Candace Heckman wrote in the Seattle P-I about Edmonds.com journalist Phillip Reed, who went "undercover" for three months becoming a car salesman. Reed wanted to gain insight into the art of dealmaking and learn more about the behavior of auto salespeople.
Since my better half is a sales professional in the auto industry - and makes his living by helping people get involved and excited about new vehicles - I was most interested in this article. Edmunds has documented the series here
Reed's biggest takeaway from his 90 day stint was:
"I don't think I'll ever be able to make sweeping generalizations as I once did...." "I knew a lot of salesmen whose skills I admired. It's a tough life - you live or die by your ability to sell dreams..."
excellent articles.
Being employed in the industry I could relate all to well to many of the people, customers, salesmen and managers.Like any sales professional you must be prepared to put in the time to master your craft. People skills and product knowledge don't simply appear. I am still amazed at the number of new people coming into the business who think the job is an easy one. The only route to success is one of hard work and dedication with the intnet to form a relationship with your customers. I would like to see the author do a followup in 6 months and see just how many of these people are still around.
Posted by: Peter | June 29, 2004 at 07:45 PM