Jason White on AI, ODL, and digitizing powersports

Jason White, Managing Partner of Fay Myers Motorcycle World and co-founder of One Dealer Lane, recently sat down with Max Materne and Danny French on The Dealer Lab Podcast. They talked about AI, dealership digitization, and the future of powersports retail.  

Built for powersports, not adapted from auto

Jason White didn't start in powersports software. His background is in automotive, where he played a key role in A-Z Sync — the platform that powers Hyundai's online shopping experience on Amazon. That tool worked exceptionally well in auto. But when White looked at powersports, he saw an industry running on entirely different rails: different Dealer Management Systems (DMS), VIN decoding challenges, different tax structures and calculations, different F&I product rating and remittance logic, different accounting complexity, and most importantly, a different demographic of dealership customers.

So White, alongside Aaron Wallace of the Schomp Automotive Group and Michael Graves, partnered with Param (AppOne co-founder) and built One Dealer Lane (ODL). The goal was to bring automotive-level digitization and operational efficiency to powersports, marine, and RV dealers through a unified platform that removes friction for both customers and the people selling to them.

One login, zero handoffs

The core architecture of ODL is middleware — a single login point that connects to your CRM, your DMS, your lenders, and your F&I providers simultaneously. Instead of your team jumping between five or six disconnected platforms, they work inside one environment that handles everything.

ODL is organized into functional Lanes, and dealers can adopt them modularly based on where their operation needs the most help:

• Sales Lane: Manages the entire sales process flow from initial contact to close.

• Credit Lane: A fully digitized credit application process that eliminates redundant data entry and manual paperwork.

• Finance Lane: Creates direct digital connections with lenders, with digital funding capabilities currently in testing that would trigger near-instant payment upon contract execution.

• Product Lane: A standardized digital rating, menu presentation, and remittance tool that ensures every customer is presented with protection products consistently and professionally while maximizing grosses for dealers.

Every time a salesperson has to say "hold on, let me check on that" and disappear into a back office, you lose customer momentum. One Dealer Lane eliminates that. The advisor stays with the customer, and the deal moves forward.

“One person, one hour” in action

The gap between the sales floor and the finance office has cost dealers more money than most are willing to calculate. One Dealer Lane was built because that gap doesn't have to exist.

Schomp's operating philosophy at their stores is what they call "One Person, One Hour" — a single client advisor handles the deal from first greeting to final delivery, in approximately one hour, without a separate F&I manager handoff. While novel in powersports, One Dealer Lane has been built to be flexible to accommodate both traditional (sales handoff to finance) and “One Person” sales processes and workflows.

ODL automates the technical heavy-lifting of the finance process, which means a well-trained advisor can execute a compliant, product-inclusive deal without the traditional back-and-forth.  

The financial impact is impressive. Eliminating the handoff reduces labor overhead per deal. Faster transactions mean faster turn times. And faster turn times mean lower flooring costs — less time a unit sits on your floor accruing interest before it's funded.

On pricing, Schomp advocates for what he calls "One Price, One Profit": a transparent, math-based model where each unit is priced according to allocation, supply, demand, and turn speed. The result is higher consumer trust, higher closing rates, and a dealership that doesn't have to defend its margins on every deal.

The Sturgis Rally: Proof at scale

Pilots are easy to talk about. Real-world volume is where platforms either hold up or fall apart.

At the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sonic Automotive’s Harley-Davidson stores deployed ODL to run their entire operation. The numbers speak for themselves: over 1,100 retail units administered and approximately 650 trades processed in a temporary, high-velocity environment without standard dealership infrastructure.

Dealers who ignore AI won't survive in 5 years

One of the most direct things White said on the podcast: "AI is not a fad." For dealership operators who are still treating artificial intelligence as something to evaluate later, that framing matters.  

Here's how he recommends approaching AI maturity at a dealership:

Step 1: Lead follow-up  

Human sales teams drop leads. It happens. After a few attempts with no response, follow-up stops. Drive AI handles lead engagement from the moment a prospect enters the CRM, maintaining contact until the customer is ready. It searches OEM websites to answer specific product questions like seat height or engine specs without human intervention.

Step 2: Fix service scheduling

The service department is typically the most profitable part of your store, and it's often the most inconsistently managed. Blink AI handles outbound service reminders via text and manages appointment scheduling. In one documented instance, it scheduled 14 appointments in a single day, outperforming the human advisors it was supporting.

Step 3: Clean your data  

Powersports data is notoriously messy. The same model might be listed six different ways across manufacturer datasets. One Dealer Lane uses AI to normalize data, mapping inconsistent nomenclature into standardized entries. For a group operating across multiple locations, this isn't a nice-to-have. It's what makes accurate inventory tracking and cross-store profitability analysis possible.

The harsh reality of change management  

White doesn't sugarcoat the cultural challenge. At Fay Myers, transitioning to One Dealer Lane meant removing desktops from the sales floor entirely and replacing them with iPads.

His approach to resistance is tactical. Rather than mandating adoption across the entire staff simultaneously, he identifies younger, tech-comfortable team members and lets them volunteer to use the new system first. When the rest of the floor watches those early adopters closing deals faster and taking home more money with less effort, the resistance fades naturally.

The platform also reduces one of the most persistent frustrations for experienced staff: hunting through inconsistent data to find the right information. When ODL Copilot normalizes that work automatically, it removes a daily friction point that quietly erodes trust in any new system.

One Dealer Lane is currently live in 30+ dealerships, with active expansion into Harley-Davidson stores and OEM pilots underway. The Finance Lane digital funding is the next leap: end-to-end digital transactions with no lag between close and cash in hand.

White's vision, as he described it on the podcast, is a dealership that runs on one platform, serves customers through one advisor, closes in one hour, and uses AI to handle everything the platform shouldn't need a human for.

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