Why Top Operators Are Doubling Down on These 3 Fundamentals

By Chad Agler, Senior Product Evangelist, TheCRM

April 15, 2025

There’s a familiar tension in the air right now.

Inventory isn’t lining up the way it should. Tariff talk is heating up again. The stock market’s unpredictable. Rates are bouncing.

And depending on what day it is, the floor either feels too quiet—or like it’s full of the wrong buyers.

If you’ve run a store through more than one cycle, you know the signs.

We’re not in freefall, but this is one of those moments where every operational weakness gets louder.

When COVID hit, I couldn’t walk dealerships or sit with GMs like I was used to. You could literally feel the pressure. So, I took a step back and spent time digging into what real transformational leadership looks like—not in theory, but in the day-to-day reality of dealership operations, especially in times of uncertainty.

As part of that, I spoke with a handful of experienced dealers and asked them what they focused on when the old game plan
stopped working:

What still made a difference. What actually moved the numbers.

Some things never change—people buy from people, everyone needs transportation, and there’s always something to buy and
something to sell.

But every dealer I spoke to said the same thing: this moment requires more than just good operators. You’ve got to be great—at inventory, reaching your audience, and managing your team.

The best operators know how to scale up when the market gives them a window—and scale down when it doesn’t. They use technology not to replace people, but to make sure their people are focused on what actually moves the needle.

1. Inventory Is the First Place Pressure Shows Up

Here’s exactly what one of those GMs told me:

“We don’t chase margin—we manage risk.”

That hit home.

You can’t hide from bad inventory. You can try to market your way around it, but eventually your floor plan, your turns, or your traffic will tell the truth.

What I’ve learned, both in the retail chair and on the software side, is that inventory is your most visible operational signal.

If it’s bloated or aging, your salespeople get nervous. Your managers start reacting. Your numbers start slipping.

Back in the day, I could sell my way out of a couple of bad calls. But not today.

With higher rates, tighter lending guidelines and higher acquisition costs, bad inventory decisions don’t just hurt. They compound.

But here’s the upside: in good times and bad, you can always be a phenomenal operator of inventory.

That starts with discipline.

• Blue sky thinking doesn’t apply here; smart, data-driven decisions do.

• Don’t price yourself out of the game.

• Each Sale; Each Trade – stands on its own.

• Liquidation can’t be short-sighted. Ninety-day turns aren’t the rule anymore; every unit has its own expiration date, based on your market.

• When your brain tells you it’s time to move, start the clock. And before you wholesale, hit your market with a real offer targeted to
  real buyers.

The best operators don’t leave it to chance. They watch the signals, use data, and treat inventory management like a craft.

2. You Don’t Need More Leads—You Need to Work the Ones You Already Have

One of the things I kept hearing from experienced dealers during COVID was this:

“We’ve gotten a lot better at advertising. We’ve learned to use our database for real 1:1 marketing.”

That’s a big shift from how it used to be.

We didn’t always have the tools or the pressure to be precise. Most of us threw out wide-net campaigns and hoped something stuck.

But the dealers who were still holding margin when things slowed down? They weren’t wasting money on generic outreach.

They focused on the customers they already knew—building a new relationship costs more than leveraging the ones you already have.

And they used their CRM to do just that – target the right customers they already did business with... especially the ones that are most likely to respond. People coming off lease. Past buyers with equity. Customers who serviced with them but haven’t bought yet. Folks who showed interest but didn’t close.

And they weren’t doing it just because it was smart. They were doing it because it worked.

“We used to wait for the ‘Up Bus.’ Now we call. We market—with precision. And we’re spending less time and money doing it.”

That’s what one dealer told me—and he was right.

There’s still so much opportunity sitting inside your own database – waiting to be unlocked.

But most stores are too busy chasing what’s new to fully work what they’ve already got.

If your CRM doesn’t help you surface those opportunities and act on them fast, it’s not doing its job.

In any market, that gap costs real money – you just notice it more in times like these.

3. Clarity > Activity

This is the one that comes up the most, costs dealers the most—and remains the hardest to fix.

“We’re not great operators of employee efficiency.”

That’s what I kept hearing. And I saw it myself.

It’s not that teams aren’t working hard. They’re just not working on the right things.

There’s too many tasks. Too many tools. Too many tabs. Too much micromanagement– there’s too much noise!

Fear starts to drive their daily habits. They second-guess what’s worked in the past, hoping not to scare the customer away. Fear creates churn. And churn means loss—lost confidence, lost productivity, lost sales, lost momentum.

Ask any dealer principal who has lived through the cycles, and they’ll tell you:

“Just make sure every employee knows exactly what they need to do next to successfully take care of
my customers.”

That’s the ask. That’s the whole job. And most systems still can’t deliver it.

They track everything. But they don’t guide anything.

So even your best people waste time chasing a “one-size-fits-all” process instead of working the deal.

And the rest? They mistake "busy" for "productive" - and having to use multiple systems to get the job done causes even more churn.

Execution doesn’t fail because people aren’t trying. It fails because they don’t know what to do—or when to do it.

“Just make sure every employee knows exactly what they need to do next to successfully take care of
my customers.”

It rings in my ears. Over and over, I kept hearing it. They weren’t asking for more historical reports—or pages of so-called “insights.”

They wanted TRUE relationship management. TRUE connection.

What they needed was simple: a system that helps salespeople stay focused on connecting and selling—not researching; not micromanaging.

They were asking for direction, baked into the system.

A real CRM doesn’t leave it to chance. It surfaces the right next action—tailored for every customer, every day, for every salesperson and every manager.

And the best ones? They don’t just point to the next step. They take it.

Because the question isn’t about effort. It’s this: does the system understand what great operators do—and simply make it happen?

Where That Leaves Us—and Why I’m Here

The market’s not collapsing—it is correcting. And the best operators I know aren’t trying to predict where it lands.

They’re focused on what they can control—and executing with discipline.

If you’re carrying the pressure right now, ask yourself:

• Which units on my lot are making me money—and which ones are just taking up space?

• Are we squeezing everything we can out of the customers we already have—or just throwing more budget at new leads?

• Does my team know what to do next to ensure success—or are they just checking boxes to stay afloat?

Because when the market tightens, it’s not the stores with the most tools that win.

It’s the ones who use them with precision.

That’s why I joined TheCRM.

Not for a title—for the chance to help build the system I always wanted when I was in the chair.

A CRM that doesn’t just track what’s happening—but understands how great operators run, and helps your team move as one.

One that reflects how a store actually works—not how a vendor thinks it does.

AI-native. Built from the ground up for people who run the store, not just report on it.

So if you’re looking at your tech stack and wondering what’s still pulling weight—and what’s just adding noise—ask yourself:

Are you building your future on top of what’s next?

Or on top of what’s already obsolete?

That’s the difference we’re building into every inch of this thing. And it’s already live.