Success Story Teddy Nissan Boosts Sales from 30 to 225 in Only 9 Months How did the same dealership with the same brand in the same location increase their sales from only 30 cars a month to nearly 300 cars per month in only a half year’s time during the recession? Teddy Nissan, formerly Cox Nissan, was purchased in August 2009 by Ted Bessen, formerly a partner of Potamkin Automotive Group, and Steve Risso, an automotive veteran who ran multiple stores and NADA 20 groups. This story explains how these 2 guys bought and paid for the cost of the entire dealership within 9 months of reopening a closed point and creating close to 100 new jobs for the local economy in a economically challenged environment.
“We saw the peak of the recession as the perfect opportunity to reopen this point,” said Bessen. “Timing was good with the revitalization that Cash for Clunkers brought to the market.” Bessen and Risso updated the facility and opened their doors August ‘09. “We both have run multiple stores but this was the first time we had to start from scratch so we had a lot of work to do without a lot of time,” said Risso. “Getting the facility right, buying equipment, hiring and training the right people and bringing in enough customers to pay for it all. Generating traffic and revenue was our primary goal because the dealership was out of business for about a year and there was no
customer base. With all we had in front of us, we hired a company to help us create and implement our marketing plan for sales and service.” Below is a summary of the strategy Teddy Nissan implemented to grow their sales by over 200 vehicles a month in the first 9 months of being in business. Marketing Plan Teddy Nissan is located in one of the largest markets in the world where everything is expensive, especially advertising. “New York city has 11 million people and traditional advertising costs a lot, and generates too little, because most consumers watching TV and listening to the radio are not in the market for a Nissan this