Salesperson swiftly takes on GM role, joins dealer group

This story originally appeared in the October edition of Powersports Business.

Andrew Westbrook’s father was a district manager for Harley-Davidson in the late 1980s. Looking to spend more time at home and with his two children, he began investing in Harley-Davidson of Sacramento in California and became the full owner in 2001. In the late 2000s, Westbrook and his mother also became involved in the family business and today, his sister works at Harley-Davidson of Sacramento.

Westbrook, who had been studying to be a banker, graduated in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. “Which is the worst time in history to go into banking,” he says. So, his father offered him a job at the dealership, and Westbrook accepted, anticipating working at the dealership for just a year. “It’s an amazing opportunity, the chance to be part of a family business and work with my family,” he says.

Westbrook shared an office with John Lund and the two focused on process improvements, customer service, and staff training. “Treating customers the best we possibly could, treating the staff with enthusiasm,” Westbrook explains.

They learned that Eagle’s Nest Harley-Davidson, an hour away from Harley-Davidson of Sacramento, was for sale. “We felt like we could grow the store quite a bit,” Westbrook says. “We ended up being able to buy this store and every dollar made went back into paying it off. It was a long process and a learning process.”

Westbrook is now the majority owner of Pacific Motorcycle Group’s five dealerships and Lund is one of his partners. “I wanted to have partners in each [dealership] because I wanted to be able to share opportunities that had a big risk and a big return,” Westbrook says.

Pacific Motorcycle Group’s business model positions owners as general managers within a dealership. “Having an owner on-site at each store makes a big difference,” Westbrook says. The group includes Andrew Westbrook, John Lund, James Pettijohn, Ty Miller, and Eric Chavez. The dealer group’s locations include Harley-Davidson Sacramento, Eagle’s Nest Harley-Davidson, Sound Harley-Davidson, East Bay Harley-Davidson, and Los Angeles Harley-Davidson.

“There’s a reason we have so many partners,” Westbrook says. “So, we can collaborate and make the place better.” Eric Chavez recently joined the group after working at East Bay Harley-Davidson for about six years.

Joining Pacific Motorcycle Group

Chavez, a former custom car restorer, applied at East Bay Harley-Davidson in 2018 after moving to the area with his wife and two sons. When he first started at the dealership, he struggled in the sales department and even gave a resignation letter to Keith Vargem, his general sales manager. But Vargem wouldn’t let him quit. Chavez went on to earn the best sales performance out of the three locations the dealer group owned at the time for three years in a row.

“I learned a lot from Keith,” Chavez says. “I learned a lot from Andrew, I learned a lot from John, I learned from James. I just followed their lead. I took a little bit from each one of them and molded it into myself.”

He has now held the general manager position at the dealership for a year, and he tells his employees, “Take a little bit of every successful person you come across within the business and wash it all together and turn it into you.”

Westbrook shares that although Chavez did not have the most experience and wasn’t the most trained, “He had all the qualities we liked. The staff feels respected by him. They feel appreciated by him. They feel like they want to work for the guy.”

Westbrook says Chavez’s energy and enthusiasm matched those of the dealer group, and he also praises Chavez’s consistency as a salesperson. “He was a hero to us.” He says Chavez’s performance raised the standard for other employees. “We look at the phone calls, texts, appointments… Eric always had the most activities, the most prospecting, so it was a cool thing for others to see. It wasn’t luck. People can get lucky once or twice, but Eric was consistent.”

“We’ve learned a lot from him along the way too,” Westbrook adds. “There are things we have changed at that store, that we were piloting, that we’ve rolled into other stores.”

Chavez’s goal was to become a partner or general manager between five and 10 years after he started working at the dealership. He was offered the general manager role during his fourth year at East Bay Harley-Davidson. After a year as general manager, he is now a partner of the dealer group. “I like the challenge,” Chavez says. “Tell me I won’t and watch me – I will. That’s what drove me to stay.”

The challenge to succeed fueled his determination along with the culture of the dealership and the dealer group. “I started working with them more hand in hand, and I grew to love the group,” he says. “We’re all around the same age and it’s a solid group of guys.”

A culture that fosters growth

“If you’re in for the long term with us, because that’s how we feel about ourselves and the brand and the dealerships, it’s a good choice for you and your family,” Westbrook says. “[Eric] felt that way, so I’m really grateful to have him as a partner.”

After Chavez was offered the general manager role, he warned Westbrook that he would be ringing his phone off the hook. “That’s the culture we want,” Westbrook says. “We would rather you ask way too many questions. That’s why we liked Eric. He always asked for help and he showed intellectual curiosity.”

Chavez was already a fan of the brand, having owned nearly 20 Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and says things fell into place when he learned the business culture of the dealership and the growth opportunities it offered. Like Chavez, every partner in the dealer group continuously accepted opportunities, worked hard, and moved up within the business. “We all felt passionate about the brand and the business,” Westbrook says.

Best-In-Class winner

One of the keys to Pacific Motorcycle Group’s success has been its commitment to employee satisfaction. Sound Harley-Davidson won a Powersports Business Best-In-Class: Employee Satisfaction award, and Westbrook credits this to the company’s business culture. “Our culture is based around things being data-driven and less feeling-based,” he says. “We have daily meetings to talk about how we’re doing. Are we doing well? What’s the opportunity? Taking a negative and making it a positive. If something is broken, there’s a chance for us to fix it and to grow together.”

Daily training is a core part of the culture because Westbrook believes that well-trained employees feel empowered and confident. “If we’re training people daily, they feel better trained, they can do a better job, and they feel more confident in their roles,” he says. Regular one-on-one meetings with staff help management identify where improvements can be made, ensuring that employees have the support they need to succeed.

Optimism in a challenging economy

“In the West, the market has had a really fast decline,” Westbrook says. “We’ve been on this roaring decline. Business has been extremely difficult. We’ve had to change so many things we never thought we’d have to change and so many roles and positions. We went from all-time highs to all-time lows within 18 months. We pride ourselves on being pretty agile and nimble and we just got beat up bad.

“It feels like it might have gotten a little bit better, but we have a good month and then a hard month,” he continues. “We’re focused on trying to do the absolute best we can to increase productivity and analyze everything.” Despite these difficulties, Westbrook remains optimistic, believing that the industry will rebound and that his team is well-positioned.

“The progress, the growth – we’re in a positive state now with my dealership,” Chavez says. “I’m excited to see what it will bring when everything starts turning around.”