Mid-Town program helps out tradesmen

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This article was published 17/03/2006 (7392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MID-TOWN Ford Sales Ltd. has introduced a new sales program for the benefit of smaller commercial operations. For its Business Preferred customers — tradesmen such as plumbers and electricians, for example, the Manitoba Auto Mall dealership at Bishop Grandin and Waverley will customize the trucks with whatever the customer needs.

“We can build in compartments or add roof racks, for example,” says Mid-Town sales rep Allyn Niznick who is spearheading the new program. “Rob (dealer principal Rob Fridfinnson) figured we are in the truck business anyway so why not market delivery vehicles and tradesmen’s trucks.”

Niznick is a recent addition to the Mid-Town sales staff but one with a great deal of experience in the industry. For the past eight years, the former Winnipegger was a sales rep for Campbelltown Ford in Ottawa. Campbelltown Ford, he says, is one of the two top Ford dealers in Canada. Before that, he was helping his late wife run her designing business in Ottawa. He found after an early retirement that he missed having something to do. That was when he applied to Campbelltown Ford.

He came back to Winnipeg last fall because he wanted to be closer to family.

“My job here is to help Rob (Fridfinnson) increase sales,” says the long time sales leader. “I think Ford has the best products.”

Niznick is an exception among Midland Ford’s newer sales staff. Dennis Larson, Marc Thaczuk, Reed Boyer and Scott Dobie are more reflective of the direction that Mid-Town is taking in hiring new sales reps. The latter two are post secondary students working part time in auto sales while the former are young men who have gone through the dealership’s new training program.

“Our new training program is unique,” Fridfinnson says. “We are emphasizing a more consistent standard for training and development. We are looking to hire people who are interested in auto sales as a career. In general, we are more interested in attitude and ethics when we hire ahead of experience.”

Larson and Thaczuk hit the sales floor at the beginning of March after a two-week training period. “I learned a lot through the (two-week) training program,” says Thaczuk, a former Future Shop and long time Ford fan.

Larson also says he found the dealership’s training program to be very helpful in terms of product knowledge and sales training. Larson had been working for a sporting goods store before joining Mid-Town. He is well known in local hockey circles as a player and coach. He played hockey for five years in the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League for the Pembina Valley Twisters.

Friends Boyer and Dobie both started work at Mid-Town last summer. Dobie is a full time student at the Asper School of Business while Boyer is attending Red River College. He is scheduled to graduate this year and is planning to enroll at the University of Manitoba in September with an eye toward either an MBA or Bachelor of Commerce degree. Dobie is about two years away from a Bachelor degree or four years from an MBA. Both are interested in continuing to work in the auto industry after graduation.

In other Mid-Town news, the dealership has five staff who were Ford Summit Award winners last year. Sales reps Denis Fillion, Ron Young and Brian Romanchuk were among Ford’s top 10 per cent of sales reps in terms of sales last year. Fillion is the veteran of the staff. He has been selling Ford products for 28 years with the last ten years at Mid-Town. Young has been a Mid-Town sales rep for the 15 years that he has been in the business. Romanchuk is relatively new to the auto business — in comparison to Young and Fillion. He was the manager of a Footlocker outlet before auto sales.

“My wife was in the auto business and liked it,” he says. “As well, I am a good friend of Rene Hamonic (one of Mid-Town’s sales managers). Rene persuaded me to join Mid-Town.

“Sales are sales. It’s just that cars are bigger items.”

Marvin Fetch was a Summit Award winner in the fleet manager category. To qualify, the manager has to be in the top 10 per cent of fleet sales, he explains.

Fetch — like Fillion — is virtually an immortal in the industry. He has been a fleet manager for more than 27 years, He spent the first 16 years with the former Stadium Ford and the last 11 with Mid-Town.

Jeff Ryan, Mid-Town Ford’s financial services manager, was also a Summit Award winner last year in his category which measures warranty sales among other things. A Red River College graduate (1981). Ryan has been a financial services manager for Ford dealers for the past 17 years. He has been with Mid-Town for the last 10 years. In the earlier part of his career he worked for Ford Credit.

Rounding out the Mid-Town Ford sales staff is Della Larson (no relation to Dennis Larson). Della Larson joined the staff about a year ago. She had been in sales before through a home-based business.

“I have always loved Fords,” she says. “I was driving by one day and decided to apply. This is the best job I have ever had.”

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In concluding this column, we would like to express our sympathy to the family of Lloyd Gillis, the president of GM dealer Gillis Service Garage in Elie, Man., who passed away on March 8.