In this enlightening episode of "DrivingSales Defining Leadership," hosts Bart Wilson and J.D. Mixon engage in a profound conversation with Derrick Woolfson, the Vice President of Business Development with unparalleled expertise in revolutionizing the automotive and heavy-duty trucking sectors. Derrick shares his unique path from a fresh college graduate to becoming an instrumental figure in leveraging technology and customer relationships to drive growth and efficiency in an industry ripe with potential yet facing technological lag.

The discussion uncovers Derrick's strategic approach toward customer relationship management, the critical role of establishing a BDC, and the evolution of digital advertising strategies in maintaining a competitive edge. The trio delves into the necessity of building a strong corporate culture, emphasizing employee retention and development to navigate the challenges of a tight job market and the technician shortage. Derrick's insights into the significance of partnership over mere vendor relationships offer a fresh perspective on tackling industry-specific hurdles and fostering innovation.

Moreover, Derrick's narrative highlights the importance of mentorship and a growth mindset in achieving professional milestones, along with the value of listening, adapting, and executing strategies that resonate with employees and customers. This episode offers actionable strategies for automotive leadership and inspires a proactive stance on future trends, digital transformation, and the power of a united team vision.

Dive into the latest episode of the DrivingSales Defining Leadership podcast, where hosts Bart Wilson and J.D. Mixon welcome Team Development Consultant, Armand Hebert. Together, they unravel the intricacies of hiring the right team members and developing leadership skills that elevate productivity beyond current benchmarks. This episode is a treasure trove for modern automotive dealerships aiming to enhance their workforce, focusing on understanding and leveraging core motivators to assemble teams that not only meet but exceed expectations.

Discover why technical skills only account for 15% of workplace success, while the lion's share hinges on people skills. Learn the art of hiring for behavioral styles aligned with job descriptions and the significance of training employees in ways their behavioral style learns best for quicker ramp-up times and heightened productivity. Armand shares his expertise in navigating the diverse motivators and values that underpin effective team development and hiring strategies.

Whether you're struggling with culture fit, motivation techniques, or refining your sales process, this episode offers invaluable insights.

Dive into the heart of dealership dynamics with the latest episode of the DrivingSales Defining Leadership podcast. Join hosts Bart Wilson, J.D. Mixon, and Craig Wilson as they unravel the essential components of a successful Business Development Center (BDC) through the lens of leadership and strategic management. This episode zeroes in on the transformative power of scorecards for BDC agents and the pivotal role they play in dealership operations.

Our experts dissect the intricacies of BDC metrics, from appointment settings to CRM task completion, offering a treasure trove of insights for dealerships eager to refine their approach and skyrocket their success. As you listen, you'll discover the delicate balance between performance indicators and the art of effective scorecard implementation. Whether you're a seasoned dealership manager or just stepping into the world of automotive sales, this episode is your roadmap to enhancing your BDC team's efficiency and impact.

In a recent sit-down with Kanchana Sundaram, Sr Director of Product & Innovation with Experian, we discuss first and third-party fraud. We talk about how fraud is evolving and its impact on a dealership. Kanchana talks about what you can do to address it in your store.

How has dealership fraud evolved?

With the acceleration of the use of digital tools for the last couple of years since the pandemic, what we're seeing is that fraudsters are leveraging multiple types of identities to get through some of these digital retailing tools and to essentially outsmart existing processes that dealers already have in place. 

A good example of that is a couple of the types of fraud that you raised, first-party fraud and third-party fraud. These are instances where fraudsters essentially leverage a good credit profile, so they have either stolen someone's identity with a good credit profile. Think of somebody that maybe works in a nursing home and there's a person they're taking care of that has built up a really great credit history for many, many years. They steal their identity or an identity that was stolen as part of a data breach. Or you also have criminal rings who go after people, and they have people that are part of their criminal rings who essentially have good credit history that they leverage. So the traditional processes that a dealership has would not flag that person as a potential fraudster. 

