Leadership in the Dealership

Your customer found the car. The payment fits their budget. Everyone is ready to close. Then the insurance quote comes back. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer tackle a cost that can catch buyers off guard and put an otherwise good deal at risk: auto insurance. Danielle shares how upgrading her vehicle took her monthly insurance premium from $3...

Not every customer who walks into your dealership wants the same buying experience. One buyer has researched the vehicle, knows their credit and wants to get in and out. Another may be buying their first car and needs someone to guide them through every step. So why put both through the exact same process? Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down how dealerships can adapt the sales exper...

The customer found the car. The numbers work. Your salesperson has momentum. Then financing hits the brakes. Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down how Upstart can help dealers remove friction from the financing process, starting before the customer even walks into the showroom. From starting the credit process online and reducing data re-entry to exploring offers across up to five veh...

What would it take to make buying a car actually feel easy? Amanda Gordon, founder and CEO of GoJo Auto, has built her dealership around that question. Instead of accepting long waits, unnecessary handoffs and disconnected systems as part of buying a car, she has focused on creating a faster, more personal experience for her customers. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Amanda joins...

How do you know if your dealership has too many technology platforms? If your team is re-entering the same customer information into multiple systems, chasing data across disconnected tools or paying for platforms that overlap, your tech stack may be creating more work than it solves. Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down how dealerships can take a closer look at the systems they alre...

Every dealership has problems. A delivery gets delayed. A repair takes longer than expected. Financing changes. A customer leaves frustrated. The dealerships customers remember are not the ones that avoid those moments. They're the ones that know how to recover from them. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down what great customer recover...

Who's Influencing Your Customers First? Most buyers don't start their car search at a dealership anymore. They're spending hours on TikTok learning what to ask, what to avoid and how to negotiate before they ever step onto your lot. Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down why social media has become one of the biggest influences on the car-buying journey, and what dealerships can do to...

Every dealership wants to make more money. But is the smartest move maximizing profit on every deal or moving more inventory? In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down the strategy behind gross versus volume and why the best operators know when to switch between the two. They discuss: • When it makes sense to maximize gross • When volume be...

Everyone is talking about gas prices. But what if the bigger risk is motor oil? In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer discuss how global supply disruptions could impact synthetic oil, service departments and the products dealers rely on every day. They get into: • Why motor oil and gas prices are not the same conversation • How supply disruptions...

Not every lease return is a problem. In fact, some dealers are hoping those vehicles come back. Low-mileage, well-maintained lease returns can be some of the most attractive used vehicles on the lot. The challenge is what happens when millions of them hit the market at the same time. In the latest episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down what deal...

Most dealerships still structure deals around a single approval and a single offer. But customers don’t shop that way anymore. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer sit down with Ben Atkinson, VP of Auto Lending at Upstart, to break down why multi-offer financing is changing the dealership experience and what it means for dealers moving forward. T...

In 2016, you could lease a vehicle for under $200 a month. Today, that same payment is pushing $1,000. And it’s not just one thing driving it. Inventory is stacking. Tariffs are quietly working their way into costs. Gas prices have jumped fast. And OEMs are still reacting to where the market was, not where it’s going. Your customers are feeling all of it. They’re hesitating more. Looking harder at...

Most dealerships are already using AI in their CRM. But they’re using it to do more of the same thing, faster. More follow-ups. More templates. More “just checking in” emails. And customers can tell. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down where AI follow-up goes wrong and how dealers are actually using it to improve communication, not ju...

The trade-in process is slowing deals down and costing dealerships opportunities they should be closing. This episode breaks down the math, the friction and what dealers can do to improve the process. Phillip Greer and Danielle Mills Walden unpack why trade-ins have become one of the most challenging parts of the modern car deal and how dealerships can approach them differently. In this episode: •...

Ten years ago, buying a car meant paper, fax machines and waiting around the dealership. Today, customers are doing most of the process before they even walk in. So why are some dealers still operating the same way? In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down how the dealership experience has changed and where some stores are falling behind....

Are EVs ready for the real world? That depends on who you ask. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer get into what EV adoption actually looks like from a dealership perspective. Not the headlines, not the hype. What happens when these vehicles hit your lot, your service lane and your customers. They talk through the real questions that keep coming...

When money gets tight, consumers are making different choices than many dealers expect. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer sit down with Charles Rowe from FICO to unpack how payment behavior is shifting and what that means at the desk. The data shows a surprising trend: auto loans are often prioritized over mortgages. That shift changes how len...

NADA 2026 was not subtle. From the F1-themed opening night in Las Vegas to packed halls and nonstop energy, this show felt different from the moment we walked in. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down their experience on the ground. For Phillip, it was his first NADA. For Danielle, it was a return to Vegas at full capacity. For both, it...

Today’s car buyer isn’t asking what their credit score is. They already know it, and that is changing how deals get done. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer are joined by Charles Rowe, director of auto sales and client success at FICO, to unpack new data on how younger buyers are engaging with credit and what that means inside the dealership. T...

Amazon Autos is no longer just an idea. Its beta version is live, expanding and already changing how people think about buying cars online. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down what Amazon Autos really means for dealers, using Ford’s certified pre-owned partnership as a real-world example of a much larger shift. This conversation is no...

Gen Z car buyers are changing the rules, and most dealerships are not ready. In this episode, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down how Gen Z shops, why they reject old-school sales tactics and what dealers must do to earn their trust quickly. If you want to understand the psychology of Gen Z buyers and how to adapt your sales process before you lose them, this conversation is your pl...

Predictions for the car industry in 2026 are already shaping how dealers plan their next moves. In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, hosts Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer break down what’s coming for the automotive market. From changing consumer behavior and electric-vehicle growth to dealership tech and market consolidation. Whether you’re a GM, sales manager, or independent d...

Want to learn how to sell millions of dollars in cars using just your phone? In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer sit down with Evan Driscoll, Used Car Manager at Audi Jacksonville, to dive deep into automotive social media strategy that actually works. Evan has sold millions of dollars worth of cars on social media and he gives us his tricks and...

Car loans are getting longer, but what is really driving the trend? In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, hosts Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer talk with Evan Driscoll, used car manager at Audi Jacksonville, about how rising rates, negative equity and AI-driven financing are reshaping the auto market. Evan shares what is happening on the dealership floor, from how teams use data...

In this episode of Leadership in the Dealership, Danielle Mills Walden and Phillip Greer unpack what happens when automotive dreams turn into customer service nightmares. From the absurd reality of one tool in the entire country being able to fix a faulty EV battery, to a seven-person family given a Kia Soul as a loaner, to Phillip’s own story of selling a $208,000 car that broke down just six mil...