The Bob Ross Auto Group, based near Dayton in Centerville, Ohio, has been selling cars since 1974, including more than 44 years as a Buick dealer, 39 years as a Mercedes-Benz dealer, and 36 years as a GMC dealer. Currently, the Bob Ross Auto Group also has the distinction of being the only Mercedes-Benz and Buick-GMC dealerships owned by an African American Woman: Jenell R. Ross.
Jenell joined the family business in 1993 and became president of the company in 2010. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Emory University and went on to complete the General Motors Dealer Management Development Program. Jenell is also a graduate of the National Automobile Dealers Association Dealer Candidate Academy.
To name but a few of Jenell’s awards and achievements, she is the only two-time Automobile Dealer of the Year named by Black Enterprise Magazine (2000 and 2011); she was presented the “Jack Smith Leadership Award” as one of the Top 100 General Motors Dealers for 2001 in the country; she was awarded the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” for the Retail/Distribution category for Southern Ohio and Kentucky 2002; in February 2013, she was inducted as the first African American Chair of the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA); in spring of 2014, Jenell was appointed to the Ohio Motor Vehicle Dealer Board by Governor John R. Kasich; and in July of 2014, she was recognized as “Woman of the Year” by the National Association of Minority Auto Dealers.
In the following interview, Jenell shares with us her views on joining and helping to build the family business, as well as her vision about where the company and retail automotive are heading.
Question: The Bob Ross Auto Group is a family business, started by your father in 1974. You’ve been at the head of the company, as president, since 2010, and today you have nearly 100 employees. Could you fill us in on your background and history?
Jenell: Fortunately, I had the opportunity of growing up in the car business on the retail side. The unexpected passing of my dad at an early age for him in 1997 threw me into running the day-to-day operations of our organization. My mother became president at that time. I had the chance to work at the dealership growing up, during high school and college, summers, holidays. After graduating from Emory University in ’92, I started working at the store officially, in the role of customer relations manager, until my father passed.
Question: Why did you choose to become an auto dealer, and what do you like most about it?
Jenell: Growing up in this business is something that I always enjoyed. Both of my parents always allowed me the opportunity to attend NADA and other conferences and conventions at an early age. I always had an interest in the automobile industry and always wanted to become an auto dealer but didn’t think it would happen in the way that it did or the timing when it did, as well. Whenever I could in school, I would do a project or paper centered on the automobile industry. Those instances provided me an opportunity to get a better understanding of our industry, which continued to pique my interest as I got older.
What I like about being involved in automotive retail is working with people, having the opportunity to assist people in purchasing something they may want and that for others it’s something they need. Buying a car is the second largest purchase for most people, and I don’t take that lightly. I also like how no two days are the same. People make our business, both from an internal perspective and externally with our customers.
Question: What changes have you made to the auto group since you took over as president?
Jenell: Assuming that position when my mother passed, in 2010, and coming out of a recession, the biggest change was going through a complete renovation for both Buick-GMC and Mercedes-Benz, which was a very time-consuming project. In terms of actual changes, we added brands during that time with Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
The biggest change for me was how the digital space and technology have changed the landscape and scope of our business in every aspect. We’re constantly changing to make sure we’re in line with what our customer wants in regard to the brands we represent and how that plays out in the digital space.
Question: What separates the Bob Ross Auto Group from other dealerships?
Jenell: I feel it is our people and the longevity of our team, especially in how we work together. We customarily experience very low turnover for our industry. We’re starting to see a little more now, due to retirement. That’s one area where I feel very fortunate, even in the 21 years since my dad passed. We still have a ton of team members and key personnel still with us. I attribute that to how they felt about my father running the business and how they feel about me running the business. They considered our auto group a good business for their careers and their families. And we represent great brands.
Question: What is your management philosophy?
Jenell: I believe it is important to bring the team together and not necessarily mandate what needs to happen to make a bigger impact. I’m very hands-on but I also allow my managers to manage. I’m there to assist however I can. As a result of how I came in as the customer relations manager, I realized then how most of our management team had extensive knowledge and expertise in automotive retail for the positions they represented. Some may have been in that role for longer than I had been living at that time. One thing that is very important to me is to earn their respect, and for all team members to have respect for one another. I don’t feel there is anyone who can do their job 100 percent on their own.
