Inside the Culture Shift Powering Paradise Chevrolet: From People to Profit — and What’s Next | Katelyn Gilmore, General Manager of Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Inside the Culture Shift Powering Paradise Chevrolet: From People to Profit — and What’s Next | Katelyn Gilmore, General Manager of Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac
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Brand
Cadillac
Cadillac is a brand that makes luxury cars. They are known for their high-quality vehicles and advanced features.
Car
Cadillac Celestiq
The Cadillac Celestiq is a new electric car from Cadillac. It's a luxury sedan that has a lot of high-tech features and can be customized to the buyer's preferences.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet, or Chevy, is a popular car brand that makes many types of vehicles, including cars and trucks. It's part of General Motors.
Concept
fleet sales
Fleet sales are when a company buys many cars at once, usually for business use. It's different from regular car sales where one person buys one car.
Brand
Chevy
Chevy is a popular car brand in the United States that makes many types of vehicles, including cars and trucks.
Term
EVs
EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of traditional fuels like gas. They are better for the environment and are becoming more common.
Term
EV
EV means Electric Vehicle, which is a car that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. They are better for the environment because they produce less pollution.
Term
OEM
OEM means the original company that made the car or its parts. For example, if you buy a Ford car, Ford is the OEM.
Term
CPO
CPO means Certified Pre-Owned, which is a used car that has been checked and approved by the manufacturer. It usually comes with a warranty, making it a safer choice.
Term
government subsidies
Government subsidies are money the government gives to help people buy things, like electric cars, making them cheaper.
Term
tax credit
A tax credit is money you can take off your taxes, which means you pay less. For electric cars, the government sometimes gives you money back to encourage you to buy them.
Term
marketing
Marketing is how companies try to get people to buy their products. For cars, this could be ads on TV or online that show off new models.
Term
RSI compliant
RSI compliance means following the rules and laws that car dealerships have to obey. This is important to make sure they treat customers fairly and sell cars legally.
Term
lease offer
A lease offer is a deal where you can drive a car for a few years by paying a monthly fee. At the end, you can either buy the car or give it back.
Car
Cadillac IQ
The Cadillac IQ is an electric car made by Cadillac. It's designed to be a luxury vehicle that runs on electricity instead of gasoline.
Term
$150,000 car
A $150,000 car is an expensive vehicle that usually has a lot of luxury features and high performance. It's not something most people buy every day.
Term
annual income
Annual income is the amount of money someone makes in a year. It's important for understanding what kind of expensive things a person can afford, like luxury cars.
Term
residuals
Residuals are how much a car is expected to be worth after a few years. This helps people understand how much they might pay if they lease a car.
Car
Cadillac Lyric
The Cadillac Lyric is a new electric SUV from Cadillac. It's designed for luxury and has modern features, making it appealing to wealthy customers.
Car
Cadillac Vistik
The Cadillac Vistik is a larger SUV from Cadillac with three rows of seats. It's more affordable than some other luxury SUVs, making it a good option for families.
LIVE
I really think that the best dealers are going to be proactive,
not reactive when it comes to their EV planning,
because anyone can take five grand off of an EV to sell it.
But the question then becomes, what's the end goal here?
If we only chase that race to the bottom mindset,
it's ultimately not good for the consumer.
Today, I'm joined by Caitlin Gilmore,
general manager of Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac.
At 32, Caitlin took over one of the top performing Chevrolet stores in the country.
Now, she's showing how a people-driven culture can outperform any process,
and why Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac keeps winning dealer of the year 11 years in a row.
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible,
Auto Hauler Exchange, Cox Automotive, and Impel.
And now, let's get into the show.
Caitlin Gilmore on the CDG podcast. Caitlin, welcome.
Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.
Happy to have you on. So what were you telling me?
We were talking about travel, and I said, I got to press record here real quick.
Tell me about your travel revenue, because when I was in retail, I didn't do too much travel,
and I also hated travel candidly. So that was, you know, I sort of try to, you know, reinforce
my beliefs that I shouldn't do too much travel. But what type of travel are you doing nowadays?
So the travel I was talking about is I am lucky to be part of a Cadillac Champions group.
So it's something that the manufacturer has started, and they've piloted, and they've picked
a handful of people from across the nation to kind of get to see behind the scenes
as almost like a precursor to the future dealer council members.
So it was interesting, because when I first got on the phone with Michelle,
she called from White Plains, and I happened to be flying out to White Plains for a dealer
council meeting that day. So yeah, so it was very ironic. But other than that, for travel, I mean,
I'm in a local 20 group that is not centered around the manufacturer, and then I'm in a 20 group
centered around the manufacturer. And then, yeah, and then I'm in a Cadillac Champions group.
So I feel that travel is frequent, if not a few times every quarter.
So tell us more about that. So you're in three 20 groups? Did I understand that correctly?
Two right now. Two 20 groups? Yes. Got it. But one is, you said this is not a
dealer council for Cadillac, but it's like a prep for that, or it's a pre-dealer council?
