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Faced with new challenges and opportunities, from managing rising operational costs to growing EV sales, dealerships need to make better use of data analysis to ensure they can optimise their financial performance.

In an AM Supplier Insight interview, John Hogan, the chief executive of RWA Automotive, and Liz Purcell, its head of customer success, spoke with Automotive Management about the key trends and strategies that will shape the success of motor retailers in the coming years.

One of the overarching themes that emerged was the need for dealerships to take a more holistic and data-driven approach to their operations. There are actionable areas of improvement within all dealer groups that are hidden in their data, and by understanding where the lost opportunities are groups will strengthen their business.

The modern dealership is a complex beast. This complexity has been exacerbated by recent  challenges such as  the cost-of-living crisis, supply chain disruptions, and the ongoing shift towards electrification. In 2025, there’s the added pressure of staff cost increases from the recent budget.

"Finding savings to address that, but ultimately, growing the gross margin line, really is where it's about," Hogan said.

Liz Purcell emphasised the importance of leveraging data to navigate these challenges, noting that dealerships often struggle to extract meaningful, actionable insights from the wealth of information at their fingertips. "The difficulty lies not just in the amount of data, it's the number of different sources," she explained.

Because of the complexity, key information can easily be absent in high-level discussions. To address this, the team at RWA Automotive have developed a suite of reports and benchmarking tools that help dealerships identify and act on the most pressing opportunities.

One such example is the focus on vehicle health checks (VHCs), where RWA Automotive’s analysis revealed that many dealerships were letting potential revenue slip away.

"On average, we saw just over 80% VHC check rate against throughput," Purcell said. "The best to do 99% to 100%, nearly every customer going through their workshop."

By helping dealerships understand the impact of even small improvements, and benchmarking against their peers, Purcell and her team have been able to uncover opportunities worth between £500,000 and £1 million for some clients.

This emphasis on data-driven decision-making extends to other areas of the business as well, including new car retailing, where understanding the ongoing position against budget is crucial, and in used car operations, where aspects such as generating more retail-worthy trade-ins by utilising timely renewal activity can truly strengthen the dealership’s bottom line.

Similarly, in the realm of finance and insurance (F&I), Purcell stressed the need to monitor and measure that dealerships are offering a consistent suite of products to every customer, rather than relying on a select few.

Underpinning all of these strategies is a strong, supportive relationship between dealerships and their business intelligence provider. RWA Automotive uses regular check-ins and a collaborative approach to identify and support opportunities. "We're staying with them to see, are they executing on where we all collectively agreed there was an opportunity," Hogan said.

As the industry continues to evolve, Hogan, Purcell, and the team at RWA Automotive believe that the key to success in 2025 and beyond will be a combination of data-driven insights, a focus on core business drivers, and a willingness to adapt and innovate.

Dealerships that embrace this collaborative, data-driven approach will be well-positioned to navigate the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead.