I met Bill in August of 1970, some 49 years ago, when I attended a two week training course in Chicago that was put on by Pat Ryan & Associates that trained Finance and Insurance Managers for automobile dealers. He was my instructor.
You need a little background to appreciate my relationship with Bill and the impact he had on my career.
In 1967 I went to work for Liberty Loan Company as a collector at their office in Brockton Massachusetts. I was hired by a gentlemen named Bobby Freedman, the manager of that office and, quite frankly, that is a story in itself and maybe I will write about it one day. (Frustratingly, I lost track of Bobby.)
Bobby not only was my boss, but also a became a good friend. A year later (1968) he left Liberty and took a position as National Assistant Credit Manager at Mister Donut of America, a franchiser of donut shops in the New England area. In 1969 I was promoted to manager of Liberty's Westerly Rhode Island Office and a year after that took over as manager of their larger Providence Office.
Bobby subsequently left Mister Donut and went to work as a Finance and Insurance Manager at an automobile dealership in Framingham Massachusetts. He was trained for this position by Pat Ryan & Associates. I took over the position of National Assistant Credit Manager when he left. I held that position for one year and for reasons which are still a mystery, was terminated.
I then proceeded to take about 6 months off. I had a Corvette and summer was approaching and I had our house in Newton Mass all to myself.. This, by the way, was the second time in my working career that I took time off between jobs. The first of these two "sabbaticals" occurred in March of 1967 when I returned from completing the three month Basic Officer Artillery Course at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
After my "sabbatical," and with Bobby's help, I contacted Pat Ryan & Associates and they recruited me to be the F&I Manager at Tom Connelly Pontiac in Norwood Massachusetts. This required that I attend their two week training course in Chicago, which I did in August of 1970.
Pat Ryan & Associates recruited, trained and supervised Finance and Insurance Manager for automobile dealerships. In fact, Pat Ryan and his associate, Herman Bass (who was Director of Training), literally created the position of Finance and Insurance Manager in the late 60s. By 1970 Ryan was training close to a thousand people a year for the F&I position and Bill Fisher was one of four full time trainers. Two years later I became the 5th trainer.
Bill Fisher was, no exaggeration, a fabulous instructor. Together with Herman and the other instructors (Bob Leonard, David O'Brecht and George Anderson,) they had created an amazingly effective two week training course that utilized video taped role playing to hone the skills of the trainees. Needless to say I was impressed and took copious notes.
I went back to Tom Connelly Pontiac and proceeded to knock the cover off of the ball - Thank you Bill.
Some more background. The Sales Manager at Tom Connelly was a gentleman named Gene Day. Gene had been a field representative for Pat Ryan. Gene and I worked well together and became friends. Subsequently, Gene and another former Ryan Associate, Eric Johnson, found a backer and decided to go into competition with Pat Ryan in the State of New York. Additionally, they decided to replicate Ryan's approach, which required a focus of training.
They hired me to be their trainer. So, in 1971 I moved to New York and spent the next month at the Lexington House Hotel writing their F&I training program. Guess where I got the bulk of my program. You got it! From the notes I took in Bill Fisher's class. Needless to say, I added something based on my experience a cannon gunnery instructor in the National Guard but the bulk of my material was what I had learned from Bill (and those rather detained notes I had taken).
Later in 1971 Transcapital Fiscal Systems ran out of "capital" and I returned to Massachusetts.
Nothing like getting a little help from your friends. My girlfriend, Maria (aka Gracie) Larangeira, and later my first wife, worked a the credit manager for Warren Jewelers, a credit jeweler in Providence RI (Note: They advertised the "5W Plan" or "Why worry, Warren will wait."). She invited me to a dinner with her boss and his wife, Marilyn. This proved to be a monumental event. After dinner, Marvin and I adjourned to his study. What followed was a discussion about my prospects for the future (read this as Marvin cared about Gracie). By the time the evening was over I had promised to call Pat Ryan & Associates.
I did and the rest is history. Short version: I followed through and called Herman Bass, Pat Ryan's Director of Training. They invited me for an interview and the following week I was hired as the fifth full time instructor. Pat Ryan & Associates later became a subsidiary of Aon Corporation, the largest commercial insurance brokerage in the world. Thirty eight years later (to the day I might add) I retired after a spectacular career.
Back to Bill. We worked together for several years as fellow trainers. Bill went on to found and head up Ryan's Business Development Team, a group of high powered consultants who went into dealerships that were not achieving their potential and turned them around. He was a highly effective leader.
I had the pleasure of working directly for Bill from 1983 to 1985 on a project to boost the sale of mechanical repair contracts (aka extended warranties) in our client dealerships. We named it Ryan Telemarketing. Using direct mail and telephone follow-up we attempted to boost sales by contacting the dealer's customers that had not purchased the product at the time they purchased their vehicle. We succeeded on two fronts. First, we were able to product an 8% sales rate. That showed the dealer and his/her F&I Manager that they were missing opportunities and that ultimately boosted point of sale production.
Bill later went on with Rogers Freedlund to form his own extended warranty company and, it is at that point that I lost track of Bill.
He will be fondly remembered.
Written by Les.
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