So kind of. So I'm in three groups. Cadillac Champions is not a 20 group. It's something
that Cadillac has created the last, this is the second year of it, where they're trying to kind of
take a scope of what the next succession of dealers are going to look like,
and give them a behind the scenes of, you know, the energy plant or manufacturing or the
celestic, for example, is a big one with Cadillac right now. So they're just trying to funnel that
growth and try to see, okay, well, who's next maybe to be in these dealer council groups and
give us a bird's eye view. So it's, it's a win-win. So you are, I mean, you're today the GM of Cadillac,
or Sunrise Cadillac, or Sunrise Chevy. Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac.
Okay, we're going to do that. Paradise Sunrise. You know what, keep that, keep that cold,
keep that in the, yeah, exactly. Keep that in the, I'm like over here seeing paradise,
thinking sunrise. I mean, one way or another, you're, you're, you know, you're in some beautiful
place. Sorry about that. Okay. Can you, so what is your brand mix? What is your volume? Just give
us like a high level. So we are a Chevy Cadillac dealer. We do about 250 new cars a month. We do
somewhere between 25 to 40 Cadillacs on a great month. So a large part of our volume comes from
Chevy. 20% of the 250 new retail units we do or the new units we do come from fleet. We're big
fleet dealers. And then we do about 80 used a month. Got it. Okay. I want to ask you a bunch
about the fleet. I believe if I'm not mistaken, you're the third, is this the third largest fleet
operation within, you see, I have this, look, you know what, I have this, so look, I have this to
go notes here to my left and maybe I can pull my screen to show you, but this is like an essay.
And I think that I need to truncate it a little bit because I'm over here getting a little lost
in the sauce. So third largest national Chevy commercial department. Is that correct? Yes.
So well, within the zone right now, we are within the top five, the same for Chevy. And then Cadillac,
we don't do as fabulous of a job. We are like top 25% of all dealers. But again, it's hard because
we're not a standalone Cadillac or Chevy. We have the two brands together. And our focus
within our area is definitely predominantly Chevy, because we sell five to one Chevy's, but
Okay. So I, I already completely read that my list of topics here because you said a couple
things I want to talk to you on. I want to ask you about 20 groups. You mentioned this early on
here in the conversation. Didn't even plan on bringing it up, but you are currently in 220
groups. You mentioned a local one and I believe is it a brand one now? And you don't have to name
like who they're facilitated through, but I am just curious overall with your, your experience with
these 20 groups. One thing I found recently in my conversations with dealers is the opportunity
around 20 groups and asking, you know, what, what values car dealership guy bring into you?
And many people sort of tell us as like the public 20 group, at least that's what some dealers have
told me. So I'll take their word for it. But I am curious to know what is the, how do you split
your time between the two 20 groups? Do you get more value from one versus the other? Can you tell
us just a little bit about your personal experience with these two 20 groups? Yes, they are totally
different. The one centered around the manufacturer is great for me because there is a lot of
California dealers. So while there might be a little overlap that people might be closer
to our backyard than you would, you know, like to share statements with, it is also such a
benefit because California has so many legalities that are so, so specific to the state that to
be able to address them, share best and worst practices and have those numbers in your phone
of resources of people to reach out to is just the most valuable thing.
My dad has actually always been super anti 20 groups. He's like, why would I ever share my
financial statement? But you know, at the end of the day, really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's like,
well, what a waste of your time. Why go do that? That's always been my dad is also
78, I will say, and antiquated in a couple of ways. But I feel like the relationship aspect of
the 20 group and having dealers in California is just the most powerful aspect of the
manufacturer one. The local 20 group is interesting. I had a guy reach out to me and
it is non compete in the sense that it's different businesses within our area. However,
it's similar in the sense that we are able to share best and worst practices, market trends,
etc. And the value in that is something similar to being a part of the chamber in your local
town or in the rotary, because you got to connect with other business owners who can then funnel
your own business. So a little different when that on a manufacturer scale, they're not going
to come buy a car from you. But the people in your local 20 group, while you can share best
and worst practices will definitely come and funnel some car sales and service.
Interesting. So we're talking really local. When you say local, I mean, this is in your
kind of in our town, local CEO. So it's like president of the chamber, owner of the Chick-fil-A,
board of the hospital. Oh, so not just automotive understood. No, not not automotive at all. It
can't be compete because otherwise we wouldn't get together in a room if it was the Ford across
the street with me talking about what was going on our business. But so it's interesting because
I I feel like that is a I'm coming to the conclusion that that's a somewhat of a misconception.
I agree that you're not going to share your financials with the Ford dealer down the street.
And maybe the Ford dealer down the street is a little extreme. But maybe the Ford dealer,
that's two hours away, you would share some best practices insights with especially if you can
help each other. That's sort of what I've been trying to do here with these text groups literally
like the most low, low technology free thing. But it's solved for that because I feel like what
you just told me, so you're flying out for the Cadillac 20 group, obviously, other people,
you know, in your brand, that makes total sense. You want to benchmark with them,
especially do not your market. So I feel like I would question or I would, I would tell your dad
that maybe we should consider it, but maybe he would tell me go kick rocks, fair enough.
And then the local one, do you get lots of value out of that?
