VIRGINIA AUTO DEALER vada.com 10 continued from page 9 The word “grit” comes to mind. We did whatever it took to take care of our team and our community. What did the dealerships in the Marlow Auto Group do that they weren’t doing before COVID-19? Did you ramp up your digital operation? Did you do sales and service visits to customers’ homes? We had the blueprint in place for a lot of these things before COVID happened. But then COVID required us to really lean into these things in a way we hadn’t before. We pride ourselves as being innovative problem solvers. I’m a working mom. My biggest pet peeve is: don’t waste my time. If you make me take off work to come here and service my car, I’m going somewhere else. So we had always asked ourselves, “How do we use innovation to save our customers time?” That was part of our DNA already. And then suddenly that shifted to, “How do we use innovation to keep our customers safe?” We had already put in place extended service hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. some time ago. Social distancing is naturally baked into early and late hours. We leaned into our digital retailing tools to sell cars online and deliver them to customers’ homes or reduce the amount of time at the dealership or bodies in the building. We always thought of these tools as a way to take care of working families and save people time. We didn’t think of them as a way to keep people safe. The tools were there, but they just became more meaningful with COVID. What is the value of the VADA? What is your vision for not only the association but the industry in Virginia and beyond? VADA was essential in keeping us informed and being our experts. Most dealers don’t have legal counsel on staff. VADA does a lot of lobbying, and they do a great job. I also felt like they were our coaches saying, “This is how you navigate these choppy waters.” Perhaps even more importantly, VADA did a magical job telling our story to people who were making the decisions to make sure we had a seat at the table. Not only do dealers benefit from it, but so do the customers and the community. Imagine if we were shut down, what would that have meant for people who rely on us for their transportation needs? Where do you see this association and the industry heading? VADA is going to play an amazing role in continuing to tell our story because I think a lot of people — lawmakers and customers — make decisions based off of stale information about our industry. They think buying a car today is like the last time they did it (about 11 years ago, on average). They don’t understand how different and evolved we are, nor do they understand the regulations we face. As the industry changes and consumer demands change, there are a lot of misconceptions about our business that VADA is going to have to combat. What’s it going to take to get more women or people of color into leadership positions (besides having a dealership in the family)? We need more mentors and role models. I had amazing male mentors growing up in the law firm and with my dad. But I didn’t have any female mentors in the auto industry. I used to think I handled things so differently than the men in the room. And at times, because no one in the room looked or acted like me, I thought that I was doing something wrong. It took me a while to realize that the things I was doing differently actually were my competitive advantage. I deal with that in hiring women. They think about what they don’t know instead of thinking about what they bring to the table. I always tell them, “We can teach you all of that. I want you here because of all the other stuff we can’t teach you: Your life experience.” I think it’s happening, but I don’t think it’s happening quickly enough. I think part of that is just by getting the message out and letting people see that we don’t look the same that we did 10 years ago.
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