The story of Vince Sheehy: America's most interesting $2.5B car dealer!

Welcome to another episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast.

On this episode, Vince Sheehy, President of Sheehy Auto Stores, sits down to chat about the Maryland, D.C. car market and shares his unique perspective on life, auto sales and running a family business. While he continues to be a practicing Catholic, Vince attributes much of his beliefs and candidness about the realities of the car market to Buddhist philosophy, which he began to delve into in early 2017.

You can stream the full episode now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple.

1. Joining the industry.

Vince graduated from college in 1980, during one of the most challenging times for the car industry. Even though his family worked in the retail automotive sector, he decided to start his professional life in the insurance sector, before eventually transitioning into the consumer packaged goods business, working at brands like General Mills and Yoplait. However, after some pressure from his father and realizing that corporate life wasn’t for him, Vince decided to join the family business as a sales consultant in 1987.

2. Running a family business.

For Vince, the most important component of running a family business is the people. In the retail automotive sector, this means putting the next generation of management through the paces, seeing to it that they work as many positions as possible within the dealership before transitioning into leadership. The reason this is so important is that empathy and understanding are required to lead successfully. Vince believes that the best way to earn those qualities is to walk in other people’s shoes, an experience that multiple roles can provide.

3. Raising the next generation.

While succession can help solidify a brand’s longevity, Vince believes that each generation should stand on their own, worrying less about carrying on the legacy of the previous generation and more about dealing with the present. This is especially true for dealerships since these businesses make immense impacts on the well-being of their employees, customers and community.

4. Toyota and recalls.

Vince recently attended a Toyota conference in Las Vegas. While he notes the event was mostly positive, thanks to the company’s ongoing success and strong relationship with retailers, a spurt of high-profile recalls and stop sales was a primary focus for both the manufacturer and dealership attendees. Although the issue has been challenging, Vince believes implementing the sales pause was the right decision. “Toyota recognizes they could probably do some things in the short term that would have a big payoff for them, but in the long term might hurt their relationship with their customers and their dealers,” he explains. “So that was really the focus: we’re going to take care of the customer even if it costs us some sales in the near term.”

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5. Service and sales.

Every brand has a different makeup between sales and service. However, Vince believes that the fixed-ops business performs best when it works in tandem with sales. His company’s mission statement, “One team building a lasting relationship with each customer based on trust,” embodies this belief. “If you always follow that in our business, we will always make the right decision for our customers,’ he comments. With this mindset, Vince has been able to grow the brand’s active customer base, defined by the number of car owners who take their car in for service at least twice over the last year, to 135,000 members. “If I have an active customer who’s going to us for service, then I know we’re taking care of that customer and they’re likely to come back and buy another vehicle from us.”

6. VIP Club.

Recently, Vince introduced the VIP Club, an owner loyalty/prepaid maintenance program that facilitates the transition from sales to service and back to service. “We have 125,000 active VIP customers right now, and they’ve all paid for the privilege,” he notes. Although he admits the dealership doesn’t really make money from the program, it does allow the brand to identify its most engaged and loyal customers, the ones most likely to recommend the business to others. This has proven to be invaluable as a means of expanding the customer base.

7. Used car strategy.

Vince targets a 30-day turn period for used vehicles, which he acknowledges is aggressive. However, the effort put into preowned sales has allowed the company to maintain a nearly one-to-one ratio between new and used vehicles, even if its profit margins aren’t necessarily as big as other dealership groups. Aggressive preowned sales have also boosted the brand’s service business and translated into more customers joining the VIP program.

8. Management style.

Managing a large dealership group requires a more centralist management style, although Vince emphasizes that the goal is to provide a cohesive experience. That being said, sharing ideas is still critical for mission success, he notes. To help facilitate this and mitigate push and pull between fellow managers, Sheehy Auto Stores hosts retreats that give leaders in the group a chance to bond and learn how to work together. Improving synergy not only reduces friction but also helps to empower individual storefronts within the brand’s centralist model, he adds. “It’s a huge investment for a customer, so we want to make sure that we have a very professional process, but we know that people develop a relationship with other people, they don’t develop a relationship with Vince Sheehy.”

9. Ford.

Out of all brands on the market, Vince is most excited about Ford and its plans for the future. “We have obviously had a little bit of a debacle around EVs and our investment in EVs,” he admits. “That really harmed what I consider the ROI to be on a Ford store.” However, the company has started to listen to its dealers again. “I also think there's some dealers that are negative on Ford, which gives us more opportunity to go ahead and buy that store,” he quips.

10. Current focuses.

Vince is currently focused on expanding his business through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). “That's what gets me excited when I come to work in the morning when we have a growth opportunity and we believe that we can add value and provide additional career opportunities for our people,” he comments. Although he admits that the M&A market has gotten more difficult in recent years due to poor post-pandemic performances at many dealerships, he adds that he will happily overspend on a desirable franchise if it has solid prospects. Another area of focus is training and development. Vince notes that managers often have a tendency to place blame for poor performance on employees rather than looking internally and asking whether the staff member had access to proper training.

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