Your perception of a car salesperson may not be the best. When a lot of people think of people who sell cars, they immediately think of the stereotypical used car salesman. The stereotypical used car salesman is greasy and immoral, and he is willing to lie to get you to buy one of his cars.
However, car sales in real life aren’t quite so dramatic. The majority of car salesmen are people who are just trying to make an honest living by selling cars. It’s a common career choice among people who hold an interest in both cars and in sales. It’s not always fun work, but it is deeply rewarding work. There’s something particularly satisfying about knowing that you’re helping people make such a large purchasing decision.
Just like with any other kind of salesman, your own performance is usually able to affect your own salary. Most car salespeople work on commission, which means that their salary is directly affected by how many cars they sell. This may seem stressful for a lot of people, but some are capable of truly thriving under this sort of pressure. How much does your average car salesman actually make? How could that figure be affected by outside factors like experience or location? How does someone actually become a car salesman? In this article, I plan on answering all of those questions. Without further delay, let’s see if we can’t learn a little bit more about this often misunderstood profession.
The Average Car Salesman Salary As of 2024 – $44,296
In the United States, the average annual salary for a car salesman 2024 is $44,296. However, that’s only an average. For most consultants, the pay scale ranges from $23,000 to $95,000. At the end of the day, it depends on a number of factors such as your location, the types of cars you’re selling, customer demographics, as well as the reputation of the dealership.
It’s also important to note that their base salary isn’t very high. As it is, the majority of their earnings come from their commission, where they earn a certain percentage of what they sell (usually between the 20 to 25 percent range). In other words, the more cars they sell for the dealership, the more money they’ll take home, especially if the cars are of high value.
For example, if they sell a car for $25,000, and the dealership makes $5,000 in profit, they’d earn $1,250 on a 25 percent commission rate.
As of 2024 the top highest-paying cities for car salesman jobs include San Jose, CA; Atkinson, NE; Seattle, WA; Santa Barbara, CA; Inverness, CA; and Concord, CA. For example, the average salary in Atkinson is 27% higher than the national average. If you do the math, that’s a difference of over $12,000!
How to Become a Car Salesman – Do You Have to Go to School?
With that in mind, what does someone actually have to do in order to become a car salesman? Unlike working in some kind of trade, it’s not like you can go to a technical college and take classes on selling cars. This is a unique line of work, and so the path there is obviously unique. The first thing that you need, though, is a high school education. Just about every job out there likes to see applicants who graduated from high school, so it’s very important that you have this. Work in car sales doesn’t involve many educational requirements, but this is one that most employers won’t bend on. If you have already dropped out of high school, I seriously suggest that you look into taking some kind of exam so that you can obtain a GED or something similar. Once you’re done with high school, you can begin to think about going to college.
Like I said before, a college education is by no means required to find a successful career in sales. You should not put yourself in debt just to obtain a degree. However, if you have a scholarship or if you can afford it, then you may want to consider it. Even if your education doesn’t get you a greater commission rate, it may still make you a more competitive applicant to jobs at different dealerships. Not only that, but you may even learn a thing or two about how to be a great salesperson. Regardless as to whether or not you decide to go to college, you should still make sure that you get some kind of sales experience before you head into work as a car salesman. The sky is really the limit here, but you should see if you can’t get a part-time job at some kind of high-end retailer or department store. Not only will you acquire valuable on the job experience and learn a lot, but you’ll also be able to say that you’re not just a newbie to sales.
Once all of your “pre-career” stuff is out of the way, you can begin to look for work. If you were lucky enough to work in something related to automotives during your earlier jobs, you may want to contact some of the people that you met and see if they can’t elp you get a job. Otherwise, it’s up to you to search for opening and see where you can end up. You can either choose to apply to a franchise dealer or a used car lot, and depending on where you apply, you may be expected to meet certain requirements in terms of past experience or knowledge of cars. When you’re first hired, you may struggle as you try to get your bearings, especially if this is one of your first jobs in sales. However, you shouldn’t be deterred. As long as you have the people skills and the passion for your work, you’ll be selling cars and making money in no time.