[Zeke]

I was trained by the manual that GM produced for the dealers in 1999. It was done with the aid of some of the best sales people and psychologists. It does work.

I didn't work at a super high volume dealer and neither did you, Denis. I led the board the first month I was out of the 2 weeks of training. It was not a TO shop so I had to put a customer on a car and negotiate/close the deal in my own booth.

You may have worked differently and while you were at Porsche, that method was likely not the way you worked. Different levels of sales require different approaches. All I know is that most auto sales folks work similar while the Rolls Royce guys need to understand THEIR customers. Most of mine had a credit score of 650. So while they wanted a luxury car (as far as they understood luxury) they needed what they needed and could be put in.

That's how it works out on the line or you go to the unemployment line. Once fired from a dealer, you're done, unless you want to sell used cars in the ghetto. By contrast, if you are top producer week after week, you are underemployed and need to move up..

I used my training more in home improvement sales setting about 100 two-hour appt's per year. As I was selling for myself, I was limited to selling what I could install. Otherwise I would have had 600 to 700 appt's a year. 60% close rate is the cut off. Don't produce that and you're gone.

BTW, if I was making negative vibes then obviously I learned nothing from GM training. GM spent millions on the program. Films, sessions, tests; all to take advantage of decades of dealer operations and experience condensed so that someone could actually manipulate a customer while making them feel good about the whole deal. That should read 'guide' rather than manipulate but let's call if what it is.

If anyone was going to make it less than a cake walk, it was the F and I guy. Those guys have ice water in their veins. Yet I got compliments from the F&I office.

Why did I quit? The F&I office. Dirty low handed cheats. Most sales managers were not far behind.

Let me give you a taste of 'manipulate'. I walk into a home and asses the sale; what are they after? Next move them to their kitchen table and sit them next to each other and across from you. Never do a one legger (spouse not present). If you end up sitting in the living room you might as well fold up and leave. The kitchen table is informal and where most families do business when more than one is agreeing on a decision. There are exceptions — recognizing exceptions and turning them into your favor is where experience and talent come in.

Lastly, one in say 12 is just not your person. Once you have sized them up and realize the deck is stacked, you cut your loses and fold up. Politely.

I worked in phone sales at Pelican one summer. I did well. Pelican was not for me however. Leave it at that. I'm done selling. I sold one way or another for 50 years straight.