5 questions with … Scott Maybee, president of NextGear Capital

Scott Maybee, president of independent dealer floorplan provider NextGear Capital, says floorplan financing and a “scrappy” attitude help dealers sell more cars. 

To serve independent dealers, Maybee works to understand their needs and how they operate their businesses, he told Auto Finance News.  

“I can’t do my job if dealers don’t feel like I understand where they’re coming from, or if I don’t understand what drives them and what they’re trying to do,” Maybee said. 

NextGear Capital, a subsidiary of Cox Automotive, has more than 20,000 contracted independent auto dealers, Maybee previously told AFN. As of Dec. 31, 2022, NextGear Capital had an aggregate principal receivable balance of about $3.18 billion, according to an S&P Global presale report from the lender’s March securitization.  

The independent dealer is always fighting for their business, a mindset Maybee said he shares from growing up as the youngest of three brothers. 

“I’m always going to be fighting for my family or fighting for people that I get to work with, but I also feel like I can be scrappy, helping independent dealers in the marketplace,” he said. 

Maybee has been in finance since 2002, when he started as a financial analyst at International Truck and Engine. Prior to joining Cox Automotive and NextGear Capital in 2017, he spent nearly 11 years at Nissan Motor Corp. in roles ranging from assistant to the chief executive and chairman to vice president of financial services. 

AFN spoke with Maybee about his career, his approach to leadership and his thoughts on trends in the auto finance industry. What follows is an edited version of the conversation.  

Auto Finance News: What are your company goals, in about 10 words or less? 

Scott Maybee: Provide floorplans and solutions that deliver the highest value to independent dealers.  

If a dealer doesn’t feel like our solutions have a high value, we’re not going to get the business. In our space, dealers have lots of choices. … We spent a lot of time thinking about what are the extra added things that we can do within Cox Automotive and in our space to drive further value to the independent dealer. 

AFN: What do you think is the most underrated lending trend? 

SM: In the floorplan space, everyone is talking about rate scorecards and how to value pricing. Everything is risk-based pricing and people talk about artificial intelligence. 

What is underrated to me is something basic: communicating to the dealer that these are the six to eight items that we focus on for our lending and price scoring. Communicating to them and let them know that the dealer is in charge of their pricing.  

Having a conversation and saying, “Your fundamentals within lending look like this, and if you made these changes, … here’s your pricing.” What dealer wouldn’t want lower pricing? That’s a way of letting an independent dealer know that they’re in control and in charge.  

This isn’t a top-down relationship, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. It takes a basic connection point of saying, “Here’s what we’re seeing in lending,” and showing them the steps they could take to reduce pricing and improve their lending score. 

AFN: What is your favorite piece of leadership advice ever received? 

SM: Easy. Be yourself. I’ve learned several times. … [When I was at Nissan], I was in meeting rooms where I realized these are individuals that are way higher than me on the food chain, but I put my pants on the same way they do. They’re normal people and I’m a normal person, so be yourself.  

I spent time after college trying to be somebody I wasn’t, and that took a lot of energy and effort to keep that facade going. Now being myself, my shoulders are down. I’m the same person that you’re talking to now as if my wife and kids were here.  

AFN: Who has had the biggest influence on your career? 

SM: My current boss, Mark Bowser, the chief financial officer of Cox Automotive, who is retiring in about three weeks. This is not meant to throw shade on all of the other bosses I had, but for the first time, I have a leader that I could look up to and aspire to. The way he brings himself to the job and his ability not to tell me what to do, but to help me figure out what I need to do. His passion for inclusion, diversity and equity and how he went about helping us make some changes in that space within Cox Automotive is the legacy that he’ll be leaving at Cox.  

He’s been a jack of all trades, and he was a master in each of them. He’s somebody I aspire to have a career like. 

Scott LeTourneau assumed the role of chief financial officer and executive vice president on Sept. 19, succeeding Bowser. 

AFN: What’s something your employees would be surprised to learn about you? 

SM: I’m pretty transparent with my team. I love teaching, so part of my role is to let people figure it out themselves, but if and when my career comes to an end, I would love to go back and be a college professor. Pay it forward to the new generation.  

I’ve learned some things you know to do, and I’ve certainly learned a lot of things not to do. I have a desire to slow things down. NextGear is a fast-paced organization, so I don’t always have the time to slow it down and teach, but I love teaching and spending time with people to give them the macro view of why and how things work.