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Hello All! New to the group

BDegraf

Green Pea
Sep 15, 2015
5
3
First Name
Brian
I'm glad that I found this place and decided to now join in on the forum. I'm new to this site but not the business as some of my earliest childhood memories revolve around visiting my Dad at the lots in the Chicago-land area that he managed and ran. I remember the excitement I could feel in the air and its no wonder I ended up in this business myself when I decided to leave college.

I now have over 10 years sales with 5+ years in auto sales and spent the last 3 years of my sales days running the internet department for a CDJR, Chevy and Ford store located in a small town in S.W. MO on the AR/MO state line turning the dealership from a ghost town to a profit center and built an amazing relationship/reputation with our community (a retirement community in AR, yea tough crowd!)

This year I took a "leap of faith" and a big change in my career path and took a sales position with VPA Promotions who holds the exclusive contract with Wal-Mart to allow dealers to sell their inventory on the World's largest retailer's parking lots and I'm loving it!

I miss the one on one interaction with customers and I love the satisfaction that I got when winning/earning the sale, but now I get my satisfaction by helping dealers to be innovative and book successful off-site sales and selling a month's worth of cars in 5 days! Their success stories is what keeps me going!

I was raised in the car business and it's safe to say its in my blood, I'm just fortunate now to have found something to allow me to see my wife and kids daily (family suffered a lot when I was working 70+ hours a week) and still work with the people that I enjoy the most, car guys!

Thanks for reading.
 
Hey thanks Alex Snyder and Jessica Ruth I'm glad I found this place, a lot of years worth of car biz knowledge here. @Alex Snyder, so far VPA is going great. 2016 is going to be a big year for the company and myself as we continue to grow. We're looking forward to NADA 2016 in Vegas this coming March-April, it's going to help us gain a lot of contacts Nationwide!
 
Hey thanks Alex Snyder and Jessica Ruth I'm glad I found this place, a lot of years worth of car biz knowledge here. @Alex Snyder, so far VPA is going great. 2016 is going to be a big year for the company and myself as we continue to grow. We're looking forward to NADA 2016 in Vegas this coming March-April, it's going to help us gain a lot of contacts Nationwide!

Brian, thanks for joining us. We never made an official announcement or made any big deal out of it, but this year (May, if I'm not mistaken) is our 10th year. So yes you are correct, there are many years worth of information here on the blog and Dealer forms.

If it's not too late you may also want to consider the Driving Sales event / DSES this upcoming October.
 
Brian, thanks for joining us. We never made an official announcement or made any big deal out of it, but this year (May, if I'm not mistaken) is our 10th year. So yes you are correct, there are many years worth of information down here on the blog and Dealer forms.

If it's not too late you may also want to consider be Driving Sales event / DSES this upcoming October.
Jeff Kershner, Where is the DSES at in October? I'm not familiar with DSES, what goes on at this event? Sorry just not familiar with the DSES but am possibly interested if it works logistically and can help to grow our business.
 
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Jeff Kershner, Where is the DSES at in October? I'm not familiar with DSES, what goes on at this event? Sorry just not familiar with the DSES but am possibly interested if it works logistically and can help to grow our business.

It would be worth the effort to make it. Unfortunately the closer we get to the event, the higher the travel and lodging expense is. BUT, if you know you're going to give it a shot, send me a direct message. I may be able to help with the cost of registration for the event.
 
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