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Spisak on Acquisition Pitfalls, Adragna on Hardest Dealership Roles to Hire | Daily Dealer Live
Spisak on Acquisition Pitfalls, Adragna on Hardest Dealership Roles to Hire | Daily Dealer Live
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About this episode
The episode dives into the challenges of hiring in the automotive industry, focusing on the toughest roles to fill, particularly technicians and controllers. Guests David Spiesak and Steven Adragna share insights on the importance of finding the right talent and strategies for retention. Spiesak discusses the impact of AI in automotive, emphasizing the need for practical solutions over hype. The episode also covers recent automotive headlines, including Buick's turnaround and the evolving market dynamics, making it a rich discussion for industry professionals.
Topics:
hiring challenges
automotive roles
retention strategies
AI in automotive
Buick turnaround
market dynamics
controller hiring
technician recruitment
Today's show features:
David Spisak, President/CEO of Disruptive Growth Solutions, LLC
Steven Adragna, General Manager at CDG Recruiting
This episode is brought to you by:
Prime Dealer Equity Fund - Prime Dealer Equity Fund is providing a limited number of accredited investors with $100,000 or more the rare opportunity to invest directly into franchised auto dealerships; the offering can only be made via the Private Placement Memorandum under Regulation 506(c). Led by seasoned operators with deep experience in both dealership operations and fund management, the fund is designed to deliver consistent cash flow and long-term capital appreciation. f you’re looking to diversify into this asset class—this is your chance. Check out https://primedealerfund.com/CDG/ to learn more.
Disclaimer: This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any investment can only be made through the official Private Placement Memorandum and only by verified accredited investors. Nothing stated here should be considered investment advice.
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We're doing better as a result of social media presence.
If it doesn't do those three things, then it's on the chopping block.
It's in return on investment discussion.
Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of the Daily Dealer Live Podcast.
I'm your host, Sam Dark.
And back with us today is the Julie D. Martino.
Julie, welcome back.
What's up, guys?
You know, I said podcast.
I hiccuped on that line.
This is a live stream.
And we're joined by everybody across social media.
Also, CDG social media platforms were live across all of them.
Post your comments.
We'll bring those comments into today's show.
And we've got a bunch of topics
that are intriguing to me, Julie.
I think you as well.
I hope you, our audience as well.
For example, finding that right hire in automotive here is gold.
It saves time.
It builds culture.
That right hire has a direct impact to net profits.
And Julie, today we are going to explore
the toughest positions to fill.
Any guesses on which ones are the toughest in automotive
to fill and retain?
I mean, I feel like I know the answer.
Do you want a real guess or do we want to keep it?
No, no, no.
Let's keep it going.
But actually, on social, you can post it to it.
We'll bring those in.
Plus, we're going to give you three strategies
to filling and retaining the best.
One of our guests is a subject matter expert on this today.
We'll hear a little more on that later today.
But also, we've got David Spiesak.
He joins to discuss AI chaos and automotive.
What the promises of AI are so often
under delivering alongside tips to avoid the challenges
of costly trial and error.
Not only the challenges, but I feel like there's
an economic cost to some of that as well.
That can be avoided as we approach things
in a little bit different way with David Spiesak.
But first, let's dive into today's biggest automotive
headlines.
First up this morning, new cars were a touch more
affordable in July, making the second straight month
of improvement.
The typical buyer needs 36.8 weeks of income
to purchase an average new car.
That's down from 38.6 weeks a year
according to Cox Automotive.
Average monthly payments fell to $748 the lowest since March
as automakers leaned harder on incentives.
Vehicle prices also slipped a 10th of a percent.
Loan rates held steady at 9.63%,
but that's still a full point lower than last July.
And incomes rose 3.4% year over year,
giving some buyers extra cushion.
By the way, that data point from Cox is fascinating.
I know it's backed up by Fed reporting.
Incomes are rising right now.
That's a good sign for overall economic health.
And that's a great sign for automotive
as we wait for interest rates to drop significantly.
Next up today, Julie, and our daily dealer live audience,
Acura is reworking its brand product playbook
with plans to finally bring more hybrids into its lineup,
marking a sharp turn for the Honda-owned premium brand.
That shift comes as Honda invests $1 billion
into its Marysville, Ohio plant.
That actually, what's the show where he says $1 billion?
That sounds like a lot, and that is a lot,
which will build ICE, hybrid, and EV models
on the same lines, giving Acura the flexibility
to slot in hybrids quickly.
While the brand hasn't confirmed which models will come.
First, industry chatter points to a hybrid MDX,
aligning with Honda's strategy to electrify larger vehicles.
Honda's already had traction in the space.
Hybrids now account for 56% of Accord sales
and a Civic hybrid test returned 51 miles per gallon
over two months.
With US hybrid sales more than double EVs in early 25,
Acura's pivot looks less like an experiment
and more like a necessity as it fights to say relevant.
In a segment, its rivals from Lexus to Hyundai
are racing to own.
Fascinating.
And finally, a headline that blew up over the weekend,
Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf is leading a product first
turnaround to rebuild market share
and re-energize the brand.
In just a few months, he's made 81 changes,
some tiny, some big, while keeping an eye on Jeep Reddit
threads where he sometimes jumps into the comments himself.
So heads up to everybody out there on Reddit.
If you want Bob's ear on all things Jeep,
go to Reddit and post there.
You may get his engagement.
The strategy centers on consistency
for Jeep's core audience while pulling in new buyers
with fresh launches like the Recon EV,
a 2026 Cherokee hybrid with all-wheel drive
and updated Wagoneer models, including the all-electric
Wagoneer S, hopefully under $100,000.
The mandate is clear, rebuild market share,
restore profitability, and cement
Jeep's position as a leader in key segments
of the SUV marketplace, which they
have been a standard Jeep has been for decades
since as long as I can remember you, right?
Yeah, we love Jeep.
And also it was Austin Powers with Dr. Evil.
It was, yes, $1 billion.
So they're investing.
You heard it first here on The Daily Dealer Live.
So hey, we mentioned this last week.
I'm going to mention it one more time here.
We get a ton of requests.
People reach out to me in DMs, email, they call.
