Page 119 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

With nine lines of luxury cars,Tom Harper has built an Automotive empireStory By Keith Norris •OM HARPER IS A LOUSY SALESMAN. Ask him; he’ll tell you. “I’m amazed by a good salesman,” hesays. “It’s a real talent.” He cultivates that talent by encouraging his salespeople at Harper Auto Square to make decisions that lead to a positive experience and outcome for both the business and the customer. The best deal, Harper emphasizes, is one that is “fair for you and fair for me. I don’t want the salesman to try to bump you 200 bucks. We try to cover the demographic from a $16,000 Fiat toa $200,000 Porsche. And we do it in di erent environments. The salesman has a much better idea of where that number of fairness is than I do.”Tom Harper is particularly terribleat selling American cars. Ask him and he’ll tell you a story about his attempt in the late 1980’s to run a Pontiac dealership in Lenoir City. “I was the worst domestic car dealer in the world,” Harper says. “We tried to provide a level of service that we had been providing here,” he says of the di erence between the luxury and lower priced AmericanPhotography by Jimmy Chiarellabrands. With six Pontiac dealers inthe area, customers were shopping exclusively on price. Harper’s signature level of service simply didn’t matter. “I was bad at it; I don’t know what elseto say.” He is a natural raconteur, and what you gather from his stories is that it’s important for him to be in close proximity to his dealerships so that he can establish relationships with both his employees and his customers, where he can maintain the environment necessary to sell and service his kind of car.But he’s awfully good at selling luxury imports—or, rather, at overseeing a large group of employees, insisting they o er a superlative and consistent level of service that brings people to his business and encourages them to come back.The Harpers take a family approachto everyone who works there. Harper Auto Square is not a franchise owned by the manufacturers, he emphasizes. “The people who work here are part of the family.” When he gets down to it and tries to de ne his role, he says that “I provide a catalyst.” He may not be the proximate cause of the world class experience advertised by his business, but he is its ultimate source.JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017 117