Take a closer look at what you’re making in your current job position. If you’re a go-getter and work hard, perhaps you should consider a career in sales to enhance how much you can make. Top performers in sales make more money than the workers that produced the product or services they’re selling. Just imagine your commission if you sell an airplane as compared to the workers that built the flying machine.

I am here to give you some insights into becoming a car salesman. I sold cars for a living for many years and I was good at it. I have attended most car sales training and you can increase your annual salary substantially by deploying some of the tips included in this article.

What Are the Duties of a Car Salesman?

If want to get involved in selling cars for a living, you must first be aware of the responsibilities involved. If you sell cars, your main duty is to get customers the exact vehicle they want at a profitable price for your dealership.

To get the customer what he or she wants, you must be good at qualifying the prospect. It makes no sense to show someone a car that cost $50,000 when he or she just told you they want monthly payments below $250.

You job is not to judge if the customer can afford the car or not, but you should let them tell you what they can afford by asking the right questions. Contrary to what some people might think, selling cars for profit does not mean you should argue, intimidate, belittle, make fun of, or criticize your customers.

You main job description is to help provide the most reliable information, which would allow your customers to make the most informed decision that’s beneficial to both. You must know your product from top to bottom.

Remember to give the correct answers to questions asked, doing so would make you become a great salesman with customers lining up to patronize you. So, in a nutshell, a good automobile salesperson provides the most relevant information after listening to the customer’s needs and wants.

Looking For a Good Car Salesman Resume

Selling is the only profession I know where your earning potential is only limited by how organized and hardworking you are. To be good at selling cars, a college degree is not a requirement. I worked with very good salespeople that had only high school diplomas.

The most important criteria in your car salesman resume are your enthusiasm. If you like to help people get what they want, and you can read and write, selling cars might just be the job you need to make six figures every year.

If all you have is a high school diploma with a passion to serve people, selling is the highest paying profession you can find. So to be good in sales, it is not your college degree that counts, but your ability to relate to people and help them get what they want in a way that’s beneficial to them and to you.

So in your car salesman resume put whatever education you have, but remember that enthusiasm and commitment to excellence are some of the skills needed to become great in selling cars for a good living.

I would urge you to seek employment at a dealership that knows how to move lots of cars on a monthly basis. A good car dealership will spend a great deal of money on advertising every month. Best to find one that would let you sell both new and used cars to start your car sales career.

If you seek employment at a small car dealership, you might not get the opportunity to learn how to truly sell cars. A good way to find top car dealers in your area is to look in your Sunday newspapers or online.

If you find one with multiple brands under the same roof, the ideas I am about to give you can make you rich beyond your wildest dream.

How to get the Job

Make sure you do some homework before you arrive for the interview. Look online and find out as much information as possible about the dealership. Practice in front of a mirror what your answers will be to the most obvious questions.

While eye contact is good during your interview, try not to get into a staring contest with your potential boss. Carry a small business bag, and inside you’ll have some study materials recommended for your new profession towards the end of this article.

For your interview, wear a conservative blue suit with white shirt and a nice tie. You should wear a black shoe with dark blue or black socks to match. It is not how expensive the clothes look, but the suit must match your personality. Try not to wear any hat, unless it is part of your religion.

Arrive at least an hour or thirty minutes before your interview session. Announce your presence when you arrive, and let them know you’re willing to wait around to the allotted time schedule. While you’re waiting, get some of the car brochures and immerse yourself in studying them.

Do not pay attention to the person you’re waiting for, but be aware they might be watching you. Be pleasant, but don’t be too nosy by discussing your interview with other salespeople you meet at the dealership.

When the interview time arrives do not announce yourself again, just be pleasant and wait your turn. You must not appear like you’re in a rush to get this over with. You’ll be called once the boss is ready for you.

In the interview room, remain standing until you’re told to seat down. For some reason, it conveys a sign of respect. Also, if you’re seated, stand up when the interviewer walks into the room. Never shake hands while seating down during an interview session.

Give short and precise answers, and be ready to explain why they should give you a chance rather than someone else. Base salary in car sales is very minimal, and you might be given a car to drive after you’ve established a good track record.

What You’ll Need

Once you get the job, decide what you want customers to call you. Go to Fiverr.com and get yourself a branded cool design for your business card, and it will only cost you $5. Next log onto Vistaprint.com and order your own business card.

Get yourself a well-stocked business card that makes people remember you. Both should cost about $20, and it’s the initial stages of separating yourself from the other mediocre car salespeople.

Be ready to put in at least twelve hour days, so you’ll need at least six to seven business shirts, and two or three suits. Get yourself about five to six ties to go with two pairs of good shoes. Not party shoes, but well-made business black shoes.

Get yourself this book – how to master the art of selling cars by Tom Hopkins. This is by far the best book on selling almost anything. The principles can be adapted to some of the suggestions included in this article for the most potent results in your car sales career.

