In my experience there tends to be a distinction between hawking your own product and simply being paid to sell someone elses. People act different when their name is on the shingle rather than just on the commission check.
I live in both worlds. In my own business, I’m selling directly and putting my name behind the sale. In the corporate world, I train college hires on how to sell technology to corporate IT departments. My focus is on blending technical, business, and IT knowledge to make a compelling case for our technology. What the sales people do with the training is then up to them.
Interestingly enough, I see the guys play fast and loose much more than the girls. The girls tend to be more serious, more interested in mastering their craft, and more willing to admit what they don’t know.
Connecting that observation back to the topic, I have to wonder if a woman would be more likely to consider the end-user of a GM product and therefor more inclined to make the right call. My experience in my current role suggests that she very well might. That said, I’ve also seen ambitious women climbing the corporate ladder every bit as aggressively and self-centered as any male. That female would be just as likely to protect her career interests as the male, regardless of the downstream cost to someone else.
I agree with you 100%. My statement was made in jest, just a little fun. I certainly do not put myself in the same company as some shady salesman. And knowing both you and Bill I would not put either of you in that company either. Unfortunately though we all know that there are plenty of people who will do the wrong thing, especially when money is involved.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
I agree that the more the individual is associated with the product, the more careful you are about getting it right.
Henry Ford is a good example. He wrote a very famous letter saying that he was in effect, the first Ford dealer. It was an admonishment to Ford dealers to remember that the transaction did not end with the sale of the car, but more precisely it began with the sale of the car. Ford understood that people bought transportation, not machinery, and that if the car failed to provide the service expected it was a failure.
So Toyota will pay $1.2B to settle the criminal charges against it. Big money for sure, but only a few weeks of last quarter’s profit. No one goes to jail.
Actually, a guy in Minnesota spent 2 years in jail for negligent homicide after his Camry accelerated through an intersection. No drugs. No alcohol. He always maintained that his foot was on the brake pedal. He was released when Toyota’s mis-information campaign unraveled.
Remember this scene from “fight club”? opps not supposed to talk about fight club 
Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X…
If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
Can’t share it, but there is an actual formula the industry uses to determine the rate of exposure in determining when to issue a recall. The part being recalled has a lot to do with it as well. Sometimes one recall might mean several trips back to the dealership to fix other issues created while fixing the recall.
Anyone watching the news lately? GM recalls are stacking up like cord wood. Are they just reacting to the fact that they’re in deep? Or did they suddenly gain a conscience?
Do you watch all the news on recalls, or just focus on GM? For instance, you give Toyota a pass?
No, Al HATES Toyota.
Gonzales:
“There is one question, lnspector Callahan. Why do they call you Dirty Harry?”
DiGeorgio:
“That’s one thing about our Harry. Doesn’t play favorites.
Harry hates everybody…(goes on to list in a non-PC fashion various ethnic groups)”
https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/ford-ram-or-gmc/669/20
Knew I’d pulled that from somewhere other than my backside.
You’re spot on 3, I do hate Toyota. They haven’t been the big news lately though. I watch CNBC in the mornings for the financial news. GM seems to garnering a lot of attention from them.
With the CEO of GM testifing before Congress this week all the news channels are covering this.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
POTUS is testifying??? ROFL
Actually I think the treasury finally sold their shares of GM. At a loss to the taxpayer of course.