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Read in today's paper that some manufacturers are finally waking up to the fact that women buy cars and have in many cases plenty of knowledge. I'm no lady but I welcome the trend; I have always been suspicious of car salesmen since I got 'done' as a youth, I treat everything they tell me with a pinch of salt until I have verified it one way or another. Being a gallant male of the species I've no doubt a woman trying to sell me a car would fare much better. Terrible chauvinist that I am.
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We dealt with a female when we bought our smart from the local MB dealership - my wife knew more than she did, but the deal was OK and she was pleasant enough, she also had a genuine interest in the car and turned up to a couple of meets of the smart car club.
When looking for my Audi A3 imagine my surpise when I walked in to the showroom and saw her working for the Audi dealership. Told her my requirements and she made a note of all my details. I needed to call in to the dealership for other things after the first visit and we always had a chat - I was a sale waiting to happen, she said she would get me test drives and contact me when she had a demo car for me to try, but none ever materialised. The car was subseqently bought from another dealer and from a male!
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From my experience females in the trade fall into two categories - the very pretty ones who are employed to look nice but can't sell to save their lives and those that give as good as they get and often out sell their male counterparts.
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Widening the 'talent pool' from which car salespeople are recruited to include many more women can only benefit both the motor industry and the customer.
In addition to my day job I work as a 'Mystery Shopper' for various market research agencies. Much of the work involves assessing car dealerships in all market sectors.
The typical car salesman is uneducated, semi-literate, poorly trained, ill informed, disorganised, sexist, unprofessional, dishonest, pushy and, frankly, not very bright.
Typically, I know far more than a salesman about the product he is being paid to sell. When asked detailed product knowledge questions, most salesmen will bluff or lie rather than admit they don't know the answer.
Most salesmen don't return my calls, don't send me the literature or finance proposals I ask for and don't seem interested in selling me a car.
Apologies if this posting annoys any backroomers who sell cars for a living. I'm sure none of the above applies to you.
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There was an article in the Telegraph today about this (accompanied by a photo of Swiss Toni).
All good points, but I rather felt that the lady writing the piece about her buying experience rather shot herself in the foot by giving the impression that she knew next to nothing about cars.
In the same breath, she castigated the (male) salesperson for suggesting that most women bring a man with them when they are buying a car.
Now, I reckon that it is a fair generalisation to say that on the whole men are more interested in cars than women.
That is a generalisation of course, some men have never opened a bonnet in their lives (though how they can then call themselves "men" I don't know...) and some women are brilliant drivers/mechanics etc. However, i am sure that my generalisation is right.
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I've always wondered about mystery shoppers in car dealerships - you've confirmed that they are done (as I imagined) but then why are car salespeople so (sweeping generalisation follows) utterly useless? Doesn't anything ever get done about your feedback?
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The typical car salesman is uneducated, semi-literate, poorly trained, ill informed, disorganised, sexist, unprofessional, dishonest, pushy and, frankly, not very bright.
Uneducated - out of the 6 salesmen we have half have degrees and the other half don't, incidently the 3 non degree holders are the eldest members of staff
Semi-literate - i may not have the neatest handwriting in the world but i am full literate as are my colleagues
Poorly Trained - trained on what? we all have regular sales training and are pretty clued up on the products.
Ill informed - is this not possibly a management issue?
Disorganised - my desk may not be the neatest in the world but i know where everything is and can explain my filing sytem.
Sexist - this is mainly the older members of the profession who often see females as an easy target. Also a lot of sales training targets the female in a couple as she usually has the final say.
Unprofessional - yes we occasionally don't return phone calls but we are often busy too just like people with normal jobs but a customer in the showroom is more pressing (and possibly more profitable) than one on the end of a phone.
Dishonest - Yes there are some dishonest people in the trade but you get that in pretty much any part of life. The salesman may be a bit elusive with actual facts but very few would resort to a downright lie.
Pushy - well he is a salesman who has a crust to earn.
Not very bright - now this is bordering on offensive and i would love to know on what basis you have formed this opinion.
I would like to add that most of the mystery shoppers that visit our delearship can be spotted a mile away and they may as well have a big neon sign above their head - the vast majority act in a totally different way to the way an genuine customer acts.
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Went to Nissan to buy a X-Trail. We were looking for the base model which we were assured by the female sale person was 4WD. It was not!
Ended up with a Touran instead.
