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Survey the spacious, burgundy-carpeted, second-floor office of Winston R. Pittman Sr., and one will find a quote in bold black letters on a gold-plated sign. It reads: As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say--I just watch what they do. That philosophy, summed up by legendary industrial baron Andrew Carnegie well over a century ago, is one that the CEO of Louisville, Kentucky-based Winston Pittman Enterprises lives by. The 51-year-old entrepreneur is a man of action, not words.

It took this kind of attitude and focus to build Pittman Enterprises into one of the nation's most successful auto dealerships--especially at a time when the sluggish economy has placed a number of them on the scrap heap. Pittman has successfully stitched together an automotive fiefdom, expanding from the Cardinal Dodge dealership he started 14 years ago, to a collection of franchises that include luxury car imports such as Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. By adding imports to his inventory and taking the calculated risk of expanding into new markets shunned by most black dealers, he's created a vehicle mix with high-end models that fetch $28,000 to $128,000 from an upscale clientele. In 2001, Pittman Enterprises posted gross sales of $154.3 million at its six franchises based on 8,052 units--cars and trucks--sold. That's a whopping 71.3% gain from sales of $90.3 million based on 5,840 total units sold in 2000.

Pittman's grit and hustle, along with a clever strategy of assembling diverse offerings and a dynamic sales team, have placed his dealership into maximum overdrive. As a result, the enterprise zoomed past the competition, rising from No. 29 on the 2001 BE AUTO DEALER 100 to No. 14 on this year's rankings. Due to these accomplishments and more, Winston Pittman Enterprises has earned the distinction of being named BE Auto Dealer of the Year.

GOING UPSCALE PRODUCES WINNING RESULTS

Last year, about 74% of the company's new car sales--totaling 3,115 units--came from import nameplates. The groundwork had been laid more than a year ago. In December 2000 Pittman opened Bowling Green Imports, which sells Mercedes-Benz and BMW models in central Kentucky, and Chatham Parkway Lexus in Savannah, Georgia. Launching the Lexus outlet made him the first black luxury car dealer to enter Savannah--home to many affluent individuals and accessible to nearby Hilton Head, a tony tourist resort area near Charleston, South Carolina. It also complemented his Toyota store, which he opened in Savannah in 1997.

The upscale import dealerships enabled Pittman to successfully navigate last year's rough economic terrain. For instance, at his Bowling Green franchise, Pittman's BMW models produced a record-selling year and the Mercedes-Benz models gave him access to a new cadre of affluent car buyers. "The segment of people who buy Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and BMW [vehicles] are the last people to get hit in a recession. [That] helped us greatly," Pittman says. "And the economy in Savannah, where our Lexus store is located and [where] many retired people live, did not get hit like many others parts of the country. We had a great year."

Always on the lookout for new opportunities, Pittman has been expanding his presence in the import arena through a strategic partnership. In 2000 he teamed with minority auto dealers H. Steve Harrell (CEO of The Harrell Co., No. 1 on the BE AUTO DEALER 100 with gross sales of $417.4 million), Sandy Woods of Brandon Dodge Inc. (No. 7 on the BE AUTO DEALER 100 with $242.1 million in sales), Ron Swatty, proprietor of Stone Mountain Toyota in Atlanta, and Chris Doleman, the ex-Minnesota Vikings star, to form Consolidated Equities Inc. L.L.C. The venture's first acquisition was Cincinnati-based Kings Nissan. Now the group plans to open at least one new domestic dealership in Atlanta, and one in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

GAMBLING WITH SMALL MARKETS

Pittman was able to make successful forays with imports by targeting small towns instead of major cities. He became a Toyota dealer in Savannah after the store was first offered to another minority dealer who was not interested. "He turned it down because it was a "bad" location.... It meant building a brand new building in a small town," he says. "Another reason was [because] Savannah was not Atlanta, Baltimore, or Memphis."

But that's part of Pittman's success strategy: take a gamble when others throw in the towel. By focusing on smaller markets, he gains the ability to own strong import nameplates at lower acquisition costs. For instance, Pittman's initial investment for his Lexus store in Savannah was about $3 million. He figures that the same franchise would have cost as much as $9 million if he had set up shop in Atlanta. The gamble in Bowling Green and Savannah are now paying huge dividends. Asserts Pittman, "It gives you a niche in those markets, areas where you could sell cars with much less of an investment."

FROM PARCEL MANAGER TO CAR DEALER

The birth of Pittman's empire was inspired by a Chrysler advertisement he read 27 years ago. It read, "Become a salesman and make $100,000 a year."

It was 1975 and Pittman was just "helped to leave" as a hub manager at United Parcel Service (UPS). After leaving UPS, he was hired to sell cars at Capital Dodge in Jackson, Mississippi. He had a knack for selling cars and, in his first year, became the dealership's No. 1 salesman. Responsible for boosting sales at Capital, Pittman was routinely promoted to a variety of positions, including finance and insurance manager as well as new-car and used-car manager. When the dealership was sold in 1983, the new owners kept him on, making him general manager.

By the early 1980s, Chrysler was actively seeking minority recruits for dealerships. In 1986 Pittman entered the Chrysler Dealer Development Program as a trainee and, two years later Sandy Woods, then the senior manager of minority retail dealer development, called him about running a franchise.

In May 1988 Pittman received a $367,000 loan from Chrysler and opened Cardinal Dodge, a defunct dealership that had closed its doors a year earlier. "I was elated and quite impressed to get a store of [that] size in a market of [that] size," he recalls. But it was tough for Pittman's new business, which suffered from a bad reputation.

Then, in early 1991, while attending a Chrysler forecast meeting, a Chrysler branch manager grabbed a dollar bill out of his pocket, tossed it at Pittman, and told him that would be the value of his stock in six months. He reflects: "That made me very, very angry. I thought, `Man, I could go out of business ... my family, business, and everything down the tubes.'"

The sales manager motivated the tough, feisty Pittman--who plays four to five Pro-Am golf tournaments a year--to develop an aggressive marketing and sales campaign. He wouldn't let any customer leave his lot without purchasing a vehicle. The result: Pittman was recognized as Chrysler's most profitable dealer in the nation that year. By 1992 he was able to pay off his loan in full and buy the dealership from Chrysler three years early. To this day he still has that dollar bill, encased in a gold frame behind his cherry-wood desk. "It was a kick-start," says the five-star Chrysler dealer. "It reminds me to never get sales down to a dollar."

He hasn't slowed down since.

BUILDING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

Part of Pittman's drive is to create a legacy for the next generation. Though he did not force his wife, Alma, or children--sons, Winston Jr., 27, and Jabari, 18, and daughter Misty, 23--to become auto dealers, they are all part of the business.

Alma, a former nurse, is vice president of the Mercedes-Benz-BMW operation, overseeing customer relations. "It would be a shame if something happened to me and she didn't know about what she owns," he says. "She would have a lot of dealerships and not know what makes them click."

Pittman began prepping the children when he acquired a Dollar Rent A Car franchise in 1994, both as an industry learning tool and as a way to teach the children--who did everything from rent cars to wash vehicles--about hard work. Now Winston Jr., a Union College graduate who has worked in all areas of his father's business, has recently become the assistant to the general manager of the Toyota-Lexus dealers in Savannah. All three children have successfully completed the Jim Moran Southeast Toyota School. Misty is currently working at the Mercedes-BMW franchise in Bowling Green, and her husband, Marcus Withers, 27, is business manager there. As for Jabari, the University of Louisville student works in the parts department at Cardinal Dodge, where Pittman's older brother, Clyde, 63, serves as vice president of operations.