So, respecting another person in your department or someone outside of your department, and how that plays into the overall team is important. It’s great if everyone likes one another, but it’s more a matter of respect. Several of our departments function as families, even though families don’t always get along.
The key for me is understanding our differences but appreciating the respect we have for each other.
Question: What do you look for when hiring new employees?
Jenell: We look at their skill set to determine if they’re qualified for the position. What’s more important is how they interact or appear to interact with the team, which plays into my previous answer about understanding how everything relates in order to be effective.
In this day and age, having qualified talent that really understands the customer experience from all angles and levels is extremely important. Sometimes that’s more of an innate ability and sometimes it can’t be learned. You can learn products and processes but understanding the nature of what makes for a truly exceptional customer experience can’t always be learned.
Question: I’d like to switch to marketing for our next question. What is your marketing strategy?
Jenell: Although we still use some traditional media, such as TV, we’re switching more of our efforts to digital. Dealers are all trying to gain a better understanding of the digital space and what that means for their organization and the brands they represent in trying to do that effectively. We don’t do a lot of radio or newspaper. But another avenue that works for us is the amount of community involvement that we participate in and the amount of recognition we receive as a result. That’s something that extends from my parents, who were both actively engaged in serving our community. We’ve found it to be both beneficial to our business and very appreciated by our customer base.
Question: In what ways do you utilize social media?
Jenell: Social media continues to be more and more a dominant player for us and is something we’re continuing to perfect. I don’t know if anyone has perfected it yet because it is such a moving target. Clearly, it is a vital medium that is not going away. We continuously have to work on that to make sure it is going to be effective from a social media standpoint. I’ll be the first to say I’m not the most proficient user of social media. But, I’m understanding more and more every day what we need to do and how we need to go about it. I just had the opportunity to spend the day at Google in Mountain View, which was an extremely eye-opening experience. As a result of being a part of the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA), we formed a partnership with Google. While at Google, there was a full day of presentations from different aspects of their key executives, and insight on the role Google plays in the automotive space. It was all very interesting and gave me ideas to consider. I realize we have a lot of work to do. Some dealers may be more in the forefront than others, but it’s still a moving target of how and why to get it done.
Question: Do you work with any third-party vendors for your digital presence?
Jenell: Yes. We’ve been working with Naked Lime for our digital marketing strategy and execution.
Question: Which DMS and CRM tools do you use and how are they working?
Jenell: Reynolds & Reynolds is our DMS provider. As far as CRM goes, we recently moved over to Dealer Socket. The transition was more complicated than we had envisioned. But it’s all starting to fit in place. In looking at the two CRM platforms, the one we had before and DealerSocket, the two are light years apart. We’ve taken a huge leap forward with our new CRM platform. We’re in the process of working with R&R and DealerSocket to advance our platform even further. There is a lot of opportunity for improvement.
Question: What single piece of technology makes the greatest difference to your auto group?
Jenell: The Internet. I think back to my dad, and this was probably in the early ‘90s, when we were setting up our website. It was so funny because he was saying the Internet was just a fad and it’s not going to stay. It would be interesting to know what his thought would be now. He never had a computer on his desk. He knew how to find every measurement he needed to conduct his business. He was from that old-school mentality, and I wish I could see his reaction. He would probably ask what all this is, because it has been such a game-changer. From service to sales to parts, there is no aspect of our business that has not been changed by the Internet.
Question: What steps do you follow to help create a positive customer experience?
Jenell: We have a sales process in place that encompasses creating that special customer experience. Like I said earlier, granted, we’re in the business of selling and servicing vehicles, and although product knowledge is important, the overall customer experience is vastly more important. If someone doesn’t feel they’ve been appreciated or valued even before selecting a vehicle or getting their vehicle serviced, they won’t give you the opportunity to use your product knowledge piece or servicing aspect of what they need.
Question: Your auto group is deeply committed to the local community. Specifically, I would like you to tell us about two charities: the Bob Ross Baseball Classic and Pink Ribbon Driven.
