[oxyzen]

Originally Posted by Evil

With a sales force of as much as 20 people per showroom, assuming they were all of equal (in)competence levels the median will be 10 cars for every salesguy. Even so, at 10% commission (on the dealer's profit) the Rs.70,000 is easy.

No it isn't. You just said yourself. 10% commission per car is 1500-2000 rs. Sell 10 cars a month & you earn 15000-20000 a month. And that is exactly what they get. Otherwise my friend would have left his post of deputy manager in marketing in an OEM and joined the dealer as a sales Rep.

[Evil]

Originally Posted by oxyzen

No it isn't. You just said yourself. 10% commission per car is 1500-2000 rs. Sell 10 cars a month & you earn 15000-20000 a month. And that is exactly what they get. Otherwise my friend would have left his post of deputy manager in marketing in an OEM and joined the dealer as a sales Rep.

The median... most of these guys stand around and if you say "no thanks" or ask them a question they can't answer immediately they'll foresake the sale. They just don't appreciate the gravity of their own situations. Plus I doubt that every showroom has 20 of them. And the base salary needs to be taken into account.

How to sell a car from the movie SUCKERS - YouTube

[J.B]

Originally Posted by Evil

Although I agree about the lack of sales skills in most of them. It is sad. But it is to be expected when a company hires a peasant "fresher" (post graduate degree holders & PhDs preferred of course) and the salesman doesn't realize the glory of his job designation/opportunity.

Are you implying that those with Masters and Doctorate degrees should be hired as sales reps?

[Evil]

Originally Posted by J.B

Are you implying that those with Masters and Doctorate degrees should be hired as sales reps?

God no! Are being not should be

[arjab]

Automotive dealerships in India continue to languish behind their European / Western counterparts in the quality of their sales & service personnel.
The reasons for this are several, but primarily they are:

1. In India working in automobile dealerships, by professionally qualified youngsters, is still viewed as “infra – dig”. You will find possibly the same youngster, working at a “company” however small it may be rather than at a car dealer where the youngster feels he will be branded as a “joh gaddi bechta hain” guy by his friends and folks!
Many youngsters still view a car dealership as a place where people are running around in greasy overalls, in grimy little workshops, spanners in hand trying to fix leaky, stuttering automobiles!

2. Secondly, most automotive dealerships in India are closely held family businesses, not large automotive retail chains as we see in the West.

I am not saying family run car dealerships lack the vision or the attitude to recruit quality personnel, but because the scale & volume of their operations is less, the pressure will always be on a solo dealer proprietor, having a single dealer point to source human capital at the most economical cost, which may or may not always translate into quality human resource.

3. Also selling a car is not exactly like selling soaps and toothpastes.
I believe to be a successful car sales executive, one needs to have a degree of passion regarding cars.
Please do not mistake this that every Sales Exec has to be a Petrolhead, but at least a greater degree of automotive knowledge outside the realms of the brochures & training cd’s will add that much needed conviction to the sales pitch.
For example : how many sales executives today in all the automobile dealerships in India, combined, can give you, the customer, a proper vehicle test drive and demo? Heck, what percentage of them has a car driving licence?
Of course, this point again harks back to how successfully point 2 has been implemented.

4.OEM’s also need to have a very strong sales process unit to enhance the quality at their sales points at all levels – be it in terms of manpower, infrastructure or process.
The OEM has to have a robust sales process which should also be practical and implementable in the Indian context.
The system should have enough checks and balances to ensure an all round wholesome customer experience and at the same time ensure positive returns to dealership operations.
Case in point is Maruti which has accomplished this well inspite of huge sales volumes. If T-Bhp’ian’s recall, in the early to mid 90’s, Maruti dealers had a virtual monopoly and got away with anything and everything under the Indian sun! But the 2000’s saw a significant shift in their customer dealings with respect to sales & service, which dare I say looks to be continuing.

On the brighter side, all is not dark and gloomy.
With the new generation of dealer proprietors taking over the reins of their parent’s automotive business, most of them having management backgrounds and possibly an education stint abroad as well, one can slowly see the change coming in.

These young leaders having been exposed to global education and work practices, recognize the value of quality human capital and are willing to invest in it for the long term good of their dealership’s operations.

The level of professionalism that is now slowly coming into the Indian automotive retail system is definitely a step up from yesteryears. This is most often seen with the luxury marque dealerships where the quality of sales personnel is quite commendable.
With the passage of time, hopefully, this will trickle-down to the mass market OEM dealerships as well.

Then, Pappu can proudly work in a car dealership and will be viewed with the same credence as a “company job”

[rajinibm]

One of my close friends brother works as a sales officer at Mercedes showroom in Chennai.

He has around five years of experience, all in car dealerships.Joined Merc six months back.

He earns 35000 per month salary.Incentives are 8000 to 12000 rs for each car sold depending on the car.

His target is 3 cars a month. For seniors it is five cars target a month.Incentives are paid out quarterly.

So if he ends up selling even two cars a month at 10 k incentive, he would get 35k +20k = 55k a month.

[S2!!!]

After grad I joined a dealership as a 'sales consultant' (or what ever fancy name you want to call it) for a few months and my duty was to sell D and D+ segment models. I enjoyed the job for the whole feel of it and was doing what I do best - talking cars to all. At the job, I had several instances when inquisitive customers (all impressed obviously) questioned me as to what brings me to a place and job like 'this', or why here when 'I' could be at any better place and many went to the extent of asking me how much I take home and were quite shocked on hearing the actual amount which was not that much really - good for a fresher out of college but probably not enough to buy your own executive sedan.

