It's all about the relationships

One of our best dealership customers stopped by the booth today, a gentleman by the name of Ernie Boch, Jr. He operates several dealerships in England, including Boch Toyota and Boch Honda. The latter was recently named the #1 volume Honda dealership in North America, a fact that we acknowledged with an ad in Automotive News.

I'd only met Ernie once before, at NADA in New Orleans a few years ago, and my meeting with him yesterday left me with the same impression: He's a good guy. He was very gracious about Guidepoint and very complimentary of our expediter in Massachusetts (Micorp) that provides product, installation and service to his Boch dealerships. Actually, he complimented Frank, who works for Micorp and "handles" all things related to Boch for Guidepoint. In my humble estimation, it's cool that a guy like Ernie Boch, who owns dealership and auto-related businesses valued at more than $1 billion, not only knows who Frank is, but that he makes it happen and that he's a good guy (he is!) That's the thing about car dealers -- unlike a lot of companies and industries, car dealers still "get" that business is about relationships, and that it's important to get to know the people you do business with. We're having many good reminders of that out here in San Francisco.