Garrett S. Hayim saw the potential. He couldn’t put his finger on it precisely, but he knew there was something about this prospective hire that he liked. Hayim’s problem was trying to convince this hot prospect that he was a good fit for Recovery Racing LLC.
“He didn’t want to take the job, and in fact, he promised to help us with a show for only two weeks,” says Hayim, president of the company, which does business as Ferrari Maserati of Fort Lauderdale. “He even tried to back out of that. I told him, ‘You gave us your word.’”
The rookie was true to his word, helped out with the show — and never left.
“He went from a salesperson to a sales manager up to a general sales manager to now he runs one of our stores,” Hayim says. “He is responsible for 45 employees and a $30 million or $40 million company. He’s now a small partner. It’s unbelievable how people can develop. It’s wonderful to watch them grow. Basically, he grew up on the streets and now he’s a very educated manager. He’s gone through training courses and college-level courses and accounting courses. He’s a different person from when I knew him five or six years ago.”
The key for Hayim was patience.
“He had the drive,” Hayim says. “I don’t think he thought he would be capable of the education and expertise to be a manager at that level. But with small steps, he kept wanting more and more, and we gave him more opportunities, and he kept soaking it up. Our analogy was every time he was able to lift the weight, we would throw another set of 45 plates on the bar. It would either crush him or he’d lift it.”
It’s easy when you’re dazzled by a great interview or a flashy resume and can clearly picture a role for one of your job prospects. But what happens when you’re just going by a gut feeling in making a hire? What happens when the person whom you see great things for can’t see it for him or herself?
“It’s very hard to show somebody if they can’t see it themselves,” Hayim says. “You can point it out and pat them on the back and do as much as humanly possible, but the truth is, that has a limitation. How many times can you point it out? If they don’t start to see it on their own, I don’t think they’re ever going to.”
Hayim decided to give it a shot with his reluctant find and ended up with a valuable leader in his 123-employee organization. The company sells some of the most unique automobiles in the world at its locations in South Florida and New York. It averages between 60 and 70 cars sold a month at an average sale price of $250,000. Here are some of the strategies and gut instincts Hayim followed to make it happen.
