Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Perry Watson IV, President of NAMAD.
With 33% of new vehicles now purchased by minority consumers, the business case for minority dealer ownership has never been stronger. And this conversation breaks down how NAMAD is building the capital paths, training programs, and OEM relationships to turn that data into more first-generation dealers.
The spirit of entrepreneurship among dealer candidates is alive and kicking.
Consolidation has changed the landscape, but it hasn't killed the individual dealer.
"When it's an individual dealer, it's truly a partnership. And so, we're seeing many first-generation dealers still pursue the opportunity to become dealer owners and across the the industry."
NAMAD is on the verge of launching class three of its Dealer Ownership Academy, a signal that the pipeline of candidates is real and growing.
The business case for minority dealer ownership is built on market share data, not sentiment.
Thirty-three percent of all new vehicles were purchased by minority consumers in 2023, according to S&P Global Mobility. That number is the foundation of every OEM conversation NAMAD has.
"You never go wrong with the business case, because you can't legislate people's hearts, right? You and I may have the same belief in terms of the the humanitarian piece of this thing, but ultimately, if you stick and focus to moving business, it's a language that we all can understand."
Adding to his argument: One OEM that placed a NAMAD member in a deal saw sales volume double within two years, driven by engagement in communities that weren't being reached before
Minority dealers reach nooks and crannies of emerging markets that others don't.
The specific value NAMAD members bring is market penetration in communities where store-level ownership changes the nature of the customer relationship entirely.
"Our dealers and our members, we have a special ingredient, and that is we don't just get into the general population to sell those cars. We get into the nooks and crannies of these emerging markets. A lot of them minority markets, and we draw from not just our primary market area.”
Some OEMs are now seeing over 40% of new vehicle sales (luxury and non-luxury) come from minority consumers, and the dealer network composition is a direct factor in those numbers.
There is no straight path to dealership ownership anymore, and NAMAD connects the dots between candidates and capital.
Floor plans, OEM relationships, capital partners, brokers—getting a deal done requires assembling multiple parties simultaneously, and that's exactly what NAMAD's annual conference is structured to facilitate.
"Here's the beautiful thing about the NAMAD conference. We have an annual conference and at that annual conference, dealers and potential dealers have the opportunity to meet with the OEMs, so the the manufacturers who are distributing points, brokers who are doing buy-sells, as well as the banks. So, often times the magic happens at the conference for our members.”
The conference is at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, August 11th through the 14th, and last year saw the biggest attendance of new participants in NAMAD's history.
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NAMAD's five North Stars are retention, expansion, training, advocacy, and awareness.
The organization has been around since 1980, and yet there are still industry professionals who haven't heard of it, which is why awareness sits alongside capital and training as an explicit organizational priority.
"The name is National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, but we have everybody at our conference and everybody is a part of our family. It's it's not just a minority conference. It's focused on making sure that minorities have the opportunity to make those connections, but, you know, we expand across all race, gender, all of those things when it comes to the NAMAD family because we believe in coming together for strategic growth."
The organization is a connector and a supporter (not an ownership stakeholder), and its job as a nonprofit is to serve members, not extract from them.
Ownership transfers within the NAMAD dealer body are how the community compounds.
When a dealer sells outside the NAMAD family, that point is gone. When one sells to a former employee who became a dealer through NAMAD connections, the whole network gets stronger.
"He was actually able to sell this dealership to a gentleman who at one point worked at his dealership who had become a dealer. So, we really try to highlight those stories," Watson said of a long-tenured dealer who joined him on stage at last year's conference.
Stories like that, he says, are the product of a deliberate effort to make sure NAMAD members look within the dealer body first when it's time to exit.
Dealership ownership requires an automotive PhD that never ends.
The business of running a store has always demanded continuous learning, but the pace of change has accelerated to the point where keeping up is non-negotiable.
"In this industry, continuous learning is a must because, I mean, just look at AI. We weren't even talking about AI 5 years ago, right? I mean, not to the level that we are now. So, I think business owners in general, and dealers specifically, have to be dedicated to what I call an automotive PhD. And that means that it never ends."
That’s why NAMAD covers conversations on FTC pricing, EV investment timing, capital structure, and more, because education is only useful if it's connected to the actual decisions dealers have to make right now.
The peer group matters as much as the education.
There's a version of knowledge that only becomes available when you're in the room with the right people.
"If you are in the business and you are a sales manager, or you're a BDC manager, or you're a service director, that next-gen opportunity is great because whether it's virtual or in-person, it creates those opportunities to be exposed to what some other people are doing, and the expertise that comes in the room at these functions."
The term venture capital was unfamiliar until proximity to the right network made it available, and the same principle applies to dealership ownership for people who've never seen the path up close.
NAMAD is working on a capital fund to seed first-generation dealer candidates.
The single biggest barrier to ownership right now is blue sky, and the organization's next major initiative is building structured capital paths that don't require a candidate to have all the funds themselves.
"It's about being able to bring parties together to have different capital paths for dealer candidates. I want to make sure we have the capability for someone who may not have all of the funds to plug into a capital structure to get into a deal and earn either you know, meaningful participation or 51% plus, right?"
The current chairman and incoming chair are both aligned on it, and the aspiration is to come back to the 2026 conference with formal announcements on what 2.0 looks like.
Creating more high-performers like Erica Tiffany starts with NAMAD's Dealer Ownership Academy.
The Dealer Ownership Academy fills in the specific gaps that stand between a high-performing operator and a dealer principal.
"The way we do it, Yossi, is we add fuel to the fire. You take someone who's a high performer like Erica and you say, 'Hey, you know what? Let's expose you to fixed operations. Let's expose you in detail to the parts department. Let's expose you to cash management and cash forecasting. Let's connect you with some potential capital partners.'"
Tiffany, who also appeared on the CDG podcast, is involved in the academy herself, which is the clearest signal of how the program is designed, aka practitioners training the next generation of practitioners.
