I worked, until today, for a car dealership run on the Peter Principle. Absentee owner sees it as a toy shop. GM pops in twice a week, does nothing to fix abysmal front of house service that just saw another foreman give notice, or internal service which gives us cars to sell with disassembled brakes, shaking from out of balance tires, rattling, with broken parts, etc. I could NEVER deliver a car without a post-sale repair order that cost me money off gross. The General Sales Manager is very good at telling the whole sales team they don't quite measure up and finding fault constantly, appraising cars at 90% of retail and then holding back on his salespeople, and fishing, apparently. I have four and a half years' more experience at my now ex-boss' job than he does, and from the start, I made suggestions to improve ops that he could've taken credit for. For example, our customer relationship management software's workflow was broken. I pointed out that after the second day, all follow-up activity stopped generating, and unless the salespeople were actively seeking out every one of their prospects to make sure they continued making contact, or at least attempts, the lead went dead. After TWO days. I told him what we needed to do and was completely ignored. Eventually our CRM reps visited and told him our workflow was fucked, and right in front of me he said it was the first he'd heard of it. Then I busted my ass in April and managed to hit a milestone that would pay out a huge end of month bonus. Money my family really needs, by the way — my mom has Alzheimers and is now living in an assisted facility for $3000/month, which takes all of her Social Security and then some, so I supplement, pay the mortgage on her house until our attorney gets a waiver for me to sell it as her Guardian and Conservator, and I have my own mortgage. After working days off, staying late, and getting two miraculous deals on the last day of the month, I made the target to double my bonus. Then, in early May, one of my deals unwound. My sales manager had refused to give the customer an extra $1,000 for their trade with custom rims. He made a deal for the customer to go home, almost five hours away, get the factory wheels and tires, and swap them out so he could take the custom rims back and sell them himself. Ultimately, it would've been a bad call anyway because the tires on the factory rims were bald, and it would've eaten up that money to replace them. But the shop foreman said the suspension had been altered for the bigger rims, and if we put the others on, the car would be on the ground. So he wouldn't do it. My customer was so mad at making a 9 hour round trip for nothing that he took his car back, and we unwound the deal. My sales manager was the one who set up those terms, then wouldn't make it right and let the deal dissolve. The GSM backed letting it walk. And even though this was into May, and I had nothing to do with the disastrous wheel swap arrangement, they took the deal from my count and halved my bonus. I got to watch the GSM hand my sales manager and the others stacks of cash, my sales manager even asking what this unexpected windfall was. I knew it was the proceeds of fucking me over, split among the management team. At that moment I knew I was leaving the company. I was told I'd be joining management after a 90 day trial window when I started. Four months plus in, I've heard nothing about it, never even gotten the sense that I'd been pointed out to the GM and Owner as a contributor. I specialize in loyalty and retention, and at my last dealership, I generated millions in annual revenue by working with service and existing accounts to turn customer equity, expensive out-of-warranty-repairs, maturing leases and multicar families into opportunities to generate new sales, keep customers loyal to the brand and using our parts and service departments, and bring in trades for our Pre-Owned store. The dealership I just left has a total blind spot for that sort of thing. They have MANY THOUSANDS of customers in their data management system. Enough that their very large sales staff could all only sell to previous customers and still make their sales goals. Yet 71% of their clients are orphans when it comes to salespeople or dealer representatives. They exist, but no one will ever call or email them about their next car, offer an upgrade, show trade equity, follow up on service appointments, send coupons for repeat oil change visits, they won't get birthday or anniversary wishes, holiday greetings, or have a name and a face they associate with the brand and the store. And they'll buy elsewhere. Given the right opportunities, I could've helped them exceed growth targets easily because they're not that far off and they're not doing basic things that would be guaranteed to produce increased sales and service revenue. Instead, they wrung their hands and said “Oh well, what're you gonna do, tough luck, cookie crumbles, nothing WE can do.” You're my boss and his boss. Of.course there's fucking something you can do. Be my advocate. Treat me like part of the team.
Anyway, a good friend called me to ask if I'd be interested in coming to the dealership where he does F&I. I met with their GSM, who sent me over a pay package more generous than the dealership I was happy with for the five years before the clowns I just walked away from. Higher base pay and higher bonuses. I go in tomorrow to complete my onboarding with them. Went into work today to close up shop. No keys checked out in my name, no dealer tags, no loaner vehicles, no We Owe documents. After I made sure I had no obligations remaining to anyone, I grabbed my shit and walked out. Didn't get to say goodbye to everyone I would've liked to. It's a big place, and there are some really cool people sprinkled here and there. But I've been done for two weeks already, just waiting for the chance to jump ship.
TL:DR Sales manager and General Sales Manager torpedoed my bonus and split it. I quit. Surprised Pikachu face.