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V. Price LeBlanc Sr. was on his way to college in Alabama when he decided not to be shy anymore.

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It was 1940, America hadn't yet entered the war and LeBlanc, a fresh-faced kid in his late teens, hadn't yet joined the Marine Corps.

His biggest concern was a lack of confidence.

"I had an inferiority complex," LeBlanc says, trademark fedora planted on the desk in front of him. "I was extremely bashful. I made up my mind on the way to college that I wasn't going to be bashful, and I wasn't going to walk with my head down anymore."

He didn't. The young man from St. Gabriel hopped out of his father's car at Spring Hill College in Mobile that day greeting strangers like friends, slapping backs and shaking hands--even while his stomach did backflips. It was hard at first, LeBlanc says, though he kept at it. And before long, it stopped being an act.

Little did he know he was unleashing an inner super-salesman who would go on to become one of the most successful car dealers in the state--a journey marked by miles of country sausage and many homespun television commercials featuring a certain well-known catch phrase.

From cows to cars

If not for a dislocated ankle, that boost of confidence might have been mercilessly short-lived.

A pole-vaulting accident while LeBlanc was attending a military training program kept him stateside while the rest of his class was shipped off in 1945 to Iwo Jima, the bloodiest battle in Marine history. LeBlanc says that injury probably saved his life.

After the war, LeBlanc's early career involved cows, not cars, until he forsook his small cattle business in 1954 for a salesman's job at Standard Motor Co. in Baton Rouge.

After 90 days on the job, he had it figured out and opted to go out on his own. He started with $1,200 and two used cars in the front yard of the St. Gabriel shotgun he shared with his young bride, Shirley.

LeBlanc would buy trade-ins at auction, fix them up, sell them at a profit and steadily build his inventory. The competition, he says, used to crack jokes about him to their customers.

"They'd say, 'You better go buy from Price LeBlanc before he goes broke.' They thought that saying that would hurt my business, but instead they did me a favor because people kept coming back to me to get the best deal."

LeBlanc talked American Motors into a franchise and before long was hawking new Ramblers in a dirt lot across the street from his house. St. Gabriel Motors was born. American Motors reckoned the eager young dealer might do 15 units a year. He set them straight by selling 131 cars in one month in July 1962.

"The most cars I ever sold in one day, way back in St. Gabriel, was 31 Ramblers," LeBlanc says. "I was just really, really lucky. I'm still lucky."

He expanded in 1963, buying the Gonzales Plymouth franchise, adding a Chrysler dealership and eventually moving everything to Gonzales. LeBlanc got his first Toyota franchise in 1969, though he was unhappy the automaker was giving his competition in Baton Rouge far more cars to sell than he was getting.

That changed in 1981, when Toyota adjusted its allotment policy. LeBlanc was still limited on cars but could have as many trucks as he wanted since Toyota was pushing trucks. If he sold trucks, he could have more cars, so LeBlanc sold trucks--frequently to customers who didn't know they needed one. Price LeBlanc Toyota of Gonzales overtook the competition in late 1981 when it sold 459 trucks and cars in a month.

"We sold exactly 250 trucks," LeBlanc says. "That had never been done in the whole five-state Southern region, ever. From '81, we started climbing that ladder so fast it made your head swim."

The ads

Ronnie Melancon was operations and production manager at WAFB when LeBlanc started doing TV commercials in the mid-'60s. LeBlanc was still selling American Motors products from his St. Gabriel Motors location. TV cameras were too big and unwieldy to go on location, so the commercials were shot in the studio with just a couple of cars.

The ads were "always a little tongue-in-cheek," says Melancon, today operations manager at The Bluffs. Of course, there was country sausage, which LeBlanc still hands out to customers. There was humor. It was a form of advertising new to the market.

"I don't think he was so much trying to be goofy," Melancon says. "That was just his personality. He really didn't come with scripts. Many times he would do it, and he would say, 'What did I say?'"

Not that it mattered.

"He definitely knew what he was doing," Melancon says. "He's a great salesman."

During one shoot LeBlanc tagged his pitch with what would become a magic word.

"He would always call everybody dahlin'," Melancon says. "Price ended up a commercial with dahlin', and he was talking about cutting if off. We thought it was kind of cute and said, 'Leave it on there. It's you,' It was very spontaneous."

Nobody expected what happened next.

"It took off when he did that," Melancon says. "When that first one ran, everybody was calling everybody dahlin'. It was incredible. He was an icon of culture."

The salesman

LeBlanc credits his father for setting him straight on how to treat customers.

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"My daddy told me never refer to a man as a customer. Refer to him as your friend, because if he wasn't your friend, he wouldn't be doing business with you."

Eighty-two now and in a wheelchair, LeBlanc nevertheless comes to work most days and appears in an occasional commercial.

