Business & brands
Joe Girard
1928–2019 · car salesman, author and motivational speaker
Detroit east-sider who sold 13,001 Chevrolets at an Eastpointe dealership and holds the Guinness record as the world's greatest car salesman.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit area, Michigan
aged 90- Birth name
- Joseph Samuel Girardi
- Also known as
- Joseph Samuel Girardi
- Detroit years
- 1928–2019
- Field
- Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Girard grew up poor in Detroit, the son of Sicilian immigrants. A high-school dropout, he worked as a shoeshine boy, a Detroit Free Press newsboy, a dishwasher, a stove assembler and a home-building contractor before a failed construction venture left him in debt. At 35 he talked his way into a job selling cars at a Detroit dealership, then moved to Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe (then East Detroit). Between 1963 and 1978 he sold 13,001 cars one at a time, retail, and in 1973 alone he sold 1,425, a Guinness world record. His methods, such as sending every customer a greeting card each month and treating every buyer as a gateway to 250 more, became the basis of his best-selling books, starting with How to Sell Anything to Anybody (1977). He retired from selling at 49, became a popular motivational speaker and lived in Grosse Pointe Shores until his death in 2019.
Highlights
- Sold 13,001 cars at Merollis Chevrolet, 1963–1978
- Guinness World Record: 1,425 cars in 1973
- Author of How to Sell Anything to Anybody (1977)
- Automotive Hall of Fame inductee (2001)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1963–1978
Merollis Chevrolet
Status being checked
The dealership where he set his sales records; exact address and current status not verified.