Digital Dealer - May 2018 - 20

By Kendall Rawls
Director of Marketing &
Business Development,
The Rawls Group

// Ownership

What's Tomorrow?
Almost a decade ago,
the automotive retail
industry was experiencing
change at a pace that will
live in the history books.
Coming off some of the
strongest growth the
industry had ever seen,
everything came to a halt
when the stock market
stalled, impacting the
United States economy in
ways that had not been
seen in decades.
Looking at where
the industry is today,
confidence is back and
stronger than ever. Banks
are lending money and
consumers are buying
vehicles. As such, dealers
are investing in their
facilities and manufacturers are breaking the mold
with new models, while
also bringing back some
popular vehicles from
back in the day.

20

M AY 2 0 1 8

In addition to the stronger economy and the confidence that comes with it,
technology and innovations are also changing
the landscape of the
industry. These changes
are impacting the way we
operate day to day, the
way we sell and service
the customer and the
way we develop our next
generation of dealers.
Another area that is
being impacted is in the
long-standing relationship
between the manufacturer
and dealer, as showcased
with the growing popularity of Tesla.
With all this taking
place, the automotive
retail business feels as if
it is again being shaken
like a bottle of carbonated liquid, with pressure building, we are all
wondering when the top is

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

going to pop. History has
proven that we must take
what has happened into
account, and use it to look
forward into the future
while integrating the
unique current-day complexities which include:
 Ridesharing
 Self-driving cars
 Manufacturer market
share
 Manufacturer and
dealer relationships
 Online competition
 Multiple generations
in the workplace
 Rapid pace of retirement of current generation dealers (many with
no succession in place)
 Major market acquisitions
 Changing consumer
behaviors - aging US
population with baby
boomer and different
buying behaviors of mil-

lennials and generation z
(boomlets)
The list goes on and
on related to the unique
dynamics we are experiencing in today's
automotive retail industry,
which depending upon
your perspective can be a
challenge or an opportunity.
Many say that the car
business could be for the
first time ever, on the road
to no-where. Others say
that we are headed to a
new and exciting destination that is going to bring
the industry where it's
never been. The reality
is, we just do not know
what to expect. We are
experiencing a phenomenon in one of the oldest
industries of American
business because generations before have not
been exposed to current
day events. An analogy
might be looking at history
from when the industry
went from non-motorized
vessels to actual motorized vehicles. Could there
have been the same fear
and optimism back then?
One of the ways we
can combat the threat
of "fading away" is to
intentionally create a
culture of innovation.
Creating an innovative
high-performance culture
can seem like a difficult
concept for dealers to
embrace. The reason for
this is that when we talk
about "changing culture"
the first thing we hear is
that it will cost too much
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - May 2018
