Dealership general manager builds on lessons learned

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
Craig Dodd believes he knows the secret to selling cars: Keep the customer satisfied.

“Word of mouth is our main focus,” Dodd said. “One person who makes a good deal will tell one person, but one person who feels slighted in some way will tell 10.”

Dodd took over the reigns as general manager of Irv Schroeder County Motors on March 1 after successfully running large dealerships in San Francisco and Denver.

“In California, we sold between 250 and 300 new vehicles per month,” Dodd said.

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Dodd entered the military service after high school and spent the next 22 years in the Navy.

Dodd ascended to the rank of master chief while earning a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois at Carbondale.

“I couldn’t go any higher (in the service), so I retired and got into the automobile business,” Dodd said. “But my career in the military absolutely helped me in the car business because it gave me the training I needed as a manager/supervisor, to give people responsibility, to hold them accountable and to use the talents of managers.”

With 27 years of automobile sales under his belt, Dodd was hired by the local dealership.

“The owners wanted to get back into being owners and let somebody else run the store,” Dodd said. “That’s what they hired me to do.”

Along with wife Diana, a native of Marion, Dodd resides in Marion but takes on the complex title and duties of general manager in Hillsboro.

“My responsibilities here are just about everything,” he said. “From inventory control to advertising, from supervision to parts, service and sales, from fixed operations to variable operations, I do it all.”

Consumer intelligence, Dodd said, is the most glaring change in the past 27 years.

“Car buyers have so much more education now because as many as 40 percent of the people who will buy a car research it on the Internet,” he said. “We’re one of the few industries-in fact, probably the only one-that you can get on the Internet and find out what a car is sold to the dealer for.

“You can’t buy a house and find out what it cost to build it, or a gallon of milk and know what it cost to produce it,” he added. “Their education makes our business more difficult.”

ew-car sales have dipped in recent months, according to Dodd, because incentive programs and low interest rates have nearly disappeared.

“We’ve already passed the first quarter of the year and new car sales are down compared to a year ago,” he said. “That’s because last year we had all the rebates. But rebates are like frequent-flyer miles. They’re only temporary.

“Now, if you don’t have frequent-flyer miles, people won’t fly with you, and if a dealer doesn’t have rebates, they won’t buy a car from you,” he said. “Rebates aren’t available now because factories have reduced their inventories so people would rather buy a program car.”

The recent rise in interest rates has also contributed to the sales downswing.

“When interest is low, dealers can afford to have more cars on their lots because we’re not paying as much interest,” he said. “But when interest climbs, that availability of inventory cash starts going down-plus, the buyers are used to cheap interest and it’s a sticker shock when rates are high.”

Dodd said sales haven’t dried up, though.

“You have to have good previously owned cars that have been serviced well and been well taken care of,” Dodd said. “Selling new cars won’t keep a dealership alive anymore.”

Dodd said he hopes the lessons he learned in the big cities will translate into sales in Hillsboro as well.

“What I learned is contact with prospective customers and previous customers can increase your business,” he said. “I’ve always had the attitude that I want to treat people like it was Norstrums but with Wal-Mart prices.”

Dodd plans to increase the visibility of the dealership through the use of mailers, advertising, more specials in the service department and special events.

“I like to do events about once a quarter with hot dogs, hand out pool passes or have free car washes,” he said. “It all comes down to visibility and letting people know we’re here.”

Keeping Marion County dollars in Marion County is also a priority for Dodd.

“One of our main focuses is not so much getting customers from outside Marion County, but to deal locally,” he said. “If I’ve captured the customer base in my community, it’s worth a lot to me in service, parts and referrals.”

Dodd said quantity buying at reduced prices by larger dealers is a fallacy.

“Large dealers pay absolutely the same price for a new vehicle as I do,” he said. “And if I don’t have something on my lot, I can get on the same computer as they have, find what you want, and buy the vehicle from someone else just like I buy it from the factory.”

That, according to Dodd, gives the advantage to Hillsboro.

“Irv Schroeder has been here for 40-some years, so we don’t have the overhead of a Rusty Eck,” he said. “We don’t have the rent to pay, plus we have (35) local employees, so we’re giving back to the community with their wages and in taxes.

“If you look at a facility like Rusty Eck, it’s just like a casino-somebody has to pay for that,” he added. “We don’t have that tremendous overhead.

“People aren’t going to come to us from Wichita to buy a car, but we have to avoid the local people buying cars in Wichita.”

Dodd said again it comes back to giving the customer what they want.

“Our edge is if somebody walks in our door, we’ll sell you what you want,” he said. “But at large dealers, they try to sell you what they want you to buy.”

Convincing people to buy locally is a slow process, Dodd admitted.

“It’s kind of like eating an elephant-we have to do that one customer at a time,” he said. “You convince one person, and that person tell others-and it has to grow from there.

“To survive, dealers in Hillsboro need to let potential customers know we can deal just as well or better than big cities,” he added. “We need to get the local people back in our front door because they’ll be treated better and their service will be better here.”

While Dodd obviously prefers people buy from his business, he hopes they keep their purchasing power in Hillsboro no matter whom they buy from.

“If you’re a Ford man or if you’re a Dodge man, still buy here,” he said. “The community needs our support and the dealers need the community’s support.”

Expanding upon the already solid reputation of Irv Schroeder County Motors is Dodd’s goal.

“I think we have a good reputation, but we need to get the point across that you can get good deals here,” he said. “When you buy a car here, you buy the people, the service department, the mechanics and everything.”

It all goes back to customer satisfaction.

“I always tell people, ‘If we did it right, tell your friends,'” Dodd said. “‘But if we did it wrong, tell me and we’ll fix the problem.'”

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