Yeah, I mean, we are so immersed in the community. I'm in rotary, we're in the chamber, we're in a
part of every nonprofit, I would say close to 200. And we the biggest benefit we get from that is
customers, especially in this market. I mean, you think about we're in a market that's heavily
trending towards a more 30% portfolio of EV sales. And it feels like the conversation more than ever
is on price. So what the community involvement allows us to do is create a stickiness with
our customers that it's not not customers who are coming in and talking price, they're just value,
they have loyalty to us because of the value and trust that we built with them through the years.
So same thing with the local 20 group is that we get the benefit of talking shop and talking
business, but also they can still funnel our business and come and be customers.
As you've grown as an operator, what have been your key sources of learning? Because today,
like you said, your father is older, you've been GM for quite a while, you've been with the
dealership for I want to say over a decade based on what I saw online. What have been your biggest
sources of just learning and where have you picked up knowledge along the way, other than of course
hands on experience and working alongside your father? Well, it's actually kind of funny. I didn't
want to work in the car dealership car business at all up until I was in my master's program at
San Diego State and I needed a job. So I of course started selling cars. And my succession
story is pretty typical as far as succession stories go minus the fact that I didn't spend my
summers in cashier detail. But I transitioned from selling cars for a few years while getting my
master's degree to finance. And before you know it a handful of years had passed and what was once
a job of necessity and I needed money and circumstance really turned into something of passion and
opportunity. And before you know it, I went from working in finance to then kind of working my
way through the store. And one of the biggest benefits because I have a lot of other dealers
who have similar trajectories or succession planning, ask me what I thought was the biggest
benefit. And I really think for me, the biggest benefit was physically working in the roles
rather than shadowing. Because to me, shadowing gives you a glimpse and that's great and all.
But if you are to physically work in the role, you got to live it with all its glory and grievances
and then hopefully one day fix the job when you get it to it. And I think to your question,
what it's helped me do a lot is establish good connections with people that have better prepared
me to be where I'm at today. This episode is brought to you by auto hauler exchange,
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show notes below. And how does that reflect in your business today? Like you mentioned you being
top or 5% or top five and fleet sales, for example, what does that predate you?
Is that something that you've been close to? I'm curious to know what's driven that,
how you've been able to get to that point. So, top 10 for retail volume for Chevy.
We're in a really great market. We're in a really great location. We just have really great processes
and we have really great people and I can't say that I have taken the responsibility for our success.
I can only tell you where I intend to go next year. And I think what's kind of interesting
about us getting to meet an interface is that a lot of people on your podcast have done this for
10 years and they're kind of talking in hindsight of all the things they've accomplished. Well,
for me, I feel like I'm at the precipice of my journey. So, there's, you know,
something a little unique there. Tell us more about that. So, what is on your mind nowadays?
What is on my mind? Well, I mean, what's on my mind is definitely the EVs with subsidies going
away and how the manufacturer is going to step in and how our role is going to play in that.
I mean, a 30% market share with or 30% of your sales share, your dealership,
you're definitely the exception, not the rule. At least when you look at it from a
national perspective, is this good? Well, we're closer to 15%, but I think with
what I meant about 30% is that the coveted registrations that it seems that everyone
wants is these 30% of EVs. And with government assistance gone, we really need to bridge that
value gap. And that responsibility, in my opinion, largely falls on the OEM. So, we need consistent
programs and real support, not one-off incentives. And as people mature out of their leases,
it's critical that the OEMs provide us fair purchase prices so we can then replenish our CPO
EV inventory. Because to me, that's what creates a healthy cycle. It puts people in EVs today,
it keeps them in the ecosystem tomorrow. And then ultimately, it makes this transition
sustainable, especially with government subsidies going away.
I mean, it's early October now. What is your hunch here? It seems like every day a different OEM
is announcing something. How do you feel about maintaining your sales volume, given that the
tax credit has gone away, and the situation we're in right now?
Well, GMs come out with an allotment for us dealers. So, they are going to basically
pre-fund us 5% of the vehicle up to a certain amount of vehicles, and then we'll get short-funded
when we sell that car. So, it's essentially allowing us to still market that there's that 7,500
to customers. But I still think that quarter four is going to be interesting because of all
the marketing that's gone up until this point, that the 7,500's going away. So, come buy a car,
come buy a car. Well, now the 7,500's gone from the government, but the manufacturer steps in. So,
obviously, a lot of people got pulled into the market a little bit earlier. So, it's definitely
going to show a more natural demand for EVs. I really think that the best dealers are going to be
proactive, not reactive when it comes to their EV planning, because anyone can take 5 grand off of
an EV to sell it. But the question then becomes, what's the end goal here? If we only chase that
race to the bottom mindset, it's ultimately not good for the consumer. It's not good for us because
we need to remain RSI compliant. So, I think for us, it's going to be agile with pricing when necessary
to so we can still maximize our back-end dollars, our SFE, our pinnacle. But in the process, we need
to create, well, we need to create strong people and processes to create stickiness. So, even if we
do have an aggressive lease offer or a one-pay on an EV, hopefully we don't always have to pay for
those customers to come back in with another aggressive ad and we can create stickiness
because their experience and their service is so, so exceptional here that they don't just stick
around for a price that they bought on day one. So, if Mary Barrow is listening right now, what
message would you have for her? And I can tell you many GM folks listen in and so maybe they'll
forward it to her or maybe she will listen. But I'm curious to know what message do you have
for her if she's listening right now? I think to be very perceptive and very agile, I think
Mary's language has been that GM needs to have agility moving forward, especially with EVs.
