Sick and Tired of salesmen being dumb salesmen

[CamaroFan1]

Ron-

I think that it is great that you took the training seriously. I hope that your dealership puts all the Camaro sales through you, so you make all the comission.

I think dealers should make the several of the salespeople go through this program. If they don't then they should only be allowed to sell Aveo's and Malibu's.

[pruettfan]

I have the sales guide that GM gave to its sales persons. It is pretty clear that if someone is an enthusisist they likely know everything there is to know about the car and have an understanding of the history of the car and its development. For these customers the guide tells them to pretty much shut up. I would quote it but because it is an internal document I don't want to cause any problems.

[wullger]

to Ron! Always nice to see someone who is passionate about what they do, no matter what field it's in. Your customers will thank you!

[NYG71]

Originally Posted by ohioballer

Im so sick and tired of listening to dumb salemen try and make an attempt as selling these camaros with there stylish antics. Not only are they wrong on their information but yet look stupid in their attempt at it. Wether these be floor salesman at a dealership or some bad attempt online at youtube on behalf of their dealerships. Maybe, its just that i know most of the information. Because ive done my homework and know this car inside and out (thankscamaro5), and these guys dont do their research and get all the specs and most the information is wrong.

On a personal note ive walked into dealerships being interested in buying a Camaro and asking questions to the salesman at hand. Just too hear and see what all they know. Testing them on their knowledge of this car and yet been given completly wrong answers. Not only were their numbers wrong but they werent given out details that were crucial to know when buying a car.


Feel free to comment if you feel the same way or........ dont
No i am not a salesman. Just another 2010 camaro owner

Man, you speak the truth...

I just got back from a Dealer in Chantilly, VA about 2 hours ago when I heard this dealership had one. I was freakin out since I have not laid eyes on one in person. Well I showed up and I literally was getting butterflies as I walked into the showroom. BAM!! There she was in her splendor. A Black 1LT, grey cloth, auto, with a sunroof. Not what I wanted but it will do till I get my baby.

It wasn't even 5 seconds when a salesman approached me. We exchanged names and junk then we got into the nitty gritty. At that moment I had to disappoint him in saying that I already have one on order. He didn't know how to quite take it but I can tell his manager standing off in the distance was listening, so the salesmen proceeded to do his job by offering it to me. I kindly declined. Then he stated "Well...I always get people coming in and asking for it." I said to myself “You think?”

We talked some more. I decided to test his knowledge and asked him about the IOM front fascia issue that has been well reported. It was as if I was talking to a vegetable...he actually said nothing. Nothing. I had to ask him if the car was an RS to break up the awkward silence knowing full well that it wasn't.

After a couple of minutes with him he also discloses that they are selling this car 10k over MSRP, which was priced at 27,500. I just looked at him nodded just to be polite but at the same time saying to myself "Dude...are you seriously on crack?" That will never sell. In fact that thing is destined to be a demo car at that price.

I then gave him my workbench number just to let him know that I wasn't kidding around in getting one. He tried to look it up but wasn’t able to. Probably didn’t know what a mouse and keyboard was. I then told him if you have an 2SS/RS IOM I'll buy it right now but to no avail he didn't have one but wanted me to buy this one. Nonetheless, I sat in it and what an awesome feeling. I walked out shaking the guy’s hand and didn't look back. The guy was nice but not really “plugged in” as far as his knowledge was about this car. He knew enough to get by. So that's how it pretty much ended. Here are pictures....

[Fogey]

There are salesman of almost any product that have their heads up their behinds. But think about this. You are selling at a Chevy dealership and you have no idea whether the next customer will be wanting a truck or a car, a sporty car or basic transportation, a big car a small car? So you need to know at least a little about them all. But to expect a salesman to know everything about every car is too much.
I will admit that when the car is a "specialty item", Corvette, Camaro, it is to the salesman's advantage to do his/her homework. Some dealerships (VW in my experience) have specialty guys to sell specialty cars. I don't know how the commission gets split but I do know that the guy that delivers you to the specialist gets a taste.
I'm going to a dealer tomorrow to order my Camaro from a dealer where I had a truly poor salesman. I called the dealer and told them, without too harsh of criticism, that I would order a car but needed "special assistance". I think he got the message as I got a call from a very knowledable lady who I will be sitting down with tomorrow.

[Super Sport]

Originally Posted by Fogey

There are salesman of almost any product that have their heads up their behinds. But think about this. You are selling at a Chevy dealership and you have no idea whether the next customer will be wanting a truck or a car, a sporty car or basic transportation, a big car a small car? So you need to know at least a little about them all. But to expect a salesman to know everything about every car is too much.
I will admit that when the car is a "specialty item", Corvette, Camaro, it is to the salesman's advantage to do his/her homework. Some dealerships (VW in my experience) have specialty guys to sell specialty cars. I don't know how the commission gets split but I do know that the guy that delivers you to the specialist gets a taste.
I'm going to a dealer tomorrow to order my Camaro from a dealer where I had a truly poor salesman. I called the dealer and told them, without too harsh of criticism, that I would order a car but needed "special assistance". I think he got the message as I got a call from a very knowledable lady who I will be sitting down with tomorrow.

Indeed... my local VW dealer has an in-house Porsche specialist.

