“My Team Will Adapt at the Drop of a Dime” — The GM Playbook for Leading When You Don’t Have All the Answers | Charlie Spradlin, GM Art Moehn Auto Group

“My Team Will Adapt at the Drop of a Dime” — The GM Playbook for Leading When You Don’t Have All the Answers | Charlie Spradlin, GM Art Moehn Auto Group The Dealer Playbook · Jun 30, 2026

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Person

Joe Verdi

Joe Verdi is a famous teacher in the car business who created training videos and classes to help car salespeople learn how to talk to customers and close deals.

Term

rooftops

This is just industry slang for a physical dealership building. If a dealer group owns three 'rooftops,' they have three different dealership locations.

Person

Jonathan Dawson

Jonathan Dawson is a well-known business coach who helps car salespeople and managers improve their skills and make more money.

Concept

A 20 Group is like a support club for car dealership owners. About 20 dealers from different parts of the country (who don't compete with each other) get together to share their business secrets and help each other make more money.

Term

front and back of each car

Dealerships make money in two main ways when selling a car. The 'front' is the profit made on the car's actual price tag. The 'back' is the money made from selling you car loans, extended warranties, and other extra protections.

Person

Brian Benstock

Brian Benstock is a highly successful car dealership boss in New York who is famous in the auto industry for sharing smart business advice and strategies.

Company

NADA

NADA is the main national group that represents car dealerships. They host a huge meeting every year where dealers from all over the country gather to learn new business strategies.

Company

Art Moehn Auto Group

This is a real-world car dealership company located in Michigan that sells brands like Chevrolet and Honda.

Concept

acquisition department

Instead of just waiting for people to trade in their old cars, some dealerships have a special team whose only job is to go out and find people who want to sell their cars directly to the dealership for cash.

Concept

service lane buying

This is when a dealership tries to buy your car from you while you are waiting for it to get its oil changed or repaired in their service department. It's an easy way for them to get used cars to sell to other people.

LIVE

Your stores are breaking records

and you have put in a tremendous amount of work.

But I think a lot of people in our industry

are too afraid to acknowledge a problem.

But I try and make the connection, especially on the show,

that without being willing to acknowledge the problem,

you can never actually get to the success

that happens on the backside of it.

I've never met a perfect car dealership.

I've seen a lot of different places

and I've seen a lot of different people

operate in different ways.

I've never seen a perfect one.

I don't know if you have.

And here we are. We're seeing you.

You have put in a tremendous amount of work.

There have been problems along the way.

And now here you are.

I mean, we see the post.

You're breaking records.

You're seeing incremental growth.

You're pulling your teams together.

You're unifying this dealer group.

For those listening, what's a challenge

you're thinking about right now

and some possible ways that you're gonna maneuver through it?

The most glaring issue that we're facing right now

as I stare off into my lot that's nice and full is...

One of the things that I enjoy most

about producing the Dealer Playbook is hearing from you.

The messages that I get of people

who are getting so much value out of the podcast,

applying it to their day-to-day workflows

and finding a thriving career

right here in the retail auto industry.

It means the world to me.

And you know, one of the ways

that we make doing this possible

is through my agency Flex Dealer.

And of course, in the spirit of providing value,

I think this is a perfect time to head over

to www.flexdealer.com,

to show even further support for you,

my beloved DPB gang.

Right now, if you go to my website, flexdealer.com,

you can get a full, free PDF

of my number one bestselling book, Don't Wait Dominate.

And the reason I think it's so special

is that a lot of the topics that are discussed in this book

are even more relevant today than ever

with this surge in popularized AI

and people wondering, well, what can I do next?

How can I have a competitive advantage?

Well, that's all here in this book.

And so I'd love to be able to offer you a free copy of this.

If you go to flexdealer.com,

it would mean the world to me

because that is how we continue

to produce this show for you.

OK, this has been, like, a little bit in the making.

Like, maybe 14 years in the making.

14 years.

Where were you 14 years ago?

Called my 33, so...

I have no idea.

High school.

High school, probably, yeah.

Danny, how did you get into the car business?

I had these big aspirations to go to law school

and all that after I graduated college.

Huge fight with my parents got kicked out.

Had nowhere to go.

Ended up asking my wife's brother-in-law for a job.

He ran the car dealership and then I haven't been anywhere else since.

You got sucked into the vortex, like all of us.

I needed a job immediately.

Tell me where you're at now.

So you got into the car business out of desperation, out of survival.

What do you think...

But before we talk about where you are now,

what do you think that did for your journey?

