Attitude is everything. Anyone in sales, especially in the car business, has heard it before, but Steve Garcia takes those words to heart and lives the philosophy. “Every day he tells himself that it’s a new day, that he’s going to meet a customer that needs a car, that he’s going to sell a car,” said Alan Siegel, general manager of Mancari’s Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Oak Lawn, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. He went on to describe Garcia as “an integral part of our dealership.”

Garcia, who said he has always liked sales, actually got his start in automotive retail in 1996 after the carpet cleaning business he worked for closed. “I walked into work one day and they told us that was it, [the company] went out of business, and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What am I going to do with my life now?’” He decided he would try his hand at either real estate or cars. Upon his first interview with a dealership he was hired and shortly thereafter, he said, “I got hooked.”

What reeled him in was the power of making the deal happen. Garcia loves the feeling of fulfilling a customer’s needs and wants. “People walk into the store to buy a car, and even though they know what they want to do, ultimately they have to be sold, and when you really take a customer’s wants and needs into consideration … you’re the one that’s making it happen for them.”

Garcia, now entering his fourteenth year with Mancari’s, has been the dealership’s top salesperson for 13 years. He has been averaging 25 to 30 units per month over the last year, but prior to that he consistently sold between 35 and 45 units each month. “Last year was the worst year in the car business that I’ve ever had, and I still had a great year,” he said. In fact, Garcia is ranked first in the region for Chrysler sales and fourteenth in the country.

His positive, no-fail attitude is definitely a big factor in his consistently outstanding performance. “Attitude is everything,” he said. “When you come in here with a bad attitude, what good are you? You have to have that positive attitude; you have to know that today you’re going to sell a car.” He added, “I don’t believe in bad months. I don’t believe in not succeeding … I know I can sell.”

Said Siegel, “He never gives up. He consistently tries to better himself each and every year … He keeps himself motivated by attending any and all training whether it’s mandatory or … elective.”

Garcia believes in order to continue succeeding, he must always be learning new and different things. “When you think you know it all, that’s it—you’re over,” he said. “You’re done. You’re a has-been.”

He also credited a lot of his success to dealership owner Frank Mancari’s constant reminder to his employees of the old rule of business that the customer is always right. “The customer’s the number-one priority in this store,” said Garcia, something he keeps in mind whether greeting customers or monitoring the service lane. “It’s not my customer, it’s not [another salesperson’s] customer—it’s Mancari’s customer. Those customers have to get taken care of regardless of who sells them.”

Although he admitted that he’s not a big “phone-call person,” Garcia maintains great relationships with his customers. “I remember every face [and] most names,” he said. “I remember what they bought.” He estimated that maybe 50 to 60 percent of his business is repeat or referral.

Garcia, whose family is from Mexico, speaks Spanish fluently and focuses on serving the local Hispanic market. The Hispanic market is a big market and it is growing. “Hispanics don’t come in to kick tires; they come here to buy.” He added, “If they go to a dealership and they’re treated right, believe me … they send their friends, they send their family, they send everybody to that one store. And if you treat them wrong the first time, you’ll never see them again.”

His advice for success in sales is to always be honest with each and every customer. “Don’t lie, don’t cheat—that’s the only thing I can tell people,” he said. “When [customers] see that you’re being honest and sincere, it makes the sale a lot easier … You’ll make more money in the long run if you do things the right way.”

Our congratulations to Steve Garcia, our sales professional of the month, and thank you to Alan Siegel for bringing him to our attention. 

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Vol 7, Issue 3