And I think that we need to take a good look at this allotment for GM dealers and is it still
going to move the needle? And also what happens on January 1st because this program that they put
in place is good till 1231. So, again, what happens on January 1st? I think it is hopeful
though because when we went on our call the other day to see what we're going to get from the
manufacturer to kind of offset the loss of the 7500, I thought to myself, well, what they do next
really determines how all in on EVs they are because if they don't want a four-foot any spend,
well, then maybe that they're tailoring back to. But I think they have vested interest to keep
moving EVs. And so I'm hopeful we'll see what happens. I honestly think before even the end
of quarter four, we might get some additional help because we need leases that aren't 10% because
that doesn't really move the needle too much. 100%. So, tell me more about your fleet business. I'm
curious what's driving that? I think this is an area where lots of dealers have just spoken about
recently, or when I say recently, I'm talking like recent months, year because, you know,
it provides some hedge to the market and to the cyclicality of the consumer, especially
nowadays when, you know, things are pretty volatile. But what drives your fleet business?
How do you maintain such a strong, consistent flow of volume there? Well, we've had the right
people in place for a long time. So we have a good book of business. Another thing that we're
currently working on is we're actually physically building the first fleet service sales part
center that's standalone connected to us, but a standalone dealership in the United States. So
that to us will help us hopefully boost that traffic. And right now it actually works as a free
marketing tool because it's sitting right next to us off the freeway and it's a big piece of land
where we can park all these utility bodies and people, millions of people drive down that road
every week and they can see and it's helping advertise for us. But right now we just, we
have a really, really good strong team. The only thing that's a little volatile about fleet is that
you have to get in these vehicles and then typically you're upfitting them for your customers. So
then they're going to be sitting on your flooring at a higher dollar amount for longer periods of
time. So there is volatility there, but you know, having the right gamut of salesman outside sales
rep, it works well for us. Tell me about this fleet servicing center. You said it's the first one.
I'm curious, like what are the economics of this? Why are you doing this?
Honestly, mostly first space. We're very landlocked where we're at, especially in California in our
town. So to acquire the land to then be able to physically put vehicles there. And then also when
you think about our service center right now, we don't have any lifts for 45 and 5500s. So we don't
really have the ability to service these vehicles at all. And it's niche in the sense that there
isn't anything standalone for these vehicles to go through. And we do have a lot of businesses
within our community or within 100 mile radius who travel through Temecula, through our town,
who would have a need to do it. And then we could also put, you know, we could give them
another vehicle to drive for the day. So we could do some accessibility to keep them on the road
and keep them productive. That's just not being done before. Yeah. The first thing that went through
my mind was, you know, dealers erecting a reconditioning center for used vehicles. And so
similarly, and I can understand you being landlocked, I am curious though, you know, if there's ways
where you can actually gain operational efficiency from this being a standalone, right? And I'm
talking about, you know, different incentive structures. I'm not suggesting that that is the
play here just goes through my mind, right? What is that? Are there any key differences with fleet?
Just like there is, you know, between a traditional retail customer service versus a
used vehicle reconditioning. Are there other advantages here? I mean, for starters, I would say,
or I don't want to say no brainer, but that's something that almost runs through my mind. It's
like, it makes total sense is the ability to get more use out of that capex that facility and run,
you know, leaderships overnight shifts, especially when you're not serving retail. Again, you can
do this in a normal service facility as well. But I think you just have more flexibility with
the customer here. So it warrants the question of what can you do to improve your business,
given that added flexibility from that fleet customer, right? Well, and I think it does. And
honestly, it's a it's a large benefit to us because we're landlocked with our retail space.
And because we are such a Chevy volume store, we actually have a secondary lot adjacent to
community college where we have to store our retail units as they come in and move them as we
sell cars. So again, it's it does hinder our current business too. So to be able to have
a facility not only to grow in the fleet respect, it also allows us to free up space to become more
productive from our current business venture to that. And I like that, right? You're saying,
if you're landlocked and you're going to, you know, somehow split your business,
where what type of business does it makes to split off site so that you're taking the most
advantage of your very, you know, the small area that you do have to serve the retail customer.
And I trust me, I know all about being landlocked in a city. So I've been there, been there,
done that. So I'm curious if being the landlock that constrained has maybe pushed you to optimize
a little bit more for omnichannel sales or, you know, focus a bit more on the customer experience
before they step into their store to try to keep things a little bit more efficiently,
potentially even selling cars that are off site. Or am I just, you know, going a little too far and
that hasn't really impacted sales too much retail sales? It hasn't as our inventory has gotten leaner.
Obviously, it's coming up to healthier levels post COVID. It hasn't really been too big of an issue
for us. But yes, we definitely have to be very proactive before a customer comes in
of having the vehicle ready up with a VIP sticker, because otherwise the customer is going to be
walking all the way down. And it's a huge lot. And then it becomes a little frivolous that way.
But no, we don't have to do too much. Okay. Tell me more about your in store operations.
