2019 NADA Chairman Charles W. “Charlie” Gilchrist served most recently as NADA vice chairman, representing Northern Texas’s franchised new-car dealers on the board. Thanks to his vision and commitment, what was initially SouthWest Ford in 1986 has today evolved into Gilchrist Automotive, a company made up of 10 individual new vehicle franchise dealerships in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. From 1996 through 2008, Gilchrist won Ford’s President Award eight times.
During his interview with us, Gilchrist talks about the hurdles facing dealerships in the coming year. He emphasizes the importance of building and sustaining a well-trained workforce, what he calls a dealer’s “best asset.” He also points out the current industry-wide shortage of service technicians, while explaining how NADA plans to address the shortage. Although he admits you can’t predict the future, Gilchrist advises dealerships to remain nimble and flexible to follow whatever path opens, and to embrace technology, especially when selling to millennials. Gilchrist concludes by revealing what he considers are the five core values that will distinguish an outstanding new hire from the pack.
Dealer Magazine: On behalf of Dealer Magazine and our readers, I want to congratulate you, Charlie, for your selection as Chairman of NADA for 2019. What do you hope to accomplish during your time at the helm?
Charles: The biggest thing I want to accomplish is getting every dealer involved in NADA. And I’m going to challenge every dealer to get involved. We’re all in this together. I want every dealer knowing what NADA does for them every day, because I want every dealer to see the incredible drive, passion, and commitment that our NADA team has for us. I think that will inspire them to get involved. And once they are involved, I want them to challenge NADA. As I said, we’re all in this together, and I think this is how we’ll succeed.
We’re also facing a critical shortage of service technicians in the auto retail industry, and we’ve got to address that. Dealers are going to need 76,000 more service technicians every year between now and 2026. That’s an enormous number, but only around 40,000 new technicians are graduating each year from technical schools, so there’s an obvious shortfall. Closing that gap will be a major focus of NADA in the coming years. And through NADA and the NADA Foundation, we’re launching a workforce initiative to help recruit and train the future technicians of our industry.
Our workforce is our absolute best asset as dealers. But if we want to keep it that way, we have to figure out a way recruit, train, and retain the best people so we can continue providing our customers with the best experience possible.
Dealer Magazine: Gilchrist Automotive is family-owned and operated. Please fill us in on your background: how you got your start and what positions you’ve held.
Charles: Well, I originally went to college to become a lawyer, and instead majored in accounting and became a CPA. I worked for Coopers and Lybrand, a Big Eight CPA firm in Dallas, before I realized I really didn’t like accounting. In 1984, I went to work for a dealer named Kenneth Nichols and in 1986 moved to Weatherford, Texas, to run his Ford dealership.
In 1986, I became general manager of Southwest Ford and a partner with Ken. In 1990, Ken bought Nichols Ford and allowed me to run both stores. In 1992, I negotiated the buyout of Southwest Ford, and a year later I negotiated the purchase of the local Toyota-Jeep-Eagle dealership. And in 1995, I purchased the remaining shares from Ken and became 100 percent owner in both dealerships.
Dealer Magazine: What do you appreciate most about your career in retail automotive?
Charles: Without a doubt the people. The people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve been able to make over the years have been wonderful. From my employees to my customers to fellow dealers, our manufacturer partners, senators and representatives, other government officials. What a career, that we get to meet all of these wonderful people, and each one of them has an impact on us. In fact, many of them change our lives. I’ve been blessed. My life as a car dealer has been unbelievable.
Dealer Magazine: What specific challenges do you envision for dealers in 2019 and how do you see NADA helping them meet those challenges?
Charles: I mentioned the technician shortage and what NADA and the NADA Foundation is doing to address that. We’ll be talking much more about our workforce initiative in the months ahead.
We also still have a huge affordability issue for new vehicles. We need to make sure that new vehicles, especially with all the technology and safety features that are being added to them, remain affordable for all of our customers. The affordability issue really permeates everything we do. And we also have to look at the way our business model is changing, particularly with the pressure being put on our new-vehicle departments. So, we have to be better and more creative at running our stores, and we have to work with each OEM and figure out the best way to make our new-vehicle departments viable and sustainable over the long term.
Dealer Magazine: The millennial demographic is increasingly important. How can dealers attract more millennial customers?
