[Thad E Ginathom]

I should have replied to the post, but I liked the advice to act naive and ignorant and see what the sales people tell, and thus their knowledge and honesty, or lack of them, are clearly shown

[dezrskb]

This is about the test drive of Audi Q3 which I took recently. immaculately dressed sales executive is sitting next to me.

Me: Tell me frankly now. Whats the real reason for not providing a proper full spare tyre? why a donut tyre which you can't drive as fast as the stock ones?

Sales person doesn't know what to say. He thinks thinks and then says...
"Sir, the full sized spare tyre weighs 25 Kilos!! When Audi designs the cars, they pay lot of attention to dynamics and aerodynamics of the car... this much extra weight would disturb the driving dynamics !!!"

Me: ......Im stunned. Then I recover and ask him-
"so tell me then.... Today there are 2 passengers weighing 65 Kilos are sitting in my Q3. Tomorrow another weighing 100kilos comes in and sits in one of the rear seats. is my Q3 going to topple???"

Now he is clueless

[yatin]

This is going to be OT unless you count salespeople in too.

When I took delivery of my Palio Stile in 2008, it struck me to ask the salesman to show me the provision to attach the tow hook. The guy didn't know, he asked around, nobody knew. So he tells me: Sir, this is such a reliable car, it will never need towing, so they haven't given that provision

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by yatin

This is going to be OT unless you count salespeople in too.

When I took delivery of my Palio Stile in 2008, it struck me to ask the salesman to show me the provision to attach the tow hook. The guy didn't know, he asked around, nobody knew. So he tells me: Sir, this is such a reliable car, it will never need towing, so they haven't given that provision

salesfolk stories can go here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...alerships.html

[TejasKinger]

Been meaning to post this here for a while. This happened during the Hyundai Creta walk around prior to the test drive at a prominent Hyundai dealer in Bangalore. This particular salesperson was pointing out the smaller, yet significant features in the car and all was well until he started talking about the Cargo Net. His explanation for the Cargo Net was something like this: "The Hyundai Creta is an SUV, Sir. So, if you go offroading and you get wet, Hyundai is such a good company, they are providing a net for you to dry your clothes."

Two things:
1. Off-roading in a Creta!
2. His creativity. The boffins sitting in Korea would have never thought of a cargo net being put to such use.

On a side note, Honda India has been putting up these mini YouTube Video Series. They had one on the stereotypes of Indian Dealerships. Pretty funny IMO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CazQWc-COs

[ashutoshb]

While TDing the Tiago at Noida's Sagar Motors, the sales guy tells me.

"The Tiago is built on a Jaguar chassis. Even the engine is a downsized version of a Jaguar engine."

Trying to guage how far will he go, I asked, "What about the Safari Storme?"

"That is based on the Range Rover, sir."

I chose to stop talking.

I rarely ask too technical questions to the SEs. Not all are auto enthusiasts or have an engineering background.

I can also tell where the problem is language related. English abbreviations, their meanings or technical terms are more difficult for those who are not convent educated, and have learned the language at a later stage in life.

What I do not like is when they stoop down to outright making false statements, just to make a sale.

To the uninformed buyer, a good guidance towards safety features can literally save lives. Things like ABS, airbags should be promoted more.

It all comes down to the training these guys get. This is one area where the dealers shouldnt cut corners.

Ideally, there should be an impartial test, conducted by the manufacturer itself. SEs who clear the test should only be allowed to interact with the customer.

[TejasKinger]

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

Trying to guage how far will he go, I asked, "What about the Safari Storme?"

"That is based on the Range Rover, sir."

I wonder if that is standard Tata dealership talk. A salesman from a prominent Tata dealership in Chennai used exactly the same words to describe the Hexa.

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

I rarely ask too technical questions to the SEs. Not all are auto enthusiasts or have an engineering background.

Ideally, a Sales Executive is expected to educate the perspective buyers who visit the showroom with regard to every aspect that define their products/ distinguish them against the competition. At the same time, the Company or the Dealership also ensures that the Sales Executive, being over enthusiastic, accidentally does not share any information which infringes their trade secrets. Hence, the SE is allowed to provide only such information that the Company officially permits for disclosure to the buyers and not utter anything out of his/ her own wisdom.

Therefore expecting an SE to be a technical expert or an automotive enthusiast who would provide sound replies to each and every query that a visitor would throw at him (as like a CAR Guru) would, in my opinion, fall beyond the context of a seller and buyer relationship.

It is always better to appreciate that the SE is present at the dealership to make a living as an Employee and he needs to perform within an ambit of limitations set out by his Employer at the first place. A visitor to the showroom needs to bear these basic aspects in mind before stepping into a showroom and not carry an attitude of challenging his/ her intellects.

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

I can also tell where the problem is language related. English abbreviations, their meanings or technical terms are more difficult for those who are not convent educated, and have learned the language at a later stage in life.

