Doyler

I just got a new job at Mercedes-Benz in Perth and was wanting to know. What are traits of a good dealer to you? Lets you walk around a bit before being approached? Approach straight away? Does throwing in stuff for free like floormatts etc without being asked make a big difference?

Azn_C300

I prefer to be left to walk, but have the dealer within calling distance for when I'm ready. However, depending on how your dealerships handles things, you might have to be a bit aggressive to make sure no other dealer swoops in and takes your client.

And yes, free stuff always helps.

Carsy

1 Know your product.
2. Know your product.
3. Know your product.
4.Quitely confident.
4. Not pushy.
5. Size up the client & understand his wants & satisfy them.

Below is our buying experience of our first MB:-

We have been Peugeot family for the last 30 years & were not known to the dealer. We had done some homework on the model & walked in off the street & asked if they had a diesel C 204 220 CDI to test drive. We were shown the vehicle & allowed to test drive for about 20 minutes in town, highway & rough road conditions with the salesman in the back seat. I was not convinced about the ride quality & whether the ground clearance was enough for our country track conditions & left the dealership with a quote.

The salesman rang a few days later & enquired whether we had made any decision.I told him again my concerns about ground clearance & ride quality again & we agreed to pick up the car on a Friday afternoon ,take it home, ( about 50km away) check whether the car bottomed on the track & return it sometime Saturday morning!! . It passed the clearance check ( 130 mm ground clearance) & we were able to become familiar with the vehicle which included raising it to inspect the suspension tailshaft, removing covers to view engine ect., driving it in our own conditions & obtaining a good idea on fuel consumption.We returned it saying that the ground clearance was sufficient but the ride & road noise left us undecided.The car had "upgraded" 45 aspect low profile tyres & not the standard 55 aspect.

Another few days passed & the salesman rang again enquiring . He had tried unsuccessfully to change the wheels & tyres to standard form at the dealership & now asked whether he could bring another vehicle out to us with standard wheels & tyres for us to test drive. We suggested that we could visit him instead but he was adamant & came out the next day . My wife & I both drove the vehicle & found the ride more supple & the road noise acceptable.On enquiry we found out that the salesman had rung Mercedes in Sydney & found that a suitable vehicle was being transported further up the coast. He organised to have it dropped off at a depot an hour away & had picked it up & drove it down to us. We signed the order that day & have enjoyed our purchase ever since.

I was impressed with the salesmans persistance & the service managers detailed information on technical aspects & pricing of spares.I wonder how often this would happen elsewhere ?.In 1979 we were allowed to take our 504 Peugeot home overnight also & bought it the next day !! I do not know whether the old 504 likes sitting next to the new Merc in the shed !.

Doyler

Thanks so far guys all this stuff really helps. I wanna do well for myself, obviously, but more importantly I want to establish a good reputation and people willing to refer people to me as possible clients.

Any more tips from your previous experiences is really appreciated.

EDIT: Even if you guys could tell me what the main thing that attracted you to buying a C Klass (what I would be selling most, I presume).

AMGTTV8

which store do you work at?

C300Sport

Wow, that is pretty impressive.

Doyler

Well I havn't started yet (Wednesday 6th May) as I have to see out my notice at my current employer but I will be working at Westpoint Star in Perth, Western Australia.

AMGTTV8

Best of luck!

Starting with a good attitude is always the best place to start!

First time in the auto-sales industry?

flagman

Agree with Carsy, know your product inside and out.

I like to thoroughly research a product before going in to any retail establishment. Many times, by the time I actually see the product and talk to a sales person, I find I know as much or more about the product than the salesperson does. Often I find them telling me something that I know to be wrong, or in some cases plainly B.S. That really turns me off.

Be honest with your customers, don't be pushy or arrogant, go the extra mile to get the sale, and it will pay off in the long run.