In lessons learned or the outlook that you have on the industry?

I think by being so forcefully pushed in,

I really didn't have a choice.

And not that I don't want to paint a picture of a starving child

needing to feed himself, but I really didn't have any other options.

And so that idea of I'm doing this

or I've got to figure something out.

This was my only opportunity for something.

I think it just made me commit immediately to my level of greatness,

whatever that was going to be.

I was going to give it my all.

I drink from a fire hose of Joe Verdi videos

for the first six months probably.

And yeah, I just wasn't going to fail.

This resonates with me because I think about my journey.

This is going to be year 24 in and around car dealers.

A lot of people go,

what do you feel has attributed to your success?

And I mean, similar story.

It kind of starts from the survival mode.

And I mean, at this point, it's that I don't know anything else.

This is what I know.

This is my thing.

And it fits with every marketing discipline

where people say like niche down till it hurts.

It fits with every successful business coach out there

who are like, get good at the one thing, you know?

And I look at some of my buddies,

some of which have done laps around different careers

and jumping from this to that.

And they're like, so what do you think it is?

And I'm like, dude, while you decided that you wanted to go

from real estate to a paramedic to a physician's assistant

to back to real estate, back to whatever, you know,

doing this whole jump around thing

because you weren't sure you wanted.

I picked up a hammer and I kept hammering that nail.

Yeah, for sure.

And it sucked at times and it was good at times.

And then when I back out and I zoom look at it,

I'm like, oh, what an awesome career.

And I'm hearing that in you.

Now you fast forward to today.

Where are you at?

What are you doing?

What's your stewardship?

I mean, so as of this month, I'm officially taking on the middle

of the mantle of general manager at our store, which is great.

It's been a work in progress for me for a long time.

Prior to that, I was our sales director for the group,

which is kind of over the three-ish rooftops that we've got.

And yeah, man, I'm currently reaching that initial pinnacle

of what I started aspiring to all those years ago.

I love it.

So it's pretty cool.

What kept you moving all that time?

Like what was in you?

I know you started from kind of the survival mode, but like for

for those listening, I think a lot of people come into the industry

this way.

I've been, you know, participating in a lot of TikTok lives

with all the Gen Z's these days and they're all kind of like we all

have the same story.

It's like I kind of fell backwards into the industry.

But what kept you in in an industry that has a notorious like churn

rate?

What kept you in?

I think two things.

One, sales and like my work ethic has always appealed to me.

I don't know if that's like an inherited trait from my dad or you

know, whatever it is, but like if I was going to work for it, I

wanted to be paid for it.

You know, and I think that that resonates with me at like my core.

The other part of that that I actually came to realize not that

long ago is that at every phase of my career or like professional

development, I've been introduced to either a new mentor type of

person or a circle of people doing way better than I was, which

came from sticking my nose in places that it didn't belong.

But like I met Jonathan Dawson as a brand new sales manager and that

like that left this little nugget in me after being around him

seeing the income income potential that he had and like that he

talked about.

He took me to a Tony Robbins event and then, you know, kind of next

next thing next thing after COVID in my in my phase of career was

meeting Glenn and being introduced to all these car dealerships

who were like incredibly successful making all this money.

It's just like it seems like every time.

I was at like a peak.

I just saw a bigger one, you know, someone else introduced me to

a bigger one and there's nothing more motivating than seeing

what you could achieve, you know, at least to me.

So I guess that will be the thing that keeps me going.

I love it and and what you're saying rings true this law of proximity.

Like so many people are wondering, well, how do I achieve the next

thing? And and what I heard you say it's kind of twofold number

one, it's proximity to those who are doing the thing that I desire

to achieve is like inherent in that you're you're not only

learning, but that like rubbing of shoulders, if you will, it

changes the dynamic.

But also it's like proximity to the next hill.

You're going to climb like meeting those people being in proximity

to them reveals to you kind of blows the the ceiling off of right

and and to you.

I mean, I'm hearing it and I know I felt it myself.

I think it's important for those that are listening that there is

a lot of for me at least and I'm curious your take there.

There's a lot of discomfort in that.

Like like I'm driven by my ambition, but I'm also like sometimes

freaked out about my from from my ambition because I know like

for me not knowing something and admitting that I don't know

something as I'm climbing the hill is extremely uncomfortable,

but I've also come to like love that in a way.

Yeah, I think I've been naturally blessed with the idea that like I

I love being told what I don't know like I I love the idea and

it like it started kind of with Joe Verdi and like, you know, my

schooling background was in philosophy and I really loved it.

