A bit off topic today, but I’ve wanted to have this shout-out on the site for a while:
Ian and FIMP: https://stoppingscams.com/FIMP/ are the keys to how I’ve started a blog that is now getting a (tiny) bit of popularity (and growing every day). I haven’t paid the guy a penny, which after all this, I’m a tad guilty about. He is a great guy and his free content is the only stuff that’s ever got me to act on the goal I have had for so long in the back of my head.
If you want to learn how to write, make a blog, and grow a following, FIMP is the way.
Everyone needs guidance. In my career so far, I’ve had a number of people who have provided me with one-on-one sales coaching. The skills, routines, and discipline that I’ve taken from them have been invaluable.
In the last few months, I’ve begun hosting my own one-on-one sales coaching, paying forward what has been given to me. There is no greater inspiration than to teach, and no greater tool for accountability. One of the most gratifying parts of my evolving career has been to work with one-on-one sales coaching clients. They have broadened my horizons by sharing with me challenges that I have never faced in my own career.
Ego, as defined by Ryan Holiday, is the unhealthy belief in your importance. In auto sales manager training, veterans will often teach you about the external obstacles that you must face down on your path to success. Little attention is paid to the dangers of internal obstacles.
This article is inspired by my second reading of ‘Ego Is The Enemy’ by Ryan Holiday
During your progression in sales, patterns to your deals will emerge, and customers will slowly be fit into studied groups. Your sales cycle will start to move along like a well-oiled machine. You will learn the details of your job and of your manager’s job as well.
These skills, with time and effort, will propel you to the top of your game.
Sadly in many cases, this will coincide with the growth of your ego, whose self-importance will feed on the results of your labor. This self-importance will wish to be recognized, to be applauded. In turn, it can and will sabotage your happiness and effectiveness. Your ego will become your greatest enemy.
This article is inspired by ‘Ego Is The Enemy’ by Ryan Holiday, which I read for the second time this weekend. It’s a fantastic and in-depth look at the variety of ways that your ego will stand in your own way, filled with eye-opening short stories drawn from history.
I’ve found that any mention of the danger of ego is generally absent in auto sales manager training, so this is my attempt to correct that!
In the bestseller “The Life You Can Save,” Peter Singer outlines the case for charitable giving in the 21st century. The gap between the rich and the poor is larger than ever, and “For the first time in history, eradicating world poverty is within our reach.” In 2018 the average person can find and donate to effective organizations easily and with confidence, yet most do not. The book lays out why and how extreme poverty can be lessened with the participation of the wealthiest nations. Car sales is one of the careers in which you can participate in effective altruism from a young age, but this content is applicable to almost all career paths.
In reading “The Life You Can Save,” I stumbled upon the ultimate strategy for how to stay positive in sales. By setting aside a strict 5% giving rate I am able to maintain discipline at work better than ever before.
Struck with the loss of motivation, I harnessed 5% gross monthly giving to change my attitude towards work. Percent based charity gave me laser focus to dominate in my sales.
Wanted some feedback on the site redesign. Let me know what you think of the new design and color scheme. Just a quick note (good or bad feedback welcome) here would be great:
Is car sales a good career? Yes, and I’ll explain why.
Why do I believe that? In car sales, there is the real possibility of incredible income with a relatively low barrier of entry.
I made a $1,000,000 US (before tax) in my first six years selling cars, doing what I teach on this blog.
The real question is not if this is a good career, it’s only “if it’sa good career for you!”
In this article, we will address the question, “Is car sales a good career?” and “what personal qualities are non-negotiable.”
We will end with some “left field” thoughts on charity to mix things up.
We will start with the first section, “the math of success.” Here I will show you the under-appreciated power of a career with a low barrier of entry coupled with a robust early income.
Hi there. If we haven’t met, my name is Mr. Car Sales Story. I’m the sales-career writer who started selling Audis right after graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
I accomplished everything that followed with the help of two friends from college that started selling cars with me. We quickly found out that with the right attitude, we could make substantial incomes selling cars. I’ve started this blog to share what it took to get to $200k+ per year selling cars. If you are curious about what I think of the car sales career, I have a nice write up on if car sales a good career.
I’m writing this post to use as a permanent “Hello!”
“I hear Mr. Car Sales Story writes great stuff about car sales, BDC, managing internet leads, and closing deals, but what can he teach me right now?”
Car Sales Career – The Mega-Post
We’ll start with a rant, which links to a bunch of other stuff. You can right-click any of those links and open them in a new tab for later. If you get through every link, you’ll be well-equipped to dominate your new career.
