|
 Let me tell you how I got into the car business...
I was playing baseball in the over thirty league—a baseball league that allowed old guys like me to hold on to a dream—when one of the players on the team encouraged me to give the car business a try. My answer was, “There’s no way I’m going to be a car guy. If my little girl goes to school and tells her friends, my dad’s in the car business, they’ll beat her up.” No thanks.
But just as if we were standing on the showroom floor of the dealership where he worked, he didn’t take no for an answer. He sold me.
A week later, I found myself walking into the office of someone who I felt I had seen on TV since the day I was born. The man owned the hottest dealership in town and had been doing his car commercials forever. He was a larger-than-life local celebrity. I was nervous, but made to feel comfortable by the genuine kindness of the man. Then the interview began.
It was an odd setup. The owner’s giant desk sat at one end of the room and there were 8 or 10 people sitting in chairs in a half-moon facing the owner. In the middle of this circle of wagons was one chair, for me. As I sat in the chair, surrounded by the calvary, I felt like we were playing spin the bottle and I was the bottle. The first question was shouted from behind me by a consultant, “What motivates you?” My answer was simple, “To do a good job.”
“No! No! No!” Was shouted back at me. “Think. What motivates you?” My voice got a little quieter, like a child who thought he was in trouble, “To do a good job.”
“That’s not the answer!” He screamed, and started pacing back and forth, demanding I think harder, “C’mon! What motivates you?”
Seconds felt like hours, and I finally raised my voice and answered back, “Why don’t you tell me what the answer is and I’ll tell you if I thought it.”
“MONEY!” He shouted. “ If you’re going to make it in the car business, you’d better be motivated by BIG PAYCHECKS, BIG COMMISSION!”
“I’m certainly not their guy.” I thought to myself. “Commissions don’t motivate me.” And, in a wise-guy tone, said, “You’re going to pay me aren’t you?” Then I went on a bit of a rant. “Commissions aren’t for me! Look, your salespeople don’t need computers or even paper and pencils to figure car deals around here. There’s enough dust on the hood of that black sports car on your showroom floor to write out deals on the hood. And the only person in the building that seems to be bothered by that, is me. The reason is commission. There’s six salespeople within arms length of the car, but nobody wants to dust because there’s no commission in it. Sometimes you have to slide head first into second base, not knowing if you’re going to win the game.”
At this point, the owner slapped his hand down on his giant oak desk and said, “Hire him. I’m going golfing.”
From the very beginning I’ve struggled with the commissioned car buying experience, and I’ve fought to change it. In fact, I’m still fighting...
|
