World Car News #Update
…Girard and Reda
In 1973, Joe Girard sold 1,425 new cars, which according to Guinness is the most cars ever sold in a calendar year by a single human. The tally stood for decades. But a salesman in Dearborn, Michigan, claims to have surpassed that record last year, and Girard, now 89, isn’t too happy about it.
Girard has been many things throughout his life, but he is best known as the world’s best car salesman, having turned to sales as a broke father of two in 1963. He went on to sell over 13,000 cars over the next 15 years in suburban Detroit, before quitting to become a motivational speaker.
Girard now has some competition in Ali Reda, a salesman at Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac, who says that he sold 1,530 new vehicles in 2017, enough to best Girard’s total by 105. He isn’t buying it though, telling the Detroit Free Press on Friday that the first thing he did when he found out about the claim was call his
From that story:
“If somebody beat my record, honestly, I would be proud of that person,” Girard said. “My attorney is going to get a court order to go into that dealership and have him audited. That’s where I’m going on Monday.
“We want to know if the company’s giving numbers they shouldn’t. If they did, they will be sued beyond their wildest dreams. The dealership knows the numbers. They better be careful, according to my attorneys. We’ll make sure no games are played. Or we’re going to get that dealer big time.”
On Monday, Reda (probably unintentionally) turned the screw a bit more on Girard, telling the Free Press that he was so successful primarily thanks to the insights he gleaned from Girard’s book.
“I mean, I would be honored to shake his hand,” Reda said. “Joe Girard is a big figure in our industry. His accomplishments don’t diminish my work. He set the pace for me. He gave me a goal.”
On top of all that, it’d be a strange move for any salesman or dealership to make up car sales claims, since manufacturers obsessively track those numbers, and any false claim would be easily disprovable.
Still, Girard was probably never going to go down without a fight. His website, a shrine to his accomplishments, is another clue, describing him this way: “International lecturer and winner of the World’s Number One Retail Salesperson title, Joe Girard has a lifetime of experience to share with you.”
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