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This former teacher used simple, repeatable hospitality—not buzzwords—to scale and auto group.

Today’s guest, Adam Gaedke helped steer a dealership group through hyper-growth, an ESOP transition, and a full-blown culture shift rooted in hospitality. Starting as a salesperson, Adam rode the wave from one store to 18 in 18 months, sat on the board during the employee-ownership transition, and learned what it really takes to make “guest experience” more than a poster on the wall.

Along the way, he swapped the industry’s old secrecy for radical transparency: ask customers how they want to buy, train for small touches that compound, and build processes that make great service the default.

In this conversation with Paul, Kyle, and Michael (with a cameo on Kazakhstani dealership hospitality), Adam breaks down the brass tacks: greeting standards, appointment confirmations that feel like a welcome, feedback loops that actually get used, and the uncomfortable—but loving—discipline of exiting non-fits fast.

His thesis is simple: most guests intend to buy when they walk in; your job is to remove the friction and honor their time. Guest experience isn’t just a metric, it’s a mindset you can operationalize—one touchpoint at a time.

Takeaways

0:00 The $0 Habit That Signals Hospitality

1:43 LinkedIn ‘Swipe Right’: How Real Collabs Start

2:54 From Six Months Teaching to Record Month Selling

4:52 “That’s Cute… But What Will You Do?”

9:26 Stop Gaming CSI, Start Earning It

11:39 The Ritz-Level Appointment Confirmation

13:11 Why We’re Not Saying ‘Digital Retailing’

15:12 Assume Intent to Buy, Then Remove Friction

16:39 “How Would You Like to Purchase Today?”

17:02 Operationalizing Care: Scripts, Follow-Up, and Video

21:18 Scaling to 18 Stores Without Losing the Plot

23:00 The Kindest Hard Thing: Fast Non-Fit Exits

Connect with Adam Gaedke on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamgaedke/

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If your appraisals still start with a sharpie on a worksheet, this one’s for you.

Derek Hansen has lived in the deep end of dealer data—Manheim to vAuto—helping thousands of rooftops translate live market signals into real-world inventory wins. In this conversation with Paul and Kyle, he walks through the three-legged stool every modern dealer needs: superior data, purpose-built workflows, and performance management that respects each store’s strategy.

Translation: less guessing, more learning loops.

The discussion digs into where AI is actually working right now (pricing probabilities, instant merchandising, smarter appraisals) and where human judgment still matters (trust, context, and the “who” behind every vehicle’s next owner).

Over the next year, Derek’s challenge to dealers is simple: test everything. Small experiments create clarity, build confidence, and keep your team ahead of the curve.

Takeaways

0:00 — Why showing the real you is the best PR

2:26 — Derek Hansen’s path from Bain and finance to the world of dealer data

2:51 — What outsiders miss about 18,000 dealers and their wildly different strategies

6:18 — How software can serve everyone without serving no one

9:23 — The 3-legged stool: data, focused workflows, and hands-on performance management

10:30 — The AI adoption gap: why saying you’re using AI isn’t the same as doing it

13:15 — From guessing to predicting with probability-based pricing and smarter appraisals

15:07 — Trust at the booth: damage scans, recon estimates, and printouts that close deals

17:12 — The 12-month warning: if you’re not testing, your reputation will show it

18:39 — Low-lift testing: offers, anchors, and incentives worth experimenting with

20:21 — Avoiding the AI race to the bottom by remembering every buyer values differently

23:27 — Iteration in public: small tests beat big promises every time

Connect with Derek Hansen at https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-hansen-6a7a941/

Learn more about vAuto at https://www.vauto.com

⭐️ Love the podcast? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your LinkedIn or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally!

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What if one number could cut burnout, fix your follow-up, and turn “lost” leads into lifetime service customers?

Kristine Lentz from Urban Science joins Auto Collabs for her first-ever podcast—and promptly makes everyone smile while talking about the least smiley topic in retail: customer defection. From starting in support to leading a team, Kristine lays out how dealers can spot where customers slip away, why our instincts often lie, and how to turn cold data into warm conversations that actually convert.

We get into the uncomfortable stuff—ego vs evidence, “those lead sources are trash” (spoiler: they’re often not), and why about 20% of the leads in your CRM may have already purchased elsewhere. The unlock? Use defection as your North Star to stop chasing ghosts, redirect messaging, and re-humanize sales. In a world racing toward AI-everything, Kristine argues that human is the new premium—and shows how to deploy people exactly where they matter most.

Timestamps

0:00 — First-Time Guest, Big Topic

2:12 — Salesperson to Data Sherpa

3:53 — The “Dealer Reality Check”

8:53 — Your North Star Isn’t Sales—It’s Defection

10:07 — Ego Off, Evidence On

11:20 — The Lead Source Myth

12:28 — The 20% You Should Stop Calling

12:57 — Flip the Script, Win the Relationship

15:57 — Human > Bot (Used Wisely)

18:45 — Human Is the New Premium

21:17 — Culture That Connects

24:50 — Action List for Dealers

Connect with Kristine Lentz at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristine-lentz-a2582910b/

Learn more about Urban Science at https://www.urbanscience.com

⭐️ Love the podcast? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your LinkedIn or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally!

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https://www.asotu.com

✉️ Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a quick shot of relevant news in automotive retail, media, and pop culture.

🎧 Like and follow our other podcasts:

1. Automotive State of the Union
2. ASOTU CON Sessions