Insights
Field-tested thinking from the retail automotive business.
This article describes the importance of creating and building trust in automotive dealerships, in sales and service departments. This is accomplished through significant commitment to transparency,
In part one of my two-part article on AI, it focuses on its impact on your people, talent bench, and customer relationships.
In the second of my two-part series on AI in dealerships, this focuses on the impact on your technology stack, without proper governance, AI produces more risks than upsides for most dealerships.
Transparency is no longer an option because not only will it negatively impact a dealership's AI search and client trust, but can also generate Massive reputational and financial exposure
The average dealership only gets approx. 25% of their revenue from their fixed ops department, nearly 75% of their net profit comes from there. Yet they spend the majority of their focus on variable
Most dealerships hyper-focus on gross profit and use that to determine a successful outcome. Highly profitable dealerships focus on net profit in every area of their dealership, especially sales
Most dealers focus disproportionately on selling used cars of the franchise they represent. Even Toyota represents only 20% of used car purchases, so this cost additional sales volume
Most dealers have not audited their technology stack completely since before COVID. This should be done immediately. Start with the four most critical elements of your stack especially for AI agents
Most dealerships don't even have processes for the 10 most important aspects of their operation. Dominant dealers have established an elite standard whose culture and process last decades
I recommend to all dealers that they never limit themselves to hiring people with experience. The primary reason is that the vast majority of people with experience have experience being average
All automotive dealerships are engaged in what they are characterizing as digital retailing. The problem is, unless you can do more than allow somebody to shop or browse, that's not true for buyers
"The End of Dealerships as We Know It" is the latest feature article in David Spisak's Disruptive Intelligence 14th issue, which was released on Tuesday, September 22 2026.
How high-performing dealerships decide between turn and gross on used vehicles, and the daily disciplines that produce both.
A practical hiring and retention system for dealerships: real pay clarity, a schedule people can live with, a structured first 90 days, and leadership that gets measured.
The steps to take before you let an AI vendor touch your DMS or CRM, from data hygiene and access control to a scoped pilot with real measurement.
A working guide to dealership fixed ops: the metrics that matter, the benchmarks to hold, and the operating principles that turn service and parts into net profit.
Service, parts and the service drive decide dealership profit and enterprise value. Operating principles, frameworks and warnings drawn from decades of retail automotive leadership.