Pub. 60 2019-2020 Issue 5

23 FALL 2020 Daylyn Turner, 38 Vice president, JK Chevrolet-Subaru W hen Daylyn Turner was a high school senior, his father — who had worked in auto retail — became the dealer principal at a Chevy store. Turner graduated from high school and became a full-time college student at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He also sold vehicles part-time at JK Chevrolet. He was good at it, and he often outsold the full-time sales staff. Turner averaged 11 sales per month, thanks to his rapport with customers.He often had an appointment when he came to work. It would usually end in a sale. Someone gave him a nickname during those years: PT, meaning “part-time.” The dealership’s general manager used Turner as an example for the rest of the sales team to follow. Turner graduated in 2007 with a fi- nance degree and took a short break. He worked as a licensed banker with JPMorganChase, but hemissed thework he had been doing before graduation. After a year, he left JPMorgan Chase and began working at JK Chevrolet in Nederland, Texas. His first position was as a training manager. Later, he became the store’s internet department director. In 2009, the dealership’s owners were able to acquire a Subaru franchise. In 2010, they built a new store. Turner got involved in the new store. He has been the vice president and general manager there since 2015 and spends most of his time there, although he is still involved a little at the Chevrolet store. The Northeast and the West Coast are both popular places for Subarus, but selling Subarus in rural, southeast Texas is more of a challenge. The area had about 36 Subarus on the road when the store opened, or around 0.3% of the local market. The local population generally prefers trucks, SUVs and anything with a Hemi, so buying a fuel-efficient brand is generally not the first consideration That hasn’t stopped Turner from help- ing the franchise increase its market share. He started doing some grass- roots marketing and sponsoring com- munity events. Current market share for Subaru is now near 2.5%, and the Subaru store is selling an average of 25 new vehicles per month. He intends to increase that number to 35 or 40. Subaru owners tend to be loyal, so the retention ratio is high. According to Turner, people who buy one Subaru usually stick around long enough to buy more. Some owners have had be- tween four and seven Subarus in a row; some have had even more.  under