Tuesday, September 8, 2009

In Praise of Car Salespeople

Most people that read this blog know that I sold cars for a few years. The owner of our dealership was a Godly man who never asked his employees to be dishonest or take advantage of a customer. My experience did not match the stereotypes about car dealers and car salespeople. For the most part everyone I dealt with was someone I trusted.

This weekend Ed Wallace wrote a column titled 'In Praise of Car Salespeople'. I thought it was a well written article that I would share here.
Selling cars is not an easy job. It never has been. The great outdoors is where the cars are parked, so a salesperson’s workplace is out in the rain, snow and ice or in the broiling sun and/or wind. More than half of all potential clients come in skeptical, distrusting most in the automotive industry. And this is not because their last vehicle purchase was a bad experience, but because it’s been drummed into the public’s heads that dealers inevitably plot to extract all of a customer’s money in exchange for a new set of wheels. (Fact: The few dealerships known for brutal sales practices are the exception, not the rule.)
Click the picture above to read the full article.

Big Picture: Two Mongolias

Mongolia (the independent nation), and Inner Mongolia (a neighboring autonomous region of the People's Republic of China) share a common history and geography, and have both evolved in recent years, centering much of their growth on their famous culture. Mongolia is a young democracy - its 1990 revolution less than 20 years old now - formerly a Soviet-backed communist republic, and much earlier ruled by many different dynasties back to Genghis Khan in 1206. Inner Mongolia continues to undergo a cultural shift as ethnic Han Chinese now make up nearly 80% of the population, and efforts at retaining Mongolian culture are being undertaken. Collected here are a number of recent photographs of these two Mongolias. (33 photos total)
Click the image to see the full collection.