By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
Four facts about the average franchised store. It sold about $76.6 million in 2025. It lost 3.3 salespeople in 2024. Four in ten of its sales managers say they have no time to coach. And somewhere in the building is a call from a buyer, because 2025 set a record for buy sells.
Then the loss. The dealer principal spends the morning in the tower desking deals, the afternoon with the factory, and the evening alone with the succession question. Nobody hired a car dealership consultant for that last part.
This page is for that principal, or the owner of a small group. Through Leaders ADAPT I work one to one with owners and host a virtual CEO mastermind of at most 14 members with no revenue gate. I never sold cars. I scaled a company to more than 150 people and exited it to Canon, and the problems at the top of a store are the ones I lived.
Quick answer: A car dealership consultant fixes a defined part of the store, such as F&I, used cars, fixed operations or a sale valuation. The dealer principal's leadership problems, sales manager development, staff turnover and succession, are usually handled by a coach or a dealer 20 group instead. Most consultants do not publish fees. NADA Academy costs $14,995 for a year long programme.
The three leadership problems of a dealer principal
A car dealership consultant is an outside specialist hired to improve one department or process in a dealership, while dealer principal coaching works on the person who runs all of them. Most of what ranks for this search is software vendors, press releases and M&A advisors. Very little of it is about the principal. The three problems below are.
| Problem | What it looks like in the store | The sourced fact | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| The sales manager became the owner | The best closer in the building now runs fixed ops, F&I, used car risk, the factory relationship and a staff of dozens | 16,990 franchised light vehicle dealerships in 2025, averaging about $76.6 million in total sales, with 1,123,100 employees across them | NADA Data 2025 |
| The floor turns faster than the inventory | Managers sit in the tower desking deals, new hires get no coaching and leave inside a year | Dealerships lost an average of 3.3 salespeople in 2024, about 40 percent of an 8.2 person sales team, and 40 percent of sales managers said they lacked time to coach | CDK Global |
| Grow, sell or hand it down | A buyer calls, the next generation is undecided, and profit is high but softening | 458 buy sell transactions covering 688 franchises in 2025, a record, as reported by Digital Dealer from the Kerrigan Advisors Blue Sky Report. Average net pretax profit rose 6.3 percent for 2025 but slipped 9.7 percent in Q4, as reported by Car Dealership Guy from the Presidio NCM benchmark | Digital Dealer and Car Dealership Guy |
A note on the number you will see in every vendor deck. The 67 to 72 percent sales consultant turnover figure comes from a NADA workforce study of 2015 data. It is dated. The CDK figure above is the current one, and it is bad enough.
Read the three rows as one store. On revenue, the average dealership is larger than most companies I work with. On leadership depth, it is often thinner. Every industry version of this table sits on the CEO coaching by industry hub.
What a car dealership consultant solves, and what it does not
Dealership consulting is good at departments. F&I penetration, the used car turn, the service drive, the phone process, the DMS, the valuation before a sale. If the problem lives inside one department and you know which, buy the specialist with a scope and an end date.
What it does not solve is the tower.
The tower is where your sales managers spend the day, working numbers on deals. It is necessary work. It is also why 40 percent of them say they have no time to coach. A consultant can install a training programme on the floor. The managers will still be in the tower on Monday, because that is what you measure them on.
Dealership leadership is the principal deciding what managers are for. If they are paid on gross and judged on gross, they desk. If one part of their job is building salespeople who stay past a year, and that part is reviewed every week, they coach. The manager as coach page covers the method. The decision is yours.
The second thing a consultant does not solve is the exit question. A sell side advisor will value the store. Nobody in the building will tell you whether you should sell it.
What dealership consulting and coaching cost
Few consultants in this market publish a price. The anchors below are the ones that do, plus the structure of the ones that do not.
| Option | Published price | Format | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| NADA Academy | $14,995 tuition | Year long dealer and manager leadership programme in six modules, requires sponsorship by a NADA member dealership | NADA |
| Joe Verde Group workshop | $1,750 | Two day train the trainer workshop for sales and management | Joe Verde Group |
| NCM Associates 20 Groups | Not published | 5,500 members in 465 groups, 27 moderators, meetings of 1.5 to 3 days several times a year, no long term contract | NCM Associates |
| Buy sell advisors | Not published | Valuation and sale advisory, such as Kerrigan Advisors and Bel Air Partners | Bel Air Partners |
| General CEO peer group | $2,500 joining fee plus $1,380 a month, about $19,060 in year one, as reported by Long Angle | Full day a month, $5 million revenue line | Long Angle |
| One to one operator coaching | Priced on a fit call | No revenue gate, monthly | This page |
The interesting row is the NCM line. The dealer 20 group has existed since 1947, and NCM Associates reports 465 of them. Dealers invented the peer group for numbers long before the rest of business caught on. What the format does well is benchmarking. Your store against stores like yours, line by line. What it does less of is the principal's own leadership, because the room is built around the financial statement.
The executive coaching cost page covers the one to one market across industries.
