“You are all a bunch of losers. What you need to do, is go to a pawn shop and buy a revolver, then shoot yourselves in the head, and rid the world of your sorry asses. Now, get a .22, not a .38, because a .22 will bounce around inside your thick skulls and do enough damage to kill you. A .38 will punch on through, leaving you brain dead. How would we be able to tell the difference ?” So started our sales meeting by the owner.
Sales meetings! The worst part of car sales are sales meetings. Usually overlong, repetitive and bladder stretchers. There are exceptions.
Dan King was noted for his brevity. “I’m going fishing. If you aren’t on pace to meet your goals, better not take any days off. Now git!” He also was noted for his way of terminating under performing sales people. “What are you doing in my meeting?”
Selling cars isn’t for wimps.
As a manager, I separated sales meetings and sales training. My meetings were under twenty minutes. Sales training was no more than thirty minutes. Training happened every day.
One place I worked had a Friday morning meeting and a Monday morning meeting. The weekend “spiff” checks were passed out on Monday. If you were with a customer, you could skip the meeting. I once went nine months without attending a Friday morning meeting. Appointments, baby! Mondays were different. “Gives me my money!”
The owner giving us the “rat whip” meeting had only himself to blame for his store losing money. His construction business took up a lot of his time. He had his brother, owner of race horses, running the store. The brother spent more time on the telephone with his trainers than he did on selling cars. In addition, the brother had little talent and no passion for the business. Although I was making good money there, I soon went to “down the road motors”.
Over and over, I’ve seen small business failures caused by having family members on the payroll. If they weren’t family, they would be fired. I’ve also observed superb performances from family members. Seems to be a crap shoot.
My “buddy”, Dirty Al, had his own way of handling meetings. The silent fart. He always claimed, “My farts don’t smell”. Al, your shit does stink.
6 comments:
I've never had a sales job, and I couldn't do it... Too many years in the military to put up with the crap y'all had to handle...
@ NFO Sales wasn't in my life plan as a young man. Like many, I did what was necessary to feed my family. For someone with an ultra competitive mind set, sales has some special rewards.
I never wanted a sales job, either. And forget retail. Just my short stint in fast food made me realize that I don't love the public. At all.
You're a better man than I am.
Actually, I'm not a man at all.
@ Ami It is what my late father called THE BELLY FLAPPIN Principal. When your belly is flapping (hungry) you can become very motivated.
Most of the public are nice people. The ones who were assholes got to pay extra!
The is one of the many sales meetings I don't ever want to have to experience!
-Jackie
@ Jackie This meeting was extreme but not atypical. Sales is the ultimate portable skill. I've went from one job to another in an hour.
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