Dave Said No

If you’ve ever worked in finance at a car dealership, and I’m sure its the same in any other retail store that offers financing for their product, you get used to banks and lending institutions saying “No.” I never really figured out how that works, The dealer makes money when they sell a car so we always try to find a way to make it happen and the lender makes money if they do the deal, but their first answer is always “no.”

The finance person figures out who buys what kind of deals, how they like it structured, and what numbers they will do. Then they figure how to talk to the deal buyer at the lender, how to win them over, and how to get a deal bought.

In the old days, we would send the deal over by fax, including a credit app, deal structure, a car book sheet, or invoice, and credit report. And we’d usually get an answer back by fax. It would give us the terms the bank was willing to do on that particular deal. If you were good and knew the buyer sitting on your deals for the day, you could just about call it yourself, like they’re gonna want more down, a higher rate, proof of income, or just cut the deal back. And if it was solid deal the answer would just be yes.

I had one bank that was exclusively for the challenged buyer that almost universally sent a note back that said, “NO.” No ifs, no butts, just “NO.” And their manager was named Dave. I would call Dave after his ‘NO” because he really meant he wanted to waste more time with me on the phone. I’d pitch the deal, tell him how nice the car was, how nice the people were, how they had nice kids, how they worked hard, and how badly they needed the car, and then a few times out of a hundred, Dave would say “Yes.” But usually it was “NO.” Dave had a very distinctive, low radio type voice that was unmistakable and his “NO’ was always resounding. I don’t know why they were in the lending business. I usually got the deal bought somewhere, but I still would send the deal to all the usual suspects and it was reassuring to me knowing my fax machine was working when I would get his, “NO!”

Dave’s office was in another town about sixty miles away, and they had a marketer who would stop in every once in a while to say hi and give me their new rate sheets, but in 10 years I had never met Dave. One day their marketer showed up and there was a tall guy with her. He was easily six foot five, slender, well dressed, and holding a clipboard. I knew before I heard his booming voice when he introduced himself, he was Dave.

Just then the owner of my store walked out and I said to him, ” Hey, John, this is Dave from Fireside, he sounds just like he does on the phone.”

Without missing a beat, John said, “Say “NO.”