Latest / CBT Live / Used Values Soften, Sentiment falls, and a Dealer Closes on Weekends (09.10.26)

Transcript

Used Values Soften, Sentiment falls, and a Dealer Closes on Weekends (09.10.26) · CBT Live

0:00
SPEAKER_05: Hello, everyone.
0:01
SPEAKER_05: Welcome back to CBT Live.
0:02
SPEAKER_05: Today is Thursday, September 10th.
0:04
SPEAKER_05: I'm Bridget Fitzpatrick.
0:05
SPEAKER_05: I'm joined by my partner and my handsome husband, Jim Fitzpatrick.
0:10
SPEAKER_05: You forgot my name there for a second.
0:12
SPEAKER_05: Not this time.
0:12
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
0:13
SPEAKER_05: Not this time.
0:14
SPEAKER_05: Thank you all for joining us today.
0:16
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
0:17
SPEAKER_07: It's a good fun, fun day today.
0:18
SPEAKER_05: It is.
0:19
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna have a great show.
0:20
SPEAKER_05: We have Jonathan Dawson in the studio.
0:22
SPEAKER_05: We do the dealer principal of Cherokee Mitsubishi and the founder and president of Cell College Sales Training.
0:27
SPEAKER_05: And then we're also gonna welcome Skylar Chadwick, who is the director of product consulting for Cox Automotive.
0:33
SPEAKER_05: So we've got a great one for you today.
0:35
SPEAKER_07: Um I'm anxious to hear from uh Jonathan Dawson.
0:39
SPEAKER_07: He's he's doing some innovative things in his new dealership.
0:42
SPEAKER_07: He is, I know.
0:43
SPEAKER_07: I get I think a lot of people, a lot of dealers are shaking their head going, I love it.
0:47
SPEAKER_07: I heard one dealer that said, I hope this doesn't cause a trend.
0:49
SPEAKER_05: No, but he's he's if it's a trend in the right direction, which I'm sure Jonathan is thinking that will be the case, then why not, right?
0:57
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
0:58
SPEAKER_07: If this is a trend and what he's doing sticks, I'm getting back into retail automatically I'm gonna go sell cars.
1:04
SPEAKER_05: I really we're all pulling for this to work.
1:05
SPEAKER_07: So for sure.
1:08
SPEAKER_05: So but before we get to that, I do have some news.
1:10
SPEAKER_05: Before I get to the news, I do want to thank our sponsor of the week.
1:13
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1:15
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1:21
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1:31
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1:32
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1:36
SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much, Reynolds, for being the sponsor this week.
1:39
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
1:40
SPEAKER_05: So here we go.
1:41
SPEAKER_05: Kind of a slower news day today, but we do have some numbers from Cox Automotive on the used vehicle market.
1:46
SPEAKER_07: Are we doing the clip or oh we can do that?
1:48
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
1:49
SPEAKER_05: Let's let's do that first.
1:50
SPEAKER_05: Since it's a slow news day anyway.
1:52
SPEAKER_07: And is that what we're doing?
1:53
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
1:54
SPEAKER_07: I want to.
1:55
SPEAKER_07: So I came, I came across this clip.
1:56
SPEAKER_07: I think I showed it to you.
1:58
SPEAKER_07: And uh it's it's I love the fact that these sales managers and salespeople dealership personnel are doing all of these social media.
2:06
SPEAKER_07: So you you all know if you've been watching us for any length of time at all, you realize that we appreciate what's going on in the area of social media uh to bring customers into the dealership to show how fun salespeople can be and how fun the industry is.
2:19
SPEAKER_07: And uh this you I I wanted to share this one with you because I thought it was pretty funny.
2:23
SPEAKER_07: It's about walk-up songs.
2:24
SPEAKER_07: So let's play that clip.
2:27
SPEAKER_04: What would your walkout song be?
2:29
SPEAKER_08: Fat Man Stonk, but Bone Crusher.
2:38
SPEAKER_04: What would your walkout song be?
2:40
SPEAKER_04: Obviously, Dixie Land Delight.
2:46
SPEAKER_04: What would your walkout song be?
2:48
SPEAKER_04: Madness by Muse.
2:53
SPEAKER_04: They just so they get it.
2:55
SPEAKER_04: What would your walkout song be?
2:57
SPEAKER_02: Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other by Willie Nelson.
3:07
SPEAKER_07: You know that it's clever, right?
3:10
SPEAKER_05: I it is.
3:10
SPEAKER_05: I love the creativity that's coming out of all of this.
3:12
SPEAKER_07: And it's a fun it's like a fun place to buy a car.
3:15
SPEAKER_07: Right.
3:16
SPEAKER_07: And those guys had a good sense of humor about it.
3:17
SPEAKER_07: You know, they did.
3:18
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if they got put on by the person doing the video.
3:22
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
3:23
SPEAKER_05: Well, that's what we all want to believe.
3:24
SPEAKER_07: So I I just thought that was worth uh uh showing.
3:28
SPEAKER_07: Uh by the way, if any of you have got a funny clip or you see one out there, send it in to us because we would love to love to show it.
3:35
SPEAKER_07: I I just love all of these clips that I'm seeing out there.
3:37
SPEAKER_07: You know, it's showing it's also showing to people that are thinking about getting into auto retail automotive that it really is a fun environment.
3:43
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
3:43
SPEAKER_07: You know, that's right.
3:44
SPEAKER_07: It really is.
3:45
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, love it.
3:46
SPEAKER_05: That was a good one.
3:47
SPEAKER_05: So um, like I was saying, Cox Automotive has their used vehicle market.
3:52
SPEAKER_05: Um, the Mannheim Used Vehicle Index came in at 208.2 in August.
3:57
SPEAKER_05: Wholesale used vehicle values were down 0.9% from July, but they were still 0.4% higher than a year ago.
4:04
SPEAKER_05: Now, Cox says older and more affordable used vehicles are depreciating much less than younger vehicles.
4:10
SPEAKER_05: Nine and 10-year-old cars actually performed about six percentage points better than their long-term depreciation averages.
4:18
SPEAKER_05: So interesting news there from Cox.
4:20
SPEAKER_05: Cox for sure.
4:21
SPEAKER_05: And uh, let's go to another Cox study because like I said, it was a slow news day, and Cox is constantly providing great information for the industry.
4:29
SPEAKER_05: The affordability issue is also showing up in how dealers feel about the market.
4:34
SPEAKER_05: Cox Automotive's latest dealer sentiment index surveyed.
4:37
SPEAKER_05: 929 US dealers, including franchised and independent stores.
4:41
SPEAKER_05: And one of the biggest changes was dealer sentiment uh with dent dealer sentiment toward new vehicle sales.
4:48
SPEAKER_05: Um, the index fell 50 in the third quarter compared with 53 in Q2 and 58 a year ago.
4:54
SPEAKER_05: So dealers were pointing to the economy, economy, market conditions, interest rates, and affordability as some of the biggest pressures on the business, which are things that we talk about here all the time and talk about how we can overcome those challenges, which which we have been doing.
5:10
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, it's tough out there for dealers right now, especially with affordability situation.
5:13
SPEAKER_07: They're dealing with it every day, you know, with buyers and you know, it's just it's I don't know where this is headed.
5:18
SPEAKER_07: I mean, it really is.
5:19
SPEAKER_07: It's it's crazy.
5:21
SPEAKER_05: Um and Tesla's cyber cab is testing the federal rule book.
5:25
SPEAKER_05: Tesla CyberCab may be giving regulators an early look at one of the biggest questions facing autonomous vehicles.
5:31
SPEAKER_05: NHTSA opened up an investigation September 4th into the self-certification of the cyber cab following its commercial deployment.
5:39
SPEAKER_05: And the cyber cab does not have the traditional human controls like steering wheel and pedal, so that creates uh obvious regulatory problems.
5:47
SPEAKER_05: So um that's what they're looking into.
5:49
SPEAKER_05: Safety standards were written around cars that were designed for humans to drive them.
5:54
SPEAKER_05: So it's kind of that question of is is technology and all of this getting ahead of how quickly we can regulate things.
