cadillac
A New Cadillac
Vocabulary
| sales | manager | sell |
| fixtures | lighting | whenever |
| need | take on | staff (2) |
| careful | interview | selects |
| potential | local | Cadillac |
| dealership | insist | trade in |
| trade | would | always |
| balk | bulk | frighten |
| huge | cost | payment |
| involve | condition (2) | hire |
| reluctantly | afterwards | drive/drove/driven |
| almost | faint | buy/bought |
| gain | regain | composure |
| everyone | neighborhood | ride/rode/ridden |
| admire | come over | in front of |
| within (2) | change (2) | feel/felt |
| winner | industry (2) | upper-class |
| enough | sure | sure enough |
| organization | organized | earn |
| superstar | performance | jump |
| no longer | issue (3) | than ever before |
Household Fixtures
There’s a story about a sales manager of a bathroom and kitchen fixtures and household lighting company.
Whenever he needed to take on new staff, he carefully interviews and selects a new potential salesperson.
Car Dealership
He would then take him to a local Cadillac dealership — and insist that he trade in his old car for a new Cadillac.
The new recruit would always balk at the idea.
He would be frightened of the cost of the new car and the huge monthly payments involved.
A New Cadillac
But the sales manager insisted that the recruit buy a new Cadillac as a condition of being hired.
And so the recruit reluctantly did so.
What do you think happened afterwards?
First, the new salesman drove the car home. When his wife she saw that he had bought a new Cadillac she would almost faint.
Cruising
But after she had regained her composure, the recruit would take her for a ride.
Everyone in the neighborhood would see them driving around in a new Cadillac.
He would park his Cadillac in front his house. The neighbors would come over and admire it.
A Changed Person
Within a few days, the recruit began to change. He started to feel like an upper-class person who drove a expensive, new, luxury car. He felt like a big money-maker. He saw himself as one of the winners in his industry.
Sales Super-Star
And sure enough, he and other new salespeople in this organization became sales superstars. Their sales performance jumped, and they earned more than they had ever before.
Soon, the payments on the new Cadillac were no longer an issue.
Sales Super-Star
1. What happens to new recruits in the company?
2. How did the new salesperson feel afterwards? Why did the sales manager force new salespeople to buy a new Cadillac? Where might he have gotten this idea?
3. Give examples of how this could apply in your life.
