Thunder22

I don't think I've used the Billy Madison quote on 1 person so much in 1 thread in the 15 years i've been on this site

ColdPIzza

Is he? His genius marketing tactics certainly didn't get him invited to the reveal. But that was part of his plan?

Stable genius...where have I heard that before??

kratedisease

I really enjoy the wacky videos that Rick posts on youtube. They are informative and help me avoid having to post on the forum to ask operating tips, and also saves me time looking thru the owners manual. I hope and encourage him to keep posting them. I do enjoy them, specifically the quick tip videos. I subscribe and will continue to do so. No harm done.

BUT...... I just think that Rick made an error in judgement posting a video complaining about not getting tickets to the reveal. I think that video was more harmful to his image as a salesman than helpful. Period.

jefnvk

Bad publicity is bad publicity too. That's why I left my previous job: eventually your company's name is only associated with bad, despite all the "free" press you're getting. That particular company had to rebrand to escape the negativity.

For me personally? No desire to ever work with him. There are plenty of competent sales people I can deal with and not to have to put up with such antics, which would undoubtedly come up in a transaction. Not to mention, it seems likely I'd wind up in a YouTube rant if I was talked down from a higher option package by my wife.

rsparks64

Snowflake

Grzldvt1

You can't possibly be serious, You obviously have no clue about narcissists and needy people for attention. The fact that he trashed someone about a deal in a public post is not only horrific but simply plain stupid. It is not smart, and not a calculated stunt. If the person he trashed caught wind of it, he would be cleaning restrooms in a local rest stop, if he was lucky to get employment. My guess he would be sued so badly, he would end up under a blue tarp on some freeway entrance with a shopping cart.
Like I said in my post, I deal with Silicon Valley's elite, many are in the news daily, and do some of their deals go south... You bet, but in no way shape or form would I ever post it on a public forum. The stupidity of doing clearly indicates he has no clue.
Sorry but the publicity he received over this butt hurt post has done way more damage than good.
The negative publicity works in some cases aka Smollet., but in this case the negative has truly hurt him.
I do a lot of collaborative seminars, and what I have found doing it for 20+ years. Individually many people have an issue but never express it, when in a group and it comes out, it is amazing that the group comes together and blasts out the issue. This is clearly one of those, where individually we all thought he was a putz and never said anything, but he brought all of us together with this butt hurt post and we all posted/realized how bad he really was as a group.
Has he lost business from this Forum you bet he has.....

vetteman41960

Well it looks like we can all be spared page after page of BBB aka MikeC7Z aka Irun4cops narcissistic rants on all subjects related to Corvette or the car business in general.

Old BBB looks to have gotten the boot from CF in record time this time around.

Who know maybe it will be 3 strikes and he is out for good.

I bet we will have another poster under another name in a week or two who will post at record pace and inform all us supposed low IQ CF members all about Corvettes and any other subject that pops into his delusional head.

I look forward to a few weeks without his lectures and claims of superior intelligence!!


Glad CF figured out BBB is the same guy as Mike c7 and same as Irun4cops.

You would think for a guy who claim superior intelligence he be smart enough not to post about owning 17 dealership and how he the world great driver under 3 different names.

Was not hard to figure out who he was. Not to many folks on the forum with such a hugh EGO.

direct007

"You can't possibly be serious, You obviously have no clue about narcissists and needy people for attention. The fact that he trashed someone about a deal in a public post is not only horrific but simply plain stupid."

I'm serious as a heart attack. You could say the same thing about another very popular vette salesman on this forum. In fact, I've seen the other salesman being called out in a post for exactly what you are accusing Rick of. It doesn't matter what the opinion of a few Monday morning quarterbacks think. It matters how many cars they are selling. These guys are creating attention for themselves and their dealerships. If you think that's being needy and narcissistic, that's your view. Of course they are needy, they need to sell cars and have been doing it successfully for over 20 years.

I've got no skin in this game. I don't know Rick personally and am very loyal to another forum dealer, but I've been involved in internet marketing since 1996. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about...