But what we do at Experian is we leverage analytics that tell us whether that person has had any history of defaulting on their payments, which really leads us to believe that they don't have the intent to continue paying or to pay for the purchase that they're moving forward. That means that there needs to be a deeper look at that identity.

How often is fraud taking place?

If the dealerships have solutions that the criminals identify are weakened, they become a target for other criminals. That's what we've heard back from law enforcement. 

It's important that dealers protect themselves because as we see more and more people adopting essentially digital technology, it's exposing dealerships more and more. And as you know, they're if they don't protect themselves, then they potentially become targets.

How much of the liability can lie with the dealership?

That's a great question because it depends on the way the fraud is perpetuated.

So essentially, if the person defaults on the first payment, the dealer is left holding the bag. What happens is if they're not able to recover that vehicle, let's say that the vehicle has now it's part of a criminal ring and they've managed to move the vehicle out, they don't have the ability to recover any of that money, and they're left with potentially their insurance premiums increasing as a result.

We've also heard from lenders that there are situations where there are more sophisticated criminals, who basically pay down against a vehicle for a certain period of time. It could be anywhere, for example, up to six months, which gives them the opportunity to move the vehicle out of the country, making it incredibly difficult for law enforcement to recover the asset. In that case, you have the lender who has the liability, but ultimately it's the consumer who is going to be impacted because all of these affect the bottom line for both of the retailers, which ends up being passed on to consumers over time.

Are lenders flagging dealerships with fraud history?

Well, that can happen. You will have cases where they may ask dealers to do further due diligence. It is possible that dealers do face some of those consequences that you laid out. Ultimately, it's in the best interest of both parties to be able to have those robust practices in place so that they can avoid those situations.

It's interesting that you mentioned lenders flagging some of these fraudsters that sharing information regarding the history of that identity becomes important. That's where I think the credit bureau plays a great role because we are connected to so many lenders and we're getting information being reported back to us as well as tracking the trade line. History across these identities allows us to be able to provide that deeper level of analytics akin to what you mentioned.

How long has Experian been monitoring fraud?

Experian has been at the forefront of fraud in the industry for a very long time. This isn't a new topic for us. And we have premiere products that are at the forefront of the industry, and we leverage those products as part of this dealer-centric automotive solution.

You mentioned that the traditional way that the dealership would look through a credit report. You're right, it does take education and training to be able to understand the different scores and the different pieces of information that come back from that credit report. And, you know, there aren't many people in the dealership who necessarily have the depth of training to even look through all of that information.

That was some of the feedback that we got from dealers. We designed the solution partnering with dealers. They said that it was really important that this be something that was very easy to adopt for a salesperson. And so, in spite of us having complicated analytics underneath that flag these potentially fraudulent identities, we present that in a way that's visually very simple for a salesperson to understand this is a potential synthetic fraud because there was an issue with the document and there was an issue with the biometric. This is a potential first-party fraud because we saw defaults by this particular individual. This is a person that may be flagged even higher as a third-party fraud because we're seeing this identity being leveraged in multiple trade lines with defaults associated with them.

It has to be very simple for salespeople to use because in this industry you've already got a hard enough challenge selling cars. We don't want to make it more complicated. It was important that it be frictionless with the consumer as well, so it's a very simple four-step process for the consumer.

Fraud and AI

Well, artificial intelligence, I think, is an exciting part of our journey as a society. There are so many cool functionalities that we're all leveraging today that are built on artificial intelligence capabilities. One of the things that we have a real depth of expertise in at Experian is the area of big data machine learning analytics, all of which provide the underlying layer that allows us to create artificial intelligence. So I think you described as a salesperson, you know, what were all the activities that you had to very manually take to be able to get information back about the person you're interacting with. And you weren't even provided some of that information in an easy-to-access way. It just wasn't even available to you.

So we're seeing solutions like fraud, protect, as you know, the growth of the maturity ladder towards more and more evolved A.I. that essentially help salespeople to do their jobs a lot easier and remove a lot of that difficult manual effort that they need to do through automation and intelligence, from data and analytics.