6:00
SPEAKER_05: So we'll be following that story closely here at CBT News.
6:03
SPEAKER_07: And when you see the inside of that car that they're showing right now with no buttons, no wheels, no nothing.
6:08
SPEAKER_05: I know.
6:09
SPEAKER_07: It really is incredible.
6:10
SPEAKER_07: It's almost a question of why do you even need a windshield?
6:12
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
6:13
SPEAKER_07: You know, I mean, I guess if if the if the if the occupants want to look out the windshield.
6:17
SPEAKER_07: But if you think about it, those those those seats can be turned around facing each other, you know.
6:22
SPEAKER_07: And uh Michael Dunn, who was in New York recently, um uh sent me a picture and said, Look, there's one on the road here, you know, one I think it was on Wall Street.
6:31
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
6:31
SPEAKER_07: So interesting.
6:32
SPEAKER_07: This is I think our our grandkids are not gonna be driving their own cars.
6:36
SPEAKER_05: I don't know, you know?
6:37
SPEAKER_07: It's crazy.
6:39
SPEAKER_05: All right, so it is Thursday, and I think a little throwback Thursday might be nice, right?
6:44
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
6:44
SPEAKER_05: So let's throw back to a clip of an interview that you did with Rita Case.
6:50
SPEAKER_05: It was a great interview.
6:51
SPEAKER_05: So let's let's take a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.
6:52
SPEAKER_07: She I just want to say that she's uh when she hosted us there and uh and we had a great conversation.
6:57
SPEAKER_07: The clip that you're gonna show is from the executor profile.
7:00
SPEAKER_07: As you know, we do we choose a dealer each month and we go out there with our crew and get to spend some time with them and ask them questions right there.
7:08
SPEAKER_07: I think in this case we're right on the showroom floor.
7:10
SPEAKER_07: But Rita is one of those unique uh individuals in the industry that is just she blows you away when you're talking to her.
7:18
SPEAKER_07: And you know, she's uh Rick Case, uh that who she was married to, her husband passed away a few years back.
7:24
SPEAKER_07: She took over you know the whole deal, and uh it should really be called Rick and Rita Auto Group because she's such a driving force, uh not just in the group, but in the industry.
7:33
SPEAKER_07: And uh a little fun fact, she flies her own jet plane, which incredible blew me away.
7:38
SPEAKER_07: She's a very important thing.
7:39
SPEAKER_07: I don't know why that blows me away.
7:40
SPEAKER_07: Maybe I don't know.
7:41
SPEAKER_05: I mean, yeah.
7:42
SPEAKER_05: Well, she's so busy with the stores and flying and she's just an incredible woman.
7:47
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, so let's play that a little bit of that clip.
7:51
SPEAKER_07: In building the company along the way, did you ever think did you ever say to him, hey, maybe enough is enough.
7:57
SPEAKER_07: Maybe we've got, maybe the group's big enough, maybe we're selling enough cars.
8:00
SPEAKER_07: Let's just take a little rest here and enjoy life.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know what?
8:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't think there would have ever been time for that conversation.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Because he, before we even finished hitting the number one goal of which we were trending towards, he had another one on the proper on the pl plate.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: So up until his last breath, he was his goal was to be number one at anything, whether it was raising the most money for the Boys and Girls Club or American Heart, or whether it was building the biggest, you know, affordable housing project for Habitat for Humanity.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, wow.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: Or selling we, you know, we hold the record for the most Hondas ever sold in one month.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: 1222.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we hold the record for the most Acura's ever sold in one month.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: The most motorcycle Honda motorcycles ever sold.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: He was about breaking records.
8:48
SPEAKER_07: Sure, sure.
8:48
SPEAKER_07: I bet it wasn't easy to be one of his kids.
8:51
SPEAKER_07: Because where are you going with that, right?
8:52
SPEAKER_01: You better get straight A's in school and uh yeah, you know, he was uh he was a great father.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: He was a great father.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: And uh but his heart was in in in in in building.
9:04
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: In building and and breaking records.
9:06
SPEAKER_07: Sure, sure.
9:07
SPEAKER_07: So let's um and and of course you were right by his side the whole time.
9:11
SPEAKER_07: You know, when we we did research on this, the more that we the producers would say the more we're learning about this, it's as much of an American success story as it is a love story, right?
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we when we met, you know, how we met was um I went to after I graduated from college, and I went back and I told my dad, you gotta retire because no one's gonna listen to me.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: I've been the D D, that's dealer's daughter.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: I've been the D D all these years.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: And until you leave this dealership, Honda Santa Rosa, people aren't gonna listen to me, Dad.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta retire, I gotta you gotta give me a chance to to run this thing.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: And he he agreed.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so I went to um NADA and I said we need a Honda 20 group.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: So um I was able to convince them that I could get 20 dealers or at least 18 dealers to sign up around the country.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: And Rick Case from Cleveland, he signed up, and of course I signed up.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, Ray Mengenest, who's a history-making Honda dealer, he signed up.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: So great car dealers signed up, and we ended up starting this 20 group, and that's where I met Rick.
10:13
SPEAKER_07: That is incredible.
10:13
SPEAKER_07: What a story.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: He was single, I was single, and everybody else was married, like those 20 groups are, right?
10:19
SPEAKER_01: And they're vacation spots.
10:20
SPEAKER_07: So it was even the auto industry that dictated your personal life as well, right?
10:24
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, that's right.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: So that's where we met, and we just were so passionate about being learning the business, learning.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: He was already a very successful entrepreneur and marketer.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: I was still learning to do that because I was a small town.
10:36
SPEAKER_01: He was in a big town.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: I was in a little small town, Santa Rosa.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: And um, so I was just so intrigued about learning from him.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: He was intrigued about my enthusiasm.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: And uh three years later, we ended up uh getting together.
10:50
SPEAKER_07: Very good.
10:52
SPEAKER_07: That she's amazing.
10:53
SPEAKER_07: She really is she uh I love those pictures of of Rick and Reed.
10:55
SPEAKER_05: I know, I know, they look great.
10:57
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, incredible.
10:58
SPEAKER_05: Now, after spending decades consulting and training, Jonathan Dawson has added something else to his resume.
11:04
SPEAKER_05: Now, dealer principal of Cherokee Mitsubishi, he's training an unconventional approach, he's taking an unconventional approach to doing business.
11:12
SPEAKER_07: That's right, from how dealers uh compensate their people to a bold decision about when the store should be open.
11:18
SPEAKER_07: Jonathan Dawson, dealer principal of Cherokee Mitsubishi, and founder and president of Cell Cology, as we mentioned already, uh, is in the studio with us.
11:26
SPEAKER_07: So thank you so much, Jonathan, for honor to be here as always.
11:29
SPEAKER_07: Taking the time out of what I would imagine is a busy schedule where you're talking about now uh psychology and then also dealer principal, and you got your hands.
11:38
SPEAKER_09: Pinnacle Society Training Center.
11:40
SPEAKER_09: Right.
11:40
SPEAKER_09: Add on, add on, add on.
11:42
SPEAKER_07: I should also mention that your training center is right literally around the block from our studios.
11:45
SPEAKER_09: Yes, and if I can do a soft plug for a class that's coming up, uh a lot of dealers are really curious about my mission 22 philosophy, getting a dealership's average to 22.
11:54
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
11:54
SPEAKER_09: I'm having the first ever public, open to anyone who wants to learn.
11:58
SPEAKER_09: I've only taught it to my dealers up until now, but we're having an event at the training center, um, and that's going to be mission 22, and that's coming up in November.
12:05
SPEAKER_09: Cool.
12:05
SPEAKER_09: For GMs and dealers who want to learn.
12:07
SPEAKER_09: How does a store get to a 22-carberson average sustained or higher?
12:11
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
12:11
SPEAKER_05: Nice, nice.
12:12
SPEAKER_05: And if you do attend, stop by and see us because we are right down the road.
12:15
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
12:16
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
12:17
SPEAKER_05: So you want to talk about the business a little bit with Jonathan before we get into it.
