Joe Girard, the world’s top car salesman who holds the Guinness World Record to this day, has died at the age of 90.
According to Automotive News (subscription required), Girard died following injuries he sustained in his home in Michigan. The record-setting salesman reportedly fell backward down his stairs and suffered severe head trauma.
Girard was an active salesman at Merollis Chevrolet in suburban Detroit between 1966 and 1977. There, he sold 13,001 vehicles. The record-setting figure came in 1973 when he sold 1,425 vehicles in one year. Decades later, in 2001, he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Although he retired from sales, Girard went on to write books about his sales tactics.
He ensured his customers received the best experience when buying a car and often picked up tabs for minor repairs, and even paid for customer referrals. Girard also held a barbeque every year for his customers to further show his appreciation. Eventually, Girard had plenty of customers sending their friends and family his way.
Some may recall Girard’s record was contested last year after another salesman in Michigan said he’d outdone the 1,425-vehicle figure in a year. Ali Reda said he sold 1,582 vehicles in a year and General Motors supported the claim. However, Guinness said it would not honor the figure due to GM’s stake in the claim. No objective third-party could confirm the new record and the organization decided to keep Girard’s official record in place.
Reda claimed he learned his selling techniques from one place: Girard’s own books about how to sell.
Comments
I worked at a Chevy dealer for six months selling cars between jobs. It’s not as easy you might think. First you need a dealership that attracts a lot of people and second a good owner of the dealership. Being retired now I’ve bought quite a few vehicles and how I choose, I first pick the vehicle or type I want and need then go out looking. The final deal always depends on the sales person, not the price. If they are nice, listen, look clean and neat and not wearing a plaid jacket, care about more on what you want, not what they want to sell because of commission or what’s in stock, that is who I go with. Joe Girard had to be quite a dynamic person and lovable. The bottom line is if you’re nice to people, they’ll be nice to you.
This story is really interesting. I may buy one of his books. How many days of the week was that dealership open?
Five days at that time. Don’t know about now as I left Michigan many years ago.
Montana Bob
Michigan car dealers during that time and a lot of them today were only open M-F and open late on Mondays and Thursdays. Joe Girard had numerous folks working for him as sub-contractors at his peak to help follow up on leads and allow him to close deals. Remember this was all pre Internet. Lots of notebooks and phone calls. What a guy. He offered to try and help GM out as they were going into bankruptcy by giving some seminars to dealers the he assured them would allow every single salesman to increase their close by a minimum of 2 or 3 cars. GM naturally turned him down thinking they had nothing to learn from an old timer.
Really? a wild guess..7 day’s a week?
Not back then we weren’t.
I ordered a 1966 Corvette 427-390HP across the table from Joe at Merrolis on Gratiot in the fall of 1965 at 21 years old. They closed at 5 or 6pm ‘cus that’s when we left. Took Delivery early January of 1966. My Mother was there as she had to Co-sign the GMAC loan. I was a dedicated Chrysler man because I worked there (I had a 1964 Dodge with a 426 wedge Engine). But GM was the only 2 seater sport car, so I bought it. I remember getting the cards from Joe and even though I only bought Chrysler Products after that I can’t remember 1 Chrysler Salesman’s name. The name Joe Girard has been at instant recall in my memory throughout for last 59 years. Tried to get hold of him when I had body off restoration done in 2012 to sign the dashboard, but to no avail. Sold the car in 2015. I remember noticing he had quite a pock marked face. He knew I had done my homework, been to other Dealers and was there to “Save a Weeks Pay”, which I did. It was $4500 when others were $4650 and up. Who could have known I was buying from the worlds greatest Salesman before he was.