Latest / Auto Collabs / Give the Customer All the Pieces to the Puzzle with Andrew Breedlove

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Give the Customer All the Pieces to the Puzzle with Andrew Breedlove · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Guys- Mm-hmm... we're all on a podcast again together. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. Aw. It's been so long. I thought we'd lost Andrew Breedlove. I feel so loved. We lost him. He was gone.
• 0:17
  [sighs] I've never felt so loved in a social post before. [laughs] I saw the two of you- Missing you... wondering... Yeah, missing me, wondering where I was. We knew where you were. That was the nice one. Oh, oh, oh.
• 0:30
  Yeah. You should've seen the private Slack thread. Whoa. [laughs] You dirty Canadian. It got weird about your bald head- [laughs]... and your shortness and all that type of stuff. Oh, my goodness gracious.
• 0:41
  [laughs] Oh, my goodness gracious. Andrew Breedlove with iPacket is a fun guy overall. He always shows up ready to go, whether we see him at NADA or in a SoDoCon or something.
• 0:52
  He just, just kinda reminds me of, of the guy who's always ready to play, right? Like, "Put me in," like, "I'll be your fifth man on the pickup team. Like, let's go." So we hope you enjoy this conversation.
• 1:02
  [upbeat music] All right, we are hanging out with Andrew Breedlove, uh, of iPacket. And it... Look, if you don't know the iPacket mob of green- [laughs]... then you just haven't been to an event in Auto.
• 1:18
  Andrew, thanks for joining us today on the show. Hey. Pleasure, guys. Thanks for having me. Awesome. All right.
• 1:24
  Real quick, before we get into your backstory, when did it become apparent that you needed to show up to shows in a mob of green with everybody wearing the same thing, green everywhere?
• 1:37
  Was that like, was that like a marketing boardroom, or was it an accident? What happened? Uh, pretty much honestly, our marketing team.
• 1:44
  I mean, they're, they're, like, killers when it comes to, like, coming up with great ideas, and one of the things was, if we're gonna show up at shows, we're gonna show up at shows. Yes. So, the- Love that...
• 1:53
  the sea of green. You'll... In any show that you go to, you'll typically see that. There you go. I've, I've noticed it. They're smart.
• 1:59
  I feel like there's, like, some seafoam green joke here somewhere, but I don't know how to really land it. It's not seafoam green, though. [laughs] It's not seafoam green. It's not. It's not.
• 2:07
  It's a nice little hunter, you know what I mean?
• 2:09
  Uh, Andrew, I always get excited when there's somebody on the vendor side who has actually spent time in a dealership and is, you know, is very well connected with the front lines.
• 2:19
  We, we try to pull up a lot of the frontline mentality as much as we can throughout our content, throughout the people we speak with, feature, et cetera.
• 2:27
  Um, why don't you give us a little background on, like, when you first stepped into a dealership and kind of how you fell in love with the industry and what, what- Yeah... what got you here? Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
• 2:37
  So, um, what I'll tell you was, it, it's kinda like the, the cycle that everybody talks about. Once you're in the business, you can't get out of it type thing. So [clears throat] I was actually moving back from, um...
• 2:48
  I used to work for Foot Locker, um, so, you know, big sneakerhead guy and whatnot. And- That's another reason I like you. [laughs] Yeah. Right? [laughs] Right.
• 2:56
  And then when I moved back to the area, back to my hometown, I was like, "Oh, there's no Foot Locker here anymore, and I gotta find a new industry." So I tried my hand in car sales at first.
• 3:06
  Landed at the wrong dealership. Um, said I would never go back in the car industry again. Mm. Um, and, you know- [laughs]... here we are right now. A couple- The wrong dealership will do that... few years later. Yeah.
• 3:16
  [laughs] The wrong dealership will do that to you initially. A few years later, I got sucked back into it. Um, my aunt and uncle actually had a dealership.
• 3:23
  Um, long story short, my mom found out she had a long-lost sister, uh, that owned a dealership, and I was getting ready to have another kid, and she said I can make some good money. So I was like, "All right.
