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Originally Posted by PsychoBen,Dec 8 2005, 12:30 PM
The salesman at the Ira Porsche dealer was pretty cool. In my first time there I had no intention of buying. The sales and I stood there at the lot just chatting away about the BS, S2000 and cars in general for half an hour. The sales was not pushing to sell at all - just a friendly conversation between 2 car guys. He also didn't (nor did he had to) make any BS>S2000 statements. Gave me his card afterward and then I left.
Couple days later I called him up for a test drive. The sales mgr and I could not come to term that night and it appeared the deal was dead. It was already passed their closing time. Nonetheless the sales gave me a friendly, smiling wave as I was leaving in my car. That made me feel I am welcome back if I choose to.
Fews days later, the sales mgr and I restructured the deal and came to term over the phone. The sales evertually "made" the sale and I was happy to give him my business.
Good salesmanship really does go a long way
The difference between your experience at the prosches dealership and the person that visited the Pontaic dealership was the Porsche guy was probably a sales professional. You can't just be any chump off the street to work at a highline manufacturer dealership. Park Place Dallas won't even conisder you unless you've had 3-4 years of sales experience at ONE delaership. Plus you have all those aptitude tests, etc.
The guy from the Pontiac store is probably just some jerk-off who's there because it's a job he can have while looking for another job. GM dealers -especially right now - are probably filled with salespeople that don't have a clue about service or cars. For most "bad" sales consultants their career is just a revolving door, bouncing around from dealership to dealership.
I would never mock someone elses vehicle - even if you pulled up in a solstice - but I'd definitely let you kknow about the adavantages my vehicle has. There's some salses professionals that get it, and most don't. Good luck out there!
Originally Posted by rioyellows2k,Dec 9 2005, 08:48 AM
The difference between your experience at the prosches dealership and the person that visited the Pontaic dealership was the Porsche guy was probably a sales professional. You can't just be any chump off the street to work at a highline manufacturer dealership. Park Place Dallas won't even conisder you unless you've had 3-4 years of sales experience at ONE delaership. Plus you have all those aptitude tests, etc.
The guy from the Pontiac store is probably just some jerk-off who's there because it's a job he can have while looking for another job. GM dealers -especially right now - are probably filled with salespeople that don't have a clue about service or cars. For most "bad" sales consultants their career is just a revolving door, bouncing around from dealership to dealership.
I would never mock someone elses vehicle - even if you pulled up in a solstice - but I'd definitely let you kknow about the adavantages my vehicle has. There's some salses professionals that get it, and most don't. Good luck out there!
I just want to add that even "highline mfr dealership" is not immune to shitty salesmen. I came across a poor sales and a rude sale mgr in another Porsche dealership. The sales mgr did not introduce himself to me nor did he look in my general direction in the few words he uttered to me. That's when I have already made my intention clear that I was ready to buy pending negotiation. His body language was very clear that I was an unwanted pest to him. I was one of only two customers on the floor at the time; the other guy was just browsing.
Anway, I was just making a point that salemanship can easily make or break a sale. The Solstice guy doesn't how wrong he was in belittling potential customer's car. That put the customer on a defensive mode right away.
I saw both the Solstice and it's sister, the Saturn Sky, at the Denver Auto Show and think that the Solstice is the ugly sister. The Sky is very good looking but still underpowered and fret with GM's usual lousy build quality. Why else is GM shutting down plants, laying off 30,000 people and lying out of their asses just to try to make a sale.
Originally Posted by PsychoBen,Dec 9 2005, 09:38 AM
I just want to add that even "highline mfr dealership" is not immune to shitty salesmen. I came across a poor sales and a rude sale mgr in another Porsche dealership. The sales mgr did not introduce himself to me nor did he look in my general direction in the few words he uttered to me. That's when I have already made my intention clear that I was ready to buy pending negotiation. His body language was very clear that I was an unwanted pest to him. I was one of only two customers on the floor at the time; the other guy was just browsing.
Anway, I was just making a point that salemanship can easily make or break a sale. The Solstice guy doesn't how wrong he was in belittling potential customer's car. That put the customer on a defensive mode right away.
I had a similar experience at Lotus of Atlanta. I went to go put my deposit down when I heard the Elise was coming to the states. Atlanta is the home base for Lotus in North America and the dealership I was at was also a Lambo dealer. I showed up with a friend of mine who was driving a ford ranger at the time. I walked in an politely said I wanted to speak to someone about the Elise (after waiting around for a while). The receptionist paged the sales guy for Lotus and I waited at the front. As I was waiting, two other salespeople snickered behind me and said "These idiots think they can afford a Lotus." I didn't hear them at first, but my friend pointed it out later. It burned me up at the time and if I hadn't wanted that car so bad back then, I would have made a big to do on the showroom. The guy that worked with me was very professional though.
I eventually got tired of waiting and bought an S. Haven't looked back since.
Salesmen are quite the fools, from what I've noticed, its the people who appear to not be wealthy who are the ones who truely are able to afford the nicer things in life. I think the first mistake that many dealerships make is passing judgement before even asking questions. I was semi interested in the SRT-4 before finally deciding on the S but the salesman totally killed that. He was spitting nothing but BS lines at me about limited production and not allowing test drives even though they had a demo model sitting there with 200-some miles on it. Too bad for him, good for me
...two other salespeople snickered behind me and said "These idiots think they can afford a Lotus."
It kills me that you have to dress up in an Armani suit or something to get some sales guys to respect you as a potential customer. When I lived in Santa Fe, I was driving Audis for a while, and the dealer was in Albuquerque (a Porsche-Mercedes-Audi dealer). I'd go in for service (and Audis do tend to need service) on Saturdays, dressed like you'd dress on Satuday, and I'd browse the lot while they changed the oil or whatever. The sales guys generally ignored me, even though they hadn't seen me come in for service (because I got there before the sales floor opened and went out to breakfast in the meantime).
Finally, one time, I saw a car that I really wanted, and I had a helluva time getting anyone's attention to buy the thing (for cash, yet). They just assumed that I was some low-life who couldn't afford their high-end cars, the turkeys. I finally got fed up with them and went to a the Subaru dealer where we'd purchased my wife's Forester and got myself an STi.
And all this was happening when I was about 50, so this wasn't a case of their thinking I was some kid with stars in his eyes.
But back on topic a little: If you're used to GM products in general (Corvettes being the only exception, I think), the S is twitchy. I mean, if you're used to the way the GM boats slosh around when you try to steer them, an S would be scary it's so responsive. This, of course, says something about the steering on that Pontiac thingy. HPH
- but I'd definitely let you kknow about the adavantages my vehicle has. There's some salses professionals that get it, and most don't. Good luck out there!
I just want to add that even "highline mfr dealership" is not immune to shitty salesmen. I came across a poor sales and a rude sale mgr in another Porsche dealership. The sales mgr did not introduce himself to me nor did he look in my general direction in the few words he uttered to me. That's when I have already made my intention clear that I was ready to buy pending negotiation. His body language was very clear that I was an unwanted pest to him. I was one of only two customers on the floor at the time; the other guy was just browsing.
