Speaking with Paul Daly at the CBT Fair Pricing and Compliance Summit, Force Marketing's Eric Mercado described a pattern he sees across dealerships that have every reason to succeed with their marketing and still don't.
❝ You can execute the world's best branding, full multi-channel, full funnel program, target all the right audiences, and it can get killed in the first call, because they don't understand the outcome they're trying to deliver. ❝
The campaign isn't the problem. The disconnect between the campaign and the person answering the phone is.
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Listen to Eric Mercado's complete conversation with Paul Daly at the CBT Fair Pricing and Compliance Summit for the full discussion.
Marketing and Employee Retention Are the Same Conversation
Mercado's role at Force Marketing touches training and employee retention as much as it touches go-to-market strategy, which sounds unusual for a marketing agency until he explains the connection. Employees who hit their goals feel like they're winning, and they don't burn out.
The stakes behind that idea are bigger than one agency's client roster. The 2025 NADA Dealership Workforce Study found total dealership employee turnover hit 42% in 2024, with sales roles turning over at approximately 60%, the highest of any department. Gen Z employees saw turnover climb six points year-over-year, twice the increase of any other generational group.
A campaign that drives traffic without preparing the team to handle it makes that number worse, not better.
❝ The worst thing you can do is drop a bomb on somebody and drive a tremendous amount of traffic, and they don't understand what's going on. ❝
That gap, a strong campaign paired with an unprepared team, shows up as burned-out employees and wasted marketing spend at the same time. Fixing one fixes the other.