Look at any product ad you see on facebook. You will see hundreds if not thousands of comments from people leaving snide and sarcastic remarks about the item or service being advertised. In the meantime, the company running the ad is making bank from the people actually interested in the item or service. It doesn't matter if it seems like everyone leaving comments is knocking the product/service. What matters is the people that follow through with a purchase. In Rick's Vlog example. There could be thousands of naysayers screaming that he an unprofessional clown trying to sell corvettes, but in the meantime he IS selling corvettes and his dealership is number 13 in new corvette sales out of all Corvette dealers in the USA. He has a loyal following and those loyal customers refer other customers.

Regarding his ripping apart a potential buyer after ordering a $100,000 vette after the buyer's wife supposedly nixed the deal. He never called out that person's name and nobody has any clue who he was referring to. He layed out the scenario. This wasn't the case of a buyer that suddenly lost his job or had a health issue that prevented him from cancelling the order. This was someone that made numerous calls, texts and Rick bent over backwards to accommodate the buyer only to have the deal cancelled AFTER the car was already delivered to the dealership. If this turned off any potential buyer from dealing with Rick, it's probably a good thing. He doesn't need people special ordering $100,000 cars only to cancel after delivery. Car buying shouldn't be a spontaneous event, like buying a loaf of bread at a convenience store. Get your ducks in a row before special ordering a car was basically the point of that video.

Bottom line...all of these negative posts are only only creating buzz for Rick and I would say the majority of the people posting had no intention of ever dealing with Rick regardless of his wacky antics. Some people will actually purchase a car from him who never knew about his dealership as a result of his Vlogs and that's what is important. Perception is the key. Some people get Rick and others don't. It's the ones that get and understand Rick that count.

DebRedZR1

I can’t bet from the amount of emails and messages many of us have received a lot of people got a good eye opener and will RUN from Being associated with a certain dealership no matter how good the deals. It’s obvious the
only service is SELF serving. Many don’t want to be associated with a FOOL. There are many good People out there without nonsense.

ShagVette

Can someone post me the name of the dealerships those *guys* are associated with. Thanks

kratedisease

And, Rick has loyal customers who buy from him, since the dealership is a top Corvette volume seller.

I also think his Loyal customers will only be even MORE LOYAL to Rick as they view the attacks here on the forum.

I have seen the wagons circle around other sales people and other dealers when attacked, even if the attacks are justified.

Rick's loyal customers, that like him, will only support him more as he is attacked. The customers that are turned off by him and attack him ( possibly including myself) would never buy from him regardless so their attacks are pointless and do not really turn away any business.

I agree that despite these attacks, Rick will only gain more attention and sales.

JDSKY

On forums it can be hard to tell who has a vested interest and subsequently posts in threads in a certain way because of that interest or who has no real skin in the game and is following along and posting their opinions and with no vested interest at all. It's obvious that Rick has a vested interest and puts food on the table via Corvette. Like his methods or hate them he never hides this fact and is completely transparent about it. From some of the vlogs he produces it's obvious that he is too transparent, honest and open with his feelings for some members' taste. For other's they simply take it for what they are and don't get worked up about it. What is a bit strange to me are those members that seem personally offended and completely riled up with what he does and how he goes about doing it. Is he taking food off your table with his vlogs? Are you the person he brought attention to for cancelling a special order? If not, I cannot see why there is an axe to grind or such strong feelings about it.

Many of his videos focus on much of what the average car buyer deals with anytime they attempt to work with a dealer and I think that is why so many people can relate to him. The situation he recently brought up where a customer that ended up purchasing a car from him shared his experience of not being given an opportunity to even test drive a Corvette at another dealership prior to purchasing one. I can almost guarantee a huge majority of members here have experienced this same scenario while visiting a car dealership. If not, at least a scenario very similar to this one even if it was not a Corvette you were shopping for. I would wager to guess that everyone here has dozens of stories they could tell about auto dealer shenanigan's. I know I do. Rick just has no issue directly speaking to these things in his vlogs. Those that get absolutely worked up by that likely have some reason why they seem personally offended by the practice.