I saw just several things which got me thinking that you're pretty, you try to stay very in touch
with your in store culture such as, you know, and I'm naming like very tactical little stuff,
but I'll let you expand on it, you know, like the Rolex for a certain tenure for your employees or
flowers for every buyer, stuff like that. These feel good things. Is that an initiative that you've
led? Why do this? You know, how do you actually see the value in it? Tell us just a little bit about
your in store kind of culture initiatives and why you're doing these types of things.
So the culture definitely stems from before being with the touches like we do a Rolex for
every 30 year employee. And we also have been giving away a Christmas car or a car at our
Christmas party every year, which adds, although monetary, it adds a lot of excitement and good
feels. Is it a car to an employee or a customer? To an employee. Oh, wow. Every Christmas party,
someone gets a car. Yeah. So we really go, we really go to the all ends for our Christmas party
because we want it to be like, not showy, look what we've done, look what we can do for you,
but more so look what you have let us do, which it's then allowed us to give back X to the community.
And in a cyclical way, like this is how we appreciate you. So those are touches that were
there prior to me being at the store. The things that I started in the last couple of years,
because we have out of the 250 employees, we have almost 50% that have been there 10 years
or longer. So one of the things that I try to do to make sure everyone has the same experience when
they get their recognition for five, 10, 15 or 20 years is do something like a bi annual luncheon.
So we can hit every single 10 year in the same capacity. So no one feels left out because their
department head didn't give the big, the same big hurrah that a different department had did.
And another thing that we have done is I put in a healthy meal prep fridge for convenience and
to keep people on site for their lunches and little touches like that. And then we brought
our employee shuttle back because I mentioned we're landlock. So people are parking off site
just to work here. And it's a big grievance. So then I actually had our department heads come
together and now they rotate and they drive. So our service director, our parts director,
our GSM will physically drive the employee shuttle to just one show there's nothing that they won't
do and two to kind of drive that interdepartmental connection because it is really hard to know
everyone when you're a store of 215 people. And you know, you always hear at the back of the house
and the front of the house and they're two different hands rather than one working together.
And then my goals for next year are a number of things I'm currently working on an
internal employee website so I can boost communication and just show employees were
invested in them. So that has and I'm the oldest young person when it comes to technology,
but I will say I figured out this website. I am. But yeah, it has a number of things I put on there,
a job shadow request form, an employee feedback form. I put on our community events calendar
where you can physically sign up and join us in representing paradise at these local nonprofits
and and you know, show your investment in the community. And then I created a mental health
page with access to a free gym membership for every single employee. And also I included an
access to a free assessment, which then leads to things like a nutritionist or a fitness coach
should you choose. And then on that mental health page, I also included if anyone's struggling
with something very specific domestic violence, for example, that we can then connect them to one
of our nonprofits in the area that specializes in that area. So there's that real connection there.
And then I don't want to spill the beans too much, but I'm starting a 401k match. So that's
going to be a benefit to employees. And then we do the flowers too. I love the flowers. I started
those this year, but those are for I mean, they're for employees if they buy a car, but that's
definitely more customer focused culture point. This episode is brought to you by Cox Automotive.
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learn more, download the four key drivers of shopper satisfaction by clicking the link in the
center. You've really put your fingers on the poles here with the culture.
What inspired you to do this? I mean, it seems like this is an area you're putting a lot of
focus on. And I'm just curious, like, what were you got inspired to do for all these different
initiatives? I don't know. We all have our calling. And, you know, I just feel that employees are so
special. And they do give a tangible return. You know, I've always said we can have the
best process in place for great customer service. But if you have unhappy employees,
you're going to have no one to execute it. And I just think we're at a real transition point,
you know, boomers are beginning to retire and Gen X are taking their spot. And Gen Z is starting
to take up a larger majority of the work workforce. And I just think we can't keep leaning on these
vapid ideas that certain age demographics are soft or say things like if you don't have thick skin,
get out of the car business. At some point, the younger generations are going to make up the
majority of our workforce. So I think the responsibility is on us as leaders to ask ourselves,
okay, what do they want from an employer? And how do we create a culture where they can thrive?
And I think that's how we attract and retain real talent.
Now, tell us, I always like to connect things to revenue because it's the Cardio
Ship Guy podcast, right? We wouldn't be CDG if we didn't do that. So now tell us,
since you joined the company, what has been revenue like? How's it trended? Give us some
insight into that. Alongside these initiatives you've taken, I'm not going to claim here that
it's directly correlated to giving flowers to customers and selling your revenue skyrockets.
But I'm curious of the overall trend. You've obviously injected some more kind of cultural
touch here, which I think is really key in the time now in the industry with all this change.
And I'm curious to know, when did you join specifically and when did you take on the GM
role? And since then, if you can kind of walk us through just a company's financial performance.
So I've taken on the GM role within the last few months. So it's very new. We've been with the
store for 10 years, but when I was working the jobs truly with no purpose other than to work
the physical job I was in, I wasn't privy to the financial status of the store at the time.
Year over year, we've been successful to create growth. We do about $250 million in sales a year
and we're holding about 4%. So we're growing and working towards it. I think
one thing that's been ingrained in me that I still see a lot of value in and will continue
is that you can never save your way into a profit. We have, for example, four service managers and
I just spoke about this with my father this morning. It's a great line and it's true.
