NADA 2024: Dominic Scruggs on Dealership Sales

Willowood Ventures founder Dominic Scruggs sat down with Jen Suzuki on the LotLinx stage at NADA 2024 and held nothing back. Twenty-plus years running dealerships at the GM level will give you opinions, and Dominic had plenty. Here’s what came out of that conversation and why it still matters for your store.

Straight Talk from the LotLinx Stage at NADA 2024

Jen Suzuki doesn’t let guests off easy, and Dominic Scruggs didn’t need her to. As the founder and CEO of Willowood Ventures, Dominic spent over 20 years as a general manager before launching what is now recognized as a Meta Certified Business Partner. The NADA 2024 interview covered machine learning, used car acquisition, service-to-sales conversion, and why most dealerships leave money sitting in their own driveways every single day.

The conversation was candid, specific, and zero percent fluffy. That’s the only way to have it.

Machine Learning Is Not Optional Anymore

Dominic opened with a number that got attention: a 241% increase in sales within a single year, achieved by applying machine learning to automotive marketing. That result was covered by Automotive News. The point wasn’t to brag. The point was that the technology exists, it works, and dealers who treat it like a future problem are already behind.

Machine learning lets you stop guessing which cars to stock, which buyers to target, and which messages to send. It reads the market faster than any human can, then adjusts in real time. Dealerships that embrace this approach gain a structural advantage over competitors still relying on gut instinct and third-party lead lists.

Used Car Acquisition: Buy Clean, Price Right, Move Fast

Dominic was blunt on this one. The cleanest cars at the lowest prices win. That’s not a radical idea, but most dealers execute it poorly because they separate acquisition from reconditioning and pricing into three different conversations that never quite sync up.

His fix: loop the service department in from the start. Service advisors know exactly what’s wrong with a vehicle before the used car manager does. They see the history, flag the hidden problems, and can tell you in fifteen minutes whether a trade is worth pursuing at the number on the table. Ignoring that knowledge is expensive. Using it keeps your acquisition cost down and your reconditioning timeline tight.

Target the cars your market actually wants. Pull your own customer service appointment data and you’ll see patterns. Certain makes, certain trims, certain mileage bands show up over and over. Those are the vehicles your existing customers already drive and already trust. Stock more of them. You’re not guessing anymore, you’re filling real demand.

The Service Drive Is Your Cheapest Lead Source

This is where most dealers leave the most money. A customer sitting in your service drive is already on your property, already in a relationship with your store, and often already thinking about their next vehicle. A well-run service-to-sales program converts those moments into deals without the cost of a conquest lead.

Dominic made the case clearly: a service-to-sales program is not a nice-to-have. It’s essential for keeping used car acquisition costs manageable and keeping customers inside your ecosystem instead of walking into a competitor’s showroom six months later. The familiarity factor is real. People buy from dealers they trust, and a customer who has been servicing with you for three years already trusts you. Treat that like the asset it is.

At Willowood Ventures, we’ve built programs around exactly this model. Our BDC operates 24/7, US-based agents only, specifically so that when a service customer is ready to talk, someone picks up and moves the conversation forward. No voicemail black holes. No next-day callbacks on a hot lead.

Stagnant Inventory Is a Pricing and Visibility Problem

Every dealer has had a unit sit. Sometimes it sits because it’s priced wrong. Sometimes it’s priced right but positioned wrong in the listing. Dominic addressed both.

If a car isn’t moving, stop waiting for the market to come to it. Audit the listing description. Generic copy kills deals. A 2021 pickup with a spray-in bedliner, tow package, and one previous owner who drove it to a job site and back has a story. Tell that story. Buyers doing research online respond to specifics because specifics build confidence. “Well-maintained” means nothing. “Dealer-serviced at every interval, clean Carfax, non-smoker” means something.

Market positioning matters just as much as price. Know where your unit sits relative to the competition within a 50-mile radius. If you’re priced at market but your listing reads like everyone else’s, you’re invisible. Differentiate the description, add better photos, and give the buyer a reason to call your store instead of the next one.

Standing Out in Third-Party Listings

Third-party sites like CarGurus and AutoTrader show your inventory next to dozens of similar vehicles. If your listing looks the same as the others, you’re competing purely on price and losing margin you didn’t have to lose.

Dominic’s approach: treat every listing like a sales pitch, not a data dump. Lead with the features that match what your market actually searches for. Put the unique selling points in the first two lines because most buyers never scroll further than that. This is not complicated, but it requires discipline and consistency across your entire used inventory.

What Willowood Ventures Does with These Strategies

Willowood Ventures was built to operationalize exactly what Dominic described on that NADA stage. We’ve served 600+ dealerships and managed over $4 million per month in social advertising managed, and the numbers back up the approach. Real results from real stores: 64 sold for $294,821 at Little Rock VW, 89 sold for $421,593 at Salt Lake City GMC, 83 sold for $398,762 at Oklahoma City CDJR, and 72 sold for $345,688 at Torrance Chevrolet. Those aren’t projections. Those are closed deals.

Our programs start at Demo-Call Pricing and are backed by our Meta Certified Partnership. We bring the targeting, the creative, the BDC follow-up, and the accountability. You bring the inventory and the closing team.

Key Takeaways from the NADA 2024 Interview

• Machine learning drives real results. A 241% sales increase in one year is not an accident.
• Buy clean used cars at the right number. Use your service department to validate every acquisition.
• Stock what your market already wants. Your service appointment history tells you exactly what that is.
• Work your service drive. It’s your lowest-cost lead source and your best retention tool.
• Fix stagnant inventory fast. Address pricing and listing quality at the same time, not sequentially.
• Write listings that sell. Specifics outperform generic copy every time.

Watch the full conversation below, then call Willowood Ventures at 843-310-4108 if you want to talk about putting any of this to work at your store. We work with dealerships across the country and we know what moves the needle.

More from Willowood Ventures: Dealer Services | Meet Dominic Scruggs | Dealership Diary