12:20
SPEAKER_07: First and foremost, how's business at the Mitsubishi store, which you just celebrated one year, right?
12:24
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations.
12:25
SPEAKER_09: July to July was our first 12 months of full operation because we signed the papers June 9th.
12:29
SPEAKER_09: But yes, uh, things are going well.
12:31
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
12:31
SPEAKER_09: We had a uh again uh our another record month.
12:34
SPEAKER_09: Uh of course, when you're buying something that broken, it's easy to kind of have some record months because it was selling eight to ten cars a month and losing over a hundred grand a month when I got it.
12:42
SPEAKER_06: Wow.
12:43
SPEAKER_09: But uh last month we did 86 cars with three and a half salespeople.
12:47
SPEAKER_09: That's fantastic.
12:48
SPEAKER_09: And uh and are growing in both new and used, obviously.
12:51
SPEAKER_09: And and really what's fascinating about what we've done that I think any dealer should be paying attention to, that's that's valuable, is I I did it on a$35 per car ad spend against total sales.
13:03
SPEAKER_09: Wow.
13:03
SPEAKER_09: And when you take in my ad credits, I was at a net zero.
13:06
SPEAKER_09: I sold 86 cars and I made money on my advertising technically uh to do it.
13:10
SPEAKER_09: So we're doing it through community, doing it through social media, driving uh traffic through sales people's personal brands and self-generation.
13:17
SPEAKER_09: Again, the things I've been teaching for 20 years in psychology, I'm obviously putting it to practice in real use.
13:22
SPEAKER_07: Hasn't anybody told you at 80 some cars you you need eight salespeople on that show right now?
13:26
SPEAKER_07: I've heard that a bunch.
13:27
SPEAKER_09: In fact, I have a lot of dealers who are again asking me the question because they're like, John, and I just talked to one yesterday, he's John, we have seven people and we sold 65 cars, you sold 86, yeah, and you did it with three and a half.
13:39
SPEAKER_09: Right.
13:39
SPEAKER_09: I I'm like, yeah, because the way you do it is wrong.
13:43
SPEAKER_07: Right.
13:43
SPEAKER_07: It's broken, right?
13:45
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, exactly.
13:45
SPEAKER_07: And it's also what we expect in the business.
13:47
SPEAKER_07: I mean, for so long, I got in the business many, many years ago over four decades, and we s use that same uh theory of 10 cars are gonna get you a hundred I mean ten salespeople are gonna get you a hundred cars, maybe a hundred and twenty.
14:00
SPEAKER_07: Um so therefore, if you're gonna ramp up and you have the inventory, just think 10 cars per person.
14:06
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
14:06
SPEAKER_07: In your case, you're talking more like 25 cars or more per person.
14:09
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, ideally, I mean, you should, and and that's the flu philosophy of mission 22, and uh it's really about the dignity of a deal a day.
14:16
SPEAKER_09: If the average salesperson is scheduled for 22 days, don't they deserve and do and shouldn't you create the environment where they can at least do a car a day, which is why it's called Mission 22, right?
14:25
SPEAKER_09: Their schedule is 22, they should produce 22, and until they do, in my opinion, something is fundamentally broken until you can get to that consistently.
14:32
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, and by the way, one of my top, one of my big stores on their new car department, they averaged 21 cars per person, sold 435 cars, and a new car, just new cars, 435 just on new, and did 21 cars per person across just their new car show floor.
14:45
SPEAKER_03: Very nice.
14:45
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, their used car show floor is not quite at 21 yet, but they're they're moving their way, but they're holding them to that accountability and they're driving that as an intentionality.
14:53
SPEAKER_09: That's great.
14:54
SPEAKER_05: That's great.
14:54
SPEAKER_05: So you recently made a big move.
14:56
SPEAKER_05: You have closed the store on Saturdays and Sundays through the end of the year.
15:00
SPEAKER_05: Talk to us about that because people want to know.
15:03
SPEAKER_09: It's insane.
15:04
SPEAKER_09: So to be closed every Saturday and Sunday, plus the holidays we give our people, it is literally one-third of the calendar year our store is essentially closed.
15:12
SPEAKER_09: That's a big and many people will say and have messaged me, dumb move.
15:16
SPEAKER_09: Uh and so I'm it's I'm I'm not advising it.
15:19
SPEAKER_09: I'm not telling any of my dealers they should also do it.
15:21
SPEAKER_09: I want to be clear, I'm not taking a moral high ground on this.
15:24
SPEAKER_09: I'm not saying it's the correct way to run a dealership.
15:26
SPEAKER_09: I'm just saying when we looked at it and we asked the question based on the way we've built our model, and based on the way that we're driving our traffic, and based on the way we're building our community involvement, does it serve our people first?
15:37
SPEAKER_09: And then ultimately can they and then serve our client better if we do this?
15:41
SPEAKER_09: And we, as a leadership team, made the executive decision that the only reason to not do it was fear-based.
15:47
SPEAKER_09: And fear-based decision making by itself is not a good principle to operate by.
15:52
SPEAKER_09: So then we put it to a vote to our team on Tuesday, the first day of the month for us uh uh after the holiday, because we were closed Labor Day.
15:59
SPEAKER_09: So we had a three-way weekend.
16:01
SPEAKER_09: On Tuesday morning, we announced it to the team and we put it to a vote and said 75% of you have to agree to this or we're not gonna do it, because we don't want to impose something that could cause financial harm.
16:10
SPEAKER_09: It could to affect everybody, right?
16:12
SPEAKER_09: Just simply because we are willing to be crazy.
16:14
SPEAKER_09: Right.
16:15
SPEAKER_09: Uh, and it was unanimous.
16:16
SPEAKER_09: Everybody said, let's do it and let's make it happen.
16:19
SPEAKER_09: And so so far here we are, you know, as of today, the 10th.
16:23
SPEAKER_09: Uh we're trending for our second best month at this point.
16:26
SPEAKER_09: We're we're track trending, so we're we're sliding back from last month, okay, but we're not devastated by it.
16:32
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
16:32
SPEAKER_09: And so there there might even be some cost savings involved, right?
16:36
SPEAKER_09: There's theoretically, yeah.
16:37
SPEAKER_09: I mean, if you pencil it all out, there could be.
16:39
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
16:40
SPEAKER_09: Um, but you know, we didn't do it necessarily just to save money, and we didn't do it necessarily just because we want to be crazy and we want to get on the news.
16:50
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
16:50
SPEAKER_09: Um, we felt like it was a principle-based decision based on our core values, our mission, our vision, and what we believe we can create.
16:57
SPEAKER_09: You did correctly say it.
16:58
SPEAKER_09: We did tell the team it's to the end of the year, so it's four months.
17:00
SPEAKER_09: Right.
17:01
SPEAKER_09: We will pay attention because our first priority as a business owner is profitability done correctly, then all the other things come after us.
17:08
SPEAKER_09: But if you're not profitable, you can't serve anybody.
17:10
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, you can't help anybody.
17:11
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, so we said if you guys can demonstrate in four months that this can become a sincerely, consistently profitable model and you still want it, we'll do that.
17:19
SPEAKER_09: If not, I'm willing to pivot.
17:20
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
17:21
SPEAKER_07: What what do you say to the to the people that say, well, um, in doing this, yes, it it it it it really uh obviously the team's gonna love it because they've got weekends off.
17:30
SPEAKER_07: They can live like the rest of every people.
17:33
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, exactly.
17:34
SPEAKER_07: Um, however, maybe it's not as convenient for your customers.
17:36
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
17:37
SPEAKER_07: Because the only time to buy a car with busy schedules is on the weekends.
17:41
SPEAKER_09: That's a real thing.
17:42
SPEAKER_09: And I actually pre pre-launching it, I I surveyed a bunch of our customers and asked them directly, hey, just and I told them this is on the download, like none of my team knows I'm anything came to do this.
17:52
SPEAKER_09: But what are your thoughts?
17:54
SPEAKER_09: And every single one so far of our customers that I brought it to said, I want to do more business with you now.