We want all the requests for dealers
to join the show and come talk to us about topics
that matter to them most.
We're taking those requests into one place
just to help from an organizational standpoint
to make it a little bit easier.
Dealers, if you want to join the show,
please visit cdgguest.com.
That's cdgguest.com.
Fill out the intake form to be considered for a future guest
spot.
And the wonderful Michelle will reach out to you
and find out your topic and what you're interested in
and potentially bring you on the show.
So go to that spot to be brought in.
And Yuli, we've got a great lineup today, don't we?
We do.
Yeah, we do.
We really do.
Let's jump into it.
First off, President and CEO of Disruptive Growth Solutions
David Spiezeck, welcome, David, to the show.
Well, it's good to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Hi, David.
Oh, my gosh, you sound like a million dollars.
That is why it's a plastic mic.
Thank you, I know if you want, we
could switch the show over to being late night.
It could be like the love line, right?
Sam Doherty.
You want the cdg love line.
Go ahead.
Actually, if Taylor has my graphic from the close out
from last show, that would be a good appropriate.
Art Bell, David, you and I are of a similar generation.
We remember Art Bell, the late night, right?
Late night radio.
He or Larry King, so.
But no, that's a cool mic.
All right.
Before we get into the topic that you're here for,
answer our show's question, which is, how's biz?
And as you do that, give us a little bit of background
on who you are and what you define as biz, David.
Well, who I am, I'm a car guy.
Interesting, which is a good fit for the car dealership guy
show.
I'm a 45-plus year car guy, served in the Navy.
To all of you out there, thank you for your service.
Thanks for your service.
And fell into a job in the car business, like most of us.
Like most of us didn't sit on our mother and father's
lap at 8 and say, if I really work hard at school
and meet the right people, I'm hoping to sell cars.
We just kind of fell into this business.
And then most of us fell in love with it
and a little bit like Al Pacino and Godfather 3.
Every time you try to get out, they pull you back in.
So I'm a car guy, disruptive gross.
I'm a former dealer, spent 25 years in retail.
The last 18, 20 years, I've been creating software solutions,
including reverse risk, excessive net profit,
and a couple of others have sold a couple of those solutions
and have, I don't know, four or 5,000 clients out there
on software.
Today, I do the David Spiesak show.
Tune in.
Very good.
I'd love to have you guys on.
I'd like to flip the script.
Bring us on.
Let's bring it.
Yeah, I'd like to put the script.
Let's do it.
Do some kind of a TMZ expose with you guys.
I don't think it's salacious.
We'll make up everything.
But I do that once a week.
I drop that once a week, but my main focus
is on being an advocate for dealers.
So I'm an advisor and consultant for dealers
around the country, and that keeps me close.
I spend over 150 days a year in dealerships
so that I'm real in what's happening now.
And I also do consulting and advisory
for some of the top tech clients out there in their industry.
So it's a great way to spend time.
It keeps me off the mean streets, if you will.
Yeah, so with all this background,
all your experience touching dealers
from coast to coast here in the United States,
from your vantage point, how is automotive retail
this month, August of 2025, mid month?
What do you see out there?
You know, it's a mixed bag.
And I think that we're entering a period of time
in retail automotive to where the franchise counts.
And I think one of your topics today is people.
So the franchise counts, of course, AI,
it's going to be top of mind.
Use car acquisitions can be top of mind.
There's always going to be things top of mind,
fixed operations if you're not paying attention to fix.
This is not the year to get interested,
not the year to focus.
It's the year to master fixed operations
because it is guaranteed growth
for the next five, 10 years or beyond.
And we're not so certain where we're going to be
with variable, but you have more risks
than the variable sign.
As far as use cars, you know,
it's a very interesting situation in June.
Our use car inventory of all things
went up 14.5% in a market
that's been struggling to get used cars.
And of course, we're in a situation
where Carvana and CarMax have never been stronger.
Carvana is nearing $50 billion.
This is incredible for a company in December 22,
less than three years ago, guys,
it was less than $1 billion.
When the stock fell from 371 down to four bucks,
but Ernie Garcia and that team
has done possibly the greatest turnaround
in the history of the stock market.
CarMax is solid.
And we're seeing more and more dealers
starting to really go to school on them.
Success leaves clues, of course,
and they're going to school and starting to learn
and how to leverage the things
those companies do very well,
but then coupling those with things
those companies cannot do.
They don't have new,
they don't have leasing off lease loaner cars.
And they can't get that face-to-face Carvana
necessarily that a retail dealer can.
So, David, before we ask you to go into
what are the things they do really well
that is a masterclass for dealers,
let's pull a thread you mentioned earlier.
You said right now, it is a tale of OEMs.
There's the great ones, right?
And how's biz pivots on what OEM?
Who do you see as the top two
and the bottom two most struggling OEMs and why?
It stays market.
Man, this is a challenge,
don't hate me OEMs or dealers,
but I'm going to keep it real.
I always have said for my whole existence,
I'm not trying to get invited to anybody's pool party.
I'm trying to help dealers win.
So let's be real,
there's no question who number one is.
It is and probably for the long term will be Toyota.
Why is it?
They don't just create phenomenal vehicles
that consumers love, trust and rely on.
Honda is another one that creates fantastic vehicles
and will always be relevant in that top conversation,
but what separates Toyota is not the cars,
it's the organization.
So that partnership, they have it,
every OEM says we're partners,
but the last time I looked guys,
when was the last time you were in a partnership
where your partner didn't tell everything that was going on,
where your partner wasn't transparent,
where your partner said,
hey, you've got to be transparent with your clients,
but they're not transparent with me.
Those relationships don't last long, do they?
No, no.
So when you think about this and you mentioned Jeep
and I'm super hopeful for Jeep,
but I'm gonna wait until I'm gonna be a little bit
of the Missouri state and have them prove it first
since their market share has dumped in previous years.
But Toyota's an iconic American brand, Jesus.
Oh, you want them to come on.
Who doesn't love the comeback story?
So David, who do you put at the bottom?
Who are the two or three bottom
that you see struggling right now
that could mount a massive turnaround?
Well, Stellantis is very much at the bottom.
If you simply look at market share,
if you pay attention to how they've treated their dealers,
you don't have to just treat your clients right.
