A little over a year ago, I was hired by a Chevrolet dealership in Tucson, AZ to come there from Denver to build their Internet approach. They (the GM, GSM and Controller) agreed they had no idea how to build and/or run an Internet Department. They did not want me as a consultant but instead wanted me to be an employee and assured me they were different than all the other auto dealers I had dealt with. They weren't.

We literally knocked down walls, redesigned the website (as best we could considering the constraints of the current webhost and GM), obtained leads, established processes and built a department. A successful department that was showing over $100K to the bottom-line after costs on a monthly basis. However, as the economy took a downturn, so did overall sales - as did the Internet sales. But we maintained our percentage of total dealership penetration. I figured we were holding our own. Nope. I was told since my department had not hit our budget projections from a year ago, I would have my compensation cut in half!

Let me throw in here that only four months prior, after speaking at a national conference, I had the opportunity to interview for a very top-level position in a national company. Since that company was working with this dealership, they would not talk further until the GM agreed in writing that it was OK. He refused to sign that agreement but did agree to pay me what they would pay me - in order to keep me there. Now, four months later, with that opportunity gone, he ripped up that amended agreement (even though there still was time left on it) and made my reduction effective immediately. One month later, the GSM told me my services were no longer needed.

I had the deparment running well and producing revenue but the perception of an ego-driven GSM was I was doing nothing and thus expendable. And through all of this, the GM wouldn't even talk to me directly. And we wonder why auto dealerships are so far behind the times!