The best salespeople are the stupid ones. When I say stupid, I don’t mean to imply that they should be mentally dull, foolish, or senseless; stupid salespeople lack keenness. When you are keen to judgment, you form an opinion based on your perception. You decide if you have a deal very quickly and market yourself that way. Using your god-given (yes little g for this one) talent of predicting the buyers from liars, you begin asking questions like what they owe on their trade; what payment do they want; and what’s their credit like? (Or, maybe that’s only happened on my lot.) That is what I love about new salespeople; they don’t know enough to be dangerous...to their career.  Like small children, newbies don’t form an opinion; they just act. Novice salespeople don’t parking lot appraise a vehicle; turn and run when a customer drives up in a beater; or blame an unsuccessful sales attempt on having a customer as an idiot.

Recently, one of my new salespeople up’d a doctor; the doctor instructed him to remove all the Jeep’s doors and the hardtop before going on a test drive. He went on to explain that he would be back in 2 hours and didn’t have time to wait. (The doctor wanted to “hear how the Jeep sounded with no doors and top"-are you kidding me?) What did my newbie do? He grabbed a socket wrench, and for the next hour, learned how to remove the Jeep’s hardtop and doors. The doctor showed back up late (imagine that); one hour later he purchased the Jeep.  The doctor told one of my managers how important it was for him to be that salesperson’s first sale; “As hard as he was trying to sell it, we were trying just as hard to buy it; we wanted to be his first sale.” To a veteran salesperson, that story has 3 strikes: 1) A doctor, 2) Being given an ultimatum of removing the top and doors, 3) And had no time to wait. By the way, he was a doctor, if I forgot to mention.  Ask yourself, if you were a 5-year veteran, would you have done that? Not sure if I would have either and that is what I love about new hires. They remind you of the optimism, raw emotion, and non-judgmental attitude you and I once had.  Become smarter to methods and knowledge and remain stupid to forming judgments.

My man Forest Gump said it right, “Stupid is as stupid does;” the real stupid ones get the job done and that is why they are good at what they do. Stay stupid, friends; see you on the Black Top!