You have to create great products, of course,
but you better think about re-energizing
your dealer network as much as you're thinking
about re-energizing the product lineup
because that dealer network is critical
to getting the word out
and being able to sell those vehicles.
At the bottom, I have to say right now,
boy, I gotta keep Stellantis there
until they've proved me otherwise,
but I'm super hopeful, Jason Stojevich
and a number of other people that are back at the reins,
I think, are in position and fully committed.
The other one, man, it's a tough one.
I'm very mixed on Hyundai just because
of the partner side of things.
Yeah, I like the brand, I like the cars.
I'm not necessarily in love
with the partnership relationship.
When you look at others, I mean,
how do you not have conversations about Volvo, about Mini,
about some of these fringe franchises out there
that Lincoln, for God's sakes.
I mean, how do you get relevancy
when you're at 1% or less market share in this country?
Very hard.
So at the top, you also have Porsche, you have Lexus.
I still think Subaru is a mover shaker,
although watch out, Subaru,
because they've been sitting on their cars for way too long
and they need to kind of, I think,
I think they need to consider the fact
that others are catching up.
But historically, they've shown a discipline
that has been unusual in automotive,
not oversupplying, not undersupplying.
They produced to demand very nicely, in my opinion.
They have, but they kind of went from Rolex to Target,
you know, over a couple of periods of time.
They were always subscribing when Tom Dahl was there
to the one-two-few.
And they jumped in, I think,
wanting to go all in against Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai.
And I think they went outside their lane a little bit.
So I have full confidence.
It's a phenomenal brand, phenomenal story,
almost a cult-like client.
100%.
Yeah.
And actually, with some exposure to the Subaru brand,
I, David, I'm gonna disagree with you a little bit.
I think if there is a little overproduction,
which I haven't seen yet 100% from my vantage point,
I think it's probably on the footstool of tariffs, right?
So, but that's good that we can agree to disagree, I like it.
We shall see, we shall see.
All right, so as far as this question you have up there,
do you have a defined use car policy?
Let me share something with you
that may be considered controversial.
So for years, it used to be a 90-day turn,
and then somebody finally woke up and said,
okay, that's not working.
So they flipped it down to a 60-day turn.
Everybody subscribed to that.
I've got news for you guys.
I've got data, hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of sales across the country.
And you know what's interesting?
The cars that sell in under 15 days
make, obviously, maximum gross.
They have maximum GDPs.
They have very low, if any, advertising costs,
and they have tiny floor plan.
So that's no surprise.
Keep in mind, everybody out there,
you have two types of vehicles in stock.
You have cars people want to buy,
and cars you have to sell.
Now, the cars that people want to buy
always flip in under 15,
and the average days are actually eight.
If you look at the data, 16 to 30 days, gentlemen,
the gross cuts in half or less.
And if you look at all the cars
that sold in the United States,
give me every dealer you can.
I'll throw them all into my data analysis.
The average gross is actually negative.
So my view of the world is, explain this to me.
If you need to turn your inventory 12 times in a year,
that's a 30-day turn, right?
And if you're not turning in 30 days,
you're probably not profitable.
In fact, most dealerships are wildly unprofitable.
So what's my turn policy?
It's simple.
If my car doesn't have significant VDPs or write-ups
within 21 days, the car's out.
Think of how crazy most people
are gonna think about that.
But if the car's not popular in demand,
if it's not a car people wanna buy in 21 days,
why do we keep thinking it's gonna become popular
in 30 or 45 days?
And when you say it's out at day 21,
what does that mean?
Wholesale it, sell it, regale it, launch it, price-wise?
It's just wrong.
Regardless of the loss.
Well, at best case,
you better be number one in the market
for whatever that car is.
I'll tell you why.
People will sometimes tell me, guys,
hey, we're the fifth lowest or eighth lowest.
My answer to that is,
so point out the customer that's out there going,
you know, as long as I could get the eighth best deal.
I'm gonna be because it doesn't happen, right?
It doesn't happen.
So many people fall in love with the metal too.
You get this little cream puff
or some one-off or maybe a more rare car.
And for some reason, your used car manager thinks,
hey, let's price it to 115 or 120% of market.
And it's like, all right.
So now you get no clicks for the first 20 days
of your points.
It's just dead air.
You know what's crazy?
What a waste of time and money.
You have this little company called CarMax
who is so disciplined that they know,
they've got the data and the discipline
to know exactly what to do with a car on day one.
They have an exit strategy day one.
It's either retail or wholesale.
So think about this.
The number one challenge for a Carvan
or CarMax is feed the beast.
I need as many cars as possible.
So explain to me why CarMax wholesaleed
almost 600,000 vehicles last year.
I'll tell you why.
Because their data told them it would not sell.
It would not be a profitable outcome in under 30 days.
So what do you do?
Well, what if we come up with an auction
and we'll sell these cars that are undesirable
and don't meet our ideal inventory?
Gentlemen, who bought those 550,000 cars?
Dealers.
So dealers took CarMax off the hook
for cars that were likely to be unprofitable
and a problem.
And then dealers, check this out.
10% of the cars CarMax sold profitably came from dealers.
Guys, it's time to wake up.
It's time to rethink.
And one of the things you got to start with
and make sure you have an exit strategy.
I noticed that Yossi was on with Alex Vetter
from cars recently.
It was, yeah.
And dealer club fascinates me.
I think it's intriguing because I can list a car.
I can have a first day immediate exit strategy.
I can list it for free.
I can sell it for free.
I mean, what could be better than that
versus taking it to the auction?
Stop taking chances on cars
that are not your ideal inventory.
So David, what would you say to the used car manager,
the dealer right now?
So we had somebody on Industry Spotlight.
You can go back to that podcast.
You can see it, it dropped I think on Sunday
and he said, look, we don't have a turn policy.
We're using technology, some of AI driven,
some tech driven that tells us
where to put this vehicle, how to price it.
We're going to hang onto that until we sell it retail
because some dealers would say
used car pricing is uncertain right now.
Things are going up, things are going down.
Like some dealers would say,
it's better if we're going to invest in reconning it.
Let's hang on to it until we can retell it on our terms
rather than wholesaling it as you say off
to another dealer as CarMax has done.
