On Thursday, March 19, 2009, Bob Cockerham – a Kia dealer from Santa Fe, N.M. – testified as a part of the “Perspectives from Main Street on Small Business Lending,” held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. His testimony focused on making credit more accessible to small businesses owners.

For months, Mary Cockerham, Bob’s wife, called members of Congress and presidents (to Bush near the end of his term and to newly-elected Obama). Often until late in the evening, she was calling them to bring to their attention the severe issues America’s automobile dealers are facing due to the constriction of floorplan financing. Bob credited their invitation (which he received via a phone call on March 12, 2009) to present testimony to the Senate Committee to Mary’s non-stop phone campaigning. “She’s really a big hero behind this deal. She’s the one that called … And then Washington called her and said, ‘We’d like to hear the story. We want to know what’s going on’ … and they invited us out to testify.”

As soon as he was invited to Capitol Hill to tell his story, he immediately wanted to expand it beyond his and Mary’s story to serve as a collective voice for dealers nationwide who fear losing the lines of credit that sustain their inventories. “Once we got that invitation, I contacted Kia and I contacted Greg Goebel.” He said both Kia and Goebel “have done a terrific job of getting this message out there.”

Kia put him in touch with the National Auto Dealer Association (NADA) and the American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA), both of which have ties in Washington D.C., and helped him get his voice heard beyond the committee meeting.

Goebel, CEO of Auto Dealer Monthly (publisher of Special Finance Insider), sent out numerous communications to thousands of dealers, urging them to e-mail their testimony to him or Cockerham, so their voice could be heard. And those dealers who sent Cockerham and Goebel their testimony were heard and made a difference.

In less than a week, Cockerham received almost 400 e-mails from fellow dealers containing testimony about their struggles with floorplan financing, which he took to the March 19th meeting and presented to committee members. He said members were very surprised at the response he’d received in such little time. The committee agreed to accept further testimony for 10 days following the meeting. By the end of the 10-day period, the stack of e-mails grew to almost 600, according to Cockerham, who is still getting messages from dealers. “That doesn’t count the phone calls, Facebook contacts and Twitter contacts.”

Finally, the Cockerhams began seeing the fruits of their labor. Friday, May 1, 2009, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the expansion of its size standards for its 7(a) loan program, which means many more dealerships once considered ineligible, will have access to the SBA loan program.

An SBA press release dated May 1, 2009, stated, “SBA’s alternate size standard for its 7(a) loan program will go into effect early next weel through Sept. 30, 2010. As a result of the temporary change, more than 70,000 additional small businesses – including auto and RV dealerships, auto industry suppliers and others – could be eligible to apply for SBA 7(a) loan.”

Of the SBA loan program expansion, Cockerham, said, “Mary and I are thrilled to death … It seems like someone listened, and in today’s world, that’s pretty amazing … It’s good to hear that somebody listened to the dealers. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s definitely headed in the right direction.”

He elaborated, “When Mary and I went to Washington, we asked for two things. We asked that the SBA be expanded so that more dealers could be eligible for it; that just happened. The second thing we asked for is that floorplans be included in that. We’re [still] working on that.”

Bailey Wood, director of NADA Legislative Affairs and Communications, said, “This is, we believe, a direct result of the grassroots pressure from dealers.” He added that NADA will continue to work with the committee to “further expand the program to increase the loan guarantee limits because currently they’re $2 million and also to lift a prohibition on floorplanning.”