The earnings potential drives many professionals to the auto retail industry, but that’s not all the business has to offer. Today on Inside Automotive, we’re pleased to welcome Greg Mabry, the General Manager of Bentley Atlanta and NADA Academy graduate. In this segment, Mabry shares his journey through the industry and why he decided to attend the NADA Academy.
After moving to Atlanta from Memphis in the early 2000s, Mabry started his career as a sales professional at Group 1 Automotive’s Toyota franchise in Chamblee, Georgia, in 2004. Before leaving the dealership in 2006, Mabry had become a finance specialist, but the lack of work-life balance put a strain on his personal life. He briefly left the business to work for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution but soon found his way back to automotive retail when the opportunity to run Asbury Automotive’s Bentley franchise opened up.
Mabry is also an alumnus of the NADA Academy, a series of programs and classroom sessions taught by industry experts that provide students with comprehensive education and training on dealership operations. Mabry says he worked on the variable side for his entire career, but learning about and understanding back-end dealership operations was an eye-opening experience.
Like many franchise dealers across the country, new vehicle inventory is challenging to come by for Mabry and Bentley Atlanta. Right now, his showroom is filled with used luxury vehicles, and he doesn’t expect new cars to come back any time soon. He explains that all new vehicles from his dealership are pre-ordered by customers, and he tries to keep the order bank filled six months out.
Mabry is also working to keep the used inventory pipeline full. Right now, the service department is his most significant source of inventory acquisitions, but his team members are also monitoring marketplaces like Autotrader. In the future, Mabry wants to keep expanding the business and leave it in a much better condition than before he started.
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