What would your response be to that?
By the way, not my opinion.
It's just a question.
Just stop it.
Listen, is that what Carvana does?
Is that what CarMax does?
Is that what the top,
is that what the top used car performing retailers
in the country do?
Absolutely, positively not.
Now, here's the problem.
The problem is we have a disease in our industry
and again, don't hate me guys, but check me on this.
It's called irrational optimism.
It's optimism without basis
and that's what gets people in trouble.
I asked this question to hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds of dealers.
In the course of your career,
same thing with sales managers.
In the course of your career,
have you ever had a used car manager leave your store
either because they were asked to
or they left on their own
and the day after you had a mess to clean up?
What was the percentage people said that was true?
100%.
Why is that irrational optimism?
Here's the thing, you can get lucky
but just because I go to Vegas and get lucky
on 21 black or I get lucky at a black check tape,
that is not a 401K or a retirement
or a legitimate retirement plan or strategy.
So I think it's a big mistake.
I love that phrase by the right way.
Irrational, what'd you say, optimism
because you know who coined irrational exuberance, right?
Coming into 08 was Alan Greenspan, right?
That's right.
That people just got away with their own optimism.
Now we have irrational optimism.
It is a net profit assassin right then and then.
So give us the takeaway for the single point
or maybe you've got two or three rooftops
where this getting rid of that vehicle
at what was the day mark again, David?
You said?
I mean it's 21.
21 days.
It's 21 days.
I'm either gonna get rid of it guys
or mark it way down to make sure it's number one.
I need to give you peace.
You're gonna retell it, force retell it, okay?
Because CarMax with all the locations they have
they've got a bigger network,
more horsepower to do it.
A single point might say hey,
I can't afford to take that loss.
I can't afford to just retell
but you're saying price it to the marketplace
in that case, yeah?
Yeah, you ever noticed guys,
think about your whole career.
You don't have to sell cars people wanna buy.
You ever noticed that?
You have to sell cars people don't wanna buy.
So everybody please take a clue from that.
So if it's on day one,
here's the keys, here's the takeaway.
Number one, you have to figure out
what your ideal inventory is.
What is that based on?
It's not based on you, nobody cares.
It's based on what the searches are
in your marketplace.
What is selling in your market?
And the problem is most dealers repopulate
these car departments with cars they're selling.
Well, you're only selling them.
It's a self-fulfilled prophecy
because that's a car you have.
Please start looking at your search.
Number two, make sure that you know the ideal inventory
and your discipline to that.
Number three, make sure you price them to sell.
You'll find that most top performing used car places
never put more than two grand in a car.
Why?
They have figured out that if you wanna maximize gross
you don't do it one deal at a time.
You do it by maximizing turn.
If you give me 20 grand and I get you a car
and I sell it in under 20 days
and I'm able to turn that capital for you 15, 18, 20 times
you're going to beat the snot
out of everybody else out there
who's trying to make maximum gross.
Recon, you gotta re-look at your recon.
And last but not least,
you gotta make sure that you are merchandising
the vehicle correctly and get it out no more than 30 days.
80% of your cars should be sold in under 30 days, 80%.
So if you're doing that, you're doing something right.
So David, these are the lessons
that Caravana and CarMax have honed in on
and has helped cause the turnaround with CarMax
sorry, with Caravana.
And you're saying that if dealers take their strength
which is the franchise system
the access to used car trade-ins
that they can win in that marketplace
but leaning a little bit more on that.
How do dealers today win versus Caravana
with the franchise benefit?
Look at organizations like Eastern's Auto Group
which isn't largely an independent
one Nissan story is called I think 11
used car facilities in Virginia brilliantly run
Joe Basam, if you look at the Casa Auto Group
if you look at Edgar Costellanos in Southern California
going up against the most highest density
of new car franchises and he's killing them.
So in each case, that's what they've done
is they are paying attention, learning
from those clues that work over and over and over again
they're adopting those disciplines.
Also they're making recon so much easier
they're eliminating the great dealer Adam Arons
the relief, they're eliminating
the decision making in recon.
Most stores guys, the car comes in, it sits
I gotta wait for it to get in recon
and I gotta wait for the advisor to come back
and I gotta wait for what they're gonna say
then the advisors waiting for the used car
better to approve it.
In these top performing stores, they get the car in
and they get the car out.
Everybody knows what needs to be done.
They're getting the car through in three or four days
they're pricing it to move
and they're going after cars
that people ultimately wanna buy.
They don't pay attention to the nameplate
or what's on the hood nearly as much
as the fact that most people want a great car
with car play, Android play or whatever.
So David, we're almost done
and we're on a tight timeline
but I wanna hit one more topic
the producers are gonna kill me for this
but I wanna bring in just a couple of comments
cause you've got some good feedback here online.
So Darius said such valuable insight, thank you.
Ben says this guy is good.
And then Bert Davidson, he says
I've got 15 rooftops in three different markets.
I've been moving aged units around like Kelly
for two years now.
That's commentary back to the industry spotlight
and Kelly talked about Viotto, no turn policy
but a used car director
that's basically orchestrating moving vehicles around
which to your point, it's not outside
it keeps it inside the group says very few transferred
and then I lost the last part.
Transfer vehicles typically lose money.
Yeah, I consider it laundering.
So in fact, when I was an executive auto nation
I call that laundering
where I would catch one of my stores
taking a 60 day old unit
and instead of wholesaling it
they would wholesale it to another one of our stores
and that store would take their old car
and now it's in their store as a fresh unit
and the other one would do the same thing.
All you're doing is laundering inventory
but the thing doesn't get more valuable.
If you look at the publics
they write those cars down.
You wanna keep it, you wanna keep it
but you gotta write it down and forever said
oh, don't worry the prices are unstable
what if they go up?
Well, somebody please go into chat GPT
and tell me how many times that's happened
and when's the last time it happened?
Every single year it goes down.
This year we're more stable than most years recently
but it's still going down.
Great viewpoint that pivots or the counters
what we saw in the industry spotlight.
Dan Sias, so it's David's business model
essentially a consulting form for dealers.
If so, how do you price your services David
as you work with dealer groups?