However, I have seen and met people at the dealership and learned about their growth. These people too started off as sales consultants, then senior sales, then team leader, asst/sales manager, general manager and even ended up becoming the regional manager for the brand. It maybe a starting job for some and a bread earner for others but its not like the growth is stunted and restricted to the same job all their life.

It is just the mind set of many who believe that a job in an enclosed office building is better irrespective of the pay than that of standing and explaining a car to others.

[svsantosh]

not comparing car industry per se, but sales/BD (business devlopment in IT limbo), marketing is where is the Moolah is and any given day "that" job is more risky/tiring/difficult and in the END - VERY REWARDING too!!

[esteem_lover]

The average dude at the car showroom is very very dull and has no idea of what he is selling unlike a sales rep in other consumer products like for e.g Eureka Forbes, Medical Reps etc. There is no way in the world that these average dudes will get paid 50-70k for their shoddy performances. Mostly the car sells on the basis of it's features and these sales guys do not do anything more than the paper work and a little small talk. I am not in any way putting down all of them, there are a few, a very few who are actually good at what they do.

[AlphaKilo]

A very interesting topic. My nephew is a RM for a famous brand for the God's own country. He started off for the same company selling tractors and farm equipment with his diploma degree in automobile engineering and scaled the ladder to become a Regional head. Well I often hear from him about the tough life as a sales consultant, be it farm equipment or cars(his company was selling cars too).Those were days when only a few from the society could afford to own even a maruti.

But now he says, the sales consultants' job has become very easy, that most of the customers are well informed and know the cars or either buy whatever the Sales guy bluffs. Moreover, our buying power has shot up so much that irrespective of the shoddy SA, cars still sell like hot cakes. We dont buy cars for the SA rather, we buy it for what a machine it is. Hence, according to him these days being a SA is not more a hard earned job rather a very easy lucrative earn some tips job. Moreover, these days the SA's dont have that passion that he shows even today after having become a RM. Most important they dont have loyalty. They find it easy to switch to another showroom of another brand.
P.S: My nephew has stuck with the brand for over 15 years, even during turbulant times. Thats purely because of his passion for automobiles and his loyalty to the brand.

[knaveen]

I started out as a "Sales Executive" in ford back in 2006. I was able to land in that Job just because of my sheer interest in cars. They took me even though i had no experience at selling (or doing anything for that matter!) at all. In my short stint in the dealership the following is what was happening at that period. The fixed salary was very low around 3 - 3.5k. But again it was a small town (Salem) where the sales are not as comparable to city like Chennai. The other benefits include allowances for the following:
- Fuel
- Mobile usage
- Travel and food.

As someone said earlier the incentives depend on how popular/moving a particular model is. At that time Fiesta was just launched and the diesel was a hit. Hence the mid-range version of Fiesta was the one with the least incentive (Rs 750), followed by Ikon (1xxx), Endeavour (3xxx) and Modeo (5xxx) which was available then. The targets were in the range of 3 - 5 for freshers and experienced ones were selling in the ranges of 8 - 14.

Later had to switch due to obvious reasons. Not sure on what the current trend here. The point is that it widely varies between A-1,A,B,C class cities as the potential for sales ranges a lot.

OT: I see a lot of bashing of sales people here. The other way around i had pretty bitter experiences with Customers. They come in all varieties People who test ABS at 110kmph between two trucks ahead of you, people who just call for a test drive and have everyone in the family drive around with clear intentions of not buying, heck i remember one guy who used test drive as a substitute for a taxi to go to a place of his interest!
And on the knowledge part of these people, the training that happens from the company is rather inadequate. For me it was a 3 day workshop at the head office. All i can say is that when i was there and was giving a demo presentation, no one(all experienced sales folks, managers etc) believed that Endeavour's third row cannot be completely removed with the lever until i demonstrated it!. We cannot expect these guys to be petrolheads just by working there.

[greenhorn]

a couple of my classmates at college won mahindra's AQ and at some level they were offered sales jobs, and were told the max they could get is 7L. They didnt join though :P

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

a couple of my classmates at college won mahindra's AQ and at some level they were offered sales jobs, and were told the max they could get is 7L. They didnt join though :P

Are you sure about the 7L figure
Majority of IT freshers from decent institutes dont get such salary package.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Are you sure about the 7L figure
Majority of IT freshers from decent institutes dont get such salary package.

Sorry to bust your bubble mate. Code shops will see falling salaries over time. As is all business is being retained back or going to cheaper places. Don't be surprised to see a billable salary/bench salary and per hour rates soon!!!
The thumb-rule of x lacs ctc/x years of work-exp is history now.

I have a friend selling BMW's in Mumbai. He makes a fixed basic of Rs50k and great incentive figures. His average take home is approx 85-90k per month.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Sorry to bust your bubble mate. Code shops will see falling salaries over time. As is all business is being retained back or going to cheaper places. Don't be surprised to see a billable salary/bench salary and per hour rates soon!!!
The thumb-rule of x lacs ctc/x years of work-exp is history now.

I have a friend selling BMW's in Mumbai. He makes a fixed basic of Rs50k and great incentive figures. His average take home is approx 85-90k per month.

So you say every IT guy must start selling cars? I would love to see a world free of IT madness.(No offence meant to IT guys, but a mechanical engineering running away from core engineering just for money and current generation of students not interested in core engineering knowledge makes me feel really bad about this industry.) I hope I have started a war between IT vs. Rest engineering here. That is not my intention.

But then there is not only this direct brand sales dealerships but also many smaller ones which sell multi-brand, used and new cars too. The situation there as much as I have seen is very good because, the SA's know their cars and are much better than these so called brand sellers.