09/10/2026
The Market Isn’t Dead. But Average Ex*****on Is Getting Exposed.
There are still plenty of customers buying cars.
The problem is that too many dealerships are still operating as if their fair share of the market is guaranteed.
It isn’t.
August new-vehicle sales ran at a 16.8 million SAAR. Customers are still shopping. Vehicles are still being sold. The opportunity is absolutely there.
At the same time, affordability is under pressure, average transaction prices are back above $50,000, monthly payments remain high, and dealer confidence has softened.
So we have an interesting contradiction.
The market is active.
But winning in the market is getting harder.
And I believe that is exactly where the separation is happening between average dealerships and high-performing dealerships.
For years, I’ve watched dealers spend enormous amounts of money creating opportunities through digital advertising, third-party leads, OEM programs, CRM technology, AI, equity mining, service databases, and retention campaigns.
Then too many of those opportunities get wasted because the customer didn’t respond quickly enough.
That is becoming a very expensive mistake.
Today’s customer compares more.
They take longer.
They shop multiple dealerships.
They disappear and come back.
They say they’re “just looking.”
They may ignore your first few calls or texts.
That does not automatically make them a bad lead.
It makes them today’s customer.
So I think dealerships need to change the question.
Instead of asking:
How do we get our fair share?
Ask:
How do we earn our unfair share?
Because somebody is going to sell those vehicles.
Somebody is going to win those customers.
Somebody is going to take business away from the dealership down the street.
Why shouldn’t it be you?
Earning an unfair share takes discipline.
It means responding faster, but also following up longer.
It means measuring real conversations, not just activity.
It means having a strategy for the customer who doesn’t buy in the first 72 hours.
It means working the opportunities already sitting inside your CRM and DMS instead of immediately assuming the answer is more advertising.
It means using AI where it makes us faster, smarter, and more efficient.
But it also means understanding that technology does not replace judgment, persuasion, accountability, and human connection.
I’m a big believer in technology.
I’m also a big believer that technology without ex*****on is just another monthly expense.
The dealerships that outperform over the next few years will not necessarily be the stores with the most leads or the largest advertising budgets.
I believe they will be the dealerships that waste the fewest opportunities.
That philosophy is deeply embedded in what we do at Call Team Six:
No Lead Left Behind.
Not because every lead will buy.
They won’t.
But because dealerships have already paid a tremendous amount of money to generate those opportunities, and giving up too early is one of the easiest ways to hand business to a competitor.
You do not need the entire market.
You need to become more disciplined, more persistent, and more effective than the dealerships around you.
That is how you earn your unfair share.
What do you think? In today’s market, are dealerships losing more opportunities because of lead quality—or because they’re giving up on customers too soon?
