Well, I’m certainly glad I am. It’s interesting to me hearing people talk about going green, new technologies, and that we need to take items and use them more frugally, etc., etc. When I was growing up we had milk bottles delivered to the door (which created a few jobs) and we had to send the milk bottles back to be recycled. When we bought Colas, we had to take the bottles back to be recycled. We didn’t have disposable diapers to fill up landfills, our mothers washed them. We did laundry on a set day and almost everyone had some form of a garden. Our landfills were small because we utilized the products that we purchased and we recycled.
Wow, we certainly have gotten smart, but what I really want to congratulate is our new Internet technology gurus that have changed the way of doing business.
In this article you are going to be reading Chapter 3 called “Organizing a Used Car Business” of The Used Car, New Car Merchant of the Future. I found this book, written in 1927 by the president of Studebaker, the president of NADA and the senior VP of General Motors with quotes from Henry Ford.
Read this excerpt from the book carefully please: “No business can hope to be successful in this age of competition unless it is organized. Lest this be misunderstood, it should be stated that small businesses need organization as well as large ones. Organization does not necessarily mean large offices, much red tape and many employees. This is a pit that many companies have fallen into. It simply means a plan to work so it can be formed by a minimum number of people with minimum friction and a maximum of profit and satisfaction to those who are being served.
“Some business institutions are over-organized, others are under organized. The size of a business and its volume will determine the size of the organization. But no matter what its size may be, every used car department, to be successful, must meet the following requirements.
“Management of the used car department: The buying and selling of used cars is the most difficult and most important phase of dealer operation. Proof of this will be seen when consideration is given to a comparison of the duties of management in connection with the selling of new and used cars.
Duties | Selling new cars | Selling used cars |
Buying price | Fixed | Determined by management |
Selling price | Fixed | Determined by management |
Condition for delivery | Simple | Involved manufacturing operation |
Marketing | Requires ability of high order | Requires of highest order |
“In view of the higher order of management, demanded by the used car operation, it would seem logical that the highest priced and most competent man of a dealer organization should be directly and actually responsible for this department. In small organizations, this should be the dealer. In large organizations, the sales manager.
“In most cases proper planning will enable the dealer or sales manager to handle both the new and used car departments. It may be felt that it would be difficult for one to devote time to this major task of buying and selling used cars without jeopardizing the new car sales effort. Quite the contrary is true. Today almost every sale involves a trade, and in buying the used car, it can be determined quickly whether or not the new car salesman has properly sold the new car. With this knowledge the dealer or sales manager will know the precise points of weakness or strength of his men and where they need training. Furthermore, the closing of a sale logically follows the giving of the purchase price. The sales manager who is personally doing the buying is right on the job at the psychological moment to help the salesman.”