17:59
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
18:00
SPEAKER_09: And so I kind of came up with this little phrase, it's just a kind of catchphrase, but it says, you know, in a world that seems to care less and less about humans, we're going all in on humans, we're going all in on um people.
18:09
SPEAKER_09: And that's one of the ways that we're trying to do it.
18:12
SPEAKER_09: But our customers so far have said that.
18:13
SPEAKER_09: Now the market will still ultimately speak.
18:15
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
18:16
unknown: Yeah.
18:16
SPEAKER_09: And we'll see what happens.
18:17
SPEAKER_09: Sure.
18:18
SPEAKER_09: But if if it turns out that the pushback is so severe that it hurts business, there will come a point where we'll have to have a hard conversation about pivoting.
18:26
SPEAKER_09: But we have committed hell or high water, we burned the ships until January 1st.
18:29
SPEAKER_09: We're allowed to rebuild ships on January 1st.
18:31
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
18:31
SPEAKER_09: So check back with me after January 1st until and if I'm building ships and getting back out on the ocean on Saturdays, you'll know.
18:38
SPEAKER_09: I I'm not ashamed to say that we tried and that was dumb.
18:40
SPEAKER_09: But always close Sundays, right?
18:42
SPEAKER_09: We've always been close Sundays, and we give our people their their birthday off, their spouse's birthday off, any children under the age of 18's birthday off, we give their anniversary off.
18:51
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
18:52
SPEAKER_09: We give Valentine's Day off.
18:53
SPEAKER_09: We've done that already since we started the store.
18:56
SPEAKER_09: We give uh all the major holidays, including I give uh I give uh the day after Black Friday.
19:02
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
19:02
SPEAKER_09: Again, big sales day, we give Black Friday off.
19:04
SPEAKER_09: Well, you say off, you mean closed.
19:06
SPEAKER_09: We're closed.
19:06
SPEAKER_09: You're closed, okay.
19:07
SPEAKER_09: So when I say off, birthdays and things are selective to the person.
19:10
SPEAKER_09: Of course.
19:11
SPEAKER_09: But holidays like uh the day before Christmas, the day after Christmas, uh the the Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, all the big sales days were closed.
19:21
SPEAKER_07: What about the what about uh fixed ops?
19:23
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, same thing.
19:24
SPEAKER_07: The whole deal's closed.
19:26
SPEAKER_09: Okay, yeah, and we like I said, we're we're trying to find ways to kind of say, okay, how can we still be of service in a meaningful way?
19:32
SPEAKER_09: Because we don't want to alienate and lose business.
19:34
SPEAKER_09: Right.
19:35
SPEAKER_09: But at the same time, we feel like we feel, and again, we're doing this off of intuition and some intentional like guessing, but we we feel like we're gonna be okay.
19:45
SPEAKER_09: And time will expose it.
19:47
SPEAKER_09: You know, time has a way of either exposing you or uh or proving you a genius.
19:51
SPEAKER_09: Right.
19:52
SPEAKER_09: And that's what will happen here in the next four months.
19:54
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
19:54
SPEAKER_09: Interesting.
19:55
SPEAKER_05: And what are you seeing with the your team and the culture so far with this move?
19:59
SPEAKER_09: Uh so as you can imagine, again, people are pretty happy about it.
20:01
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, they're I figure they're they're coming in.
20:03
SPEAKER_09: There's a lot of because of the other upside that you have to think about is again, a traditional sales floor has people off on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays.
20:10
SPEAKER_09: You always have a discombobulated team.
20:12
SPEAKER_09: That's right.
20:12
SPEAKER_09: We have a holistic team for five straight days.
20:14
SPEAKER_09: That's nice.
20:15
SPEAKER_09: So everyone's there, so there aren't days off issues like that.
20:18
SPEAKER_09: Now there's still accommodation because if you have a doctor's appointment, you have something that you have to go through midday.
20:23
SPEAKER_09: We just ask that you communicate well and we'll cover.
20:26
SPEAKER_09: I mean, our best day so far, we sold nine cars with two salespeople on the floor.
20:30
SPEAKER_09: Wow.
20:30
SPEAKER_09: You know, so we we've been able to do that.
20:32
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
20:32
SPEAKER_09: So we know that we can cover for each other, and we know that we can take care of each other, and we know that when it comes down to it, our people will step up.
20:38
SPEAKER_09: Right.
20:39
SPEAKER_09: And now they just kind of have to like do that all the time.
20:41
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
20:42
SPEAKER_09: And we're hoping that creates more momentum too, because there's not that lag in the middle of the week where you're not fully rested and you kind of wish you'd come in on your day off, but you kind of needed a day off, but you kind of didn't want to take the day off.
20:54
SPEAKER_09: If you don't break that mental cycle and if they're selling again a car a day or two every day, their momentum they're in the state of being productive for a longer window of time.
21:04
SPEAKER_09: So we think that gets an incremental lift too.
21:06
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
21:06
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
21:06
SPEAKER_07: So if my birthday is on Friday, my wife's birthday is on Monday.
21:10
SPEAKER_07: Do I get four days off?
21:11
SPEAKER_07: You could.
21:12
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, you would just ask for it and we'd say yes.
21:14
SPEAKER_05: And then our anniversary is that following Tuesday.
21:16
SPEAKER_05: I would say I would say come back very productive.
21:18
SPEAKER_05: But their birthdays are the same.
21:19
SPEAKER_09: And trust me, we've had people that are going to get tried on this.
21:22
SPEAKER_09: And you know, but the thing is we tell them look, you're in a production-based role.
21:25
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
21:26
unknown: Yeah.
21:26
SPEAKER_09: Ultimately, if you're not here to some degree, you can't perform.
21:29
SPEAKER_09: You're only kidding yourself.
21:30
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, yeah.
21:31
SPEAKER_09: I mean, like, there's so there's there's wisdom there.
21:33
SPEAKER_09: But I what I don't want is for it's your wife's birthday and you want to celebrate it, but you're at the store until eight or nine o'clock.
21:39
SPEAKER_09: Right.
21:39
SPEAKER_09: And you can't enjoy your family time, or it's your anniversary, but it's a Tuesday, and you have to be like, I'm not gonna have people apologize to the people they first are prioritizing in their life.
21:49
SPEAKER_09: They should serve their families and then they should serve the community through us.
21:52
SPEAKER_09: Right.
21:53
SPEAKER_07: Now that's it.
21:54
SPEAKER_07: The people that are watching right now that live in the uh in the Detroit market will tell you that for many years.
22:00
SPEAKER_07: That's the way dealers work.
22:02
SPEAKER_07: And some still do.
22:03
SPEAKER_07: And some still do.
22:03
SPEAKER_07: Whereas, you know, just Monday through Friday, come in, buy your car.
22:06
SPEAKER_07: Exactly.
22:07
SPEAKER_07: The weekends are off.
22:08
SPEAKER_07: And uh it it made for also when it comes to attracting talent, it allows you to get the creme de la creme of talent, right?
22:16
SPEAKER_07: Because of that kind of a schedule.
22:17
SPEAKER_09: And my inbox is now on our online forum of Join Our Team.
22:21
SPEAKER_09: It is binging a lot.
22:23
SPEAKER_09: I'm getting a lot of join our teams.
22:25
SPEAKER_09: So people are curious about what we're doing.
22:27
SPEAKER_09: People from the car business for years, decades, people are messaging me saying, I wish I had an owner like you 25 years ago, I would have never got out of the business.
22:35
SPEAKER_09: So, you know, obviously there's that.
22:36
SPEAKER_09: And that's, of course, warms my heart.
22:38
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
22:38
SPEAKER_09: But the reality is it's a business.
22:40
SPEAKER_09: And I do need to fundamentally be profitable and do it correctly and serve the community.
22:44
SPEAKER_09: Sure.
22:44
SPEAKER_09: And I'm hoping that my people will rise up in the level of service they can provide, creating higher level raving fan advocates, the kinds of customers who will then figure out how to prioritize us.
22:56
SPEAKER_09: And if I may give a quick antidote of that, literally on the way here today, I have a guy, his name is Chad.
