King of Cars

[PRMoon]

This show airs on A&E and features "The Chopper" and his sales crew at Towbin Dodge in Green Valley Nevada. Towbin dodge is one of the highest grossing new and used auto dealerships in the US. They feature a TV infomercial that's rediculouse to say the least, but generates 85% or more of the revenue for the sales men.

Even though it looks like a circus, do not let the crude exterior fool you. These gentlemen are the great white sharks of salesmen. Their sales techniques are preasured, their tactics may seem underhanded at times, and they knowingly put people into situations that they probably aren't ready to deal. That being said, If any of you are interested in getting into sales of any kind you should definately watch this show. It realistically paints you a picture of what you're going to be getting into and you might even get some pointers to hone our own technique. I wouldn't use it as a determinate whether or not you should get into sales as you'll never know until you try. The show does realistically portray what it's like to work in a sales team with a leader, the kind of pressure you'll be under as a sales man to do well, and the acclaim you get when you succeed in selling.

 

[S1NN3R]

What they fail to mention in that show is that Towbin Motor Company (the umbrella corp for all Towbin dealers in Nevada) has been sued (on average) 6 times a year since their inception. They have been ordered to give unnamed damages to various people over the years due to their flat-out dishonest salemanship. They have listed cars on eBay as no reserve auctions, then refused to sell the car when it didn't hit a minimum price point, despite the fact that a any bid on a no-reserve auction is legally binding. They have wrecked customer's personal cars while in the shop, and then fixed the car andnever said anything to the owner about the damage. They advertise low prices in the newspaper for car that they do not even have on the lot, then tell anyone who comes in that the car in question was just sold, but they have this other one over here for $5000 more. Joshua Towbin himself (the Chopper) had criminal charges filed in 2003 and spent time in jail for physically assaulting a disgruntled customer in a public confrontation and damaging the vehicle owned by said customer.

Take from that what you will. In Las Vegas, they are known as shady, blatantly dishonest, and technically criminal. Not the best people to learn from.

Before it's said that I'm biased, I have never had any personal dealings with Towbin, so I'm not "out to get them", just reporting facts regarding them.

 

[LowPlainsDrifter]

Although I felt "pumped" by the overall feel of the show, I didn't like the "don't let the customer leave without making a deal" ethos.
You know, the way people are living so close to the edge of financial disaster, the last thing they need is to walk into that dealership, where I'm sure they aren't sold the car that's best for their budget, but "upsold" as much as possible, and locked into a high-rate loan for a car that's more than what they needed.
Although it might be interesting to pop in there as a tourist, I'm sure those salesmen wouldn't hear me say the word "tourist" and probably wouldn't let me leave unless I bought something from them!
What I found interesting was how they seemed to steer people away from used to new cars. Don't used cars carry a higher profit margin for the dealership? I mean, they give you friggin next to nothing on trade-ins, and sell them for a lot more. Plus, used cars carry either no warranty or a scanty warranty, so the dealership gets to make money on repairs almost immediately.

 

[PRMoon]

What they fail to mention in that show is that Towbin Motor Company (the umbrella corp for all Towbin dealers in Nevada) has been sued (on average) 6 times a year since their inception. They have been ordered to give unnamed damages to various people over the years due to their flat-out dishonest salemanship. They have listed cars on eBay as no reserve auctions, then refused to sell the car when it didn't hit a minimum price point, despite the fact that a any bid on a no-reserve auction is legally binding. They have wrecked customer's personal cars while in the shop, and then fixed the car andnever said anything to the owner about the damage. They advertise low prices in the newspaper for car that they do not even have on the lot, then tell anyone who comes in that the car in question was just sold, but they have this other one over here for $5000 more. Joshua Towbin himself (the Chopper) had criminal charges filed in 2003 and spent time in jail for physically assaulting a disgruntled customer in a public confrontation and damaging the vehicle owned by said customer.

Take from that what you will. In Las Vegas, they are known as shady, blatantly dishonest, and technically criminal. Not the best people to learn from.

Before it's said that I'm biased, I have never had any personal dealings with Towbin, so I'm not "out to get them", just reporting facts regarding them.

Alot of that comes with the territory. Being a in the top 5 vehicle dealers since inception means you have to get your hands dirty from time to time in this day and age. I can't think of a single person who doesn't feel some what cheated or have bad buyers remourse after a deal on a vehicle they were really pressing for and the funds may not have been all there. As a sales man (especially as a volume salesman) I can say that it's either you or the customer. Yes I could be completely honest but that's not how a salesman makes money. You have to trade your boy scout image from time to time for the grit of a hustler.

You and I both know (as residents) that there are tons upon tons of people who deal in "less than legal" affiars in this town, but Towbin industries does it in a public way so our less then legit town, it makes sense for an enterprise like this one to exist. No suprise that law suits and bad press come towards them (does anyone besides rappers even concider going to towbin imports?) on a regular basis but I've spent time there on there sales floor and just checked things out and though they're high pressure there are people who leave that place satisfied, enough so to be repeat customers or refer them to friends. Shady and Las Vegas go hand in hand, it's called "Sin City" for a reason and though the shop is some what shady the same can be said of the city.

Regardless of the nature of their enterprise, these are hard nose salesmen. They have a good formula for leads and closing and that is sales in a nutshell, period.

 

[PRMoon]

Although I felt "pumped" by the overall feel of the show, I didn't like the "don't let the customer leave without making a deal" ethos.
You know, the way people are living so close to the edge of financial disaster, the last thing they need is to walk into that dealership, where I'm sure they aren't sold the car that's best for their budget, but "upsold" as much as possible, and locked into a high-rate loan for a car that's more than what they needed.
Although it might be interesting to pop in there as a tourist, I'm sure those salesmen wouldn't hear me say the word "tourist" and probably wouldn't let me leave unless I bought something from them!
What I found interesting was how they seemed to steer people away from used to new cars. Don't used cars carry a higher profit margin for the dealership? I mean, they give you friggin next to nothing on trade-ins, and sell them for a lot more. Plus, used cars carry either no warranty or a scanty warranty, so the dealership gets to make money on repairs almost immediately.

Again we are talking about a volume dealership. The rules are different for a volume dealerhsip with your salesmen. Don't let your customers go is a volume dealership rule, we have the same rules at my cycle shop. Also the customers finacial obligations can not be known to a salesman, even if they're telling you how much they make to your face, and you've seen there stated income and know their credit and you see that they can't afford it, YOU PRESS THE SALE. You have them call their third uncle and get them to co-sign for you if you have to, you do not let them leave the sales floor. The first time you do this should be the dawning moment that you don't have what it takes to handle volume sales, because if you let one go it becomes a domino effect and you'll start making up reasons why you can't close a sale and soon after you'll be getting your walking papers. They're the ones that came to the store looking for a vehicle and it's your job to sell them a car and you don't you won't get paid and that is the ONLY reason for you to be there.

I imagine they're steering people away from used cars to the new ones is because there are "spiffs" on the new vehicles (basically extra commision in the hundreds of dollars). These are inplace once again because it's a volume dealership so they want to crank out as many new dodges as possible to keep their numbers high, then dodge gives them a good unit price on their next order of inventory. So you MIGHT get a good deal as a salesman out of the used car but then again if the person can only afford a grand over the unit price and you only get 10% of the gross then congratulations you made 100bucks for possibly 4 hours of your time. But if you sell a new unit with a spiff for a five hundred over the unit price then you made 50 bucks plus your spiff we'll just say 100 dollars to keep it simple so that's 150 bucks for the same amount of time. I hope that makes sense, if you're not a saleman it can be kinda hard to grasp.