I started working in the car industry fresh out of college, doing marketing and website updates and design. I had no idea what I was getting into when I walked into the corporate office of a large dealership group. Now, over 2 years later, I'm still a "newbie" in the industry, but you learn a few things pretty quickly in the auto business. I found some memes that illustrate PERFECTLY some of the most important lessons I learned my first few months working in automotive.

1. Buyers often don't really know where they are in the buying process, or won't tell you the truth. Buyers are skeptical, and they have a reason to be. The car industry hasn't always been friendly in the past. But this has turned into customers either being unsure of where they truly are in the process, or being unwilling to let us know for fear we will bombard them. I saw this daily working on websites, we were trying to figure out how to identify customers that were truly interested and ignite a spark, but being blind as to where they were in the process made it difficult. 

2. One of the quickest lessons I learned is that there were typically two kinds of people working in auto; those who just landed here by chance, and those who had family in the business wayyy far back, and who had dreamed of joining the legacy. It makes for a mishmash of personalities but at the end of the day it's nice to have both types of people working in automotive. 

3. Customers are skeptical. They walk in the door with their guard up, they get onto the website expecting to be duped or taken for a ride (not in a good way.) So my job working on websites was to figure out how to help them take their guard down. We focused a lot on transparency and friendly rapport to encourage people to look at us not as the enemy, but as someone who genuinely wanted them to get a good deal on a car.

4. I have observed a few people posting on social media in ways that got them into trouble in this industry. Whether they were posting on behalf of the dealership or personally, it's important to make sure you are professional. Sales people especially are great at branding themselves and being more approachable, but one wrong post can ruin that.

5. The car industry is a lot of hard work! It's stressful, you're working on days when most people are off, the time before the holidays is always a huge gear up of email blasts and web banners. It's never-ending, and it's exciting. The car business may have shaved some years off my life due to stress, but I wouldn't trade it for a second!