>
Job Highlight: Automobile Salesperson
Andrea Langworthy
The Journey
Patty Burton, sales and leasing representative at Burnsville Toyota says, “Selling hybrid cars is like selling any other automobile. Really, you’re just selling yourself.”
Burton ’s career choices have all been customer service oriented, including her first jobs during high school.
“I worked 40 hours a week all summer for fifteen dollars a week, watching kids and keeping house.” After graduation, she worked as a long-distance telephone operator, another customer-focused field.
Living in Phoenix when her children were young, Burton studied real estate but accepted an offer to work part-time as a grocery store cashier.
“Within a year it was full-time, then management and a salary. But I knew I wanted a job with compensation for effort. I was dating a guy who sold cars and listened to the stories he and his friends told about the job,” she remembers.
“When I decided to move to Minnesota, I knew I was going to be in sales because it left me open to make as much as I could,” she recalls. “I didn’t want a cap on the amount of money I made. I was tired of being salaried and wanted to get paid for my efforts.”
In Minnesota, she looked up people her Phoenix friend knew and was encouraged to sell GMC trucks.
“What do I know about lifting hoods and explaining engines?” she asked at the time, but was told that wasn’t important.
“It was a tough way to get started. Everyone wanted to know about gear ratios and axles.”
Six months later, she left when the Toyota dealership down the block from the GMC dealership recruited her. “That was 1990 or 1991, when I broke in,” she says, of her introduction to Toyotas.
“I was first place in the state one year,” she says. “Toyotas are easy to sell.”
After five or six years, she moved to another Toyota dealership but left after a year. Following that Burton sold Xcel long distance services until a former co-worker convinced her to come to Burnsville Toyota where she’s been for 11 and a half years.
“It gets in your blood,” she said of her decision to go back in the car business.
Burton describes her job like this.
“Sell, sell, sell from the sales process in the beginning, up to the delivery at the end.” The required tour of the facility isn’t always necessary because, “Most of my business involves repeat customers.”
She does follow-up after the sale to make certain the customer is happy. “I tell my customers, ‘I am always here. If you have a problem, I’m here to take care of you.’ If a customer is upset about something, say in service, I march down there with them to get it taken care of.”
“The only goal is to have happy customers. Eighty to eighty-five percent of my business is repeat and referral customers.”
A typical day involves making follow-up telephone calls, sending out mailings and taking phone calls from prospective customers. In a face-to-face visit, she and the customer decide which vehicle best suits his needs. She demonstrates features and takes the customer on a test drive. She has the customer’s trade-in appraised by the used car manager and offers finance options so the customer can make an informed decision.
Newer salespeople generally have a few more steps in the process.
“They have to run their deals by the sales management desk from start to finish,” Burton explains, “but I’ve been here long enough that I don’t require that depth of assistance.”
Most of Burton’s sales are leases which mean intelligently explaining the difference between leasing and purchasing.
“I love people. I love meeting people,” says Burton. “I have customers from 1991 who buy from me now. It’s all about relationships.”
A woman from Thief River Falls shops with Burton by telephone now. Driving down the night before she picks up her new car, she stays at Burton’s house.
“She bought the first car from me in 1993,” Burton remembers, “and she just bought her fifth, a Camry hybrid. And her sister is driving her second car purchased from me and her niece bought one from me a year ago.”
Providing excellent customer service requires long hours, one unappealing aspect of the job. Burton is scheduled to work 45 hours a week. In reality, “I spend my life there but that is what it takes to be successful. You cater to the customer and their convenience.”
Although, she adds, “I never get out on time but the busier you are, the better it is. Once you’ve established your business, it only gets easier.”
Burton measures her success in the number of vehicles she sells and also her Customer Satisfaction Index rating ( CSI), a number monitored by the dealership and Toyota. Burnsville Toyota consistently wins the President’s Award from Toyota and the dealership’s CSI scores play a role in that honor.
“There’s no on-the-job training but we are required to attend off-site Toyota training, like ride and drives, on new product,” Burton says.
This includes competitive brand training. Qualification for the elite sales society requires selling a specified number of vehicles per year, attendance at all training sessions, maintaining a high CSI rating and taking computer-generated product knowledge tests.
Previous work experiences have proven valuable to Burton, especially learning to talk to people.
“I also learned to always be prepared,” she recalls. “And organizational skills.”
“I do things on an even keel all the way,” she says. “I would never take a customer to the cleaners. I tell them, ‘I don’t know if you want to negotiate or if you want me to give you the best price possible right away. You tell me how you want to do it.’ ”
“This is not a typical job,” she says. “You can be fired at any moment or leave at any moment and you never give notice.”
“The perception people have [of car salespeople] is scary.”
High pressure tactics are not for Burton.
“When you see ‘old school’ salespeople, it’s scary,” she admits. “I tell my customers if this can’t be a happy experience for you, we don’t have to do it. It’s supposed to be fun, a pleasant experience.”
When women first broke into the business, they encountered customer resistance, but this has changed.
“Being a woman is now an advantage,” Burton says. “Customers love dealing with women. We have a lot of female decision makers and buyers.”
Burton believes Burnsville Toyota offers a female-friendly environment. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), nationally, women make up about seven percent of the sales force.
“The women selling cars here do very well,” she reports with a smile.
The Rewards
Dealership pay plans vary. Some offer a base salary plus unit bonuses. Others offer a specified commission per unit plus bonuses for reaching certain levels (eight, twelve, fifteen units, for example).
Burnsville Toyota has no salary guarantee, although salespeople are given a draw against future commissions. Earnings are based on the amount of profit.
“Basically, one hundred percent commission,” says Burton.
Burton also earns unit bonuses at various levels, and bonuses for selling after-market products or when a customer finances through the dealership.
Response to an NADA survey of automobile dealerships in the West North Central zone (which includes Minnesota) indicates the salary of new and used car salespeople is between $31,700 and $89, 500. Salespeople like Burton, who have sold the same brand for 18 years and have stayed in the same location for more than 11 years, can be expected to earn more than the average amount.
Some dealerships offer company cars to salespeople and reimburse those who don’t take one. Others, like Burton’s employer, do neither. While service employees at her dealership are members of a union, there is no union for sales people. Burton’s employer offers health and dental insurance as well as a 401k program and they match a portion of the employee contribution.
Of course, rewards aren’t always measured in paychecks or benefits.
“It is awesome when a customer comes back,” Burton says. “whether it’s a be-back - a customer who leaves to shop around and returns to buy a vehicle- , a repeat customer, or a referral from a customer. Or the customer who just stops in to visit. They do it all the time — stop in to have coffee and visit.”
Another sign Burton does her job well was when the dealer asked her to mentor a local high school student who is interested in a sales and marketing career.
Success might also be measured in hugs which Burton gives and receives.
“I get teased so much because I hug people,” she says. “but hugging comes natural to me.”
Your Decision
Considering a job in automobile sales?
“Pick the product you believe in,” Burton advises. “Jumping brands doesn’t pay off. And get ready for the long hours.”
Dealerships are typically open Labor Day, Memorial Day and July 4th but, unlike many states, are not on Sunday.
Burton says, “I truly believe the future of the business is in hybrids. I believe in Toyota because it’s improving every day and Toyota has been good to me.”
Burton doesn’t read car and truck magazines or reports for consumers, but says, “The Toyota Web site is terrific and I read automotive articles in USA Today.”
If you like cars and are concerned about the environment, consider a job selling hybrid vehicles. Not only will you meet new people every day and help them with their car-buying decision, being a professional automobile salesperson might be just the jump start you need to better-than-average earnings and a career that can last a lifetime.
