Autoline #1317: People

People

When you talk cars, ask any executive, engineer or even dealer and they will all probably tell you that they're in the auto business. But ask arguably the most successful car salesman in history, Jim Dollinger, and he tells you that he is in the "people" business. That's because he targets building a relationship with a customer rather than just "moving metal," and it's worked pretty well for him; six straight years as the number one Buick salesperson on the planet. Of course with those sorts of credentials you'd think he'd be a beloved figure within General Motors. Well you'd be wrong. Over the years, internal GM descriptions of Dollinger have ranged from gadfly to thorn-in-the-side to today's PG-13 branding of pain-in-the-a**. He describes himself as a shareholder activist who believes that GM has been on the wrong path for years. And he says he knew that by talking to "the people." Joining John on this week's panel to discuss where GM went wrong is David Kiley of BusinessWeek and Paul Eisenstein of The Detroit Bureau.