New Sales Chief Wants To Break GM's Bad Habits.

[Idler Arm]

Originally Posted by fp115

Who let the troll out of his cage???

You do have a sense of humor and if what you write is true, you are one amazing dude. How such a young person could possibly achieve what you claim to have done is beyond admirable.

[ScottS]

I'm pretty sure this is the same story we've heard ten times before and the same story GM has failed to follow through on about ten times before.

[megeebee]

Originally Posted by Exploder

BUT SHE KILLED PONTIAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1




I just couldn't resist.

IT WASN"T JUST HER!!!!!!!!!!!!



I just couldn't resist.

[fp115]

Originally Posted by ScottS

I'm pretty sure this is the same story we've heard ten times before and the same story GM has failed to follow through on about ten times before.

The only difference is that we now have proof of GM committing to it.

[armycam68]

I love it when I'm called a troll when I speak the truth! It hurts doesn't it???
I am a loyal GM customer........have owned more GM vehicles than most of the pimple faced know-it-alls on this site.
Let me remind you again........GM went bankrupt. Most of the models that are on the showroom floor right now were on the floor when they went bankrupt.
Who is in love with a Buick? Is GM projecting more ministers to buy these lead sleds?
Go ahead.......protect the poor management............

[johnny smallblock]

Originally Posted by ponchoman49

A lost cause! In order to be recommended by CR you must have a Toyota badge affixed to your trunklid and make dull boring bland appliances that do well in crash tests.

It's only a lost cause if you give up on it. GM should not stop trying to appeal to CR. A lot of buyers look to CR for advice. Sometimes it's the only place they look. GM simply cannot say "they have the problem, not us" and walk away from it. That's giving up sales everyday. And that's classic GM; the problem is with everyone else, and not us.

Originally Posted by KingElvis

I think they should just raise prices - then the buyer can say "I got 5 grand off the list price!" Even though it has $3k in padding. Others can say they base price lower, then GM just says "That's because we're worth more."

That's actually the opposite of what they should do. People hear about incentives and assume there's something wrong with the car. It's what GM has been doing for years and it has suffered mightily because of it.

[Neanderthal]

Finally, GM aims to make more gains in Consumer Reports, Docherty said. For 2008, Consumer Reports recommended 12 GM nameplates vs. eight in 2009.

Henderson recently endorsed the idea that the magazine be made widely available to GM executives, said Mike DiGiovanni, the company's executive director of global market and industry analysis.

"Not everybody at GM is immersed in Consumer Reports," DiGiovanni said. He recalled that Henderson wanted to know: " 'Why aren't they? They should be. It's the bible.' "

Oh boy. Where to start with this crowd?

I'd like to know WTF GM "execs" read all day. SOP on all their reading lists should be CR, CaD, MT, R&T, Automobile, Automotive News, Hot Rod, and Psychology Today.

CR should be made widely available to GM execs?
Look, if these boyz and girlz don't have the initiative to pick up a copy of a magazine that has a large influence on a certain segment of the buying public, and if in fact CR and all the other above-named automotive pubs are not in the GM lobby, all over the $5,000 coffee tables in GM Exec Lounges, and already in every GM exec's inbox, this company is more lost in the woods than even I thought.

These clueless idiots should be sent out incognito one week a month to negotiate and purchase one vehicle. Visit GM and competitors' showrooms, get their hands dirty and their feet muddy.

This is called "training time," and it would probably be far more productive than the time spent in the executive suite schmoozing with each other.

The biggest problem with most "leaders" and "managers" is they never mix it up with the hoi polloi, they sit in their high class isolation chambers and never set foot on the battlefield.
They drive GM exec cars, their elevators skip the floors where the proles and other commoners and slimebags congregate--perhaps they stink?--and they don't have any more idea what goes on at the buyer's level than the average horse knows about The Giant Red Spot of Jupiter.

Fritz & Co. should start listening to their own troops. If they stay isolated from the worker bees at the company because they're just not important, they are missing possibly their best source of rubber-meets-the-road information. Good bosses have talk sessions with the troops regularly.

Solution? Retire about half of the folks with Executive Elevator keys.
Immediately start recruiting from the Armed Forces at the E-4, 5, 6, & 7, grades; O-2, 3, & 4, grades; and WO/CWO 1, 2, & 3 grades, for actual leaders and managers=people who can assess a situation, make decisions that make tactical sense and (in their situation save lives) have logic behind them, and who have no fear of getting their hands dirty in the field.

As for CR, Fritz should invite some of the car enthusiast magazine editors in for some headbanging sessions.
This guy sounds like he's so far out in left field that he probably thinks the Motor City Kitties still play in Tiger Stadium.

"The Bible"?

Originally Posted by 1.21 giggawatts

leasing in certain markets is the majority of sales. regardless of what numbers show nationwide. If GM wants to change perception in markets where imports rule and bring fresh buyers in, they need to give them a taste. also cutting out fleet sales to rental car companies would help residual values too.

First someone at the top should understand that One Size Fits All doesn't work.

