Want to hear something funny? (Maybe Scary?)

[ShadowsPapa]

He did ask what made you decide on a gladiator over a Tacoma? I’d ask people stuff like that to get their feedback.

Hey, there's something I had not thought about - but having talked to the guy I bought from today I wonder if that's one reason he was talking about what I'd done with my truck.
We were discussing some of the things I've done to it, with it, towed, hauled, pulled a guy's car out of the ditch after our ice storm (using winch) the mpg I'd been getting, how it acted towing and so on.
He said he was going to pass along some of my comments to the other guys. MAYBE he was implying to use my comments in their sales pitches?
He seemed to want to see and hear what I've done with it.

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[NC_Overland]

I never had a salesman. The dealer delivered it to my house and left with my trade.

Thats the best kind..

You had a sales person. The selling was just done when it was delivered. The person who delivered it might have even been your sales person. Splitting hairs I know.

 

[OnlyOne]

You had a sales person. The selling was just done when it was delivered. The person who delivered it might have even been your sales person. Splitting hairs I know.

 

[KX L]

95% of buyers (and probably more) don't need to be informed by their salesperson. They either don't care, or already know what they need to know.

Their job is purely to move units, not be educators. It's only on forums that you find this expectation of salespeople being experts, and usually from people who bought a niche submodel.

No, no, and no. Obviously I disagree . I think your percentages are way off. For actual buyers, I'd say probably ten percent know exactly what they want. I'd estimate 70 percent know the model they want, Jeep Wrangler, but have no clue at all about what model is going to best fit the customers expected usage. Ten percent have brand loyalty and intend to buy a Jeep product but the sales person has a huge opportunity to make a sale by getting them a vehicle they'll be happy in. The final 10 percent are just looking. But 100 percent of the people coming in want to be welcomed [I can't believe how many sales personnel make the prospective buyer come find them] and talked to by someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

In order to move more units [the point of selling something is to sell as many of the something as you can] then you absolutely need to know all about the different product lines. More importantly you need to know the differences between the models in a project line. By asking the prospective buyer what they want out of the vehicle you can put them in the right one for them---a guy who knows nothing can't do this---so buyers walk away---just like every single post above has mentioned if they get a clueless sales person. You have no opportunity to sell if the buyer leaves.

Also mentioned above is that Stellantis lets?!? an interested salesman PAY for training on the vehicles. Any decent dealership would offer to pay for the training after observing the guy for a month or two.

As a Harley trained mechanic, I know that you aren't on the sales floor as a certified seller unless you have passed the classes on the various models. And you can't take the classes until you've been hired. I took some of the classes and they certainly aren't easy. And until you pass with an 80% you have to keep retaking them---and each test has some different questions and the pattern of the questions is never the same.

A sales guy like you have described is not interested in the customer and so will spend all their time trying to get the customer to buy a rubicon when all they really need or want is the base sport model. Sure it may mean a higher commission---but the fact he or she is selling much less vehicles ought to clue to them in to why they have the wrong approach. As for it being a transitory job, a guy treating it like that and being unwilling to learn is the same guy who has lots of transitory jobs. Not to mention the fact there is a lot of time to study while on the clock.

The reasons to hate dealerships are many but your example of a salesman is definitely one of them.

 

[Sonoran_Mohavey]

Nothing new, when I bought my Audi the "sales" guy tried telling me the car had WIFI (it didn't) and that it didn't have XM, which it did. My gladiator was pretty much the only dealership I've ever dealt with that actually had any idea what they were selling

 

[ShadowsPapa]

But 100 percent of the people coming in want to be welcomed [I can't believe how many sales personnel make the prospective buyer come find them] and talked to by someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

In order to move more units [the point of selling something is to sell as many of the something as you can] then you absolutely need to know all about the different product lines. More importantly you need to know the differences between the models in a project line. By asking the prospective buyer what they want out of the vehicle you can put them in the right one for them---a guy who knows nothing can't do this---so buyers walk away---just like every single post above has mentioned if they get a clueless sales person. You have no opportunity to sell if the buyer leaves.

Spot-on.
I've been in retail - and one reason our store was so successful, even beating SBA expectations and banker expectations, was my wife's insistence that every person that walked in get greeted in a friendly manner - let then know that you know they are there and that you have nothing more important to do that help them when they need it as they need it.
We had more customer walk in and tell us they were never going to shop at the store 2 blocks away (selling some of the same stuff) because they could walk in, spend 10 minutes, and leave, and not a single person in the store would acknowledge them or greet them.
Then there are the others that hound - few like that, either.
But I've helped enough people buy cars, been in dealerships with my sons (more than once) and spent enough time (unfortunately) in the dealerships to observe and listen. People think they know, but they don't. It's one reason the guy I bought from went to classes.
I took sales classes (I hate sales so didn't spend any real time doing it) and the thing that was drilled into us was that we were there to solve problems. Customer has a problem, you help them find the answer to the problem - the correct answer for that individual. You sell solutions to customers with needs/problems.
People walk in clueless.
I think many Jeep people see it the other way because Jeep people on forums are more educated than those shopping for vehicles. So the views of forum people will be skewed. The average Jeep buyer, even Gladiator buyer and owner, isn't on a forum.
Hey, I want to buy a Jeep, Jeeps are cool - sell me a Jeep........ and the wrong sales person will sell them the wrong Jeep and customer won't be happy.
That's how most car buyers are.
Truck sales people really had a job to do after about 2000 or 2010 because trucks changed so much from the 90s and earlier. You no longer "needed" a 3/4 ton truck to pull that load. But customers came in insisting they NEEDED a 3/4 ton truck. I spent a lot of time speaking with the very well educated sales guy I bought my 2011 from and he and his peers were talking about how things had changed and most people walking in wanted the totally wrong truck.

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