‘Dominate, Don’t Compete,’ Hard-Charging Business Expert Tells Dealers

LAS VEGAS – Hard-charging Grant Cardone disputes the adage that competition is healthy for business.

“It’s only healthy for the customer,” says the no-nonsense CEO of Cardone Enterprises Inc., a business-training firm.

“Dominate, don’t compete,” he tells dealers here at the Driving Sales Executive Summit presented with WardsAuto. “Own the sector. Take from the weak.”

Cardone admits the latter bit of advice sounds bad, but he thinks it helps win marketplace greatness. If that has a survival-of-the-fittest ring to it, so does the title of his book, “Sell to Survive – Why Your Life Depends on Selling.”

“If you are not first, you are last,” Cardone says. “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing every day. Do you love your kids twice a week? Do you eat every day?” His hang-tough approach extends to employee relations. “Push people,” he tells dealers. “You are in a position to do that like never before. There are millions of unemployed in the U.S. right now.”

Sales people with winning outlooks go far, Cardone says. He cites a LinkedIn survey in which 60% of dealership customers rank a salesperson’s attitude as the No.1 reason they bought at a particular store.

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2010 Driving Sales Executive Summit

Anyone looking to work for him can skip sending the standard resume. But a video might do wonders.

“I don’t want to sort through 250 resumes,” Cardone says. “And I don’t want to sit through interviews when I know after 30 seconds I’m not going to hire that person. I want a 60-second video on why you want to work here. It’s a great way to use technology.”

A woman recently sent him a slick hire-me video, containing quick camera cuts and an appealing pitch. He got it on a Saturday, met and hired her on Sunday.

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