• 3:32
  Let's try it." So I landed in the dealership there. I was in there for almost three years, um, before I got the opportunity to jump on here with iPacket with, uh, one of my good friends that invented it from high school.
• 3:43
  So, uh- What did you do at that dealership? That's kind of where we're at. Like, the good one. Yeah. I was, uh, sales and marketing.
• 3:48
  So I did, uh, sales, but I also dealt with all the, uh, marketing, all the vendor relationships, um, all the different, uh, uh, setups with, with all the different marketing campaigns and coming up with great ideas.
• 3:59
  Got it. That's awesome. A little bit of both, both sides you were playing. I was on both sides of the fence. This is what it takes to sell a car, and this is how we get people to wanna buy a car, right? Correct.
• 4:06
  That's a key. Like, I'm telling you, having both of those in your pocket, I've experienced that. I started in sales- Big... and then moved to the marketing and ops. Like,
• 4:16
  there's, there's very few people that actually have that kind of tie, and it is an interesting relationship between those two that, until you really know the dynamics- [laughs]... it is very hard to- You won't know...
• 4:27
  think one about the other, right? Well, but because every- Yeah... that, that is, like, the typical finger-pointing game, right? Like, the sales side saying the leads aren't coming in or they're bad leads.
• 4:36
  The marketing side, you're not working them properly, right? Like, I hear a lot of that going back and forth, and until you kind of...
• 4:42
  And both typically have, like, a reasonable position to say, like, "This is how it could be better. This is how you could be better. This is how you could be better." Sure.
• 4:50
  And so, like, understanding both sides of that puts you in a really unique position to kind of make peace there, number one, but also to get the best efficiency out of everybody's effort.
• 4:59
  And to argue with myself in the mirror when one side wasn't working right. Like- [laughs] Oh, we could make great content. The little, the little two sides of the argument. [laughs] Oh, that's perfect.
• 5:06
  I think, I feel like TikTok is made for that kind of video. Right? Right? Just skit, skit playing video or, like, the sales guy- I feel like your marketing team-... versus the marketer...
• 5:14
  just got, like, the next quarter of content locked down. Absolutely. Right? Please let us help you script those. [laughs] It'll be so much fun. [laughs] That's great. Yeah, it's really- That's amazing.
• 5:22
  So okay, this is cool. I didn't, I didn't realize this. So, like, a high school buddy created iPack ba- Yeah... iPacket, basically. Yeah. Is that right? That's correct.
• 5:30
  So was he in the industry already, or was it like, "Ah, try the auto tech thing"? Yeah, no. That's what's unique about us, too, and we, we actually brag about that a lot is we actually came out of a dealership, guys.
• 5:40
  So, um, we were invented in a dealership as a process that they used in paper format, and a lot of dealerships do.
• 5:46
  Um, but his dad's dealership group that he, you know, grew up in, basically, you know, from lot porter all the way up to where he was in management and whatnot, and they had that paper process for years.
• 5:55
  So, um- Evidence manual, right? Yeah. And, and, and it came...
• 5:58
  You know, they, they kinda took it out to a 20 group and kinda pitched it as an idea that they were kinda toying around with, and everyone was like, "Yeah, we'd love a product like that," and that's how we became a product.I mean, what's so interesting about it- Does it get more homegrown than that?
• 6:12
  Now that I'm like- By chance, my voice... now that I'm really thinking about it, it, it- Necessity...
• 6:17
  you know, and, and maybe we can get to the iPacket thing in a second, but there's really a solve that it's looking for in between marketing and sales, like where you were actually at- Correct... is the pain point, right?
• 6:32
  Yep. The gap between what's being communicated before someone comes in and what they are actually getting to purchase. Right. Right? Right. Now I'm like, now my mind is blown up. I'm like- Yeah... you literally put...
• 6:49
  Now you are selling and engaging with the product that actually solves the pro- problem of you yelling in the mirror at yourself. Right. That's why I said- I'm telling you. I... Like-...
