Automotive News - October 21, 2013 - Supplement - S42

42 ❙ OCTOBER 21, 2013
T E D B R I T T F O R D , FA I R FA X , VA .

Hiring of full-time retail researcher
helps keep store's low-price pledge
Printed in Automotive News Aug. 5, 2013
David Barkholz
dbarkholz@crain.com

hen Ted Britt Ford launched a
radio ad campaign 18 months
ago in the Washington area
touting the lowest new-vehicle
prices in town, the dealership also hired a
full-time researcher to stand behind that
promise.
That researcher spends every workday
checking vehicle prices on rival Ford dealers'
Web sites and reports her findings to Evelyn
Smallwood, general sales manager of Ted
Britt Ford in Fairfax, Va.
Smallwood uses the information each day
to adjust new-vehicle prices at the Fairfax
store and at Ted Britt Automotive Group's
Ford-Lincoln store in nearby Chantilly, Va.
The prices are reflected on the stores' Web
sites and third-party online shopping sites
where their vehicles are listed.

"Our whole goal is to
move metal and sell to a
happy customer."
Evelyn Smallwood, right, recording Ted Britt
Ford's radio spots promising the lowest
new-vehicle prices in town

"We're making good on our promise," said
Smallwood, who at 33 has been general sales
manager of the Fairfax store for six years.
Her approach to competitive pricing is
low-tech in an automotive retailing world increasingly dominated by software that
promises to tell dealers and shoppers what
vehicles should sell for.
It's not that Ted Britt Automotive is antitechnology. For instance, Smallwood said
the group is happy with the way software
vendor vAuto helps the stores manage usedvehicle inventory and pricing by gleaning information on competitors from multiple
sources.
But new-vehicle pricing at Ted Britt Ford is
more personal. Smallwood's assistant, Emily
Robinson, is employed full time surfing rival
Web sites and dutifully logging vehicle prices

on a spreadsheet.
Then about 2 p.m. every day, Robinson
calls to Smallwood, "Are you ready?" before
giving the rundown, Smallwood said.
"Our whole goal is to move metal and sell
to a happy customer," Smallwood said.
Last year, Ted Britt Automotive Group was
one of just 22 Ford franchisees around the
country named as a Triple Crown winner for
excellence in sales, service and customer satisfaction.
The two stores together sell between 400
and 500 new vehicles per month, Smallwood
said.
Smallwood's credibility is on the line with
the stores' low-price guarantee. She is the
voice on the radio commercials, recording
them in an office in the store.
Those commercials, which promise to beat

any competitor's best deal, run on a country
FM station in the market, WMZQ. "You know
we sell a lot of trucks - Ford Country, Toby
Keith," Smallwood said.
Keith is a country music star who has made
pickup commercials with Ford.
Until a couple of years ago, the Fairfax
store could stay a high-volume dealership by
simply quoting $1,000 under invoice price,
Smallwood said. That was good enough to
beat most of the competition.
But as pricing generally became more sophisticated, Ted Britt Automotive turned to
its simple but effective price verification system to ensure discounts. The group has
branded its deals as the VIP price.
Said Smallwood: "We know where we're at.
We're comfortable that we'll deliver the best
deal." c

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