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Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Tom Stuker
Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Tom Stuker
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About this episode
Tom Stuker shares his journey from humble beginnings to becoming a legendary figure in automotive sales training. Known for his influential scripts and communication techniques, Tom emphasizes the importance of listening over talking and adapting to modern sales methods like video messaging. He reflects on his early entrepreneurial spirit, overcoming bankruptcy, and the motivation behind his success. The conversation highlights how his teachings have shaped countless careers and continue to evolve with changing technology in car sales.
Car Guy Coffee Podcast Presents #5Liner feat. Tom Stuker
Welcome to The #5Liner, the show dedicated to the individual journeys that power the automotive industry. It's not about the company; it's about the individual, their career, mindset, and personal story. In each episode, we sit down with a high-quality selection of Car Guys and Car Gals to get beyond the title and into the hard earned wisdom they've gained. Join us as we uncover the wins, challenges, and #5Liner takeaways that have shaped today’s top talent.
In this episode of the Car Guy Coffee Podcast, hosts Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz welcome Tom Stuker, whose scripts and phone techniques helped shape their early dealership careers, including the well-known “script book” and the “Stuker box” organization system. Tom reflects on hard lessons about failure, gratitude gained through extensive world travel, and says his greatest reward is the people and relationships in his life rather than money.
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Welcome to The #5Liner, the show dedicated to the individual journeys that power the automotive industry. It's not about the company; it's about the individual, their career, mindset, and personal story. In each episode, we sit down with a high-quality selection of Car Guys and Car Gals to get beyond the title and into the hard earned wisdom they've gained. Join us as we uncover the wins, challenges, and #5Liner takeaways that have shaped today’s top talent.
In this episode of the Car Guy Coffee Podcast, hosts Lou Ramirez and Fred Lennartz welcome Tom Stuker, whose scripts and phone techniques helped shape their early dealership careers, including the well-known “script book” and the “Stuker box” organization system. Tom reflects on hard lessons about failure, gratitude gained through extensive world travel, and says his greatest reward is the people and relationships in his life rather than money.
📲Stream it. Sip it. Share it. Let's Brew.
Don’t forget to share and subscribe!
carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
cold calling
""And so I just, and in cold calling, I hate cold calling. Anybody that does cold calling is an idiot because they don't know any better.""
Cold calling means calling people you don't know to try to sell them something, like a car. It's like ringing someone out of the blue to see if they want to buy.
Cold calling is the practice of making unsolicited phone calls to potential customers in order to sell products or services. In car sales, it often involves calling people who have not expressed prior interest in buying a vehicle.
Brand
Honda
"I just put 20 because if I had a Chevy or Toyota, Honda store, whatever, Kia store, 20 is what should be the benchmark in stores today."
Honda is a car company from Japan that makes cars and motorcycles that many people trust.
Honda is a Japanese automotive brand recognized for producing reliable cars, motorcycles, and power equipment.
Brand
Kia
"I just put 20 because if I had a Chevy or Toyota, Honda store, whatever, Kia store, 20 is what should be the benchmark in stores today."
Kia is a car company from South Korea that makes cars that are usually affordable and have good features.
Kia is a South Korean automotive brand known for offering affordable and well-equipped vehicles.
Brand
Toyota
"I just put 20 because if I had a Chevy or Toyota, Honda store, whatever, Kia store, 20 is what should be the benchmark in stores today."
Toyota is a popular car company from Japan that makes cars known for lasting a long time and using little gas.
Toyota is a leading Japanese car manufacturer known for its reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles.
Brand
Chevrolet
"I just put 20 because if I had a Chevy or Toyota, Honda store, whatever, Kia store, 20 is what should be the benchmark in stores today."
Chevrolet is a big car company from America that makes many types of cars and trucks.
Chevrolet is a major American automotive brand known for producing a wide range of vehicles including trucks, SUVs, and cars.
Term
tire kickers
"So then you had tire kickers. People came into shop today. People come in to buy. In order to really be bad,"
Tire kickers are people who come to car lots but don't really want to buy a car; they just look around or waste time.
Tire kickers is a slang term for people who visit car dealerships without serious intent to buy, often just browsing or wasting time.
Brand
Mercedes-Benz
"And I get sick of Mercedes-Benz salespeople or high-end salespeople to go. You don't ask my kind of customers for referrals."
Mercedes-Benz is a famous car company from Germany that makes fancy and comfortable cars. People often think of it as a symbol of luxury and quality.
Mercedes-Benz is a German luxury automotive brand known for its premium cars, SUVs, and commercial vehicles. It is recognized for engineering excellence, luxury, and advanced technology.
