10:19 am, January 31, 2013
A car salesman in Dorset is aiming to clock up his 7,000th sale before his 70th birthday.
67 year old Bill Board, of Dorchester Nissan, is looking forward to the milestone after logging his 6,650th sale this month. A great-grandfather with no apparent plans to retire, he’s now set his sight on the sales milestone before his next age one.
Amazingly, Board has logged every sale since his very first – a used VW Golf to a Church Canon in 1977. ‘On my first day in the job my boss told me to get myself a ledger and keep a thorough record of every vehicle I sold,’ said Board.
‘I guess I just never got out of the habit and I’ve now got a big pile of books at home, listing the full details of every deal I’ve ever done. There are probably lots of people out there who’ve sold more cars than me, but I doubt they can say exactly what they sold, when and to who.’
Interestingly, he never moved from the business at which he made his first sale. When he joined in 1977, the Dorchester dealership was an Austin Rover franchise owned by Wadham Stringer – since when it’s moved premises a number of times, and eventually became a Nissan dealer in 2004.
His best ever year, Board’s records can confirm, was in 1988 – selling an astonishing 301 cars, including 64 in one month alone.
‘I just try to be myself, be friendly and be honest,’ said Board. ‘When I first started in the trade everyone preached about the Pendle system – an American way of selling cars – but I didn’t get along with it. When I ditched the system and just started being myself, that’s when I began selling.’
Tony Jordan, dealer principal at Dorchester Nissan said: ‘Bill’s an absolute phenomenon and a force of nature. He’s such a gentleman and genuinely nice bloke that people instantly warm to him and trust him. He’s an absolute asset to the dealership and I’ve got no doubt he’ll hit the 7,000 mark before long.’
