A NEW JOB

I have a new job! And I can sum it all up under the banner headline "God Draws Straight With Crooked Lines" My dear friend, Tim Doran has been so amazingly wonderful in finding me leads on Craig's List. There were employment ads for Star Trek Conventions in Hollywood, a furniture store sales job, a dog bakery in Pasadena, a therapeutic chair store in Tarzana and so many more. Well one day, he sent me an add for a sales job at Alhambra Nissan in Alhambra. Now trust me, dear friends, I have sold many things in my life, but NEVER a car. What appealed to me that the job was in Alhambra, Ca-- a town along with San Gabriel, Ca (next door to each other) where I had grown up and spend many happy years of my childhood. Also I learned that there was NO recession in Alhambra, home town of dear old Phil Spector among others. So On Tuesday of this week, I went to an interview in Alhambra to meet Al Bennett who was actually an independent contractor who trains people to become a car salesman. Now, I'm not talking about features vs. benefits of individual cars. No, this is "the art" of selling a car. An untrained salesman gets into some very bad habits like using the words "May, I help you" and talking while putting his hands into his pockets. But everything is about getting the car sold in the proper way. Here at Alhambra Nissan, sales people can make 22% of the profit and that can mean $500- 600 pr more per car. There are also spiffs and bonuses just like the camera industry. So I went through the paid training program after being selected. It was a risk, but you gotta take chances in this weary world if you want to farther than you have been before. It was a two and a half day unpaid training session that literally covers some incredible steps to selling an automobile at a price with a good profit on the vehicle. Ultimately I was assigned to be headquartered in the Service department where I am to greet customers who have just been given an incredible estimate to repair the cars, or where I notice that the mileage on their cars have reached a point of no return. Then I am to refer them to a regular salesman on the sales floor. We split the commission evenly. Disadvantage: I only get half of the commission. Advantage: I won't have a sales quota because I won't be actually selling a car and I won't have to test drive any car. Requirements include that I must be licensed by the DMV and have finger prints taken which of course is a brand new experience. Of course, it's very curious to me to be required to be licensed when I am not actually selling the car. But God seems to be leading me here in a very odd way. I will keep you posted. We are scheduled to start this coming Friday. So we shall see where this leads us.