According to the story it looks like her success can be attributed to many things, including hard work ( " She’s a machine." ), skill ( “I had to prove I knew as much as the man who sat next to me.” ), and appreciating customers ( " I love the customers and the wonderful relationships I’ve made." ), to name a few.
Looks like Laurie’s got it all.
Your Say -
Do you do business with a salesperson who has it all ?
Are you still looking for such a salesperson ?
What experiences, good or bad, have you had while car shopping ?
(I figured somebody has a story or two.)
It seems as though Laurie knows the product, likes working with people, and works hard at her job. I have encountered new car auto sales people that really didn’t know much about the vehicles that they are selling. I think the best salesman I encountered was back in 1965 when I went to the Rambler dealer. I essentially wanted a car with no frills–manual transmission, lowest trim line, etc. and was interested in the Rambler American. The salesman understood what I was saying unlike sales personnel at other dealerships that tried to sell me a more expensive trim line than I wanted. At any rate, this salesman said “I think I have the right car for you. It is a car that was repossessed with 7000 miles and has the balance of the 24,000 mile warranty. It is a Rambler Classic 550–lowest trim line-- with few options. You will save quite a bit over a brand new car and with its overhead valve engine, it should give at least as good mileage as a Rambler American with the flathead 6 engine”. He then went on to explain that the 6 cylinder engine in the Rambler Classic was a newly developed 7 bearing engine, but that Nash had a 7 bearing 6 engine going back to the 1940s in its Ambassador line. I went to the library and checked this out and he was correct. This man really knew cars. I did buy the Rambler Classic and I got many years and miles of service from the car.
A good salesman, IMHO, has to know his product. My son took a job as a sales person in the hardware department of Sears, Most of his pay was based on commission. He said that the easiest money was when a contractor would come in ready to purchase a $700 air compressor. The contractor knew what he wanted and all my son had to do was write up the order and have the compressor loaded on the contractor’s truck. However, my son really liked working with women during the Christmas season who wanted to buy something for their husbands. He would quiz these women who didn’t know what to buy about their husbands’ interests. The commission selling a $20 item wasn’t much, but he found that more satisfying than selling the air compressors with a big commission. The owner of the local Ford dealer saw him at work and offered him a job selling cars. My son declined the offer–he said he didn’t have the passion for selling cars and didn’t like the idea of trying to push a customer into a more expensive model that would stretch the customer’s budget and the customer didn’t need.
We live near a small town with only 4 car dealers. In 1992 my wife and I went car shopping. We found a fairly new, slightly used Plymouth Acclaim with a very small dent that we were interested in and talked to a salesman, who turns out was the dealership owner. He gave us a price, which was little high compared with other similar cars we’d seen that weren’t damaged.
I asked if there was a way he could work with us on having the dent taken care of or adjusting the price a little. He replied, “What You See Is What You Get.” "Take It Or Leave It."
I looked at my wife. She looked at me. Without saying a word we turned and walked away.
I’ve never gone back to that dealer. I have bought several vehicles from other dealers in town and some from neighboring towns during the past couple of decades.
If there is a new salesman out there who needed advice I would say to remember how to say yes. Salesmen don’t like to make counter-offers and will sometimes let people walk out. If a customer raises his offer twice and salesman refuses it without making any offer of even two hundred dollars off, the customer may get mad and accept a worse offer elsewhere. Customers don’t need reasons to leave; just reasons to buy.
I’m in the car biz, so to speak, as a parts man.
And I can honestly say there are sales people that are co-workers from whom I would NOT buy a vehicle.
I go straight to the ordering desk ( Joe Customer can’t do this ) and place my vehicle order. But she still wants to know … “who’s your salesperson ?”
“Me " I say.
“No , a real sales person , I have to put in a name here.”
“Tom Kirk” I state with authority.
”…uh… he’s retired, like,l four years ago."
"Yes, I know…and he’s MY salesman, I wouldn’t buy from anyone else. "
Cars basically sell themselves, you just need a person to grab the keys for you.
I couldn’t do sales, I don’t deal well with others. If some of the suggestion posts we get on here is any indication, I’d have my hair pulled out within a week. "I have 5 kids I haul around regularly with tons of their stuff. I need a new car, but I don’t want anything to do with minivans, what do you suggest I buy?"
Or the occasional early 20s guy looking for a joy ride in some car he couldn’t even afford to sit in, let alone buy.
Or people who would refuse to buy new, yet look at 2 year old cars that is so close in price to the new one that it doesn’t make sense(i.e. 3 years old, 36k miles on it and $17500 while the brand new one costs $19k and if they finance, the difference in interest rates could make the 3 year old car cost MORE at the end of the loan).
FWIW many years ago I was offered a chance to be a service advisor, which is essentially a salesman. Since I was turning wrenches and knew I wasn’t a people person, I wisely declined the offer.
Looking back, I have no regrets. Explaining things verbally has never been my strength, so I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have lasted behind the desk.
On the other hand, several mechanics have hung up their wrenches and become service advisors and really like interacting with customers.
Guess I’ll probably take a little grief for this while being labeled a sexist pig, and I could be dead wrong but here goes.
A pic shows that she’s not a bad looking lady at all (some might say smoking hot) and one has to wonder how many sales are based on sales ability and how many are due to men whose attention is not as focused as it should be on the MSRP…
@ok4450, I’m Sure That Laurie Is A Skilled, Ambitious Professional Who Really Likes Her Job. I’m also sure that having a nice smile and being pleasant to look at certainly doesn’t detract from her success. That line of thinking was behind my declaration, " Looks like Laurie’s got it all. "
I think you’d only be a “sexist pig” if you attributed her winning performance soley to her obvious good looks.
In a previous discussion here (above) I titled my comments "First Impressions."
Laurie gives a good visual first impression !
