BOW, NH – Amanda Grappone Osmer, the owner of the Grappone Automotive Group, is one of only six United States car dealers, and the only woman dealer in the Ford Motor Company’s Global Dealer Roundtable.
Osmer said she was asked to join the roundtable in early December and they held a virtual meeting later that month. Normally, the organization meets in Dearborn, Michigan, once a year, and somewhere abroad once a year.
As part of her participation, Osmer said she will work closely with Elena Ford, the great-great-granddaughter of Henry Ford, who is now serving as the company’s Chief Customer Experience Officer.
Osmer herself runs a company that was founded 97 years ago by her great-grandfather. They now have five franchises in Bow, with about 340 employees.
“I think the reason they chose me is because my company … we’ve been around since 1924 and I’m the fourth generation owner,” Osmer said.
In addition to the six U.S. representatives, there are also dealers represented from about 25 different countries worldwide, Osmer said.
The mission of the group is to rely heavily on the dealers to help Ford better understand the barriers establishing the company as a trusted brand, and to find ways to elevate its reputation.
“Her passion, her goal, is for Ford to be the most trusted brand in the world,” Osmer said of Elena Ford.
Osmer said it speaks volumes that Ford recognizes that the dealer body matters, and is an integral part to changing the manufacturer’s image.
Grappone has gone through changes of its own in recent years, in part to improve its image and reputation, but also to revamp its culture and make the customer experience more pleasant.
In 2013, Osmer and her late brother Greg Grappone (who died of cancer at the age of 35 in 2015), did away with the old system of commission-based sales, and incentivizing off-loading certain cars that have been on the lot too long.
In its place, they established a system called low up-front pricing, which provides transparent price tags for customers, and a base pay rate and flat commission for sellers, regardless of the vehicle’s model, year or time on the lot. That way, dealers work to pair a customer with the car they want, rather than pushing something else because it benefits the seller’s bottom line.
They also eliminated the old system of having a used car manager and a new car manager, who would often work in competition against one another.
Still, the change was radical at the time, and executing the shift was not without some challenges. The company lost some money on the front end, but it was definitely worth it in the long run.
“We lost a giant portion of our sales team. Most of them quit because it was clear that was not the environment they wanted to work in,” Osmer said. “It’s not to say you don’t make good money selling cars with us. … We do pay well and we have a very generous benefits package.”
But Osmer knew from experience as a salesperson at a Lexus dealership in California, nearly 20 years ago, the toxic effect the old system had.
“The type of behavior that a straight commission pay plan can breed can really force people into making decisions that I personally don’t think need to be made,” Osmer said.
She remembers selling a car to a woman whom she knew didn’t really want that car, but since Osmer was going to make a $1,000 commission from selling it, she worked hard to persuade the customer. It helped her pay rent, but she regretted it ever since.
“It stuck with me for year after year after year,” Osmer said.
Now, the ethos at Grappone is about putting their team members first, which Osmer thinks is part of what put the company on Ford’s radar for the roundtable.
“The simple formula is we take care of our team and our team will take care of our guests,” Osmer said.
Now she said Grappone has low turnover and high employee satisfaction and morale. And in a 2014 TED Talk, Osmer talked about how the car-buying experience doesn’t have to be a horrible experience.
“It should be a really fun cool thing to buy a new car,” she said.
The secret for how any company might improve its reputation may not be so mystifying, though it can be difficult at times to do it.
“If people in positions of leadership understood the importance and the bravery of being vulnerable, of being honest, I think we’ll accomplish more meaningful work,” Osmer said.
In the first roundtable meeting which Osmer participated in, she said many things were discussed, which she is not allowed to disclose, but she said there was a strong theme of how a dealer can treat their team members and guests like family.
