gurneyeagle

BINGO!

If his time was that scarce, the thing to do is be proactive and discuss the situation on his YouTube channel BEFORE it got to this point.

Sorry, this is very telling of his business acumen. My take from this latest video is that it's our fault for not understanding his situation. I'm sure he gets a bunch of BS communication from "customers" few of which will produce real orders for a car he has no available allocations to sell. Still, a true professional would get out on front of the situation.

That being said, if he is so overwhelmed with inquiries for a car he has no allocations to sell, why is he then promoting himself on YouTube instead of following up with those inquiries?

I hold no ill will against Rick, just not a fan of his schtick. This thread has enlightened me into how he conducts business. I wish him only the best of luck.

As stated earlier in this thread, I'll be calling Mike Furman.

direct007

You've made some good points here. Perhaps Rick will read them and reevaluate his marketing, organization and prioritization of how he handles things. Some people are good at marketing but bad in other aspects of business. What I fail to understand is why the dealership he is working for isn't building the underlying foundation for his continued success which in turn guarantees their continued success.

fraziers LT4

I would refer you to an also too long running post on the board entitled "Is it me or is Kerbeck just rude and non-responsive" I don't know anyone or anything that is immune from taking knocks regardless of their position. Thankfully the referenced post appears to be fading away since it hasn't been commented on in a few days. The same should happen to this one about Conti. Rick Conti doesn't need any further "advice" from posters here.

gurneyeagle

BINGO!

If his time was that scarce, the thing to do is be proactive and discuss the situation on his YouTube channel BEFORE it got to this point.

Sorry, this is very telling of his business acumen. My take from this latest video is that it's our fault for not understanding his situation. I'm sure he gets a bunch of BS communication from "customers" few of which will produce real orders for a car he has no available allocations to sell. Still, a true professional would get out on front of the situation.

That being said, if he is so overwhelmed with inquiries for a car he has no allocations to sell, why is he then promoting himself on YouTube instead of following up with those inquiries?

I hold no ill will against Rick, just not a fan of his schtick. This thread has enlightened me into how he conducts business. I wish him only the best of luck.

As stated earlier in this thread, I'll be calling Mike Furman.

ChiefBoats

I see this has dragged on a bit, been holding off on my 2˘.
Some years ago at the Corvette Weekend Show in Ocean City, MD, heard of but never seen who Mr. Conti was, I was wiping down my car, then all of a sudden without warning or and no introduction, he sticks a camera in my face and starts asking questions, I almost decked him.

It wasn't until I backed off and saw his name on his shirt, and said, not interested. He just walked away, still not identifying himself. I thought he was quite obnoxious.

Majic 1980

Originally I was going to buy my C8 through Rick Conti but after watching some of his YouTube videos I thought he was kinda Flakey. I Bought my C8 through Mike Furman and it was a FANTASTIC experience

BMadden

You sound fun.

bluman

I had the same experience at Kerbeck, Mr Salvatore never returned my call, It's ok, I just took my business elsewhere, no sense wasting my time and energy bad mouthing anyone !

dahogan

Bingo! But the op who already owns a C8 was so sensitive he needed to start a thread?

Greg00Coupe

better reread that first post.....he was inquiring about a 22 model. What does it matter if he already has a c8? What’s of matter if he had 10? And he’s not sensitive....he’s stated his experience which tons of folks have verified as their experience too. You’re pushing water up hill.

C8broughtmeback

Yes, I agree that there is much comedy ridiculousness; however, the useful information he provides thousands of Corvette owners and potential owners far exceeds the time he spends goofing around. To compare him to Furman is unfair. Furman is one guy with exceptional success, while there are hundreds of Corvette salespeople who know little about the car and will string customers along indefinitely. Those stories are plentiful everywhere, including this forum.

The Conti haters really confound me; I am not a psychiatrist, but there is something here much deeper. Let me assure you I am not a fan of the over the top laughter and gimmicks on his channel, but he is sincere and he provides a great amount of information one cannot find in many other places. Yes, he may have given incorrect information, but who among us is perfect.

Time to close this thread!

MiamiCowboy

I saw this thread and was curious why there would be 14 pages of comments on why Rick Conti did not rerun a call. After reading some it reminded me of a conversation I had with my PPF installer. He was working on a Ferrari and had two waiting Lambos. I commented that I bet those owners were really hard to deal with. He told me that Corvette owners were the biggest pains in the *** to deal with. Maybe his response had some validity.

ZL-1

It’s true, Rick’s biggest problem is allocation. He has not stayed at one dealer long enough to build up a big allocation. That is Mike Furman’s big advantage, he has remained at Criswell for many years and earned a big allocation of Corvettes. Meanwhile Conti moved from Spitzer Chev to EVS Chev to Ganley Chev and now Coughlin. If he does remain at Coughlin, by the time the demand eases for C8’s he will likely have increased their allocation of Corvettes and be better able to supply his customers.

direct007

Perhaps the reason he moved from dealership to dealership is because each previous dealership failed to see the potential with Corvette that Rick has. It takes very deep pockets for a dealership to purchase Corvettes during the lean years and most likely will have to sell them at a loss to the tunes of losing millions of dollars to build their allocation for when the car is in high demand as we are seeing now. A salesperson can lead the horse to water but can’t make it drink. If the dealership isn’t willing or is unable to invest in Corvette, they won’t be able to grow their allocation.

