The NIADA understands that in the automotive industry, we need to be prepared for the unexpected and make sure that we can pivot before it’s too late and adapt to a changing market. -Melanie Wilson
As Interim CEO for NIADA, Melanie is responsible for the overall Association, implementing the strategic plan, and supervising all staff, operations, administration, accounting, and finance. Boards and Committee responsibilities: NIADA Board of Directors, NIADA Foundation Board, NIADA Services Board, Foundation Board, Finance Committee, and Past Presidents.
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Welcome to Season 8!
⏰Highlights:
00:00 Welcome to Season 8!
03:20 NIADA
06:12 Melanie Wilson
16:54 Engaging With the Consumer
23:58 The Powerhouse Team
34:41 Next 5 Years
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Full transcript below:
Herb Anderson:
What-up. Welcome to another episode of the Dealer Talk podcast. This is your host, Herbert Anderson. Thank you so much for tuning in. Welcome to season eight, episode one. We are very, very excited to be here unless we check in with our co-host Charity Ann. What’s up, Charity?
Charity Ann:
What’s up? I’m excited for this season.
Herb Anderson:
Welcome back to another season of the Dealer Talk podcast.
Charity Ann:
Season eight. Did you think you’d get to eight seasons?
Herb Anderson:
No, not really, I don’t know. This has been a lot of fun. I’ve been doing this for a minute now of four-plus years, I think, but yeah, every year I was like, man, you know, like I can’t even believe that we had two seasons and three, and you know, kind of kept going at it so
Charity Ann:
Well, I love working with you, so I love what I learn. I love this has been an absolute privilege for me, so thanks for letting me tag along on your adventure.
Herb Anderson:
Thank you likewise s been good to have you, that’s why we invited you back.
Herb Anderson:
So yeah, so this season, we mentioned it in the last episode of season seven. It’s all about NIADA. We have an amazing guest list; shout out to troy for putting this thing together. Um yeah, I’m really excited to kind of get this thing rolling.
Charity Ann:
Yeah, um, it is a little bit of, again, change in the way that we’re doing things around here.
Herb Anderson:
Yeah, we’re going to keep you guys guessing. Every season it’s going to be different, so um.
Herb Anderson:
No status quo over here
Charity Ann:
In season nine, Herbert will be performing every episode in musical format.
Herb Anderson:
Oh, there you go, oh, there’s an idea.
Charity Ann:
Singing about the automotive industry
Herb Anderson:
Yes, he loves it so much he’ll sing it. That’s good stuff.
Charity Ann:
I don’t even know if we’re going to go from there.
Herb Anderson:
yeah
Charity Ann:
How to end a conversation step one
Herb Anderson:
So, we have, um, an amazing guest today Melanie Wilson. We’re gonna be talking about
Herb Anderson:
She’s the interim CEO, right? Of NIADA?
Charity Ann:
yes
Herb Anderson:
So perfect way to kick things off Melanie Wilson’s take on things that are. You what are you most excited about this season in this episode for?
Charity Ann:
I am eager to not. I am laughing because we were just talking about how I overuse the word excited, so I’m trying to use different words now. I am eager for the opportunity to overcome some of the stereotypes that I know are pretty heavy within the independent side of the automotive industry. I want to want to touch on a bunch of those and
Herb Anderson:
Right on, right on, it’s like, you know, words that the host of the Dealer Talked podcast say a lot here right on.
I’m super excited, um.
Charity Ann:
I say, super excited. Happy podcast day that should be… in the comments, leave a list of the words that you never want to hear us say again.
Herb Anderson:
it’s like every episode, they say… it’s a different episode, folks. I promise you just …
Charity Ann:
I was going to say like even in my town, the amount of franchise dealers versus the amount of independent dealers. There’s a huge difference quantity between those two.
Herb Anderson:
What do you mean?
Charity Ann:
Do you think that there’s a lot of dealerships in my town, more so than in other towns?