23:00
SPEAKER_09: Shout out to Chad if you're average, catch the replay, Chad.
23:04
SPEAKER_09: But Chad has reached out to me like back on the 20th of last month because he wants an F-450 truck.
23:10
SPEAKER_09: I'm a Mitsubishi dealer.
23:11
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
23:11
SPEAKER_09: He wants an F-450.
23:12
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
23:13
SPEAKER_09: He's like, I only want to buy from you.
23:15
SPEAKER_09: He's never bought from us before.
23:17
SPEAKER_09: Never service with us before.
23:18
SPEAKER_09: But by reputation and what he's been told.
23:20
SPEAKER_09: So since then, he has sent me and I've sent him, and we've been trying to find, even to the point that I'm calling my friends in different states saying, Hey, you have a truck, can I buy it?
23:27
SPEAKER_09: Then this morning he sends me another one, which is his wife's expedition that he wants again at another dealership.
23:32
SPEAKER_09: Can you find this one for me?
23:34
SPEAKER_09: And again, this guy's never serviced with me, never bought for me, but purely off reputation alone, he's been waiting now for you know three weeks and bringing me two different deals that he says, find these so I can buy them from you.
23:45
SPEAKER_09: I'm now having to locate vehicles from other dealerships just to bring them in my inventory so I can sell them.
23:50
SPEAKER_09: I've sold a brand new Ford Bronco off my show floor, brand new used.
23:54
SPEAKER_09: Yes.
23:55
SPEAKER_09: Bought from a Ford store, drove to my house, or drove to my store, sold off the show floor.
23:58
SPEAKER_09: I did it with a land cruiser.
24:00
SPEAKER_09: People are coming to us and saying they see you as the source.
24:03
SPEAKER_09: You're the only place we want to do business.
24:05
SPEAKER_09: Here's what we want.
24:06
SPEAKER_09: Help us find it, and we'll wait.
24:08
SPEAKER_09: Right.
24:08
SPEAKER_09: So I think my model is unique enough that I can pull this off.
24:12
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
24:13
SPEAKER_09: And I'm not advocating, I'm not advocating nobody watching this if you're a dealer.
24:17
SPEAKER_09: I'm not saying if you don't do this, you're immoral or unethical or bad leader.
24:21
SPEAKER_09: Because some people have said, I've seen the comments like every dealer should do this.
24:24
SPEAKER_09: No.
24:25
SPEAKER_07: Right.
24:25
SPEAKER_09: Every business should operate according to their model.
24:28
SPEAKER_07: And also you've got the fact that you you've got to factor in what the where the OEM is on.
24:32
SPEAKER_07: Because they play a big role, I think, with Toyota.
24:34
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
24:35
SPEAKER_07: And other uh OEMs, they would be like, eh, you gotta be open.
24:38
SPEAKER_07: You know what I mean?
24:39
SPEAKER_07: So obviously Mitsubishi's okay with that.
24:41
SPEAKER_09: My zone rep again, he he messaged us, we didn't ask.
24:45
SPEAKER_09: We didn't ask.
24:46
SPEAKER_09: We just said it, and then and then he saw the post, and he's like, hey, by the way, saw the post.
24:51
SPEAKER_09: Love what you're doing.
24:52
SPEAKER_09: Wow.
24:52
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
24:52
SPEAKER_07: So for what it's worth.
24:54
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
24:54
SPEAKER_07: Because usually OEMs are all for seven days a week.
24:57
SPEAKER_09: Oh, they would love it, right?
24:58
SPEAKER_09: They would love it.
24:58
SPEAKER_09: Right.
24:59
SPEAKER_09: But we're very market efficient.
25:00
SPEAKER_09: Our CSI is off the charts and we're growing and we're getting momentum.
25:04
SPEAKER_09: Uh again, and what the store was, the person previously owned it was turning in the keys and shutting down the location.
25:10
SPEAKER_09: Right, right, right.
25:10
SPEAKER_09: Before we bought it, so they're they're they're happy that that you're even here.
25:14
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, we're taking care of their customers, we're putting more mitribution on the street.
25:16
SPEAKER_07: Hey, in the last moments here uh together, uh share with you, you were featured in uh front page of automotive news.
25:22
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations on that.
25:23
SPEAKER_07: Very cool.
25:24
SPEAKER_07: Um and and that article, there it is there on our screen, but that article uh talked about the fraud situation.
25:30
SPEAKER_07: You know, and you're actually paying salespeople to if they identify what could be a fraudulent situation to step up, raise their hand, and say, hey, we got a problem here.
25:38
SPEAKER_07: That this doesn't look right to me.
25:40
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, so there's two things about that.
25:41
SPEAKER_09: One is I I I co-founded or co-built, I should say not founded, but co-built an AI tool.
25:46
SPEAKER_09: So this helps.
25:47
SPEAKER_09: I have an AI tool that we use at our dealership, it's called August, and it allows us to capture the entire conversation with a customer from the greeting, from the phone call to the greeting all the way through F and I.
25:57
SPEAKER_09: That's important because there's never a question of what was really said or wasn't said.
26:01
SPEAKER_09: Right.
26:02
SPEAKER_09: So that helps for validation, verification, and compliance from that perspective, but and from training and coaching.
26:06
SPEAKER_09: But here's the piece if somebody on my team notices something fishy, squ you know, something not quite right, right, they are still responsible to do the needs analysis, show the car, demo the car.
26:17
SPEAKER_09: They still have to do the steps of the sale leading to the customer's commitment.
26:20
SPEAKER_09: Okay.
26:21
SPEAKER_09: At the time they flagged the commitment, hey, boss, this person wants to buy the car, but I noticed XYZ, that's when managers then get involved.
26:28
SPEAKER_09: If we need to review the audio the AI, because we have the transcript, sure, and we go, yeah, that's a straw deal, or yeah, that's not okay.
26:35
SPEAKER_09: Uh then at that point, the manager gets involved, get does a full fuller deep dive interview.
26:40
SPEAKER_09: Yeah.
26:40
SPEAKER_09: If we discover it, the salesperson still gets paid their base mini.
26:43
SPEAKER_09: So which is higher than most minis, I still pay a base mini higher than most people's minis, and then they we we excuse the customer, the salesperson's compensated, and we're protected.
26:52
SPEAKER_09: Nice.
26:52
SPEAKER_09: I just don't want there to be a misincentive or disincentive.
26:56
SPEAKER_09: I don't want them to feel the scarcity of, oh man, you know, this guy wants to buy.
27:00
SPEAKER_09: If I just keep my mouth shut and I can move a unit, I can get paid.
27:02
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, that does happen.
27:04
SPEAKER_09: Our people are good people, and I trust them, yeah.
27:06
SPEAKER_09: But you trust but verify, and you put boundaries in place for reasons, right?
27:10
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
27:10
SPEAKER_07: Jonathan Dawson making some waves out there and being very innovative in the way uh you're thinking about uh retail automotive.
27:17
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations all on all your success.
27:19
SPEAKER_07: One year in business, that's fantastic.
27:21
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, thank you.
27:22
SPEAKER_07: And a lot of people, I think, thought, you know, well, it's a Mitsubishi store.
27:25
SPEAKER_07: What's he gonna be able to do with it?
27:26
SPEAKER_07: But man, you're knocking the cover off the ball.
27:28
SPEAKER_09: We're having a lot of fun.
27:28
SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
27:29
SPEAKER_07: Congrats, congratulations.
27:30
SPEAKER_07: Love to do a follow-up with you.
27:32
SPEAKER_07: So and by the way, thanks for all the great content here at CBT News.
27:35
SPEAKER_07: Mind your own business here.
27:38
SPEAKER_07: Thank you so much.
27:39
SPEAKER_07: So, what's next?
27:40
SPEAKER_07: What do we got next?
27:41
SPEAKER_05: So we've got a quick clip for you.
27:42
SPEAKER_05: Um, Dave Anderson, who is a great leadership coach.
27:45
SPEAKER_05: So we're going to see him and we'll be right back with Skylar Chadwick with Cox Automotive.