Charles: Well, according to the numbers, dealers are attracting plenty of millennial customers. In fact, millennials are buying new cars at a higher rate today than they did a decade ago. If you look at Strategic Vision data, in 2017 the percentage of new-vehicle sales to consumers under the age of 35 was 19.3 percent. In 2007 it was 16.6 percent. Millennials are delaying a lot of these life events, such as buying houses, having children, and moving out of cities – and buying cars – for a few more years than we’re used to. The Federal Reserve Board recently verified this, in November saying it “found no evidence that millennials have preferences for vehicle purchases that are lower than those of earlier generations.”
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to change to accommodate the changing needs and desires of our customers. For example, if you want to buy a vehicle from us, we have the capability to let you do it all online. We’ll price it, we’ll let you trade in your existing vehicle and we’ll finance it online. And we’ll deliver it to you. However our customers want to do business with us, we’ll cater to those needs. When it comes to millennials, it’s not about whether they’re buying or not buying. We know they’re buying. I think it’s really only about how they are embracing technology, and technology in retail, and how dealers are embracing that same technology. That’s how this issue is impacting the market. We, as dealers, have to change according to our customers’ wants and needs, and that’s what dealers are doing.
Dealer Magazine: A lot can happen in retail automotive, from one year to the next. For example, last May President Trump surprised our industry by announcing his intention to impose tariffs on imported cars, trucks, and auto parts. How can the auto industry best protect itself from unexpected developments in 2019?
Charles: By having the best team in place to handle any situation that arises. That’s all you can do a lot of times.
Someone asked me what the biggest thing I learned during my year as NADA vice chairman. And the biggest thing I learned is that you cannot predict the future. What I thought would be potential issues, and what ended up being the issues that took up most of our time and attention, were two very different things. As you said, in 2017 auto tariffs weren’t even on anyone’s radar. What that taught me was that we have to be prepared for everything and anything, and we have to be nimble and agile, and certainly capable enough, to handle anything.
And that’s where you really get to see the value of what our NADA team does for us. While they are always working on today’s issues, there are always even more and bigger issues that emerge. Our team must constantly react to different situations. My greatest comfort is in the NADA team and their ability to help us as dealers navigate through any situation that arises.
Dealer Magazine: What other disruptors are on the horizon?
Charles: I don’t look at it as a disruptor the same way some others might, but I think dealers are going to continue to be challenged to figure out the best way to embrace technology in the retail process. Through technology we can actually speed up the sales process, and I think that doing that will help us with transparency and trust with our customers. So, there are clear advantages. But I don’t think anyone has figured out the magic bullet yet, and that’s why you’re seeing, and why you’ll continue to see, dealers try different things in terms of adopting new and innovative technologies when they sell and service cars and trucks, both new and used.
Dealer Magazine: How would you describe your management style and what do you look for in new employees?
Charles: My management style has evolved. When I first got into business, I thought if I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done. Because I was taught that if you didn’t open the doors and lock the doors yourself, you wouldn’t be successful. So my philosophy was I had to outwork everybody, and I was the ultimate micromanager.
But through the years, as you evolve, and you grow, you learn that you have to give people responsibility. And when you give them that responsibility, you have to give them authority. You have to empower them.
When we hire somebody now, that person has to have five core values. You have to have character. You have to have a sense of urgency. You have to have attention to detail, because it’s the little things that make people, our customers, happy. You have to see yourself as part of a team. And you have to work on bettering yourself every day. We look for people who have those five core values, and then we empower them to succeed from there.
Dealer Magazine: In your mind, has digital marketing totally replaced more conventional methods?
Charles: Not totally. It’s absolutely a bigger part of our advertising budget. Digital now makes up close to two-thirds of what we spend on advertising. I think print is going away more, but there is still a place for radio and TV. The challenge is connecting them all to your digital platforms and then driving people to those platforms where they can get in touch with you and get all the information they need. We have to be really, really good at providing information accurately and quickly now.
Dealer Magazine: What single piece of technology makes the greatest difference when selling or servicing cars?
Charles: The mobile phone. I think it has changed our industry. You can get so much information so quickly. You can be sitting in our showroom and not only have information on our inventory, but our competitors’ – everybody’s – instantly at your fingertips. And because the question of transparency is such a vital part of our business, we have to make sure that we can give you the information that you need quickly and accurately, and you can trust that information.
The other great thing mobile devices provide is instant communication. Now we can more effectively and more efficiently communicate with our customers when we’re repairing their vehicles, or when they are scheduling service appointments. Our customers want and need both convenience and speed. The other thing they want is communication. These are devices that can really help us with that.