It was it was like a part of my education that I just really dove

into this idea that like this.

Yeah, yeah, I have a major in philosophy.

I think I would have been a great lawyer, you know, but I this idea

though that like there's so much out there that other people can

teach you who are better than you and there's always going to be

somebody who has done more accomplished more earned more.

And if you just ask them for help so many of those people are

willing to pour into you with no benefit to themselves.

Now, not everybody I've just been blessed to find people like

that and then a lot of times that turns into a relationship

where maybe my company pays them to teach me something or

whatever else, but I just like I love the idea that I don't know

what I'm doing and I can learn from somebody else.

I've never had that idea of like, oh, you can't teach me like

that's I've just been blessed to not have that personal roadblock

in my life.

Yeah, I want to learn from you.

I please, you know, and I'm absolutely willing to humble myself

because if you're better than me, I want to know why.

Yeah, I mean, so much power in that.

And can I just say before I ask you this next thing, I just

got to say it like how proud I am of you.

Like a, I'm proud to know you be.

I'm proud to like see how you operate and that and what you're

talking about here.

I've seen firsthand that this is a real person doing real things

like, you know, sometimes it's hard nowadays.

The media, AI, all of these things.

It's really easy to like bolster yourself up and embellish a

little bit, but you're just speaking the truth that I've

observed and I think it's it's refreshing, especially with the

way things are going in the world to be able to just connect

and hear from other people who are doing a real thing.

But your stores are breaking records and you have put in a

tremendous amount of work and probably at sometimes the

philosopher and you came out by asking, why am I here?

Or where am I going?

My paycheck did, you know, and but you've experienced the

discomfort and you've you've shared like you run through

that discomfort, you thrive on it.

It's it's rocket fuel is how I'm hearing you use it.

But I think a lot of people in our industry, not just our

industry life in general, but we're talking about our industry

are too afraid to acknowledge a problem.

But I try and make the connection, especially on the show

that without being willing to acknowledge the problem, you

can never actually get to the success that happens on the

backside of it.

And here we are.

We're seeing you.

You have you have put in a tremendous amount of work.

There have been problems along the way and now here you are.

I mean, we see the post you're breaking records.

You're seeing incremental growth.

You're pulling your teams together.

You're you're unifying this this dealer group.

What for those listening are some challenges that you've

faced and what did you do to overcome those?

There's been so many challenges since COVID.

It feels like there's one every six months, you know, it's

like whether it's an inventory shortage, a you know, a parts

issue.

I mean, pricing issues affordability.

I mean, there's just a constant issue right now.

I think this this idea that like if you if you just hold

in and just like barricade yourself inside your dealership

and wait out the storm doing what's worked in the past like

it's you fall behind so quickly from all these rapidly moving

things that like the alternative, which is the stance that I

take is that like I'm going to change something immediately

and fast and while it doesn't always work the way that I

wanted to what it's done is create a team around me of

people who will adapt to change.

And so sometimes that change is not for the better and we have

to unwind what we did before, but they're willing to try

something new and give it their all the next day.

And then they know that that might change comes three months

come six months come nine months because I've let them know

that this is something that I don't know.

I don't know how things are going to look.

I'm going to do my absolute best.

They believe that I'm going to do my best to prepare them for

whatever challenge is coming to set them up for success.

But man at the drop of a dime my team will adapt to like a

new thing very quickly and that adaptability.

I just think has made all the difference these last three

four years while maintaining a good net profit level and a

good relationship with our community.

You know, I think a lot of people lost sight of that, you

know, throughout COVID in the coming years, you know, you

couldn't do both, but you can, you know.

How do you maintain that that vulnerability is a leader to

say like to pull your team together and say, Hey, like

there's guys, there's stuff I know and there's things I don't

know and there's things I don't know that and and

to have them continue to trust in your leadership because I

think that's a thing maybe new leaders and maybe some veteran

leaders in our industry.

Yeah, that worries them.

That vulnerability is perceived as weakness.

You're showing that it's actually a superpower.

How do you balance that?

How do you make sure it's delivered with the right with

the right intention so that your team is willing to follow

you through that?

I mean, a big thing is that like it can just be all talk like

there has to be you have to deliver on what you're, you

know, it's like a politician promising all those things and

then never delivering on them.

It's like, alright, well, I just don't trust you.

Those are great words, but like it doesn't mean anything.

Yeah, you have to deliver on what you're promising or maybe

not promising, but implying a place that you're going to get

to and I think by being vulnerable with your team, you're

humanizing yourself and the fact that like I've never met a

perfect car dealership.

