LAS VEGAS– General Motors is listening.
That was Chevrolet and Buick-GMC dealers’ takeaway at the franchise meeting Monday.
Executives went through a list of dealer pain points with strategies to address them, said Mike Bowsher, chairman of the Chevrolet National Dealer Council and owner of Carl Black Automotive Group in Kennesaw, Ga.
Some of those pain points were incentive complexity, dealer profitability and parts and service issues and better floorplan credits.
“They have absolutely listened, and they are coming out with solutions and go to markets to combat all of this going forward,” said Bowsher.
Improving brand value and dealership profitability are major initiatives for this year, said Steve Hill, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales, service and marketing. Despite pickup competition from Ford and Ram, Chevy and Buick-GMC aim to win in pickup sales, Bowsher said. And one way GM aims to boost dealership profitability is by introducing more vendor options, such as Tekion’s dealership management system. GM is also made a strategic investment in the startup.
“The biggest expense that a dealer has in terms of their outside services is typically their DMS,” said Hill. “So if we’re really serious about driving expenses out of our dealers’ business and improving the profitability, we felt like the DMS was a place that we could really make some headway.”
Executives also told dealers to expect more training on electric and autonomous vehicles. GM plans to build 20 EVs globally by 2023.
“I know for a fact we have a seat at the table,” said Bowsher. GM “will bet on the dealer network.”