Anger Management

 

LL started me down memory lane with a post involving Syrian car salesmen.

https://www.virtualmirage.org/do-you-recall-beirut/

In 1986 got a start in retail automotive sales with Suzuki Samurais in Renton, WA. The plan was to sell cars until construction recovered from Ronald Reagan and we could go back to making big bucks in Alaska. With gaps here and there, I was still in the business until 2010 in one capacity or another.

If there is one inflexible rule in the car biz, it is the deal COMES FIRST!  When a salesperson and desk (sales manager) is working a deal, no one interrupts. Ever!

The Seattle area had quite a number of Iranians. One was a wholesaler. I was working a deal with Beefy Boy and the Iranian kept interrupting. Since he was “greasing” Beefy Boy with cash and drugs, in his arrogance he decided the rule didn’t apply to him.

The lot was level but dropped off sharply and our building was about 12’ off the ground in the rear where the sales office was located. There was an open window and I threw the Iranian out the window. Then I turned to Beefy Boy and said, “Desk my fucking deal”.

Beefy Boy in his prime was a shot putter who was on the Olympic team going to Moscow. A few years earlier at an offsite sale we got into it and I put him on his ass three times before we were separated. No coward, he looked at me and said, “Fuck, you are a tank”. From that day on in the car business I was known as, ‘Frank the Tank’.  Thank you Coach Romano (high school wrestling coach) and Green Machine hand to hand combat training as he easily outweighed me by 50+ lbs.

After the Iranian extracted himself from the blackberry vines, he took his sad tale across the street to the new car store and complained to the general manager. That caused him to be banned from doing business with the store for six months.

The GM’s sales team at a different store had included me when I had $500 deducted from my pay for anger management training. A few weeks later the owner stopped me and said,

“Tank, when are you going to anger management classes?”

“Shit, Rich, I knew I had to pay for them. I didn’t know I had to attend them”.

The owner wasn’t amused. That said, I never did go to the classes.

I do manage my anger by focusing on whatever is pissing me off and neutralizing it. Side effect? Seems to make other people angry; they should seek anger management, IMO. YMMV

If you have read this far, you are saving, “WSF, you are a bigot”. Not necessarily so. In my personal life I take everyone as they come until I have a reason not to. In business, there are patterns of behavior associated with groups, ethnic, financial, religious, age, sex, professions, etc.  If you are to survive, in business, you better have a basic understanding of the groups.

Examples: I’ve only known one, just one, Samoan with good credit. I’ve never had a Chinese tell me what they had for a down payment and then not come up with it. I’ve never had a Jew, after all the haggling; shake hands on a deal then renege. I’ve never had a West African tell me anything truthful.

And one last example. The customer starts, “Well we are Christians, and we………………..” In my mind, I’m getting all the cash before you drive off in our merchandise.