I've seen a lot of different places and I've seen a lot of

different people operate in different ways.

I've never seen a perfect one.

I don't know if you have, but like this idea that general

managers are like infallible or owners or sales.

I mean, just that anybody in a dealership is infallible is

crazy, but I do feel like we talk about ourselves in that way.

A lot of times and it's like how, how, how much does that

cheap in the message you're trying to send when like you

when you're acting like you know it all and that you know

what's coming, but then you have three bad months in a row

and your team is struggling to pay their bills and your

finance manager's relationship with, you know, the sales

floor is getting worse because nobody's making money and

no one knows what to do.

It's like, I know that I'm not perfect.

I am trying my best to take all of you to a place of financial

success while having a good environment to work in and some

months that means we just have fun and we don't break a record.

You know, maybe we do have a bad month, but like, man, we're

going to enjoy ourselves while we do it, you know, and just

like, I don't this, this, this, this hot pot of I'm doing my

best, you know that I'm trying to work for you and that just

makes you want to work for me.

Yeah, you know, and then sprinkling the fact that we are

having success.

Don't sprinkle it and dump it on, you know, dump a bucket on

it and it just, it just becomes a really, really great place

to work while everybody's still making money.

You know, you know what I love about this is it's just an

incredibly honest take.

This is the message.

I mean, these are the kind of conversations Charlie that keep

me wanting to do this show because I mean, the whole point

into the playbook is to uncover what it really takes to enjoy

a thriving career in retail auto and we have this like kind

of addiction where we go to a conference or we go to a seminar

or 20 group and we hear the highlight reel of somebody else's

thing and then we go back to our store and we think we're

incredibly deficient.

You're sharing an honest inside look that hey, some months are

not going to be great.

Some months are going to be amazing.

But but do you feel sometimes like even that might be a little

myopic because if I were to zoom out at art main group over

the last 10 years, I would probably see a line that goes

up into the right.

Yeah, 100%.

How do you how do you maintain that perspective?

Because I think we get trapped in these 30 day cycles.

We all know why we do, but it's also like we know why we get

trapped in 30 day cycles, but we also kind of all know that

that's the reason we're not able to look at the bigger picture

a lot of times.

So how do you balance that?

So just so I'm understanding the question, how do I balance

the perspective that I have on the day to day with the fact

that we've had, you know, a decade plus of constant success?

Yeah, I mean, I think I think you're pay.

This is going to be a weird conversation.

I think I think your pay is a great reflection of if you're

paid correctly and held accountable to the right standards

and stuff like that inside of your dealership.

I mean, I think that like for me, God, it's just a weird way

to think about it.

Tell just let it just pour it out, man.

I know you're you're holding yourself back.

I can see you just say it.

Well, I am because I feel like it's a weird conversation.

It also could be taken out of context, but like, you know,

COVID allowed us as dealers to have an incredible paycheck

without incredible work.

And so on paper, in a lot of ways, our store has gone backwards

and a lot of ways it has gone forwards, but COVID like showed

you an income potential inside of the business, at least in my

opinion, that most people are like, Oh, it will never happen

again.

You'll never achieve that level of like net profit success based

on, you know, all these other factors, but it's like for me,

especially since COVID, it just moved the goalpost in a way

that's like it can be done.

It doesn't mean it's going to happen overnight, but it means

at one point in time, we made this much money.

I made this much money on whatever my percentage is or was

at the time, and like, if I could recreate that level of

success under new market conditions, like what does that

mean for everybody around me?

And again, I'm going to lose sometimes, but I'm going to keep

pushing whatever formula, whatever, you know, I don't know

whatever new thing I think is going to take us to that level.

It just allows me to keep driving because it's like you

saw that bottom line and you were just like, Oh, man, this is

like, this is it.

This is the holy grail of like what running a business or

running a department or whatever looks like and to have that

then taken away from you, you know, just for me is like,

well, I'm going to do everything it takes to get there.

And we're, we're, I mean, we're, we're damn near there.

Sorry for the language at this point, but it's like it just

it's all, I don't know.

It's just this idea of like telling me what isn't possible

anymore, but I saw it happen and then taking it away.

You know, and so it's like, yeah, we might go backwards, but

it's the goal is that.

Yeah.

And then of course the goal will be higher and whatever, but

I just, I think that COVID like if you, if you looked at it

from the right perspective, showed you what could be.

Yeah, you know, even though you didn't deserve it.

Yeah, I mean, this doesn't sound weird at all.

