I was a Soldier. A veteran of the U.S. Army after serving our nation for 15 years, honorably. Why did I chose to become a car salesman after this length of time and with my military training/background? I don’t know. I joined the Army in January 2003 with the hopes of changing my life, and change I did. My first job in the Army was Logistics and that position was to ensure all my units supplies were pushed to the right Army customer. Second job was as a Counterintelligence Agent, wow, that’s a big word and has lots of power right? Wrong, our hands were tied and all we could do was laugh at the Clinton scandals knowing they were wrong, but there’s nothing that could be done about it because “GOVERNMENT”. That leads me to where I am sitting now, at my desk in the dealership, asking myself “Why did I become a car salesman?”.
This position is stressful and time consuming with a side of depression. Every day is unknown, meaning you have zero clue as to what customer, if any, you’ll have for the day. Especially with me, I am new to The Villages, Florida and my only family here is my wife, daughter, mother and her husbands family. My clientele base is small right now and how come I decided car sales would be my niche? I thought that being a CI guy meant I knew how to talk to people. Well talk to people isn’t the hard part, it’s trying to determine the best vehicle, payment, price and everything else within the sales world. Everyone is a salesman but not everyone is a buyer, that’s what it seems to me. Customers come onto the lot with the mentality they have to sell their car to us for trade, while we are trying to sell our car to the customer.
Car sales is not an easy business, as a salesman I have to depend on the advertising of my owner in the hopes of generating clientele whereas the most seasoned salesmen have their own customer base and referrals generating their traffic, and that’s in addition to the company adverts. As a soldier, I was told that you have to handle the hands you’re dealt and make your own destiny to shine. I am now trying to do this as a salesman, but my hopes are to generate some of my own business. That’s why I became a car salesman, I love Chevrolet, I love people, and I want to make their car buying experience exciting. This should be an exciting venture, I know there are stereotypes in the car business, but remember that everyone is human, we all make mistakes, and not all salesmen are scum trying to sell you a car.
I want to make that sale, but I also want to make a new family member for the Chevy family. That’s why I became a salesman, but boy is the road rough at first. When I got out in Feb I was sitting around my mothers home and came to the realization that I was bored, bored out of my mind. I needed something to do and fast, because I felt that I was going to go crazy sitting around and doing nothing. I did some research, online and face to face scouting, to realize that George Nahas was the dealership for me. I found out that the salesmen are on a rotational structure in order of the way they come in for work. That’s how their customer interaction is monitored, being the first one in will allow you to work with the first customer on the lot that day. Seems fair to me, so I wrote an email to my current General Manager asking for his time to review my resume and requesting an interview. I sent that email to him on a Wednesday I believe and by Saturday I hadn’t heard anything back from him so I decided to “show up”. Persistence is the key to success I always thought, so why not be annoying and persistent to a future employer, well at least it will show him what kind of car salesman I am willing to be. Looking back now I seem to have been more desperate than professional, but who am I to say and I am not going to ask my GM now lol.
I remember pulling up into the lot and parking in the customer parking area before walking in to see my future. The car salesmen were anxious to greet me, but I noticed that only one person seemed to be interested which meant that this was different. Only one person greeted me and it wasn’t a fight to get to me. The others just continued to chat with each other and I did not feel pressured. I don’t remember who it was but when he found out I only wanted to apply for a job, he was courteous and professional, and walked me to the front desk to get the application. The salesman thanked me and told me that he would get the manager. I was scared and excited at the same time. At first I thought this place had some camaraderie, which it does, but between certain individuals and clicks.
Meeting my GM was extremely stressful and this was mostly due to this meeting/interview was my first since getting out of the Army. He had simple questions, why did I get out? Was it honorable? With five years left why didn’t I stay to retirement? I explained to him why I’d be a great fit and how I believed my skills in CI would benefit his business. You can pretty much say that I bombed the interview because I was so nervous and somehow I got the job. Go figure, who am I to say he was right or wrong? I haven’t even been employed for 90 days yet, but boy has this been one heck of a rollercoaster ride.
My GM immediately tackled my training plan. I was working again and I liked it. I hope to become successful and put more Chevys on the road. Who knows, more to come later I guess.)