LeBlanc's daughter, Nancy Bondy, sold Toyotas for seven years and still works for the dealership. She says her dad remains a salesman at heart.

"That's what he truly loves," she says. "A lot of people, once they become a dealer, they really don't have anything to do with the sales end of it. That truly remains in his system, and he likes helping people."

LeBlanc considers himself a natural born salesman.

"You've got to make people like you, and if you make people like you, they're going to buy your product. Make people like you and always tell them the truth no matter what. If you lie, you're going to hurt yourself."

Gerry Lane says it was 1957 when he first met LeBlanc, who was still selling cars out of his front yard. Lane was with Capital City Ford, where LeBlanc would go for the trade-ins he bought, fixed up and sold.

"He's a hard worker, and he's always done the right thing," Lane says. "I really respect the guy. I've known Price for a long time, and I've never known know him to be underhanded on anything."

The man behind Gerry Lane Enterprises remembers when Lexus was coming to town, and he tried to get his hands on it.

"They told me, 'If we hadn't promised it to Price, we'd give it to you.' I just wish him well."

LeBlanc's dealership is indeed doing well. Each of the past 15 years, it has won the Toyota President's Award, the highest honor the company gives. LeBlanc sells between 475 and 550 new and used Toyotas and Lexuses, mostly new.

Price LeBlanc Toyota is metro Baton Rouge's top-selling Toyota dealer and, since LeBlanc picked up the franchise in 1996, its only Lexus dealer. That was the same year he moved the Toyota dealership from Gonzales to Airline Highway in Baton Rouge.

LeBlanc's two biggest years ever were 1984 and 1985, which brought in $45 million and $54 million in sales respectively. The dealership spent $1 million each of those years on advertising--including $10,000 a month on sausage. That's a lot of sausage, dahlin'.

Brent LeBlanc, Price's son and general manager of the Toyota dealership, says the mid-'80s represented the dealership's apex in terms of raw sales volume, but it also took the businesses to a new level.

"That's kind of when it all started," he says. "We've continually been Number One in the market and several states since then. It's been a matter of taking care of customers the way Dad got us started."

He says that based on state vehicle registration records, Price LeBlanc regularly sells more cars, regardless of make or model, than any other dealer in the state.

Down, not out

The same year LeBlanc became a Lexus dealer, he almost died after a stroke caused by a reaction to a heart catheterization test. Doctors worked on him for an hour and a half, telling family members that even if he did pull through, he'd probably be brain-damaged.

"They thought that that's where the damage was going to take place," LeBlanc says. "Well, my mind--unless I'm crazy and don't know it--I think it's as good as it's ever been."

Still, he was left paralyzed from the bottom of the lungs down, a fact that hit him hard.

"I cried off and on for about two or three weeks, I don't remember how long. Then I came to my senses and said, 'Price, this isn't like you.' I got to thinking, 'Man, I've always been aggressive, I've never let nothing stop me.' So rather than asking the Lord 'Why me?' like I was doing the first two or three weeks, I started saying 'Thank you, Lord, for giving me a fighting chance.' I came back to work right away."

LeBlanc says one day a woman in a Buick pulled up to the dealership. She didn't want to buy a car. She wanted LeBlanc to talk to her elderly, ailing mother, who was in the Buick's passenger seat and had given up on life.

"I roll out there in the wheelchair, open the door and talk to her. I said 'Dahlin', you can do anything you want to do if you want to do it bad enough, but don't give up. You'll never get well if you give up. If you want to die you can die. If you want to live you can live, and I want you to live."

For his part, LeBlanc says he plans on being around a while longer since he promised his son Clifton, co-owner of Price LeBlanc Lexus of New Orleans, that he'd stick around at least until his granddaughter Emily turns 15. That will happen Sept. 7, 2017, the same day Grandpa turns 95.

"I said he had to stay around so he could walk her down the aisle," Clifton says. "He committed to 15. He said, 'I know I can make it to 15.'"

"So I'm going to live that long," Price LeBlanc says. "I'm not a quitter. The only time I'll quit coming into the office every day is when I die, and I don't care if I die on the showroom floor. Don't make me any difference."

Business Awards banquet

Price LeBlanc is one of five people or businesses named as winners in the 22nd annual Baton Rouge Business Awards & Hall of Fame. The winners will be honored at a banquet April 21 at the Holiday Inn Select in Baton Rouge. The event is presented annually by Business Report and Junior Achievement and is sponsored by Franklin Press and Hibernia Bank. For ticket information call 928-1700. For stories on all five winners, see the special section in this issue.

STEVE CLARK covers health care, higher education, environment and transportation. Reach him at sclark@businessreport.com.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Louisiana Business, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

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