Consultant, coach or dealer 20 group: how to choose
Ask the goal, not the task. If the goal is a number in one department, buy the consultant. If the goal is a store whose managers grow people while you are not in the building, the consultant is the wrong tool.
A 20 Group fits a principal who wants to know where the store stands. Expense ratios, gross per unit, absorption, every line compared with dealers who are not your competitors. Bring that knowledge home and act on it.
Dealer principal coaching fits a principal who already knows the numbers and still cannot move the managers. That is a people problem dressed as a process problem. It takes months, not a project.
A cross industry peer group fits the principal who is tired of hearing the auto business explain itself to itself. Owners from logistics, home services or lending do not share the industry's assumptions. They will ask why your managers are paid that way, and they will not accept "that is how dealerships work" as an answer.
My rule for a single store or a small group. Use the 20 Group for the numbers. Use a coach or a general peer group for the decisions the numbers do not make for you: who runs the floor, who is the next principal, and whether to sell.
Auto industry specialist or operator from outside
An auto dealer consultant who has run a store knows the vocabulary on day one. Pack, holdback, front end gross, the factory's facility programme. For a first time principal that may be worth a lot.
An operator from outside knows what happens to a company at 50, 100 and 150 people. How to build managers who build people. How to replace a leader who is liked and costing you. What it feels like when a buyer calls and you are not sure you want to say no.
Ask either kind three questions. What did you personally run, and to what size? Which manager did you confront, and what did it cost you to wait? Have you ever had to decide whether to sell?
The $1.35M conversation, priced before it happened
My version of the tower was an engineering manager. Strong technically. Hard on his people. They left, and they said why on the way out.
So I priced it. Replacement cost, ramp time, lost output, for every person his group had lost. The number was about $450,000 a year.
I took the number to him directly. Not the market. Not the hiring climate. Him.
He changed. Company turnover went from 20 percent to 8 percent. Three years of that $450,000 is $1.35 million, which is why I call it the $1.35M conversation.
Every dealer principal I meet has a manager in the tower whose floor keeps emptying. The industry turnover gives cover. The arithmetic does not. The difficult conversations with employees page has the structure. Pricing it first is what makes the conversation possible.
One to one with the principal, not the department
Leaders ADAPT 1:1 CEO coaching and advisory is run by me. I scaled a company to more than 150 people, exited it to Canon, and never worked a car lot. I do not touch your F&I menu or your service drive. I work with you on the managers, the floor that keeps emptying, and the sell or hold question you have not said out loud.
Each monthly conversation ends with one committed action and a date. The first quarter usually goes to one manager and one decision.
It is not for a principal who wants a department fixed by Friday. Hire the specialist for that, and keep the 20 Group.
Car dealership consultant FAQ
What does a car dealership consultant do?
A car dealership consultant is hired to fix a defined part of the store, such as F&I penetration, the used car process, fixed operations, the CRM or a buy sell valuation. The work has a scope and an end date. Leadership work on the dealer principal, the managers and succession is a different engagement, usually sold as coaching or through a 20 Group.
How much does dealership consulting cost?
Most dealership consultants and M&A advisors do not publish fees. Published anchors in October 2026 include $1,750 for a two day Joe Verde train the trainer workshop and $14,995 for the year long NADA Academy, which needs sponsorship by a NADA member dealership. NCM Associates does not publish the price of its 20 Groups.
What is a dealer 20 group?
A dealer 20 group is a peer group of non competing dealers who share financial statements and compare performance under a moderator. NCM Associates has run the model since 1947 and reports 5,500 members in 465 groups, meetings of 1.5 to 3 days several times a year, and no long term contract. It is benchmarking first and leadership second.
Why is sales staff turnover a leadership problem for dealerships?
CDK Global reported that dealerships lost an average of 3.3 salespeople in 2024, about 40 percent of an 8.2 person sales team, and that 40 percent of sales managers said they lacked time to coach. When managers only desk deals, new salespeople are not developed and leave. The dealer principal decides what managers spend their time on.
Does an auto dealer consultant need to have run a dealership?
For a process engagement such as F&I or fixed operations, dealership experience matters a great deal because the consultant benchmarks the store against others. For leadership work, the more important test is whether the person has run a company with managers under managers, hired and replaced leaders, and faced a succession or exit decision of their own.
Should a dealer principal hire a coach or join a peer group?
A 20 Group gives a dealer principal benchmarks against similar stores. A coach works one to one on the principal's own decisions, managers and succession. A cross industry peer group adds owners outside the auto business who will question assumptions the industry shares. Many principals use a 20 Group for numbers and a coach or general peer group for leadership.
Get your managers out of the tower
Before you call any car dealership consultant, do one exercise. List every sales manager. Next to each name, write how many hours last week went to desking and how many went to coaching a salesperson. Then write the turnover on that manager's team.
Price the gap. Then decide who has the conversation.
Which of your managers would you confront first, and what is waiting costing you?
Or bring the list to a room of owners from outside the auto business.
