Shawn Spencer is the vice president and general manager of the new Randy Marion Cadillac dealership, which recently purchased Claude Nolan Cadillac and is located along Southside Boulevard in Jacksonville. The dealership is the 16th in the Randy Marion family and the first outside of the state of North Carolina. Spencer is ready to embrace the opportunity of helping his uncle Randy Marion and the family business take this next step and brings years of experience to the table with him.
Tell us a little about yourself and your background.
I was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, and went to school at West Virginia State University and got a two-year degree in chemistry before going to work for Union Carbide in the chemical industry.
DOW ended up buying Union Carbide and I ended up retiring from DOW after 20 years of service, and that’s when I went to work for Randy (Marion), who’s actually my uncle.
I had my little boy, who was three months old at the time, when my wife and I moved to North Carolina with our jobs and I started selling cars part-time at first, just to see if I’d like the business, but I ended up falling in love with it.
Randy and his wife Betty have been like parents to me my whole life and we grew up all vacationing together.
I just knew that one day I would be working for him at some point in my life, I just didn’t have a clue when, until it happened.
Did working in the chemical world translate to car sales?
DOW and Union Carbide were big corporations with thousands and thousands of employees, so they had a lot of procedures and processes, and I think having those attributes and bringing that to the car business has really helped me.
Car sales is all about staying in constant communication with your customers and keeping all your T’s crossed and I’s dotted when it comes to the financial side of things.
Now as a general manager, I’m trying to instill in these guys some of those same things that I have found work. It’s not about trying to change the way they do things, but maybe just help hone them a little bit and get them thinking about the process.
What led to Randy Marion opening its first location in Florida?
Randy’s been coming to Ponte Vedra for almost 40 years as the automotive group he was with came to the area for their management group meetings all the time.
He and my aunt just fell in love with the place, and rightfully so, because it’s pretty much like a resort down here.
They always said they would like to maybe live here one day and about 15 years ago bought a beach house down on Ponte Vedra Boulevard, and we’ve been coming down here with the family for years now.
He had his eye on this store for a long time and it was finally brought to his attention that there was a chance they were looking to sell it.
Jack Helmick was the owner of Claude Nolan Cadillac and he wanted to interview my uncle, so they set up a meeting at my uncle’s beach house.
We are a family business, and they are a family business, so we knew where they were coming from and we’ve actually a relationship between the families out of all this.
One of the things we are most proud of is that we did not get rid of one person after taking over, and that’s the way we do every sale we’re a part of.
We’re continuing to grow rapidly and this gives us 16 stores now.
Have you noticed differences in the Jacksonville car market compared to North Carolina?
There is definitely a car culture here. If you drive enough around this area, you’re going to see a lot of really nice vehicles.
Working for a stand-alone Cadillac store is a whole different array of buyers compared to other brands.
Cadillac definitely has a different marketing style right now, because with them in racing, the V-Series cars and the new all-electric Lyriq, they are really focusing more on the younger generation and pick up that market share as well.
What are your goals for the dealership down the road?
We’d like to grow the average units to about 100 a month, and we already have 70 used cars out there on the lot now compared to the 20 that was there when we took over.
Our big focus is definitely about volume and getting our name on the street while also making sure someone’s getting a good bang for their buck. That’s what we pride ourselves on.
When the manufacturers are ready to provide new car inventory, we’ll be ready to accept it.
We’re only just over 45 days into this thing, so it’s still pretty fresh and everyone’s still adjusting.
What do you love most about living in Ponte Vedra Beach?
My wife and son moved to the area after he got out of school.
I’m a huge college basketball fan and we’ve been huge Duke supporters for a while now, so I have a passion for sports.
We’re going to be Jaguar fans and I already told my son he’ll be wearing Jaguars gear.
When it comes to hobbies, we love going to the beach or really anything that has to do with hanging out around the water, and then we’re also foodies and love to try out new restaurants. We just love finding all the mom-and-pop places where the locals like to go to eat.
