Overview
For my practicum, I interned as a sales consultant at Thompson Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Harford County. Here, I worked as a full time sales associate for 15 weeks building connections, working on sales pitches, and selling vehicles. My daily tasks including taking walk-in customers, setting appointments, researching customers, making phone calls to potential buyers, and working with clients to close deals for the highest consumer satisfaction and gross profit. Some weekly tasks included catching up on training, following up with clients, and building referral opportunities through genuine connections and friendly conversation.
I was previously employed as a lot attendant at Thompson Toyota, staying engaged, on task, and hard working through my time in that position. Leading into the summer before my Sophomore year, I reached out to the General Manager of Thompson Toyota to see if there were any sales positions open and he found the perfect fit for me, encompassing both my prior knowledge and interests. What became most crucial to obtaining this internship was fostering and growing the relationship with the GM both when I worked there as a lot attendant and after as well. My biggest piece of advice to future media scholars is networking to your advantage, investing into any connections you can get ahold of. It is important not to discriminate on which connections you choose to grow, because you never know where your life will take you and who you will need in the future.
|
During my time as a sales consultant, I learned more about myself and others than I did about negotiation or sales. Understanding my worth as an asset in a company and as a human in society was one thing that I really took away from this position. When people walk into a car dealership, they often go immediately on the offensive, thinking that my goal as a sales consultant is to take every last dime out of their pocket. While yes, I may be wanting to take more than less, I would never put a client into a position that they don't want to be in. This being said, understanding my role as a consultant and as a human in society to help others and guide them without directing them is something that I will hold forever. Also, I learned to never judge a book by its cover or underestimate the complexity of other's lives in this position. By not approaching someone because of the way the look in the sales industry, you can lose a sale which could mean the difference of thousands of dollars. With these implications in sales, not helping someone or being stand-off-ish with them based on how they first come across in the real world could have serious consequences on your life as a whole, as that person could have changed your life forever.
|
Weekly Journal
Week of 5/18 - Most training is figuring out what works and what doesn’t work, no real “training” period. You could sell a car to a customer on your first day. There is a lot of trust in the way they let you go on your own to start your process, but this also leads to a lot of mistakes that management doesn’t realize you don't already know. For example, they will tell you to go somewhere like you know where that is or expect you to know every detail about every car.
Week of 5/25 - Less online training this week, more learning and figuring things out. The online training is in no way useful, as it is a single module from corporate sent out to all the dealers across the nation. There is no regional specific data to implement into a better sales process, Our store is one of two stores to price honestly, others put conditional offers in the final. This was interesting to me, as other stores have to work their way up from a low number every time, where we tend to work down. Week of 6/1 - Getting into a flow, picking up more customers and gaining confidence. All this business is is confidence. It is really easy to gain traction in a week by meeting with a lot of customers, getting into a rhythm, and saying all the good things. On the other hand, it is also very easy to not meet with many customers and start to lose a rhythm and fail to mention things that could possibly make a sale. Week of 6/8 - First two sale day came this week. Once you get one out, it is easier to do the rest because you’re already in a winning mindset. I worked with a real estate agent and learned a lot from him about sales and marketing yourself in a positive light. There’s also a really weird trend where the more you make off of a customer, the more they like you. This is most often because they are either low credit, desperate, or have no clue what the price of their trade/new vehicle actually is and we can present numbers that look good to them but make us the most money. Week of 6/15 - Realization that I’m not as great as I thought I was and deflating my ego. Some weeks are amazing, others have no customers, no good leads, and you have to make your own luck. In this business, your customers make your hours and determine how much you get paid at the end of the day. The customers you get is all luck of the draw; there’s no way to predict who’s buying and who isn’t just by seeing them across the room, so sometimes you will talk to 25 customers and none of them will buy. Week of 6/22 - Broke a 12 day draught of not selling a car. The day was bittersweet because I was happy that I sold a car but also hungry for more. Staying confident when you keep getting denied and rejected is hard, but if you loom over your shortcomings instead of working to fix them, you wont go anywhere or sell anything. Week of 6/29 - This week I realized that there will never be a shortage of things to learn. Being the youngest salesman in the showroom, I was able to pull a lot of helpful