How to make a lot of money selling cars

I am interested in getting a job selling cars when i get out of college, what are some things i can do to maximize effectiveness. I have heard that selling cars is difficult with a high turn over, so how can i keep this from discouraging me, and lead me to being the best.

MoneyMaker, I'm just curious: how come you've decided you want to sell cars when you get out of college?

Honesty i just like cars, i am not sure if that is the best sales job or not, i have a few years to determine that. What do you think would be a good sales job coming out of school?

I like cars, too.

You can make a good living selling cars. It is challenging, and employee turnover is high, as you know. It can be long hours and lots of evenings and weekends.

I think the most important thing for a job out of college is to try to decide if you want to go the b2b or b2c route. People tend to get pigeonholed early in their careers, so making a careful decision up front is a good thing.

I think the company you work for is more important than the product or service that you would sell. I would recommend that you find a company that has an excellent training program and an excellent sales manager that will coach you and teach you how to sell. That will make all the difference in the world.

That's just my opinion, but I'm sure others will share their opinions here, too.

Skip Anderson

Call me when you have a GT-40 available.

Seriously, consider more than just selling the whole car. Some of the most successful people in the automotive industry don't sell cars - they sell stuff for cars or they sell stuff to the guys who fix the cars. I can recall one person in particular who was highly successful in sales. Once when I was trying something outside of sales, I worked as an inventory/storeroom manager for a limousine builder. The paint/3M/Chemicals sales rep. was something to behold, indeed. He drove a nice car (Porsche 993 Turbo S, if you must know ) and loved what he did.

I'm not telling you what to do, but I would suggest looking further than just selling the whole car. Explore the whole industry!

By the way, I'm a software sales rep. and there's a joke in our industry:
Do you know the difference between a car salesman and a software salesman? A car salesman KNOWS when he's lying to you.

It is a great place to develop your sales skills whether you stay with it long term or not. I agree with finding a place that has really good training.

One caveat is that the best salespeople are not usually the trainers (sometimes they are but not usually) at the company. So watch the top salespeople and try to figure out what they do differently.

Selling cars was my first sales job and I did it for about a year when I was 23 years old.

One of my favorite things about it was that I could show up to work, sell a car in 4 hours, and know that my paycheck just doubled. It was very rewarding in an immediate way and I sure learned a LOT about selling and thinking on my toes. You usually have one good chance with a customer, and if you blow it by saying or doing something wrong, you may have lost them.

On the flip side, I did not like the volatility that I experienced. Some of the guys I worked with who had been selling cars for years were pretty consistent and made $5000 to $10000 every month. But there were some times that I didn't get a paycheck because business was slow, or just because I had let myself get into a funk and stopped selling well. Add that to the fact that my wife was in school and I was the only source of income, I decided it wasn't wise for me to stay in it at that time.

For some people it might just be a cash cow, but for me, I would say it was a bit of a rollercoaster and I prefer something a little more steady.

Hi Moneymaker, and thanks for your question.

If you're wanting to sell cars, you obviously feel you have a talent for selling, now you can begin developing your plan for how to begin making the type of money you desire. Fortunately, there's plenty of reading material here for you to learn from.

First, since you don't have a lot of experience, let's concentrate on work ethic. Make sure you begin tracking your business and determining your numbers, like closing ratios - how many ups you take to make a sale, how many phone-ups you take, appointments you set and sales you make from those appointments. Once you know your closing ratios, you can determine how many numbers you need to do in order to make the number of sales you desire. Since you won't be getting a lot of repeat and referral business right now, you need to make sure you take enough ups and phone-ups to sustain yourself financially.

Secondly, you need to begin developing strong relationships with your customers and building what I call, your "fan club." You want your customers to be rewarding your outstanding customer service by sending their friends and relatives to purchase vehicles from you, as well as them becoming repeat buyers. That means you need to develop customer service that is second to none.

Thirdly, begin networking for business. Make sure you let everyone you know, and everyone you come in contact with that you sell cars and trucks, both new and used. Pass out your business cards to everyone, and make sure you get one from them. The best way for you to develop more business is to develop more OPPORTUNITIES for business.

There's plenty more that you'll be able to do to increase your sales, but this will get you started for now. Don't want to give you information overload. But keep learning, keep studying, and keep practicing. You'll reach your goals in no time.

Mike

Thank you everyone for your replys all of your information is very much appreciated.