The profit opportunities in today’s dealerships are vast and often hidden in plain sight. In this episode of Inside Automotive, we welcome Jay Abraham, a leading business growth strategist and founder of The Abraham Group. Throughout his career, Abraham has helped companies uncover untapped potential and enhance performance across all operations. Abraham emphasizes that dealerships can significantly boost profits by leveraging existing resources, refining processes, and adopting insights from outside the automotive industry.
During today’s conversation, Abraham highlights that dealerships could dramatically increase profits by leveraging existing resources, refining processes, and adopting insights from outside the automotive industry.
Driving results
First, Abraham outlines the importance of overlooked performance indicators (OPIs), which go beyond traditional KPIs. These leverage points exist across sales, service, parts, and finance, and improvements in these areas often require little to no additional investment. He describes this as working on the “geometry” of a business, where small, strategic changes combine to create a multiplicative effect on results.
According to Abraham, maximizing existing assets is another frequently underutilized approach, as is leveraging marketing budget, leads, and customer relationships. Abraham stresses that treating all leads or referral clients equally often results in misallocated resources. Focusing attention on higher-yield interactions, clients who refer multiple buyers or are more likely to purchase higher-margin vehicles can increase conversion, repeat business, and profitability.
Transform sales & service
Moreover, soft skills and transactional optimization were also central to Abraham’s message. Simple adjustments in greetings, communication style, and engagement can significantly impact customer satisfaction and sales outcomes. He cited examples of concierge-based customer allocation and systematic referral programs as ways to boost revenue without increasing costs.
“Sooner or later, everyone learns the same best practices.”
Abraham encourages constant testing and variation in dealership operations. He notes that small changes, such as adjusting F&I scheduling or aligning sales staff with their strongest areas, can generate substantial bottom-line improvements. In one case, a schedule adjustment increased monthly profits by more than $200,000 for a single dealership.
Innovation from outside the industry can also provide a competitive edge. Abraham described “funnel vision,” borrowing successful strategies from aerospace, logistics, and finance to generate breakthroughs that competitors may not anticipate.
Market outlook
Finally, Abraham urges dealers to focus on work, ensuring every dollar spent and every hour invested is measured against potential returns. He emphasizes that incremental improvements across multiple areas, including operations, marketing, and soft skills, can combine geometrically to increase overall profitability.
