In less than four years of transitioning to a career selling cars, former Sportsnet baseball broadcaster Barry Davis is knocking it out of the park for Bolton Honda.
Davis was recently awarded Honda Canada’s 2023 Council of Sales Leadership Award in recognition of outstanding sales achievement and commitment to training and customer satisfaction.
“I was 53 when I started this, and to start a whole new career and get some kind of recognition for the job you’re doing meant the world to me,” said Davis.
Davis worked more than 25 years in sports broadcasting, covering the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors and Jays. It was his baseball work for which he became known, in particular sideline reporting. He did interviews in the Jays’ clubhouse during the team’s two-year playoff run in 2015 and 2016. Both teams celebrated their advancement to the postseason success with champagne showers that left Davis drenched.
When Davis parted with Sportsnet eight years ago, he began a sports podcast but lost sponsorship during COVID. He began looking for a “real job,” and worked loading trucks and stocking shelves at Bass Pro Shops where his wife worked. After two years, he was encouraged to work selling boats and all-terrain vehicles. Six months later, he was laid off because of the second COVID lockdown.
In early 2021, he called Hyundai/Genesis dealer Nav Bhatia, the Toronto Raptors’ Superfan whom he knew from broadcasting basketball games, to see if he knew anyone in the auto industry looking for salespeople. Bhatia hired him for his Hyundai dealership in Mississauga.
“It wasn’t like a conscious decision. I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘yeah, I want to be in car sales,’” said Davis. “It was more of a necessity and what can I do, because there really wasn’t anything available in the field that I had done for so many years. Thankfully, because of the Internet, I immersed myself into learning everything I could about that brand of car and car sales in general. Before that, I was no more of an expert than anyone that drives a car. I knew what I liked about being in a car and, coincidentally, I was a Honda driver.”
A friend who worked at a Honda dealership in Georgetown contacted him about an opening, which meant Davis could sell the brand he drove and work closer to his home in Bolton. He did that for two years, then approached the Bolton Honda store and approached the dealership to see if it had any opening. The store’s General Manager, Dan Heckbert, who happened to be a sports fan and knew of Davis from his previous career, told him he didn’t have any immediate openings. But one came up a few months later.
“How could I turn down an opportunity to work close to home and to have a huge inventory of cars to sell? This is a perfect fit for me,” said Davis.
His approach to selling is assessing what the customers’ needs are and blending that to the cars.
“You don’t want somebody questioning you and not having an answer,” said Davis. “In broadcasting, you can skirt around the issue and change the subject a bit. If you don’t know the answer, give the fan or the listener an idea that you do know what you’re talking about. With cars, you can’t mess around. You can’t give misinformation. You can’t skirt around the truth. It’s important for me to know my stuff and spend a lot of time studying as much as I can. With so many used cars on the lot, we have all these different brands of cars. It’s not just Hondas that I have to learn (about).”
Some customers immediately recognize Davis from his broadcasting days.
“We’re talking probably eight years since I’ve been at Sportsnet and been on the air on a regular basis,” said Davis. “It’s absolutely humbling and flattering that people still recognize you and remember you, simply because the last two years I worked with the Jays were the last two years they won playoff games. I’m touched to know in some ways in some people’s minds they associate me as part of that group.”
Bolton Honda Used Car Sales Manager Nick Triantos said Davis’ success is, in part, due to his celebrity profile. “It’s free advertising for us,” said Triantos. “It doesn’t hurt that Barry gives it his all, a true grinder.”
