I’m a big follower of Guy Kawasaki. Guy was an “evangelist” for Macintosh early on, and is now a venture capitalist, author and speaker. He has a contagious passion for marketing.
I was recently watching a local PBS show called Northeast Business Journal, a program that highlights local entrepreneurs and is hosted by Bill Kelly, station President. Bill’s guest was Jim Corbett, principal of a Minooka Subaru, a large local Subaru dealer. Like Guy, he has a passion for marketing and is an evangelist for the Subaru brand. Jim loves to sell cars, a passion he learned from his father, Jake Corbett. Jake started as a used car dealer in 1954 and took on the Subaru dealership in 1970. In 1969, I purchased my first vehicle from Minooka Motors, and my brother-in-law purchased a brand new Subaru FF1 (pictured) in 1971. Jake Corbett was a true evangelist for Subaru, and was one of the most convincing salespeople I have ever met.
In a 2006 blog article, Guy outlined the “art of evangelism”. Let me take a few of Guy’s points and equate them to Jake:
- Create a Cause – In 1970, the $1,900 Subaru brand was very new to this area. This was a time when the quintessential small car was the Volkswagen. The oil crisis was ramping up. Jake took advantage of this time and leveraged the advantages of better gas mileage in a very dependable small package, and he truly was a creator of the cause he was also promoting.
- Love the Cause – Jake was passionate about the cause and the car. The Subaru automobile became his life’s work, and he truly believed in it.
- Look for Agnostics, Ignore Atheists – Jake Corbett knew when to cut his losses and move on. He could quickly spot a person who would never share his passion, and he quickly moved to people he knew could share his passion.
- Let People Test-Drive the Cause – Everyone who stepped onto the lot had to take a test-drive. These cars were all standard shift, and whether you had ever driven a stick-shift, Jake insisted on taking you out to drive the car. These things were truly fun to drive, and in experienced hands, could be shifted without using the clutch.
- Never Tell a Lie – Jake was so passionate about the car that one could have viewed him as pushy. Yet, Jake was sincere and truly believed in the product. He had no reason to lie, and never did. You could count him among the few numbers of honest car salesmen.
Minooka is a section of Scranton, PA that was originally settled by people of predominately Irish decent, and is considered its own town by some residents. By 1973, many people in Minooka were driving Subaru cars all thanks to Jake Corbett. His neighbors and friends purchased the cars, and now, Minooka Motors is one of the largest Subaru dealers in the nation. The foundation of passion for the brand lives on with this family-owned business.
In these difficult times, it is great to find a business like this. They are true evangelists of their product.
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