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 (11^th 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

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