Brian Benstock speaks at the Western Canadian Dealer Summit in Banff, Alberta.
There aren’t too many people who can be the last presenter at a two-day conference with eight hours plus of speakers a day and can still energize and light up a room.
Mix in all the networking, social events, late night music and a Mike Tyson fight the night before, and the assignment is even tougher.
Not so for Brian Benstock, the last speaker at the Western Canadian Dealer Summit held recently in Banff, Alberta. The event is organized by the provincial dealer associations in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, and it has grown into a really big deal.
Benstock, a Honda and Acura dealer from Queens, New York sat down for a fireside chat with Mathew Growden (formerly of Google Canada’s automotive business). You could see from his opening remarks that this was a guy filled with passion, energy and an unbridled enthusiasm for the auto retail industry. The dealers in the room leaned in and listened.
His remarkable success, running his Paragon Honda and Acura dealerships from what he describes as a “landlocked” location, with next to no physical footprint, is something that sounds almost impossible.
As a true entrepreneur, you can see he’s always looking for a small edge, a new approach, a smarter way of doing things. That also means trusting experts in areas like digital marketing or data analytics.
Benstock, a highly-sought after speaker and business leader, told dealers how he had become the largest Honda and Acura dealer in the world — selling 1,000 vehicles a month — or approximately 34 cars a day.
Moderator Growden asked him how he did it, and Benstock detailed his entire strategy, including a new pilot program he calls “Project Pluto”
Project Pluto is a new campaign where he relies on his data analysts to mine his dealership’s DMS to identify the customers with positive equity in their vehicles that will have the “highest statistical probability” of doing business with him. They are extracted and sent postcards and mailers with offers, and then his team follows up with them.
He said in the first campaign, which cost him $20,000, he sold 100 cars and generated more than $400,000 of profit in 30 days.
Benstock openly shared many of his other trade secrets with his fellow dealers.
One idea he came up with was to offer free pickup and delivery for all service customers. He picks up the customers’ vehicles at their homes (or work) and returns them after their service. Oh, and because he couldn’t physically expand or add more service bays to accommodate his growth, his service operations are open 24 hours a day.
The other thing he discovered is that customers who took advantage of the free pickup and delivery service were much more likely to authorize additional work on their vehicles.
Here’s one example of how he’s able to position his dealership with his marketing:
“With pickup and delivery, 24-hour service, and a complimentary 2-year service on every Honda, we’re here for you whenever, wherever, however you need.”
If you could pull it off, imagine how powerful that sentence would be vs. your competitors — especially the aftermarket ones — in your market.
Speaking of aftermarket, Benstock said he sees them as his true competitors. He said he realized this when he created a map of the companies that provided service and repairs in his area. There were some other dealerships, but more than 17,000 aftermarket providers.
The most inspirational part of his message, for me anyway, was hearing about all the objections he faced every time he had a new unconventional idea.
He faced objections from his OEM, from his own team members, and from his accountants. While he listened to their concerns, he usually still stormed ahead and tried things out. While all his ideas didn’t succeed, some did, and that’s the key takeaway.
As a true entrepreneur, you can see he’s always looking for a small edge, a new approach, a smarter way of doing things. That also means trusting experts in areas like digital marketing or data analytics.
While some of Benstock’s approaches might not work in your market, there’s no doubt his passion, drive for innovation and trial and error approach will.
So, can you be the next Brian Benstock in your market?
