By Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
Joe Marshall is a car guy. Sure, he did time in the banking industry and as a stock broker. But he always returned to his first love, selling cars. Now, he is the owner of a small but growing dealership group in Mississippi.
“I love being a car salesman,” said Marshall. “I don’t have any hobbies; I like to sell cars.”
Joe Marshall of Barnes Crossing
Marshall just bought a Chevrolet-Buick-GMC dealership in New Albany, Mississippi, upping his count to six new car franchises and two used car stores. Barnes Crossing Auto Group has been born and Marshall is gearing up to market the Barnes Crossing brand.
While Marshall isn’t actively planning more acquisitions right now, “if the right opportunity came I would expand,” he told Automotive Buy Sell Report.
An AutoTrader representative pointed Marshall towards the Parks dealership after Marshall, who describes himself as “55 years young,” mentioned he was interested in acquiring another franchise. He went by the store and asked Bill Parks, the majority owner of the dealership, if he was interested selling. The dealership had been in the family for 95 years.
The deal took six months to work out. There were numerous members of the Parks family who were minority owners in the dealership, said Marshall. They all had to receive the information and agree on the deal. One family member, a brother-in-law, is now working for him, added Marshall.
Location, location, location
Marshall bought the franchise and the real estate, paying cash for the franchise and taking out a loan for 80 percent of the real estate. He is excited about the site’s potential. The dealership is located on the freeway connecting Birmingham, Ala. and Memphis, Tenn., a thoroughfare scheduled to become an interstate highway by late 2014.
Toyota has a plant in the area and Yokohama Tire plans to build one. “There is a possibility the area will be more developed than it is now,” he said.
There are three other Chevrolet dealerships on the freeway; his new Barnes Crossing Chevrolet store is the closest to the Toyota plant, says Marshall.
Marshall sees a lot of potential for sales growth through more advertising, additional staffing, more inventory, and facility improvements. The former owners weren’t doing any advertising. “We are going to do a lot of advertising,” said Marshall, including radio, TV, and digital. He will even do some direct mail advertising, “around tax time.”
He added a general manager, several sales managers, and a finance manager, all long-time employees from his other stores. Replacements had been lined up for months, says Marshall. “We don’t have any turnover,” he says. “We pay more than anybody.”
More sales staff will be needed to handle the added inventory; Marshall plans to double the store’s inventory to 160 vehicles. He also plans to make the store image-compliant, but wants to let all the other changes settle in before making that investment.
Sales are already hopping at the new Barnes Crossing Chevrolet-Buick-GMC. The dealership sold four cars in the first two days under new ownership. Marshall figures he needs to double the previous sales volume to about 45 units a month to break even.
Barnes Crossing customer service
Although he faces competition, including six Chevrolet stores in a sixty mile radius, Marshall is counting on the Barnes Crossing reputation for customer service to come out ahead.
Among other touches, Barnes Crossing provides a dealership warranty that augments the manufacturer warranty, and service loaner cars. It already has a loyal customer base, he said.
That customer service approach – which will be a Barnes Crossing brand trademark– has been honed at his original store, Barnes Crossing Hyundai Mazda in Tupelo which he bought in 2010. That store each sells about 265 new and used cars a month. He was awarded a Mazda point in Ridgeland in 2012. It sells around 85 units a month. Marshall also owns two used car stores.
This isn’t his first stint selling Chevys. Marshall worked at a Chevrolet dealership and a Ford dealership in Kentucky. He also worked as CFO for Oxmoor Auto Group in Louisville.
He then worked in banking but always wanted to own his own business, said Marshall. That chance came in 1989, when he bought a minority interest in Oxmoor Toyota. After seven years he left the car business to become a stock broker.
Five years later, the siren song of selling cars drew Marshall back into the dealership business. He liquidated his IRA to buy the Hyundai Mazda store. With the addition of the Chevrolet-Buick-GMC store, it looks like Marshall’s dream of being a car guy is coming true.