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Hello and welcome to the CarGuy Coffee Podcast. This brew has been brought to you by Certified
Solutionaries and if you want to consume more brews or want more information about how to
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Let's brew! What's going on, Car Guys and Car Gals for Lennarts, a subprime hero and we are here
and we are excited because today we are bringing some high energy with somebody that really helped
us start our careers. He doesn't even know it, right? We've got to talk to him about a little bit,
but before we ever met this guy years, decades really, we got to read his scripts. Those were
the first things that my manager gave me the day that I started in a dealership. He went to the
friends and family script and said, use this, call everybody. And from that moment on, I read the
rest of scripts. I learned so much inside there and how to speak to people and understanding
why I'm speaking to people a certain way. And that's just the beginning. He has so many other
things that we got to participate in. One was a box and we'll talk about that some more, but folks,
I'm excited to have him on the show today. I know Lou is, bro. What's up, man? I am pumped up, pumped
up to be able to have a conversation with somebody that we do truly revere in this business. So many
people in this industry have this man to thank for what it is that they've learned, for how it is
that they've spoken, for some of the words that they changed, for the way that they communicate
with their customers and set themselves apart. We are so very thankful to not just call him friend,
but to really have an opportunity to do a five liner with a really incredible car guy that
knows a thing or two inside of this business. So we're not going to give too much ado, not too
much of Fred and Lou. We are going to help welcome this incredible solutionary that has been brewing
solutions for decades in this industry. Some of you use his word tracks. Some of you have closed
car deals. Some of you have kept customers because of the communication techniques that
he has taught you. So help us to make welcome from the last episode of Seinfeld, the one,
the only Tom Stoker. Let's go. Let's go. What's going on, Tom? Welcome to the party.
What's brewing my brothers?
We're so excited to have you on, Tom. You heard a little bit about our history
with what you've taught. You've taught people whether it's been in person, whether it was
somebody reading something that you wrote, you really have brought it to the next level. I know
every car guy that I came up with during my time came up through your words and your words were
like scripture to us. Like we had to read these and we had to be verbatim and we had to be very
good at it, but it taught us how to speak to people. It helped us get to the next level,
helped me set a lot of appointments, brother, and I appreciate you for that.
Some people really hate the word script. No offense, but prayers. Our father,
one of the more famous scripts out there, it's a script, right? It's not a matter of,
when we get into, I mean, there's like closing, those are scripts. There's words you say and
there's words you don't. I used a phrase to get people going on bonus by saying,
you don't have to buy it today, do you? But that would be a bad close if you go into a
TL situation, all right? But one thing we get straight, there's no such thing as,
because I hate when salespeople go, I have my own way. There is no own way. There's this way
and there's that way. I don't own the English language. I was just fortunate enough to pick
and choose certain words and phrases and put them in a sequence that really got fantastic results.
I think the Greeks, the Romans came up with most of the words. I just put them in a row.
We appreciate all that you've put into a row and the way that you've helped to organize it.
I can remember a Stoker book being given to us in our early days and saying, learn it,
just like Fred said, then there's the Stoker box, which was the CRM before the CRM was.
It was. It really was. It was something that helped me get organized, helped me know who I
need to call today and who I need to call tomorrow. And all that stuff really, truly mattered. So
I want to thank you for that. I had someone on the internet say, I still have my Stoker box.
I said, hold down to it. It could be worthless someday. I wish I still had mine. I just want
those things that I still got my Stoker book though. I still got my script book. It's still,
it's in my home office up here upstairs. And I absolutely like to pull that out every once
while maybe I'm here. I haven't done a version of the script book since I think 2014 or 2015.
But next year I'm going to come out with a new one because there's so many new things we have to,
we have to teach people because people say you can't use the phone anymore. You got a text,
you got an email, you got to do all three today. You got to do all three, but there's nothing more
important than getting someone on the phone where they can hear your emotions, hear your excitement,
hear your passion, hear your reasons to buy today.
Okay. Oh, true, Tom. You are definitely preaching some truth and we appreciate that. And now you're
right. There has been things that have changed and we're to where you're not just doing all three,
the call, the text and the email, but now there's the exact same thing that we're doing right now,
which is making a video, getting in a video conversation with the customer and communicating
with them that way. And it does, it shows your excitement, it shows your personality,
and it gets the message across just a little bit different. So we're going to talk more about
brewing those solutions in the future and we're pumped up about that, but we definitely need to
get this five. I definitely want to dig in deep with Tom, man. And I appreciate you again for
taking the time for us to be able to do this. I know you're a world, literally a world traveler,
this guy, he's flown more miles than anyone. Come on, man. It's an amazing story and I can't
wait to read the book about that also. It should be out in the spring. Hey, so shout out to him.
So be looking for the book in the spring. I know I'm going to be one of the first ones to read it.
I can't wait, but you know what, man? It all starts with these five questions with us.
These five questions matter to our audience. I'm going to ask you the very first question.
Hold on. Before you do, Fred, stop, everybody. Hold on. We don't have enough people inside of
the room. So help us out, car guys and car gals. Tag a car guy. Tag a car gal and share, share,
share, share, share, share. Get this out there. Let's get some people in here. Let's get some
people asking some questions, but I'm ready to ask the first one, Lou. And it really is. I'm excited.
I'm biting at the bit for it. Tom, we all come up in this game and there's been a lot of really
great quotes out there. One of my favorite ones is it all starts with the why. For you,
what has been your why? What has driven you all these decades, your whole life,
to get to where you're at today? Survival. I've always, since I was a kid, and then it's going
to come down to the early part of the book too, but I mean, I don't think there's anything such
there's no such thing as a born salesman or salesperson. Excuse me. I got to be politically
correct today, but there's no such thing as a born salesperson. Nobody comes out of their
mother's womb with a pencil and order book to say, how do you want to finance this? And have
you thought about leasing? Just, and by the way, can you take this plug off? What do I do with this?
There's no such thing. I think there might be people that are more inherently,
oh, inherently skilled to be a conversationalist to talk more. I don't know. I remember the first
time a customer told me, you got to get the gap, right? And I thought that was a compliment.
