Scott Pettitt’s first job in the car business was washing cars at his family’s dealership as a high schooler. Nearly 30 years later, he’s VP of sales at Del Grande Dealer Group, overseeing 16 stores. And when he looked at how those stores were buying cars from their own service drives, his assessment was blunt: “I’ll be brutally honest. We had no process.”
Every dealer knows the service drive is full of cars they should be buying. Knowing it isn’t the same as having a system.
Building a Repeatable Service-Drive Acquisition Process
About two years ago, as EV price swings hit Del Grande’s Bay Area market, the group stepped back to get its house in order. Its buy centers were acquiring cars from the public, but the work depended on a few hard-to-find people, and turnover was constant. The service drive offered a better path, if they could make it consistent.
Here’s how they approached it in our latest Edge webinar with AutoHub:
Measure what matters. The team set goals around appraisals as a share of store visits, and built tools to confirm each step happened: photos taken, diagnostics run, and the vehicle’s value shared with the customer.
Experience it like a customer. Leaders followed their own cars through the process, had family members go through it, and even asked board members from outside the industry, including former Apple, Nvidia, and Cisco employees, to share what they saw.
Start before it’s perfect. Del Grande turned on AutoHub’s tool before writing a full process, watched how it worked, then wrote and retrained around what they learned.
Change the conversation. Instead of offering a “free appraisal,” advisors ask a simpler question: “Are you interested in selling or trading your vehicle today?”
Reward the people involved. Del Grande changed service advisors’ pay plans so they had a reason to champion the program.
The biggest obstacle wasn’t resistance. It was staffing. Pettitt stressed that this isn’t a sales job. “It’s an awareness. It’s a value add,” he said.
“There’s no smart way to do it. Just follow through.” Scott Pettitt, Del Grande Dealer Group
What Dealers Can Learn From Del Grande’s Approach
A store without a process feels the drag even when it’s profitable. People burn out, opportunities slip through the cracks, and every deal depends on who’s working that day. A good process takes that weight off the team.
It also takes off the pressure customers feel. Service customers came in to fix a problem, not to be sold. When the offer is framed as an option instead of a pitch, it feels like help.
AutoHub GM Dan Gaughan’s advice for getting started is simple: pick a process, run it for 90 days, and learn from what your team tells you. And stop waiting for the perfect hire. “You have people that come to sell cars and lead you every day,” he said. “That’s all you need.”
The best acquisition process is the one your team actually runs tomorrow.
