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The secret to scaling: taking a single point to regional powerhouse
Featuring Ben Faricy, President at The Faricy Boys
Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter.
Today’s guest is Ben Faricy, President at The Faricy Boys Automotive, who dives into his game plan for expanding across Southern Colorado, why he's starting to let go and give his GM's permission to succeed, how hiring a leadership coach was the catalyst unlearning bad habits, and much more.
1. Wall Street experience is reshaping how dealers think about customers.
Ben’s path back to the family dealership wasn't typical. After cutting his teeth in M&A at an investment bank and spending two years at a private equity firm, he returned to Colorado in 2003 with a completely different perspective on the car business.
"That experience taught me a lot about being in the weeds because I was a low man on the totem pole, but it also, I got to be a fly on the wall in some boardrooms that I didn't have any business being in."
The finance background completely changed how he views customers—not as one-time transactions, but as lifetime value propositions. It's the kind of thinking that's starting to separate successful dealers from those just trying to hit monthly numbers.
2. The "balanced triangle" is becoming the new dealership playbook.
Ben swears by what a dealer friend calls the "balanced triangle": stellar service department, killer sales team, and bulletproof financials.
"All three of those are in balance, typically success follows."
It sounds simple, but most dealers are running around putting out fires instead of building this foundation. When one leg of the triangle is weak, the whole thing collapses.
3. Core values are actually driving hiring decisions (and it's working).
Ben’s dealerships operate on three core values that sound like they came from a motivational poster: integrity, loyalty, and love. Their labor attorney literally told them to drop the "love" part, but he refused.
"We love what we do and it shows. When our people love what they do, the customers can sense that. When you don't love what you do, that also shows."
Every hire, every promotion, every decision runs through this filter. And somehow, this former private equity guy has made it work in an industry known for being cutthroat.
4. Fixed ops managers are becoming the new GM superstars.
Ben promotes parts and service people to run entire stores. His first non-family GM was a parts manager who has been with the group since Ben was 11 years old.
"Leadership does not just come from one avenue or sector of our business. They bring to the table probably a detail-oriented nature that maybe a sales person struggles with."
While everyone else is fighting over sales managers, Ben is finding hidden talent in the service drive.
1. Toma - If your BDC or Service Advisors are buried in calls, it’s time for a smarter solution. Toma builds custom AI agents that answer 100% of your dealership’s inbound calls and handle tasks like booking service, checking recalls, and scheduling test drives—without tying up your team. Dealers using Toma are saving 30–40 staff hours a week and booking 100+ extra appointments every month. Exclusive for CDG Listeners: Start your no-risk, 1-month free trial @ toma.com/cdg.
2. OPENLANE - The world’s best online dealer marketplace for used cars, bringing you exclusive inventory, simple transactions, and better outcomes. Learn more @ openlane.com.
5. Eighteen months of prep work is setting up explosive growth.
Most dealers buy stores and figure it out later. The Faricy brothers spent a year and a half getting their house in order before even thinking about expansion. They consolidated two DMS platforms, unified three different chart of accounts, and standardized everything.
"We were kind of burning the candle at both ends. We had to ask ourselves, what kind of leaders do we need to be as we evolve?"
The systematic preparation included hiring a group controller to handle the financial heavy lifting and implementing executive coaching to address leadership gaps across the organization.
6. Executive coaching is exposing leadership blind spots.
Ben hired an executive coach and asked his team to tell him everything he was doing wrong. The feedback was brutal.
"I love being in the weeds. I love being the guy that knows everything about everything...what that unintentionally did was let everybody else say, well, if there's a mistake, then Ben will catch it."
He was accidentally creating a culture where nobody else took ownership because they knew he'd swoop in and fix everything. Now he's learning to ask questions instead of providing answers, and his team is stepping up in ways he never expected.
7. "51% ownership, 100% accountability" is changing everything.
Ben discovered this concept in a book called "Multipliers" and it's revolutionizing how his team operates. Department heads own their decisions but stay fully accountable for results.
"I don't run every single thing past my brother, and neither does he on the things that are in his wheelhouse. But I also don't make decisions unilaterally all the time."
It's creating leaders instead of order-takers, and the results are speaking for themselves.
8. Manufacturer relationships are still driving dealership success.
While everyone's talking about direct-to-consumer and disruption, Ben is doubling down on something a bit more old-school: making his OEMs happy first.
"Job one is meeting the standards for sales effectiveness that we've committed to with our franchise agreements. Job two is meeting the customer satisfaction expectations they lay out for us."
Even with a challenging brand mix including Stellantis, this approach has kept him profitable when others are struggling.
9. Acquisition preparation is preventing integration disasters.
The Faricy brothers spent a lot of time asking themselves what they wanted their organization to become. They're now watching the aftermath of dealers who expanded too aggressively during the era of cheap capital.
"It was very easy to buy stores, especially in a time of really cheap capital...but to integrate them and execute on those stores in good times and bad is a different story."
Many of those rapidly-acquired stores are now coming back to market with significantly different financial pictures than they had just a few years ago.
10. Patient capital allocation is driving sustainable returns.
Ben’s investment background influences how he thinks about deploying capital. Rather than chasing quick expansion opportunities, he focuses on building systems that can support growth over decades.
"Thinking long term is one of the best competitive advantages sort of hidden in plain sight, whether it's acquiring a customer and choosing what you're willing to do on the front end to keep them coming back, or whether you're looking at dealership growth opportunities."
This approach has kept them focused on operational excellence while positioning the organization to take advantage of future acquisition opportunities.
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