I was rooting around in my wallet searching for a two-for-one coupon for Burger King when I came across an old commission voucher. Years ago I developed a habit of saving the voucher on my largest commission to date and stuffing it in my wallet. When I sold a car that had a higher commission, I would throw the old voucher out and save the new one.
Alas, in my current job there are no commission vouchers. It wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. It’s hard to make a big pop on a Pot Lot, especially when you’re dealing with severe flakes where you have to discount the paper to get the deal down. So I only have my memories of commissions past to remind me how good things can be sometimes.
For me saving the biggest voucher was a great motivational tool. It was a reminder that there truly were Big Dummies With A Way To Go out there, and every once in a while one would make your day. In a sea of shoppers determined to screw you, you can take heart that making a decent living in this business is still possible.
Now I have never made a huge, ball-buster, call the cops, pop. The voucher in my wallet, from early 1995 is $1915.54 on a used Corvette. Not bad considering it was at 25% of the gross. One thing I have noticed is that most big pops are made quickly. Generally, the longer it takes to get the deal down, the lower the gross.
I remember this particular deal well. It started off as an up call about 6:00 at night. The young lady in questions, Viola, called to inquire about the ‘Vette on the front line. Was it still there? Would you take my Honda in trade? It certainly was, and I certainly would, I replied. By 7:30 she was driving. I was beaming. My fellow salesmen, who were not happy that I’d beaten them to the phone, were not. Oh, well. What goes around comes around.
Driving in to work today I was thinking about vouchers in general. At my old Mother Ship, Shellworth Chevrolet, the vouchers were never wrong, and you hardly ever got a charge back. (I think I got two in eight plus years.) It was nice to know that I was working at a place where the managers were honest and the bookkeeping accurate!
This hasn’t always been the case. I worked at a Chrysler dealer where I used to refer to the vouchers as commission suggestions. It wasn’t unusual for you to get four or five different vouchers on one car. They would go up, then down. Usually down. I figured they changed whenever someone in the office figured out a new way to screw you out of a few bucks.
These variations in commission amounts were usually not a not a lot of money. They were more irritating than anything else. But one time, many years ago, I made a $1500 commission on a car that dwindled down to a mini as the used VW fell apart days after I rolled it. Boy was I pissed!
Technically, (at least here in California, the land of fruit and nuts) it’s not really legal to charge a commission back unless the entire deal falls apart. Once you’re paid, you’re paid. Most salesmen put up with minor charge backs as a necessary part of keeping their job. However I have longed suggested that if you’re working in a place that can only be termed an Evil Empire (a subject for a future entry), you can get your best revenge by keeping the highest voucher you received and your monthly washout statement. When it comes time to launch, you can always go to the labor commissioner and get your money back! Ha!
But remember, before you do anything drastic; make sure you have another job first.
Talk to you later,
David
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