Entrepreneur Bobbie Herron beats the odds, forges dynamic career

Bobbie Herron says that as a young single parent who didn't finish college and lived in a small Michigan town, she easily could've been what she calls "a statistic," stuck with a dead-end job.

Instead, Herron forged a dynamic career in auto retailing. As founder and CEO of Bees Knees Auto Agency based in Holt, Mich., Herron is a well-known dealership consultant, a nationally recognized speaker at industry conferences and an advocate for women's advancement in the field.

The secret sauce behind her unlikely career arc? A stirring combination of confidence, inner drive, a love for learning new things and a valuable network of mentors. Being named an Automotive News 40 Under 40 honoree didn't hurt, either.

"That 100 percent helped my career," said Herron, 39, who earned the honor in 2014. "It gave me more confidence to start my business — and gave this small-town girl some leverage. I like to network, but some doors just wouldn't open. But that changed after I won the award."

Herron also credits mentors such as Richard Garber Jr., owner of Garber Automotive Group in Saginaw, Mich., where she worked for six years; Sean Stapleton, a former executive at VinSolutions and co-founder of Dealer Teamwork, a digital marketing agency; and Jim Ziegler, a longtime dealer consultant.

While working as a waitress during college in 2001, Herron applied for a position in the business development center of a local Ford dealership. "I got the job, and I've loved the industry ever since," she said.

"I'm an extrovert and very spontaneous and love to learn things and meet people," she added. "And this industry gives me all those things and more."

What really interested Herron, however, was selling cars.

When that dealership told her she couldn't because she was a woman, she left to work as a sales rep at another dealership. In 2010, she joined Garber and worked as digital sales and marketing manager, new-vehicle sales manager, Internet sales director and director of training.

The variety of positions exposed her to virtually every aspect of a dealership's front-of-store operations — and also planted the seeds for her business.

"I was very frustrated with vendors who came in with great products that didn't work well in great stores because technologies couldn't 'talk' to each other," Herron said. "You'd get thousands of leads, but it didn't turn them into opportunities to sell cars."

She started the Bees Knees agency in 2018 after a stint at ZMOT Auto, a digital marketing agency. Her company's name is a nod to her own nickname, "B," and to the 1920s term for something that's excellent or outstanding.

Herron views herself as a matchmaker who helps dealerships tailor their customer relationship management systems to match their processes so they can better communicate with customers. She has built her business to 27 employees working with just more than 70 clients.

Ashlee Church, general manager of Volkswagen of Marion in southern Illinois, a client, said one of Herron's strengths is that she doesn't take a one-size-fits-all approach to consulting. Instead, she immerses herself in a store's operations until she thoroughly uderstands its processes and long-term goals.

And she's a people person, Church added.

"Bobbie combines new-age processes with old-world charm," Church said. "She really understands that this still is a people business, including both employees and customers. She's really fantastic."

Herron said she hopes her success motivates other women contemplating automotive careers.

She takes that responsibility seriously, as evidenced by her work on the Women in Automotive advocacy group's board of directors, which she joined in 2019.

"It gives me a platform to show other women that people at the top look like them and that they can do this, too," she said. "We also need to help men in the industry learn how to recruit and retain women and be better leaders."

Women who want to advance should take every opportunity to attend industry conferences and educate themselves, Herron said. She learned early on that if she offered to speak at conferences, she received free admission — plus priceless opportunities to sit down with vendors and pick their brains. And even get a seat on their advisory boards, she noted.

It has all added up to a gratifying career.

"I really love what I do. And the businesses I work with really matter to me. … I get really excited when they win," Herron said. "Too often people think that asking for help is a weakness or a vulnerability. So I feel it's my job to build trust with clients so they can be open and honest, and we can collaborate without judgment."

And help develop systems and processes that truly are the bee's knees.