Your First day on the Job at selling Cars

Unless you have some prior selling experience, your new employer would probably assign you to another salesperson to be guided in how the car sales process work. You need to pay attention and learn from the best.

At every car dealership, 10% of the salespeople make almost 80% of the money. Some might call it luck, but I call it diligence and hard work paying off.

Please do not spend your idle time gossiping with other salespeople. Most top car salesmen are very tidy and organized. They find stuff to do even if business is slow. Later on, I will give you some unique ways to generate more customers than you need.

On your first day on the job, collect all the brochures about every automobile sold by that dealership. Start by studying the top sellers. Select one vehicle to master every day.

Seat in the car, open the hood, learn about the engine configurations, master the type of transmission one can get and learn about all the accessories.

You want to be familiar with the types of colors available with the interior combination. Knowledge is power, and you want to build yours up to an enviable level.

On your first day, keep a friendly smile with co-workers and look very busy. Find something to do and ignore the chit-chat that goes on with the low car sales performers. Most of them have sad stories about how sales is mostly luck or the right customer. You need to study and study, to build up your brain power.

When you get home, go online and find out more information about that particular car or truck you just mastered. Read some of the online reviews, both good and bad. Get acquainted with why people love that particular model.

Find other brands that compete with that model and start creating ways to let customers know why your brand is better. Your job is to collect as much information as possible, which will eventually make you an expert on that particular model.

Just a word of advice, be the first one on the job and among the last ones to leave. Volunteer to do things other salespeople might frown upon. The general manager sometimes needs help; gladly do what you’re asked, even if it pays no dividend. At least 5% of sales are generated by managers, and most would remember your generosity with your time.

Take Advantage of Car Salesman Training

Any good dealership would have some system of training new salespeople. Take advantage of all of them. From my experience, the best way to learn is to observe the activities on a showroom floor.

Seek out the top performers and get close to the friendliest ones. You can ask the general manager at the dealership and request permission to learn from them. When I first started selling cars, I was assigned to a loud, mean and obnoxious top performer and he took advantage of me in a big way.

For two weeks not once did he split any deals with me, despite my participation in most of them. But I learned what he did right and mastered them, while ignoring his bad habits.

Within three months, I was competing for the $3000 to $4000 monthly bonus price for the top salesperson in that dealership. Try to watch this movie by Will Smith called – “The Pursuit of Happyness” to get some inspirations about over-coming adversity.

Psychology of Selling

Contrary to popular believe, people would do business with you if they trust and like you. Most people shop at places that make them feel good and important. I have a neighborhood grocery store that I go to on a regular basis and it’s not because of the prices.

In fact, the store owner charges at least 5% to 10% more than other stores and yet he’s the busiest in the area. The owner is friendly, greets you as you come and leave, and the products are incredibly fresher than the other stores.

While there are those that only do business with the lowest bidder, the vast majority of people looking to buy cars would give you their business if you’re friendly, knowledgeable and explain the advantages of doing business with you.

When you have the person that makes the buying decision present, always offer a test drive of the exact car for sale, before discussing price. If you make a customer fall in love with the car, the price will make sense.

When you’re dealing with a couple, be mindful of the nuances they might bring with them. Couples argue and fight on a regular basis, and you don’t want to get in the middle of that.

Ask who will be the primary driver of the vehicle and proceed accordingly. Never take sides in a couple’s debate, for the ultimate loser will be you. Present information, while encouraging them to make a decision now.

There are words you do not want to use in a car negotiation process. You want to learn to use actions words.

Try to includes words like, best, ready, well designed, good, excellent, better, looks awesome, would you, monthly investment, allow me to, did you know, it makes sense to, the customer I sold one to yesterday bought one in the same color, etc. Those words elicit approval from the customer when used the right way.

Try to not use words like I am, my, you, you’ll, I will, wait till, we have, no one can, they can’t, I have never seen, you need to make a decision, you’ll lose this deal, etc. Those words convey negativity and begging attitude. You want customers to know that you’re in a better position to help them after the purchase, as compared to the competition.

If you have a customer bring up lower price offered by the competition, go into your unique selling speech which deals with the benefits of doing business with you rather than the other guy. Never bash the other dealership, but build yourself up.

Most times you’ll win that battle, because people like to deal with positive people even if it means paying a little bit more. You must have the mind-set of a winner, to get people to want to do business with you.

Unique Ways to Generate More Customers

To set yourself apart from the other salespeople that wait for the dealership to bring in customers, the following steps can have customers lined up to do business with you. Since you’re in the car selling business, you need to be extra nice to people regardless of their rank or position.

Everyone knows someone looking to buy a car or truck within a certain time frame. The following ideas will create huge momentum for your car selling career.

1 – Create a website for yourself. Find a unique name to call it. Make it memorable and functional. Now when was the last time you met a car salesman with his own website. Within this website you’ll include awesome resources that are shareable.

