We’re Not Last on the List!

There’s good news! Well, sort of … According to the 2009 Gallup annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, 51 percent of Americans have low or very low opinion of the honesty and ethics of “car salespeople”—translated automotive retail professionals. As near as I can determine, this is the first time since Gallup began the poll during the Carter Administration that car salespeople didn’t bring up the rear when it came to the ranking of various professions.

The bad news, and you knew some bad news was coming, is that car salespeople’s ranking fell 4 percentage points since 2006 when their rating was at 55 percent. So were it not for the general distaste of professions such as HMO Managers, Stock Brokers, U.S. Senators and Members of Congress, car salespeople would still be among the least-respected professions, at least in terms of Honesty and Ethics.

I don’t think it takes an astrophysicist figure out why HMO Managers, politicians and stockbrokers have seen a steep slide in the public trust. Even I can see people don’t trust them. They have every reason to believe: if a politician’s lips are moving he’s lying; if an HMO Manager is making a decision it’s not going to benefit the insured as much as it will the shareholders; and a stockbroker is going to make money off you regardless if your portfolio’s value goes up or down.

So why is it automotive retail professionals have the worst favorable ratings of any profession? I’ve banged on this drum many times during my career in covering this industry. There are dealers out there who are unscrupulous. They don’t care about repeat and referral business. They go after a consumer’s juggler, rip them off and simply don’t care about their profession ranking or the industry. They tend to hire people who think like they do and, if things go very bad, they move on to another profession—perhaps they run for Congress. But they are a tiny minority compared to the overall population of car dealers. Doctors and nurses, for instance, still have the highest favorable rating despite the thousands of medical malpractice law suits.

I’ve met hundreds, perhaps a couple of thousand of you over the past 11 years. I’ve attended your conferences, sat in on your Twenty Group meetings, attended your seminars, and written about you. I understand the challenges you face. You must answer tough questions; solve employee and customer problems; find right-priced inventory; save for the kid’s college education; and make sure the AG can’t come after you for violating some obscure and poorly worded regulation.Buy here-pay here dealers have the added problems of financing customers who rarely pay anyone back on time, if at all; keep customers paying in good times and bad; and make and pay for repairs to a customer’s vehicle that average customers would pay for themselves.

Automotive retail professionals do a lot of good. You’re going to think this trivial, but really think about this. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists have the highest favorable ratings in terms of honesty and integrity. Sure they do. They make us well when we’re ill. They give of themselves so we can feel better. This is true despite the fact that we, and our employers, pay thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums and another thousand or two for out-of-pocket co-pays for their services. If I were to give a florist $5,000 a year, I’d damn well expect some pretty spiffy arrangements, delivered to my door year around. The same is true of a plumber, music teacher or anyone else.

However, when we give a car salesperson $10,000 for a vehicle that has an ACV of about $6,800, that car salesperson is “a low-life scum who went out of his way to screw me.” We don’t understand of that $3,200 gross profit, perhaps only $700 or less ends up as a net profit (before taxes) to the dealer. With BHPH dealers the figure is higher, but it trickles in over years of a financial relationship, that about one in four to one in five times ends up badly.

Automotive retail professionals are the most misunderstood, easily mocked professions in America. I’d like to see those doctors and nurses have such high favorable ratings if the people they treated could look up on the Internet the value of the services they provided, the way consumers look up car values today. “Hey doc, I’ve got the book value of that colonoscopy off the Internet, and the going price is just $1,200. You’re billing the insurance company $3,900. What’s with that?” By the way, when was the last time you were able to look up the book value for a bouquet of roses? What if car dealers jacked up the price of their vehicles by 400 percent during Tax Season, the way florists raise their prices on Valentine’s Day?

I call upon the local, state and national dealer associations to begin a campaign to improve the image of car dealers. Personally, I think people have a negative image of car dealers because of the jokes and stereotypes of car sales people as hucksters. The stereotypes are not based in reality. Why not show off the genuine, honest, ethical, people in our industry in a concerted national campaign. Thousands of vendors make their living as a direct result of each car sale that occurs—auto auctions, software providers, Internet classified services, etc. They should have a vested interest in helping to improve the image of the automotive retail professional in this country. A high tide raises all ships.