The Cost of Delaying Compliance Decisions at Dealerships

Framing compliance spending as a decision

Hi, I'm Terry Dortch, Automotive Risk Management Partners. I'm here to talk to you today a little bit about decision making. You know, I did a video a few years back for our old company, and in that video I talked about how indecision is a decision, and I still stand by that today. We all have decisions to make every day of our lives. Some of them are very minimal in its effect, others have greater, greater consequences and greater benefits, right? And my whole point in all of this is, you know, most of us won't hesitate to go out and spend three, four hundred dollars on a night out for dinner with spouse, a couple friends, whatever, and don't think twice about it. But you know, you get a vendor like us or other vendors in this space that come in and sit with you, and we cringe to spend, you know, a few hundred dollars a month to solve a problem that we all know is out there.

Real examples of dealers facing FTC action

And again, I want to emphasize the fact that there's a ton of decisions to be made, and trying to weed through all of them sometimes is difficult, but don't wait, don't sit on the fence on some of this stuff. When it comes to these compliance related issues, you really need to make some decisions. I mean, we have a store here in my home state of Illinois where that store right now is being, you know, they're being dragged through the mud by the FTC. And a couple years ago we had another dealer group here in the state of Illinois that had to go through the same thing. I could go on and on and name different dealers and different groups and the different effects that have come from not making decisions, or making decisions that were half, you know, you decided to do something sort of, or to try to comply, or to try to deal with the different issues.

Delay itself is a decision with consequences

My whole point in all of this is that there's a host of different decisions that need to be made, and if you avoid it and don't make that decision, that becomes a decision in and of itself. So I want to stress again that when, and it's not just us, but whenever any vendor comes, and if you've done your research and you feel comfortable with that vendor, you know, you need to make a decision to move forward before you end up in a situation where making that decision's a little late.

Broader risks beyond the FTC

And you don't want to get caught in today's environment, and you got to remember that today we're not just worried about the FTC. You have to worry about state AGs, you have to worry about civil aspects. Now some of these rules and regulations don't have civil penalties to them or civil consequences, but they do get brought up into the news. There is a host of things, especially if the FTC gets involved, they'll bring up all the scuttlebutt, anything they can find to try and make a case against you.

Acknowledging cost concerns but urging action

So my whole point in all of this is, I realize that it's probably an expense that most of us don't want to deal with, and I get it. I mean, I've spent 20 years in retail, I know what it takes. I spent many days looking at that doc sheet trying to figure out how, you know, how we were gonna be profitable that month, or what we were gonna, you know, how we were gonna restructure our sales profile or our sales platform. So I get the whole, I get that whole mindset, but I'm just stressing the fact that you really do need to take the time to make these decisions, take a look at your options, and do something before it costs you way more money than it's going to cost you to mitigate the problems today.

Thanks again. If you have any questions or anything, you know, our phone number, our website is right here on the screen. Feel free to give us a call, I can talk to you anytime you want. Thanks a lot, take care.