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Herb Chambers is a name you hear all over radio and television, a name that is synony-mous with cars because he dominates the automotive sales business in New England. But Herb Chambers isn’t just about selling cars. Herb Chambers is one of the area’s most successful and enterprising individuals and there are plenty of good reasons why. To understand Herb Chambers’ success, look back to the beginning. Herb Chambers went into a car dealership in New London, Connecticut in 1985 to buy a new Eldorado Cadillac. “No one there cared about selling me a car. The lot was dirty, the cars were dirty and weeds were coming out of cracks,” says Chambers. He sat in the dealership until the owner returned from lunch and bought the dealership outright that same day.

This brief story about Chambers’ entrance into the automotive sales business explains a great deal about him. He is a businessman who sees situations for what they really are, opportunities. He instantly and instinctively knows how to make a business better.

“I bought it and turned it around,” says Chambers of his first dealership. With his recent acquisition of Foreign Motors West, he now owns 37 dealerships across New England.

Although Chambers is a leader in the car business, it isn’t the business he started in and it isn’t his first success. He finished service in the Navy at the age of 21 and got a job repairing and selling copy machines. He quickly learned a great deal about the copy machine business, then a new industry still in its infancy. He left to start his own copy company with a mere $1000, $500 of which he borrowed from his mother. Because Mr. Chambers has always had a savy business mind and a way with people, his copy compa-ny soon grew and became one of the largest in the nation. It was after numerous mergers and acquisitions that Chambers decided to sell the company.

“It was about fear. I grew up in Dorchester with nothing, and I think you always have that fear that you may go backwards. I sold that company for an enormous amount of money so I would never have to worry again,” says Chambers. In retrospect, he admitted that he wished he hadn’t sold the company.

And although growing up poor in Dorchester may be what caused him to sell his first suc-cessful business, it may also be what inspired his transition in to the automotive industry. “I always had an affinity for automobiles, from childhood. I was fascinated with new cars. Any time someone got a new car, I thought they were the richest person in the world,” Chambers recalls.

He has since turned his affinity for automo-biles into one of the most flourshing busi-nesses in the area. The largest car dealer in New England, Herb Chambers’ dealerships sell everything from Hondas and Buicks to Hummers and Porsches. There is a reason why their slogan is “We’ve got it.” Name a car and chances are Herb Chambers sells it. As Mr. Chambers sat in that first dealer-ship in New London waiting for the owner to return, he says realized that there were many similarities to the copy business and the car business. In both cases he was selling a tangible product that required ongoing maintenance. Both those businesses require

sales personnel, technicians, administrative personnel and new parts for the machines. Both businesses were all about service. Whether you’re selling cars or copiers, both businesses rely on people to sell them and consumers to buy them. The businesses are about human interaction and service. It is the service at Herb Chambers’ dealerships that set them apart from competitors and makes them so successful.

Herb Chambers embodies his sales philoso-phy. He instantly makes you feel at ease, with his welcoming smile and his undeniable charisma. He has a point of view and a pur-

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Photographed by Gerry Lerner

by Heather Kennaway

HERB CHAMBERS