Every year, dealership leaders go through the same planning ritual.
We pull prior-year actuals from the DMS. We increase top-line sales a little. We trim a few expenses that felt too high. We save the file, feel cautiously optimistic, and call it a plan.
Dealer Management Systems make this process incredibly easy. And that’s part of the problem.
Easy does not mean strategic. And in today’s environment, it rarely leads to better performance.
What most dealerships call “planning” is really just budgeting. Adjusting numbers is not the same thing as deciding how the business will win. A better-looking forecast without a better plan often produces worse results.
As we head into 2026, we need a better approach.
Traditional dealership budgeting feels productive because the numbers move. Revenue increases on paper. Expenses tighten up. The forecast improves.
But none of that answers the most important question leaders should be asking.
What are we actually trying to accomplish with this business?
Without clarity on that, budgets become wish lists. Forecasts become hopeful guesses. And leadership teams stay busy without making meaningful progress.
Modern planning starts with direction, not math.
The most important decision most dealerships skip is strategic intent.
Strategic intent is a clear, intentional decision about what the dealership is optimizing for over the next three to five years.
It is not “sell more than last year.”
It is not “grow ten percent.”
And it is not “do everything that every OEM wants.”
Growth is a tactic. Strategic intent is the outcome you are deliberately pursuing.
Sometimes the smartest move is subtraction. That may mean killing a brand you added simply to fill gaps when your core lines were constrained. Fewer brands and fewer product variations often drive more sales and more profit by forcing focus, simplifying execution, and eliminating operational complexity.
Growth is a tactic. Strategic intent is the outcome you are deliberately pursuing.
The “10% more sales tactic” can unintentionally reduce margins. It can expose leadership gaps. It can strain systems and burn out teams. Growth pursued without intent often creates risk at exactly the wrong time.
The right question is not “how much more can we sell?” It is “what kind of business are we intentionally building?”
There are multiple right answers. What matters is choosing one.
Some dealerships are pursuing scalable growth and expansion. Their goal is to grow beyond their current footprint. That requires standardized processes, a deep leadership bench, and meaningful investment in people and systems. In these dealerships, short-term margin compression may be a conscious and acceptable tradeoff.
Other dealerships are focused on profit optimization and operational resilience. They evaluate the market and see limited growth or increased uncertainty. Their strategy is to improve operating profit by becoming more efficient. That may mean holding revenue flat or even allowing it to decline while expenses decline faster. Efficiency is not a retreat. It is a strategy.
Others are intentionally building toward exit readiness and value optimization. They plan to sell the business in three to five years. Their focus is consistent operating profit, clean financials, reduced owner dependence, and a stable leadership structure. Volatility reduces value. Predictability increases it.
None of these strategies are wrong. Confusion between them is what destroys value.
Once strategic intent is clear, the financial targets should express that strategy.
Most dealerships do this backward. They start with last year’s numbers and make incremental adjustments. The DMS supports it. It feels logical. It feels safe.
But it assumes the business should operate the same way next year as it did last year.
Modern planning flips the sequence. Instead of asking how much more we can sell, we ask what financial outcomes must exist if our strategy is successful.
A growth-focused dealership budgets for leadership development, training, and systems, even if it pressures margins in the short term.
A profit-optimization dealership designs a lower break-even point and enforces tighter expense discipline.
An exit-focused dealership prioritizes EBITDA consistency over revenue spikes and removes operational volatility wherever possible.
The numbers should tell the story of the strategy, not contradict it.
Most dealership goals fail because they are lagging indicators. Revenue. Units sold. Gross profit.
By the time those numbers move, it’s too late to change them.
Modern dealerships focus on behavior-driven goals and leading indicators. These are the activities and processes that drive results before they show up on the financial statements.
Process compliance.
Leadership readiness.
Training completion.
Customer experience consistency.
If behaviors do not change, results will not change. And if processes do not mature, growth will expose weaknesses instead of creating opportunity.
Curt Cignetti, during his turnaround of the Indiana football program, put it simply.
“You get better or you get worse. You never stay the same.”
That applies directly to dealership planning.
A beautifully constructed budget that is not executed creates false confidence. Going through the motions of planning without changing behaviors, systems, and leadership habits does not preserve performance. It leads to decline.
If the strategy is not reinforced through daily execution, the dealership will not stay flat. It will get worse.
Modern planning follows a simple, disciplined sequence.
Planning is not a finance exercise. It is leadership work.
As you prepare for 2026, the real question is not whether you can sell more than last year. It is whether you are clear on where you are going and willing to operate differently to get there.
The dealerships that win in 2026 will not be the ones with the prettiest budgets. They will be the ones with the clearest intent and the discipline to act on it.
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