DFW INFINITI DEALERSHIP BECOMES AMERICAN FAMILY SAGA ON SPARK360

“Social Business Television” Puts Grubbs Family’s 62-Year Legacy of North Texas Auto Sales in the Showroom Spotlight

One family. Four generations of car salesmen. More than 150,000 cars – that’s 12 different brands of autos – over six decades. The Grubbs family’s journey through the automobile industry during that time has included economic peaks and valleys along with major changes in car styles, technology and marketing. It’s a rich history loaded with experience in customer service and brand-building, and the Grubbs boys tell that story in the latest spark360 business news profile, now available for viewing on www.spark360.tv.

spark360 host/managing editor Renay San Miguel interviews George Grubbs Jr. and George Grubbs III, the father-and-son co-owners of Grubbs Infiniti in Euless, TX.  (Another family member, George Jr.’s brother Eric, owns Grubbs Nissan in nearby Bedford.) The profile includes archival photos from every stage of the Grubbs car dealership business, including the family’s first foray into auto sales in 1948, when Hubert Grubbs decided to take advantage of a demand in used cars thanks to war-related metal shortages.

“The business started really with my grandfather putting cars in front of his grocery store and enjoying the car business part of it so much he ended up selling the grocery store,” George Grubbs Jr. said. “He saw the opportunity that you could make a lot more money selling a car than you could a loaf of bread,” he added with a laugh.

George’s father, George Sr., set up a trailer on that car lot; it would serve as George Jr. and Eric’s first home. There they watched their father’s business grow to include new car sales and repairs, and it was where they would end up choosing their future careers.

“My father never pushed me toward this. He said whatever you want to do, just do it and have passion and go after it,” George Jr. said. “And I realized this really was where my passion was and where the opportunity was, and I loved what I saw.  I saw that people really need to trust – that when you say something to them, they can believe you. So establishing good relationships and trusting relationships and people having faith in the family name, sending their friends and neighbors in – people sent their kids in and those kids sent their kids in – that was something that I saw was very important from an early day.”

The Grubbs family saw how the cars on their lot reflected advances in technology – and how baby boom-era consumers suddenly flush with cash gravitated towards more aggressive sales methods. George Grubbs Jr. says the family dealership was one of the first to incorporate computers to track inventory and customer trends, and was also a pioneer in advertising their business on local television.

That drive to stay ahead of tech and sales trends continues with George Grubbs III, who now has day-to-day oversight over the Grubbs Infiniti dealership – but can rely on his father for on-site consulting and advice. And just like his dad, George III wasn’t pressured to go into the family business. But exposure to the dealership’s inner workings at an early age proved to be valuable on-the-job training regarding sales strategies and tactics.

“It really started at home. It was around the dinner table,” George III said. “My grandparents lived next door, and so there were always business meetings after dinner at someone’s kitchen table – whether it was their kitchen table or our kitchen table – and a lot of times my dad would pull me along and let me listen and be a part of it.”

The son is expanding the family’s online presence with specialized search tools, video and social media. “We make sure that we use blogs and Twitter and Facebook, everything we can to communicate with our customers and make sure wherever they’re communicating online, we’re able to communicate back to them,” he said. But George III emphasizes that all the high-tech tools in the world won’t help without some decidedly old-school sales tactics. “It’s all about relationships, and that’s one thing that my dad showed me when I was young. If we continue to cultivate good relationships with the customers, they’re going to come back, and it’s been shown over the years that people continue to come back, and they want to do business with us because we treat them well.”

Senior Producer Steven Swaim added, “The Grubbs family knows that relationships are important in dealing with today’s buyers. It was a pleasure seeing them use this philosophy in real time.”

“This is a quintessential American business success story,” said San Miguel. “The Grubbs family has built a successful car dealership from very humble roots in North Texas. George Grubbs Jr. went from living in a trailer on his daddy’s used car lot to being a co-owner of a lucrative, ultra-modern showroom. And he knows both the business and the family reputation are in good hands, thanks to his son George III. Who knows what the next generation will bring?”

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