But you know, it's funny because I'll walk around someone who when they're on-boarding and I'll
be like, all right, this is our service manager. This is over here as our service manager. This
is a service manager. And I feel like sometimes it can seem hand-holding or like we have so much
support staffed, but we're still absolutely in line and in guide with management and department
supervision because I still believe that. You know, I think if you have the right people and
the right positions, even if you're a little heavy, well, it still translates to you make more
money and you can still be in line having a full staff of department heads, for example.
So what do you actually mean when you say four service managers? Who do they all report to?
Service director? So we have our service director. Yeah. And then we have three. One's going to be
like a shop foreman. And then we also have someone who is another service manager who heads the
technicians and then someone who heads your advisors. And why have so many service managers?
Are you compensating for someone's, you know, lack of skill or are you just one extra redundancy?
Like what is it about having so much kind of top-down support within the service department?
Well, I think as long as we're in line, no one's ever going to, I would never go to our service
director and tell him to start accent as long as our personnel is in line with our gross.
But we have almost 15 advisors. We have 40 techs. We have 51 stalls. And we have a physical
dispatcher. We still have cashiers. Don't ask me. And we have a service BDC. So we have a hundred
people. Are you changing that when you say we're so out of cashiers? I can't tell things ahead of
time preemptively. But yeah, we're going to look to kind of restructure some things that might be
antiquated and maybe give more responsibility to our service advisors. Because another thing that
I think is crazy in the future on a side note is how much money it physically takes to sell a car
once you pay out, you know, your front desk, your BDC, your finance director, the managers,
it's just the law porters, you know, the true cost to sell a car even after you make a profit is
ridiculous. So I would like to consolidate roles if possible. But again, I can't save your way into
profit. I'm not just trying to ask people to make more money. I just think it's kind of inefficient
the ways in which we have all these positions to do one thing. That being said, our service department
is very productive. And at their scale of 100 employees, they're parsed pretty well to have
four managers. Because I will say our service director is also part of
DFob and he's on his own committee too. So that pulls him away a little bit. And I think it's,
you know, sometimes we're so head down immersed in our role that all we can do is be reactive,
not proactive. And I think that's hard for leaders. So I think to have a little bit of ability to
delegate and have another manager so you can do some forward thinking in your day.
There's immense value in that. There's definitely a difference between, you know, working in the
business and on the business. This is what I say. You know, when I look at my calendar
on a weekly basis, I ask myself, am I working on the business with this meeting? Or am I working
in the business? And there has to be the right balance and over time the balance shifts. But
otherwise, you know, for managerial roles, it's the truth. If you're always on the floor as a
manager, when are you spending time, you know, developing team and thinking about other things?
So I think it's the right perspective. You mentioned you are 4% net to sales. Do you have
you set like a company goal? Like, are you are you setting ahead? I want to get to 5% or is this
something you're actively trying to grow? Or are you focused on other other, you know, KPIs?
What are you focused on from a financial perspective? I always feel really good when we
go to anything Chevy related, because honestly, we have such a sound Chevy operation that I
always feel very proud to be in the room. I think I will say one thing that I want to focus on is
Cadillac, because again, not being a standalone Cadillac store definitely helps our Cadillac sales.
But in no time sooner, we ever get rid of Chevy. So I think my goal for next year will be to try
to grow our our reach with Cadillac because we have room for improvement. Chevy, we kind of
oscillate exactly where we want to be because by being in the top five, if we want to be in the top
one, two, three, well, then we're going to start sacrificing gross. So we want to be a perfect play
between gross and volume. That's kind of how I feel about that. But Cadillac, we have a lot of room
for improvement. And I think, honestly, with EVs as precarious as they are, because they seem to
depend on who's in legislation and what laws are enforced at the time, I think EVs are a real
potential for Cadillac, because Cadillac has never really been able to crest that tier one luxury
space. But right now, Cadillac has three of the top 10 best selling luxury EVs. So I think that
there's some merit there. I think the best dealers are going to take advantage of that. And I would
like to be one to, you know, make us something more comparable to what we all have done in Chevy.
How are the IQ sales Cadillac IQ? I'm curious. Those are the worst. Definitely. Really? Yes.
Well, within our market, I mean, you figure a $150,000 car predicates a pretty robust
annual income for a buyer. Well, don't they start like 120? Not that it's like 130 to 154.
Yep. That's what you're looking at. I think more than anything, the grievance that makes it a lot
better to be sure. But I was under the impression that sales are still pretty. What'd you say?
Yeah, right. No, I was under the impression that sales are still pretty good. But that's, again,
given the state of the consumer. So when I said really, that was kind of what I was thinking about.
But it sounds like it's, yeah, it's not, so what do you think they're going to do with that
truck? I mean, what's the end game here? I think IQ just needs a better supported program. I think
that when you think about a luxury buyer and you think about someone purchasing $150,000,
they're not worried about affording the payment. They're probably an affluent 800 score buyer who
doesn't want to pay a 10% rate. So I think to pair it with, you know, I think there might be some
price adjustments in the future too, because when you look at residuals and what they're doing
and from a brand standpoint, it makes me feel that there might be an adjustment that way.
