Brian Kelly Loves Selling Cars
You might say that Brian Kelly was born to sell cars. The son of a used car dealer, Kelly gave up his lemonade stand at age 13 to work at his father’s Buick dealership.
In high school, Kelly would spend nights and weekends selling cars. After graduation, he worked full time for his father for 12 years, saving money and building a strong customer base. Eventually, the young salesman decided it was time to move on.
“Classic father and son,’’ says Kelly, now 63. “We would bang heads occasionally and pretty soon I realized I wanted to get out and do my own thing. I told my father I was going to leave and buy my own dealership.’’
Kelly’s father, who had his eye on a Pontiac dealership down the road, offered to sell him the family dealership instead. “I thought about all the work it would take to start new and all my customers I would be leaving,’’ says Brian.
Thus, at 28, Kelly became the proud new owner of Kelly Datsun, which changed its name to Kelly Nissan in 1983.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: The Kelly VW dealership in Danvers is the largest in North America and just one of nine separate dealerships Kelly Automotive currently owns.
A few years later, Kelly bought an old dealership in Danvers and, because of his success with Nissan, he was awarded the world’s first Infinity franchise.
Five decades later, Kelly owns an empire—10 dealerships and 12 franchises. As icing on the cake, Kelly was named Massachusetts Dealer of the Year in 2014. Many of the Kelly Automotive Group’s dealerships are located off Rt. 114 in Danvers, just miles from where he grew up.
Kelly likes the community. “When I go up to the mall or out to eat, I’ll see kids I went to school with, kids I played Little League with. That’s a New England thing; you don’t get that in Florida or on the West coast,’’ Kelly says.
Kelly’s dealerships are also a family affair. His oldest son, Brian, runs the Jeep dealership and his son, Brendan, is floor manager at the VW dealership (which is the largest in North America). His son-in-law, Brian Heney, is operations manager and helps Kelly run all the dealerships.
Kelly attributes his success to taking care of his employees, a lesson he learned from his father. “My father always cared about his employees, and I think if you are loyal to your employees, they in turn take care of your customers and you have loyal customers,’’ Kelly says.
Today, Brian Kelly has nearly 500 employees and is proud to say that many have been working for him for years. One of the favorite parts of his job is grooming young salesmen. Every few years, he’ll buy a new dealership just so his employees have some place to move up to. Because employees stay long term, they know their customers well. This is excellent for business, says Kelly, because people love consistency.
“When you get to be my age, you start to have a favorite restaurant, a favorite waitress,’’ Kelly explains. “You can go and sit down and you know exactly what’s on the menu. The waitress knows that you like extra gravy on your mashed potatoes. It’s safe and it’s consistent. People feel the same way about buying cars.’’
Kelly especially likes to work with returning customers. “We sell cars to the parents, then to the kids, then to the grandkids. It’s fun to watch the progression,’’ he says.
Transparency is one key to the success of the Kelly dealerships. “I take all my phone calls, good or bad. I answer all my emails; I don’t screen anything,’’ Kelly explains. “People are often surprised when I call them back. They’ll say, ‘Is this really Brian Kelly? I didn’t think you would call me back.’’’ That’s just part of the business for Kelly and his family.
“We aren’t absentee owners, we’re in the stores, we work nights and weekends,’’ he says. Kelly, himself, works seven days a week.
“This is my life; I love it,’’ he explains. “If I have a morning off, that’s all I need. Plus, I can’t go anywhere without driving past one of my dealerships and then I just have to stop in and say hello.’’
Kelly’s hard work has paid off. He has sold more Nissans, Jeeps, Chryslers, Infinitis, and Fiats than any other dealership in New England. He’s held the number one spot for Maseratis since that dealership opened in 2012. “Again,’’ he says, “you take care of the customer and they’ll keep buying cars.’’
Kelly is frustrated that he is only sixth in the district in Honda sales. The problem is that the dealership has the Atlantic Ocean at its back. “If you have a dealership with all four sides, you can sell in every direction, but I can’t sell cars to fish,’’ Kelly jokes. “Otherwise, we might be number one.’’
Kelly thought at one point he’d retire in his 50s but now he thinks he’ll never fully retire. “I like living around here, I like going to work,’’ he says. “I like seeing my two boys and my son-in-law.’’ On weekends, Kelly’s idea of a good time is going around to meet customers.
He is well aware that some people think he is crazy for working the hours that he does, but Kelly is happy to have his business be his life. “We’re selling 1,700 cars a month,“ he explains. “There’s pride in that,’’ and also—for the boy who gave up his lemonade stand—a great deal of pleasure.
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