Lets forget the high unemployment rate, the fact that all of our houses have lost 20-30% in value in the last 5 years, that factories are closing down, that our football team (the Lions) started out great and now are back to their normal caliber--this is what really sucks about selling cars in Michigan!
We are expecting a foot of snow in the next 12 hours and you know what--snow is pretty, it covers up garbage nicely but when you sell cars in Michigan, you have to "snow broom" off every car. Key-up every car, start it (hope that it starts--if not, get the jump box! and hope that it has gas which it probably won't), move the car, let the plow truck guy plow, move the car back, repeat in next row and it is an all day affair.
I am from Michigan and I know what it is like to see snow, but I moved to Tennessee for about 7 years and if there was the threat of snow, everything shut down (including the schools) and people bought every loaf of bread they could find and every gallon of milk they could cram into their car. When I moved back to Michigan in March of 2003, it snowed about 5" the first day. I didn't have a dealership winter coat so I wore dress pants, dress shoes and a leather jacket. Someone handed me a snow broom (kind of like a big squeegie) and I said, "What the hell is this?" I found out over the next 10 hours.
Oh yeah--since we are commissioned salespeople, we don't get paid to do it. One time in 5 years--they bought us chicken--I think only after a few of us threatened to quit.
Oh yeah--there are about 10 of us selling cars. On average, 3 will show up 2 hours late (after we all already get started "moving snow", 1 will catch whatever customer he/she can (even if they can't buy) and milk that customer for the whole day, 1 is pregnant, 1 is plowing (by the way--they pay him to drive in a nice warm truck while we get blasted with the snow and the wind for free), 1 will disappear so what does that leave--an the magic number is... 3 of us to do the entire lot!
Oh yeah--the managers always dress up in their boots and sweatshirts and walk out with us but that is just their "token help." That only lasts long enough for the boss to see them out their "leading the team." Speaking of the boss--one time he cracked his windows about 2 inches and muttered something to us about how much he appreciated the work as he pulled by in his nice, warm demo. Maybe that was the day we got the chicken. Probably not--you only get the 2" crack in the window OR the chicken--you can't have both.
Oh yeah--they told us to dress warm tomorrow--oh shit.
3 comments:
I know all about snow in Michigan. I used to live in the Grand Rapids and Muskegon area for quite a while. Now I moved out to North Dakota...lemme tell you, there is not as much snow buy boy does it get cold. Down to 30 or 40 below about 10 times a year.
Yeah--you guys got all the lake-effect snow there--my mom used to live near Grand Rapids.
Well--8:00AM monday morning--getting the long-johns on. I absolutely dread this day!
I know how you feel... I sell in Wisconsin. Every time it snows it reminds me what a great idea it would be to move south. Not to mention I drive 45 minutes to get to work on all backroads. And there has been plenty of days that I was on the lot 12 hours moving snow and didn't see a single customer. Occasionally, I get lucky and get to use the bobcat to plow the sidewalks with.
And Marv, 8:00am and you are just getting the longjohns on??? I have to be at work at 8:00am so I am doing that at about 6:00am.... then taking them off at 8:45pm when I get home, lol.
I definately agree tho about dreading the snow... How about we turn this into a blog on how to overcome the "Snow Objections" such as "I don't want to test drive one of your cars in this weather" or "I can't make it out today because of the weather", lol.
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