Built inside dealerships.
DealershipRecruiting.com was founded in 2012 by Larry Sherwood Jr., who grew up between an OEM's corporate office and a dealership sales floor. Our job is to put the right people in every position that makes your dealership money.
- 1,238hires in 67 months across his last three in-house roles
- 782hires in 31 months for one dealer group
- 2012the year he founded DealershipRecruiting.com
Grew up in both worlds
Larry Sherwood Jr. grew up between two worlds. His mother worked on the OEM corporate side in manufacturing and mobility, and his father worked in dealership sales and management. Long before his first job, he was immersed in how manufacturers and dealerships run.
He started his career in the early 2000s at a dot-com, in global sales and e-commerce. When the bubble burst, he answered a job ad for an internet sales manager at a local dealer group, and the car business had him.
“Help a 12-car salesperson sell 12 cars faster, and they take the rest of the month off.”
Larry Sherwood Jr.
Thirty candidates in the conference room
In the late 2000s his store was hitting its KPIs, but the gains were not reaching the bottom line. His general manager asked him to find out how to improve the P&L. He came back with three findings: helping a 12-car salesperson sell faster does not add cars; the team needed competition, which meant new people trained in the store's process from day one; and the veterans needed training too.
The executive team agreed and handed him the job. He was not an HR person, so he recruited the way he ran marketing and business development.
More than 30 candidates came to the first session, with three more sessions booked. The general manager pulled in the body shop, parts, detail, service and office managers to introduce their departments. By the end of the day the store had filled nearly every open position, and hired for roles it had not planned to fill.
The road here
- Early 2000s
Dot-com sales and e-commerce
Global sales at a dot-com, until the bubble burst.
- Mid 2000s
Internet sales manager, then management
Joined a local dealer group as internet sales manager and moved up through business development, sales and finance management, and director roles.
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He took over the website redesign, the CRM rollout and optimization, and the internet sales process, and worked directly with the general sales manager on sales strategy.
- Late 2000s
The P&L question
Recruited and trained a new team, filled nearly every open position, and hit the store's KPI and P&L goals.
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He then built the training program for the new hires and the veterans. What stayed with him was the people: showing newcomers what this business can do for them is still the part of the job he likes best.
- 2012
Founded DealershipRecruiting.com
Recruited for dealer groups of every shape and size across the United States.
- 2017
Built a BDC from the ground up
Joined Gurley Leep Automotive Family, one of his best clients, to build a centralized business development center for a seven-store, 12-franchise group in the South Bend, Indiana metro.
- 3 weeks to hire and train the whole team
- 32 people and three team leads within a year
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He launched the BDC in less than a month of joining.
- 2019
Corporate recruiting director
Promoted to lead recruiting for every Gurley Leep location across Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois: roughly 36 franchises, from sales, service, parts and body shop to the corporate office.
- 782 hires in 31 months
- 53 hires in his busiest month
- 90% of his hires stayed through the period Indeed measured, against 75% company-wide
- 2022
Fisker
Moved to the automaker side to help launch a global EV company, recruiting in the United States, Canada, Europe, including the UK and Germany, and China.
- 408 hires from 2022 to 2024
- 17 hires a month on average
- About 18% of Fisker's global hires in 2023
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The work used everything he had learned in dealerships and added roles he would never have touched inside a store.
- 2025
Sony Honda Mobility of America
Sole recruiter for the 50-50 joint venture between Sony Group and Honda, launching AFEELA, its AI-driven EV, from headquarters on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California.
- 48 hires as the company's only recruiter
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In 2026 Honda stepped back from its EV plans in North America, and the AFEELA project was wound down.
- 2026
Back to dealerships
Rebuilt DealershipRecruiting.com the way he always pictured it: pick the positions, check out online, and we start the search.
“Success in this business depends on a will to win, not on background or education.”
Larry Sherwood Jr.
What this means for your store
The lessons from that first conference room still shape how we recruit for you.
Recruit like marketing
Most dealership hiring waits for applicants. We go find people, sell them on your store and the career, and bring them to your managers.
Hire for will, train for skill
Good people from outside the business, trained in your process from day one, do not bring bad habits with them.
Keep the veterans sharp
New talent brings competition, and training lifts the people you already have.
Measure the P&L, not activity
A hire is judged by what the position produces for your store, not by how busy the process looked.
A note from Larry
I am passionate about automotive dealerships and about this business. It is in my blood. I love connecting people with great opportunities, and I love helping build teams that win.
I would like to help you and your team reach your goals this year and beyond. Call, email or book a time with me. Whether or not we are the right fit, I will learn what you are working toward and share what I know, and the time will be worth it for you.
Larry Sherwood Jr., SHRM-CP
Founder, DealershipRecruiting.com · LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
Or email support@dealershiprecruiting.com.