It's like what I'm hearing is you got a taste of what's possible

and people might be thinking about this and I'm going to call

out the, the myopic nature that some may like it.

Look at this.

They're like, yeah, but it took a global pandemic and it's like,

no, no, no, no, no.

There was a condition that created a market situation,

which means that the condition is replaceable.

It doesn't have to be a pandemic to your point.

That just happened to be the case during the pandemic.

But, but what I'm hearing you actually say is, Hey, there was

a condition that caused a market scenario, which means that

maybe there could be other conditions and maybe some of those

conditions I could actually create those conditions.

I mean, like you look at what is demand generation even mean

in the marketing sphere.

It's like, I generate demand.

I mean, gosh, like, bro, I walked into the store the other day

called learning express not sponsored hashtag not sponsored.

And it was jam packed with 12 and 13 and 14 year old girls

buying these squishy toys.

The what are the, I don't even remember they call them.

They got some name for them.

Also, but like a frenzy dude, a frenzy and I think about this

store can't keep these squishies in stock that they've had to

now post on their socials when a new shipment will arrive.

And bro, there's moms taking their kids out of school to go

stand in line.

Somebody created that demand there.

Someone saw how to create a condition to generate the

demand that changes a market scenario for not just the store,

but like whoever is making these squishies China, China is

making these squishies.

But you know what I mean?

And I'm that that's what I'm hearing you say.

And I think it's really important to emphasize.

It's not a weird conversation to me at all.

It's it's a poignant alternate perspective about, Hey, this

this didn't necessarily got ripped away from me.

The condition stopped and we weren't paying attention to

the condition.

We were paying attention to what happened in the market.

We should have been paying attention to the condition and

said and actually become a student of it is what I'm

hearing you saying like what about that condition created so

much demand?

How do we rec replicate what caused to the condition?

Yeah, I mean, I just like I it it's what it was one of those

peak moments those in my life where I was like this is possible.

Yeah, it was very eye-opening that we're opening our doors

every day.

We're making X amount of dollars.

Again, we weren't prepared for it.

Yeah, ish, you know, so so one, I don't think we capitalize on

it enough, but two, we didn't we weren't the reason that it

happened.

So replicating it is something that has to come through trial

and error and part of that success comes with

failing in different ways.

But at the end of the day, if I can get my volume to a certain

place and I can make this much money on the back of each car

and this much money on the front and by generating that much

volume, I can create that much more income in service and parts

and all those different places.

It's like at the end of the day, I can through volume replicate

the net profit of COVID.

I know that I can and it's just been this constant

little like we're going to squiggly line it all the way up.

Sometimes we're going to drop and squiggly wind our way back

and again, it's just like seeing what's possible and knowing

it's there.

And then also the couple with the idea of like every 20 group

moderator that I've ever seen being like, that's never going

to happen again.

You know, and it's like, oh, yes, it will.

It sure will.

We'll get there.

You know, but you're like, yeah, why what hold my hold my diet

Dr. Pepper.

Oh, my rockstar.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, bro.

That's not good.

My one guilty pleasure, the monster peachy.

I'd like to say that it's my concert.

Okay, this is I mean, I find this so fascinating.

I love the I'm learning about the the inside mechanics of how

your brain perceives things and it's and it's fascinating to me

and I hope people are leaning in because there's so many secrets

being divulged here that that you or I may not think are secrets,

but when you really pull back the curtain, you're like, this

is different than the way most people look at their circumstances.

Ambition, desire, possibility, like the exploration of possibility

I'm hearing is exciting to you.

We've talked about team dynamics and leadership dynamics

inside of that team, which brings me to the culture piece of

all of this.

I don't want to linger too long on culture because I think

people know that it's important and it's a it's a driver and

it's a foundation.

But specifically, I want to dig into this piece.

There's always conversations about and you had brought it up

earlier, pay how have you found the appropriate balances in pay

plan so that also people are incentivized to do their best

work and to also show up when times are tough.

I mean, I think it comes with being flexible on pay.

I think is the most important thing is that like I a pay plan

exists and works well as long as the marketing conditions are

steady and your goals are steady.

But if either of those things change, I think as someone who

cares about their people more, I think that you'll go farther

caring about your people and their financial situation in the

long run, then you will in protecting your bottom line in

a short period of turmoil.

And so I think being flexible and making sure that your pay

plan aligns with your store's goals are obvious.

That's it seems obvious, but doesn't always work, you know,

on like a 30 day window or even like a three month window.

It's like, what am I trying to achieve in the next year?

