General Motors has initiated changes to its “Standard of Excellence” salesperson bonus structure. For 2018, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC salespeople will earn up to $150, down from $225 in 2017.
Automotive News reported on the big changes on Monday, which salespeople and dealer owners are hotly debating. Last year, if a salesperson sold at least 11 Chevrolets, 7 GMCs or 5 Buicks, he or she would qualify for the $225 per car, which included a $75 add-on bonus for setting up OnStar. The volume figures don’t change, but the add-on bonus goes away for 2018.
Some dealers expressed concerns that it could lead to higher staff turnover if a salesperson finds a more competitive program at a competing brand or dealer. Others aren’t so worried and view the GM bonus as simply that: an extra bonus atop dealer salary and commission.
Other dealer owners, such as Mike Bowsher, chairman of the Chevrolet National Dealer Council, said he’s confident dealers will take care of their employees and the bonus cuts wouldn’t affect employment.
“For the salespeople who may be affected, I certainly trust dealers are aware enough to take care of those folks. I’m certainly not going to lose any of my folks,” he said.
Perhaps more troubling is another change: a salesperson needs to meet or exceed the regional customer satisfaction index target each quarter to earn any bonus. That could spell trouble for a salesperson, who could receive poor scores due to a vehicle’s mechanical failure or other issues.
“If you’re only delivering five Buicks and seven GMCs and you have two or three bad reports due to product failure, you’re in trouble,” an anonymous salesperson said.
Comments
Same old GM screwing over the people who actually do the work while the high price bell hops make money doing nothing to get the products to consumers pyramid upside down
GM has to allocate money to the most deserving. The top 4 executives total compensation over the last 3 years was only some $45,000,000. Can’t wait to see this year! They are the big brains that are years behind Toyota et al, in designs, quality and reliability. Forget the lowly Chevrolet salesperson. High School graduates are a dime a dozen. If they get any good they will leave for a better company. I have not met a professional GM salesperson in years.
Stop the socialist part line. No matter how much the higher us make the bottom feeding salesman will never make a ton of money.
In this world you get what you work for. If you want more you need to step up with education or skills and put in the time to earn it.
The big wigs did not have red carpets to the top. Most are on a third marriage, work long hours and have had to move a dozen times or more.
Even at the top Time is fleeting and everyone hates you.
The truth is what most of them did to get there is nothing anyone else could not replicate if they truly wanted to put in the effort, time and sacrifices.
Many turn out not always happy too. There has been many who died an early death due to stress and drinking.
Well with the way I was treated by several GM dealers this year they don’t even deserve this.
I was scolded by one for asking for their best price off sticker on a Colorado. He wanted sticker price?
I went in to buy a new Acadia Denali on a Saturday. The salesman wanted to make the deal on Monday as it was at the end of their day at 5 PM. We took off work to buy the vehicle on Monday only to find it was sold right before we came in?
Another dealer I tried to order a ZR2 and for a week no one could give me a price. I was told by the salesman that they could give me a price when it came in if I ordered it? Then the sales manager said the guy who prices the trucks was out till Monday. Well I found a GMC I liked better else where.
I never had such a hard time buying vehicles. GM was lucky I wanted two GMC’s this year as if I was a Toyota owner thinking of changing I may not have changed.
Sales is a tough business but there is no call for this kind of BS.
The Chevy I bought a couple years ago was done via E mail from work. Got my price and they dealer traded what I wanted. My last GMC the same.
Note the dealers I worked with were all large dealers not some small one.
Well, that all sounds not-good.
Interesting, too, that you’d have to sell 7 GMCs over 5 Buicks – GMC margins are better than Buick (esp LaCrosse).
Maybe these bonus cuts are related to the hefty incentives that are prevalent lately.