For me, well my dealers are all on to monthly retainers
so I have a consulting and advisory agreement.
People can go to davidspesac.com
or disruptivegrosssolutions.com.
If they go to davidspesac.com
you'll also find about 230 podcast episodes
with some really smart people like yourself.
I'd love to have you on.
We're on, let's do it.
But basically they contact me
they could reach out DM me on LinkedIn
they could hit me on my cell phone
share this, write this in a bathroom
stall 5106040308
hit me up my team will send you the information
on how you could get a blank consulting
and advisory agreement.
No risk, 30 day out, it's easy.
Hey, I pay for my...
How's that for a setup, right?
A volleyball setup at Spike.
So that's a great answer to the question.
Two questions and then we got to go
because we got 30 seconds left.
Scorpio on my favorite movie is the note.
That's right, this is going to be like,
what's the toughest position
in all of automotive to hire?
Come on, come on.
That's a softball.
It's a technician, it's a technician.
The hardest?
I asked this question.
Harder than general manager?
A good general manager.
Not so much.
100 times.
Harder than a good technician.
Yeah, because here's the problem.
How many Gen Zs are going mom
if everything goes right for me?
I'm hoping to turn a wrench for the next 40 years.
I don't want to mess with things like AI.
People say the exact same thing about being a GM
or even in car sales, period.
Like, I never intended to get into...
My dad was a college professor.
He had great hopes of me doing all the great things
at a university that people do.
And here we are in the car business
and we love this business.
And we're having a pretty...
My wife is a brilliant physician
and she's astounded that we make so much more money
than brilliant physicians.
So I don't think we're doing bad,
but here's the problem.
We just don't have enough technicians.
In fact, I was listening to a podcast episode
with Jim Kramer last week with UTI CEO.
And he said they keep building more
and more and more local facilities.
They cannot keep up with demand.
If they built three or four more a year,
they can't keep up.
We can't find them.
Guys, if you have a great work culture
and you pay attention,
you can keep the good ones.
If you reduce turnover,
it's a heck of a lot easier to build a team.
Everybody knew my store
for being the most profitable in the country
at nearly 30 million.
But that wasn't my favorite stat.
My favorite stat was we had less
than 3% employee turnover.
That's what helped us create
that type of financial outcome.
So lower the turnover,
get the people right,
recruiting, development and retention.
All right.
And we actually have a great conversation coming up on that
including three tips to find the right person
to retain the right person long-term.
Last question, honestly, 15 seconds on this.
You said at the automotive forum,
you said when talking about AI,
the dealers want solutions, not noise.
And you cautioned against overhyping AI.
I know this opens up a big topic,
but just as a lightning round,
what's one or two AI driven
or tech driven solutions right now
that are valuable?
Because I agree with you,
there's a lot of noise.
Most often it's a solution in search of a problem.
Is there anything that you're seeing
that's good out there
as you're working with all the different groups
you're with?
I'll name a couple.
Constellation Out of New York has created AI agents
which is the first of its kind
that helps people don't hate me advertising agencies,
but you could eliminate brand strategists,
advertising strategists.
These agents are brilliant at helping you,
literally grab market share.
Two is Impel.
Impel is probably the king.
They've been around longer than anybody else out there.
They're good, I agree.
And you have Sky Vision,
which I've had so many of my clients
get into Sky Vision.
I mean, because you could tell,
you could reduce cycle time,
you can improve client satisfaction,
and you can help the acquisitions.
So what's the difference?
What's the operative most important difference
between the noise of AI and the execution of AI?
Number one, it depends on what DMS you're on.
If you're on a closed API DMS,
it's very tough.
You're going to end up living in silos
and relying on third party,
fractured kind of integrations.
If you're on a tech on cloud-based,
mobile-based, AI-based,
that makes a difference.
But otherwise, you've got to find people
that are focused on the right things
and have data origin in the right places.
So places like Dealer Inspire,
Cars, Commerce, Accu-Trade,
you've got others out there as well.
Vincue that are doing some really good things.
Drive-centric has some good stuff.
But guys, pay attention.
AI is not going to solve your problem.
It's not.
It can exacerbate your problem.
It'll actually uncover it
if you don't have good time in the process.
But it won't take it.
And on that, President CO,
Disruptive Growth Solutions,
David Spiezeck, we appreciate you being
on the show sharing your perspectives.
Thanks so much for having me, guys.
We should roll the bellings, David.
Yossi and the whole CDG team.
You guys are party.
That's our graphic.
It's Sam After Dark.
So this will be our late-night show, Dave.
I believe Sam,
I believe that one of the NADA after parties,
you looked exactly that way.
That could be.
That could be.
No future for their comment.
So good to be, good to see you.
See you, guys.
See you next time.
Thanks, David.
That's a heck of a lot of fun.
I love the conversation about turn, no turn.
Obviously, as a best practice,
you've got to have a turn practice.
But we did see on the industry spotlight
a great strategy for not having the turn,
but then making sure that the cars made it
to the right place.
Very interesting.
A lot of great commentary.
Bobby Evans says great insights.
David Dancy says another techie on plug.
We had several plugs in here.
By the way, these are not paid endorsements.
It's just to get information out
and let people know what the industry is seeing people
like David from his perspectives.
So let's talk about the show.
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to the Prime Dealer Equity Fund.
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All right.
Toughest job to hire and recruit for, Yuli.
What would you say before we bring on our next guest?
Controller.
You know, I agree, like,
and you know, I think as soon as we say toughest,
I think we also have to say,
like, toughest to find really good quality
that becomes a part of the organization
that stays, that grows, that develops.
Because there's so much bouncing around.
And if you just go to someone who's available,
you put a job listing out there
and they are not working anywhere,
you're just hiring someone else's problem.
It's almost like David Spiesak said,
you're buying that used car from another dealer group
to take on their problems.
Like, I don't want that.
I want someone that will grow here with us.
Yeah.
Listen, it's also mindset.
You know, I think the sales positions
are the easiest to fill
because the way we're wired in sales
is we're networking, we're outward reaching, right?
But when you look at these office positions
or even the fixed positions,
these guys are not living on social media
or even platforms like LinkedIn
and expanding their network.
They're doing their job.