tips and tricks from my coworkers. Along with this, I continued to learn more about customer behavior and how to better read customers and pull useful knowledge from them in normal conversation. Week of 7/6 - This week, in my downtime I utilized Facebook marketplace and neighborhood listings to boost exposure. This allowed me to advertise cars in a positive light and fine-tune the audience I was looking to sell to. Week of 7/13 - By this time, I had given out over 150 business cards. I learned how to advertise by making information sound better than it truthfully is. This includes digging into the vehicle's history and tell about all the amazing things while omitting the negatives. I also started researching my customers on Facebook before they come in so that it is easier to find middle ground, conversation points, and overall gain trust. Week of 7/20 - Vacation Week of 7/27 - Vacation Week of 8/3 - This week I got my first referral sale, which was phenomenal because it meant that I helped someone enough to have them suggest me to others. I never truthfully lied to customers in ways that was unfair to them, but I would alter information to make me the most money and gain trust. After making a lot of money on certain customers, there was a mix of feeling bad for them but at the same time, they were always happy and I adopted the mindset that what they don’t know won’t kill them. Week of 8/10 - This week I sold one through Facebook market, which was a great way to market the cheaper used cars on our lot. Week of 8/17 - Another referral sale, handing out business cards covered a lot of ground. I started leaving a few in service for people waiting to get their vehicle serviced. I would also look up what people were coming in for in the service department, as well as how much estimated equity they had in their current vehicle. This tactic became a great way to stay busy and work with customers when I had nothing else going on. Week of 8/24 - On the last day, I sold two cars and at one point, was working with 3 different customers at one time. This week was packed with appointments and customers, which gave me more confidence in my ability to bring people into the showroom and eventually sell a car to them. |
Finding growth can be analyzed in multiple ways in this journal, shown through the qualitative data to the left and the quantitative data above. Just looking as a professional, there can be more consistency shown in sales within the quantitative data above as the weeks go on. As I began becoming more comfortable with the sales process and what I could bring to it, I began closing more deals. This is supported by the qualitative data on the left, showing consistent character and personal growth in the position. I only wish that I had more time in the position, as I feel I could have not only achieved higher consistency in sales, but also increased the volume of those sales through more personal developments.
I chose to show growth in the format of a journal to present my progress in sales as well as in what I learned from the position. While a single picture can capture a good or bad day in the position, every day is different as a consultant. Some days I sold 2 cars and don't stop moving, others I can barely speak to one client because there is so little traction in client volume. Showing a candid glimpse into every week's lessons and performance shows the arc of the experience, from the slow starts to the homerun sales to the weeks of little money and a lot of work. Telling a story through this journal was my goal, showing that the role of the sales consultant is as much brains as it is endurance. One thing I did not expect when coming into the position was the mental and emotional strength you have to have all the time. You have to be just as enthusiastic on a day where you've sold two cars as the week you have sold none. Showing this rollercoaster of internal strength along with sales tactics and stories was my goal in this format of a journal.
There was significant growth in my personality as I went through the position. Finding myself too cocky at times, I would come up short on performance and profits more times than I would like to admit. Deflating my ego and humbling myself to ask for help, pose questions, and stay motivated to be my best self was something hard to achieve at first, but I began to find much more success once I had done this. Taking this out of the role as a sales consultant, I have been listening more to my peers, empathizing with them, and asking them questions to not only build more meaningful connections, but to also learn more instead of assuming that I cannot do anything better at any point in time.
|
Future Implications |
With my plans of being a financial planner or advisor coming out of college, there is an emphasis on selling yourself and what you know in order to gain and retain happy clients. The lessons I learned of investing in myself, staying true to who I am and what I know, and never lying about what I don't know will carry over into my future career. I also gained experience in creating meaningful relationships, extracting specific points from conversation and character, and using those points to close deals and become a more genuine professional. Negotiation tactics that I learned (never make the first offer, listen twice as much as you speak, research beforehand, etc.) will carry me throughout my life and career on making the most and getting the most out of ever experience I run into. With the rest of my time at the University of Maryland, I plan to gain more networking connections with professionals and fellow students, take part in at least 2 more internships, and graduate with two degrees (International Business and Finance).