Just Shoot Me…

June 25, 2008

Last night I went out with my 19 year old son car shopping. I promised to help buy him a car after his first year of college if he got good grades. He apparently took me seriously as he proceeded to rack up straight A’s two quarters in a row. On the way to the first dealership, I explained that there was no correlation between the grade point average and the dollar value of the vehicle we were in search of. That conversation went really well as you might imagine.

We proceeded to visit 6 dealerships, Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Chrysler, Audi and another Toyota store. The depressing fact is that I was only introduced to one manager (Chrysler store) and not any one, and I mean no one recorded our name or telephone number.

Holy shit, what is going on out there? The last I checked, these are tough times and we were about as good of an up as they come. What about all the CRM solutions in these dealerships? What about all the management supervision? What about all the sales training?

I went home thoroughly depressed and drank scotch to overcome my sense of despair.