The car salesman slang, lingo, and terms used at car dealerships are sometimes very cryptic to the uninformed car buyer. Dealership employees have slang terms covering almost everything that has to do with the business of selling cars.
Keep your ears open, and you might hear car salesman and their slang terms openly used during your visit. Take a minute and look below to familiarize yourself with some of the slang and jargon that car dealers and salespeople use to communicate.
How well do YOU know it?
Here's a start...
1. "Beater" - an older, low-quality car
2. "Trade-in" - a vehicle brought in as a partial payment on a new one
3. "Sticker price" - the listed price on a car
4. "Ugly duckling" - an unappealing car
5. "Lot lizard" - a salesperson who spends all their time on the dealership lot
6. "Dealer prep" - additional costs added by the dealership
7. "Undercoat" - rust-proofing spray applied to cars
8. "Floorplan" - the dealership's financing arrangement for acquiring inventory
9. "Turn and burn" - the practice of quickly selling cars for profit
10. "Grind" - the daily work of a salesperson
11. "Spot delivery" - a temporary delivery of a car before financing is approved
12. "Closer" - a salesperson who excels at closing deals
13. "Four-square" - a sales technique used to simplify the negotiation process
14. "Upside down" - when a customer owes more on their trade-in than its worth
15. "Front end" - the profit made from the sale of a car
16. "Back end" - the profit made from financing and aftermarket products
17. "Paint and fabric protection" - additional products sold to protect a car's finish
18. "Hand shake deal" - a verbal agreement to purchase a car
19. "Stock number" - a unique identification number for a car on a dealership lot
20. "Demo" - a dealership-owned car used for test drives
21. "Walking a deal" - when a salesperson cannot close a deal and passes it to another salesperson
22. "Customer pay" - repairs paid for by the customer
23. "Service loaner" - a dealership-owned car provided to a customer while their car is being serviced
24. "Drive-out price" - the final price of a car including taxes and fees
25. "Soft close" - a sales technique used to persuade a customer without being aggressive
26. "Hard close" - a sales technique that uses high-pressure tactics to close a deal
27. "Up" - a potential customer
28. "Menu selling" - a technique used to present add-on products during the sales process
29. "Bird dog" - a person who brings in potential customers in exchange for a fee
30. "Unit" - a vehicle
31. "Chop the top" - to raise the price of a car
32. "Chop the bottom" - to lower the price of a car
33. "Key box" - a box where keys to cars on the lot are kept
34. "Lost leader" - a car sold below cost to attract customers to the dealership
35. "Floor model" - a car used to demonstrate new features
36. "Holdback" - a portion of the profit from a car sale that is kept by the dealership
37. "Package deal" - a bundle of cars and aftermarket products sold together
38. "Spotting" - when a salesperson assists another salesperson with a sale
39. "Closing ratio" - the number of sales made divided by the number of customers assisted
40. "Hot lead" - a customer who is likely to make a purchase
41. "KPI" - Key Performance Indicator
42. "DSO" - Days Sales Outstanding
43. "Gross profit" - the profit made from a car sale before expenses
44. "Blower, Blowhard" – Term used to describe a customer wasting a salesman’s time with no intentions of buying a vehicle.
45. Cockroach* – Slang term used by the old school or Veteran salespeople/managers will refer to customers with bad credit that they feel are wasting their time.
Click the link for the full glossary...
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