Baseball

Spring is here, and I got to thinking about an old car man adage about Babe Ruth. As the story goes the Babe hit 60 home runs in 1927, but he also had another record that year: strike outs. The moral of the story is if you don’t go to bat, you don’t have a chance of hitting a home run.

The car business is exactly like baseball. Just like every young ball player dreams of hitting home runs, the budding car man dreams of the home run grosses he’s going to make. Everyone in the business should heed this analogy, because it works every in just about all phases a car man’s life.

When you’re hot you’re hot, when you’re not your not. Same in the car business as it is in baseball. You can be the sharpest car man around, but there will come times when you can’t sell shit. As my big brother used to say, “Everyone has to spend their time in the bucket.”
Just like a hitter in a slump, a car man will suffer his. Like a ballplayer he will work on the fundamentals: presentation, product knowledge, closing techniques. But try as he might, sometimes the only thing that can cure a slump is time—maddening, excruciating, time.

If a car man can close three people out of ten he’s a superstar, just like a ballplayer playing for an average. His hits will be his grosses: singles, doubles, triples and the occasional home run. A ball player lives and dies on his abilities to handle a ball and bat; a car man lives and dies on his abilities with words and pen.

The car dealership’s team is just like a baseball team. There are many different guys with different skills and different personalities. There are designated hitters, and sometimes you’ll get on base only to be replaced by a pinch runner. The closes are the car man’s pitches. The car man has his own versions of curves, splitters and fastballs. Like baseball, all these skills and strategies come into play when closing a car deal.

Baseball teams have aloof owners and cranky managers, just like a car dealership. If the dealership’s team performs poorly, it’s the managers who suffer. They might get blown out, but usually appear on another team down the street. Good managers are hard to come by! Sometimes they come to management not by having been a superstar player, but a good utility man, familiar with all the basics and knows how to use them.

The only difference between baseball and the car business is that there are usually no away games—unless it’s the occasional “special sale” at the local Wal-Mart parking lot. Car men always have to have the home field advantage.

As I said, it’s exactly the same—but I sure wish we could get every winter off!


Talk to you later,


David