Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap newsletter—the key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Josh Clinton, General Manager of Cape Coral CDJR.
We dive into how he doubled his close rate using simple AI prompts, the headwinds Stellantis is facing after cutting key models, and the evolving role of the salesperson in an AI-driven landscape.
Entrepreneurial instinct beats formal education in dealership leadership.
The same mindset that drives business innovation makes early AI adoption inevitable.
"I had already decided I wasn't going to go to college. It just wasn't for me. And at that point, you know, I'm 16 years old and I had the conversation with my mother, who ironically is a social worker for the Department of Education."
The hustle started early—buying cases of soda from Costco and selling them for a dollar each at lunch revealed the kind of profit instincts that later pushed Josh to experiment with AI before most dealers even knew what ChatGPT was.
Customer psychology drives career advancement over product expertise.
Understanding human behavior creates the foundation for training AI systems effectively.
"My mentors taught me the psychology of the car business really early on and how to defeat a customer, how to make a car deal happen without them even realizing you're doing it. And that was really what got me."
That approach worked at age 19. But now? Josh focuses on building trust, not playing mental chess. And that evolution shapes how he trains AI to guide, not pressure, shoppers.
Building custom AI tools requires conversation, not coding.
You just need SOPs, PDFs, and a conversation with ChatGPT.
"I created a lead follow-up GPT, right? So all you have to do on my salespeople side is take a PDF of the lead detail when you get a new lead. You upload it, it will spit back out an email template, custom tailored to the lead detail. It will spit out a text template and then will also give you a phone script for any new lead."
Josh fed it a full year of lead data and all his sales training docs. Now it knows how to adjust tone and follow-up strategy based on source, location, and even how far the customer lives from the store.
Inventory twins are dead weight. AI will soon prove why.
Josh already avoids duplicates to give customers maximum choice—and sees AI eventually handling those decisions better than people.
"With a brand like Stellantis, you have to kind of have something for everybody, if you will...no duplicates, right? Like don't have two of the same car. That's just kind of seems like common sense, but with a brand like Stellantis, you have to kind of have something for everybody, if you will."
Trim, color, packages, interior—he gets granular with ordering. And while he’s not using AI for inventory yet, he’s tried. The tech just isn’t ready to replace that level of strategic nuance.
Presented by:
1. Lotlinx - Get the best possible market advantage on every vehicle transaction. Optimize operations and boost profits using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Learn more @ lotlinx.com
2. Cars Commerce - The platform to simplify everything about buying and selling cars. Learn more @ carscommerce.inc
3. Nomad Content Studio - Most dealers still fumble social—posting dry inventory pics or handing it off without a plan. Meanwhile, the store down the street is racking up millions of views and selling / buying cars using video. That’s where Nomad Content Studio comes in. We train your own videographer, direct what to shoot, and handle strategy, to posting, to feedback. Want in with the team behind George Saliba, EV Auto, and top auto groups? Book a call at trynomad.co
BDCs are sitting ducks for AI replacement.
Salespeople aren’t going anywhere, but AI might do the follow-up better.
"ChatGPT can't take somebody on a test drive, right? Can't shake a hand. You know, salespeople are always gonna be there. BDCs, you never know."
Josh sees a future where AI handles mid- and high-funnel leads while salespeople take the low-funnel ones. Less headcount, more accountability.
Strategic inventory management prevents profitability disasters.
AI analysis transforms financial decision-making but hasn't mastered inventory forecasting yet.
"Inventory management, in my opinion, is one of the most important roles of a GM. It literally will make or break your profitability right now, as far as the market goes. So if you're not managing inventory properly and being extremely strategic…you're going to lose money."
Josh orders every vehicle himself. He calculates turn rates, days supply, and custom-orders around specific sales goals, not past performance. AI still struggles to keep up.
Smart merchandising outperforms price wars for generating leads.
AI-generated content creates competitive advantages without sacrificing margins.
"When you're generating…the data will tell you, you know, where you rank in your market...if my market share of listings for among the CDGR dealers is 30%, but I'm getting 40, 50 % on my SRPs and VDPs, well, I'm outperforming my market share, right?"
Using window stickers and CarFax data, AI creates detailed, engaging descriptions that outperform competitors who just slash prices and hope for the best, proving that smart automation beats human shortcuts every time.
Mess around with AI to get good at it.
Continuous experimentation builds real skills faster than formal training.
"Listen, it's subjective. I wouldn't even call myself an expert. I would just call myself curious. I just push the limits. Like my friend told me years ago when he showed me ChatGPT for the first time, he said just whatever you can think of, if a thought enters your mind and you want to know something, enter it in and see what happens."
This curiosity-driven approach reveals unexpected ways to use AI while building real confidence across different parts of the operation, which is exactly the mindset dealers need to stay ahead of the automation wave.
New stores need aggressive community outreach to compete.
AI amplifies local marketing efforts but can't replace authentic community connections.
"We are a big store. We do have a lot of brand presence, but even still six years is still just six years when you're competing against somebody who's been there for 50. So, everything and anything you can do to get out into the community is what you need to be doing."
Social media and community involvement help create the kind of emotional connections that level the playing field against dealers who've been there for decades—relationships that AI can support and scale but never fully replicate.
Voice AI transforms personal communication beyond business hours.
Individual adoption of advanced tools signals where the industry is heading.
"I just got the M1 app from motion and now I have an AI voice voicemail. So if you were to call me right now, I don't have like my phone's on do not disturb because we're having this conversation. So it goes to my voicemail. It's actually my voice in AI saying, ‘Hey, I'm a little tied up right now. How can I help you? What's going on?’"
The system conducts full conversations in Josh's voice, provides daily summaries of interactions, and costs just $10 monthly, showing how accessible these technologies have become and hinting at the customer service revolution coming to dealerships.
