Auto sales believed to be perfect career choice for Uptain
Car Salesperson Trina Uptain has been at Long-Lewis Russellville for 4 years and believes being in sales is what she was born to do. | Nathan Strickland/FCT
Selling cars can be a haunting task, but for some car salesman it is a job they work hard at day in and day out.
Putting people into their dream car is Trina Uptain’s mission every time she walks onto the lot at Long-Lewis Russellville.
Uptain has been with the used-car dealership for 4 years and believes it is what she was born to do.
“I believe it is just my nitch,” she said. “I’ve been in sales for years and I have found it to be something I truly enjoy doing. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Being a salesperson, Uptain said she gets the opportunity every day to meet people and help get them into the car of their dreams.
That aspect of the job has kept Uptain wheeling and dealing for the past couple of years, but she admits there are times where trying to sell a car becomes disheartening.
“Telling customers that they have not been approved is tough for me,” she said. “I have a soft, tender heart so it’s not easy for me to see a person not get approve. I want to do everything I can to get them what they want, but unfortunately sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way the customer and I want it to.”
Uptain said she is so thankful that Long-Lewis Russellville opened up here and stationed her at home.
“This is my hometown and working here I get to spend a lot more time with my family which makes a huge difference to me,” she said.
A typical workday for Uptain sometimes begins before the dealership even opens and Uptain said there are days to where she has long hours.
“On a normal day I would start with a motivational type meeting in the morning then get on the phone and contact previous customers and try to bring them back to the lot to finish finding a car for them,” she said. “After that, I tend to customers who drive up. I usually deal with around three customers a day, depending on what they are looking for. On the slow days, I walk the inventory, making sure I know the vehicles on the lot so that I can better serve a customer when the come in.”
Many people believe buying a vehicle to be an all day thing, but Uptain said it really all depends on what the customer is looking to purchase.
“If you know exactly what you want, then you can be in and out of here in a little over an hour,” she said. “But the majority of people like to come in with an idea of what they might want and I tend to show them the inventory that meets their wants and it becomes an all day thing.
“The great thing about our dealership is that we give you our final price up front and that seems to cut down on how long it takes to get a person into a vehicle they want.”
Uptain said the top two things customers are currently looking for are vehicles with good gas mileage and low payment plans and she does her best to meet both of those criteria.
Uptain said there are times where she has sold vehicles to people to where it was more of a need instead of a want.
“I’ve had customers who have had a spouse to come down with cancer and needed a dependable car to carry them back and forth to the treatment center in Birmingham,” she said. “It really touches my heart when I can come up with a great car for those type of situations.”
Uptain hopes anyone who is looking for a vehicle will come in and give her that opportunity to help them drive off the lot in the car of their dreams.
