Yeah, But Can he Sell?

Dealers tell me often one of their biggest challenges is trying to find good salespeople. One would think it should be easier today with the flood of salespeople on the hunt for a job because their dealership closed. Dealers might be getting more resumes, but how do they know if the applicant sitting before them can actually sell a car?

Lee Kemp thinks he has the answer with an interactive sales simulation firm he created several years ago. You can read about it here. An executive with a dealer group on the Ward's Megadealer 100 tells me his managers love it because it's simple to use and it's evaluations are spot on. He says they also like the training component the solution provides.

We've known Lee for several years back when he was a Ford dealer in Minneapolis. (He was part of Ford's minority dealer development program. His landlord was also his competitor -- Denny Hecker, who's automotive empire recently collapsed.)

Lee left the business in 2005 to follow his dream of being in the Olympics. He was a national and world champion wrestler in the late '70s and was all set for the 1980 Olympics when President Carter decided to boycott the games that year.

Lee finally made it as a coach of the U.S. Olympic Freestyle Team in 2008. He now operates two wrestling schools -- one in Atlanta and one in Chicago. But he couldn't shake the car industry. He restarted his company last year with business partner and industry veteran Steve Munyan and hopes to help dealers with their hiring processes.