The Best

I was planning to wear to the Ford Dealers’ Convention an off the rack sequinned dress from the French Connection I bought at a discount in the US. From $248 + tax, I got it at 70% off. When Oyen’s dress arrived from Amir Sali, there was another mini dress intended for me so I ended-up wearing the Amir Sali dress instead.

Medyo kudrado ang shape ng body ko pero okay na lang din. It’s very simple but comfortable.

Julienne’s dress was more sophisticated and elaborate, parang pang Golden Globe Awards.

Aside from the dozens of awards to the dealers and their employees given away during the Ford convention,
this is also when Ford bestows the Dealer of the Year award. In the past years, this title is pedigree, bragging rights of dealers. Winners proudly advertise this and stamp all their vehicle plates. But the past two or three years have been different. More so last night. If I am not mistaken, there were 2 or 3 Dealers of the Year for different categories.

The main categories were dissected into many different departments, new categories and sub-categories were created understandably to reward more people. There’s just too many that I get lost during the awarding… “Ano daw ang award?” Kala ko…” Or may be I did not pay too much attention. Or maybe because I was not the one going up and down the stage.
Or maybe the competitiveness in me has diminished.

The Dealer of the Year award used to be based purely on the number of units sold in a year, from January 1 up to December 31. The dealer with the most, enjoys 10 minutes of fame and basks in glory for a few days, and stares at the trophy for 3 days. Then after that exciting few days, it’s back to work, and fight again for next year.

As in all contests, some contenders find ways to win by playing around the rules with some creativities. If u only have a single dealership, there is no way you can win against dealers with several locations. Unless you own Coke, Pepsi, San Miguel, PAL, Unilever and all those multinational companies that buy vehicles by the hundreds. Multi-location dealers have a big advantage because they can list their sales under one of their main dealership.

Others sell even at a loss towards the end of the year just to earn the numbers. In other words, you can focus on winning and beating the competition by giving away your profits to buyers in terms of discounts. You may be the grand winner, but your financial statement could be on the red. And worst, it would be impossible to convince the tax collectors that you lost tremendous amount of money in the previous year because your giant tarpaulin says Dealer of the Year. Syempre pag dealer of the year, dapat number one ka, hindi number one lugi.

The rules have changed in picking the Dealer of the Year award starting two years ago or so. They separated the sales with the service. It’s no longer based purely on the number of units sold. Included are Customer Viewpoint Satisfaction, Service, Sales, Parts sales, etc. So many categories now. Winning under a variable criteria may be hard to predict.
It’s nice to go home believing that you’re the best kuno. But with or without that Dealer of the Year trophy, we are at peace with ourselves that we are ethical business people, we do not advance our interest by stepping on other people’s toes. We are respectful to others even to our competitors. We are friendly and sincere to them. We are not made of plastic and rubber or bubble gum, we are not schemy. We just wish ourselves and all the people that depend on us including our employees, prosperity. Prosperity achieved thru honest to goodness work.

Ford Philippines’ AVP on Sales, Minnie Valencia, Ford EDSA’s General Sales Manager Bernard Amisola, Oyen, and Randy Krieger- Ford Philippines’ President