From Marketing Star to CEO of 18 Dealerships

Welcome to another episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast.

Today, CDG is joined by Robert Ourisman Jr., CEO of Ourisman Automotive Group, who discusses selling 20,000 cars a year, fixing the Cherokee 4xe sales slump, the brands he’s bullish on, fighting with automakers on inventory allocation, what excites him most about the industry, and much more.

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(:00:00) - Intro

(03:21) - The Ourisman family dynamic

(06:17) - What’s your scale today?

(07:46) - What’s your father’s current involvement in the business?

(12:16) - What do you think about your mix of brands and what are you bullish on?

(14:33) - Why are you focusing on growing your collision business?

(16:34) - Does EV adoption concern you for service?

(19:17) - What are you excited about?

(21:50) - How are you navigating employee retention at the less-exciting brands?

(26:54) - What operational challenges are you facing right now?

(28:24) - Leasing penetration

(31:07) - Accepting allocation

(33:44) - What is the profit trend for your dealerships?

(35:21) - What’s your marketing strategy?

(38:44) - Does anything keep you up at night? 

(41:33) - What’s your outlook for the industry?

1. How Ourisman Automotive got its start over 100 years ago.

Robert Ourisman is a fourth-generation dealer in the mid-Atlanta region whose family name can be seen all over the D.C. metro area, Virginia, Maryland and now, Delaware. But there’s something unique about this group that not many people may know about. Ourisman’s great-grandfather started the family business in 1921 with a single Chevrolet store. When he passed away, Ourisman’s grandfather took over and had three sons in the business. Ourisman’s father, along with his two brothers, expanded the group. Fast-forward to today, and there are three distinct dealer groups operating under the Ourisman umbrella. One group is owned by Robert, and the other groups are owned by his cousins. 

2. Operating under the Ourisman banner.

Robert thinks of the three groups as individual “pods” all working under the Ourisman name, but they have different operators, styles, and philosophies. There's no one entity or holding company. There are many different Ourisman stores under different leadership, however, there is some cross-ownership among certain stores. To carve out a more distinctive presence, Robert’s group has rebranded itself to Ourisman Cars over the past couple of years. “We’re all on the same team, we just operate differently,” says Robert.

3. Ourisman Cars by the numbers.

Robert currently has 18 stores in his pod and expects to sell 20,000 new and used vehicles this year. His group also has eight body shops and has plans to grow its service business even more in 2024. As far as his team is concerned, Robert has a group of executive leaders, including a COO, various service and variable ops directors, and a full accounting team. At the individual dealership level, each store has its own General Manager who works with the executive team. 

4. How Robert became the CEO of Ourisman Cars.

Robert assumed leadership of his group early on in 2020. When the pandemic hit, his father was away traveling—separated from the dealerships by thousands of miles and several time zones. Robert knew the group needed someone to step up and help navigate the uncertainty, and that’s exactly what he did. Today, Robert’s father serves as chairman and advisor. The first thing Robert wanted to do as CEO was to find ways to unite all of the dealerships in his pod and operate as a dealer group, not a bunch of individual dealerships. 

5. What makes Robert’s group unique.

Robert also discusses the mix of automotive brands his dealer group represents. The group recently added Subaru to an already strong lineup, including Honda, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, Chevy, Kia, and Hyundai. His outlook is positive for all of these brands, citing the stable government employment in the Washington D.C. area, which makes the market a bit more predictable. He explains that while no market is recession-proof, his dealership benefits from this stability. Over the past four years, his dealer group has expanded, adding eight new stores and several new franchises, including Kia, Toyota, and Subaru.

6. What excites Robert the most when thinking about the future.

Aside from his one-year-old son at home, Robert is most excited to continue growing with the brands that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. For example, Toyota and Kia are some of the manufacturers producing great products right now. Ourisman adds that these brands have figured out a good inventory allocation and have great methods to safeguard dealer profitability.

On the flip side, brands like Stellantis are facing headwinds. Attracting and retaining staff at these stores is a challenge, says Ourisman. While this doesn’t affect fixed-ops too heavily, Ourisman has tried to ensure that every staff member on the variable ops side can earn the income they’ve grown accustomed to. For example, Ourisman created a whole new pay plan for one particular inventory-heavy model. 

7. Affordability and rising costs (for both consumers and dealers) continue to be problematic.

As margins creep back down to pre-pandemic levels, interest rates are still high, and Ourisman says floor plan costs are “through the roof,” creating added pressure. From Ourisman’s point of view, the key to staying successful is to get creative and find alternative revenue streams like body shops. He mentions specifically, that Stellantis customers are incredibly happy with the products that fit their budgets. Yet, financial conditions are keeping many consumers boxed out. 

8. Addressing affordability challenges.

Ourisman discusses the surprisingly low lease penetration in some of his markets. Rockville, Maryland for example, despite being a wealthy, liberal market, stands at only about 20%-ish lease penetration—much lower than the expected 50%. Ourisman also brings up the need for more incentives from manufacturers and the importance of disciplined inventory management, especially for costly new cars.

9. Embracing marketing early on.

Ourisman discusses the innovative approach to marketing his family adopted. Starting with his grandfather pioneering TV advertising for their car dealership, which became a memorable aspect of their brand, Robert himself continued this trend. Before content creators were around, Ourisman was creating unique and engaging commercials that played on pop culture references, showcasing a creative approach to automotive marketing.

10. How Ourisman stays creative today.

Robert reflects on his transition from starring in quirky commercials to focusing on strategic business growth. He considers how marketing has evolved over time, especially with the rise of digital platforms. Back in the day, it was all about TV commercials and catchy jingles, but now, it’s shifted to online spaces like social media and digital ads. The creative demands of his current role involve more behind-the-scenes strategic decisions rather than being the face of promotions.