If you’re in the business of selling cars and want to have a better experience at work, you might want to ditch selling lower-priced vehicles and focus on trying to sell some of the higher-end luxury brands instead.
At least, that’s what car salesman and TikToker Keshawn (@lifewithkey_) recommends in a viral video with over 66,000 views as of Saturday.
In the clip, he explains how he made the jump from manning used car lots to putting drivers inside pricier and fancier automobiles—and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to go back to the used car life. According to Keshawn, a month was all he needed to see that luxury car sales is where its at.
In a caption for the clip, he sums up the thesis for the TikTok, writing, “This is the differences i have noticed in the short time i have been selling cars.”
The first major difference is the type of clientele he’s dealing with: In short, these folks have money. They can pretty much buy these vehicles outright and be approved for financing and afford their monthly payments without any issue. However, he says that this is only a benefit for a salesman who can make compelling arguments against why someone might want to buy, let’s say, a Lexus IS over a BMW 3 Series, a Tesla Model 3, or other comparable vehicles in the same class.
“So automatically I realized these customers can buy whatever car they wanna buy,” he says in the clip. “They don’t need to buy a Lexus, they want to buy one. So you really have to explain the differences and the advantages of your car versus the other ones.”
Keshawn stresses again how integral it is for salespeople to be very well acquainted with their product: they need to know the ins and outs of the vehicle: the more you know about your vehicle, the more you will impress the potential car buyer.
“With these cars, there’s three different trim levels and they all come with different things and these customers want to know what the difference between each package is,” he explains. “They want to know what’s the difference between the premium, the premium plus, the luxury, and you have to know what each difference is or you’re gonna lose credibility. The top salesmen at my dealership know their product extremely well like the back of their hand.”
@lifewithkey_ This is the differences i have noticed in the short time i have been selling cars
♬ original sound – Keshawn
Playing the waiting game, according to Keshawn, is another hallmark of the luxury car sales game. He says that most high-end buyers are rushing to the dealership because their car broke down and they need anything cheap and reliable so they can get back to reliably making it to work, class, etc. on time.
Luxury drivers, he says, will happily wait for the exact model that they want in the exact trim level, paint job—everything.
“So there’s not a lot of deals that go down that same day, there’s a lot of deposits that you end up picking up and you deliver the car another day,” he continues. “But these are just some of the differences that I’ve seen so far.”
One viewer commented that the dynamic Keshawn is describing isn’t just for luxury car sales, but any new car dealer, writing, “This sounds like any new car dealer. I sell mazdas and same thing but I got 7 trims to memorize but gotta down pat.”
Someone else suggested that Keshawn may be crushing it in his position because being knowledgable only makes a salesperson more effective at their job.
“I went from selling used to selling New and used and product knowledge is a Huge one,” one wrote.
And it looks like Keshawn agrees, as one TikToker wrote to him, “Sounds like you made a great move to Lexus! Not dealing with 350 credit scores!!” to which he replied with, “Yeah but it’s all apart of the experience.”
Some folks wholeheartedly agreed with Keshawn’s assessment of the Luxury car racket vs. used rides, sharing, “Moving to Luxury was the best decision I ever made.”
Now, of course, the elephant in the room needs to be addressed: Keshawn is a salesperson. So is it really a stretch to imagine that he’s selling the idea of luxury cars as ultimately better, just because he’s now now in the business? And wouldn’t this, in a roundabout way, increase sales?
According to data from several outlets, it seems some concrete evidence points to why he’s so much happier working in luxury car sales: because the folks who offload these pricier vehicles for dealerships tend to make more money.
A LinkedIn post writes why this is the case: “The types of cars a salesperson sells matter. Luxury car sales professionals tend to make more money because there is a higher profit on these cars, and thus the commissions are higher. But sometimes, even mass-market auto dealers can earn good money selling other vehicles.”
Hiration also echoed this sentiment, writing, “Since the commission rate is based on the net profit that car dealership companies make on a given car, a luxury car salesman’s salary is naturally higher than that of a used car salesman’s salary.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Keshawn, who previously went viral for warning viewers which cars to avoid, via email for further comment.