[BrianGriffin78]

When I picked up my car, the dealer sat down with me in the car and said to me. I honestly don't know everything about this car because it is brand new. My car was the first delivery after their show car. At least he was honest with me, and did not pretend he knew what he was talking about. It was all good because I did all the homework on this car months ago.

I still want to drive my Camaro around the other dealership who told me I will be waiting 3 to 4 months for this car once it's been built. My car was built 05/07 and it was delivered 05/19 hardly 3 months there. They had no clue, so glad I did not deal with them.

[camaro noob]

Rock on to anyone who is passionate about selling the Camaro and giving great customer service at the the same time. I've actually dealt with both informed and clueless salesmen. The first time I saw one in person, a yellow 2LT, I called up my boss. Her soon to be husband works at the dealership and was just as obsessed with the car as me. Great guy, very nice, very educated in the car. I wasn't able to sit in it cuz it was already sold but he was still nice enough to bring the keys and unlock it for me so I could at least get a look inside and get a sniff of the new car smell. Dude...CAR-GASM

The second time I went back, a new guy came out and BOOM started going off on the direct-inject and 400+ hp. I was the one that had to point out that we were looking at a 2LT, not an SS. How sad is that when the costomer has to correct the dealer on something that obvious? What if I didn't do prior research? I would have believed all the SS numbers he was throwing at me. I really hope whoever bought that car didn't meet that second dude I talked to. They will prolly be a little upset if they did. 400+ for $2500-ish?!?!?

What really bothers me is how they manipulate facts to sell sell sell RIGHT NOW. First guy told me there was only 3 sold, and one last position to fill. If I wanted a 2010, I would need to fill that order right away, or wait till the 2011 model comes out. Second guy told me that there were 5 sold, and ONE LAST position to fill. If I wanted a 2010, I would need to fill that one RIGHT AWAY, or wait till 2011's came out next summer. When I asked the first guy why, he told me how GM just didn't have enough metel to make enough. The second guy said that GM wanted to keep the 2010's a special edition, so they purposely aren't making a lot. Then I come to this site and read how the factory will be doing some overtime and will try to bump their monthly prodution numbers up due to demand...

Double-you-tee-eff. I understand that dealers need to sell, and need to get people to want to buy right now. It still bothers me that it's hard to find a completly honest one. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do I guess. No disrespect to my boss's future husband to be. He's still really cool, and I owe him for giving me my first and only car-gasm.

[WestsideReaper]

I'm very sorry to hear that, I mean sure most of them can be jerks or @**wholes but I mean hey they have to put food on the table, what do you expect sometimes. Im lucky mine has been so nice. Hes been giving me updates and taking care of me, there have been people that come in and bribe him but he has never caved in so im just fortunately for me Im good. Its really hard to find an honest one that knows what hes talking about and what hes doing but thats just how things are sometimes so hey what can you do?

[FenwickHockey65]

This must be why people end up dragging me to their dealers when they buy new cars...

[Kvapil28]

I did all of our Camaro training online and read all the books GM sent us and came to Camaro 5 to learn as much about the Camaro as I can so I don't look like a dumb ass to my customers. It's very important to me that I know more than my customers about this car. Thay have been waiting for this car since 2002 it the least a dealer can for the customer is knock there socks off when the come in to get info on this car. It's not just a car it the all new 2010 Camaro. THE BIG DOG IS BACK AND WE SHOULD BE PROUND OF IT.

[CamaroScotty]

Originally Posted by MacMulkin

There WAS training on the Camaro available to ALL Sales people ..BUT they had to do some "homework" first. 1. They had to do on-line training (which I did) 2. They had to take a knowledge test and score at least 80% ( which I did and scored 92%-it was 40 questions about the Camaro from the on-line training) 3. They had the "schedule" themselves for the training (which I did and went to). As for the REST of the delaership - well not ONE other person went and it was available to all of them.

And the MAIN reason is knowledge of the product. Yes it takes time, but the info is there. I am lucky becuase I ONLY have to do Vettes and Camaros, so I don't have to learn about all the other vehicles at my dealership.

Tommy Jr and I took over ALL Camaro sales because only we do the Vettes and we felt it was time the Camaro people were treated like Vette people.

Tommy Jr also took the on-line training but could not make the live presentation. BUT in reality, the "live" presentation was not that good. There was WAY better info in the on-line training. Most of the "live" stuff was good in that we actually got to see a real Camaro, but the marketing people seem to be a litte "off" in their strategy.

At 99% of dealerships the guy selling Cobalts, Aveos, Silverados, Exuinox, Impalas, Malibus, ect is the same guy selling Camaros and even Corvettes.

We do it the RIGHT way at MacMulkin Chevrolet and I KNOW Scotty does it the RIGHT wat at Newman Chevrolet and I KNOW Eric does it the right way at Classic Chevrolet. Other than that I can't answer for.

By the way if anyone feels they know so much about Camaros they should ask the OWNER about becoming their local dealerships CAMARO expert!! Don't take that wrong becuase that was how I started in the business. I knew WAY more than just about everyone at my local delaership about Corvettes. So I talked to the owner and now I'm their Corvette and Camaro "expert." And I LOVE the JOB!! I only do it part time but you can get a whole different perspective about the car industry once you are on the inside.

Ron

Great Post Ron - it was deserving of a reply.

[Kvapil28]

YUP