Hooters

 

Something different, I’m burned out on politics for the moment.

Swiped the picture off a post on Facebook because it reminded me of a time when a marketing campaign was conceived over hot wings and beverages at a Santa Ana Hooters.

For many years I worked for a professional bullrider turned car dealer, Steve Lance, selling used pickups, utility trailers, and stock trailers. Then he became a KIA dealer. Things got “interesting” and at one time he had four KIA stores. For three years he had me organize and manage an offsite sales campaign, some 60 sales in 28 different Colorado towns. It had never before, and never since, been done on that scale.  My other duties were to be his “bitch”, doing whatever needed done. The various managers loathed seeing me walk in the door. No problem if they were running the store correctly; I was their ally. If they were stealing, loaning cars to their side chicks, not staying on top of the inventory, etc., then I was their worst nightmare.  I answered to Steve, and Steve alone. Bragging on myself a little, they couldn’t bribe me, deflect me, intimidate me, or keep me from doing what was required. I should add that Steve paid me a handsome compensation for what I was able to do.

KIA of America’s President was a former Ford executive, Peter Butterfield. He and my boss became good friends. One day while a dealer meeting was being held in Las Vegas, Peter was called into the hall and fired!  Soon, the Koreans learned the hard way what kind of contract they had signed, and the very large sum due Peter.

Soon Peter bought ATK/Vega Remanufactured engines, a company founded in 1938 in Santa Ana. Vega, a Dutch company, had built a plant in Mexico to remanufacture engines and had formed an alliance with ATK. He wasn’t satisfied with the sales and invited Steve to take a look. Steve, and three of us, flew out and spent two days looking things over.

The majority of their sales came from incoming telephone calls and they had a staff of eight to handle the volume. We spent two hours with them observing and asking questions.

In any sales force, there will be two to three “killers” and a practiced eye can spot them. In this group one was a thirties something woman. I decided to work with her. After our two hours I asked her what they needed the most.  “Make the phone ring”, she said, “and we will do the rest”.

Our flight home left in four hours so we adjourned to the nearby Hooters and put together a sales campaign. Later, on the flight home, Steve and I put a polish on it (the other two were enjoying drinks).

After some shakeout, Steve’s youngest son and I spent a year on the road “making the phone ring, a lot”. The process we used was much the one put together at Hooters.

Steve and I parted ways after that. He had turmoil in his personal and business life, divorce, bankruptcy, etc., and I got a lucrative gig doing handicapped accessibility surveys of retail gas stations. These ran to 40+ pages of notes and 100+ photographs. Union 76/Conoco was being shaken down (sued) by a man in a wheelchair and his lawyer buddy and needed many stations under their banner surveyed.

Horrid job! Started in San Diego and ended in Seattle. Best part of the job, other than seeing a lot of the coast, was no need to talk to anyone after introducing myself to the manager.

That was the first time I was in a Hooters and I can’t remember if I’ve been in one since. Not my thing.