For seven-plus years, I’ve been preaching a different brand of car sales from what you’ve heard in the media. The standard line is that the car sales career is about head to head negotiation, a total grind of a job that pits buyers versus sellers. You work your butt off all day every day, make a living, and slowly gain a few extra pounds from all the pizza.
Mr. Car Sales Story’s advice? Almost all of that is nonsense: Your current idea of car sales is slow, inefficient, and holding you back. You could be making tens of thousands of dollars more while working less.
What happens when you can make more and work less? You stick with car sales instead of giving up after six months to a year like so many people before you. You get a jump start on making healthy living and quickly line your path to financial freedom.
And the effects are surprising: if you can work this advice into your career early on, you could have an incredibly lucrative (and relatively short) working life, leveraging a network of contacts to sell millions of dollars in cars every year.
So remember my freaky numbers at the start ($200k+)? There was not really any magic – my friends and I just worked hard and failed fast, learning the whole way along.
…Let’s say you have no experience, never had a job. Guess what? It’s still possible to get a job at a car dealership, just generally not starting in sales. If you read this blog and want to get into this type of career, I recommend just getting a foot in the door any means necessary. Many successful six-figure salespeople started as porters (moving cars). It helps if you know someone at a dealership from high school or a mutual friend…
Car Sales Career Step 2: Working Hard and Selling Cars
Time to master the basics: how to sell more cars at a dealership. It’s key to remember that you are the responsible party in all this. The fact that you are on this site means that you have taken some responsibility for your continued success!
the car sales career is hard, but not that hard
…First things first. You need to be able to read the hand you have. The idea of being able to “tell a buyer” is not some voodoo magic that you need to go to school for…
After you’ve got the basics down, rev your engines, and start using enthusiasm to sell more cars. It’s important to remember the golden rule of car salespeople buy from people they like. If you can get your customers to fall in love with you, you will find that overcoming objections will be a walk in the park.
Having the combination of routine, curated expectations, and a strong mindfulness practice is the key to being mentally prepared for difficult conversations. If you are prepared, you will be able to maintain a “safe space” while having crucial conversations with customers.
Car Sales Career Step 3: Mastering Your Pipeline
Ah, the most crucial difference between a great salesperson and a superstar: using proper follow-up.
what you need if you don’t have good follow-up
Build templates that solidify your processes. The follow-up email after phone call sales template is an underutilized tool to spur sales.
Use them to:
Protect against memory failure from customer’s “fight or flight reflex”
Revisit strong rapport building from the call
Allow for easy continuation of the conversation
Car Sales Career Step 4: Transitioning To Internet Sales
You need to learn that people online have a hard time trusting others.
I learned a valuable lesson though, which is pretty simple: The Internet, combined with stress, makes trusting others difficult.
Why should I expect my customers, who are shopping online, trying not to get taken advantage of, to trust me off the bat. I didn’t trust doctors that were trying to help me!
So that’s the thing. Most of us have some form of this internet over confidence. We disregard people who know in favor for popular opinion and anecdote. We read sources and then figure ourselves experts.
After you’ve learned the market and upped your game, you need to start focusing on your efficiency. Key to this? Working within your CRM and mastering your templates and analytics.
Car Sales Career Step 5: Managing a BDC
Calm down; this is where it gets complicated. You are now managing employees that are probably hourly plus bonus. They think differently, work more standard hours, and need to be hired and trained with grace.
I get it. Life at the dealer can be overwhelming. It can also be fantastic. It tends to fluctuate season to season, day-to-day. If it’s been a few months and you want a change, try watching my interview with my friend who left car sales for technology sales for another option.
Put together an hour plus interview with a good friend of mine about the process of leaving car sales for a job in tech sales. I think there are some good tidbits here if you are interested in learning about life after car sales (and the opportunities that car sales can open up).
Discussions revolving around sales training topics are generally pretty boring. The advice given to help train your sales team is tried and true, but boring and flat. We all need excitement when learning something new. We need the promise of success to incite us to work harder and evolve.
“Common Sales Objections And Rebuttals: On The Lot” is the following article, sparked by a conversation about my previous article “Car Sales Tips: Overcoming Objections“.
When I posted that article, some discussion emerged on Reddit about the viability and usefulness of the information.
Although some people found value in the article (my ultimate goal!), I was met with a lot of constructive feedback. The crux of the issue was the overall “basic” nature of the content, combined with the fact that the objections covered were all focused on the final pricing negotiation.
It seems that people want more in-depth information, focused not just on the final pricing negotiation, but on the steps that lead to it. The logic being that, if handled correctly, the proper treatment of the customer will lead to a smoother transaction overall. I agreed, so I set out to write this article.
I took a slightly different tact that I generally do, deciding to preemptively spur a discussion on Reddit (my favorite forum site), about “on the lot” objections.