Herb Anderson:
I don’t
Charity Ann:
Because there’s like an independent dealer on every corner
Herb Anderson:
Yeah, but you’re in a single point market, dude, like there’s one big auto group, and then there’s some, you know, individual rooftops, and then yeah, of course, there was a bunch of independent dealers, and you’re in the fastest growing city in the country too, so there is that part of it.
Charity Ann:
It’s really fun living in this fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country.
Herb Anderson:
Well, it will be very fun here shortly if that growth pattern continues.
Charity Ann:
Time to move to like a cabin in the woods. You think I can do a podcast from a cabin in the woods?
Herb Anderson:
so
Charity Ann:
Peter Duffy did.
Herb Anderson:
He did what? moved to a cabin in the woods.
Charity Ann:
He was on a farm in the middle of nowhere, remember, and he used the what’s it called the internet above everybody.
Herb Anderson:
I don’t remember that.
Charity Ann:
Elon Musk’s internet
Herb Anderson:
right anyway
Charity Ann:
He doesn’t remember.
Herb Anderson:
Anyway, let’s without further ado, let’s get into it. Let’s bring on our guest Melanie Wilson. Let’s see.
Charity Ann:
Hello Melanie
Melanie Wilson:
hi
Charity Ann:
hi
Herb Anderson:
Hey Melanie, how are you doing?
Melanie Wilson:
Good, how are y’all?
Herb Anderson:
doing great
Herb Anderson:
So, fun fact we are using Riverside here for the first time, so you probably only see your face.
Charity Ann:
We think that they will record everybody’s faces.
Herb Anderson:
It will, but this is a podcast, so voice is really what matters.
Charity Ann:
Just keep in mind that although we can’t see you, it might still be recording your face.
Herb Anderson:
All right, so we are very excited for this season where it’s going to be all about NIADA, so shout out to troy once again for putting this together. Thank you so much, sir. We kick things off here with a background so tell us about you.
Melanie Wilson:
I am me, no, I am very sarcastic and crack a lot of jokes and have a hard time being very serious, so I have been an idea actually since two thousand seventeen, um I came on as a contractor to help them kind of navigate some pretty tremendous growth they had seen in a very short eat of time and um never left and so I was in the CFO role prior to stepping into this Interim CEO when bob retired I’ve been a nonprofit my entire career I started my career at an association so it all kind of makes sense I was referred to them in the first place, and I don’t know I guess when I met them, I didn’t know anything about NIADA and then now I just can’t leave.
Charity Ann:
That’s the story of everyone in the automotive industry right there.
Melanie Wilson:
That’s what I hear.
Charity Ann:
Oh yeah, it’s interesting. So, what did you do in profits? How did you end up from nonprofit to automotive?
Melanie Wilson:
Well, an idea is technically a trade association, so while we serve independent dealers in the automotive space, we have different priorities because our job is to support those in the industry. So, since I have association background, I’ve got 501C3 charitable nonprofit background which NIADA. I’m used to nonprofits with mixed into its um, it ended up being a good fit for my experience to come help. I spent a lot of time rebuilding infrastructure which is also a strength of mind, and building out infrastructure, and um m next thing you knew; I had my fingers in all the pots.
Charity Ann:
Okay, you love it.
Melanie Wilson:
Love it.
Charity Ann:
interesting
Herb Anderson:
So, let’s talk about let’s kind of kick things off with a fifty thousand view Melanie on, like how was you know some milestones of 2022 and what do you guys are seeing for this new year.
Melanie Wilson:
Yeah so for 2022 wow I think 2022 was kind of the first year that we got all of our events back even if the format was a little bit different coming out of covid and people not really traveling so we were able to re connect with people face to face and see people out in the industry which really I mean isn’t that what we’re all here for anyway to network and see each other so we kind of weathered a lot of all right the ball can roll again let’s get it back to rolling um bob and I had spent the last couple of years when he came in really focusing on what the association does and how we serve our members and um put some really great things in place and I think for 2023 we’re are just about to level up all of that one of my goals is to really leverage our resources and our relationships to bring the right people to the table to level up on our education to you now make our events amazing which they always are but we want to add some fun things and and really foster engagement between our members the association the state associations and the industry partners.
