Being a top-notch sales associate affords O’Jay Vanegas, who resides in landlocked Arizona, the luxury of partaking in one of his favorite hobbies, deep-sea fishing on the Florida coast. He happened to be doing just that in February 2009, when the Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealership where he’d worked for the past seven years closed its doors.

He recalled, “I was fishing down in the Florida Keys. I came in one night … and had all the voicemails from my colleagues at work. They left me messages saying they called everybody in at 2:30 in the afternoon, sat them all down in the conference room, and told them they were shutting down the store and they had an hour to get their belongings and get out.”

Knowing he was on vacation, his coworkers were nice enough to gather his personal belongings for him. So what did Vanegas do next? “I called my wife, told her what happened, and I called the airlines and extended my fishing trip for another week.”

During his employment at that dealership, he’d always been a top performer and built a reputation among other area dealerships for being an excellent salesperson. News of the dealership closing spread quickly, and within 24 hours of its closing, Vanegas had five job offers from other dealerships.

Upon returning home, he took a month off. After seven years of hard work, he deserved some time off, and he used that time to do some work around the house and determine which dealership to work for. “In our business you need to stay in one place and build a clientele … I’m not one to move around. I wanted to find a home. Even though I was going to interviews, I was interviewing the company as well … I wanted to see what they had to offer me.”

Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, Ariz., ultimately won out amongst the other dealerships vying for Vanegas. He said when Scott Gruwell, general sales manager of Courtesy, interviewed him, “[Gruwell] took a lot of his personal time … [to show] me his whole operation, from his detail area, to his fleet department, to his Internet [department], to his BDC. [He] introduced me to all his managers and really took some time to show and explain everything he had there.”

Not all interviews had as lasting an impact. Other interviews actually helped to solidify the positive impression Gruwell left on him. “I was really taken by the way Scott spent time with me.” Two days after the interview, Gruwell called him to invite him to lunch. “He took me to lunch with his brother-in-law, who’s one of the partners … They talked to me and just wanted to … let me understand what they were doing, what targets they were going to make, where the company was going.” At one point during lunch, said Vanegas, “He pretty much just flat out [said], ‘I want you to work for us, and what’s it going to take.’” After a little negotiation, the decision was made, and Vanegas’ new home was Courtesy Chevrolet.

He said, “What I saw in Courtesy Chevrolet and the Gruwell family was stability … It’s a business that’s been here since 1955. It’s a third generation running the company, and that meant a lot to me because so many dealerships nowadays are corporate organizations and you’re basically a number to them.”

The stability was extremely important to him because the previous dealership he worked at went through three owners and name changes and 17 general managers in seven years. He’s been at Courtesy Chevrolet for about a year-and-a-half and said, “This is almost like a family, a home.”

Heading into a new dealership, Vanegas knew he’d have his work cut out for him, and he credits the dealership for understanding that. “They were very good to me … They knew that I was going to have to get started, build a new clientele.” Even though Courtesy is about 20 miles away from the old dealership, some of his clientele did follow him there. Currently, 15 to 20 percent of his business is made of repeat customers, and he’s selling about 14 units a month.

Gruwell commended Vanegas for how he takes care of his customers, which may be why so many of them did follow him to the new dealership. Gruwell said, “His customer satisfaction is through the roof. People just adore him … We were fortunate enough to recruit him to our store.” And that’s not all; Vanegas is the whole package. Another talent of his, said Gruwell, is that he always holds gross profit. “He’s able to handle his customers from start to finish, hold gross profit and I get letters [from his customers] every single week … regarding how great of service he’s provided.”

He said customers like Vanegas because he’s conscientious and doesn’t rush or pressure them in the sales process. Gruwell continued, “He’s a great individual and has good, high morals [and] high customer satisfaction. His attention to detail is fantastic.” All are traits that attribute to his continued success in the automotive retail industry.

Congratulations to O’Jay Vanegas, sales professional of the month, and thank you to Scott Gruwell for nominating him.

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Vol 7, Issue 10