Posted: 11/16/2025 1:41:53 PM EDT
| After 30 years I'm looking at the next chapter of my life. I've always been interested in car sales and may give that a go. I think I've developed some good people skills over the years and would have that aspect of the job down pretty well. I've also heard that retired cops transition well into car sales. Anyone make this leap or maybe in done sales in the past? Any tips? Is it better to try and get on at a luxury brand (Range Rover, Mercedes, Porsche) with fewer sales or a volume dealer (Kia, Hyundai, etc). I see some places offer straight commission or salary. What's your thought on that. Thx guys. |
| Used to represent car dealers so I’ve seen a fair bit of their business and seen people come and go. If you’re talking dealerships sales, get ready for long hours. It is not a good part time gig. If you are willing to spend your nights and weekends putting those people skills to use, you can make some money. |
You get a $1,000,000,000,000 & you get a trillion$
Joined:
Mar 2008
Posts:
5742
EE: 100% (613)
MI, USA
|
I’ve been in sales for 20+ years, not in automobile sales though. Sales has mostly been good to me, but like everything else, there are ups & downs. You need to ask yourself why you want to get into it, is it for the $ or to keep busy, neither are wrong, you just need to know your why. If you need the money to live, I’d suggest you have a large emergency fund as you may not be making much in the beginning but that could change the longer you do it. If you can get into a luxury brand dealership, I’d suggest that, especially if they offer training, paid training is good because that should mean they are investing in your success. As said above, sales in general isn’t a part time gig, especially if it’s to retail customers. You’ll be working when most other people are not, meaning evenings, weekends and holidays. If you do work weekdays, you’ll spend more time cleaning, prepping and shooting the shit with the other sales guys that are also waiting on people to come in looking for a deal. Also, if you’re straight commission, you’ll always be at the dealership because they don’t loose anything having you there, so you are free labor, see my point above. Not trying to crap on your idea, just telling you how I see it. FWIW, I’m retiring in 2 months and I’m looking for something to do as well, but have no desire to take a sales job, no interest in being the newbie on the team that not only gets all the BS work, but also gets to deal with a manager leaning on me about my sales numbers. Once again, just my $.02 & probably worth just about that. |
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. - Thomas Jefferson
|
Well, how ruthless are you? A big part of your job is convincing people they need a payment larger than what they can really afford. The high end makes tend to only hire people who have had experience and demonstrated success at the low end of the market, unless you know somebody. The other aspect is initiative. I'm looking at used cars right now. Had a sales chick last week who I left my email with as I was interested in their car. I can't get her to follow up with me. The sales manager made the mistake of emailing me his canned not that included "Let me know if there's any reason you're not buying a car from us." I sent him back a searing review of her failure to follow up on my contact. In sales, you need to be "on" 24/7, or you need to make up for it with supreme domain experience, which only works if the sale process is far more complex than simple cars or real estate. So, in car sales, you have to be right on top of every little followup. Watch email and texts constantly. Do you have that capability OP? |
| This is a timely thread. I’m probably done with LE in two years and looking for my next chapter. I’ve been a negotiator and sex crimes investigator for quite a while and have convinced people to do some things they definitely didn’t want to do. I’ve been thinking sales might be a good place to take those skills. |
|
Know a lot of people with retirement gigs, not a one of them was in car sales though. No thanks. Some of those places are the opposite of honest, kind of goes against my nature to BS someone about a car. But then I am the kind of buyer car dealers hate, so maybe it is just me. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
|
Leave a career where everyone lies to you, and then start a second career where you lie to everyone else... Interesting shift in life... I have known a few guys who worked in car sales for a while, and as stated above, they all worked long hours to make decent money. |
| I bought a car a few years ago from supposedly " another brother ff" salesman and he really tried to screw me on the deal. He kept saying because I was a fellow ff he would take care of me. I told him what I was willing to pay and he said no way that price would fly. I spoke with another salesman and got the price I wanted to pay. I thought about doing it but you gotta be able to live with yourself after each sale and no way I could try to hurt the same people I tried to serve/protect. |
Be the change you want in this world.
|
Originally Posted By tac556: Know a lot of people with retirement gigs, not a one of them was in car sales though. No thanks. Some of those places are the opposite of honest, kind of goes against my nature to BS someone about a car. But then I am the kind of buyer car dealers hate, so maybe it is just me. Used to work in the detail department of a dealer. The best salesman there was the low pressure guy who was honest. All of his sales came from word of mouth. He sat in his office while the other salesmen would chase customers. I have written off entire dealerships as a buyer because of a single aggressive salesman or if I felt they had even a hint of dishonesty. Part of what I do now is sales, but it is not my main role. I have flat out told people that they really don’t need to buy a product because what it is replacing could be fixed for 10% of replacement. A good portion thank me for my honesty and buy anyway and many of the others call me back in a year or two to buy from me. |