6:49 am, October 15, 2013
A MITSUBISHI salesman is celebrating 25 years in the job – and selling 5,000 cars in the process.
Paul Cook started his career in the motor trade with British Leyland at the age of 17, before moving to Mitsubishi in 1988. He is now sales manager at Tees Valley Mitsubishi in Darlington and has attracted a number of regular customers.
The father of two said the highlight of his career was in the late 1990s when his boyhood hero, Ian Botham, came into the showroom.
Cook said: ‘I’d like to think that over the years, Mitsubishi have been good to me and I have been pretty good to them. In the last 25 years I have probably sold more new Mitsubishis than anyone else in the country.
‘People who know me will tell you I’m very unconventional in the way I do the job. I don’t do it in a textbook way, like the lads here do. I get involved in every deal that does on in the showroom and I have a very good relationship with all my customers. Not only do I rely on people coming back to us, but they rely on me being here because they don’t want to deal with anyone else. The key thing is trust.’
Two of Cook’s regular customers are Fred and Marion Griffiths from Hartlepool who have been bought 22 cars from Cook since the 1980s.
Retired businessman Fred Griffiths said: ‘He is a lovely man and he just gives us good service every time. We don’t even consider going anywhere else, we just ring Paul and he helps us out.’
Bill Robson, joint managing director of Tees Valley Mitsubishi, added: ‘It’s quite rare for somebody to be with one brand for that length of time. He has got a lot of customers who just keep coming back to him – they love him.’