Jenell: It was our twentieth year for the Bob Ross Baseball Classic. We partner with the Dayton Dragons, which is a minor league baseball team for the Cincinnati Reds. We’ve been a sponsor of the Dragons from the onset. Because of that, we were able to get usage of the park for a day, if we wanted to do an employee outing or whatever we wanted to do.
My mother came up with the idea of having an incoming senior high school baseball game to allow the talented players a chance to be recognized for their efforts. Our general manager really spearheaded this program and would work with the coaches in the area. In some years we’ve had upwards of 50 schools represented. We would take the best academic and best athletic incoming senior to represent that school. We would work with the Dragons to get college and professional scouts to attend to witness the game. Several of these players received scholarships to play in college.
My mother was in education as her first career before taking over as president for my dad. The Baseball Classic was her vision, and we’re still doing that today. Now the Dragons have taken it over for us, but it’s still called the Bob Ross Classic. I’ve had kids come up to me and say I’ll be playing in the next couple of years or my older brother’s playing now, and that’s nice to see. In terms of giving back, that’s something we’ve been involved in.
Question: That’s great. And how about your Pink Ribbon Driven program?
Jenell: Unfortunately, my mother lost her battle with breast cancer in 2010. My goddaughters actually came up with “Pink Ribbon Driven.” Because we’re in the automotive business, and we’re driven – and everyone should be driven – to find a cure for the pink ribbon. That has become my side job: working on the foundation to bring about greater awareness and educational programs to lead to early detection, which can help save lives, as well as raise money to hopefully find a cure for this potentially devasting disease. It’s what I work on in my spare time.
We always sponsor the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Walk. We would make t-shirts or pullovers for our team of walkers. The second or third year we did that, we had extra shirts and people were asking us where they could buy one. The shirt had my mother’s name because it said, the “Norma Ross Pink Ribbon Driven Team.” We sold out of all the extra shirts. So, we got in this merchandise game, and even though I’m in retail, I had to change an office into a store to accommodate all the merchandise that we have for both men and women.
I had the opportunity to put this merchandise in one of our local hospitals for two full days this week, and it was unbelievably successful. That’s a different kind of awareness that has allowed me to raise funds for Pink Driven and other efforts I plan to work on.
Question: As the only second generation African-American Woman Automobile Dealer in the country, what advice would you give other minorities considering the auto retail industry as a career?
Jenell: I would definitely encourage it as a career. I wish there would be more soon. One thing I try to do, even in our local communities, is to go to middle schools, high schools, and colleges, and tell them about the many opportunities in our business on the retail side. Everyone understands those opportunities from corporate Especially if they have an entrepreneurial spirit, they could be in our industry and thrive. I’m trying to bring that awareness in front of them as they continue to decide on their career path.
Question: Do you serve as a mentor to others in the industry?
Jenell: After more than 20 years, I still feel as if I am being mentored; I’m the mentee. I think we’re all in this together because we’re all facing so many changes. We rely on each other, bounce ideas off of each other, because we’re all trying to be successful. I still have many mentors that I rely on. I’m still trying to fill the shoes and boots of my dad, even after all this time.
Question: What’s ahead for Bob Ross Auto Group, say, in the next five to 10 years?
Jenell: Within that time frame, we will have the special opportunity to celebrate our 50th anniversary, because we’re at year 44 now.
I will experience a lot of change in key personnel and management, due to retirement. Seeking qualified talent will be on my radar. I haven’t had to concentrate much on that in the past, which will be a huge difference for me.
Hopefully, we will continue to grow and prosper with the brands we represent and add to our organization, giving employees a chance to grow and excel with new opportunities.
Question: How about the auto retail industry as a whole? What do you see as the biggest opportunities, as well as the biggest challenges, on the horizon?
Jenell: I think one of the biggest challenges right now is figuring out where we are with the tariff situation and what impact that will have on the immediate side of our business. More long-term, where and how do autonomous vehicles and ridesharing fit into the retail side of our business and how will that affect our bottom line. What’s both an opportunity and a challenge is how technology is going to continue to dictate the way we function.
Question: What one word or expression best captures your business philosophy?
Jenell: Teamwork. We’re stronger together than we are as individuals. I know I can’t do it on my own.