27:50
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: You're watching Lessons in Leadership exclusively on CBT News.
27:59
SPEAKER_03: Here now is Dave Anderson.
28:02
SPEAKER_08: Let's talk about the 15 commandments for organizational pay performance.
28:06
SPEAKER_08: We are on commandment number 12, which is don't just cooperate, collaborate.
28:12
SPEAKER_08: Personally, I don't want a culture of compliance where people are more like driven stakes than they are stakeholders.
28:20
SPEAKER_08: I want to involve them in making decisions, solving problems, creating new products, enhancing the customer experience.
28:26
SPEAKER_08: And that takes pressure off of me as a leader.
28:29
SPEAKER_08: As the leader, we don't need to have every idea, solve every problem, or do all the talking.
28:34
SPEAKER_08: We get people around us who can contribute to that.
28:37
SPEAKER_08: And this doesn't diminish our authority.
28:39
SPEAKER_08: Collaborating doesn't take your authority away.
28:42
SPEAKER_08: You still, if you're a leader, get to make the final decision.
28:45
SPEAKER_08: My contention is just that it's going to be a better decision because you've heard more points of view.
28:51
SPEAKER_08: I like a little conflict, frankly, and collaboration sessions.
28:54
SPEAKER_08: I'm not afraid of it.
28:55
SPEAKER_08: I'm likely to throw something out there and say, here's what I'm thinking of doing, shoot some holes in it.
28:59
SPEAKER_08: What would make it better?
29:01
SPEAKER_08: I believe conflict brings about clarity.
29:03
SPEAKER_08: Conflict ensures every side of an issue is being looked at and examined.
29:08
SPEAKER_08: The worst decisions I've made were made in point of collaboration.
29:12
SPEAKER_08: I just said, Here's what we're doing.
29:13
SPEAKER_08: Everybody agreed, and we skipped right down the yellow brick road, and it was all of the relevance because no one raised their hand and said, Well, what about this?
29:21
SPEAKER_08: Or how about if we did it this way?
29:23
SPEAKER_08: And so we want to create the conditions for people to lend their voices, especially to decisions, to solving problems, to creating products or services, to enhancing the customer experience or the employee experience.
29:37
SPEAKER_08: And once we do that, people start to weigh in.
29:40
SPEAKER_08: And once they weigh in, they start to buy in.
29:42
SPEAKER_08: They will support what they help create.
29:44
SPEAKER_08: Don't just cooperate, collaborate.
29:47
SPEAKER_03: You can see the entire series of Dave Anderson's lessons in leadership right here at cbtnews.com.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: And be sure to check out Dave's book, Elevate Your Excellence, available on Amazon or at learntolie.com.
30:00
SPEAKER_03: Thanks for watching.
30:02
SPEAKER_07: With more shoppers delaying the vehicle purchase, uh dealership leaders are looking for ways to keep revenue moving and customary customer uh relationships active.
30:12
SPEAKER_07: Dealers are facing a market where more consumers are delaying a vehicle purchase for short.
30:18
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
30:18
SPEAKER_05: And joining us live to talk more about this is Skylar Chadwick, Director of Product Consulting at Cox Automotive.
30:25
SPEAKER_05: He leads a team guiding dealerships on service retention, inventory strategy, and technology adoption.
30:31
SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for joining us, Skylar.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me, Bridget and Jim, to be with you.
30:36
SPEAKER_07: How's it going?
30:36
SPEAKER_07: We almost didn't recognize you with all the, you know.
30:39
SPEAKER_07: Wow.
30:39
SPEAKER_05: Looks good.
30:40
SPEAKER_07: Looks good.
30:41
SPEAKER_05: So from your perspective, why should fixed ops be viewed not just as a service department priority, but as a broader growth strategy for the dealership?
30:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna go on the limb here, Bridget, and and I'm gonna say something.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna say fix ops is the new, is the the back end is the new front end in on retail.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: And I know there are gonna be a lot of dealer principles out there, and owners are gonna be like, what are you talking about?
31:08
SPEAKER_00: But it's true.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: And what's amazing to me is that when we look at the actual data in our new Coxamo Consumer uh Insight study that we just released a couple months ago, 74% of consumers are actually delaying their purchasing.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: So those consumers, as their vehicles are continuing to age and so forth, they're taking it back to the dealership to get service to the dealership.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I'm saying that the back end is the new front end.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Um Fixops is the is the dealership's profitability right now.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And it to me, it's actually one of the biggest levers dealerships have to pull on right now to help protect their gross profitability and their dealership, and most importantly, to retain those customers in their ecosystem for sure.
31:49
SPEAKER_07: Sure.
31:49
SPEAKER_07: For many dealers, the next sale may start long before a customer is back in market, and often it starts in the service lane, as we know.
31:57
SPEAKER_07: Uh, when we talk about keeping customers engaged between vehicle purchases, what are the biggest opportunities for dealers to bring customers back into the service lane in a way that feels timely, relevant, and really easy to act on?
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the service lane is the perfect opportunity because that that shows you commitment from the consumer, right?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: They're willing to take their deal their car to your dealership that's a trusted customer, a customer that actually values as a dealership.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: But I also believe that it actually starts way before the actual service lane.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And I think it actually talks about when we talk about when we see a customer drive up into the service lane, that means they're committed to their appointment.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: And so what we've got to do as a dealership group, we've got to focus on making sure that we are actually making sure we're making it easier for our consumers to schedule appointments, right?
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't make it hard for them.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Make it easy.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Make it easy for them to be able to find the things that they're actually looking for and their actual vehicle needs.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: So start that trust and transparency right at that appointment scheduling opportunity.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: And then the service lane is the biggest opportunity.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: And I always tell dealerships all the time, the greatest auction that's happening on right now is your service lane because those service customers are two times more likely to come back and buy their next vehicle from you as it from your dealership.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: And so it's really important that we make sure we build our trust and our transparency at this time of scheduling an appointment and also in the service lane.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: It's really important that we do that for sure.
33:19
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely so important.
33:20
SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about seasonal moments for a second.
33:23
SPEAKER_05: They can create natural reasons for customers to reconnect with the dealership, and back to school is really a timely example right now.
33:30
SPEAKER_05: So, how can dealers um use those moments like that to create more effective service outreach without adding friction for the customer?
33:40
SPEAKER_00: I actually think this is the prime time of the year, right?
33:43
SPEAKER_00: This is back to school, right?
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Our kids are back to school.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're getting back into life of things, right?
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Summer trips are done.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I think this is the prime opportunity for dealerships to really connect back with our customers.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And I one of the things I would say is that um I'm not saying we need to pull back on sales and marketing, but we probably need to balance that sheet just a little bit and the investment uh on how we market to our customers.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: But I think the biggest thing too is we gotta make it, again, we gotta make it easier in our consumers.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: And I think about like, for example, I know that if I take my YSV to go to the dealership, in a week and a half, I'm gonna have a mailer in my in my mailbox, right?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: To get me back to the dealership for something I may have declined or for some other type of service.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that if we can remove all those barriers, make it easier for consumers, right?
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if they open up an email or a text message that directly links them to the schedule, your scheduling tool, I think that is where we start to break down those barriers for our consumers and we start to build trust and value that we actually know who they are, right?
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And so we got to make sure that our marketing tools and our service platforms are connected to each other to make sure that we we bring those customers back because this is the seasonal time to make sure that we get that customer all the way through the end of the year.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And guess what, right?
34:58
SPEAKER_00: These are when the new models are starting to come in, customers are starting to think about maybe do I upgrade my vehicle, do I do those types of things right when they bring their vehicle for dealership and I get a big service bill.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: Those are the types of questions we get to start looking at and saying, how do we get this customer, how do we retain that customer?
35:12
SPEAKER_00: But the biggest outreach, in my opinion, is we've got to make sure that we remove all those barriers and make it easier for consumers to come back to the dealership.
35:20
SPEAKER_07: For sure.
35:20
SPEAKER_07: Trust continues to be one of the biggest factors in service approvals, and dealers are leaning more heavily on visual tools to help customers understand what is being recommended.
