Studies show that the average American spends between four and five years with a company before moving on to a new company. Stan Arnold, sales associate, is anything but average when it comes to his tenure at Reno Toyota in Nevada, and he’s also an outstanding salesman. He’s been employed there for 33 years, which has allowed him to build up quite a customer base.

Many people who’ve been working in the industry for 30-plus years were born into it, but such is not the case with Arnold. Prior to selling vehicles, he was working in a whole other realm—juvenile parole and probation. After deciding it was time for a career switch, he “worked one week in the car business and decided to stay in the car business.”

Working at the same dealership for so many years has awarded him a few privileges that many sales professionals only dream of. For example, he typically works four-and-a-half days a week and his hours are from “around noon to between 6 and 8 [p.m.],” depending on the day’s appointments. Still, when you average his May, June and July sales, he’s selling over 35 vehicles per month. He added, “When I’m here, I’m busy … Before the economy went bad, I was selling between 45 and 50 a month.”

As for setting appointments, he usually doesn’t have to look farther than his inbox or voicemail because another advantage of the decades of hard work he’s put in at Reno Toyota is a huge customer base. Almost all of his appointments are made from incoming calls and e-mails. He said 99 percent of his sales are repeat customers or referrals.

Mel Watson, who’s currently the general sales manager at Reno Toyota, said, “I’ve been in the car business 25 years and [Arnold is] as good of a salesman as I’ve ever seen … He’s been here a really long time and has a gigantic customer base … All his business is repeat and referral business.”

The first thing Arnold does when he comes in is check all his messages and respond accordingly, which usually takes him about a half-hour. Then, the rest of his day is filled with appointments. He averages about 10 appointments per day, although “some days more, some days less,” he said before quickly adding, “but not too many days are less” than 10. Surprisingly, not all those appointments are with customers who want to buy a car.

Arnold sets service appointments for his customers as well. He said, “Instead of going through the service department, they make the appointment through me, so that way I keep in touch with them on a regular basis.” His customers meet him in his office and he escorts them back to the service department.  Then, he’ll set them up with a rental car if needed. He also keeps in touch through letters and phone calls with a little help from the dealership’s CRM program.

There were a few years at Reno Toyota where Arnold wasn’t selling. In the mid-90s, he was the store’s general manager for about three years, but he chose to go back to being a sales associate. The main reason was the schedule. “I can make my own hours in sales,” he said. When he went back to selling, however, he did keep an assistant, who helps out with getting information from customers, including vehicles they’re interested in and trade-in details.

That leaves Arnold with more time to do his favorite parts of the job: “selling and talking to customers.” And at the point he’s reached in his career now, most of the time it’s more like talking with old friends than customers. He said he’s become friends with 90 percent of them.

In his free time, he’s busy being either a sports fan or a family man. He can be found at the University of Nevada, Reno football or baseball games or at a Reno Aces game (a minor league baseball team). When he’s not at a game, he said, “The rest of the time I spend with my family.” He has four children, the youngest of whom is in college, and four grandchildren to keep him busy on his days off.

Congratulations to Stan Arnold, sales professional of the month, and thank you to Mel Watson for nominating him.

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Vol 7, Issue 9