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The MST3k version is much better.
To this day nothing has changed. It is still a people business and not the car business. As in the video, good customer service and repeat business is the only thing a store has to live on. That’s why the sharp operators prosper and the mismanaged stores fail. At one time the business did well no matter how one operated. Today it’s very skilled and requires constant attention. The factories recognized that too, and that is when CSI became a very important issue.
How relevant is “repeat business” when there are so many other competing dealerships, though? And if people are keeping their cars longer, is “repeat business” enough to keep a dealer afloat?
Back when dealers represented a single brand, the dealer and the OEM were indeed partners in the long-term customer relationship. Today, the multi-franchise mega stores are more like a department store where the OEM is just another supplier. The sales part may be similar, but the repeat sale is a completely different deal.
Martin Albright
The MST3k version is much better
Please, please please. Where can I see it? I love MST3K.
Yankinwaoz: My database is at home but they did at least two of the “Hired” shorts before the regular features sometime in 1992-94. Not sure if they have been released on DVD yet. I have yet to convert my stacks of deteriorating VHS tapes to DVD, maybe that will be a winter project?
Yankinwaoz: I spoke too soon.
Youtube, like alcohol, seems to be both the cause of, and the solution to, all of life’s problems:
This film is absolutely hillarious, I especially like the sales manager’s father sitting on the porch with his handkerchief draped on his head, lol.
Since this is I’m thinking an actual GM training film salespeople must have actually called door to door to make sales. When I started selling cars in 1976 I worked with a number of people who were in the car business in 1941, in fact my father was. I have never heard any mention of door to door prospecting. A classic film for those interested in car sales, thanks for posting it.
My god, every single customer in the film looks like they are being treated to an IRS audit by a Nazi SS officer. All of them seem like they are being seriously pressured and bullied.
I like the bit where a salesman and his boss are chatting about what used cars they don’t have in stock. The boss mentions “We don’t have ’49 thing-a-ma-bob.” Salesman says “I know someone downtown who has one”. Boss answers “Get a gun, kidnap him, and bring him down here today and we will make him an offer he can’t refuse.” It sounds like the script from a chop-shop film like The Fast and the Furious.
@Martin Albright :
The hilarious Hired Part 2 short was paired with Manos:The Hands of Fate on MST3K. It’s available as part of the Essentials collection (along with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians). I miss those guys.
Ken Strumpf: “I miss those guys.”
Me too. Mystery Science Theater 3000 was truly inspired, especially in the early years. But some of the gang are still around with their rifftrax internet venture. I’m going to my local movie house Thursday to see the broadcast of their treatment of Plan 9 From Outer Space. Remember how the cops’ patrol car changes between scenes? If only Ed Wood had a bigger budget, like maybe $500.
If that guy came to my door I’d let my dog answer. My very BIG dog.
Coffee is for closers!
Given the announced dealer culling and GM’s BK position, I wonder how many Chevy dealers today believe they’ll be around to sell Chevys, and believe GM will be around for 10 more sales to the same owner.
That level of faith has to impact sales philosophies at a basic level: move the metal now vs. make a customer for life. Customers have adjusted their BS meters’ sensitivities fairly high these days.
Just imagine the response a potential buyer would give the Chevy manager now to the statement that he wants you to be a customer 10 cars down the road. What would you say to him?
Door-to-door car sales — what a concept! Maybe GM can resurrect it.
Twotone
If you read The Machine That Changed the World (absolute required car guy reading), you’ll learn that Japanese sales channels still rely on door-to-door relationship building over generations. Families feel embarassed to buy from outside their sales channel (brand) without very good reason.
Well, it’s not exactly door-to-door, but…
Not long after I’d learned to write in cursive (3rd grade iirc, that would make it 1949), I decided to try to add to my collection of car sales literature by writing postcards to a couple of local dealers and asking for a brochure. One intrepid salesman from a dealership about ten miles away showed up a few days later with a new GMC pickup to show to this hot buyer. He talked to my father, and must have gone away shaking his head in wonderment, but if he was that interested in moving the product, he was probably doing okay.