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January 3, 201 1
www.usedcarnews.com
Dealers Leery Of Younger Salespeople By Ted Craig
A major gap is growing between dealers and the latest generation of salespeople. Young people today have grown up in an age of Internet access, cell phones and DVRs that train them to expect instant gratification, most dealers say. They seem more interested in leisure than money, although they still expect to make a high salary. “They’re looking for a 9 to 5 job that pays exceptional m o n e y,” s a i d A n t h o n y Underwood, owner of Underwood Automotive in Bessemer, Ala. And showing up for those limited hours can be an effort, said Lou Pellegrini, owner of City Select Auto Sales in Burlington, N.J. “It’s like they don’t understand what getting to work at 9 a.m. means,” Pellegrini said. This causes a change in the way dealers operate their stores.
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Underwood finds he needs to break down jobs into narrow segments, right down to people who only greet customers. “We had to adjust the work environment for what we h a v e t o w o r k w i t h ,” Underwood said. New staff did a little of every job when Underwood was coming up. That prepared them for the time when they would oversee the entire operation. Both Underwood and Pellegrini have sons in the business and they try to teach them a traditional work ethic, but this often proves challenging. “It goes against what their f r i e n d s a r e d o i n g ,” Underwood said. Young people display a casual attitude in everything, Pellegrini said, including how they dress. His dress code at City Select requires a buttondown shirt and pressed slacks. That often proves too much for some of Pellegrini’s staff. The other day he had a young man come to a job interview wearing jeans and a hoodie. While that may work for the founder of Facebook, Pellegrini declined to hire him. Young people lack more than a work ethic. They lack social skills as well. They’ve grown up with texts and e-mails, said Joe Lescota, chairman of the automotive marketing department at Northwood University. Many prove unable to carry
Illustration by Joe Schlaud
on a face-to-face conversation. Consumers wind up turning to the Internet for information on vehicles because dealership staff can’t tell them anything about the
cars they’re trying to sell. The problem with that is computers can’t develop relationships, Lescota said. The good employees are still out there. “Dealers have to be a lot
more selective in hiring,” Lescota said. Pellegrini wonders how new of a trend this really is. “Maybe young people were always like this,” he said. “I wasn’t.”
City Wants Less Inventory on Lots Size matters for dealers in Braintree, Mass. Last month, the town’s license board issued warnings to three used-car dealerships whose inventories exceeded the permitted size. The violations were found by town inspectors during the license renewal inspection process. The town places limits on the number of vehicles a dealer can have on display to avoid a lack of access for fire engines and other emergency vehicles. Braintree Auto Brokers, One Stop Auto and Padula Auto Sales were each given the opportunity to bring their inventories down to legal size. All three dealerships agreed to comply. “I’m doing my best to satisfy them,” said Joseph Padula, owner of Padula Auto Sales. However, cutting down his inventory has not been easy. Padula is permitted to keep 50 cars on his lot in Braintree. As sales have declined, his inventory volume has been higher than anticipated. Padula received more time to comply, but it remains an ongoing effort.
IN THIS ISSUE • Winter weather proves a bigger factor than fuel prices. – Page 3
• CarMax reported record results in its latest quarter. – Page 6
• Many dealers fail to meet compliance requirements. – Page 5
• Economists are upbeat about next year. – Page 8