Herb Anderson:
right on
Charity Ann:
So, go ahead.
Herb Anderson:
No, no, go for it
Charity Ann:
What are some of the fun things you guys are thinking about doing this year?
Melanie Wilson:
So, we have so
Charity Ann:
You were going to tease us with that, and I’m just going to grab the hook.
Melanie Wilson:
So we had been working for quite some time on the certified 360 program which is the CPO warranty available to independent dealers that allows them to really compete in um in the space with like the franchise dealers and their use certified products it’s a really incredible program it’s got a lot of versatility and it has a lot of future plans to so we partnered with I think we have four right now administrators cover across the country in various regions we’ve partnered with Carketa who is offering their digital inspection platform for free if you’re a member of the c p program and it’s just a it’s a really cool thing and that launched a few days ago and so we’re very very excited about that um we have also been we spent 2022 kind of re defining what our twenty group program was and how we could improve and be better you know we want to grow along with our dealers provide better so that program is rolling now in a really big way this year we have plans with education to really provide strategic education classes that are addressing what the dealers need in that moment I think if we’ve learned anything over the last few years it’s been very unpredictable and in a market that you know you could kind of set your path and work your path and you would have the ups and downs but we really had to pivot for the first time and go in totally new directions and an idea wants to be prepared going into 2023 for the things that we can’t anticipate or we’re not sure going to happen or the haven longer than we want them to that we’ve got education in place to help dealers navigate through those things um our show in June is going to be at the win in Las Vegas which is excellent facility very excited about that we’re lining up the agenda same thing with the education content um and then I guess I’m I can’t say I’m most excited because there’s so many exciting things going on but every year NIADA goes with dealers and the state associations to Washington DC for the national policy conference and with covid we were not able to go and then we were able to go and get into face to face meetings but for 2023 we’ll be back on the hill for a day and face to face meetings with legislators educating them on our industry on why what they’re doing is important or could be harmful to us and just really putting our our faces in front of them so they know who we are and they know that our industry has a voice
Charity Ann:
Yes, that’s one of the things that I am always extremely fascinated about is the politics, like the governmental politics and the legal aspects of the automotive industry.
Melanie Wilson:
You would love Brett Scott, our VP of government affairs that’s his favorite thing to talk about. I think he might be on the list of people I get to talk to
Melanie Wilson:
He might probably should be.
Herb Anderson:
So, Melanie, let’s.
Herb Anderson:
Go back to the certified program very interested about that. I’m as people that follow the show now. I used to work for cox automotive, and when I was a rep for Auto Trader and KBB, I know kelly blue book was trying to come up with a program for certification as well something that they could sell to independent dealers and a lot of the dealers were excited about that at offering because obviously having that certification means that they could be with franchise dealers to a certain degree right I mean at the end of the day it’s I think that the certification is I mean it’s how do I say like it’s good but if the consumer doesn’t understand who’s providing the certification or holding the Dealer accountable that’s what has it its weight right. Does it make sense what I was saying? So how are you guys putting this forward for the Dealer, and how, and more importantly, how are you promoting it to customers so that they understand the validation?
