Saturday use to be the day to make car deals. Things have changed. I've just spent almost four hours standing on the point without a customer coming on the lot.(The point is where a car salesman stands waiting for a customer).
To be good at standing on the point you need to stay in this one small confined area watching and waiting for the next customer. Take your eyes off the lot for a minute and you risk being"skated" by one of your fellow salesmen. If you need to use the bathrooom or get a drink well you can't. It is an unwritten law the moment you leave the point someone will drive in and the other guy (that has been waiting for you to get a customer), will skate you and sell them. I've had this happen a few times. I have been on the point for three hours with no break; when I decide to go get a glass of water. I leave the point for two minutes a customer will drive in at that moment and the next guy in line will skate you, he makes the sale and pockets a few hundred dollars and when I come back out I realize I just got skated and have wasted three hours of my time. I don't think I can think of another line of work where you have to be fearful of the guy working next to you. I guess you can figure out what is meant by the term "skate." That's right, it is when one of your fellow salesmen steals a customer from you--(he skates right pass you to grab the customer). Some guys don't mind being labeled a skater, but it is not a term I want associated with my name. Everybody in the car business hates a skater. And sooner or later he will get skated too . What a great feeling it is to skate the skater. Boy this is some way to make a living.
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I know what you mean sheetmetal-man! I too sell cars for a living. When it comes to skating, I've been on both sides. Another form of skating, the most vicious kind, happens when salesman A takes salesman B's customer when salesman B has the day of or is otherwise occupied... It would be nice of the customer if they would tell the salesman "A types" they will come back or wait for salesman B to become available... But it seems like many customers just don't care about us.
JGD
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