I have made my opinion clear in that while I would approach some of these situations a bit differently I can also appreciate his candor. For the record I have not purchased a car from Rick, have never met Rick in person or even spoken with him on the phone. I only know him from his video's and posts on the forum. GM and Corvette don't put food on my table and therefore why it bothers me none how Rick conducts his business.

kratedisease

By Rick posting the videos about not getting invited, he is using an emotional appeal to customers who already have an emotional attachment to him form watching his channel, or from buying a Corvette from him. By using emotion, he gets the wagons to circle around him.

direct007

This is the most intelligent post I have read on this entire thread. I agree with your sentiments 100%. Thank you.

Tennis & Golf Nut

I too got involved heavily with Internet Marketing (either '94 or '96) when my local grocery store placed an Orange CD-Rom from AOL in my bag.

I used the internet to market Real Estate to Realtors since they adapted early. Thanks to my ex-Realtor for that advice.

I make the majority of my money by running Facebook ads. Half the comments suck, the other half loves me.

Didn't Jesus have haters also?

A friend of mine who is a huge FB advertiser made over $5M in 2017.

He sells Tee-Shirts, coffee mugs and **** like that.

Half his sales target Liberals to sell "Trump Sucks, Orange Man Bad" tee-shirts. He sells millions.

Half his ads target Conservatives "Pelosi, Chuckie Cheese Schumer, AOC and Maxine Waters (Impeach Trump).

He's making a killing playing both sides off one another. He doesn't give a **** who hates who.

Tennis & Golf Nut

I do this for a career. I teach business owners how to market themselves on Social Media.

When you have a Youtube channel, Facebook Page or Group, Instagram page, Twitter, etc... you're 99% ahead of other salespeople who don't have any of this.

You become an Authority figure "to them."

That doesn't mean Rick knows more about Corvettes than me. He only needs to stay One chapter ahead of them to be considered relevant.

He can release small tidbits of info, maybe some rumors from GM insiders, upcoming events, etc... that gives people some updates as to what's happening.

The Plumber with the Biggest Yellow Page ads, Radio commercials, TV ads, etc... usually makes the most money.

It doesn't mean he's the Best Plumber in town. Usually the shittiest.

But he makes the most Money.

I Guarantee rick will Double/Triple/Quadruple his income over the next few years.

ColdPIzza

The problem with your logic, however, is that Rick isn't a business owner. How he chooses to conduct himself in all of these areas doesn't just reflect on him.. he has two employers. And the minute his conduct becomes a little too unappealing and not rewarding to either of those employers is something he needs to consider as it will cause his other source of income (YouTube) to disappear.

So celebrate guerilla marketing all you like, but if Al Coughlin watched some of the comments on here about Rick's inability to answer phone calls, offending clients, etc.. then I'd worry about employment. How have his sales held up over the last years as he has tried to grow his YouTube "business"?

kratedisease

Can we all agree to close this thread ???

jefnvk

So, where does the line between good publicity and bad publicity exist? YTou seem to think any notoriety is good for sales, would it help him if he showed up at the reveal in a Borat thong swimsuit? Would it be good if he started bashing other top salespeople/dealers? Would it be good if he called out Mary Barra's leadership style publicly?

I mean, all of that would get him attention, but just like this, I doubt any of it would be good. Except maybe from loyal customers who feel the need to defend him. As I stated earlier, shock marketing CAN be effective, but it is a very fine line one must walk. If it was simply effective nonstop, everyone would be doing it. The fact that they aren't should indicate how easily it can backfire and how risky it actually is, especially to most sorts of established brand.

DebRedZR1

Can we all learn how to EDIT quotes? Scrolling through some of these novels repeated
Maybe we need a thread appalling ridiculous things people have done that caused me not to buy from them.
Doubt it will register with some. The same some BEGGING for attention and calling everyone in attempts to get INFO, access etc. I doubt some employers are aware of all the NONSENSE.
FYI;
Rick has NOT seen the C8 uncovered in person. Saying otherwise is another stunt.