Day 2: NADA Recap (Efficiency)

Today’s recap is comin’ at you straight from the iconic Sazerac House in New Orleans—a legendary spot where the ASOTU More Than Cars party went down last night.  (If you missed it, let’s just say the energy was off the charts)

But let’s talk about what went down on the trade show floor today because that’s where the magic happened.

The theme of the day? Efficiency.

Dealers are looking at 2024 as a reset—a chance to shake off what hasn’t worked and use this year as a launching pad for 2025. The buzz isn’t just about working harder; it’s about working smarter. From streamlining service departments to rethinking HR and finance processes, efficiency is the name of the game. 

And here’s the game-changer: involve your team early.

If you want new processes to stick, don’t roll them out like a surprise party. Bring your team into the conversation right from the start.

The earlier they’re part of the plan, the more they’ll own the outcome.

 And as always, we’ll keep you posted with the Day 3 recap tomorrow. Stay tuned! 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What's up auto industry? It is the day to recap here on the Dealer Playbook Podcast. We are right now filming and recording at the iconic Sazerac House. This is where the Asodu More Than Cars party is going to be going down tonight. When you listen to this, tomorrow morning the party happened. You should have been here if you weren't. It was amazing. It was high energy. The charcuterie, if I do say so myself, was delicious. I haven't eaten it yet. I'm recording this ahead of time because I know I'm going to be too tired later because it's going to be that much fun.

Speaker 1: 0:30

I wanted to drop some thoughts from the floor. Today at NADA here in New Orleans, I had the opportunity with the Soty More Than Cars to conduct some interviews on the trade show floor and out and about with dealers and allied industry partners. One of the things that I thought was really interesting to piggyback off of what we talked about yesterday in our day one recap is that there is opportunity. There's resiliency. Dealers very much have looked at 2024 through the lens of what not to do and or can we use this as a reset or a launching pad? Most are looking towards 2025 through the lens of efficiency, and that might be efficiency in their service departments, efficiency on the variable side of the business. They're also really concerned about efficiency from a finance and a human resource perspective, which is great news to my ear. I mean, for those of you that have been following the show for a while know that I care deeply about operational efficiency, because it makes all the difference in so many different facets of the business. I mean operational efficiency and developing processes and training people and caring for people and culture. It's all quantified through the difference between an okay lead being a great lead, an okay hiring process being a great hiring process, not having obsolescence in the parts department, or having obsolescence in the parts department and not having it. And so efficiency seems to be the new buzz, the new focus for 2025, which I wholeheartedly, once and for all, finally agree with. The thing that is going to be made the buzz this year, Something for you to keep an eye on.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Look inside of your dealership, don't be afraid in 2025 to think about ways in which you can become more efficient, and the play by play here would be to engage your team. Don't make decisions without them. Actually include them in the decision making process, include them early on and say, hey, here's what I'm thinking about. Here's what I'd like you to be a part of. I'd love your thoughts to be a part of this conversation as well, to help us shape whatever comes up with. The trick there is that the earlier on you engage your team and ask for their counsel and their wisdom and their vantage point, the more likely they will be to buy into whatever new process comes as a result, and so that's something you definitely need to think about.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Listen, it's fun. I'm not going to lie, we're not going to sugarcoat it. It's a little bit light. The snow here in New Orleans, though, mostly melted and the sun is out and it's beautiful outside is mostly melted and gone away. The travel plans and the cancellations and the delays just made it really difficult, and so the trade show floor today did seem a little bit light. A lot of the vendors commenting, of course, that it felt a little bit light.

Speaker 1: 3:12

A lot of newcomers as well, and I'm able to share. Hey, don't benchmark what NADA typically looks like based on this. This is light. The circumstances were not pretty, but here we are. The show must go on, like we talked about in our last recap, and that it's just a testament to the resilience of our business, of which we love so much. Hey, I hope you are crushing it back at home base or wherever you're listening to this. I hope that you are setting yourself up to succeed. That January is a set up for whatever big plans you have this year. I'm going to touch base with you again tomorrow on the day three recap.