Automotive Sales Reps & Dealers
The average median wage for an automotive sales employee is around $37,000 annually according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which is broken down hourly at $18.06 per hour. Although most automotive sales reps are not paid by the hour, but by commission only, this is the only way to break down the statistics because the industry is not formally defined in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The automotive industry is associated with the production, wholesaling, retailing, and maintenance of motor vehicles and plays an important role in driving the U.S. economy.
As an automotive sales professional, you are responsible for qualifying walk-in customers, contacting leads, generating referrals, and driving repeat traffic (pun intended) into the dealership. You are expected to be highly knowledgeable of the automobile products on the showroom floor and trained to answer any complex technical questions customers might have regarding the specifications of a vehicle such as towing capability or cargo space. Other aspects of your job might include acting as F&I or Sales Manager, where you are responsible for desking/closing deals and communicating with banks to gain lender approvals on auto loans.
This is a highly competitive industry, and your resume must give you an edge over other sales reps or managers that you might be competing against when applying for a job at a well-known dealership in your local area. Below is an example of an automotive sales resume we prepared for our client Elvin, who worked as both a Finance Manager and Sales Rep earlier in his career.
Conclusion of Elvin's Resume
In this case, it was crucial to highlight Elvin's past contributions delivering results (numbers) for dealerships. One of his major accomplishments was "successfully maintaining $1,500 per copy at 62% VSC penetration on eligible deals while maintaining 145% product penetration overall" as Finance Manager for a Kia dealership. This may not seem like much to someone outside of the industry, but maintaining $1,500 per copy is huge for a dealer of this size and significantly improves the bottom line profit goals of the auto group. Below are a few points of what makes this resume stand out against other automotive sales resumes.
- It has a strong, targeted summary. Being focused on a targeted industry/job type is huge when it comes to resume writing. This automotive resume example shows how the candidate is experienced in this profession as a highly accomplished Automotive Sales & Finance Manager who can leverage his knowledge to strengthen lender-dealer relations and improve CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) ratings for the dealership.
- It gives prominence to accomplishments over boring job descriptions. We did not include any boring job descriptions in this resume. In fact, we did not include any job descriptions at all. This is an approach that is necessary for some professionals who may either have irrelevant jobs they held in the past, or all of their duties were the same or similar enough to eliminate them - instead summarizing the responsibilities in a different manner towards the top of the document.
- It's straight to the point and succinct. When a GM of a large dealership is interviewing a Sales Rep or F&I Manager, they don't want to read a generic list of bullet points that convey how you can show customers cars in a showroom and give test drives. Every experienced sales rep can do this. What they want to see is a brief mention of your core competencies and results you have produced for dealerships in the past.
Don't frustrate the General Manager during your next dealership venture. Automotive sales is a high employee turnover industry - meaning you are easily and quickly replaceable if you do not make the right impression up front. Have a well-prepared resume that can save both of you time and land the job.