How will AI help people commit fraud?

I think you're seeing a lot of the sophistication in synthetic IDs happening as a result of the access that criminals have to this kind of information for them to put together identities.

Data breaches are also of concern where they're able to steal identities from people. And so interacting with trusted data sources and platforms, I think is becoming more and more important to consumers in an ever-increasing digitally sophisticated era where we're sharing more and more of our data to conduct interactions and transactions with retailers and other experiences that we're doing.

So I think that that's a really important part of any solution is to make sure that you're interacting with somebody who's invested in protecting your data.

What is Experian launching at NADA?

Well, I'm in Vegas right now. I'm in this beautiful hotel room at the Venetian, which feels like a palace to me. NADA is always an exciting place to be. 

We are launching our Fraud Protect Solution at NADA this year. We've been working with a number of dealers who've been using the product and have received great feedback from them.

We had dealers who were facing losses because of vehicles being stolen through various types of fraud, including these fraudulent identities. Adopting these practices really helped them identify where they needed to take more steps to validate the person's identity, reducing the amount of back and forth and pushback on pushing through the deal.

It also acted as a deterrent to prevent those fraudulent transactions from going through. So, for example, the very first day that we turned this on at one of our dealers, they had a consumer come in and they uploaded their driver's license. They were about to take they reached the step where they had to take a picture of themselves and they balked and they walked away from the transaction, which was a vehicle worth over $100,000.

It's things like that that help dealers put solutions that are going to protect themselves and their bottom line.

How else is fraud impacting dealerships?

Well, I think time is money. And at the dealership, we already know that there's a big focus across our industry. You know, any day you're going to just run into a number of partners who are building solutions that are going to make things easier for dealers and help them essentially focus on selling more cars.

In the economy that we're in today, where everyone is margin-constrained, it's important that these solutions be light, be things that are easily integrated into existing processes that dealers already have today. That was one of the biggest things that we focused on, working with our dealer partners is this solution is it's not yet another portal that they have to log into, but it's integrated right into their CRM.

So when a salesperson is interacting with that shopper, the consumer's information goes into the CRM, and the results of the four-step process that they went through go right into their CRM with the link so that they can click in a very simple to read visual that tells them if they're ready to go ahead to the next step or if they need to take further validation steps.

How susceptible are dealers to being hacked?

I think it's a very important aspect of being a digital retailer that a dealership needs to take into consideration. I have so much admiration for dealers. They're such a complex business. Many of them are small to medium-sized businesses, the heart of their town, you know, And now we're seeing a lot more groups and group expansion.

But at the end of the day, a dealership is a very complex business, and this is yet another aspect that dealers need to grow their understanding in, which is around data security, how we talk about output. And you're talking about consumer data, one of the things that we do not do is we do not share back our things like a consumer's biometric information.

That's protected and it's not something that would end up at a dealership. I think dealers need to make sure that whatever solutions they're using has a component of protecting the consumer data that they are collecting. Obviously, at Experian, it's a huge part of our business and we are heavily invested in the protection of consumer data by following all of the government regulations that are out there. So any solution that is part of the Experian suite of solutions, make sure that it is compliant with all of those regulations.

Final thoughts?

I think that the biggest thing is in this ever-evolving digital era, it's important that dealers be on top of what they're exposed to with these increasingly sophisticated criminals who are leveraging various stolen identities or identities that are good identities that might not be flagged by their existing processes.

We hope that our Experian Automotive Fraud Protect Solution is going to help dealers evolve their processes to be able to protect themselves and protect their bottom line.

The DrivingSales Defining Leadership podcast is back up and running, and we've decided to launch a second podcast: DrivingSales Insights. Each podcast contains content that has been tailored to a distinct focus. Here is a quick overview of each with links so you can check them out.

DrivingSales Insights

We've been a part of some great conversations over the years. This podcast contains best practices from those conversations to provide you with nuggets you can implement with your teams.

