CBT News spoke with Aaron Baldwin, CEO of automotiveMastermind, at the Auto Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., on June 16, to break down automotiveMastermind’s new fee management platform and what the FTC’s pricing rules mean for dealers going forward.
"Put that lens against [dealership's pricing/advertising]... if somebody not inside the industry looking at it... they actually know what they're getting and what that overall price is."
Key takeaways:
- According to Baldwin, the FTC’s pricing policy is a welcome change for the industry, bringing transparency to consumers and leveling the playing field among dealers on advertised prices. He said the shift will be challenging to navigate given the range of approaches dealers must consider, but called it healthy for the industry long-term.
- automotiveMastermind recently launched FeeSync, a centralized platform that lets dealers manage fees and control which vendors, agencies and listing sites have access to that information. Baldwin contends that the industry has lacked a centralized way to manage this until now, and the company is offering the platform free to dealers, vendors and agencies to encourage widespread adoption.
- Baldwin pointed to a comment from Senator Bernie Moreno during the summit as a useful litmus test for dealers: would someone outside the industry, like a grandmother, understand the actual price being advertised? He said dealers should audit every system handling pricing information and should not shy away from advertising prices altogether. Instead, he said dealers need to ensure the advertised number reflects the fully burdened price, including all dealer fees, with proper disclosure.
To check out more interviews and event coverage of the CBT News Automotive Leadership Summit, click here.