They got their head down there.
You know, they're hard to find.
Yeah.
They don't get your orbit.
Which brings us up to our next guest,
General Manager, CDG Recruiting,
Steven Adrania, welcome to the show, Steven.
What's going on, gentlemen?
All right, so you heard David Spiesak talk
a little bit about hiring and recruiting
and give you his strategy.
He said, technicians are the toughest to hire for.
You're an expert in the industry.
You've placed a ton of automotive industry experts
and professionals across all automotive.
As part of your house biz,
tell us what is the toughest job
to hire and recruit for and why?
Absolutely, right now the toughest job
to hire for is controllers.
All across the board.
It's our biggest inquiry right now.
It's far exceeding technicians.
And we're seeing a lot of action
on the controller side right now.
And what makes controller so specialty driven
and make it such a tough hire long-term,
but also such a, I mean, valuable, I understand,
but why is it so tough to find good controllers?
Well, we're seeing a lot of centralized accounting
offices being set up right now.
And really that person that maybe came from,
you know, a huge background in accounting
is really accelerating right now.
Coming from a big firm,
coming through processes, procedures,
that's what a lot of our clients are looking for,
and then growth.
So with good accounting, with growth,
you need great accounting.
Awesome, that's great.
So thinking about another position.
So it's interesting, I think for my role,
like you'll put an ad out
and you'll get a bunch of respondents.
Typically it's not the people that respond
who are employed somewhere else
and who are doing well and crushing it.
It's the people who are unemployed,
who are trying to find another job,
who are frustrated with their prior employment.
And don't you think in a lot of cases,
that's hiring someone else's challenges, right?
What does it take into,
like why is it so hard to find those people
who are, and it answers my own question,
who are happy and well-employed?
And what are some tips and strategies
for finding those happy, well-employed
and bringing them into a great organization
such as ours or any other great auto group
across the United States?
Yeah, no, I think we always have to remember
that there's a person behind that resume.
So dig in deep into what happened,
what their experience is
and where they can be an asset to your organization
is really a good approach.
I think back to your question,
really vetting people,
making sure that they are who they say they are
is a big thing right now.
And I would necessarily wouldn't discount
someone that's not employed
because there's always a rhyme or reason
whether it's personal,
something happened in their personal life or whatnot.
But to seek the best talent right now,
it's displaying your company culture.
That's what a lot of our candidates
that we talk to every day
doesn't always come down to compensation,
it comes down to growth opportunity.
So if you're not presenting growth opportunity,
they like, for instance, you're buying more stores,
it's something to throw it out there that,
hey, we are growing and we need top talent
to come within our organization.
Yeah, that's awesome.
We see that like a strong culture,
people want to be part of something.
It's almost an employee bill of rights now,
especially with a younger generation.
It is part pay, it is definitely part lifestyle.
Ziggler just won best Glassdoor's best workplace environments,
the top rated auto dealer a year or so ago.
But it's also shameless plug for anybody
thinking about this conversation.
But it's also almost an employee bill of rights
to be able to be part of something bigger than yourself.
Like I think employees today, they want to be,
I do, you want to be able to give back
any unique and interesting way
to a bigger cause, something bigger than yourself.
And this workplace and automotive
gives that opportunity to Steven.
Yeah?
Yeah, no, I think there's tons of great dealer groups
we talk to every day that have extreme,
they have their values right, they have everything in line.
And without us having to sell that aspect to candidates
is people need to talk about it more.
Why is it, why your group?
Because great talent isn't knocking down your door
every day, right?
You have to go out and seek it.
And you have to show people why you are the best
to work for in the industry.
It's no different than selling a car, why buy from you?
Why come work for me?
So how do you help dealers connect those dots
behind the scenes?
Well, a big portion is like, hey, we do this every day.
Our team, we have two people in office right now
and then we have a remote team all across the country.
And we're having 50 to 60 phone calls a day
from our team, right?
If we're seeking out people,
we necessarily don't take a lot of inbound
even though we do get a lot of inbound
is we're doing cold outreach constantly, right?
Whether we're hitting our database, we're scheduling calls
and we're scheduling calls for future
because right now it's hiring season.
Everybody, it's time, it's crunch time.
It's like for a recruiter, this is game time.
This is, we're gonna throw out our uniforms.
It's like kicking off the first pre-season for the NFL.
Why is now the recruiting season?
Why is now hiring?
You know, if I had a crystal, it's all the time,
but for some, you know, summer's winding down.
You know, the numbers are coming in for the year
and we're going for that final Q3, Q4 push.
All right, so as we come into the Super Bowl
of hiring and recruiting,
I also think there's probably people who are realizing,
hey, they're frustrated
with the financial performance of their store.
They've spent all their resources
and they're at a disagreement with whoever
or whatever they work in
and they're just like open to something else, right?
And maybe that's part of it
as we get closer towards the second half of the year.
What are some best practice recruiting tips
that you could give us based on your expertise?
And also, if you would, CDG,
you've got a compensation report.
Maybe talk a little bit about that,
but what are the three best practices?
Well, the best practice is actually,
you know, they link to compensation, right?
Compensation's not the only thing.
You don't want to sell an opportunity,
not just the paycheck.
You know, top performers really want money,
but they also want a clear path to growth, right?
Dealers who highlight culture, growth path
and modern perks stand out right now.
So that's one.
You got to know the market you're recruiting in, right?
You got to know where the money's going to land,
right?
And that's kind of where we provide that data
and that compensation report.
It's to recruit talent, right?
Here's where the percentiles are, 50 percentile.
It means that, you know, your average, right?
So, and keep in mind, Sam,
that, you know, this is a production-based business, right?
So everything we do on the vendor side,
everything is based on production, right?
And it's also right now,
what we see is in the hiring processes,
they're too dragged out, right?
So you got to move with speed and you have to vet, right?
So you have to call those references.
You have to check the people out.
That's the best thing that, you know,
could we can't just go off word of mouth anymore
with what people are telling us?
Just like a dealer, you know,
has to prove themselves to a top tier candidate
is why they need to come work for them.
You know, the dealers who are moving quickly
are doping up the best talent right now.
So know your market, move with speed,
sell the opportunity, not just the paycheck.