I didn't know what they were saying is, don't you ever shut up? I mean,
another compliment I thought I had when I first got into business is when they said,
you sound like a salesman. You sound just like a salesman. I'm gonna thank you very much. That's
their way of saying, man, you're coming on too strong. So I think a lot of salespeople like
me always talk too much and listen too little. So I think we always have to, I think Jackie Cooper
a hundred years ago, for those who remembers, it might have been the guys that said, there's a reason
why we have two of these and one of these, right? Now you got to use your ears. You got to listen.
And I don't think we listen to customers enough. I don't think we listen to our kids. I don't think
we listen to our parents. I don't think we listen to our teachers. I just don't think we listen
enough. All of us. Wow. Wow. That's a very valid point here. When I was a kid, the Kool-Aid stand,
the cleaning gutters, mowing lawns, I grew up in a family. There was some parents like today
where you say, Hey, dad, I need 20 bucks and they slipped me a 20. No, I need, if you wanted a quarter
or a dime, you had to earn it. You had to do seven chores. You had to spend four hours of work on
a Saturday to get your 25 cent allowance. And so 25 cents just didn't cut it for me back then.
So I figured, how can I make money from the earliest days of mowing lawns and doing papers?
Imagine doing paper routes in 10 below zero or cold weather, right? And you're delivering every
single day where you get up at six o'clock and you're talking about nine years old and you're
10 years old and you're rubber banding papers and out for two hours before school.
And your whole monthly paycheck was $5 and 60 cents. But I didn't care. I've made a dime
every way I could. I really did. I always looked for ways to make money. I had three businesses
before I was 21. I went bankrupt before I was 21. I didn't even think I could go bankrupt before
I was 21. People are bankrupt. How can you be bankrupt when you're 21? Imagine a little thing
in the embarrassing thing in the newspaper and say assets. No, it says liability is 13,000 assets,
2,000. That was my big bankruptcy. I learned from that move forward. But it says, my passion,
I think you've asked me who was my mentor. I had no mentor. I could say my mom was my mentor a little
better, but she didn't teach me anything. It's just every, when you grew up, my parents, most
people had parents where it was a good cop and a bad cop. My dad was a bad cop. My mom was a good
cop. There was, my parents, both parents had glass of water. One was half full, one was half empty,
but it was extreme in my household. My mom's glass was so full we had flood insurance on her.
She was so positive. And then my dad's glass wasn't half empty. He drilled a hole in the bottom so
no water could ever get in. He was so negative. When I was about eighth grade, my dad pulled me
aside and says, what do you want to be when you grow up? I didn't say a doctor. I didn't say a
fireman or a lawyer. I literally said, I want to be a millionaire. And it pissed him off. I thought
to be proud of me for having that kind of goal. But he was pissed. He goes, I've been doing this for
28 years and I make this much money. What makes you think you're smarter than your father? Good
I go to the next room and my mom puts around around me and says, don't worry, you'll be a
millionaire. I said, any help can get me jumpstarted. It would be appreciated mom. But I went to
college. I went to junior college and then I went to Mankato State. Then I went to University
of Minnesota. I quit my junior year because I literally, my whole life, I said, I want to be a
millionaire. I want to make big money. I want to drive nice cars. I want to live on a nice home.
So anyway, I literally quit school because I went to a business school. Do you remember
Rodney Gagerfield, old school, whatever, back to school? So I'm in college and I'm there to be
a millionaire and my professors make a 22 grand a year and I'm going, what's wrong with this picture?
Oh my God, I learned from a guy making 22 grand how to make a millionaire. So I want to find,
so I literally started studying millionaires. What are their habits? What do they do? If you
want to learn, just like a car salesman, you want to learn how to do certain things. You
want to be the best closer and then listen to the best closers. You want to be the best prospect
and go find the best prospectors. Don't sit there and talk to another 10 or 12 car guy and ask for
his secrets to success. Don't sit there talking to a guy whose only advice to you is, you know what
the problem with this place is. I'll tell you what the problem with this place is. Man, he should be
a manager because he knows what the problem with this place is. I'm not real big on shadowing
because most of the people can't really articulate or teach their skills properly. That's why there's
trainers out there. Yeah, I'm one of them, but there's a lot of great trainers out there and find
somebody that knows how to do it, can show you how to do it and walk the walk, not just talk to talk.
I love that, Tom. And you said so much there and I'm glad we got to mentors. That is something
that we are going to talk about. And that's awesome. You mentioned your mother. I think Lou
and I would definitely throw our mothers inside that big, giant mentors in our life that really
encouraged us along the way. Mothers are all from different places, but yet mothers have this love
for their sons and their daughters to make sure that they take it to the next level. I think that
we need people to motivate us along the way. Automotive is a great place to be, Tom. And I
love that you're motivated to just never fail. You just want to keep growing and you want to
take it to the next level and get to that millionaire status. Pushed you so hard that you
got there, right? You kept going and you kept going and you kept going and you created some
really amazing things. You've left a huge legacy. You're still growing on that legacy and I love that.
But automotive, man, what a great place to go for people like us, right? What made you choose?
Matter of fact, what brought you to automotive? Be a bankrupt at 20. I didn't have a pot to
piss in. I said, I got to make some money, but I love selling. So I wanted to be in the sales
business, right? And so I went to literally the bankruptcy came from three different businesses.