35:31
SPEAKER_07: How do tools like multimedia inspections help build trust with customers and improve service approvals?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love media.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: It is one of the biggest talking points, and it has been for the last five years, and a lot of dealerships have really gravitated towards it.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, here at Cox Sound Motive on some of our video tools solutions are helping dealerships approve those approval times by five minutes, actually.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: We're getting responses back from customers.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: When you send that approval to the customer, we're getting that response back in five minutes.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's actually, if you have to think about that, that's helping you as dealerships create more white space, right?
36:06
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by white space is more opportunity to take more customers in.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Bring in more work in for your technicians, right?
36:12
SPEAKER_00: We want to send our technicians home happy, hell uh tired, right?
36:16
SPEAKER_00: We want them, we want them to be able to work for those hours.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: And so video is actually bridging that gap.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: And I really what I mean by bridging that gap is it's also creating opportunity, white space, but it's also bridging that gap of trust and transparency with the customer that we've never seen before.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know that some of the things that we're working on right now is about how do we take AI and combine those videos together to bring even more trust and transparency to the customer and also coach it back to our technicians and make sure that we're doing a better job, right?
36:47
SPEAKER_00: Customers want to see the things, it's like going to the doctor, right?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear from the technician.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: That's who I want to hear from, right?
36:54
SPEAKER_00: He's the doctor on my on my vehicle, working on my vehicle, tell me what's going on.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Let that video translate that back to the customer.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: And trust me, we're seeing an$85 increase on RO per RO that dealerships are actually using video and multimedia to translate that story back to the consumer.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: It's a really powerful story there.
37:15
SPEAKER_07: Even with stronger tools and better communication, billions of dollars in recommended uh service work still go unsold.
37:23
SPEAKER_07: Um, creating a major opportunity for dealerships.
37:26
SPEAKER_07: Uh it I mean, let's talk to us about that.
37:28
SPEAKER_07: What should dealers be doing differently to turn that missed opportunity into stronger retention, higher RO value, and and future sales?
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it goes back to having the right tools, the right processes in the dealership to make sure, right?
37:44
SPEAKER_00: That's a five, that's a billion dollar word there, right?
37:47
SPEAKER_00: That's a dollar bound, right?
37:48
SPEAKER_00: Five billion dollars went unsold in in Q2 of 2026 and unsold opportunities.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that say?
37:55
SPEAKER_00: I think we have a little bit of communication work to work on with our consumers.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: And I think in how we convey that over, one of the things I love about AI that we've done, and we've we parted with some with some partners in the industry, is that what we're starting to see is that technicians that thought they did a really good job on video and explaining those things to them.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, now we're actually breaking that down and we're actually helping them, right?
38:18
SPEAKER_00: I used to see technicians in scores in the 40s now that used to be really good.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: They thought they did an amazing job.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Now we're starting to see them up in the 80%.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: What we're actually seeing is that actual dollars have sold and hours go up.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: And so technology is gonna really help this area where we see declined services, but we also need to have make sure that, hey, are we marketing to that customer?
38:40
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing two days, a day after uh that customer goes uh back home and actually is making that decision with their family members and things like that, what should they do?
38:49
SPEAKER_00: And they look at costs, we've got to do a better job of making sure that we connect with that customer immediately and get them back into the dealership, right?
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Offering them things, you know, maybe I've seen some dealerships offer loaners, uh, believe it or not, to get customers that come back to dealership to have that work done.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's the dealerships are really starting to pivot and they're trying to be innovative in the ways that they do and bringing those customers back for that decline service because they know that that retention is a huge factor.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
39:16
SPEAKER_00: We all know that car sales are down.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: We need our service customers, and that's our next sales opportunity for sure.
39:22
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
39:22
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
39:22
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
39:23
SPEAKER_05: Skylar Chadwick, thank you so much for joining us today.
39:26
SPEAKER_05: We really appreciate it.
39:27
SPEAKER_05: We look forward to having you again on soon to talk more about this.
39:30
SPEAKER_05: Um we have questions?
39:33
SPEAKER_07: Do we have questions?
39:33
SPEAKER_07: Are there any questions?
39:35
SPEAKER_07: We do.
39:35
SPEAKER_05: Look at that.
39:36
SPEAKER_05: We have a one of our viewers has a question for you.
39:38
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
39:38
SPEAKER_07: All right.
39:38
SPEAKER_07: If you walked into an average dealership today, what would you look at first to figure out where they're losing customers?
39:45
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
39:46
SPEAKER_00: That is a very good question.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And I always put when I talk to dealer principals and GMs and so forth, put yourself in your customers' experience.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: Have you gone through and actually scheduled a service appointment for your vehicle?
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And and I think it's very interesting.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: We see a lot of our customers drop off immediately, uh, within the first couple seconds, because they don't find what they're looking for.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: And so I see too many dealerships not putting pricing out on their websites, uh having too many options for a consumer, right?
40:15
SPEAKER_00: The consumer may not understand exactly what they need or what they're looking for.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: So simplifying that process, I really truly believe it starts at the actual schedule, uh, is where consumers really could actually benefit from that, and dealerships on the back end side of that too, as well, of gaining new customers and also retaining customers into the dealership and getting them to show up in the actual service land for sure.
40:37
SPEAKER_07: Fantastic.
40:37
SPEAKER_07: Great question.
40:38
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
40:38
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_07: Oh, we got one more.
40:40
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
40:40
SPEAKER_07: For service members following up, what is Cox doing or what tools are they offering to help reach the customer with accurate information?
40:50
SPEAKER_00: Accurate information is a huge thing, and I think that's the biggest thing is we don't want to misguide your consumers.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I say this all the time.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: I have a buddy that took his car, wife's car for a vehicle, and they said they needed he wanted to buy it from him.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, he did fill out all the all the information and so forth that didn't be like, we don't want your car.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh we got to make sure that we're sending the right messages to our customers.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think the biggest thing we do is we have some, we have service marketing actually here at Cox Automotive that is connected to the customer.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: We know who your customer is.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: We know when they last time they came into the dealership.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: Are they got buying signals?
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh have they been looking on on Auto Trader and some of these other uh vehicle sourcing websites, right?
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Those types of things.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one of the things that we're looking at is how do we better that for the dealership to help make better decisions and send the right message to the customer.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: I I can't tell you my firm is so like he was like, Oh yeah, I'm actually probably considering selling that vehicle, and then like they want my vehicle.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: So I it's mixed communication.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: So the messaging is everything we say about the customer.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure, also, too, you gotta make sure the tools that you're integrating into your systems too as well, right?
41:59
SPEAKER_00: They gotta make sure that we're talking the same thing to as well.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I say go back, is that you gotta really have one source of marketing tool for your service department, making sure that that messaging is going out from the same system too as well.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: Right?
42:12
SPEAKER_00: We can have multiple systems where the message has got to be consistent.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to misguide our customers, but guess what?
42:17
SPEAKER_00: We could lose that customer to independent shops all over the country, which is the most gravitating thing right now for dealerships, is they're fighting for business between those uh.
42:27
SPEAKER_07: No question, no question about it.
42:28
SPEAKER_07: It's been that way for quite some time now, where you lose so many uh service customers to independence.
42:33
SPEAKER_07: And meanwhile, you they don't have factory train technicians in there, they don't have the professionalism.
42:38
SPEAKER_07: They usually lose it over the perception of price and speed, and yet those two things are not usually the case, right?
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're not the case.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: That actually we are if you go back and look at our recent uh consumer insights study, we show that dealerships are actually cheaper from the from the maintenance standpoint, right?
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Oil change it quickly and services type things.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: And and it's believe it or not, it's just that a lot of times consumers think that the dealership just want to buy their car from you.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's a top, it's a thing that it's a important thing to the consumer.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: We have to have those things, and that's what I think is awesome about Cox Automotive.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: We have the data insights on your customers, we know who they are, right?
43:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, and that's where everybody, you know, everybody's talking about these things, and I'm really excited about our new opportunity here with Full Path uh and what that's gonna do for a lot of our Cox Automotive uh businesses and our CRMs and our service CRMs, and and looking forward to the future, what happens there is we're really gonna help dealerships really define not just their processes, but the way that we communicate to our customers because the independents are strong.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: But the last time I checked, independents don't sell vehicles.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: So that's right.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: That's that's one of the things that consumers need to look at, right?
43:48
SPEAKER_00: What's the benefit, right?
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Receiving a video from a technician is just part of that, is that process and and so forth.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: And we really just got to communicate better with our customers for sure.
43:59
SPEAKER_07: Couldn't agree more.
44:00
SPEAKER_07: Absolutely more.
44:01
SPEAKER_05: Well said.
44:02
SPEAKER_05: Skyler Chadwick, thank you so much for joining us.
44:04
SPEAKER_05: Thanks, man.
44:05
SPEAKER_05: Great catching up with you.
44:07
SPEAKER_07: All right, take care.
44:09
SPEAKER_07: Great guy.
44:10
SPEAKER_05: The back office is now the front office.
44:13
SPEAKER_05: I like how I said that.
44:14
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, exactly.
44:15
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
44:16
SPEAKER_07: Back of the house, now front of the house.
44:17
SPEAKER_07: Back of the house, yeah.
44:18
SPEAKER_07: And um, yeah, so variable ops is now taking a back seat to fix the ops, but uh it's a unique way of looking, isn't it?
44:25
SPEAKER_07: Of course, the variable, the guys in the variable department will tell you there is no service department without variable.
44:30
SPEAKER_07: Right.
44:31
SPEAKER_07: We sell the car, they don't have a car to service.
44:34
SPEAKER_07: This is this is a former sales manager talking.
44:37
SPEAKER_07: They don't have a car to service unless we sell it.
44:40
SPEAKER_07: So uh so that that you know, but yeah, like the the old adage is the dealership, I mean the the uh showroom sells the first car and the service department sells every car thereafter because if the customer is not getting good service back there, they're not buying another car from you.
44:54
SPEAKER_07: I mean we all know that's been around for forever.
44:56
SPEAKER_07: Forever.
44:56
SPEAKER_07: But um so by the way, one one more thing before we close out today.
45:00
SPEAKER_07: Um, you all know that I'm into these all these social clips, right?
45:04
SPEAKER_07: Bridget will tell you that I'm constantly scrolling.
45:06
SPEAKER_07: And um, this this young man at this dealership, which is a good, I think it's Van Horn Auto Group, and this guy does a good job on his on his videos.
45:16
SPEAKER_07: I mean he's he's he's got kind of a broadcast quality about him.
45:20
SPEAKER_07: However, however, I would caution him and caution all of you that if you in your video talk negatively about your competition and what they're not gonna do, and about what you gotta look for at these other stores because they're gonna cheat you, they're gonna take away this, they're gonna hide that, they're gonna never they're not gonna do this.
45:42
SPEAKER_07: You're only beating up the entire industry that you derive your income from, right?
45:46
SPEAKER_07: It makes us all look bad.
45:48
SPEAKER_07: You know, no, no consumer thinks, oh, but you don't do that at your dealer group.
45:54
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
45:55
SPEAKER_07: Even though you say it 400 times, you're almost cementing the fact that you actually do.
46:00
SPEAKER_07: So I just want to show you this clip because I think it it starts out good, but then it goes into okay, this is what other dealerships are going to do or not do.
46:08
SPEAKER_07: And but we don't do that here.
46:10
SPEAKER_07: So roll that clip for me if you would.
46:12
SPEAKER_02: You've probably seen the headlines tariffs, supply shortages, raising costs.
46:16
SPEAKER_02: Here's the truth Van Horn is not raising any new vehicle prices in the month of April.
46:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, others use uncertainty to raise prices.
46:22
SPEAKER_02: That's not how we do business.
46:23
SPEAKER_02: We're here to help you, not take advantage of you.
46:25
SPEAKER_02: Got a trade?
46:26
SPEAKER_02: Great.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: Your vehicle's worth more now than it ever has been, and we're gonna give you top dollar to help you upgrade.
46:31
SPEAKER_02: Plus, almost every car we sell comes with oil for life, which means no cost oil changes to you for as long as you own it.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: So shop over 3,000 vehicles at banhornauto.com and follow us on our social media.
46:41
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
46:42
SPEAKER_07: It's not terrible.
46:43
SPEAKER_07: It's not terrible.
46:45
SPEAKER_07: You follow him.
46:45
SPEAKER_07: He's got some ones out there though that he really goes in on other dealers.
46:49
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
46:49
SPEAKER_07: But uh but you don't have to mention the fact that other dealers are gonna sell you on the uncertainty and they're gonna sell you on the threat, and they're gonna just just leave that alone.
46:58
SPEAKER_07: Just tell the group, just tell the audience and your market what you do best.
47:02
SPEAKER_07: You know, just take the high road.
47:04
SPEAKER_07: Right.
47:04
SPEAKER_07: Let them figure out what's gonna happen in other dealerships.
47:07
SPEAKER_07: Just because you say it in your in your social media doesn't prevent them from going to the other stores.
47:12
SPEAKER_07: Right.
47:13
SPEAKER_07: In fact, I think the first question comes up and goes, Well, thank you, Mr.
47:15
SPEAKER_07: Car Salesman, but let me find out for myself, you know.
47:18
SPEAKER_07: And I just think that when when I see this and I've seen it a number of times from uh salespeople that beat up on the industry and say, but we don't do that here at XYZ Motors.
47:28
SPEAKER_07: I think we all take a hit on that.
47:30
SPEAKER_07: You know, and then you you we've got this infighting going on, and the consumers sit back and go, see, we're right.
47:36
SPEAKER_07: That's what's gonna happen when you go into a car dealership.
47:38
SPEAKER_07: Right, you know?
47:39
unknown: Yeah.
47:40
SPEAKER_07: Do you agree?
47:40
SPEAKER_05: I agree.
47:41
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
47:41
SPEAKER_05: I do agree.
47:42
SPEAKER_05: I think that um, yeah, we are all trying to make the industry better.
47:46
SPEAKER_07: Right, bring it up and tell everybody.
47:48
SPEAKER_07: It's a great industry, so what you're gonna do right, not what the other guy's gonna do wrong.
47:51
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
47:52
SPEAKER_07: Right?
47:52
SPEAKER_07: Anyway, that's that's my I got it off my chest.
47:55
SPEAKER_07: That's my radical thing.
47:57
SPEAKER_07: So that's right.
47:58
SPEAKER_05: Well, um, I do want to mention before we go, the 40 under 40 nominations are still open until the 18th.
48:05
SPEAKER_05: So we only have a few days left.
48:06
SPEAKER_05: Um, but just a reminder that if you are a rising star in the industry or if you know someone, we have gotten so many in so many nominations, but um we there's just so many to choose from, and I'm really excited about this.
48:18
SPEAKER_05: There are um, but yeah, so nominations close September 18th, so be sure to nominate yourself or someone that you know that's a rising star in our industry.
48:26
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
48:27
SPEAKER_07: That's presented by Force Marketing.
48:29
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, the world leader in automotive marketing.
48:31
unknown: Yes.
48:33
SPEAKER_05: They are.
48:33
SPEAKER_07: And run by a phenomenal guy.
48:35
SPEAKER_07: Very great guy.
48:36
SPEAKER_07: Unbelievable.
48:37
SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for joining us, everyone.
48:39
SPEAKER_05: Be sure to stay up to date on everything that you see here at CBT by signing up for our newsletter so that you will not miss any of the great content that we are producing for you.
48:48
SPEAKER_05: It is free, so um, no cost to you.
48:51
SPEAKER_05: All of the great content here is sponsored by our great sponsors, and today's is Reynolds and Reynolds.
48:56
SPEAKER_05: So thank you for that.
48:57
SPEAKER_07: That's right.
48:58
SPEAKER_07: Thanks so much, everybody.
48:58
SPEAKER_07: Peace, guys.
48:59
SPEAKER_07: Go out and make it a great day.
49:00
SPEAKER_07: See you here right back here tomorrow at 12 o'clock.