Everybody’s got their own idea of network marketing and selling. By the way, as usual when I write something on network marketing, I am tacitly including internet marketing. Nowadays, your next customer or downline member may be on another continent, but the principles are the same.

I’ll try not to make this a “long story” as my friend, Mark, likes to say. He divides stories into two kinds, long and short. A “long story” is an excuse to step outside and have a cigarette while you tell your tale.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I decided to try to buy a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car. We called several car dealerships in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but Priuses were in very short supply. We couldn’t even find a dealer that had one in stock to let us test drive. Finally, we found a dealer in North Dallas who had one that was being held for a customer, and the salesperson I talked to said we could come and test drive it.

Not wanting to waste anybody’s time, every place I had called, including this one, I had very carefully explained my financial situation, what I was willing to pay, what I had to trade, the price I was willing to meet, and so on. I had two perfectly good cars; I was just trying to accomplish something and didn’t want to go in hock just to get a Prius.

We drove several miles through afternoon traffic to test drive the Prius. We were shown the sticker and all the important facts and drove the car. We were sold. However, the car was being held for someone else! The salesman assured us that no deposit had been taken, and the customer had just been told they would “try” to hold it but would sell it if they got a customer. We were ready to go inside and make the deal when the salesman dropped the bombshell. The car was going to cost $6,000.

00 more than the quoted price…a price which had been mentioned several times previously! This had to do with costs of shipping, but nowhere in our discussions prior to arriving, or after arrival had we been told this fact.

The sales people then looked at our trades and made us an offer. The payments would have been drastically larger than I had talked with them about, and they also wanted a down far in excess of what I had told them I was willing to pay. The last straw was when I had to revert to Platoon Sergeant mode and demand the keys to my cars…which they finally produced just before I started ransacking desk drawers. I think I cost them a couple of other sales. Good!My wife and I had dinner, calmed down, and went home. We had just about decided not to have anything to do with ANY Toyota dealer anywhere. When we got home, however, there was a message on the answering machine asking us to call Michael at another Toyota dealer. I got hold of Michael and learned that after we had spoken that morning a lone Prius had arrived in a shipment of cars. Michael had remembered our conversation, tagged the car so no one would sell it, went to the sales manager to see if a deal could be struck along the lines I had laid down, and only then, Michael had called us to give us the info. We readily agreed to meet the next morning.

Everything was smooth as silk. Michael was able to work out the deal along the lines we wanted. We were treated with respect, and Michael apparently could not believe how we had been treated at the other dealership. In fact, the night before, Michael had given me the final price over the phone, and had even gotten the boss to waive an extra charge so that we would not have to pay a premium. Our experience with Michael and the second dealership was the exact opposite of the previous day’s.

Since that time, we have told everyone who has asked us about our new Prius to go see Michael and to stay as far away as possible from the first place we had gone.

Yeah, I figure that Michael is one heck of a sales”man”. Because of what Michael did for us, and the way we were treated, we are about the best word-of-mouth advertising she and Toyota could ever hope to have. Oh! Didn’t I mention that in addition to being one of the finest salespersons I have ever met, Michael is what some people would call a knockout babe? She is also honest, honorable, and trustworthy and if she ever goes into network marketing, I’m buying, whatever she’s selling. Well, maybe not the lipstick. It would clash with my beard.