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Either sex could have been similarly ill informed if;
He/she was new in the job
He/she isn't interested in the job
He/she had been assured but his/her sales manager that it was 4 wheel drive.
I see no conclusive evidence that the sex of the sales person had anything to do with the misinformation you recieved.
H
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Semi-literate - i may not have the neatest handwriting in the world but i am full literate as are my colleagues
Or do you mean "I am fully literat" or was it meant to be a joke?
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Mrs V always surprised our customers, at how good her knoledge was, of the vans we sold.
& local Alfa dealer in Hitchin, has a first class lady on their team. Product awareness, customer handling & showroom manner makes plenty of guys look like trainees!
VB
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>Or do you mean "I am fully literat" or was it meant to be a joke?>
Pedant mode on:
I doubt if many people or indeed if anyone could be classed as "fully literate". Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that one has a high level of literacy
Pedant mode off!
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Uneducated - out of the 6 salesmen we have half havedegrees and the other half don't
I have often wondered what happened to the 3 Degrees after their singing career ended. Some end up in panto....but others in car sales eh?
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...anyone else want to pick apart BH's post:)
Go on, you lot know a good bandwagon when you see one!
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Blue H,
You are obviously a professional and post much good stuff here. If my comments offended, I'm sorry. I concede that 'not very bright' was inappropriate.
My posting was an honest, if deliberately provocatively phrased, view based on several years mystery shopping experience.
Mostly, I assess branches of the national dealership chains, (eg Vardy, Pendragon etc) rather than independents. Some are excellent; they know their stuff, are honest, helpful and - most importantly not pushy.
Considering the value of the products being sold, however, the standard is often shockingly poor. Lack of product knowledge is endemic. My favourite question at VAG dealerships is 'What does PD mean?' Fewer than 20% of sales staff can explain Pumpe-Duse unit injectors adequately. These Muppets are selling £25k Audis!
Another favourite is 'Can the (CRV/Rav4/any soft-roader) safely tow a two-horse box?'. You would not believe how many salesmen will choose to blatantly lie rather than admit the car isn't suitable.
Sometimes I ask about forthcoming models. Again many salesmen will simply lie rather than tell me that the car in his showroom will soon be replaced. In the last month a MINI salesman has told me with a straight face that there are 'no plans for a new model'. I think it's the fact that the assume i am stupid that annoys me most.
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To further defend B.H. I posted a question last month about my brothers Sat Nav on his Toyota and B.H. provided spot on info about my question with a bit of extra information thrown in, free.
So there.
Reggie
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B.H. I believe works at a Toyota dealership, I believe.
Reggie
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There was no deliberate attack on BH. Some views were expressed on the calibre of some sales staff working in dealerships which in hindsight went off topic a bit. I was watching this thread closely so I was glad when Bradgate posted as he did.
Bradgate's post was a well timed acknowledgement that, as in any business, there are both good and bad.
Hugo - BR Moderator
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Widening the 'talent pool' from which car salespeople are recruited to include many more women can only benefit both the motor industry and the customer. In addition to my day job I work as a 'Mystery Shopper' for various market research agencies. Much of the work involves assessing car dealerships in all market sectors. The typical car salesman is uneducated, semi-literate, poorly trained, ill informed, disorganised, sexist, unprofessional, dishonest, pushy and, frankly, not very bright. Typically, I know far more than a salesman about the product he is being paid to sell. When asked detailed product knowledge questions, most salesmen will bluff or lie rather than admit they don't know the answer. Most salesmen don't return my calls, don't send me the literature or finance proposals I ask for and don't seem interested in selling me a car. Apologies if this posting annoys any backroomers who sell cars for a living. I'm sure none of the above applies to you.
Whilst I agree with your general sentiments, I do think you can be over generalising a tad here.
I am in sales in the technology industry, and observe many different types of sales people ranginf from ones you describe above, to genuine, hardworking and in some cases very well qualified sorts. The fact is, that only the decent, intelligent and very hardworking sales people stand the true test of time.
The thicko, ignoramus sexist louts end up back in the gutter !
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I'm sure that the quality of the dealers contributes considerably to the high places that Toyota (including Lexus), Honda and Skoda consistently get in the JD Power and Auto Express annual surveys.
I very happily had seven Renaults in a row, largely through the excellence of the dealer (Cross Roads in Oxfordshire). They didn't often go wrong over high mileages, but anything that did was put right first time every time.
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