About VJ

Well VJ is more likely my pseudonym and the initials of my real first and last name. I learned, when I came in 2001 to the U.S. from Germany that Americans who I met and had on the phone had difficulties to pronounce my name. VOLKER JAECKEL…how about you?  Do you know how to say the last name right? So to make a long story short I decided to go with VJ and it works.

As I had mentioned I came in 2001to the U.S. - 3 weeks before the terrorist attack of the World Trade Center in NY. I was a coach for Companies, who had trouble to convert leads into sales, ideas into marketing and to write black numbers instead red numbers in their books. So a kind of troubleshooter or rainmaker.

Now having a consultant assignment at this time (NY, 09-11-2001) in Michigan it seemed to be that world came to a stand still, my assignment was shortened and I was unemployed. Wow, just got married in October 2001 to my soulmate in Michigan, nobody wanted to hire people anylonger in the corporate world, flying – hell no – nobody wanted to fly around anylonger as well for training classes (which I had held frequently before), a baby was on it’s way, the mortgage payment seemed to be another obstacle to overcome, etc., etc., etc.

Then there came my “bright moment” one cold October night in Michigan. Everybody (may be almost everybody) liked my thick German accent and I asked myself : “Why not market my German accent into a German product”, and the next morning I called the local Dar dealership in Okemos, MI who had 3 German car franchsies under one roof: BMW, Mercedes Benz and Porsche. I called Mr. Williams up, and the first thing what came out of my mouth was “Mr. Williams, I am confident that you need to have a real German Guy, with a real German accent in your store to help you selling more of your German cars”, on the other line there was first laughter, but a positive one and after having 4 interviews and their decision to buy for me a desk to put it in the showroom I had the job as a Car Sales man. Never sold Cars before, still in the process to get more savvy with the English language but I knew I can do it, and after only 8 months (I am not bragging but isn’t it a typical Immigrant story, who made it in the USA?) I was recognized as one of the Top-Twenty Sales Advisors for BMW and their CSI Ranking (Customer Satisfaction Index).

The rest is history. I am a certified consultant for the Makes of BMW, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Volvo, and Acura and just love cars.