What’s happened to used car sales people?

Many of us will remember the time when a visit to a car showroom prompted immediate contact with a sales person, most of them were men, who wouldn’t let you go until you’d told him what you wanted to buy, how much you had to spend and when you were likely to make a purchase. It might not have been a totally pleasant experience but you certainly felt that you were being sold to.

It all seems rather different now. Many people do their market research on line and they might well decide on and buy a specific car in the same way. Where does the sales person fit in such a process?

I’ve just bought a new, albeit used, car and yes I made some decisions online but I also wanted to understand what I was buying and get help as I navigated the complexity of models and variants. I had less than satisfactory experiences with three different companies. In no particular order:

Company one was big (and grand) enough to employ a receptionist. She asked me to wait and she’d get a sales person to see me. Ten minutes or so later and no sales person so I said I’d go. That prompted the sales person to emerge from an internal meeting and ask me to wait until that had finished. Disappointing that talking to a customer wouldn’t be given priority. I left.

Company two was better. I wasn’t approached by a sales person but there was one sitting at a desk apparently not busy so I approached him. Fair does he gave me time and explained the model range in which I was interested. He promised to check availability at other branches of his company and come back to me with some ideas. He didn’t so I prompted him with some information I’d found on line. That resulted in another promise to get back to me ‘tomorrow’. He didn’t.

Finally I contacted company three by phone to ask about a car I’d seen on line. I asked if it was still available and the guy at the call centre said he’d check and get back to me shortly. He didn’t but then a sales person did call me the next day saying that he’d got an email asking him to call me and answer my question. What was the question he asked. After some to and fro he read the email more carefully and then said he’d check. Sadly the car was no longer available but why couldn’t the guy at the call centre deal with that in the first place and why didn’t the sales person read the email properly in the first place?

The good news is that there was a fourth company and when I called it to make an enquiry I was immediately put through to a sales person who very quickly arranged for me to visit the showroom and have a test drive based on which we did a deal. First contact to sale in less than 24 hours, a very efficient process managed by some smarter than average people!