Ryan Wood does not stay late.
That is not a knock on Ryan. He is the General Sales Manager at Don Bulluck Chevrolet in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and he works long hours. He works hard during every one of them. But when the store closes at 7:00 PM, Ryan goes home. That is his line. This story happened before Don Bulluck Chevrolet.
Then she called.
She was a young woman who needed help getting financed. She told Ryan she could not make it to the dealership before 7:30. She asked him to stay.
He said no.
She asked again.
He said no again.
She kept asking.
Finally, Ryan agreed. But with a condition. If he was going to stay past closing, she was going to do her part. She needed to complete the credit application online before she arrived so he could get as much of the work done ahead of time as possible. No surprises. No wasted time.
She agreed.
She was in a difficult situation. But Ryan worked on it. He got her financed. When she arrived at 7:30, he finished the paperwork, handed her the keys, and delivered her new vehicle. She left very happy.
Ryan went home.
A couple of weeks later, Ryan had a heart attack.
It happened at his home. He called 911. A first responder was dispatched to his address.
It was her.
The young woman who could not make it before 7:30. The difficult deal. The customer who left very happy two weeks earlier. She was now standing in his living room in uniform, and he was the patient.
As she worked on him, she asked which hospital he wanted. He told her: “You choose.”
She chose the hospital with the ECMO machine.
ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is a rare and advanced cardiac life support system that takes over the function of the heart and lungs when they can no longer function on their own. Ryan had a rare heart condition that required it.
The hospital she chose was the only one within 400 miles that had it.
If she had chosen the nearest hospital, the most obvious hospital, the one Ryan might have named if she had put the decision back on him. There was nothing within 400 miles that could have saved him.
He would have died.
Instead, he told a first responder to make the call. She made the right one. And Ryan lived.
Ryan told me this story himself. When he finished, he said: I am very glad I helped the first responder who saved my life.
I have been in this industry for over 40 years. I have heard a lot of stories.
This one stopped me.
Because think about who she was when she first called the dealership. She was a Special Finance customer who could not make it during business hours. She was the call that is easy to decline. The deal that might not pencil. The customer it is easy to send home.
Ryan said no twice before he said yes.
I am glad he said yes.
We spend a lot of time in this business calculating whether a customer is worth the effort. Whether the deal will work. Whether we should just tell them to come back during normal hours and move on.
Those questions are not always wrong.
But they are incomplete.
You do not know who is sitting across from you. You do not know their story, their training, or what moment two weeks from now will connect the two of you in a way you cannot possibly see coming.
Ryan stayed until 7:30.
She chose the only hospital within 400 miles.
They both went home.
Who is asking you to stay late today?
Denny Long is President of Subprime Marketing Group, helping franchise automotive dealerships connect with subprime buyers through trigger lead direct mail programs. He has worked with dealers across the country for almost 40 years.