I’ve had some terrible experiences from all brands; best I’ve ever encountered is currently a Chevy Dealership, she just gives her lowest price, all incentives and doesn’t inflate % or MF for leases…Furthermore she’ll make a deal over text/email/phone, send a courier for you to sign the paperwork, will have the car driven to your house and show you all the features for delivery…She herself is well known in various forums which was how I found her…Ironically she’ll be the first to tell you to never deal with any of the lot people who will try to screw you…She’s often so busy by the end of the month you often have a wait a day to hear back from her…She’s simply too busy to waste her time on the lot with someone…She is an Internet Manager which are often the salespeople who can give lower prices; also they’re usually promoted from the regular sale staff…
Go to a dealership near your work even if you do not plan on buying from that location, determine what vehicle, trims and options you want and leave…Because you’re going to communicate you’re already 15mins into your 1 hour lunch hour, the salesman may not even bother with you…Once you decide what you like, you google for a previously reported deals and salesman/internet manager…Agree to a price over text/email prior to going in, even with a trade in, say no trade so you can agree to a sales price…
99% of all dealerships work on the “sales quota” not the “profit quota”…While some cars have extra sales staff incentives, while some cars have been rotting on the lot for a year, you’re usually rated by your ability to CLOSE the deal or not…A salesmen is usually held in higher regards for selling two cheaper vehicles vs one more expensive high trim vehicle…
We got lucky on our latest GMC.
While we got screwed by one dealer. I got online and found three similar I sent I’ve deals on line. Two at one dealer with one model with one major option missing on the one we lost.
That dealer was great to work with and we were out the door $13k plus off sticker.
There are still some dealers that are good. The one we bought a Terrain from the sales manager came in on a Saturday and beat my expected price on the first offer. No games. He had the price with tax and all in the sweet spot.
I would have gone back to him had they had what we wanted. With incentives high many dealers were not trading models.
My family has been working with the same guy from Cadillac for years (early 90’s I think). We even followed his to a new dealership in 2005 when the first closed down.
If anyone is in the southeast Pennsylvania area, and wants to buy a Cadillac, go see Craig from Hill Cadillac. Great guy and the other dealer staff could not be nicer. The GM of the dealership even gave us free auto show tickets…… twice!
auto show tickets are FREE to the Dealers
Are the 11/7/5 bonus quotas per calendar month? Or are they just bonuses, like getting your sandwich card punched at lunch, and every 11th Chevrolet at any time earns you the bonus?
Per calendar month.
death of commission
sales as we know it is over. before 9/11 i worked at a Chevy store where the brain dead gm had a invoice sale he put a mock invoice in the paper .the sales people where up in arms because he was giving away our trade info almost a betrayal having come from the mortgage business and never sold cars he hated salespeople .he stood in the meeting and said i dont care about you making money my hold back will make this work .and you guys get a big unit bonus at the end of the year ( BACK THEN YOU WOULD GET PAID YEARLY ) that was the first time i heard a manager using our bonus as a excuse to take point of sale gross away . then 9/11 happened and we had to jump start sales again so the birth of zero percent was born it helped us but also hurt us people would never take five percent or go long terms again then that novelty wore off we give out 72@0% and nobody cares but the uber drivers trying to steal a suburban .. we would offset a new car mini with a few certified used cars and today thats almost impossible with the catfish banks preying on sub prime handing out 24.95 percent with huge bank fees gross is hard to make . i started this journey twenty six years ago i love cars i love people and i am a gm true blue lowering the bonus from 225 was a blow and its hurts low volume stores i never seen a payplan i couldnt make money with but bonus and commission as we know it is over
If we google the average salary of a salesmen, they makes $40K/year which includes commission…Yet not only do they usually work a roughly 60 hour work week but if they were texting/talking to a customer, they often have to interact with them on their time off or they risk losing their sale possibly another dealership…
There are multiple studies done for the dealership owners who offer a fixed salary for their sales staff…The results are usually positive for everyone…Customers are willing to pay more, sales staff are happier and tend to never want to leave which makes management happy as that they’re not constantly training new people…
GM wouldn’t exist with out federal bailout! They cannot manage themselves without tax payer handouts. They are trying to take a hostel takeover of individually owned and operated dealers. They cannot be trusted to anything especially counting on them to make a living. They are shortening warranties and services that they once promised their customers and their employees. It will be a matter of time before they will back begging for another hand out to keep operating that way. Executives making six and seven digit incomes from their cushy offices and cutting the throats of their ground workers. Sounds like there are too many chiefs and not enough of Indians. If you cut the throats of the ground workers, soon enough it will affect their salaries too. Customers have way too many choices to be cutting back on what they are giving back to customers and employees. I have learned in 22 years of new GM retail sales that you cannot count on anything that comes out of corporate. Its their game and they can change it anytime they like. Not one of their employees could successfully own and operate a prosperous dealership. They would not like corporate having open access to their checking accounts, holding tens of thousands of dollars in rebate money for up to 3 months, dealing with reps that have no knowledge or working experience with retail customers, showing you the way to make your store profitable. Its like the blind leading the blind.