I invented eBay before eBay because back when there was no internet and everything, it's a
long story, different podcasts. I invented a thing called hand me down hotline. It's a long story,
a great idea, but no capitalization, no internet. Just that's a good story back in, it'll be in the
book. But anyway, I'm broken. I want money and I know the only good job was sales. I didn't want
to get in a hard construction work. First of all, I can't namp a hammer and nail into a board for
God's sake. So I meant to be in sales. So I didn't, about the only jobs in sales really got down to
insurance, real estate, and they both needed licenses. And man, I didn't want to go back to
school again. Or you can go to the mall and get a job for $8 an hour and all the shirts you could
fold or something in one of those department stores. So no, it's a car sales. You didn't have
to have a license. And today, you don't even have to chew gum and walk for God's sake and many
stores to get a job, which is a whole podcast right there. And that's what you guys help people with.
It's still, the business model is still broke after all these years. We got to talk about that.
But anyway, I figured I can go into car business. Everybody buys cars. Somebody's got to sell them.
Why not me? I applied to everybody in town back then. It was Rockford, Illinois, very conservative,
religious town. And typically they didn't hire anybody unless you're married in 25. I was 20
single and broke. And I didn't get hired by anybody. Finally, the Buick store took a flyer on me,
along with a couple other young guys about my age. And that's where it started. No.
Wow. Nice. I left the business. I left the business after two and a half years. I got
salesman of the month, salesman of the year. Only guy saw more cars than me was Sammy.
And he was there for 33 years. And I didn't want to wait another 29 or 30 years to
sell four more cars a month. I just didn't see the picture. So I was trying to find a way to get
out. But I left the car business thinking, this is the weirdest part. I left the car business
thinking I was a salesman of the month, one of the top salesmen. I left the business thinking I
was as smart as I could get when I was as dumb as I could get and didn't know the difference.
And by leaving the business, looking from the outside in, that's when I saw,
man, the car business is so screwed up. They don't train people. Actually, a lot of the
trainees train the people to lie, to deceive. I go, man, that's not my thing. Could you imagine
being taught on a phone, just tell them you're in the service department, lie, steal, cheat,
just get them in the door. That was my training. And so I just, and in cold calling, I hate cold
calling. Anybody that does cold calling is an idiot because they don't know any better.
Back in the day when the dealer was in a bad mood, he'd ramp onto the manager and the manager would
get on us and it was 10 calls a day. You got to make 10 calls a day unless they were twice as
best and you had to make 20 calls a day. So I'm sitting there making calls and I was praying for
busy signals and wrong answers. I hated the telephone because nobody showed me how simple it
could be. And it's still the simplest tools you could train. I could train salespeople,
forget the telephone. Selling is selling. I could train a monkey to sell 20 cars a month.
And the last time I said that at a dealer, 20 group, the dealer says, do you have the phone
number to the zoo? Because I need to hire some monkeys. But really, here, let me throw some
stookerisms at my philosophy. One of them is anybody that doesn't sell 20 cars a month
either doesn't know how or doesn't want to. There is no C choice. Now, you could substitute 20
with 10. You could substitute with 30. I just put 20 because if I had a Chevy or Toyota,
Honda store, whatever, Kia store, 20 is what should be the benchmark in stores today. It's
easier selling cars today. Sorry about my excitement. I just get a little excited. But it's a little,
I think it's easier selling cars today than it was back then. So then you had tire kickers.
People came into shop today. People come in to buy. In order to really be bad,
you got to find a way to talk people out of the car when they come in.
So true. Tom, we appreciate your excitement if there's any place that all your energy
and excitement and words are welcome. It's definitely inside of the CarGuy Cafe. We are
so thankful for your energy and for your enthusiasm for what it is that you do and for what it is
that you've done up to now. So much. There's so much that we can say. And like you said,
in your firing off all these different ideas for different podcasts, because there is so much
that we can talk about, especially when diving into some of your history. And we appreciate
the story of what brought you here. We do appreciate some of your why, but wanting to
become a millionaire, finding your way to the car business, and then being such the contributor
that you are, whether writing manuals, writing books, more books to come, and being the mentor
from a distance to so many and some that you probably have closer inside of your circle
that you've mentored. You understand the importance of having somebody that's actually
leading you the right way. Like you said, some people just said, go lie, cheat, steal, do that,
follow that guy, do what he does. And sometimes we were learning some bad habits from some of
the people that have just been around a while and produced some sort of results. And we, yes,
and amen, your belief that a salesperson should be producing a minimum of 20 cars a month. We
basically say that as many days as you're present at the dealership, you should be producing at least
one unit on the road per day. And inside of that, with the training that we provide and some of the
people that had come together and do actually take a grip on that and believe that themselves,
they start to actually achieve these things. And then they believe for bigger and for better.
But inside of that, they have to have some people that keep them grounded.
They have to read a few books that help to challenge them in different areas and maybe
give them a couple of skills and maybe teach them in different ways where they haven't been
taught before. And that's why we do ask about the mentors. It is a big question for us. But for you,
who have been some of the most important and pivotal voices inside of your life or maybe even
some books that really shifted your thinking and helped you to find the time that we talked to today?