And my pay plan needs to line up with that goal.

And sometimes I'm going to win as an operator.

Sometimes I'm going to lose, but I'm going to win ultimately

in the end because it will match up with where I'm going to go.

And so for us, I mean salespeople, I guess is like the easiest

one to talk about, but it's a mix between volume and gross.

I want to grow the store.

I'm going to grow that through volume, but we can't lose sight

of the fact that like I don't want to do more work for less

money.

I'm not interested in that.

That's something about me is like I'm commissioned through

and through and this idea that like I'm going to work harder

and make less doesn't resonate with the core of my being.

And so for me that those two things have to line up, but

they will change and my team knows that they might change

every single year.

Lucky enough that they haven't in the last couple, but it's

like at the drop of a hat come 2027.

I guess it's not the drop of a hat, but come 2027.

If my goal shift, their goal shift, but I will make sure that

it's a fair pay plan for them to achieve what they need to

achieve in their life.

You know, love it because it's like they know what to expect,

but also what I'm hearing you saying is it is flexible, but

are you saying you you are committed to at least keeping

it in place for a year?

Yeah, always.

Yeah, got it.

I don't want them to I don't I don't want the fear of like

an unknown paycheck or an unknown pay plan to limit them

or whether or not they feel comfortable working for me.

You know, it's like if I'm giving you a pay plan, I'm going

to see it out for this period of time, but I reserve the right

Brian Benstock said this at NADA and I think I've used it a

thousand times since then, but I reserve the right to manage

my business and like if my goals change, your pay plan is

going to change too.

But that's just how things work.

You know, so do you think it's like that your goals change or

that your understanding of how to get to the kind of the macro

is you're like you're pivoting your you're being flexible

for yourself along the way.

That's a more eloquent way of saying it.

Yes, like how I'm going to get to my goals could shift based

on market conditions, based on, you know, what's available

in front of me, what what resources I have to pull from.

So yeah, I guess my goals never change how I get there will

change.

I just got to say this and I don't mean it as an insult.

There's that you know me, you're like, where's he going?

He's going to bring a background.

Bro, you are your spirit animal might be a bison.

People think bears, people think lions.

You know why I think it's a bison?

I learned this recently and this fascinates me bison when

they see a storm coming where most animals right we see birds

we say everybody fly away from the storm bison are one of the

few animals that run towards the storm and the reason that

that people that observe the species have gathered is because

bison know that if they run into the if a storm is approaching

them and they're running into it their time in the storm will

be less than everyone because like when you're running away

from it the storm is going to catch up to you and then you're

going to be caught in the storm and the storm is just going

to move with you bison like everything you've talked about

I'm like this dude runs into storms.

Yeah, I probably do.

Yeah, that's fair.

And I mean, not only are you stacked guys, I've I've been

with Charlie in real life.

He's he's built like Mr. Incredible.

It's where you're blushing and I'm like, I know I know I'm

going to get a little red on camera.

People put pictures of Chris Pratt on the wall in the gym

and Arnold.

I put pictures of Charlie Spradlin.

Now you're gasping.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

So not only are you stacked like a bison you behave like one

by running directly into the storm and and that creates

something that I believe so deeply in which is a fierce

passionate leadership that is worth following.

I think people are struggling so often in our industry to be

like, how do I get people to follow me and and what I'm

hearing you say and what I know resonates deeply with me is

behave in a way that is worth following.

Like you said it earlier, you were like, you know, all of

this is great, but like you have to have action to back it up.

Yes, I was a percent.

And I mean, I just find that inspiring and and that is the

secret, you know, I've done.

700 and who knows the number now interviews with

people from every profession, essentially.

And so many in the in the auto industry.

And here we have episode 700 and whatever it is

with Charlie Spradlin, general manager at Art Main, who's

tying a bow on so many threads, you know, like that that's

what's critical to me that people pay attention to.

What's a challenge you're thinking about right now and

some possible ways that you're going to maneuver through it.

The most glaring issue that we're facing right now as I

stare off into my lot that's nice and full is like a used

car inventory issue, you know, people warned about it for

years, all the, you know, the big data guys and all those

fancy, all the fancy tools telling us that like, hey,

heads up, not enough new cars coming to the market, you're

going to have a used car shortage, you know, the demand

outweighs the supply and all that stuff is true, coupled

with the fact that people can't afford it, you know.