But the Vistik is at a little bit lower of a price point for being a three-row vehicle.
And the Optic and Lyric are really good movers for Cadillac.
And just to be clear, the two brands share the same property. Is it split?
Like what does the property look like? So we have one big building for new cars. We have a separate
building for used cars. And our new is a split between Chevy and Cadillac in the showroom. And
then as you can imagine with being five to one Chevy to Cadillac, our inventory mirrors that on
the front line. Yeah, it reflects that accordingly. Okay. So tell me more about your leadership.
Like what are you right now? You came in and you're in this role. What are you focused on?
Like give us a little bit more color there of what's next for the group and for the dealership
really? You've you've implemented some cultural stuff. You've been really getting your hands dirty
with the 20 groups. What are you focused on to continue pushing the company forward?
Well, I think one of the things for me is I'll say our GM has done wonderful things. Our previous
GM has done wonderful things the past 20 years. However, when my dad was leading the day to day,
the focus was really on the community and on nonprofits. Now that hasn't gone away. But I
think my my big push next year is to be very visibly vested at the top in community involvement
because as I spoke to earlier, I feel like our entrenchment in the community comes back to us
full circle on a fiscal matter. So I definitely want to do that. And then again, back to employees,
I think that there's so many things that I want to do from the 401k match to launching the website
to I want to do every Friday. I have lunch. You can have lunch with the GM so I can better
connect with employees. Like those are some of my goals. And then I have, you know, very specific
ideas for what I want to do within service and parts and, you know, whether it's video MPVIs
or consolidating roles or niche things like that.
Do you not do video MPIs at the moment? No, we don't.
Why? It just hasn't been done or is there a specific reason?
It just hasn't been done. Our service director is very forward thinking and he would think he'd
been the first to do it, but he is so worried about people in the background and what it sets us up
for. And he's just he's a little slow moving on it. So we're going to force him on that.
So he should listen to this and I can tell him that the video MPI from the conversations I've
had has simply been the biggest game changer. I mean, we're talking, you know, volume has,
you know, ROs and volume has grown to three exits in some cases to that extent. I would say, I mean,
this is like, you should be excited in that you have such, you know, quick wins or like low hanging
fruit here to implement because that is a it feels like such a big opportunity. Again, I don't know
your store and your market, but I can tell you, obviously, I do a lot of speaking and it's feels
like a no brainer. I mean, this is this is just like the basic, you know. Yeah, no, I agree. I
think video MPV eyes are great. I think that to be able to have your service advisor be the last
touchpoint rather than a cashier to be able to explain the work and to do more sales. I mean,
I think it's all great. And honestly, it's it's interesting because we are so fortunate in the
sense that we do 100 110 appointments in our drive every single day. And so we don't have to actively
market a lot. And I think sometimes there's this big business problem as like the larger you grow,
it hides your your inefficiencies. And I just think that if we could become more efficient,
we could then pull in more people to the drive and kind of be more proactive in that way.
I agree with that point, which is like you said, there's volume. It gives you some more room and
slack to, you know, be less efficient. And, you know, this is one of the that was one of the
positives. If you could say when the tide went out after, you know, the early 2020s, where suddenly
you had, you know, you weren't just shooting fish out of a barrel to sell a car. I mean,
it wasn't that easy. And yet the ref focus on those efficiencies and you saw, you know,
better habits, better practices coming to play. So in my opinion, it's a much more fun time in
industry because there's a bigger delta between the winners and the losers versus everyone just
being a winner. And, you know, a rock can being able to sell a car. But you need video MPI. So
so what else tell us? I mean, before we wrap up, I'm curious, anything else that is,
you mentioned service, you mentioned parts, anything else that is top of mind for you
as you kind of take this, you know, to sleep in your in your journey here and work to grow the
dealership. Yeah, there's a lot I want to do. I want to do recurring training, set up something
where it's physical weather through NCM or NADA, where we're doing it more recurringly,
not just assuming we do a good job. So we don't need to keep that in front of us.
A good example would be our finance department. We notoriously historically always run about
2100 a copy, which is fine. But I think that it's interesting because we have a finance
director and four finance managers that we don't proactively say what objections are you hearing
this week? How can we better role play? How can we better overcome it? I think sometimes,
like we were saying earlier, we just get stuck in our ways of we do things good enough
and not how can we become better. So I think creating a recurring physical training program
would be something to do. We used to do a paradise advantage, which again is like a tangible
why buy from us, right? And I think it would, there would be some merit to bring that back
and have it focused on ice versus EV vehicles, because those are two different vehicles. And
I think they would, they would should have two different advantages of why you buy an EV from
us to, again, create that stickiness. I also want to change our physical onboarding process,
because it's, it's, it's, it's all over the place. Our onboarding is, you know, I could walk in the
door and talk to one person. But then if someone else walks in the door, they could talk to five
other people with different questions each time. So I don't think there's continuity there. And I
think that costs us money anytime we onboard someone. And then we export them because it didn't
work out. And again, just trying to find a way to hire more diversely, because then in theory,
we would have more diverse customers. So yeah, those are definitely top of mind for me procedural
thing. Well, we'll have to do a follow up podcast, a little bit down the line, and it will see how
you're, how that process is going for you, and you know, whether you've hit your goals and where
we're at. So, and hopefully we can help you out as well. So yeah, that'd be awesome.