I never was a book reader. I never was, even in school. I did cliff notes on cliff notes. I just,
literally, I never read books. I really didn't because they're boring. They didn't have enough
pictures in them. Unless it was about sports. I think the only book I read when I was a kid was
Marmaduke. And I don't think that really gets anybody anywhere. But that was a childhood book.
But I just, my mentor was me. There was a voice in me because my dad was negative. My dad was a
talker, but not a walker. He always talked about, I was thinking about doing this. I was thinking
about doing this. You don't think you do. I wasn't afraid to fail. That was my biggest strength,
was not being afraid to fail. Because every time I failed, I learned something, right? Now,
fortunately, when I was younger, it wasn't expensive to learn. Now, I learned about marriage. Now,
those are expensive lessons, right? But holy moly. But over the years, like,
I invented my training by looking at everything the car people did when I sold cars,
and turned it completely upside down. So instead of, like, on phone apps, I would start back in
the day instead of, hey, why don't you just come in? Why don't you just come in and all that kind
of stuff? Or I'm in the service department. Give me your name and number so I can call you back
in five minutes when your line's busy talking to somebody else at another store. Duh. No. I would
get, I'd funnel the people to a point and I go, hey, you don't have to buy it today, do you?
Here, let me do this to help you. In order to give you a little more in the selection process,
maybe save you some more money. Why don't I check not just what I have right now,
but what's coming in the next few days as well? Could that help you? Yeah. Are you calling from
home or back then? There wasn't other cell phones that's home or work. Phoneups were different
40 years ago because people were shopping for cars. Today, phoneups are completely different.
They call up and you can still handle them in about the same way. People call in today. They
don't say, I'm thinking about a red pickup truck. No, they go, I see you have stock number 12,
14. It's listed at 18, 9. What is the interest rate? What is that your best price? And what will
you pay me for my trade in? So people that are calling today have done their homework and in many
cases are smarter about the product than some of the salespeople. So if you have to handle things
different, when people come into a dealership, they're there to buy. So you can actually,
there's a technique I can teach. You can virtually close somebody within the first 60
seconds they walk in the door. That's a different clock, right? But today, if you don't sell 20,
you either don't know how or don't want to. If you don't want to, that doesn't mean you're a bad guy.
If my brother sold cars, he'd sell 10 a month and five would be house deals. You know what I'm
saying? But anyway, that's my older brother, not my younger brother, but a nice guy, nice guy.
But if you don't want to, then let the management set the goals around you. But if you do,
then find the answers, continue the search. They're out there because here's the other one. If you're
not selling 20 a month, you either don't have enough opportunities to sell 20 because if you only
have 10 people to work, you're not going to sell meets two cars apiece. So either you don't have
enough opportunities, which is a simple thing to teach because I can teach people to sell anywhere,
anytime. You remember the movie? God, what was that movie? Wedding Crashers, right?
What's this? Will Ferrell said a funeral? I said, okay, you can sell anywhere anytime,
but please stay away from funerals. But although there is an opportunity because there's an extra
car or somewhere that has to be disposed and traded. Acquisition possibility there. There we go.
There's a used car acquisition. I love that. So yes, my mentor was me because there's
a voice of me. He says, and here's another one of my stuporisms. Always be happy,
but never be satisfied. There you go. If you're happy, if you're always happy, then you're in
the right frame of mind to survive the bullshit that comes with the car business where you could go
three days without a sale and on the fourth day sell for the ups and downs. But you know what?
Good salespeople don't have roller coasters. It's more of an even ride. You might have a
four car day, but every single day a good salesman, a good salesman, and it's less than 5% out there,
a good salesman will come to work every single day with at least three people they have a chance
to do business with today. Now that's managers listening. Here you go. Ten salespeople every
day. Don't worry about the 15 minute one-on-ones. That's bullshit. I don't know who came up with
that one, but you got to spend time with your salespeople. And the first thing you ask them in
the morning, come here, Jimmy. Give me three people we could do business with today. Now,
if a salesperson doesn't have three people we could do business with today, then they're not
prepared to succeed, which is another problem I have. 95% of salespeople come to work to survive.
Yeah, you got to learn to come to work to succeed. Amen. Tom, you are preaching to the,
I know that our audience is listening to you right now. They're like, yes, he's so freaking
right. Matter of fact, there's a few comments, but you got Jimmy on here. He's on YouTube saying
the master of phones himself. We got this guy, Robbie, what's up Robbie says guy on the far
left looks like a Hispanic max for stepping. I don't know who that is, but and then we got
Matt Daymos saying the goat. He's calling you the goat, the greatest of all time, Tom. And he
also says, thank you, Tom. Without your training, I probably would have never stayed in the business.
And let me tell you, Matt is one of those dynamite automotive people who has, who has influenced
a ton of other people. So without your training, that's Matt Daymos. It's a mentor of both of us.
Okay. I got a message for Matt and everybody else that gives me those very humbling comments.
All right. I'll take 1% credit, but you got to give yourself 99% credit for driving, for not giving
up, for believing in yourself, Matt, you deserve your credit because I went to school and took
two years of German. I could count to 10, but doesn't mean my German teacher sucked. It means I
sucked as a student, right? So the bottom line is success, Matt, is a choice. You've made good
choices. You chose to listen to me. You chose to listen to other people like these guys, right?
