Its June the 20th and thus far this month I've sold only four vehicles.

I need to reach nine units this month to even out my average at eight. If I sell only four then I need to sell fourteen next month. Everyday I sweat it out to see if I can squeeze a sale out of thin air. As a new car salesman there is no such thing as repeat business. Old-timers have hundreds or thousands of customers to work for repeat business. Me? I have to depend on the kindness of strangers walking in the dealership each day. Of course you have to fight for the fresh ups with all the other salesman, new and veteran alike.

Compounding the process is the byzantine method of getting deals into the Finance Office. First, there are only two F&I people in our office to handle the business process. There isn't a clear method of bringing in new deals for them to work--you just have to stand there until they have an open moment so you can see who is ready for a fresh deal. With only two people on this end of the business deal it can take a while to get a word in, especially if one of them is off that day or out to lunch. Today, for example, I waited almost thirty minutes to bring a new deal into the F&I office because we only had one business manager working. He was signing out a customer at the time so I just had to wait my turn. Meanwhile, my new customer is cooling her heels in the showroom as I try and push her deal before the ONLY pair of eyes in the building that can do anything with the paperwork.

You really have no other option to get the process started than to wait for a business manager's time. Sure, they are incredibly busy and they do a hell of a lot of work, but it is ridiculous to make a customer wait a long time just to put the deal in front of a manager.

Again, today I put the deal in the office after a half-hour of waiting. Then I had to wait with the customer for another fifteen minutes before the business manager came out to meet with her. In that time the customer changed her mind about the deal and wanted more for her trade in than we had agreed to earlier. So the business manager turned the deal back over to me without even transmitting the application. I then turned to a sales manager for help in a process we call the T.O. (turn-over) whereby the customer and sales manager talk over the deal in an effort to negotiate their positions. This step usually works in the dealership's favor as there is little room in the deal to move towards the customer's point-of-view.

So then I had to resubmit the whole deal to the business manager again. More waiting. The sales manager cut the customer loose after a few minutes without completing the deal, which means that unless the customer comes back on her own tomorrow I have lost a deal.

Basic Car Salesman Rule #49: Customers who have to wait have time to think about all the reasons why they don't need to buy a car.

Corollary to Rule #49: If a customer leaves the dealership without a deal being signed the same day the chance of them ever seeing your happy face again is practically Zilch.

And people wonder why turn-over is so high in the car sales business.