Hello again.
I haven't been posting as regularly as I've intended when starting this, partially because of the demands of the job, partially because sometimes there's not really much to talk about. I'm the type of person who can best string thoughts into sentences when struck by a bolt of inspiration; otherwise, my default form of communication is a less descriptive style along the lines of "hello my name is carshark and today I sold a car good and it made me feel happy :)"
But do read on. Let me fill you in.
The demands of this job are not to be put lightly. As I've learned the details of the sales process and internalized the motions, I've learned quite a bit about how to handle the problems, how to keep myself from tripping over my own feet into a time sink, and how to appease customers who are, by and large, utterly unprepared for a major financial commitment or worse, desperate. What I didn't expect were the many facets of the position, ensuring my working time is 100% occupied. I am not just a salesperson; I also work at a call center, am a lot attendant, a pr rep, and low-level IT support. My day can be 8 hours or 12, and I'll never know how many.
A big part of sales is simply getting people to listen to you enough to sell. People are, generally, easily distracted, forgetful, suspicious, defensive, and sometimes even spiteful...and that's not even touching on outright malice in the vein of fraud, anger, and outright attempted theft. This job is greatly defined by methodical paperwork as well as both corporate and legal compliance, but the je ne sais quois that keeps direct-to-consumer "car vending" model gasping on the beach is the interpersonal aspect. People will trust another person long before they'll trust a computer.
At the end of the day, I am asking a customer for a large chunk of money in exchange for a complicated and expensive product.
The chugging start of the automation revolution has been analyzed by many a tech and economic thought bubble, but being the boots-on-the-ground in an industry primed for it gives one an entirely different perspective. An auto sale is, at the end of the day, just a long process of legal compliance, disclosure, and signing contracts. There is very little keeping us from a world where you can look up cars online, find the one you want, click a "buy this" button, e-sign a couple dozen pages of documents, and find yourself in the possession of both auto and note in an hour. In fact, that's what The Company is eagerly trying to do.
But that's not what people want, neither customers nor corporate. Computers operate on a linear scale of yes/no, people by and large do not. You can't reason with a computer. You can't argue with a computer. It just does what it has to do. On the flipside, a computer isn't very good at detecting fraud. It can't gently let someone down when they can't afford the down payment and suggest other avenues a desperate person might need. It can't guide a person who doesn't understand how to use a website, it can't save a sale because someone is getting frustrated with some computer error.
By The Company's standards and goals, my job should already be redundant. It already has systems to automatically check a customer's credit score, let them upload and automatically analyze proof of income and residence documents, see their actual terms online, and do everything but actually click the button that says "purchase this vehicle." Though my job is less and less to convince someone to buy a car, that human element is still needed to answer questions, assuage worries, and be the smiling face handing over the keys.
Plus, people are more likely to listen and agree when talking to a human than a chatbot or automated message. The Company has tried both, and has decided that it's more effective in conversion-to-sale to have the lowly sales reps like me do it. Alas.
But enough talk. The used car market is shaky, interest rates are rising, and it's a terrible time to buy a car. But still, the market is there and the niche The Company fills will not be going away, especially with the impending crumble of its biggest competitor. It's going to be an interesting 2023.
Also, I've found my least favorite car model, the Nissan Juke.
Look at this ugly piece of shit. Built of wilting curves and bad decisions. Who puts the signals and running lamps up on the hood? Fools, that's who. More like the Nissan Joke. Nissans are shitty cars anyways.