Now over the years, I'd do some name dropping once in a while. Alan Rand, God bless his soul,
was one of my salespeople, the trainers that I trained. Grant Cardone was selling 10 cars a
month when he went through my training. Why? Why did Grant succeed? Because Grant still today
is a sponge. No, not like my brother, you know, when I mean nickels and manhole covers and stuff
like that, but I'm talking about Grant is a sponge in the most positive way. Every single day Grant
wakes up. He literally searches for how can I be a better version of Grant? How can I be a smarter
version of Grant? How can I be a more successful version of Grant? Now I use him because he's
probably one of the most well-known people in the car business, but Grant came to the workshop
selling 10 cars a month and by the end of the year, he was at 30 something a month and he was
working two weeks a month and then he ended up working for me for three years and it was one
of the best trainers. I say one of the best trainers I ever had, right? But Grant's success
comes from Grant's choices and continual drive to improve himself. He's always happy,
but he's never satisfied. Hey, that's a atomism right and I love that.
Yeah, we had a conversation with him just last week explaining that to us and to another class
of incredible sales pros that we had the opportunity to pour into and sitting there with
Uncle G, understanding that you're the granddaddy to so many awesome great people inside of this
industry that, yes, had to bet on themself and also took a whole lot of coaching and mentorship
to do it the right way. It's one thing to just be in this business and do it. It's another thing to
do it the right way, to hear the words that help a customer actually believe and to trust you and
those are things that help us to really learn who it is that we are inside of this business,
which is critical. Again, shout out to Matt Deimos. We salute you brother. He did hire Fred and myself
into this business and helped mentor us along the way and we're so very thankful for that,
but there are other key people that we know have contributed to what it is that you do,
even if you're mentoring somebody else and just seeing that person come alive is great,
but there's a lot of things that do happen that help shape us, that also help us to realize who
it is that we are and are not and sometimes it's actually because of the hardest lessons that we
have to learn. Now, you've gone through bankruptcy, you've gone through these different situations,
marriages, all this other crazy stuff inside of life, but what would you say has been your
hardest lesson that you've had to learn up to now?
Boy, it's a tough question that no matter how down you get, there's still enough.
Don't be afraid to fail because I failed at marriage. It takes two or whatever. I'm very
grateful for the two women that gave me two great sons. There's always something good that comes
out of something like that. Anyway, I failed at business, but that's before I was even 21,
I failed at business, but I choose. The lesson to learn is that we're all blessed. At the end of
the day, there's millions of people that have it worse than you. Millions, there's people. I was in
India, a woman came up to my limo. My limo was a town car, a 30-year-old town car. They called
them limos in India background, but I was on my way to the Taj Mahal, and I got pulled off to the
side. Some cop was shaking my driver down, but three or four little eight-year-olds came up to
my window, and there's about an eight-year-old girl, like my granddaughter, about the same size
as an agent. She put her hand against my window, and it was a webbed hand. She had a smile from
ear to ear, and she was looking for her next meal probably. I don't want to get off on this
really strange tangent. I'm just saying that I've been to over 100 countries. I get so pissed when
people bitch about our country. I'm so pissed because you have no idea. I've been to Africa,
India, China. I've been all over the world. I've been to Abu Dhabi and to Emirates,
Dubai, and how unbelievable wealth there is around the world, too. But gosh, you got two legs to
arms. You're able to get up in the morning and breathe. We are such a blessed people
in this country with the opportunity. Now, don't get me into socialism and all that crap, but thank
God that everybody... See, somebody put something on the internet, and I said, hold on. Let's get
something straight. God created everybody equal. Some of us didn't want to stay that way, and that's
a matter of choices. You could choose to be the victim, or you could choose to be the solution.
You could be the problem. You could be the answer. But man, I have a choice. Now, I've made a lot of
bad choices. Still do today. Look, I have to start choosing to eat better. I have to start choosing
to lose more weight because there's no joke that says a little skinny man walked into the bar.
All I know is if I die, I want to look good in the coffin. Guys, we're just blessed. I don't want
to get off in a tangent here. It's just that you say, what lessons we learn? We learn lessons every
day, and we should be looking to learn lessons every single day. Maybe not the big ones, but little
ones. But I'm still learning. I'm going to put a new script book out, a new technique book out.
I think I'm going to have a chapter for sure that's going to say how to sell anybody anywhere,
anytime. And I don't care if it's in Mercedes Benz because I sold Richie Pryor and Mercedes Benz
over the phone. When I was actually, I didn't sell it was his manager. I was down one of the first
dealerships I worked in, the Teach was the Rolls Royce and Benz store, whatever it was,
exotic cars down in West Palm Beach, Florida. And I said, give me a customer book. Back then,
it's all books. There was no internet or anything. So stack of invoices. I give me some invoices.
I'll call these customers. Third and fourth guy down the list was Jim Brown, the famous actor
and football player. I called him. I said, Jim, I hope I didn't get you the bad time and hey,
I just want to give back to you. Thank you for your purchase. You mean a lot to us. And then
when I got to the referral part, I said, Hey, Jim, can I ask you a small favor? He says it depends
on what it is like most customers do. I said, I get most of my business for repeats and referrals.