Melanie Wilson:
that is a really great question so I’ll answer in kind of two parts um information if a dealer is interested in the program it’s available on our website of course if you um we have a choice of administrators you can choose from if you don’t know who you want to choose we’ll send it to all and you can get the picture of all of them and I think from the dealer perspective it’s so important because the consumer can’t pay for this program but when you look at the data certified cars sell for so much more and so much quicker than uncertified cars so from a dealer’s perspective there’s not a whole lot to lose can sell more and you can sell it faster NIADA has been for several years of my tenure talking about how do we engage the consumer to understand who we are and what we do and I think this will be probably a phased approach for NIADA lot of this has to do to with leveraging our state sociations and making sure that everybody knows that if you’re a consumer we’re here to help you to if you’re not sure what the next step in the process is or you have a question you know a title or something we have resources we can point you to as well so NIADA is working really hard in ‘22 and ‘23 to raise awareness about who we are and what we do kind of globally on no social media which is where a lot of consumers are um making sure that we partner with those people who are well known by the consumers and really just start educating consumers on car buying and what to expect and what’s beneficial for you so I think you’ll see a lot of big movement on the consumer kind of out in the future it’s definitely on our radar we want to have a consumer section on our website we’re kind of blocking and tackling with the programs that we have now to get them out for dealers and and deal with that first but I think if we can be effective in our messaging and and consumers can start to understand that we’re here and this is what we do and if you’re doing business with an n I d a dealer or a state I d a dealer you’re you’re choosing the most qualified um people they agree to a code of ethics they have higher standards and those are really the ones that you want to be seeking out I definitely think we have room to grow in that area as far as communicating with the consumer
Charity Ann:
So as you were talking about the certified program, I was thinking that have recently seen definitely an increase in that terminology coming out of, you know, the independent dealers in my area where customers will be like, well, they have a certified program, and so I was wondering if those were all coming from if you guys have been like slow rolling this out and they’re all part of that or if it’s just one of those terms that is starting everybody knows that it you’ll sell and move the car faster, so everybody’s trying to use it then not if you’re a member of the NIADA then you’ll the consumer will know that this is what’s being offered so anybody can use the terminology but that’s where the value add is
Melanie Wilson:
You want to know it’s backed by a reputable company and with support, yeah, I mean, even as a consumer, you don’t know anything about it, and you walk on to a lot, and you’re like, oh, car certified in this car isn’t most people are going to be like oh well that sounds fun like give me that stamp of approval.
Charity Ann:
Big fancy word
Melanie Wilson:
We’ve had a CPO program, but what we did over the last, it feels like forever, the last year or so, is pull dealers to the table, and so this program is really created for dealers by dealers, um, so that we could home in on okay we have this program it works kind of but what would you rather see and take their feedback and really pull all the people to the table to deliver something that the dealers.
Herb Anderson:
Just a quick question here would you say that this program, because it’s for the for independent, would be more is it going to be more rigorous than a franchise dealer sort of certified program?
Melanie Wilson:
Yeah, I wish I knew the ins and outs of a franchise certify program, and if Jeremy beck was here, he could probably answer this quite intelligently um I don’t know about more I know at least as rigorous, so you know, all the points of qualification, this was built to compete directly with that product.
Herb Anderson:
That’s amazing. I always like that idea, like I said, I mean, I know Kelly blue book was trying to put something together back in the day, and I really like that because it creates–you know, it gives independent dealers an opportunity to um compete right and competition is good um you know in my opinion my I guess I wonder how the customer base will look at that well and have the same impact I mean in theory it should, but well I have the same impact that it does at a franchise level.
Melanie Wilson:
One of the things we are working towards is partnering with like the listing sides and stuff to make sure that when if a consumer is at home searching online and they’re looking through whatever inventory website that the NIADA CPO vehicle are tagged as certified pre-owned backed by NIADA so that the consumer knows kind of ahead of time to um this has a certification on it, and then I assume you’d be able to lick a link and like see what that means I am not the expert at inventory online.
Charity Ann:
Yes, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be talking to him, too, he’s on the list.