And so like this, this weird demand of like not having

enough cars, so having to pay more for them theoretically

while making them affordable for your customers, all while

feeding your service department, you know, it's just this

big ecosystem and my, my big solution to that is to again

reach out to people that know more than me that are going

to be able to educate me because I don't know mostly

and I mean, most of the things I try to tackle, I know nothing

about because I've never experienced them, you know,

it's like, I've been doing this for 12 years in the business,

but there's lots of stuff that I haven't been exposed to.

And so I reached out to Frank Knox, who you're familiar

with, helping me build a department inside of our dealership

that just acquires cars and acquires them in a way that

is profitable and turns efficiently and moves through

my service department so that everybody is fed inside

of it and really focusing on, again, my goals haven't

changed, but how I get their will.

And we're creating a standalone department inside

of the dealership that is focused entirely on this

portion of the business with their own metrics, their own

pay plans, everything is separate from what we do

standard, standard Lee in the sales department.

From an operational perspective, let me ask, how much time

do you give yourself to get that to put because like we're

not just talking about onboarding a software, we're

talking about your building a whole department.

Yeah.

Operation Lee, how much time do you think that that's going

to take you and how do you make sure that the other

priorities are moving forward while you I don't want to

say divert focus, but while you do allocate a good chunk

of focus to doing that.

Yeah, I so my short answer for time is as long as it takes,

but in reality, I think it's going to take us eight months

to a year to have a well oiled acquisition department.

I just I have I have dabbled in different ways before we've

done service lane buying, we've done private party, you

know, we've dabbled in all these different ways like a lot

of other car dealerships have and never again, never sat

down, charted out a path and committed to making something

happen as far as acquisition goes.

And so I think it'll take us a year if I'm being realistic

to where it's at a standard that I feel comfortable with.

My other part of that is learning how to let go of the

superhero cape of being involved in everything across the

board all the time, investing tons of tons of my time and

energy into trying to touch everything in the dealership

which is just exhausting.

And while it can be endearing to your team can also make it

look like you don't care enough about any individual thing,

you know, because you're just shooting all over the place.

Yeah, not really giving things their attention by by creating

champions for each thing that we're focused on in the

dealership and empowering that champion to make decisions to

make mistakes to call me to you know, to help me bail them out

or help them with whatever they're struggling with but creating

champions so that the things that I'm focused on that are

doing well and propelling us forward aren't losing steam and

I have to get better.

I'm constantly getting better and handing off that responsibility

while I try to focus on something else and but that's been

a huge thing for me this year is moving forward in my own career

as I'm taking on more responsibilities in different ways.

A lot of the same responsibilities for just budget again just

different ones and having champions to do each one and

trusting them to do their job.

Oh my gosh.

I feel like we could have an episode just on this piece because

what I'm what I'm hearing is something that I've fundamentally

struggled with in my career which is this this you know and

you use the word champion and I take that as you know you look

at your career and you go from operator doing the things like

I do the meet and greet I do the demo you know I've

I've done all of the things now I'm in a position where I'm no

longer an operator I'm an architect and I know I've struggled

with kind of the identity crisis of like well what is an

architect do that's different than an operator while feeling

the gravitational pull towards operation but to your point

you said you know like you've got a team you've built a team

to do the operating now and you're an architect and gosh I mean

I think that that's something that resonates with so many

people I know it resonates with me you know even as I build

my team I'm like dang I just spent the last 20 years building

a juggernaut team that knows how to operate and I'm the

architect but sometimes I I measure myself against operator

as an architect and then go home feeling like I need to sit

and like build something I'm like sorry guys I've just convinced

myself that I need to like do something tonight that's

operatory feeling can I share with you like how I came to the

conclusion that I need to be better at that yeah tell me so

Danelle Delgado again just another person in my life who's

giving me tons of stuff for free of her own time and all these

different things she's a mentor to me now and she posited all

these different questions and like what you do and then she

challenged us to use an AI tool to like learn more about us to

ask it questions to ask for help and you know create all these

different things and then challenge chat GBT to come up

with the one thing that it registers from all the information

we've been pouring into it that we need to work on and my big

bold thing was to take off the superhero cape from AI like it

it was so obvious and who I am as a person that even AI who

knows nothing actually about me outside of what I put into it

was like hey you need to step back and like you'll never

achieve the goals you're trying to achieve by doing it on your

own and it was just like how long did you have to sit with that

for it to kind of ring true to you.

The moment I read it I was like that's my biggest problem.