People just like yourself, Jim. Who do you know? Maybe a friend, a relative, a neighbor,
someone you work with, maybe someone that you've talked to recently that one of these days,
going to be thinking about, not in the market, thinking about some type of vehicle for themselves
as well. Who's the first person that comes to mind? He's probably rich prior. I said,
Rich is looking for a new car. He goes, Rich, I said, I've seen his movies. We're not really
tired or anything. But I said, what's the best number to get ahold of Rich? He didn't give me
his number. I don't blame him, but he gave me his manager's number. Within about four or five hours,
a 15-minute wire on a corner is convertible only because you asked for the business.
And I get sick of Mercedes-Benz salespeople or high-end salespeople to go. You don't ask my
kind of customers for referrals. I'll never forget the first douchebag salesperson that said that
to me. It was a Mercedes-Benz salesperson, Westmont, Illinois. I don't want to mention
the name of the dealership, but it's the only one on Westmont. But anyway, this guy said,
my customers make $500,000. And this is back in the 80s. He said, my customers make $500,000 a year.
You don't ask them for referrals. I said, listen, blank for brains. That's not how it works.
There's a reason why they make $500,000 a year is because they ask. They sell. They're always selling.
So I would get on the phone and get Mercedes-Benz customers left and right, just like I would
Chevy or Kia. People are people. And if you have good scripts and techniques, it works.
And it's still a people business. That's where we got to not get, ever get away from. Actually,
my techniques and my thinking, relationship building customers, building customers for
life is more important today than it ever was before. Wow. That was a whole lot. Yeah, too much
actually. This show is for you. Please express, please speak. And there are so many different
lessons. We know that's a little bit of a loaded question, but if anybody knows it is
importance of asking good questions, it definitely would be you, my friend. But no,
I appreciate the answer because he's so right. You said so many things there that I think was
good and people need to hear that. You have Wendy, who's a good friend of ours. She's a BDC master,
right? That's what she teaches and what she does out there in the automotive. She says,
the man, the myth, the legend, so thankful for this five line and learn more about Tom.
She also says blessings and lessons while you were speaking on this, right? And says,
said, and he says, this isn't the Wendy Reeves that I met down in Florida, maybe?
She's everywhere and she absolutely loves automotive and the people in it. So I'm sure you've met her.
It sounds so familiar. There was a dealership owned by the Reeves down in around the Tampa area, so
anyway, no incredible individual and a master on the phones. Hey, you know what?
There's the one, the thing that gets me going and gives me the most passion. It keeps me in
the business because I'm coming out of semi retirement and I'm going back in the business
bigger and better. I'm going to be doing Zoom training. I'm going to be doing online training.
I'm going to put another technique and script book out next year. So I'm going to be bigger,
better, and badass like never, ever seen before because somewhere out there is the next
grand cardone that was sold 10 cars a month. The next and when Ram that was selling 10,
12 cars a month that there's thousands of salespeople out there that have been ruined or
never got a chance to become a super salesperson. I could teach anybody, not to sell 20. I could
teach. By the way, it's easier to go from 20 to 40 than it is five to 10 because if you're at 20,
then you already know the game. You just don't know it good enough, right? Now you can show
you how to get the 40 within 90 days. There's no doubt about it. I'm excited that you're going
to be doing that, Tom. I want to get back in there and I want to help, not teach, help. I want to
help salespeople become who they want to be. I want them to be their own best mentor. I want them
to teach themselves and learn from themselves and share with me the journey to become the best
version of themselves. That's right, Tom. And that leads us all the way. We've talked about your
why. We talked about what brought you to automotive. We talked about mentors. Tom, I love that you said,
I'm my mentor. Well, right now, I love that because when you have meant it's inside your brain. You
know what's going on. You know what you need every day. You got to keep pushing. You got to keep get
the best version of yourself. And every single day you're seeking that you're looking for that.
And you're now you're out here trying to help that you're spreading that legacy even deeper.
And I love that you're going to be out here doing that. I can see that you're energized and ready to
go and make it happen, my friend. And I'm excited to see it happen too. And I hope to be part of that.
We're going to throw it out to the world, let everybody else in the world know that you're
doing that. I'm excited, Tom, way to go, brother. But all the stuff that you've done, I know there's
been some rewards. You've already tapped into it a few times. But what has been your greatest
reward? And this is the final question. It's really simple. What has been your greatest reward
up to this point? Because I do so much travel, I'm the world's most frequent
fired and all that stuff. I get interviewed a million times and people ask me questions like
that. The greatest part of all the travel, right? And actually, my whole life has been a journey,
whether it's in the car business or traveling to Australia 400 times or whatever. My greatest reward
is the woman I've been blessed with for 29 years, two kids I've been blessed with for my life.
My greatest reward is the people I've met along the way, the people who touched my lives and the
peoples who allowed me to touch theirs. The greatest reward is humankind. The greatest reward has
nothing to do with money. I had an 18,000 square foot mansion and I hated it. Not because there
was nine bathrooms to clean and six furnaces to change filters in and all that shit. It's because
it wasn't a home. The heart wasn't there. I live in a very simple town, home out in New Jersey,
and I'm happy and I'm pigging the mud. I'm blessed to have more friends than I probably
deserved. Just one time, somebody said to me, my next wife, you don't have a lot of friends. I said,
man, I don't want a lot of them because to me, friendship means a commitment and I am committed
to all my friends and I consider you two to be friends too. A friend is this. A friend is,
hey man, I'm broke. I need a dime and your friend says, all I got is a nickel. Here, take this.
