together).
• You find out the customer has previously talked with another salesman and now you must split your commission in half (you just went from a $100 mini to a $50 split deal).
• You help lock up the cars on the lot (pull handles).
• Help the managers lock up the dealership for the night.

11:45 pm

• It's been a long day and it's time to go home. At least you sold a car, beat a couple levels on your game, and made $50 today. Go wind down and get some sleep.
• Rinse and repeat, do it again the next day at 7:45 am (Don't be late).