You talked about the comp report.
Why is it important to understand compensation
in the marketplace and what is the compensation report
and how do you get ahold of it?
Yeah, so our compensation report we have,
we'll share the link.
It's all over, you know,
you got to go to CDG Card dealership guys website
and it'll say to do our compensation report.
And if you go to CDGrecruiting.com,
we have it on there too.
You can also DM any of our recruiters
and we'll send you the link,
which this compensation report has,
we've, it's been out there for about a month now.
And really where it stands is,
you know, it's showing the demand
and, you know, what you can get
for what you're paying right now
and where you compare in the market
based on our recruiting data.
Okay, so why is it important?
I mean, obviously you need to know
what different jobs and roles pay.
Do you have a strategy as it relates
to whether you pay market,
do you pay under market, do you pay over market?
Like, what do I do with that report once I've got it?
Yeah, well, right now what you got to do
is you got to be within the market of 50 percentile.
In order to secure top talent right now,
you got to be a little over the 50 percentile.
So 75 percentile is what we're seeing.
And then 90th percentile is people that are,
you know, that are in a dealership right now
and they're cranking, right?
So elite talent, so to speak, right?
All compensation plans are very similar, right?
But what we're looking for,
what we're looking to show you in this report
is basically how you can be,
how you can, you know, make sure you're competitive, right?
And this is based off of, you know,
actually offers made and negotiations we do
on behalf of our dealers with candidates.
So I got a question for you.
Obviously you've got a recruiting service.
You've placed a lot of people all across the country.
One of the things that fascinates me is, you know,
the person that says, hey, I'm frustrated in my current role.
I want another opportunity.
They put their name in a hat, it gets out, right?
How do you, and I've never,
you and I have never really talked about this before,
but do you have any strategies
for like maintaining confidentiality
as you go through it, right?
Because if you are a high performer,
like people talk everywhere in automotive, right?
As soon as somebody drops on the street
or as soon as somebody signals
it's tough to not have it get out.
How do you keep it either as a prospective employer
looking to engage with someone
or you in a recruiting role?
How do you keep a confidential in a world
that there's no confidentiality?
Well, you know, we hold our clients
and our candidates to confidentiality, right?
And we, you know, we execute an agreement
that states that, you know,
this is confidential on the candidate
and the dealer side, right?
And people, I'll tell you that people understand it, right?
Is like, hey, you know,
we wanna make sure that this isn't getting out
because like 75% of the work we're doing right now
is confidential, meaning that the dealer
does not want anybody to know
they're hiring for this position, right?
And they're not posting it, it's not out there.
You know, so that's why we use general terms
when we're posting online about the job we have
is we wanna make sure that we're,
you know, not breaking that and selling the beans, so to speak.
And Stephen, it seems to be that's part of your secret sauce
is that confidentiality piece, that huge discretion piece
because as people move around in automotive,
you don't want just those that churn,
like have a new job every three to six to 12 months.
You wanna find that person that's willing
to make a career in a home
and in an organization like ours here at Ziggler,
we find those right people
and then we cultivate them, we grow them,
we develop them, we give them opportunities
for growth development like Ziggler University.
There are other groups that have very similar
and our philosophy is probably similar to yours.
Once you get into a group like that
and you find a home like that,
it's very low chance that you're gonna go anywhere else, right?
Yeah, no, we carry about over a four year period
where you retain 75% of our placements, right?
Because of our vetting process.
And, you know, we wanna know everything,
we're not held to the same standards as Ziggler
would be as far as HR goes, right?
So we can ask questions that generally
a hiring person can't, right?
So we wanna know about the candidate's family,
we wanna know everything, right?
Before we make that placement,
so we can one know what we're getting into when we place them.
So last question, and thanks for your perspectives
and insights today.
Controllers, the toughest,
what's the toughest number two and number three position?
Ooh, so I would say from our perspective right now
is the fixed, is finding fixed people
that, you know, can really drive the numbers
and hey, a fixed operations manager or whatnot,
their job is to recruit and retain technicians, right?
So if you look at that, when we get a call for technicians,
which we generally don't, you know, we don't do a lot of,
but hey, we have to look at top down
is why are technicians leaving
and why aren't you able to recruit technicians?
Yeah, well, and by the way, that fixed ops director,
there is no better role to create that culture
that brings people in.
So vis-a-vis that it's hiring
for every single position across the group.
So Steven Adronia, general manager at CDG Recruiting.
Thanks for being on the show,
sharing your perspectives.
Controllers, fixed ops directors, fixed ops.
David Spiesak and you agree on that.
Controllers, that's a fascinating one.
So thanks for being on the show.
Thanks, Steven.
That's fun.
So GM, he didn't call out general manager on any of them.
Like Steve Spiesak didn't say that.
He didn't say it.
So maybe I'm wrong.
But again, I think general manager,
it's like people are looking for that spot.
They're looking to jump.
I think controllers have their head in the books.
You know what I mean?
They're not out perusing.
So to your point, you know,
there's a lot of top talent out there
that is doing their job maybe well or exceptionally,
but maybe they're feeling a little underappreciated
or maybe they're not compensated enough.
And then Steven calls at the right time
and connects those beautiful dots.
So before we go to the breakdown with Anna,
I just want to go to a couple of comments
that we're seeing online, but then next we'll go to Anna.
So Matty Max Daddy says, good watch.
Scott Simmons says, David Spiesak is an automotive legend.
We saw that today.
By the way, he's got a great voice.
So I'm jealous of that.
And he's got a great mic as well.
Lauren Klein, are you seeing less demand
for AI-enabled roles like Service BDC?
That's a great question.
We'll have to ask that.
And then Cardiola Ship Guy posted a link
to the CDG Recruiting Compensation Report,
which is cdgrecruiting.com forward slash comp
and noted that it is free from there.
But with that, let's transition over to our very own Anna.
Anna Delvilar.
Anna, welcome to the show.
Hi, guys.
So good to be back.
So joining today, doing well, is our roving head
of editorial content, Anna Delvilar,
to discuss an OEM.
I'm going to set you up here, Anna,
that went from virtual bust to one of the coolest OEM
turnaround stories in all of automotive today.
I'm super intrigued by this.
