Stop Chasing Unicorns: Why It’s Time to Break Up With Your Dealership Org Chart
Must be detail-oriented, strategic, charismatic, data-driven, creative, and available nights and weekends. Might be time to admit the problem isn’t the people. It’s the position. Let’s fix that.
If your job postings read like a dating profile for a Marvel superhero, this article’s for you.
Stop Chasing Unicorns: Why It’s Time to Break Up With Your Dealership Org Chart
The job titles in automotive retail were written for a world that no longer exists—and it’s costing you productivity, people, and profit.
When I look at most dealership org charts, I see the same thing: a bunch of bloated job titles trying to cover every base from inventory to merchandising to sales management and data analytics.
Let’s call it what it is: role hoarding.
And it's hurting your store.
Take the Used Car Manager. In theory, they’re responsible for:
Acquiring inventory
Overseeing reconditioning
Managing digital merchandising
Analyzing the market
Leading the sales team
In reality, they’re drowning. Because unless you’ve hired a unicorn (spoiler: you haven’t), no one is excelling at all five. Instead, they’re spread thin, chasing competing priorities, and underperforming in the areas that matter most.
There’s a Better Way—But It Starts With Letting Go
Instead of hiring for a fantasy, split the role.
Hire an Inventory Acquisition Specialist to laser-focus on buying the right cars.
Let your Sales Coach actually coach.
Hand digital merchandising to someone who thinks in pixels and VDPs.
And maybe—just maybe—stop expecting every leadership role to double as pricing expert, recon manager, and floor traffic controller.
You’ll:
Attract better talent (because the job isn’t terrifying)
Improve performance (because people work in their strengths)
Build a deeper bench (because you're training specialists, not burning out generalists)
And yes—dealers are already doing this.
Real Dealers, Real Results
Many have created a dedicated acquisition team. Result? More profitable trades, better inventory turn, and a used car department that wasn’t constantly in crisis mode.
In many places stores pulled merchandising off the manager’s plate and gave it to a specialist. Result? Listings went live faster, photos looked better, and days-to-sale dropped.
Get your sales managers back to the floor where they can have real impact on the customer experience.
Many progressive dealerships are discovering that pulling administrative tasks off sales managers’ plates pays for itself—and then some. Across the industry, we’ve seen stores add roles like desk assistants or inventory coordinators to handle time-consuming functions such as paperwork, scheduling dealer trades, managing lease returns, coordinating recon for used cars, and arranging transportation. The result? Sales managers are freed up to do what they do best: work the floor, develop their teams, and drive revenue. In fact, these support roles often cost significantly less than a sales manager’s salary, yet the impact on gross and overall efficiency can be dramatic.
These aren’t luxuries. They’re survival strategies. The market’s too volatile and the margins too thin to keep stuffing five jobs into one person and hoping they don't crack.
But What About the Budget?
You’re already paying for this—you just don’t see it.
You’re paying in:
Extended vacancies because no one wants your Frankenstein job posting
Turnover from burned-out employees
Lost gross from cars that weren’t bought, priced, or merchandised correctly
Split one overloaded role into two clear, focused positions, and watch both people outperform the one you were hoping could “just figure it all out.”
Better Titles Build Better Culture
Want to retain your best people? Show them a future.
When roles are specialized, career paths emerge. Your top recon tech can become a Reconditioning Manager. Your assistant appraiser can grow into a full-time buyer. Your best closer doesn’t need to become a desk manager—they can become a team lead or trainer.
This kind of clarity keeps good people engaged, performing, and staying—because they see the ladder, and they see that you see them.
Your Org Chart Is a Strategy Document
It’s not just boxes and lines—it’s a reflection of what you value.
Do you value bandwidth or burnout?
Focus or flailing?
Talent development or constant turnover?
If your org chart hasn’t changed in 15 years, chances are your outcomes haven’t either. And neither has your hiring struggle.
The smartest stores aren’t doing more with less. They’re doing better with better-defined roles.
It’s time to retire the unicorn fantasy.
What role have you restructured—and what happened next?
I’d love to hear your before-and-after. And if you’ve been holding off on a change because “that’s just the way it’s always been,” ask yourself this: Is your org chart built for the job… or for nostalgia?
