From Inside the Ivory Tower

A lot of people have expressed an interest in the outcome of my visit to General Motors headquarters as part of the NADA delegation. So this is my account of that visit though there are certain specific aspects of our conversation that I do not feel are appropriate to discuss in this public forum.

The other members of the delegation had all been there before so I was the “wide-eyed rookie” in the group. After receiving our guest passes and proceeding through security, we proceeded to the 38th floor of GM's Renaissance Center headquarters. Kurt McNeil, VP of Sales at General Motors met us in the waiting area. Mark Reuss, President of General Motors North America joined us when we arrived in the conference room and Alan Batey, General Motors’ Chief Marketing Officer, came in about five minutes later.

Chairman Bill Underiner started the meeting by framing the discussion. After a completely worthless discussion about the so-called "voluntary" nature of the Essential Brand Elements facility image program, we pitched the idea of an EBE “Lite” that would entail just the exterior elements. Two members of the NADA delegation made a very strong case for such a concept.

Generally, there was very good, open exchange. The GM executives expressed a genuine concern about legal ramifications of changing the rules of the program or starting a new program at this point in the process. Reuss was particularly distressed about this.

I spoke on behalf of small and rural dealers. I expressed my concern about how the program does not scale well for low volume dealers. I talked about the lack of transparency in the exception process and how it breeds mistrust among the dealers. I stressed that this issue is a HUGE concern for small dealers.

One of the dealers made a great point about how resources that were committed to facilities could not be used for advertising, training and other aspects of marketing new GM vehicles.

GM committed to have a representative in every store that is contacted by the Regional Consulting Center (RCC). Most of these stores have not had a visit from a GM representative in a long, long time. They committed to a dialogue in these stores on an expedited time line. Reuss commented that he wanted to help dealers "do what they COULD do" on a timeline that “worked for them”.

Reuss displayed some real frustration and consternation about the relationship the GM has with its dealers, especially small dealers. He expressed a genuine desire to rebuild relationships with the dealer network. He asked for suggestions for these types of communiqués with the dealers. He did not seem to feel that he had an efficient method by which he could communicate with dealers.

I believe that GM, specifically Reuss, now has additional insight as to how the program is perceived and how it affects dealers. They have a big job ahead of them.

Did we get the commitment from GM that we sought entering the meeting? No. We did not get the scaled down version of EBE that was limited to the exterior elements.

Was the meeting a failure? That remains to be seen. If Reuss and company are sincere in their comments, we may have taken the first step in mending the severely damaged relationship between GM and their small and rural dealers. We will not know that for some time.

I really wanted to come home with some real news for my fellow dealers. Instead, I feel like we have a rather obscure, abstract “fix”. We did get an agreement from General Motors that they would change their process and that they would put people in the field.

So I will take the high ground here and accentuate the positive. I do think Reuss, Batey and McNeil listened to us. I think they want to make the program work for ALL dealers and that they will try to find a way to do that. I think the NADA task force will have to hold GM accountable for the commitments they made.

The entire task force has a meeting with outside legal counsel this Thursday. Stay tuned for details...