Top 5 moments from BHPH Dealer Forum 2024.

Dealers spent three hours developing a business plan for their dealership, learning how to improve their branding and sales pipeline and managing inventory during deep-dive workshops.

The Building of a Business Plan led by Byrider’s Ben Goodman was one of three workshops that drew rave reviews from participants. CarMart’s Doug Turner taught a workshop on inventory management. Neill Waters helped dealers build their brand and sales pipeline.

All three workshops featured dealers asking questions and holding engaging conversations about how they run their businesses.

“We had great conversations. That’s important,” Turner said. “We had so much experience in here. It was a huge opportunity to take away information.”

After the workshops, dealers closed the first day of the Dealer Forum with a fun night at the Sazerac House. Dealers enjoyed an opportunity to network and take in the history of the Sazerac cocktail.

The centerpiece of the education at the Dealer Forum was the dealer-led roundtables.

Led by some of the nation’s top dealers: Jack Carter, Turn & Burn Motors (Conyers, Georgia); Nick Markosian, Markosian Auto (Taylorsville, Utah); Alan Lindsey, iGo Group (Columbia, Kentucky); Ben Libby, Highway Motors (Chico, California); Rich Barnard, Tio Chuy’s Auto Sales (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma); Russell Moore, Top Notch Used Cars (Conroe, Texas); and Steve Jordan, AutoVida (Lancaster, Texas); the roundtables gave dealers the opportunity to exchange ideas on sales, collections, marketing, recruiting employees, reconditioning vehicles and other hot industry topics.

“I enjoyed sitting and discussing business with everyone. You try to pick up one thing here and there to help you,” said Jefferson Manvone of Avenue Motors in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. “The whole reason of being here is to help you become a more profitable business. It was a great experience.

BHPH legend Ingram Walters closed out the Dealer Forum by telling dealers “The 10 Things It Took Me 20 Years to Learn.”

Walters walked dealers through what he focused on in building his BHPH business, collections, spending and what he owed.

“Your spending determines your ending,” Walters said.

He encouraged dealers to find their “whiskbroom,” what sets them apart from their competitors.

“What are you doing different to make customers buy from you? Before you leave, determine your whiskbroom,” Walters said.

Each of the roundtables presented their best ideas from the dealer-led roundtables during the closing session.

Megan Jones of Ace Auto Sales in Fyffe, Alabama, explained how to sign up with insurance providers to receive digital notices of customers canceling coverage. Lecoeur Charles of Mission Auto Sales in Miami, Florida, shared his experience of finding employees on carcareers.com. Ryan Jones of Ace Auto Sales in Fyffe, Alabama, presented his text prompts to increase responses from customers who are behind on payments. Michael Maguire of Sansone Jr’s Windsor in East Windsor, New Jersey, described an employee incentive program to purchase vehicles for inventory. Ben Goodman of Byrider explained how to use Chat GPT and AI for developing role playing scripts for employee training. Blake Ingram of Auto City in Dallas, Texas, told dealers to analyze their data to recognize problem sellers and vehicles along with the good ones. Matt Nibarger of Prime Auto USA in Jackson, Tennessee, informed dealers on how he’s developed relationships with a local trade school where he’s sending problem vehicles for repairs and subsequent training for his service staff.

“These are all good ideas and probably if implemented will pay for this trip a million times,” said Luke Godwin of Godwin Motors in Columbia, South Carolina.