gmf-dealer|us|en|dealer-insider|articles|dealer-insider-episode-36 en_us en-us
Back to top

Episode 36: Brad Brotherton

When Brad Brotherton, Owner of Brotherton Cadillac in Seattle, started looking into how to evolve his growing franchises, he leaned on GMF. A floorplan dealer since 2019, Brad saw an opportunity to leverage GMF’s lease offerings to compete in today’s rate environment. What he found was a captive that offered a depth of dealer support, exclusive lease financing and alignment with a growing EV portfolio. By going all in, Brotherton is able to focus on making better, smarter deals and pursuing unique opportunities in both lease and EV adoption. 

Related Articles

Dealer Insider Episode 37

Episode 37: John Love

John Love, Owner of Bob Johnson Auto Group in Rochester, New York, and member of the GMF Dealer Advisory Board, bought his first dealership in 2001, growing to 23 locations today. Switching to GMF for his floorplan in 2020 helped John take advantage of GMF’s rich benefits like Dealer Dividends® to help with profitability and to support his dealerships’ massive growth.

Watch John's Story
Dealer Insider Episode 35

Episode 35: Jacob Soares

Jacob Soares, President of Victorville Chevrolet, wanted to expand his small-town dealership's revenue stream to compete with neighboring LA dealerships. When he acquired the store in 2019, Jacob began taking advantage of the programs and products available with GMF to shift his business strategy to kick-start more car sales.

Watch Jacob's Story

Leading With Lease 

"Leasing gives our salespeople a differentiator. Having a captive that's committed to leasing as well helps improve the customer experience.”

Brotherton Cadillac sits in the middle of a heavy credit union market. Brad and his GMF team often strategize to think outside the box when it comes to staying competitive in this landscape: “There’s a handful of different interactions you can have to better run your business and flooring, and GMF has optics into that.” GMF’s industry-leading lease loyalty rate, combined with elevated service from Cadillac Financial, boosts the overall customer experience: There’s data that shows that if a customer is satisfied with their vehicle and it’s been a good purchase experience, a good payment experience, the likelihood of them coming back to that product is something like 90%.”

What you can do: Don’t shy away from leading with lease. Sales team not comfortable with presenting a lease? Check out GMF Lease Training and see how lease can boost your deals.

Early Adoption in the EV Market

"Cadillac is playing in the space of early adoption in this EV, high-tech market. It's pretty cool to see.”

Brad knows a little something about evolution. His family has been in the industry since 1916. Now, spearheading operations in Seattle, a green, technology-focused community, means Brad is leveraging Cadillac’s impressive lineup of EVs to serve this unique customer base. “To offer the Cadillac LYRIQ  and all the future products  that are coming in the electric lineup and having that commitment really speaks to our community,” he says. Being an early adopter and boasting Cadillac’s legacy of luxury means Brad is seeing vehicles like Tesla Model 3s being traded in for LYRIQs: “Tesla Model 3 is the No. 1 selling vehicle in the area. Cadillac is in that space now. We’re taking a ton of Teslas in on trade. We’re seeing Rivians come in. People are interested in our products.”

What you can do: Lean into GMF’s exclusive benefits, including floorplan rate reductions for select Cadillac EVs, to better serve the early adopters at your stores. 

Creating a Luxury Experience

"Cadillac Financial's commitment to the customer experience creates loyalty to our brand and to Cadillac.”

Brad’s mission across his dealerships boils down to one key element: the customer experience. In fact, his great-grandfather’s motto was, “If you treat your customers like family, you’re unbeatable.” Brad’s trust in GMF from floorplan to financing has allowed him to provide a luxury experience while also increasing sales: “We ask questions to the GMF team like, ‘How could we have done that deal better? Why did we turn this deal down, and how can we turn this into a win for us?’” Trusting that the Cadillac Financial team is supporting his customers with the same high-level of attention to service and excellence that his store is known for allows Brad to focus on the little key wins, “and, when you boil it all down, it just comes down to the customer experience.”

What you can do: If retention is a key part of your strategy, GMF and Cadillac Financial are here to provide tailored, luxury support for your customers. Consider GMF for every deal to keep your customers in the GM family.

 

Build a legacy like Brad and work with your GMF Rep to explore new opportunities to capitalize on your dealership’s customer experience and expand leasing goals.

/content/gmf-dealer/en_us/dealer-insider/articles/dealer-insider-episode-36/jcr:content true https://www.buick.com https://www.cadillac.com https://www.chevrolet.com https://www.gmc.com /en-us/resources/lease-end/get-going.html /en-us/resources/lease-end/get-inspected.html /en-us/resources/lease-end/get-started.html /en-us/resources/lease-end.html