Dawson’s turnaround blueprint to strengthen dealership culture and performance

After acquiring the struggling Cherokee Mitsubishi in June 2025, host Jonathan Dawson inherited a business losing roughly $100,000 a month, selling fewer than 15 vehicles, and facing the risk of franchise termination. On today’s episode of Mind Your Own Business, he shares how he implemented a turnaround strategy to stabilize operations, reset culture and drive sustainable growth.

After taking the helm, Dawson implemented immediate changes, including revised pay plans that prompted half the sales staff to leave within a day. With limited personnel and a deteriorating facility, he shifted focus to developing people, setting clear standards, and allowing performance to determine who remains.

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Dawson’s turnaround strategy centers on 12 core areas, and he advises focusing on a single priority every month. Each category addresses a specific lever of performance, allowing leadership teams to concentrate attention where urgency and impact align. These areas include:

• Culture: The overall mission, purpose and values of the dealership.
• Plan: The plan of action for future and ongoing growth.
• Team Members: The development strategy for employee growth.
• Processes: Each department should have clearly defined daily processes and role clarity.
• Merchandising: The management and marketing of dealership inventory.
• Perception: The marketplace’s perception of the business.
• Facility: The facility should maximize revenue per square foot and maximize the customer experience with a warm, inviting environment.
• Pricing: The strategy for maximizing profit while maintaining CSI across all departments. 
• Marketing: The strategies for creating leads and opportunities.
• Pay plans: The alignment of compensation with performance to incentivize and reinforce positive behaviors.
• Resources: The tools, technologies and vendor programs required to operate the business.
• Personal development: The commitment to the individual development of staff.

“Our mission, vision, and core values fuel everything that we do: from serving our community to creating exceptional experiences for each customer.”

Culture is often the ideal starting point when implementing a turnaround strategy. Without a clear mission, vision, and values, it’s exceedingly difficult to create consistency in decision-making and accountability.

Dawson’s dealership’s mission is centered around intentional service to the community, clients, and team members, supported by profitable operations and efficient execution. The vision is to become the top-volume Mitsubishi dealership in Georgia by delivering an experience that creates loyal advocates, even when competitors outspend on inventory, marketing, or facilities.

To achieve a vision, teams must be focused and strive to make the best decisions for their customers and business every day. Dawson’s team follows nine core values, abbreviated to A.D.V.O.C.A.T.E.S, to guide daily behavior. Each value ties directly to operational habits, employee development, and customer experience, reinforcing consistency across departments:

• Ask, don’t assume: This applies to interactions with customers and internal operations.
• Do what is right: Always do what is right for the customer and coworkers.
• Value customers’ time: The process should be efficient—not rushed.
• Offer solutions and options: Dealership personnel are responsible for providing customers with options and solutions; customers’ responsibility is to make decisions. Employees also shouldn’t approach leadership with complaints without thinking about potential solutions.
• Care and show it: Teams should demonstrate care through actions and gestures of goodwill toward coworkers and customers. Leaders should also recognize their team’s outstanding performance with creative, meaningful rewards. 
• Address concerns: Leadership should encourage employees to raise concerns and address them directly and with compassion. The GM should maintain an open-door policy. In addition, their calendar should be easily accessible to all employees, so they can easily schedule one-on-one time.
• Train intentionally: All employees, including leadership, should consistently invest in their training. Every department should purposely schedule training sessions and topics in advance so they don’t slip through the cracks. Managers can also delegate the facilitation of the training session to employees to garner more engagement.
• Extreme accountability: Everyone in the organization—from the dealer, leadership team, to the salesperson—is held accountable for their role’s expectations, performance, and alignment with the mission, vision and core values. There are no exceptions. 
• Serve the community: Pour back into the community through charitable acts. Create partnerships and support local churches, school districts and nonprofit organizations. 

Any dealership can apply the 12 focus areas at any point in the year by prioritizing based on need and executing with discipline. Progress follows when leadership remains intentional, transparent, and accountable. When operators focus on the fundamentals of their own business, growth follows.

Dawson will speak at the 2026 NADA Show alongside top sales experts Ali Reda, who sells over 100 cars per month, and Kevin Rudolph, who increased his personal sales from 20 to over 50 per month. View the dates and times here.