If you're looking for a strategy or some tactics to help you improve your store, your employees, and yourself, this may be a good podcast for you.

Topics include sales techniques, including digital retailing, advanced marketing, progressive fixed operations, and the next generation of Employee Management

DrivingSales Defining Leadership

Customer expectations, new technology, and the economy are three of the many external factors impacting dealerships today.

In the Defining Leadership podcast, we take a deep dive into different topics that will focus on how to define leadership in automotive dealerships today. Episodes focus on human capital management, improving processes to improve your store, and what today’s workforce is looking for in a career.

Check both of them out. We'll be adding episodes frequently. If you'd like to suggest topics or provide feedback, you can email us at podcast@drivingsales.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

In this episode of "DrivingSales Defining Leadership," hosts J.D. Mixon and Bart Wilson discuss the evolution of leadership and the essential traits required in today’s dynamic environment. Our special guest, Gail Rubinstein, Founder & CEO of Retail Resilient, brings her unique insights and experiences to the table, enriching the conversation with practical examples and personal anecdotes.

The episode delves into the concept of resilience, both personally and professionally, exploring its definition, importance, and how it can be nurtured and developed within a team. Gail shares her journey and the challenges she faced, providing a real-world perspective on resilience in business. J.D. and Bart contribute their thoughts on the necessity of resilience in the auto industry, particularly in the face of rapid technological changes and market shifts.

Listeners will also gain valuable insights into the effective use of social media and AI in sales, with practical advice on how sales teams can adapt and thrive in the digital age. The discussion touches upon the balance between technology and personal touch in customer interactions, emphasizing the importance of human connection in a tech-driven world.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone in the auto industry, as well as leaders and professionals from various sectors who aim to foster resilience in their teams and adapt to the ever-changing business landscape.

Learn more about DrivingSales at DrivingSales.com and explore Retail Resilient at retailresilient.com.

Tune in to "DrivingSales Defining Leadership" for more insights into the art of leadership.

In this episode, J.D. and Bart delve into the findings of our post-pandemic talent market research project, shedding light on key takeaways and their impact on Millennial and Gen Z employees in the automotive sector. They discuss the current job market's dynamics, the gap between available jobs and qualified candidates, and the nuances of employee satisfaction and engagement.

The podcast is back! After a short hiatus, we're bringing back the DrivingSales podcast under a different name. We've changed the title from Dealership HCM to Defining Leadership.

Leadership in dealerships is constantly evolving, and we want to explore the different ways dealerships define it today.

In this episode, we review the criteria that make up a good quota, such as combining effort and performance quotas. We also talk about the five filters and use them to build a salesperson scorecard.

Click on the image above to check it out.

During this roundtable, we focus on goal setting in the new year. This ranges from goals for ourselves, and our teams, but also how to encourage our team members to set goals for themselves. As we know as leaders in organizations, allowing our team to set their own expectations/goals almost always improves follow-through.



Like many dealers, Buckeye Honda needed to adapt to customers’ online shift during COVID. But in order to improve the sales process for both consumers and employees, Buckeye Honda new connecting the online and in-store experience would be key.

Discover how Buckeye Honda leveraged Upstart Auto Retail across online, in-store and financing to increase profits, close rates and provide more affordable financing options to their customers.

Key Takeaways:

- Faster training and onboarding: hear how Buckeye Honda streamlined training and onboarding for their sales teams, allowing them to confidently use the new tool within just a week

- More affordable financing options: learn how Upstart is presenting the lowest rate 71% of the time for Buckeye, enabling more affordable financing options for consumers

- Higher efficiency and higher close rates: discover how Buckeye has generated a 76 percent higher lead-to-close ratio, increasing vehicles sold from online leads from 83 to 146 over six months after implementing-Upstart Auto Retail.

- Improved customer engagement: learn how digitization boosts customer trust

Watch the recording of Boosting Car Sales & Profits with a Connected Online & In-Store Experience to learn more.