Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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7 SALES PROS THAT PREVAILED 2006 Sales Professional of the Year Greg Rietz Lujack's Northpark Auto Plaza Davenport, Iowa Persistence pays for Greg Rietz. That, in part, is why the salesman earned the designation of 2006 Sales Professional of the Year. In fact, he once worked seven years at the Davenport, Iowa, dealer- ship to close a single deal, calling his contact once a quarter to see if the dealership could meet the family's automotive needs. During 2006, Rietz sold around 800 units, and the Lujack's mainstay hasn't curtailed his efforts selling 817 units in 2011. 2007 Sales Professional of the Year John Kelley Tom Kelley Buick GMC Fort Wayne, Ind. It's been almost six years since John Kelley was named the magazine's 2007 Sales Professional of the Year, but he has- n't slowed a bit. And why would he? Kelley is only 81. "I feel like I did when I was 50," he said recently. "God's been really good to me." He credits his faith, honesty, diligence and "attitude, atti- tude, attitude" for his success and longevity at Tom Kelley Buick GMC in Fort Wayne, Ind. John Kelley's roots at the dealership began 48 years ago in the body shop, after being wooed away from a life of farming. Since shifting to sales, though, he's never looked back. Kelley may be old-fashioned―for example, never wearing sunglasses on the lot so as to look shoppers directly in the eye while extending his hand for a shake―but he can also be a bit unconventional. The octogenarian still regularly rides his Harley to work, weather permitting, of course. It's the customers that still motivate him after 22 years at the deal- ership. "They're the best," he said when Auto Dealer Monthly caught up with him in August. When interviewed in 2006 Rietz was in the midst of preparing 4,400 Christmas cards to send to his clientele. Today, he's somewhere in the process of readying an- other 8,000 season's greetings for 2012. 2005 Sales Professional of the Year Ken Olmstead Harvest Ford • Klamath Falls, Ore. Ken Olmstead was Auto Dealer Monthly's Sales Professional of the Year in 2005, the first-ever re- cipient of the title. That year, Olmstead moved almost 400 units for Harvest Ford. Olmstead is the only of our annual sales professional honorees to no longer work for the dealership where he earned the award. That is hardly by his choosing. In June 2011, the Klamath Falls, Ore., Ford dealership was shuttered and purchased shortly thereafter by mega-auto group Lithia Motors. "I was there until they locked the doors," said Olmstead of his 24-and-a-half years at Harvest Ford. But his work with longtime customers was not finished just because the dealership folded. Olm- stead set up a temporary office at another dealer and worked with Lithia to close out deals already in progress. For about the last year, Olmstead has been working in Klamath Falls on commission with other dealers to locate cars for them.