At the dawn of the year 2000 just after the dizziness of prolonged working hours a couple of months before to avoid the much-publicised New Year “catastrophe”, I drove to a British automaker’s dealership in Sandton in a 1996 Japanese car. That was after I had spent almost a year in 1999 waiting for the German automaker’s dealership to deliver on my order of their imported sedan. Having endured many revisions of the delivery date and the lack of enthusiasm from their sales agents, I took a drive in my short pants, sandals and a golf-shirt to this British carmaker’s dealership. Though I was willing to consider the British carmaker’s offerings, I was not convicted then about buying their car.

Nevertheless, as I stepped into the dealership casually, younger sales agents took one glance at me and continued to ignore me. I proceeded to look at new cars on the floor. Mind you, their lowest or bottom of the range model then was an equivalent of a BMW 5 Series or Mercedes Benz E-Class. Nothing in the BMW 3-series class. To those youngster, I was just another time-waster not worth spending time talking to.

On seeing younger sales agent positioned closer to the entrance unmoved by my arrival, the older looking salesman, probably in his mid 60s, left his desk at the far end of the dealership floor, and with a broad smile on his face, greeted me and shook my hand.

I politely and quickly quibbled that I was there just to “look” at their beautiful cars, to which he reassured me that he was also not there to pressure me, but to make himself available in need to explain the car’s features, technology and capabilities.

Fair enough, he went on to fetch keys of one of the cars on the floor, started it and began to show me around and explained many other interesting features about the car. He even offered to take me on a test drive right away, but I politely declined. I reminded him that I was not buying but just looking and that I was driving a cheaper Japanese car. Deep in my heart I knew I was in the market for something serious and that the marque wasn’t too far off what I could consider buying. Nevertheless, he again told me he just wanted me to know more about what I was looking at. He proceeded to give me his business card.

Though I tried hard pretending to be indifferent and the car being way “above my tax bracket” as today’s social media snobs would say, I was moved by the salesman’s humility, patience and respect he showed me that I decided that evening to return the next morning to give him an “Offer To Purchase” deal. The rest as they say, is history. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 May 2018. Continue reading →