What you got for us, Anna?
Yeah.
For years, Buick hasn't really been
able to catch a break.
As many of us know during the 2008, 2009 great financial
crisis, Buick's parent company, General Motors,
almost shuttered the brand completely.
But it held on, nestled kind of awkwardly
in between Chevy's mainstream appeal and Cadillac's luxury
positioning.
However, by 2022, Buick's US market share
had cratered to 0.8%.
And leadership knew something had to change.
So they told every Buick dealer either
invest hundreds of thousands in EV infrastructure
or take a buyout.
And roughly half the dealer network walked.
But the dealers who stayed were quick to buy up inventory
from the stores that had exited.
And they got a lot more kind of territory,
is what I've heard from quite a few dealers.
Sarah Automotive was telling me that one of their leaders,
Tyler, was telling me that the closest Buick
store used to be 20 minutes away.
And now it's about an hour.
But buyouts were only phase one.
Between 2023 and 2024, Buick redesigned all of its four
models in just 14 months.
And the vehicles got sleeker, more tech was added,
and they were using higher quality materials.
And as a result, Buick saw the largest first half sales
increase of any mainstream brand this year.
They're up 29%.
And sure, Buick's overall sales are much lower compared
to, say, Honda, for example.
So the growth is more noticeable by comparison.
But the brand has made big strides in product market fit.
However, Buick has some hurdles to face.
Three of its four models are built overseas.
And with tariffs rising, the brand's pricing edge
could disappear fast.
Right now, dealers are telling me
that Buick is eating those costs to stay competitive.
But that's not likely a long-term solution.
GM could shift more production to its plant in Lansing, Michigan.
But that takes time.
They can drop models.
But the lineup's already pretty thin.
And they could raise prices, which
could put off maybe some conquest fires.
So no easy options here.
And not everyone is convinced that this
is a true kind of resurgence.
I was reading the comments and the feedback from that we
got on the story.
And yes, we read every single comment.
But many people think that Buick is still
destined to go the way of Oldsmobile.
And that's a real possibility.
But I'm looking at it more from a glass half-full perspective.
And I think the next 18 months will determine
if this turnaround is more of a permanent fixture
or if it's just kind of a false start.
But so far, really, really encouraging stuff from Buick.
It's a very cool and interesting story.
As you were going through that, Anna,
one of the kind of tests, I guess,
would be at a rental car.
Because I rent cars all the time.
Is there a rental car under that brand
that you really want to drive?
And either the best brands in my mind
either aren't on the rental car lane at all
because they don't engage in that to sell cars.
Or they've got a car that's pretty cool
that you enjoy driving.
And here's what's interesting.
Buicks are a heck of a lot of fun to drive.
And their integration with all the different
is that the heads-up display and the navigation system,
the glass cockpit, as well.
It's very cool.
It's forward-thinking.
It's well above and beyond what you see
in a lot of other, maybe, like Chevy's
and some of the other GM products.
And then you have the Invista for $26,000.
So it's one of the most affordable price to new cars.
And that is definitely giving them a boost.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, Anna, thanks for sharing your research with us.
It's fun to have you as always.
We'll be excited to hear what you come back with later
on this week or next week in your latest research.
Anna Delvalar, thanks for being on the show.
Thanks, guys.
Very cool.
And a note as we wrap up today from Nate, the truck driver.
I did see your DM on social media.
He says, I'm here again today, Sam.
I'm being a sponge as usual.
And I've sent you a DM on LinkedIn.
I'm ready to park it.
So he's a parts driver.
I think he delivers parts, trucks, or a Toyota parts.
And he wants to get into automotive.
And I'll tell you, Julie, that's the great thing
about this auto industry that we're in
is once you find a group where you're comfortable,
you feel like you're part of the culture or vision values,
you can grow.
There is no ceiling for growth in great automotive groups.
That's right.
And it's pretty cool that Nate is continuing to listen.
I'll get back on the DMs and respond back to you.
Or Nate, reach out to CDG Recruiting, too.
They'll bring you in somewhere.
Cole said, I saw a murdered out in Vista on the highway
and was blown away by how cool it was.
I don't know what murdered out means.
This is not.
Like blacked out, all black emblems, black windows,
stuff like that.
I got to say, completely unrelated.
But when I think of something that couldn't be turned around,
to me, totally subjectively, Volvo
was an exceptional vehicle, I mean forever.
But I remember in the 90s, the bricks,
you were like, OK, so they run 500,000 miles.
But they're the worst-looking cars ever.
And then they turned around aesthetically.
They started making really beautiful cars.
The look to me is that it went from nothing to, wow,
I'm starting to see a lot of these cars on the road.
Pretty cool.
Pretty cool.
But that's not always evidence of a successful brand long term.
I think of Oldsmobile, right?
Before they weren't, there were a ton of Oldsmobile,
like the Alero.
I remember a year old Alero you
could sell for $99.95 as a lease buyback or a buyback
from the rental cars.
And they were enormously successful,
but just didn't quite make it long term.
So yeah.
Listen, my mom had a Buick Park Avenue back in the day.
And I remember it was the first car
to have dual zone climate control.
And in the passenger side, I had two little buttons.
You could go a couple degrees hotter,
a couple degrees colder.
So it's interesting.
And then final comment up today.
Lauren Klein says, train and retrain.
And I love that as a comment to David Spiezeck's piece,
is I don't care what tech you have,
I don't care what AI you have.
If you don't have well-trained people
that understand their purpose, their role, their job,
and they're leaning into executing on it,
the whole thing's a disaster.
I don't care what AI you implement.
It's a problem.
So yeah.
You can buy the best calculator,
but if you don't know how to use it, it is worthless.
A calculator what?
I remember the calculator.
And I said, you can buy the best calculator.
No, I know.
You don't know how to use it.
Yeah.
All right, well, hey, everybody, thank you for watching today.
The Daily Deal Alive, where we break down
the biggest moves in the car business as they happen.
Don't forget, we're here live every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, so we'll be back Wednesday.
So if this is your world, hit like, subscribe,
turn on notifications so you never ever miss a beat.
And we'll see you next episode.
Thanks, everybody.
See you Wednesday.
See you, guys.
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