Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-09
rHE life of an automobile
dealer has not been q very
pleasant one during the


= past year, but hopes sprinl
q being felt. New models ar
fostering attention, and the mai
who put of buying last year i
looking into the show rooms will
Iore of a serious attitude. "Th'
buy = in Washington now" cam
paign is certain to have goo6
effect, and conditions in genera
seem to be improving.
At last, most of the manufac.
turerS have come to the realiZa-
ton of the dealers difficulties anc
are lending their aid in his behalf
The time is coming when he will
not be forced to overStock his
show rooms with more cars than
he can prof1tably take care of
Announcement of factory changes
are being made to him earlier
than heretofore, thus enabling
him to keep on sounder level.
Wave of Understanding.
With this above wave of under
standing sweeping on it appears
to be the time for some helpful
thoughts to be passed on to the
statesmen, who also have expert
enced a difficult period. Their
work means dealer prosperity or
otherwise as the case may be.
Therefore it is only right that all
unSound obstacles should be re-
moved from their paths.
One of these obstacles is the
unfair method of commission re-
ceipt. Each salesman has his
prospects, as prospective cuSto-
Iners are called. He gets line on
a coming buyer, works up the
interest in the particular car he
is selling, and if lucky lands him.
From this sale he receives a per-
centage of the cost of his car, and
the dealer is reimbursed for what
he has had to pay the manufac-
turer. All well and good.
But in many cases salesman
through friendships, acquaint-
anceS and a good selling talk
completes the deal only to find
that some one else has had the
buyer listed as his prospect with
out ever having seen or known
him. Under method now prac-
ticed by many dealers the sales
man who actually sold the car,
and who has done all the work,
receives nothing but thanks from
the other salesman, and very
often not even that. This plan is
neither well nor good.
SaIeSman's Troubles.
For example an extreme case is
brought forth. A salesman was
recently taken on by a dealer who
was the distributor of a line of
cars of an expensive make. There
were already several other sales
men employed there. The new
man found to his dismay that the
other statesmen had divided up
the Washington Social Register
into equal parts. Each man had
an equal number of pages and
there were none left. 1t so hap
pened under the circumstances
that all the names in the book, or
at least a large part of them,
bought only expensive cars. Now
the statesmen first employed knew
very few of those people so listed
and had called on very small
number. Yet each one claimed
his part of the book as his list of
prospects.
The new salesman knew many
of those so listed, but no matter
how many cars he sold to them
by his own efforts he could collect
no money whatever. Commissions
were not even split.
Another example is for a sales
man to see an old car being driven
around the streets of the city,
note the license number, look up
the owners name from a police
directory and list him as his pros
pect. OF course, if the owner
purchased a car Of a different
make other than the salesman
was selling he lost out.
This system, which is employed
to large extent in Washington, is
very bad and should be changed.
The individual salesman should be
rewarded for his personal knowl-
edge Of his clients and his ability
to sell. Any one can tear out
pages of the social lists, but there
can be seen no great merit there.
After all, fair and good business
counts.
A Question of Location.
A recent editorial in the Auto
motive Daily News, trade paper,
might prove interesting to dealers.
1t states as follows:
In recent letter c. A. Vane,
general manager of the National
Automobile Dealers Association,
put his finger on a difficult angle
Of the dealer problem. This is
the excessive overhead that most
dealers feel they must assume in
the way of rent to obtain a show
window on the most prominent
thoroughfare in their Cities.
Would it pay the average
dealer to eliminate the high rent
that he pays, retire TO a side
street and spend him money in
advertising to bring in the custo-
mers?
This Is by no means an easy
problem to solve. We have known
of cases where it worked and of
other cases where it distinctly did
not.
Probably the answer, as usually
happens, is that the dealers To-
cation viii have to be determined
by local conditions, by his stand
ing in the community, by the car