Martin Iliev certainly got his slice of the American Dream. Over the course of about six years, he has gone from being a lot tech who spoke little to no English to being a top salesperson. Iliev is a native of Bulgaria who came to the United States about 6 years ago and ended up finding a home and family—literally—with Carbiz Autos in Baltimore, Maryland.

“I didn’t think I’d want to stay here,” confessed Iliev, who at one time played professional soccer in Bulgaria before a knee injury no longer allowed him to “make a living chasing the ball,” as he put it. He and a group of friends came to the States with the intention of only staying for a few months. When a job as a lifeguard didn’t pan out for him, Iliev had to find a job for himself. He didn’t speak English at the time but was fortunately able to find employment with Jeff Berney and his son, Evan, who had just purchased a car lot from another dealer and needed help getting things set up.

“He didn’t have any cars at the time,” said Iliev, referring to Owner Jeff Berney, “so I was helping out with putting everything together, like painting buildings and moving stuff.” During this time, he met and worked alongside a woman named Jessica, who helped him learn to speak English (although Iliev apparently has an aptitude for picking up languages—he could already speak German and Greek).. “Some way, somehow, she made me go horseback riding,” he recalled. “That’s how we started five-and-a-half years ago.” As it turned out, Jessica was daughter of Jeff Berney and sister to General Manager Evan Berney. They were married this past February; now Iliev likes to joke that he came all the way from Eastern Europe and “married the boss’s daughter.”

Iliev moved from lot tech to lot manager, but the sales manager saw untapped potential in Iliev. “I really didn’t want to be a salesperson just because I didn’t feel ready. One day my sales manager just said, ‘Martin, I want you well-dressed tomorrow,’” Iliev recalled. When he asked why, the sales manager said he had “different plans” for him. The next day, Iliev found himself on the sales floor.

At first, making the transition to salesperson was a little difficult, partly because of the small language barrier that still existed for him at the time. Now, Iliev consistently averages 17 to 18 units each month and has been Salesperson of the Month at the dealership for 8 months in a row.

General Manager Evan Berney described Iliev as a real salesperson, not simply an order-taker, and someone he can always trust to take care of a customer and get the job done the right way. “If I need to get a deal done, I can count on him; he’ll handle it the way it needs to be handled, and if I have a friend or family member who needs to buy a car, I can rely on him.”

Iliev said his favorite part of his job is matching his customers with the cars that are right for them. Often, he said, customers will come in unsure of what they want. “Everyone wants to drive big fancy cars but they cannot always afford them or need them,” he said, adding that the key is simply to listen. “They tell you what the situation is, if they need it for a son, if they need it for a wife … they tell you all this stuff and you put the pieces together … I really enjoy that.”

Iliev is has a sincere interest in cars and spends much of his free time reading up them and improving his knowledge of the store’s inventory. “When he’s not spending his bell-to-bell hours at the dealership, he’s spending other time reading Consumer Reports to get knowledgeable of his inventory,” said Berney.

Repeat and referral business contribute greatly to Iliev’s consistent numbers. “I get a lot of referrals,” he acknowledged, but he wasn’t willing to take all the credit for it. “Not just me [but] the whole dealership,” he said. “We’re like a big family with our customers … we earn their trust.”

Berney said one of Iliev’s greatest strengths is follow-up. “You never have to worry about him following up with a customer; he’s always going to be bringing up customers from three months back,” he said. “All of a sudden, they pop in out of nowhere and you wonder how they got here, and it’s because he remembered that they were looking for a similar car and he got them back in.”

Our congratulations to Martin Iliev, our sales professional of the month, and our thanks to Evan Berney for bringing him to our attention.

Vol 6, Issue 9