Grant Cardone Looking Out For The Car Guys (and Gals...)

Wouldn't want to get branded as sexist!

Recently Grant put up an article titled, "CNBC's Becky Quick Is Quick to Paint Car Salesmen as Sexist and Stu..." In the article Grant calls Becky to task for making such a broad generalization and then calls her out for rewarding the dealership that provided the alleged stupidity and sexism with the sale.

Considering I'm posting this on DealerElite, it's probably safe to say we're all in agreement here that there will be a few bad apples in every barrel. And it's also kind of a no brainer that it's pretty low ball to just lump every automotive professional into the Eugene Levy character from National Lampoon's Vacation.

Personally, I made it my mission from the first day I walked into the car business to not be "that guy" and then proceeded to align myself with like minded people.

So... Yes, there are bad apples in every industry. It should be the responsibility of that industry to purge the barrel so to speak. If the industry doesn't, then the market itself will exercise economic natural selection. Now, was this poor guy in the article a bad apple? I doubt it. Based on the tone of the Becky's article, whether she knew it or not, she went in there looking for a fight.

Now that that's out of the way, let's make some lemonade!

What can we learn from this? What can Ms. Quick teach us about ourselves?

As a salesman, sales person, if you decide at the point of contact you got "a stroke" then that's usually what you're going to get. We create our reality. If you're in management, if you decide a salesman sales person is "a weak suck," guess what? Pretty much that's what you'll find. And so it goes for the client. If they show up looking for a poor experience, there's a pretty good chance they're going to find a poor experience.

Moral of the story? Let's all, from salesperson to customer, approach a selling situation with fresh eyes. Leave the experiences of the past where they belong; in the past.

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Comment by John J. Dillon Jr. on March 16, 2012 at 3:20pm: Well said David!

Comment by Steven Lee Stasi on March 12, 2012 at 7:16pm: Way to stand up for the business Grant! We all know not all car people are created equally. Also when we (as I was)are raised to be curtious and say please, thank you, may I, no sir, yes mame-it in this day and age can often be misconstrood to be sexist. When in "reality" you were just following the same proper proticall you were raised with.

Comment by Stanley Esposito on March 12, 2012 at 10:57am: Nice Job! The rule of thumb that works just about everywhere is: You get what you pay for.
It also seems like society Sales people and customers are getting more confrontational.Can't we all get along?

Comment by Joe Webb on March 12, 2012 at 10:15am: Simply put, we read into our engagements with others what we want to. If she was expecting an antagonistic relationship from the start, I'm sure she was able to find elements to any transaction that would turn her off. There ARE bad apples, in every industry. However, it is clear that it would be in her journalistic best effort (for the article's sake) if she bumped into one. And that's what she did. You go looking for a fight, you'll usually find one. It's not always that the other person is a brute.

Comment by Pat Kirley on March 12, 2012 at 9:00am: We were only talking about customers with bad attitude in our dealership today.
Not only do they get treated badly, they never get a great deal. The nice customer
always gets top price and a few freebies thrown in.
And gender does not come into the equation unless the salesperson is a walley who
Has no interest in his earning.
The customer who starts with "I don't like/trust car salespeople" should realise that person is going to price his car.
Are the media perfect? Most certainly not.