In Joe Verde’s distinguished career in the car business, he has been a salesperson, a manager and a dealer principal. He’s often said of his sales experience, “I’ve been the 8-car guy and the 38-car guy,” and now he can add 25 successful years as CEO of Joe Verde Sales and Management Training, Inc.®  to his impressive resume.
“I founded the company in 1985 with the simple idea of helping people in our business become professionals in sales,” said Joe Verde, CEO, Joe Verde Sales & Management Training, Inc.® “Starting with only a handful of people, the company has now grown to nearly 50 employees with corporate headquarters in Orange County, California, and a state-of-the-art training center in Irving, Texas.”

Mr. Verde, however, didn’t begin his career as CEO of North America’s most successful automotive sales training company. He began – as most salespeople did thirty years ago – by responding to a job ad in the newspaper. After seven years in the U.S. Army, including two years in Vietnam, Mr. Verde separated from the Service in the early 1970s. That’s when he spotted a job ad for a salesperson at a local dealership with the headline, “No Experience Required.”

After almost no initial sales training, Mr. Verde found himself on the lot talking price with every prospect, instead of giving a good presentation, demonstration and building value for the customer. He worked hard but the hours and low pay eventually took their toll: he quit the business after just five years.

“I sold cars for five years, but the fun soon wore off with a 7-day work week and 10 to 12 hours a day,” said Mr. Verde. “Our bell didn’t ring at night until there were no more prospects on the lot and I was there many nights until 2 or 3 a.m., still trying to hammer out that price-focused deal, only to end up closing with a $12 voucher.”
Mr. Verde started a pin-striping business and also began going through hundreds of books, tapes and seminars on sales, goal setting and success skills. “I eventually learned that selling is a repeatable process anyone can learn,” Mr. Verde said. “I learned that by following the same basic steps every time with every prospect, you can sell most people what they came to buy.”

Armed with improved selling skills and renewed enthusiasm, Mr. Verde returned to the car business, and in his first seven months back in sales, he sold more units and made more money than he had in his entire first five years selling cars combined. It was this success that led Mr. Verde to start his company in 1985, and share his knowledge with salespeople, managers and dealers from coast-to-coast.

Over the last 25 years, Joe Verde has developed, written and held sales and management training workshops across North America. He has written several books, authored two monthly newsletters and with JVTN®, he pioneered online training in the automobile business.

Most recently, Mr. Verde has released Version 9 of JVTN®, penned the successful book, “A Dealer’s Guide To Recovery and Growth In Today’s Market,” and held four, standing-room only workshops at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) 2010 Convention in Orlando, FL.
“We know that without the support of dealerships who’ve relied on our training year-after-year, we wouldn’t be the success we are today,” Mr. Verde noted. “We’d like to thank each and every salesperson, manager and dealer over the years who has put their trust in our training programs.”
For more information on Joe Verde’s online training programs visit www.jvtn.com. To learn about Joe Verde workshops and products, visit the web at www.joeverde.com or call (800) 445-6217.

The Joe Verde Group®
Joe Verde is the author of “A Dealer’s Guide To Recovery & Growth,” the most valuable book for every dealer and manager in the car business today. Joe Verde Sales & Management Training, Inc.® just celebrated its 25th anniversary as the number one training company in the automobile industry with corporate offices in Southern California and a training center in Irving, Texas. Our company focus is training sales, finance, service and sales management for dealerships and manufacturers to increase their sales volume and net profit. We are a global organization with clients in dozens of countries around the world and our client list of over 3,600 dealerships includes a broad group – literally from the largest dealerships in the world to the smallest.

4/27/10