Carl Black: The Car Dealership That Keeps Giving Back
By Al Levine / STAFF
 Tod "Smiley" Baker, Carl Black Roswell's General Manager, shows off the company's rodeo truck. |
Sal D’Amico is working the grill, grinning as the flames lick burgers that even Five Guys can’t touch. This chef doesn’t mess around: only Nathan’s Famous hot dogs on his grate.
A few steps away, beyond the festive balloons and popcorn machine, Tod “Smiley” Baker is pointing to a wall decorated with military flags.
The flag with the single blue star, he explains, indicates a family has a son or daughter in battle. The one with the single gold star means a son or daughter has been lost in battle.
He didn’t put them there, some veterans did.
A nearby rack holds the usual lightweight gossip magazines along with copies of Christian Living, which probably delights the company chaplain.
In Baker’s office, there’s a belt buckle from the U.S. Marines, pictures of rodeos, gift coins from the Pentagon and an old [non-working, thank goodness] hand grenade.
So, you have step back and ask: is this any way to sell cars?
At the Carl Black Automotive Group – in Roswell it’s known as Carl Black Buick Pontiac GMC Hummer, with no commas to catch your breath – the proof is in the purchase orders.
Since it began 14 years ago, the Carl Black dealerships have risen to a leadership role in the car and truck game. Carl Black of Kennesaw has been the No. 1 GMC dealership in the nation four years in a row. Its GMC dealership in Sarasota sells more GMC products than anyone in Florida.
It’s accomplished all this with a unique approach to the automotive sales business. Hot dogs. Balloons. A festive atmosphere.
But even more impressive than the 12-step program its sales personnel have to graduate from at the Corporate Training Center in Kennesaw is the Carl Black commitment to the community and the military.
Long ago, Carl Black [yes, he’s a real guy who lives here but is now semi-retired] decided that the way to a potential customer’s heart is to get involved in their passions.
“We do things in our community that most guys and most companies just don’t do,” said Baker, the General Manager.
The Roswell Fire Department had a trailer built to take around to schools and show students how to get out of a burning house. They needed a truck to haul the display, and they came to Carl Black Roswell to find how much money they’d have to fundraise to afford one.
“We handed them the keys to a new truck,” Baker recalled “And said ‘there you go. It’s yours, as a gift.’ The truck sits at the fire station on Hembree Road.”
 The name of every member of the 173rd Airborne killed in action is displayed on this Carl Black GMC truck. |
Carl Black Roswell is the title sponsor of the North Metro Miracle League at Alpharetta’s North Park, where physically challenged youth play softball every Saturday in the summer.
For the Old Soldiers Day parade in Roswell, the veterans need cars to carry around their notables to wave at the crowd. Carl Black Roswell came up with 30 convertibles.
It sponsors two rodeos in Roswell, the annual fair in Cumming and another rodeo in Alpharetta. It is a sponsor of Ducks Unlimited in Roswell and Alpharetta. That group secures and maintains wetlands for ducks.
Alpharetta American Legion Post 201 is selling $100 raffle tickets for a $25,000 car to be awarded July 4. They’re raffling off a new Pontiac Solstice, which just happens to be a $32,000 car. No surprise who made it happen for the 25 grand. The dealership will give the winner a $25,000 credit towards another vehicle if he or she doesn’t want the sports car.
 The mirror of Carl Black's 173rd Airborne Division truck carries military medals. |
The dealership’s support of the military is now legendary. There was that flap with the city of Roswell over flying an American Flag that was too big. Then it fought through the city’s issues with the 173rd Airborne Division truck – it’s still displayed on the lot and at various public functions, decorated in military medals and displaying the name of every soldier from that unit killed in action.
So it’s not surprising that a recent early-morning visitor got a military update from Baker, sounding more like Charles Gibson on World News.
 Sal D'Amico, Carl Black's Director of Training, is equally adept at the dealership grill, weekly cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers for customers and employees. |
“The Marines over in Afghanistan took a major city last night and secured it against the Taliban,” Baker reported. “Our forces in Afghanistan are making headway and the ones in Iraq are preparing for the worst; they've got some major heavy battles that are going to start. It was in the news this morning.”
So the salesman who showed up to work heard another routine pep talk from Baker to start the day.
“We started out our day saying hey, we've gotta make hay for our day. They're over there fighting for the freedom that we get to do what we do.”
And Baker is unabashedly a cheerleader at his morning meetings. “[Company President] Mike Bowsher has a philosophy that came from Carl,” Baker said. “He believes it’s the speed of the lead dog that sets the speed of the pack. If your lead dog is happy and eager then the rest of the pack does the same thing. You never see me mope.”
Another thing that sets Carl Black’s dealerships apart is Jay McAnnally, the company chaplain. He holds a weekly bible study, ministers to employees who are hurting and maintains an Internet prayer network.
“That guy stays busy,” Baker said. “We’ve got over 1,000 employees now, and when people are sick, he’s there. I’ve experienced it myself. Two years ago my daughter was hurt in a horse accident and broke her back. Jay was right there with us through her recovery.”
Baker concedes that car salesman are generally looked down upon. But it’s been Carl Black’s mission to change that reputation. “When you wear the Carl Black name,” he said, “you feel different than other places.”
It’s the philosophy of business that Black and Bowsher handed down as they expanded from one small dealership 14 years ago.
Employees go through thorough training to indoctrinate them to the Carl Black way.
Certain negative words can’t be used by managers or sales people. The sales office, usually called the tower at other car places, is simply the sales office.
“People that have less than desirable credit have been nicknamed bogues; I don’t even know where that name comes from, maybe bogus,” Baker said. “We don’t allow that word. People that have less than desirable credit are still people. They deserve every respect as much as you and I do.”
There are other new words in the Carl Black thesaurus, but you get the point. “If the integrity of the dealership is all that you ever have, when times are tough dealerships that do the things we do stay busy,” Baker said. “For instance, we almost doubled what we did last April in sales and in our service department.
“Carl’s taught us everything is a relationship. He says when you sell a car, the job’s not over. It just begins. You have a whole relationship that has just started.”
For all of its community activism and philanthropy, Carl Black really owes some of his success to ugly trucks.
When he started out, he wanted to become No. 1 quickly. One of the ways to acquire inventory was to stock ugly trucks.
“GM would have maybe a green truck with a red interior, something that somebody messed up. Maybe the truck didn’t have air conditioning. Didn’t matter, they wanted to sell trucks.”
Eventually, the ugly truck sale became a tradition. And the dealership became a beautiful thing.
Alpharetta Highway, can be reached at
770-475-9500.