How to Recruit and Retain Commercial Vehicle Leaders with Amy Smith | Ep. 224
Building a thriving commercial vehicle department requires a completely different strategy than standard retail operations. In this episode of the Commercial Vehicle Pro Podcast, host Candy McCollum sits down with Amy Smith, Managing Partner & Senior Executive Recruiter at Autopeople, to explore what it really takes to recruit, onboard, and retain high-performing commercial leaders and sales teams. Amy breaks down why commercial sales is a relationship-driven long game, why handing a retail salesperson a fleet list rarely works, and how commercial buyers prioritize fleet uptime and total cost of ownership above all else. She also shares actionable advice on cross-industry hiring, structuring scalable commercial teams, and preparing for succession planning. "You are building a business within a business, and it's going to take work." — Amy Smith, Autopeople Key Highlights & Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction to Episode 224 00:58 – Amy Smith’s path into commercial auto recruiting 04:33 – The state of commercial vehicle talent in dealerships 06:21 – Transactional vs. relationship sales: Retail vs. Commercial 11:13 – What commercial buyers actually care about (Uptime & TCO) 13:14 – What’s harder to teach: Technical specs or B2B discipline? 15:53 – Why getting the Commercial Manager role right is crucial 17:50 – Red flags and warning signs of a stalling commercial department 21:01 – Looking outside automotive for B2B sales talent 22:50 – How to structure and scale a commercial team for succession Subscribe to CVBNetwork on YouTube to stay up to date on new podcast episodes, industry insights, and market news. Visit CVBNetwork.com to read the latest articles, explore market data, and access our full publication library.
