112 Business View - July 2015
AUTOMOTIVE
who were eager to move up from their sales manager
positions and become general managers of their own
stores.
But, according to Shum, the real question was: ““Would
we be able to duplicate that kind of success? The big
part about auto dealerships is you don’t get another
one, unless you’re doing well in one, because they all
want to check your references. But because of our in-
novations, our transparent business model, our value
pricing and inner-value system, we’d gained a lot of
respect and it’s created all of these opportunities for
different manufacturing lines.”
Shumcontinues: “And so, in 2010, they were able to get
a Ford store that was recently closed down. They built
a brand new Mercedes store in Fairfield, and opened
that franchise. And then, in the next several years
that followed, we’ve added 11 franchises - two Nissan
stores, an Infinity store, a Volvo store, Land Rover/Jag-
uar, opened a McLaren franchise, a new Hyundai, and,
the most recent, a Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge Ram store in
Marin. So now, there are 11 different locations, 14 dif-
ferent franchises, and it all came out of this one loca-
tion.” In addition, five of the new stores are being man-
aged by former PriceSimms sales managers.
Today, the Price Simms Auto Group has 800 employ-
ees, and its goal is to open 10 more franchises over
the next 10 years. “If we’re able to build general man-
agers and take people through our system, and our
culture, and our values, and grow them from a dealer-
ship perspective, then you can go ahead and make the
investments and get those opportunities that are out
there - because there is always some type of opportu-
nity. The key is you need to have the personnel to put
into those places, so we’re very, very focused on the
internal aspects of our business, which is the training,
the engagement levels - the growth of leaders, not just
managers.”