As for fleet sales, I think it's good if not overdone. It gives your cars a big pool of potential buyers. That's good, if your cars are good enough to impress the renters.

Originally Posted by KingElvis

This kind of sounds like "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride." Yeah, it'd be nice to have people pony up $35K for a Pontiac. Lutz tried it with the GTO. Didn't work.

Yeah, it'd be great if you didn't have BMW leasing the 3 series for $300 a month - GM could do that with CTS if the darn residuals weren't so bad. It makes Caddy seem like a lousy deal for those who lease - and it is.

Guess that's why you have to sell them instead, but still offer big rebates.

I think they should just raise prices - then the buyer can say "I got 5 grand off the list price!" Even though it has $3k in padding. Others can say they base price lower, then GM just says "That's because we're worth more."

It's a charade, but what we have now is no less a charade.

Originally Posted by armycam68

Good luck to this lady. She will know what it's like selling snow to Eskimos!
As I walked through a Chevy/Buick dealership on Saturday.........I watched at least a dozen salespeople looking at a total of five customers. My wife and I are looking for something to replace our 2007 IMPALA and my 2008 GMC Envoy.
As we looked, we both came to the conclusion that Chevy/Buick has nothing to offer us.
A new Impala has increased in price nearly $3000 since we bought ours. The only change I could see was the dials on the heater/air switch.
The TrailBlazer is gone so now I must buy a Traverse or an Enclave to tow my boat.
My wife said no way on the Enclave or the Traverse...........she reminded me what a chore it would be to drive this miniture school bus in a Walmart parking lot...........even with the camera..........BTW........both the Traverse and the Enclave on the florr stickered for over $44 thousand dollars.........are you serious??????
I had a 2004 Chevy Colorado..........a real piece of junk, that took an airfield to turn.......and BTW......no changes on this thing either other than wheels and body side mouldings, and the price increase.
I looked at the new V-6 Equinox..........no frame, questionable towing and a loaded Nox on the floor was $32,700.........about $2K more than my Envoy was two years ago with all the rebates.
The Buick Lucerne on the floor was a 2009 or ??? since they haven't changed it either.
The dealership didn't have a new LaCross.........but it's over priced and BTW, the Walmart/Mall shoppers will have a field day with the new LaCross.........no body side mouldings on a $30K car..........oh the doors and shopping carts!
Do the people that design these vehicles live on this planet........do they all ride the bus..........do they ever ask their custoners for an opinion?????????Maybe GM strategy is.......sell a few at a big profit........

Originally Posted by fp115

Who let the troll out of his cage???

Asking tough question of GMmismanagement isn't trolling, IMO.

General Van Winkle has been asleep for a long time, he needs to wake up and go mix it up with real people who live real lives, buy and pay for and service-at-dealerships real cars, and who in fact are the ones who pay GM's way.
They're called customers.

[armycam68]

To GM...........send a car for me and a few of my friends who have been loyal GM customers............we can go thru this junk a piece at a time and tell them what the hell they screwed-up.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist.............
We don't smell and we would be courteous!
If not, go down to a local book store and buy a few magazines or go to a car cruise and ask a few people!

[BlackGTP]

Originally Posted by armycam68

I love it when I'm called a troll when I speak the truth! It hurts doesn't it???
I am a loyal GM customer........have owned more GM vehicles than most of the pimple faced know-it-alls on this site.
Let me remind you again........GM went bankrupt. Most of the models that are on the showroom floor right now were on the floor when they went bankrupt.
Who is in love with a Buick? Is GM projecting more ministers to buy these lead sleds?
Go ahead.......protect the poor management............

I pulled up your posts and reviewed several. All of your posts that I read always emphasize the negative. You never note anything positive - this is what gets you labeled a troll. Why not say why you are a GM fan. You need to put some kind of balanced perspective "I've always loved they way GM did.... but the new models don't seem to have this feature", etc.

[eaton53]

Henderson recently endorsed the idea that the magazine be made widely available to GM executives, said Mike DiGiovanni, the company's executive director of global market and industry analysis.

"Not everybody at GM is immersed in Consumer Reports," DiGiovanni said. He recalled that Henderson wanted to know: " 'Why aren't they? They should be. It's the bible.' "

If I were in GM marketing this would've been done a long time ago:

Take advantage of CR's flawed methodology by giving every single employee at GM and their dealerships a subscription and have them flood it with tens of thousands of positive surveys. Were CR a true random survey you could never do this...