Amazing. So, Caitlin, before we wrap up, what didn't I ask you? There has to be something I
didn't ask you a good question that's lurking in the back of your mind. I don't know. I feel like a
lot of people ask me about, I don't know why second generation dealers might not want to work
in the business or what's the hardest part about that or let me make it spicier. What is
something that people don't know about you that they would otherwise not expect, but when they
when they meet you, but just just tell us something that about your past, about your present. I'm
just curious, you know, who are you tell us like something about yourself that we don't know
that you don't know. I mean, I'm a mom to a four year old and that takes up a lot of my life.
I'm an avid gym goer. I would probably do a bodybuilding competition if I had the time because
I think it's wow. Okay, I see. I would not have expected that. There we go. Like you could have
been a bodybuilder. Yeah, I mean, probably not. But you know, it's a cool passion. I feel like
anyone who wasn't athletic in high school wants to feel athletic in some capacity could just pick
up going to the gym. But were you not athletic in high school? Were you? No, no, look at me. I was
definitely not athletic in high school. I think my dad had to give away real to me to make baskets
in middle school. Oh, wow. And then yeah, and then I'm really, I'm really passionate about
English and literature. I taught at San Diego State, a college course too, while I was getting,
while I was selling cars. So that was fun. My finance director always from academia,
from academia to auto retail, that's like going from like the, the whole tower room to, you know,
horse business. Wow, what a shift. And it wasn't even anything, you know, when I say English,
people are like, Oh, well, speaking has so much overlap to business. And I'm like, well,
I taught how horror film was a reflection to contemporary society. So I don't think that
has any overlap to the car business. Wow. Well, I will tell you where there is overlap. They're
teaching, right? Any good leader is, you know, you're a good teacher, or you can at least get
people to follow you and do something in a certain way without forcing them. So I think there's,
you know, probably some similarities there. But when it comes to, you know, MLA format and all
that, I don't think that ports over too well. But I agree with you too. We talk about it often in
our meetings, how we really promote off talk, we can end up promoting toxicity a lot by promoting
off of metrics like performance. And you know, it's like you sell the most cars. And so we move
you into leadership, and then you fail because you don't know how to become a good leader. So
it's like, what processes do we put in place to ensure not only can you exceed metrics wise, but
as a leader, or how how would we transition the people who we think are the best at what they
do into the being the best leaders? Yeah, yeah, I think it's important to have the right North Star.
You know, at Cardioship Guy, we've labeled it as a we call it dealer engagement. It's not consumption
of media. It's not, you know, clients at CDG recruiting or opens of newsletter. It's just
dealers engagement, dealer engagement. The more dealers that engage with something that we do,
whether it is, you know, become a client with our nomad with our social company or listen to our
podcast or gets value from us in some way, if they're engaged, that tells us that we're bringing
value. If they're not, then we got to be better. So I do agree having a North Star as a company is
very important. So right, I also think too, it's funny, I used to not understand mission statements
because I'd read everyone's mission statement. And I'm like, does everyone just have the same
mission statement? And yeah, it's like really customers happy. It's like, okay, yeah, to have
the happiest employees and the happiest customers, which I say a lot of that too. But I used to have
to ask myself to like, well, I understand why we give back to the community, but why does that
matter? And I think to flesh out the idea of like, okay, we are able to give back to the community
with what we do. And then that funnels our growth. So we can just grow as a whole within our
market. There is a lot of power to that. But when you read these mission statements over and over
again, I'm like, where is the, you know, where is the ether here? Like, do we know what we're
talking about? Do we really have a message that's nuanced? That's not the same from every other
business next door to us? Yep. Well said, Caitlin Gilmore, Paradise Chevy, not sunrise, Paradise
Chevy. Caitlin, thanks so much for coming on the pod. Had a ton of fun with you. Yeah, thank you.
All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating,
consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about.
Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
About this episode
Katelyn Gilmore, the dynamic general manager of Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac, shares insights on fostering a people-driven culture that has led her dealership to win Dealer of the Year for 11 consecutive years. She discusses the importance of proactive EV planning, community involvement, and employee recognition initiatives. Katelyn emphasizes the need for agility in the evolving automotive landscape, especially with the shift towards electric vehicles, and outlines her goals for enhancing dealership operations and employee engagement. Her journey from reluctant employee to passionate leader offers a fresh perspective on dealership success.
Original notes
Today I’m joined by Katelyn Gilmore, General Manager of Paradise Chevrolet Cadillac.
We dive into why she’s doubling down on the world’s first fleet-only service center, her playbook for attracting and keeping Gen Z talent, and the surprising reason she’s handing out Rolexes to her top performers — plus much more.
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Topics:
00:26 What is the Cadillac Champions group?
01:19 Why are 20 Groups valuable?
02:33 How to maintain high fleet sales?
07:55 Best community/employee initiative?
25:39 Managing generational shifts in workplace?
26:46 Current revenue and financial trends?
27:58 Managing a large service department?
31:58 Strategy for Cadillac/EV market?
35:04 Top leadership goal as GM?
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