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- The road to 900 cars per month—how one dealer is pushing his team to sales excellence
The road to 900 cars per month—how one dealer is pushing his team to sales excellence
Featuring Brad Wise, Ferman Chevrolet Mazda
Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter.
Today’s guest is Brad Wise, Executive Manager of Ferman Chevrolet Mazda in Tampa, shares his mission for dominating a competitive market, why he’s handing out hundreds in cash to his service team five times a day, how “energy vampires” kill sales culture, and more.
1. Market challenges do not have to dictate your success.
Business is great—even amid the tariffs.
“In Florida, we seem to thrive on every chaos, whether it's chip shortages or hurricanes, tariffs, you name it. I just feel so blessed to be in an industry that seems to thrive and figure things out.”
Ferman Chevrolet Mazda feels a sense of urgency right now with buyers trying to get in on the non-tariff cars, but there is some uncertainty about the next cycle.
2. The right leadership is critically important.
Mr. Ferman is still involved in the business and sets the tone for the operations.
“We do our mission statement at the beginning of every meeting. And then he gives us a nice little narrative on the current headwinds or tailwinds in the industry and tell stories from over the years of how we dealt with things.”
He makes the business feel like family.
3. Flexibility is an important part of Ferman Automotive’s strategy.
Every general manager at Ferman can operate their store the way they want to, provided it is in full compliance.
“That's in our DNA, being very compliant and ethical. Beyond that, we don't really have to use the same technologies. We can have different philosophies on things.”
Bob leverages his sports background—as a former baseball player in college—to leas his team.
4. Compliance is everything.
When finance managers at Ferman Chevrolet Mazda are put through a rigorous process.
“…They're shocked by all the compliance that they have to go through and all the audits that we go through every several months—something that they're not used to. That is an absolute non-negotiable first defense.”
Ferman Chevrolet Mazda is very careful about recruiting its finance managers.
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- Similarweb, Traffic Report (Cars.com, Autotrader, TrueCar, CARFAX Listings (defined as CARFAX Total visits minus Vehicle History Reports traffic), Q4'24, USA.
- CarGurus analysis of US dealers that changed a vehicle price based on NBDR recommendations compared to vehicles without an NBDR- informed price change from Nov 2023 through Dec 2024, finding that dealers that made NBDR-price informed change see a 42% median increase in VDP views per day.
- Market Probe International, blinded survey of 600 dealers, Aug 2024. Based on 313 dealers who pay for at least two listings sites.
5. Troubleshooting your team is an important part of operations.
Brad has learned that running a retail operation requires a bird-eye view and an in-the-trenches approach.
“Sometimes I put too much emphasis, importance, and admiration on salespeople and service advisors and not enough on the managers…Being a manager is not, you know, sitting at the tower with a Rolex eating sushi.”
Managers are “servants” to the team and the overall operations.
6. Learning is a never-ending process.
Brad is still learning things about auto retail after being in the business for 37 years.
“I'm a lifelong learner and researcher of successful people, not only just automotive...Some of the greatest thought leaders in the business, and all that judgment comes from that.”
Some of the most critical decisions people make in the business were learned from others in auto retail.
7. Don’t negate the fundamentals of the business.
Brad believes in zeroing in on the fundamental aspects of the human-centered parts of the processes as opposed to leaning heavily on tech.
“I'd rather focus on that than try to spend more money or go into a two-hour meeting with some vendor that's gonna give me more leads.”
Mastering the traditional parts of the process will go a long way.
8. Setting sales goals is about strategy more than anything.
Ferman Chevrolet Mazda has a sales goal of 900 new and used vehicles a month—which is a central part of Brad’s overall management strategy.
“The purpose of a goal is not to hit it's who you become in the process—which is an essential part of Brad’s management strategy. It's like the ‘10X’ rule.”
If you practice setting enormous goals and following through to achieve them, you'll always find yourself exceeding expectations.
9. Testing new ideas is essential in today’s competitive market.
Brad is always looking for new revenue opportunities in the business.
“We're really exploding in used cars right now (and) used EVs…I love trying new things and see how they work. And if they don't, that's fine.”
You never want a potential revenue opportunity to pass you by.
10. Reward those who help drive your success.
Ferman Chevrolet Mazda is close to doing $2 million a month in just gross and fixed operations, which Brian credits entirely to the team.
“Every day, we're just trying to progress at things, not only for our own pocketbooks, but for our own happiness.”
“That's what a leader's job is to eliminate what's preventing progress. And a lot of, could be attitudes, it could be energy vampires.”
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