[KingElvis]

Originally Posted by armycam68

Good luck to this lady. She will know what it's like selling snow to Eskimos!
As I walked through a Chevy/Buick dealership on Saturday.........I watched at least a dozen salespeople looking at a total of five customers. My wife and I are looking for something to replace our 2007 IMPALA and my 2008 GMC Envoy.
As we looked, we both came to the conclusion that Chevy/Buick has nothing to offer us.
A new Impala has increased in price nearly $3000 since we bought ours. The only change I could see was the dials on the heater/air switch.
The TrailBlazer is gone so now I must buy a Traverse or an Enclave to tow my boat.
My wife said no way on the Enclave or the Traverse...........she reminded me what a chore it would be to drive this miniture school bus in a Walmart parking lot...........even with the camera..........BTW........both the Traverse and the Enclave on the florr stickered for over $44 thousand dollars.........are you serious??????
I had a 2004 Chevy Colorado..........a real piece of junk, that took an airfield to turn.......and BTW......no changes on this thing either other than wheels and body side mouldings, and the price increase.
I looked at the new V-6 Equinox..........no frame, questionable towing and a loaded Nox on the floor was $32,700.........about $2K more than my Envoy was two years ago with all the rebates.
The Buick Lucerne on the floor was a 2009 or ??? since they haven't changed it either.
The dealership didn't have a new LaCross.........but it's over priced and BTW, the Walmart/Mall shoppers will have a field day with the new LaCross.........no body side mouldings on a $30K car..........oh the doors and shopping carts!
Do the people that design these vehicles live on this planet........do they all ride the bus..........do they ever ask their custoners for an opinion?????????
Maybe GM strategy is.......sell a few at a big profit........

Shopping for a car anywhere is a drag. These guys are mostly grifters. Sticker shock is nothing new, but I feel for you.

But go look at crossovers from Audi and BMW - that'll truly scare you.

But, why replace the Envoy if you like it and it's only a 2008?

[bcjohnso99]

Originally Posted by armycam68

Do the people that design these vehicles live on this planet........do they all ride the bus..........

No, the ones approving the designs drive company vehicles and get a new one each year, hence they don't know how time plays on them.

[vanshmack]

See my comments in BOLD:

Originally Posted by armycam68

Good luck to this lady. She will know what it's like selling snow to Eskimos!
As I walked through a Chevy/Buick dealership on Saturday.........I watched at least a dozen salespeople looking at a total of five customers. My wife and I are looking for something to replace our 2007 IMPALA and my 2008 GMC Envoy.
As we looked, we both came to the conclusion that Chevy/Buick has nothing to offer us.
A new Impala has increased in price nearly $3000 since we bought ours. The only change I could see was the dials on the heater/air switch. Why replace it, then?


The TrailBlazer is gone so now I must buy a Traverse or an Enclave to tow my boat.
My wife said no way on the Enclave or the Traverse...........she reminded me what a chore it would be to drive this miniture school bus in a Walmart parking lot...........even with the camera..........BTW........The lambdas are not much larger on the outside than your Envoy but drive infinitely better. Test-drive one and you'll see.


both the Traverse and the Enclave on the florr stickered for over $44 thousand dollars.........are you serious??????See KingElvis' post above.


I had a 2004 Chevy Colorado..........a real piece of junk, that took an airfield to turn.......and BTW......no changes on this thing either other than wheels and body side mouldings, and the price increase. Point taken! You made a mistake in 2004. What makes you think the same truck with no changes would be competitive 5 years later?

I looked at the new V-6 Equinox..........no frame, questionable towing and a loaded Nox on the floor was $32,700.........about $2K more than my Envoy was two years ago with all the rebates.Totally different vehicles. Your Envoy was a dated design in 2008. The Equinox is class leader in the compact segment and has standard features your Envoy didn't even have as options. Also, your Envoy doesn't get 32 MPG HWY, either. You mave have a problem with price, but the general public doesn't seem to, as they fly off lots as quickly as they're unloaded.


The Buick Lucerne on the floor was a 2009 or ??? since they haven't changed it either.
The dealership didn't have a new LaCross.........but it's over priced and BTW, the Walmart/Mall shoppers will have a field day with the new LaCross.........no body side mouldings on a $30K car..........oh the doors and shopping carts!The fact that they didn't have LaCrosse in stock should speak volumes about it's popularity. Also, go look at the Lexus it competes with then tell me if it's overpriced. Also, lots of newer cars don't have side mouldings. Some people think they're for old foagies.


Do the people that design these vehicles live on this planet........do they all ride the bus..........do they ever ask their custoners for an opinion?????????
Maybe GM strategy is.......sell a few at a big profit........GM tried for years to sell inferior product for premium dollars. Now that they have the product, they can begin justifying the prices. I get your point in stickershock, but this what class-competitive products cost for the segments in which you're shopping.

And before you call me a pimply-nosed punk, I state for the record that I'm 39 years-old and have owned 24 GM vehicles in 23 years of driving. I think I know a little bit about what GM offers now and what they've been offering for the better part of 2 1/2 decades.

[mbukukanyau]

Originally Posted by Exploder

BUT SHE KILLED PONTIAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1




I just couldn't resist.

no, you killed Pontiac by refusing to buy enough of them.

[agent.theory]

That's all great. She seems to have a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and intelligence to get GM sales going.

However, I fear that Fritz Henderson is more old GM than new GM. So far, he seems very conventional and cautious. Docherty, Lutz, design chief Ed Welburn, and the people who work for them could make a big difference for GM is Henderson is smart enough to get out of the way.