Good luck!

lx Raven xl

1. Know the product.
2. Know the product
3. know the product.
4. Explain options that you think might intrest the buyer. Better yet ask what exactly he looks for in a ride and present the options to the client accordingly. Some people wants sporty drive some like comfort and some like loads of gagets and looks.

Its best to get your client the car he wants for a test drive. This is a must. This is what sold me the C as well when I went to the dealer I met the first time. It was sad he left when I was about to buy the car and who ever took his place was horrible and since I liked the car, the decision to buy it was already made , thanks to the first dealer i dealt with.

5. Dont not treat them as idiots and assume they know nothing.




What I like in C:

1. COMAND system ease of use.
2. Blue tooth connectivity with almost any phone.
3. Smooth ride when you want to go easy on it. Sharp when you want to drive aggressive.
4. Standard seats are really comfortable in long journeys.
5. Memory card option (PCMCIA )
6. Standard speakers sound Quality
7. So far any Mercedes Service department was awesome. I know its better than BMW as my brother always has problem at any of service departments of BMW. This also was the case with Mazda I had and my brother had.
8.

Ron Jr

Definitly know your product my salesman was terrible I knew more about the car than him.

Don't complain that you are working on Saturday and it is a fantastic day outside. That really turned me off from anouther saleman (different car brand) and I walked out pissed and didn't buy that car.

As has been said don't assume anything about the customer. For all you know that unshaven guy who needs a haircut and is wearing torn jeans with a Led Zepplin t-shirt and a $15.00 Casio on his wrist could be a multi-millionare.

Doyler

Yeah this will be my first time in the auto-industry. I'm 21 and since I was 15 (still schooling) I have been primarilly in hospitality/hotels. So I have never had a weekend off in years.

I'm really excited yet nervous about starting the job. I love German cars but I know sales can be either fantastic or your selling nothing making nothing.

I have been the last week and the next week trying to memorize car prices and so far I only know the A-Klass 3 door and 2 C-Klass prices. The price memorizing seems to be the biggest hurdle but I'll get there with repetition.

Trust me I know all about arrogant salesmen. I remember when I had a moment of madness thinking of getting a BMW on finance not many of them looked too kindly at me, almost "What are you doing here you little sh*t". Luckily the next day I had decided that I don't want to tie myself up in finance and that was the end of that.

AMGTTV8

dont focus on pricing so much - learn the base prices, but a good way to deal with pricing is to always discuss it at your desk with the price sheets in-front of you and the customer (they like seeing things on paper.) Discussing price ranges is also a good way of not having to memorize every price for every rung of the ladder...we use a menu-based selling structure in any event.

The only thing you should be concerned with right now is knowing the product inside and out...price is negligible in any event since you always end up discounting a car to a certain extent.

With time you will learn prices, ranges of finance/lease payments, but the first thing is selling the car's features - the consumer is already well aware of the price.

Best of luck

Krytech

+1 on everything that has already been said.

knowing your product is huge and cannot be stressed enough. Plus you need to know the competition's product. It also helps to determine the main things the prospective buyer is looking for in a car. Depending on what they are looking for you can tailor your talking points to their specific needs.

Also, I mentioned you need to know your competition. But that doesn't mean just talking down BMW's, Acura's and Infinity's. You can talk about advantages of the MB while giving respect to other brands and it will show that you are not just a fan boy, if you know what I mean. For instance, totally unrelated to auto sales but non the less, I'm a sushi fanatic and when I go to new places you can always tell the servers who don't really know fish will talk about how theirs is the freshest and place x, y and z don't sell as fresh of fish (and I maybe eat at x, y or z weekly) so I'm really going to like their fish better. It's always a turn off. I live in MN (dead center of North America) and 1000 miles from the ocean and probably 4000 miles from any 'fresh' sushi grade fish. Fresh sushi is almost an oxymoron here, it's all flown in daily. I guess my point is your customer may of driven a BMW and really liked it or something and you don't just want to blindly talk down the competition. It is easy for that to sound petty to the customer. End of rant.

Good luck in your new career!