New GM: ‘I would never leave this place'

HIGHLAND, Mich. — Paul Jordan left a golf career to join auto retail. But he lasted in his first dealership job for just a few days; that’s because Mike LaFontaine intervened.

In 2005, LaFontaine, founder of southeast Michigan’s LaFontaine Automotive Group and Jordan’s neighbor at the time in Milford, Mich., noticed a license plate frame from a competing dealership on the vehicle in Jordan’s driveway.

LaFontaine had never met Jordan but asked whether he worked for the competitor. When the answer was yes, LaFontaine, always on the lookout for talent, invited Jordan for an interview at his group’s Pontiac-Buick-GMC-Cadillac store in Milford. Jordan ended up with the job. Now 43 and playing golf only for fun, he intends to finish his career with LaFontaine’s group. His climb up the ladder at LaFontaine Automotive is a testament to the company’s ability to get employees to stick around in the world of car sales that is notoriously fickle.

“I would never leave this place,” Jordan said.

From that first sales job, Jordan steadily climbed the ladder. The Milford store moved to nearby Highland in 2008 and lost Pontiac when that brand was shuttered.

Jordan eventually became general sales manager for the Buick-GMC-Cadillac operation in Highland.

Jordan’s hands-on style showed this summer when he was checking in with departments at the Highland store. He spoke with passion about auto retailing and the LaFontaine group. On topics important to him, such as the company and his family, he would talk slowly and deliberately, emphasizing each word.

In August, the LaFontaine family promoted him to general manager of a newly acquired Buick-GMC store in Lansing, Mich., where he has been charged with the big task of hiring and training. The selling dealership group, Glenn Buege, moved many of its Lansing employees to its store in Eaton Rapids, about 20 miles southeast.

Jordan’s path to dealership general manager had an unconventional start.

After playing golf since he was a child and working at a golf course during his youth, Jordan earned a degree in golf management from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. The program is designed for students interested in running a golf course.

A career in golf “sounded awesome when I was 18. I liked the golf business from May until September,” Jordan said. But he filed for unemployment the rest of the year when Michigan weather made outdoor golf nearly impossible.

“And then I quickly learned that family to me was everything,” he said. After he and his wife had the first of their four children, Jordan needed a steadier income, and “the golf business was over.”

That’s when Jordan turned to auto sales. His first LaFontaine position was in Internet sales, a new department for the group. Ninety days later, he was selling more than 20 cars a month from Internet leads.

He quickly moved to the sales floor and told the general manager he wanted to move up. Six months later, Jordan became a finance manager. After stints as business development center manager and a sales manager, he became the Highland store’s general sales manager in 2016.

Jordan’s career path demonstrates why LaFontaine’s retention track record stands out. And advancing has brought financial stability to Jordan and his family.

“The higher you move up, the quicker you move up, the better you and your family will be at home,” he said.

Jordan now works an hour from home vs. six minutes when he was at the Highland store. He wasn’t always open to that,  since a long commute could keep him from family events. Still, the LaFontaines continued to offer him more opportunities to advance, he said. When the Lansing proposal came, he and his family decided the time was right, now that his children’s ages range from junior high to college, with one conveniently at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Jordan seeks to give employees the same chance to succeed he has had. His No. 1 objective: helping employees earn as much as possible.

“I will help them close. I will help them get as many people in front of them as possible,” Jordan said. “I will do anything it takes for them to close every possible customer to make the most income they can for their families and to grow their portfolio.”