Melanie Wilson:
Jeremy, oh yeah. We have an incredible team at NIADA and you know it’s really tough when you talk about n I d as itself it’s a nonprofit association and a nonprofit association has very specific roles and guide lines and our purpose is very specific and it’s very mission focused so it’s easy to kind of move into an association role and not know the industry that you’re preparing to serve because the goal is to serve the industry and then you kind of learn the industry as you go luckily I have at least several years of background in the actual space but when you partner me and Jeremy Beck who was a dealer and has 25 years in the auto industry and he’s worked at a co and he brings a lot of actual industry as to the table and then you have Brett Scott our VP government affairs who’s been on the hill and he brings all of the legislative when you put the three of us together it sounds brady but we’re much a powerhouse team when it comes to n I d a and being able to cover all of the bases that will really let us be effective in moving the association forward and therefore helping our members in the is in the industry and the industry partners.
Charity Ann:
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was wondering about when at the beginning when I was like if you came into the automotive space through the nonprofit, like, can imagine that that experience is a little bit different than coming through other avenues because you probably look at it entirely different than most of us in the industry look at it.
Melanie Wilson:
It’s definitely different in some ways like if my priority is to serve you then I’ve got to know what you’re dealing with but you know I think the measure of a good leader is not necessarily being the one that knows everything in the room but being able to pull the right people to the table to make sure you’re covering everything and I think that really affectively that’s what’s happened at NIADA right now it was one of the reasons that the board said can you do this while we figure out what we want to do moving forward because we do have all the right resources at the table and as long as we keep bringing them to the table I think we all add very specific value we have very specific expert sees and it’s not just our VP’s like all the way down through our staff we have people who are just so specially skilled at what they do and so good at what they do and so if you point them in the right direction and you know educate them on this is what’s happening and this is how we need to address it and this is what we’re going to do moving forward the skill set is there to for all of us to work together and really accomplish everyone’s goals the association goals the industry goals the dealer goals all of it.
Herb Anderson:
So yeah, I mean, I wanted to move. Kind of moving in another direction here. Move the conversation along if I could talk about the year, we just had the use car year we just had and kind of get your perspective on that. What do you think? I mean, we had a lot of things happened this year right with valuation, you know, starting really high, and then where things are today, what do you think the trend is going to continue to be you? Can do you think we’re going to continue to see a big push for us, and we’re going to need to have more um just be more accurate when it comes to acquisition and um just evaluation kind of roller coaster that we’ve been on for the past I don’t know eighteen months or so
Melanie Wilson:
Oh yeah this is my least favorite question people ask me because I feel like in 2022 towards the beginning of the year we’ve had struggles in the industry for a while and everyone’s like oh this is going to happen by the end of the year and this is going to happen by the end of the year and this is going to happen by the end of the year and not a lot of that has actually happened and so I’m a finance person I like trends and predictability and I feel like we’re in a very unpredictable space in the industry right now yeah and I think anyone that can say like oh this will level out and q one or whatever I don’t know if anyone really knows that I think we’ll probably see the variability through at least the first half of 2023 but when people ask me this I say you know if you’ve learned anything in the last year you need to learn to be prepared for the unexpected and I don’t think that that changes going into 2023 I think we as an industry need to be prepared for the unexpected and make sure that we can pivot before it’s too late and adapt to a changing market.
Charity Ann:
My, what are some of the things…when did you take the position as interim CEO.
Melanie Wilson:
Like two weeks ago, right before Christmas
Charity Ann:
And you said you were the CFO.
