Considering car sales as a future?

Interesting. But it never seems like the people who post on here that are in Ferrari sales don't imply that it's THAT well paying.

 

the reason he made so much is because ferraris sell themseleves...
for all you owners out there, you know exactly what you wanted, you know how much it would cost and you are willing to wait for it when u walk into the dealership....all the sales person had to do is butter you up and do the paper work.....

 

I know Stuart and he is a good salesperson. Don't take away credit from him just because he sold F-cars. If you thought it was easy money you'd be doing it. Go try it and post back here afterwards.........

Having said that.......what happened to the economy in 1999-2000-2001 ???

I made increasingly more money year after year, selling high end cars during the 99-01 "bubble".....and did nothing differently either.......and if you extrapolate his numbers on the downward trend you'd see he would have made $256K "OR LESS" in 2003 and from personal experience you would have known it would be a "LOT" less in 2004.

I am personally down 35% in the last 2 years. Sure he had the market to himself......and good for him......

What I was surprised about was that "ANY" dealer principal would let a sales person/sales manager make that much money. As soon as you make over 6 figures consistently they start to "pencil" your commissions. That is the rule in this business.....and not the exception.....

 

don't get me wrong, he probably busted his ass working...
but i can't imagine a ferrari would require much "selling"

 

I've sold high end cars for 16 years going on 17.......it is not easy, nor is it going to get any easier........that is a huge misconception.

 

without giving away your trade secret, what are some challenges that you deal? how hard is it? are most ferrari buyer jack asses when they walk into the dealership??

 

Trade secrets ??? Don't have any.......

As for challenges.....

8 day weeks at 25 hours a day
A lot of new and improving product
Economic ups and downs
Marketplace saturation
Advertising saturation
Manufacturer's lease numbers
Massive rebates and incentives

Every manufacturer has it's share of "difficult" clients.......

 

I work in medical sales which is much different....but here's my take on car sales:

1) Long hours, as you must accomodate your customers work day, so probably need to meet many of them either before work (early) or after work (late). And work a lot of weekends, since again, people work during the week.

2) LOT'S of "customer service" issues. Especially with Ferraris, they have this elaborate ordering process, and long lead times. So there is a great deal of customer contact and communication going on over many months or even a couple years. A lot of "after sale" service items, such as going over the operation of the car, assisting with maintanence questions, repairs/warranty issues, etc.

I think that the numbers shown (remember Canadian dollars, so divide by 1.36 or so to convert to US dollars) are reasonable for the efforts and time necessary to complete each sale...

My impression (I do not know Stuart personally) was that he was typically working 6 days a week, and pretty long hours...based on the few times I stopped by the dealership. So figure a 65 to 70 hour work week is probably pretty typical.

 

Good analysis Dave........