The Recovery Starts with Gerald McCray
When I pulled into the Ford dealer this morning, Gerald McCray stood tall as I parked in front of the double door entrance to the showroom. At 6 feet 7 (or so) inches and a wide stance, he towered over our car and made an imposing shadow. He pleasantly asked if we needed assistance, “no, just looking today” I said, as he held the door for me and my 10 year old son and followed us inside. Gerald trailed behind as Tyler scampered into the cab of what looked like a Super Tonka but in fact was SVT Raptor off-road vehicle.
Tyler and I both decided that this was truck was for us…. at least for 10 or so seconds.
GW Parkway would never be the same as I drove over the cars in front of me monster truck style.
Back to reality.
I had come to check out the Ford Escape as I continued to try to convince myself that I didn’t need another Mercedes or BMW to boost my inner esteem. It has been a long journey with my German automaker friends, but I now feel I can cut the cord that connected my luxury vehicles to their service departments. Yes, one service manager told me I needed new brakes, questioning my knowledge of rotor width. “Did you take a micrometer to the rotor?” Only to be told by his replacement 6 months later that I didn’t need new brakes and had no idea why my old rep would have said this. This literally sealed my Mercedes relationship fate and I knew at that moment it was time to move on. That and the $1,700 repair bill for an air conditioner I had been complaining about since before the warranty wore out. When the economy hits the skids, count on service departments to drive additional revenue when cars are not moving off the showroom.
Back to the Ford showroom.
I moved from one car to another, and Gerald was there, far enough to let me breath but available to answer the questions that came to mind. Never pushy and always pleasant, he was the intangible that I had not expected from Ford today. He never asked me if I was looking to buy or when I might be wanting to purchase. He had this confidence that the product would sell itself. So for the next hour and a half, Gerald let Tyler climb in and out of cars, honk horns, turn buttons, speak into the Sync interface, jump up and down on the pickup truck beds and opening convertibles while answering all of my questions on just about every car they had. And still, he let the cars do the selling.
While I came for the Escape, I found the Fusion Hybrid. I had never spent any time thinking about it until I saw the mileage it got (41 mpg) and sat inside. It was comfortable and actually fun to drive. Pickup was fine and I didn’t notice any lag. The car just fit right. I asked Gerald to join us for the test drive which he kindly enough be agreed to and described feature and functionality as I drove. Having this gentle giant slide into the front seat made me feel a little guilty since he would have to put up with my driving and introduction to hybrid handling but the drive went perfect (from a test drive point of view).
I didn’t buy the car today, but I left with a feeling that if Gerald is so confident about Ford vehicles that he doesn’t have to push me into one, then that is the car that I should have. Ford is “back” because in part, of employees like Gerald who are confident and qualified and don’t sell us on something other than what it is.
The reccession will really be over when Gerald’s attitude finds its way into businesses large and small and they too find confidence in what they do. Instead of worry and caution, confidence and strength will be the norm.