Make meetings remain vital to dealers

Dealers always have had concerns they wanted to share with key factory executives. From this objective, the franchise meeting -- also known as a make meeting -- was born at NADA's convention in 1958.

The first franchise meetings were informal gatherings of dealers and automakers. After a few years, though, they became a standard part of the annual convention schedule. Today, more than 30 brands hold make meetings.

Such meetings have ranged in recent years from controversial (General Motors declaring bankruptcy and announcing the elimination of hundreds of dealerships) to quick (a Mercedes-Benz session run by district managers). Some brands, including Jaguar and Land Rover, hold their make meetings as part of a posh golfing weekend and don't list them on the NADA convention agenda.

Make meetings are closed to news media, as guards patrol the doors and reporters perch nearby. Some brands urge dealers not to tell journalists what they've just heard.

Technology has changed make meetings; manufacturers now communicate with dealers more regularly via the Internet and in local settings. Automakers generally no longer announce controversial changes at make meetings, and dealers no longer feel compelled to attend them en masse to force factory executives to address an issue.

"We have a well-connected field team, and since we increased our zone representation a few years ago, we are much closer to our retailers," says Tom Doll, the president of Subaru of America and a veteran of NADA conventions.

"We hold grass-roots sessions, local marketing groups, and various subgroups on product, marketing, quality," Doll says. "Many of our national advisory board members have been with us a long time. They know the issues and know how to represent the retailer's needs and wishes."

Scott Heyer, corporate manager of sales administration at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., says Toyota's "primary communication to our dealers is through our regional distributor field offices. This occurs on a daily, monthly basis throughout the year."

Yet Heyer notes that as much as half of Toyota's dealer body still attends the annual make meeting because the NADA convention provides "an excellent opportunity to share information with our dealers on a national level."

Charlie Gilchrist, who owns six dealerships in Texas, has attended Ford make meetings for more than two decades. For dealers, he says, being in a room with factory representatives "just reinforces the issues that they know ... The surprise is when [auto executives] do not hear a lot of complaining."

Gilchrist says Ford dealers continue to raise such issues as stair-step and margin-based incentives, product quality and vehicle leasing. But he adds that today's make meetings aren't nearly as contentious as they were in 2005 to 2007, "when the dealers felt Ford wasn't listening to us."

NADA's incoming chairman, Mark Scarpelli, whose dealership group holds Chevrolet, Kia and Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram franchises in the Chicago area, has attended NADA meetings for 15 years. For some dealers, he says, the make meeting is the only time to meet with brand executives.

"It is a great thing for a dealer to hear what the manufacturer has to say, good, bad, or indifferent," Scarpelli says. "We need to come together to talk about issues."

After GM and Chrysler declared bankruptcy in 2009, he recalls, automakers and dealers "were worried about survival." Dealers wanted to hear executives' views about the brands' future.

Although the crisis has passed, he says, make meetings still enable dealers to express their opinions.

"Manufacturers do listen," Scarpelli says. "They walk away with good information and identify good issues."