Melanie Wilson:
I was the CFO before
Charity Ann:
What are some of the one some of the did you ever come into work one day and everything had shifted last year, and everybody was like, oh my gosh, what just happened because or even further back, you know, when covid first came out came, it’s when covered first came out I remember like sitting in my office, and we didn’t even know if we were going to get sent home that day or not and ever since that moment it’s just been like this perpetual what’s next, and you go into meetings, and people are talking about what you know whether or not Carvana is going to be around tomorrow or whether or not to the you know the Tesla market just plummeted or and every single time that you go into work you never know exactly what you’re going to getting do you have any of those moments the last couple of years where you were like that moment that one I wasn’t anticipating at all
Melanie Wilson:
Most of them it was really interesting because over the last couple of years I was a CFO but me age our operations and our facilities and our team so when covid happened um m we were absolutely like oh you’re going to be home for a week and then it’s like oh you may never come back and so my team was the one really facilitating like how do we completely change the way that we do business um m almost overnight and and one of the things I come in to do is help build infrastructure and that meant like really trying to bring nis technology up how often are we in any kind of business right you’re looking back and you’re going wide I never like upgrade what I was doing and so we were full paper and we had physical servers in the office and you had to be on the network and all of a sudden we’re trying to figure out how do we send thirty p to work from all over the metroplex or you know the other state people kind of had it all figured out but there were a good chunk of us here that needed to be in the office so I feel like since that day like that that day that we knew that that was going to be a thing the whole world has felt like oh gosh what are we gonna have to deal with now and then we had a CEO change in the middle of that as well and we went through a re structure and and we read to find our vision and um we started you evaluating value propositions and changing what we did so I I feel like even if I wasn’t on a lot I understand because we as an association were going through the same pain points of what’s going to happen tomorrow with you also trying to address what you were having to deal with on your line.
Herb Anderson:
Well, so I got a question. It’s not automotive related so much as more, um, at a position level, so you’re out three weeks into this roll. It’s the biggest shift from what you were doing before to what you’re doing now.
Melanie Wilson:
Um m that’s a good question I have been relatively pretty fairly involved in the operations and kind of direction of the association for quite some time and so knowing like where we’re headed and what we’re doing and in our programs and and things like that I was always involved in that at some level I think the biggest is you know you get this idea like oh I’ve been here this shouldn’t be so hard to catch up right now there has been so much I’ve had to learn on deeper level than than what I had to know before because before I was helping set strategy and direction and obviously paying attention to the financial impact of these decisions to the association now not only do I have to do all of those things but I also need to know the details of all of these programs and and you know really be able to wrap my head and articulate the specific details of everything that we do and you think you know a lot until someone asks you a question and you’re like I wish I had read that white paper one more time before we started talking think for me that’s been the biggest shift is just how much deeper I feel like I want to be um in understanding exactly what the details are of the programs that we deliver like the c p o program and and understanding exactly you know what the industry changes mean for our dealers I mean I always read our magazines you know I keep up with the industry but now it’s very important and so it’s been a whole new level of understanding I think and it’s not so far off from what I was doing before it’s just much deeper than what I was doing before
Charity Ann:
Yeah, a totally understand that well; thank you so much. We have one question that we always ask everybody. Well, Herb has one question that he asks everybody, but I like to tweak it, so one question that I am m how do you think we can improve the automotive industry in the next five years.
Melanie Wilson:
I think that if I think we all need to be working together I think that there are so many resources out there and and talking to different people across the industry and everyone kind of sees it there are so many resources out there that aren’t necessarily functioning together that cold supporting each other and and I think that if we can find a way to really network our industry partners with our dealers I mean Dealer has a problem on a day to day basis there’s someone out there who’s solving that problem for them so I think if we can all start working together and just making sure that people like n I d a in the state I’d as are really helping to facilitate the connections from the Dealer and the industry partner in and then teaching the consumer why where a better choice than maybe something else I think that’s really how you improve the industry overall right because the industry is built on the dealers and their success and their ability to deliver a product and communicate their value proposition and and so if we can help them do all of those things and connect them with the right resources I think that that rising tide lifts all boats.
Charity Ann:
Yeah, interesting, fascinating I’m excited for this season. Thank you for coming on and talking with us, eager to meet everybody that you work with and unto work with you guys this season.
Melanie Wilson:
yeah
Herb Anderson:
Well, there you have it, folks. Thank you, Melanie, thank you so much for doing this really appreciate it. That’s all the time that we have for today. As usual, we’ll talk later.