CorvetteAJ

100 percent. It's tough to convince management to take losses during the lean years to build allocations in hopes to make it up when the new generations come out.

done deal

The question being asked -" Is Rick Conti still selling Corvettes " the answer is no not at this time since his allocation for 2021 is sold out and his 2022 allocation will be sold out to his repeat customers . So technically he is still selling Corvette but has none to offer for sale until sometime in mid to late 2022. So if Rick worked 24hours per day 7 days a week with 2 assistants he still could not sell any more cars because he has none to sell . And he is trapped at Coughlin since he may have many loyal customers that will continue to buy from him if he leaves Coughlin ,however if he leaves to go to a store 10 miles away he has no cars to sell since the allocation belongs to Coughlin not Mr Conti , so basically he is trapped . Should he want to leave there are only a very few landing spots for him to go to that could supply his existing customers need as well as well as that stores current customer base .

The opportunity for Coughlin or any other dealer to increase their allocation number comes around once every six to seven years when GM needs to unload the end of a model run when a new model is being introduced. GM at that point needs to move hundreds of car nobody wants and the dealer that buys the old inventory will be selling these cars at cost or below in order to get more allocations of the new models going forward ( think Kerbeck and Mac Mulkin) ,thus the store owner is taking a large gamble ,which most owners have little or no interest in doing.

When I look at Mr Conti it appears he has done a lot of the" right things right ", examples he has obtained tremendous product knowledge , has marketed himself that he has his own sub brand name Rick "Corvette Conti, has earned the loyalty of his customers , is recognized as a to go guy for Corvette questions , created his You Tube channel. However what he didn't do is figure out how to increase the number of cars he can sell based on the allocation system. He would have to count on a store owner to commit millions of dollars to make that happen ,which most would have little or no interest in doing for a model that has only 2 seats and the average age places the buyer in one of 2 categories that the government calls, 65-75 "early elderly and 75 + "late elderly ",so perhaps Mr Conti can be accused of being a "dreamer"

So if you are Mr Coughlin would you hire Mr Conti an assistant at a cost of $ 50-60k per year which would be the profit he would make by just selling 7 more cars per year,the answer is no beacuse he dosen't have seven more cars to sell , the exact same thing goes for Mr Conti, there are no more cars to sell so its money out of his pocket just to tell people that contact him "sorry i have no allocations so I can't sell you a car at this time and actually I'm not sure when I will have a car to sell you , At the end of the day Mr Coughlin knows Mr Conti is trapped because they may be "his customers" but Coughlin has the right to the allocations .

So if I'm Rick Conti ,I'm extremely frustrated and realize i'm trapped in this situation that I created and have no viable way out . However to make my life more enjoyable I would create a link on my web site to advise any inquirers what my current ordering status is and what time frame to visit again for an up date .Just think for a minute if you were a highly energized car sales man and,had customers willing to pay MSRP but can't make a deal beacuse you have no cars to sell, on the other hand there is no where for you to go because although you built the customer base ,you don't own the allocation .

So put yourself in Mr Conti's dilemma and think about what you would do ?? Mr Conti, when seen on his video's appears to be in his early to mid seventies, so I would suggest he consider retirement thus be able to enjoy the fruits of his labors, move to an area that would allow him to drive his new car year around,but most importantly leave the stress of his job behind thereby most likely extending his remain years to enjoy with his family and loved ones !! Let hope Rick makes the right choice and does the "right things right " and leaves the overly stressful life of a Corvette salesman ! !

lt4obsesses

Although I know there is a list on here somewhere, I'm too lazy right now to look it up. But I would venture that there is really about a handful of dealerships that sell Corvettes in the triple digits a year. Considering that a moderate volume Chevy dealer looks to sell triple digit trucks a month, I can see why the Corvette isn't really a business priority for most dealerships. Not to mention that every car on the lot is paid for, by check, to GM the moment it gets invoiced. This means that every car on the lot is financed by the dealership. One Corvette can take away three Malibu's from inventory, and each one reduces the number of trucks and suv's they can carry.

Point is, the few dealerships that rolled the dice to be a 'volume' Corvette dealer can get away with it because there are so few that do. These dealerships can do it because until the second half of a generation run, they really don't have to discount the Corvette that much, compared to the higher volume models. Then, near the end of the run, GM throws them some extra cash to clear inventory, so they don't take that big of a loss.

I don't anything about how Conti works or his role at the dealership. If he's a team leader, Corvette manager, or just a sales person that specializes in Corvette. However, as I am sure many Chevy dealerships are, they are getting leads in the hundreds every day from people that have no real, actual, intention of buying a C8. When this happens, sometimes the real buyer slips through cracks with all the 'virtual' tire kickers.

BMadden

I can't tell if you're being serious or not, but he's like 55.

C8broughtmeback

I think he was being serious, which means he needs to get a new prescription. Not all Corvette owners or salespeople are extremely old. After all, 80 is the new 76.

Greg00Coupe

Interesting. Mike Furman promotes and sells all brands at his dealership. How can he move so many corvettes and other models too? Anyone here ever have a non corvette delivered by Conti? If I were out of allocations, I’d certainly take advantage of modern technology and automatically respond both by email and voicemail and tell folks that.....and be out selling those pick up trucks.