Good morning and welcome to my first post of, The Other Side of Sales. I want to give some background to who I am and why I have started this blog. My hope is that I can help other people in sales with their career, as well as give industry knowledge. Though I will mostly be speaking about automotive, I believe everything I say can apply to any industry in the world.
My name is Christopher Smith and I have been in both the retail and corporate side of the automotive business. I have sat in almost every seat at the dealership level and have been on the corporate side now for over 3 years. I have always said that I was not, and am not currently great. I am learning every day and have made so many mistakes in my career that I stopped counting decades ago. However, I have learned from those mistakes and hope to help you before you make the same ones I did.
20 years ago I decided I should start selling cars right out of college. The money was good and fast pace and crazy hours fit my lifestyle at the time. Fast forward to today and I look back at that time with fond memories and also ask myself, “what was I thinking?” In the end, I am still happy with my decision.
So let’s get to the reason I have started this blog. I continue to see both on the retail and corporate side of the automotive business, insanity. Let us remember how Albert Einstein defined insanity. “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I have watched this happen my entire career and am just as guilty of it as the next person. What I hope is that through this blog I can help others identify and stop doing this.
Again, my background may be in automotive, but everything I write about can be used in any business in the world. People buying people and not products has nothing to do with just automobiles. And that will be the phrase you hear me say the most. I believe it and I live by it. Think about it, when was the last time you made a large purchase (automobile, house, furniture) from somebody you didn’t like? The answer is most likely, never. Once you realize people buy you and not a product, you have started to mature as a sales person.
My final thought as I move forward, is this will only work when we all work together. I would love to hear from you what topics you want me to write about. Again, the whole point of this is to help with sales tactics and give industry knowledge. My approach to this is, take what you like and leave what you don’t. Not everything I say is going to help everybody. However, if one thing you pick up from this helps you then I feel that I have done a great job. And that my friends, is worth everything.
The Other Side of Sales 
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