I recently purchased a new car trading my older vehicle.
Now, my experience
tells me that buying a car outright without a trade-in presumes an encounter
with a car salesperson not unlike a Fischer/Spassky chess match of caution,
awareness, manipulation, irritation and endurance. And when you throw in to the
mix a trade-in, the match becomes Kasparov and Deep Blue (IBM Computer). Even when you complete the deal, you just
know you could’ve done better. The
dealer made too much off the new car and the old one. No doubt!
A recent Gallup Poll supports our weariness and doubt as we
face the car salesperson. Can you
believe that for professional service providers car salespeople rate dead last—yes
even below Congress—on honesty and ethics?
Only 8% of us believe that car salespeople are honest. Nurses rate the highest—85% of us trust
nurses to be transparent and truthful.
But, my car salesman is different. I believe that Eric Green, Acura salesman and
member of its “Council of Sales Excellence” is truthful, is honest and is
ethical. I had a great experience with
Eric. Yes, we haggled some, arm-twisted
some, and experienced hours of deafening silence before dong the deal. But in the end I was satisfied with the deal
struck. Yes, I probably left some money
on the table but if so it was done fairly and with my approval. No shenanigans, no lies, no
misrepresentation.
Eric reminds me of a story about Ralph Kiner, sportscaster
and former baseball great. After the
season in which Kiner hit 37 home runs, he asked Pittsburgh Pirate general
manager Branch Rickey for a raise. Rickey refused. "I led the league in
homers," Kiner reminded him. "Where did we finish?" Rickey asked
him. "Last," Kiner replied. "Well," Rickey said, "We
can finish last without you."
There are many Eric Greens in the car sales profession. I’ll wager that most people who buy cars will
walk away and say that they had a good experience with “their”
salesperson. Much like the negative
label on CPAs and lawyers during the Enron, WorldCom and other scandalous
events, outstanding and honest car salesmen are unfortunately painted with the
same brush as a minority of unethical, manipulative, and dishonest car
peddlers.
It perhaps is a slight overstatement but most of us are
pleased with our lawyer, our CPA, our doctor, our nurse, car salesman and even
our congressman. But when we lump all
the lawyers, CPAs, etc. into a discreet population we tend to ascribe to the
entire profession our view of a tiny few who are the untrustworthy rascals.
So it happens that Eric Green of the car sales profession, Mike
Conaway of the U.S. Congress (11th District,
Texas) and countless others will still be part of professions which finish last
in the public’s perception of trust. But
we individually know them to be honest, ethical and trustworthy.
So what do the Eric Greens and Mike Conaways do about this
injustice? They take a page out of
another great ballplayer’s experiences.
Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, played professional baseball for the
Chicago Cubs from 1953 to 1971. He won National League (NL) Most Valuable
Player award in 1958 and 1959, set a Major League record for home runs by a
shortstop with 47 in 1958, named to the Major League All-Century team in
October, 1999 as a shortstop, led NL in home runs in 1958 and 1960 and RBIs in
1958 and 1959, hit 40 or more home runs four consecutive years (1957-1960) and
five times overall, hit 512 career home runs, and had 100 or more RBIs eight
times. But with all that accomplishment, Ernie Banks never appeared in a playoff
or World Series game. Not once. He was part of a team, a profession if you
will, that “finished last.”
How did Ernie Banks respond to the unfairness of his being
an all-Star on bad teams? “It’s a great day
for a ball game, let’s play two.” “It
all comes down to friendship, treating people right.” Actor Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) said of Banks:
“"He never complained about his team's bad luck or bad talent,
never stopped playing the game with joy, never stopped giving his all, never
lost his proud demeanor, and never acted like anything but a winner. He was a
symbol of the Cub fan's undiminishing resilience. If he could be happy to come
to the park each afternoon, then so could we."
So when we find ourselves lumped in with the negative
perceptions of our profession, we keep on keeping on with our intent to be a
difference. And the contagious spirit of
our actions, our service and our example will spread and one day even with the
tendency of the public to drift to the negative, our profession won’t finish
last.
“Nice guys finish last” (Leo Durocher) only because of
perception. We can change that!
David
Costello, CPA
Ad astra
Per aspera
