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Benzs and Bowties—dealership secrets of the general sales manager redefining automotive content
Featuring Doug Horner, North Olmstead Mercedes-Benz
Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter.
Recently, I spoke to Doug Horner, General Sales Manager of North Olmsted Mercedes-Benz, who discussed his popular Benzs and Bowties social media accounts, why he’s intentionally leaving $50K on table with every G-Wagon he sells, and what finally pushed him to start creating content.
1. A unique calling card will go a long way in this business.
Doug has established quite a persona in auto retail, by making bowties part of his everyday attire at the dealership—a trend he started years ago.
“I was a salesperson at the time. And I was thinking, what would be another way that I could stand out and be memorable in case anybody ever forgot my name? So, I just decided I'm going to start wearing bow ties. It just stuck.”
However, a bowtie alone is not enough.
“You've got to have a good personality. You've got to be memorable in other ways as well.”
2. The journey to auto sales isn’t always a straight line.
Automotive wasn’t necessarily at the top of Doug's mind when he started the business.
“When I graduated, it was 2010, and the economy was still not in great shape, recovering from the housing crisis. There weren't a lot of jobs available and I…wasn't entirely sure what my future looked like. Sales was appealing to me, but I wanted to sell something that people wanted and not something that people need.”
Doug quickly crossed financial services and insurance off his list and got a job at a Ford store in his hometown, Cleveland, where he fell in love with the business.
3. Find a brand that ‘naturally’ fits you.
Doug sold cars for a few brands, but he attributes a lot of his success in the business to strategically finding a way to land a sales position with a brand he connects with on a personal level.
“After about three months, I…fell in love with the business, but I decided two things at the same time. I wanted to go back to Columbus...And I wanted to work for Mercedes-Benz specifically. That is the brand that stood out as sort of the pinnacle of luxury without going to like Bentley or Rolls Royce.”
4. Living your products makes it easier to sell your products.
Whether it’s Mercedes-Benz’s luxury amenities or the automaker’s various powertrains, Doug makes it a point to know everything he can about the brand and its product offerings.
“Different brands, no fault of their own, but they just have different expectations. If you're going into a domestic brand, maybe you expect that you're going to have the typical car dealership-type experience. When you're going into a Mercedes store, a lot more people are expecting that it's going to be a luxury experience. So, product knowledge is hugely important.”
Product knowledge is “absolutely paramount.”
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5. Never ignore the importance of cultivating a deeper connection among the sales team.
Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted trains every day the store is operating.
“We have six sales meetings a week, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. We get together as an entire dealership, sales, product experts, we call them our delivery specialists, and then the BDC department.”
Sometimes the meetings are more of “a state of the union,” of what’s going on in the industry.
6. Consistently look for ways to expand your customer base.
Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted has made out-of-market customers a key part of its sales strategy, with huge success.
“People are not going to wildly overpay to do business out of state, but if you can make it incredibly easy for them and they never have to visit the dealership…there's a lot of appeal…especially if you're maybe a business owner, your time is limited.”
Coveted Mercedes-Benz vehicles like the iconic G-Class help tremendously with those efforts.
7. Customer loyalty should be rewarded and rewarded well.
A core component of Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted’s sales strategy includes prioritizing loyal customers.
“If you're a previous G-Wagon owner from us, you've bought a G-Wagon from us and you're going to trade it back to us, then you move to the front of the list. That has…helped us to identify people that want a long-term relationship.”
The relationship can be hugely beneficial to Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted as well in that the “loyal” client knows that if they purchased a popular model and do the trade-in back at their dealership, the store gets a nice used car that it can resell and recoup.
8. A seamless customer experience is everything.
Speed, efficiency, and making the sales process frictionless have been the keys to Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted’s ability to be able to expand its client base.
“We understand that a lot of people have had horror story experiences going into dealerships or even just calling into a store and trying to get numbers…And it's just not right. Dealerships will make it very difficult sometimes.”
Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted’s focuses on addressing any potential pain point for consumers during the car buying process, whether it entails catering to a preference for an at-home purchase experience or immediate pricing.
9. Finding the right mix of the right tech is important.
One of Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted's most game-changing tech solutions has been AccuTrade.
“What I love about AccuTrade is that it knows that a beige-on-beige S-Class with no options and 10,000 miles is worth far less than a white-on-red AMG…with every single option same year with 10,000 miles. A traditional appraisal tool is not going to really highlight that for you without a lot of digging and work on your end.”
AccuTrade has made the store’s appraisal process significantly faster, which has allowed the dealership to be more efficient, especially when it comes to serving clients who aren't physically present at the store.
10. Social media can be a powerful tool in auto retail.
Doug started posting on social media in July 2024 and has racked up a sizeable following with his video posts (a behind-the-scenes look at the store’s sales processes), which has become a great lead source.
“The first thing that we did was…looked at leads…internet leads and phone calls that came into the store from January to June, and then from July through the end of the year. And there was nearly an 80% increase in just inbound leads from (the) internet and phones. And many of them were attributed to the social media presence.”
Since Mercedes-Benz at North Olmsted started posting videos on social media, the attention and eyeballs on the store has more than doubled. Doug also sees the social video posts as an informative resource for consumers, regardless of where they plan to purchase a vehicle.
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