You can use some of the Gigs on Fiverr.com to have it localized in Google search engine. You can write or source out articles about the brands of cars you sell. Other topics might include; how to get the best deal when servicing your car or truck. Eventually, you want potential customers to use the website to make appointments with you.

The website will work for you 24/7 and you can buy a domain name for a measly $10. On that five dollar website called fiverr, you can find good designers to make your site function as you want it to. Every time you sell a car to a customer ask them to give you testimonials about how you treated him or her well.

Try to make your testimonials believable, by including pictures of you handing the keys to the customer. You also want to include an email box for subscribers. You can get started through Getresponse.com. The first 30 days is free and you’re allowed to import email addresses.

2 – Create your own YouTube video channel. All you need is a Gmail account and you’re good to go. If your website name sounds cool, you might want to use that as your video channel name. Another great way to have people seeking to do business with you is to create review videos of the products you sell.

Start with your top selling model and make a unique video explaining the basics about the car or truck. Go into detail about the pros and cons of the model. YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. You’ll be surprised with the amount of views your video channel will get on a daily basis.

Keep DVD disc copies of any video you create, and you’ll be including one in the keepsake bag you hand to each customer you sell that particular model to. Now imagine, not only have you demonstrated how the devices in the car or truck functions, but they also have a review video they can use as reference point if they have any questions.

Trust me, this alone would create buzz that would make customers seek you out by the hundreds every month. When your YouTube channel gets very popular, you can monetize it through Google AdSense program.

3 – The biggest mistake most salespeople make is to make a sale and then forget about the customer. If you treat a customer right, they would keep sending you referrals. Your dealership has records of past customers, those that bought vehicles few years back. You need to contact them again.

Start by asking for customers of salesmen that are no longer employed by the dealership. Trust me, the owner or the general manager would be thrilled with your initiative. Many ways you can approach this gold-mine of information. You can create a nice sales letter and offer to give them a test drive on the new model. Open the letter with proper salutation and introduction about yourself.

Offer to assist them in any form or fashion, including no strings attached test drive of the new model. You can also refer them to the article you created about how to get the best prices for your used car on your website or video. You see where I am going with this, you’re becoming valuable to hundreds of people and most of them will send more buying customers your way.

4 – You need to create bait for people to remember you. The best bait I can think of is a refrigerator magnetic calendar. People use those things more than you know. When you start making more money from your car sales, invest in them. You can also ask your dealership to pay for them. A good owner or boss would consider the merits of creating one, especially if you’re bringing in sales by the bundle.

5 – Everywhere you spend your money, let people know what type of cars you sell and how you’re positioned to give out more useful resources than the other salespeople. When you go through a toll bridge with collection booths, include your business card with the money. You should have a card that directs people to your website and YouTube channel, which lets them get acquainted to how you’re different from the other salespeople.

What you need to do After Delivering Every car

The worst thing you can do is to forget about your customer after you have their money. Many steps you can take to make them remember you as friendly, and a person they want to refer relatives and friends to do business with.

1 – You must collect customers email. In fact, every customer you come in contact with should be encouraged to write down their email address. Separate the list by those you sold to and those you gave useful information. Get your own mailing list program from Getresponse.com. You can do email communication free for the first 30 days. Your monthly cost is based on how many subscribers you have.

2 – You need to create a small gift bag to be given to each new customer you self a car to. Some of the items to include in the gift bag are:

A – The time schedule for your service department and names of the relevant people.

B – If you have a review video for that model you sold, include a DVD disc copy in the bag

C – Ask your service dept. for coupons that can be used by new customers to save money at the service department.

3 – Never forget to collect customer’s date of birth. Some might only give you the day of the month. There are many small apps that let you organize birthdays. You can set it up that the customer receives email a week before their birthday and one on their date of birth.

This is a huge deal. Trust me; they will remember you when someone they know is looking for a car. You can encourage your boss to send the customer a free coupon, like one for an oil change. Doing this alone will make customers that bought from you more loyal than ever.

They would send you their friends, cousins and co-workers. You can get creative as to what you can send your customers on their birthday, please do not look at it as a waste of money. People remember little gestures of kindness, and you’ll be rewarded with more sales than you expect.

In Conclusion

I have given you ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Remember to become a very successful salesperson; you need to offer more useful information than the other guy. Most people buy from you when they like you and trust you.

The customers that shop based on the lowest prices are not your primary target with these ideas. If you create some of the above resources mentioned, you’ll start to separate yourself from the average salesperson and watch as your income shoots through the roof.

If you set this up right, it would not matter what your dealership does, for your sales funnel would be functioning at a high octane level. People will seek out your services as your reputation grows for giving more resources than most other salespeople.

The way to eat a cow is to serve it each steak at a time. Your car salesperson salary is only limited if you fail to take action. Read this article again and get going in creating your six figure income regardless of your educational background.