I'll find another five for you. Don't worry. Maybe that's not the best analogy, but
unconditional love. Unconditional love is friendship. Friendship means you're there when you're needed.
You've got to be there for them. That's what friends are. I'm just so blessed with so many
great friends. I didn't even see them coming. It's just over the years and traveling all around
the world. My best thing, oh my, come on. I've been to Taj Mahal. I've been to the Great Wall in
China. I've been to the Eiffel Tower. I've been everywhere. They're just pieces of metal or pieces
of brick. It's the people I've met along the way. It's the people that have helped me and kept me
going and cared about me and loved me and gave me love along the way and respect and that's
my reward. I'm rewarded right now being able to talk to you guys and share. This kind of stuff
makes me happy and knowing that maybe somebody out there will get off their ass and say, you know
what? I have a choice. I could either come to work to survive or succeed. I could choose my
attitude every day and move on. I could find reasons to succeed today rather than spend time
coming up with excuses of why things didn't happen. How many referrals did you ask for today?
Zero? How about yesterday? Zero? How about the day before zero? Then get off your ass and first
learn how to ask for referrals. I'll teach you. I'll teach you how to get more referrals than
you'll ever be able to handle in your life. That's right. Get off your ass. You know what?
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it puts a good down payment on it. I can tell you that right now.
And poverty sucks. I'm okay. I'd rather not be homeless. I'd rather not be living out of a car.
People are some by choice, some and most not by choice. Whole different podcasts. But let's talk
to the people that are ready, willing, and hopefully able to start today and make this
the beginning of one kick-ass end of 25 and a great 26. Just think about it. Every day,
do you have three people you have a chance to do business with today? If you do, you're on your way
to $100,000 a year. And by the way, we're going to do this in the next podcast. We're going to talk
about why people that are selling 15 to 25 are stuck in the mud. And if they only knew how to
get out of the mud and fly. Wow. Wow. Wow. I love that. That's right. That's all they need to know.
Folks, that's really real quick. You guys see this QR code above my head? That is to Tom Stoker's
website. It's Tom Stoker.global.com. Hey, you know what? I'm going to give people my own cell
number. Oh snap. Let's go. Hopefully your first name's not scammed. Your last name's not likely.
All right. But my home phone number is 989. That's my cell number. 989-820-2792. Don't be afraid to
call me. If I let it go to voicemail, I just want to see what your message is and I'll call you right
back. Tom, I figured that you would tell everybody to grab a pen because you have something important
for them to write down. No, no. Do you have your phone handy? Let me text you my details. I'm not
in no time anymore. Get with the program. Hey, do you have your hand phone? Hey, let me text you my
details, right? Yes. There it is. If you want to email me, my email is UA1Flyer. UA1, like United
Airlines One, UA1Flyer, F-L-Y-E-R at yahoo.com. That's my email address, right? Feel free. You
know what? Even if you have a question, even if you say, what's the best way to do this or
best way, man, let's just do it. Let's have some fun. Let's sell some cars. Come on. That's right,
man. Tom, we appreciate you and your time today. It means a lot to us that we got to spend this
time with you. We look forward to spending even more time with you. And he said it, we're friends.
So we're going to be staying friends with you, Tom. I'm looking forward to visiting with you.
I'm looking forward to growing with you. I'm looking forward to cheering you on as you do what
you're doing. So let's keep doing this and let's keep growing, my friend, because that's all I love
to do is keep growing myself. We believe in a recipe for that too. Guys, I'm honored to be on
your podcast. I wish you continued success and, most importantly, great health. Amen to you.
Tom, thank you so much. Car guys and car guys that are out there listening, watching whether live
or on the replay, you have been incredibly blessed by having this individual, the one,
the only Tom Stoker pour into your cup today. Thank you so much, Tom, again, for the time.
Thank you so much again for your contribution and the impact that you've made to automotive,
to us, to where it is that the industry is going and for continuing to be somebody that's evolving
himself and getting into a better state of sales for the future. We appreciate that. And it is a
great example of what it means to be a great contributor to this industry. We're so thankful
for that. And we do have a recipe to make sure that we do keep growing. And it does come with
movements because we don't make excuses. We make moves and the moves go a little something like
this. We wipe off the weight of unforgiveness. We get focused on where we're going, what we
control, who we can help and what we can do. And then we stretch out and we fly so that we can
keep growing all the time. So Tom Stoker, help us to feel the honor of having you drop these F-bombs
that don't offend the moms on our show. And we're so thankful for that. But help us out. You have
to get in position. So hands on your shoulders, Tom. There we go. Let's forgive. Focus, fly on
three. One, two, three. Forgive. Focus. Fly. Like you know how to do it. That's right. That's right,
everybody. Thank you so much. God bless. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy
holidays. Whatever it applies to. And in this winter, please don't eat the yellow snow.
That's the best tip you can give anyone. Don't eat yellow snow, my friend. I love you. Thank you so
much. Some advice is just good forever. Forever. Thank you so much, Tom. Car guys and car gals,
make sure that you blow him up. Let him know if he's blessed you today. Give him some coffee,
cup emojis. He's gave you his cell phone. Text him and let him know that you appreciate
his contribution, not just today, but to automotive. You have been watching the Car Guy Coffee
podcast with the one, the only, Tom Stoker. See you soon, everybody. We're out.
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