General Motors (NYSE:GM) is in a fight for #1 with their longtime nemisis, Toyota (NYSE:TM). But from listening to GM's Chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner, is vowing to fight for "every sale" in their effort to hold on to the title of top U.S. car maker:
"I like being number one, and I think our people take pride in it. So it's not something we're going to sit back and let somebody else pass us," Wagoner told reporters on Friday.
"We're going to have to fight for every sale and do it in way that is consistent with building the enterprise," he said.
"If as a result of that we get passed, it won't be a happy day for me. But I've lost basketball games before, and as a result of that you get ready, you learn and go back and play the next day," said Wagoner, who played college basketball at North Carolina's Duke University in the early 1970s.
So, now the question becomes, how will they fight for it? As a GM sales 
professional, how will you "fight" for every sale? What is the practical, day-to-day meaning of the statement?
Sales happen at the local dealership level, of course, so it really will come to down literally fighting for every sale - every customer - that walks into a dealership. Does that mean that finance managers will make any and every deal possible to get a car sold? Does it mean that they will reduce their prices? Does it mean that they will become more personalized in the way they sell their cars to new potential customers? It's going to be interesting to watch this battle unfold.
Sales is a battle already, no matter what your industry. In the automotive industry, it comes down to three things for the buyer: Car style, car price, and financing options. For General Motors, their "fight" will come down to winning each of those three categories with the car buying public.
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