The power of doing the right thing

            So last week I wrote a story about my old manager in the car business.  I had some good feedback from people who read the article and they expressed condolences for having worked with someone like that.  While it’s a bit comical to have that reaction it helped me “purge” the experience from my mind.

            Rather than sharing the horrible negatives of the experience with one manager I decided to not only share more stories about the “evil boss” but examples of the “good boss” who also worked at the same location.  Much like the yin yang in every bit of negative there needs to be positive.

            One night early in my career I was working with an airman from Texas.  He was interested in trading in his two wheel drive FJ cruiser (yes they exist) and buying a truck for the Nebraska winters.  After giving him plenty of grief about his “poser” FJ with knobby tires and winch we were having a good time.

            We had two trucks on the lot that met his criteria.  Ironically they were parked next to each other and the one was a dark blue and the other was black.  There was an $8000 price difference between the two as one had much higher miles.  That more expensive truck was out of the budget we were looking at but it was the truck he wanted.

            At this time most of the sales staff and managers had left for the night.  It was getting late and we were down to minimal staff waiting for me to close this deal.  My “non-evil” manager was cutting to the chase but staying within the procedures set fourth by the dealership.  We were having fun joking around while he crunched numbers to keep our moods positive.  I always enjoyed working deals with him because he gave you the information and then double checked to make sure you understood what it meant.

            After several hours of working the numbers we were close to making the deal.  We were within $100 of the figures working out and getting the deal closed.  I pulled the CarFax to show that the vehicle hadn’t been in a wreck.  It was then we noticed something somewhat shocking.

            The truck we had been working numbers on was the more expensive VIN trucks VIN number.  The tricky part was we had been using the financials of the cheaper truck the whole time.  This was a huge error that had slipped through the cracks.  The airman was blown away, as was I, and the thought of potentially starting over was hanging in the air.

            I brought the mistake to the attention of my manager.  When you’re the last people in a dealership you can get away with some things you normally wouldn’t do.  In this case the loud bellowing “YAWP” from my manger went mostly un noticed.  After some chewing on his toothpick he simply said, “well…lets do this.”

            He walked back into the room with my airman nervously texting away on his phone.  My manager sat down and with a heavy head said, “Well…we screwed up and have been working the wrong truck this whole time.  I’m a man of my word so if you want this truck for that price I’ll sell it for that…tonight only…so we can wrap this up and get out of here.  What do you say?”  with that he held out his giant catcher mitt sized hand to shake.  (He’s a friend to this day so I can’t write a glowing article about his positive attributes without giving him some grief)

            The airman, who wanted the black truck from the start, lit up and smiled ear to ear.  “Deal” and with that we hastily wrapped up everything so we could all get the hell out of there.

            The truck was a major loss in terms of profitability for the dealership.  I made the bare minimum you can make on a car deal.  I felt like I had failed the dealership in some way.  But my “non-evil” boss sensed my feeling off.  “You can’t win them all…and sometimes you need to do the right thing no matter what it costs you.”

            It was then I knew it was possible to have integrity in the auto world.  An industry full of “misfit toys” and a history of being despicable still had some bastions of hope and moral fiber.

            The airman not only loved the truck but he came back to buy his dream car from me later that year.  We ordered it from the factory with every nut and bold with his name on it.  To this day it was the only glass roofed Mustang GT I’ve ever seen in Omaha.  Its also “Gotta Have it Green” so its not to hard to miss on the streets.  If you don’t know what that color is imagine hooking up a lime to 100 watts of power and covering it with baby oil.  It’s a color that stands out from miles away and looks alive when you’re close.

            While these deals weren’t the deals I was going to retire on they did set a few things in motion.  Firstly, I found an example of what I wanted to become in the auto industry.  Luckily for me he was willing to mentor me when my “assigned” mentors did little to help me grow.  The Mustang was the first USAA purchase in the dealership.  Within a few months of his purchase we became the USAA dealership closest to the large Air Force Base down the interstate.  The volume of cars we sold to USAA members at home and even deployed more than made up for the loss on the truck.

            Both guys are still good friends to this day.  I’m constantly referring buyers to my “non-evil” boss who is running on of the highest rated dealerships in the Midwest.  When asked what his secret was by one of the owners his response was so simple it was genius, “do the right thing, every time”.  While I can’t refer much to the airman I still enjoy seeing photos of his mustang as it has morphed into “Hulk”.