Roland Lynn, who runs two Nissan dealerships in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is winning in the thick of uncertainty—driving his stores up to the ranks of the top 20 in the country in July.
A winning mindset: The veteran general manager, who operates Clay Cooley Nissan (#5 in the U.S.) and Don Davis Nissan (#18 in the country), attributes his teams’ success to ignoring the negativity around Nissan, and “putting the boots on and going to work,” as he puts it.
“Don't listen to the naysayers. It's out there for the taking if you've got the gumption and the hustle,” Lynn told Daily Dealer Live Hosts Sam D’Arc and Uli de’ Martino.
By the numbers: Both stores make $1M a month combined in net sales, from about 400 (230 new and 176 used) vehicles sold at Clay Cooley and roughly 340 (190 new and 150 used) at the Don Davis rooftop.
Lynn targets $2,500 in F&I per vehicle retailed and maintains 80% total absorption across both locations.
Though he admits he wants to improve fixed ops absorption which sits in the mid-40s.
Follow the money: A major component of Lynn’s strategy is a more direct approach to leveraging Nissan One, the automaker’s dealer incentive program, in which a store can earn up to $1,200 per vehicle for hitting 110% or more of its sales target.
“We just assume we're going to hit it. Failure is not an option, so we just put it in our math stack,” said Lynn.
Between Nissan’s dealer incentives and other factors such as holdbacks, factory money, co-op, floor-plan credits, and F&I, there aren’t many deals that don't make sense for volume dealerships like Clay Cooley and Don Davis Nissan.
“I get deals from other dealers in my market all the time that are passing a $1,000 or $1,500 ‘loser.’ That math, when you add all the different things that I just went over with you, is still very profitable,” Lynn added.
Between the lines: The goal is to maximize every opportunity to sell as many vehicles as possible while making sure that the sales managers can make a living.
Operationally, it boils down to “relentless execution of the basics” across all facets of the business, with a focus on frontline sales, website CTAs, the F&I process, and accountability systems, added Lynn.
“If you're doing your job as a general manager, you're flooding them with the leads. But if you're doing your job as a manager of your team, you're making sure you're holding them accountable for the money you're spending on the leads,” he explained.
Bottom line: Even dealers representing challenged brands can generate exceptional profits by working every available revenue stream.
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