I was like you to accept it like you know it but like I still

haven't accepted it I like the nail pushes me

me every week that we talk to let go let go and allow your

team and it just it takes a lot because I've been working on

this store I've been building this team in this culture for

so long I just it's my baby you know and it's like it was very

successful before I ever got involved but I'm very proud of

where we brought it and where we got to so it's really really

hard to like to let go and trust that other people are going

to do it and then also know that once you get those people

really good they might leave you you know and you have to start

again you know and so it's like that's hard for anybody but

I just I really struggled with it but I'm getting I'm getting

a lot better and I'm seeing how valuable of a of a personality

trade it is to be able to trust people to do their job.

Yeah and the unlock there is you know a to your point you'll

never be able to get to the things that you really want to

get to if you don't pull the cape off and B because we know

other people have to operate and that they may leave then all

the more reason that you are sitting in the architects

chair the visions chair so that when the next person comes in

you're you are the consistent person conveying the vision and

and pulling the team you know in that direction versus somebody

who's not bought in who doesn't have the vision and that

probably is the clearest articulation of why the the

architect role is needed in the business but that fundamentally

and I think hey if you're listening and this hits you

you're a part of a club like because we all feel it from

time to time especially I also love that you just brought up

a practical use for AI.

Oh yeah right like you're you're not saying oh and I did it

to this and I pulled all these things I'm like no I used it

to interview me essentially is what I heard.

Yeah you'd share with me my weaknesses that I can't I'm not

picking up on you know.

Yeah I love it.

Okay well I mean I want to keep talking to you for the rest

of the day but the big boss called we heard the phone

but we're probably going to snip that piece out and make it

a real and share it specifically with him that you ignored

his call.

I do I do appreciate that right appreciate that but man I

can't tell you I love getting to share time with you thank you

for pouring into us how can those listening or watching

connect with you.

I don't really have a personal brand or anything like that

I'm always happy to help or give advice so I guess someone

could find me on LinkedIn I have it I don't really use it but

I do check my messages and then I Facebook I'm probably the

most active there as one of my challenges from Danelle this

years to be more active and share more of myself on social

media I'm working on that so if anybody sees some of my post

and has some feedback for me I'd love to love to hear it.

Yeah you'd be like bro smash that I'm not a personal brand

smash that like button hit subscribe to like button dude.

I love it man thanks so much for joining me on the dealer

playbook podcast.

Yeah thanks Michael good seeing you man.

Hey thanks for listening to the dealer playbook podcast.

If you enjoyed tuning in please subscribe share and hit that

like button.

You can also join us and the dpb community on social media

check back next week for a new dealer playbook episode.

Thanks so much for joining.

About this episode

Charlie Spradlin, General Manager at Art Moehn Auto Group, shares his unconventional journey from studying philosophy to leading record-breaking dealership teams. Spradlin discusses entering the automotive industry out of survival, the power of mentorship, and how a willingness to admit what you don't know can accelerate professional growth. He offers practical leadership insights on navigating post-COVID challenges, from inventory shortages to affordability issues, emphasizing why dealership leaders must foster highly adaptable teams that can pivot at a moment's notice to sustain long-term retail success.

20 group acquisition department Art Moehn Auto Group Brian Benstock Joe Verdi Jonathan Dawson NADA rooftops service lane buying

Original notes

There's a moment in this conversation where Charlie Spradlin says something most GMs would never admit out loud, and it's the reason his multi-rooftop dealer group keeps adapting faster than everyone else around him. He's not running things the way you'd expect for someone breaking records the way he is. This episode gets into how he actually leads his team through constant market shifts, what's really going on with his pay plan, and the one thing he had to let go of to get his store to where it is now.

What you'll get from this episode:

The mindset shift that changed how fast Charlie's team responds to a changing market
What's actually behind his pay plan, and why it's not what most dealers expect
The one thing Charlie had to give up to grow past where he was stuck
A different take on what real trust looks like between a GM and their team

Charlie Spradlin is GM at Art Moehn Chevrolet Honda, where he's grown a multi-rooftop dealer group while protecting net profit through constant market shifts.

Follow The Dealer Playbook so you never miss an episode.(00:00) What's Coming

(00:51) Sponsor Message FlexDealer

(02:22) Origin Story Into Auto

(05:37) Climbing To General Manager

(06:38) Mentors And Proximity

(08:38) Discomfort And Humility

(12:34) Post COVID Challenges

(14:19) Vulnerable Leadership

(17:32) Big Picture Perspective

(25:50) Pay Plans And Culture

(29:22) Running Into Storms

(31:59) Used Car Inventory Fix

(34:53) Architect Not Operator

(40:52) Closing And Connect

(41:51) Final Outro

The Dealer Playbook

Michael Cirillo

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