Speech given at Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome 2018 Presidents club winners, their families, GM’s, and the Darrow family.
My name is Michael Duda... number one salesperson in the group. I work at Russ Darrow Kia Wauwatosa. Miller Park is a special place for me, I actually got my start selling novelties at the old County Stadium. It’s kind of funny because years later I found myself on the Milwaukee Braves Association planning the field right outside here in the parking lot.
How many of you were able to attend last years President’s Club in Madison and hear my speech about the diamond inside of me?
This year things are going to be a little different. I’m going to tell a few car related human interest stories and wrap things up. I’m thankful for being able to give that emotional speech last year and put all of that behind me in an effort to help myself and maybe even help someone in the audience that night.
Before I tell my stories I would like to introduce my talented and beautiful youngest daughter who attends MIAD college here in Milwaukee. Please help me welcome ABI Duda! She means everything to me and I’m glad she was able to attend tonight!
So one day some guy is blowing up the service area and Kevin Minley my GM grabs me and asks me to please go back there and see what I can do. When I go back there he is visibly upset and loud. I approach him and ask him if we can go talk somewhere and he reluctantly follows me. When I ask him what is going on he just keeps repeating…. You won’t understand… You won’t understand….
I said to him… Help me understand so I can help. Please. He finally comes clean and says I recently got a cancer diagnosis which gives me about 3 months to live. I said that’s ok. I do understand my mother is a 3 time cancer survivor… Anyway we talked for a little bit and it turns out he is upset because a young girl has sideswiped the whole side of his cadillac, we don’t have a body shop, and he does not want to spend his last days in our service department. I mean who would.
I said no problem I’m going to fix this. He looks at me in disbelief and I point out to the Kia Cadenza on the floor and I say… I’m leasing this car so you don’t have to worry about the cadillac anymore. He says you can’t do that… I’m like… I can and I will. He says I can’t afford that and what will happen when I’m gone…. I said that’s the best part of knowing your going to be gone, you don’t have to care anymore.
So I go to my used car manager once I figured out how to make it all work and I needed 9K for the cadillac to keep him at the same payment. I literally had tears in my eyes and I said look this car is not worth anything close to this but you have to trust me. I will sell the cadillac.
I send the customer off smiling in his new Kia cadenza…. A week later a man comes in with an old buick from Madison and says he wants to drive the used Cadillac we had online and only carefully took photos of the good side of the car. So I bring him up to the car and I calmly tell him the other side of the car is wrecked… He says I only want the Cadillac because I need a smooth ride because of my back and I’m pretty sure I can’t see the damage while I’m driving it. I sold that cadillac to him for full list of like 12,995 or 14,995 I forget with a buick on trade worth almost nothing. The used car manager was speechless. The next time the cadenza man visited me we hugged in service and both teared up in front of a room full of people. Two old men hugging and tears flowing, it was quite a sight I’m sure.
My second story begins with two women coming in on a budget Toyota Corolla for like 4K. They test drove the car with me and I spent most of the time trying to get these two middle aged women to open up to me because frankly I felt like I was getting nowhere. I told them about myself and how I had worked at GE Medical. Basically started telling them about me to at least sell them on the fact that I was there to help.
Finally the one women just says… I’m a long to help my friend buy this car. She is in no condition to be here, she lost her husband to cancer last week and her son was so distraught that he totalled the family car. We need to buy this car for 4K out the door. This is all the money she has right now. So now I’m standing in the cubicle with a random women hanging on me sobbing while I tell her it will be ok.
I make my way to the used car manager with tears in my eyes and tell him we have to sell this car to her because of the circumstances and I will make it up to him.
So the two women are leaving with the toyota corolla when I stop the widow in the lot before she leaves and I say….
I’m going to say something that my mother says to me often on… “Angels Around You”, I hope this is going to help move you in a positive direction.
She reaches over with a smile and pats her purse on the seat… I already know, because I have some of my husband’s ashes in my purse and he brought me to you today. I looked at her with amazement and she says… My husband worked with you when you were at GE… How many car salespeople do you think have a background at GE Medical….. I instantly had tears in my eyes and she drove off.
One last story and I will wrap it up for the evening.
I was eating breakfast one morning on a Sunday and it was brought to my attention that one of my customers with her 3 children was living in the Kia Sorento I sold her. I have 3 Kia Sorentos in my family… but living in one… Most of us thank god will never be in this position… but for whatever set of circumstances she was living this reality. I made some things happen for her and she was able to move into a place with her children. A month or so later I’m driving my daughter Alli back to Madison and as so many people do we stopped at the Jefferson Outlet Mall. Just by chance I was with my daughter and we went into a shop I would have never intended on going into. The women who is the manager of this store now came running up to me and daughter. She started crying and hugging me… I’m so glad you came to visit me because I never got to thank you for what you did. I assured her this was a chance meeting. I was taking my daughter back to school and she needed an outfit for a upcoming job interview. She helped her pick out an outfit and when it came time to pay… she would not allow me to. So off we went… I explained to my daughter who had no idea I did this sort of thing and she got the job she wanted that week. So again life shined on me and returned a favor. Mainly that my daughter was touched by my good deed.
I feel compelled to repeat something from last years speech, it means that much to me…
The greatest gift in life you will ever receive is the satisfaction of knowing that you personally helped someone when know one else would. You don’t ever have to reach out and give anyone a helping hand… But when and If you do, I promise you this…. It will be the most fulfilling thing you have done in your life.
In the car business we are faced with ethical decisions EVERY day. It’s NEVER hard to do the right thing. The reason I tell these stories is because if you have NOT laughed on this job and you have NOT CRIED on this job…. Then I believe you have not hit your highest potential.
I want something this year from each and every one of you! I want you to go back to each of your dealerships: Kia, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, and Jeep/Chrysler. I want you to put more heart into your job and your craft. I want you to INVEST in your customer relationships. I want you to just GIVE A LITTLE MORE of yourself to each and every customer. Stop viewing your job as SELLING… view your job as HELPING others. You and your customers will have a more meaningful experience. I want the numbers to jump off the spreadsheet to the point where Mike Darrow calls or emails me… Dam, what you said at President’s Club this year actually mattered. Your already the best of the best, Let’s go break some records together!!!