Unfortunately, while a company can instill good behaviors in its sales force, that doesn't eliminate the bad habits that car salesmen have learned elsewhere. One of the hallmarks of car sales (or likely many commission-driven businesses which rely on foot traffic, is the "ups" list. Sales consultants wait on this list, and as customers arrive, whomever is "up" (the sales consultant at the top of this list) takes the incoming customer. However, as I learned quickly, not all "ups" are the same. Some customers are more likely to purchase than others, and seasoned sales consultants are able to make this assessment even before a customer walks in the door. At the same time, sales consultants can also tell when a customer is not as likely to purchase a vehicle. So, even though a sales consultant is "up" (or near the top of the ups list), if they see a customer approaching whom they estimate to be an unlikely buyer, the sales consultant will vanish.
There were instances when I was fourth or fifth from the top of the ups list, but the sales consultants ahead of determined that an approaching customer was not worthy of their time, and they all suddenly had something else to do. Consequently, I suddenly became "up", and engaged the new customer. The first few times this occurred, I was pleasantly surprised. After a few times, I was not. My "co-workers" were fairly accurate in their estimation of the likelihood (or ability) that a customer would purchase a vehicle. Even someone whom I trained with had told me about similar experiences, and that he had even pointed out to another salesman that a particular customer whom he was ignoring was his.