It does not matter as whether the individual is educated at a convent school or in a normal school. What matters most is clarity in speech and use of simple words that conveys the message accurately and in an unambiguous manner. Personally, I tend to respect people who could not afford glossy convent education in their childhood but learnt the language progressively and in a hard way.

To me, a language is a mere mode of communication. It does not make a difference whether one speaks in English or in any native language, what matters is the choice of words that can make or break a relationship.

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

What I do not like is when they stoop down to outright making false statements, just to make a sale.

+1 Agree.

[kutoos]

Originally Posted by King_pin09

Ideally, a Sales Executive is expected to educate the perspective buyers who visit the showroom with regard to every aspect that define their products/ distinguish them against the competition.

Agree. This is the most important job, and from my past experiences, they are still trained to extoll frivolous features like fog lamps, DRL's, Touch Screen audio. Cant blame them, the majority of the buyers are wowed by these feature list.

Originally Posted by King_pin09

Therefore expecting an SE to be a technical expert or an automotive enthusiast who would provide sound replies to each and every query that a visitor would throw at him (as like a CAR Guru) would, in my opinion, fall beyond the context of a seller and buyer relationship.

Yes, they need not be tech savvy, however, Yes & NO are perfectly acceptable answere. In case there is a queston which confounds a sales executive, he can very well admit that he is not aware of the details and get back to the customers. This in turn will earn more respect form the customer.

[centaur]

When I was in the market for a new ride, the SEs I came across were generally and mostly fresh out of college kinda boys. They probably took a job that came their way first just to get the feeling of being employed maybe. I say this because, 3 out of 5 of the SE's I meet, starting asking for my email to send their CV for a job in the IT sector and I did help them with their CV's too. Two of them did manage to move out of dealerships to other jobs, infact they moved out of the automotive sector itself.

Given that these blokes are not really interested in the job they are doing, they are not really bothered in getting into the details. For them its just a sale than getting to know the customers requirements and then pitching in those feature of the car which would get the customer interested in the car and make a sale. They have a standard tape of the features which they play and any question from the customer is considered out of syllabus.

Adding to it, some SE's act as though they are doing a big favor on you but letting you into their dealerships and giving you information about the car (for enthusiasts like us, the information they are giving about the product is elementary anyway). I have noticed this attitude specifically at Honda and Toyota when we went to check the Mobilio and the Innova. Yes we can dismiss it as dealer specific or maybe SE specific for the sake of it.

[deehunk]

We are seeing new banking scams every day, want to share my own experience with ICICI Bank in October 2009. I had booked my first car at Kropex Chevrolet and had submitted all the KYC documents to an agent at the dealership. The agent had requested a permanent address proof. Since we owned only a plot at that time, the agent asked me to give the address of the plot. Then, 3 days later I got a call from an executive who went for address verification. Imagine what would have been his reaction when he saw a vacant plot, he kept on saying " Saar there is only a plot, where is the house". I and my friends laughed over this incident for many months.

[avingodb]

Recently, at a Ford dealership I was told that ISOFIX is a music enhancing feature that Ecosport Titanium+ has.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by avingodb

Recently, at a Ford dealership I was told that ISOFIX is a music enhancing feature that Ecosport Titanium+ has.

The Maruti sales guy in Kolkata had a brilliant perspective when I innocently pointed out the ISOFIX top tether latches on the back of the rear seats of the new SWIFT and asked what it was and why it was there.
He very proudly said "Sir, that is usually used as a hanger. Suppose you have washed your car, you can hang the cleaning cloth from those two hooks and it will dry off. No chance of the carpet getting wet, which usually happens when you put the wet rag on the boot floor" (He said this in Bengali, I'm translating it for ease of understanding here).

Moot point is: All these dealership staff are usually trained by a third party outsourced training agency who cannot differentiate an onion from a pinion. These trainers are so theoretical and "ppt oriented", they have absolutely no idea what is there actually in the car.
Add to this not much of self initiative in learning new things and inevitably you would come up with such "original" answers !

[S2!!!]

Originally Posted by avingodb

Recently, at a Ford dealership I was told that ISOFIX is a music enhancing feature that Ecosport Titanium+ has.

When I come across such chaps, I usually try and educate them by explaining the actual FAB (feature, advantage, benefit). Some of them genuinely are willing to learn and haven't gone through the appropriate product training. However, if they remain hell-bent on trying to convince me what they're saying is true, I just give up and save my energy instead.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by arjab

The Maruti sales guy in Kolkata had a brilliant perspective when I innocently pointed out the ISOFIX top tether latches on the back of the rear seats of the new SWIFT and asked what it was and why it was there.
He very proudly said "Sir, that is usually used as a hanger. Suppose you have washed your car, you can hang the cleaning cloth from those two hooks and it will dry off. No chance of the carpet getting wet, which usually happens when you put the wet rag on the boot floor" (He said this in Bengali, I'm translating it for ease of understanding here).

Wonderful

I don't remember what Isofix fitting look like. What saleman need to learn is that there is nothing wrong with I don't know! Well... within limits.

(love your onion/pinion too. Going to quote you on that!)