• 6:58
  it worked so well for me- Most of the people actually don't know this. There are, there are four marketing people backstage of this room right now, and I'm talking to them.
• 7:06
  [laughs] This is a marketing campaign, I'm telling you. Breaking the fourth wall. Kyle, there's no one, there is no stage. We're just hanging out here. [laughs] We're just hanging out- It's so weird... like we always do.
• 7:17
  Oh, that's great.
• 7:18
  So tell, tell us a little bit about, like maybe define for people who don't know what iPacket does, tell us a little bit about the problem you needed to solve and how you specifically are solving it right now.
• 7:28
  I mean, Kyle hit on it. You know, you've got so much stuff that a dealership's trying to tell the consumer, right? But they're not telling it in a great way. You're getting bits and pieces of it here and there.
• 7:38
  There's a lot of back and forth, [clears throat] especially when the consumer's on the website. You're putting together a puzzle as a consumer.
• 7:46
  What if the dealership put together that puzzle for you, but, you know, to its rawest roots and form, that old school evidence manual that's worked so well inside of the store for that consumer that actually walks physically in the doors, has worked for years and years as a way to build that inherent value, to show them something outside of the price, to get their mind on something that means more than a price, right?
• 8:06
  But the digital realm was coming. This was back in 2012 when this happened, guys. So we're 12 years in. I mean, we're not an overnight company here, right?
• 8:13
  Um, and, and, and when, when you think about that in its rawest format, that process has worked for years and years. When you bring it into the digital realm, there's so many more doors that you can open with it, right?
• 8:25
  Now you can answer leads with that same information. So as a dealership owner or a GM or principal or whatever you wanna call them, right? What- whatever they like to, uh, title to be that day, um,
• 8:37
  that resonates really big to them because they can't sit around and hear everything that comes out of every salesperson's mouth every second of the day. Right.
• 8:44
  They can't be on the website and control what the customer is doing on their different subcategories on their website.
• 8:51
  So it's just an easy way to get all that information out and then track what the customer's doing with, and that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother conversation that we could jam on for hours and hours.
• 9:01
  Well, I mean, for years and years and years, just as an industry, it's like the walk around is extremely important because it meets the customer where they are, it tells them how they're, how the, how the car meets their needs, you know- Right...
• 9:11
  specific, uh, you know, details about that car. And then like you said, the old school evidence manual.
• 9:16
  I mean, I remember back when I started in 2008, 2009, it was like we, we were responsible for printing one portion of that evidence manual. Service was doing their part. You know, like the Carfax got printed.
• 9:27
  It was in a little binder back in the office, right? You draw, you brought that up because it built a little bit more value in the actual vehicle, how you recon the car, all that type of stuff.
• 9:36
  And so when you think about, like, especially now as we're seeing prices start to move back into an aggressive standpoint- Yeah... and you're selling on more than just availability, right?
• 9:51
  Which has been the last four years. Yeah. The necessity of kind of providing evidence to the value that you present as both a dealership and the vehicle that's sitting in front of them is gaining necessity. 100%. 100%.
• 10:05
  It's worked in both markets. I mean, it worked during COVID too, because people were trying to get information out as quick as possible to capture that customer quickly. Yeah. No, without a doubt.
• 10:14
  And you know, and Kyle, you, you just painted a mental picture of like what people, I think, stigmatize the car business as, and that is, hold on, let me go back behind a magic office and pull, pull out this- I got it...
• 10:29
  did it without meaning to. I got it right here. With the ball. It's all the evidence, all the reasoning you should buy this car, right? Which I think
• 10:37
  that was the way we did it, and now we're in a day and age when people expect and crave, and I think we as the auto industry need to provide a high level of transparency, right?
• 10:47
  And, and like, how would you, how would you address that, Andrew? 'Cause obviously this product brings a lot of that to the situation. But Kyle, your picture was vivid in my mind.
• 10:56
  I just, I actually imagined like 20-some-year-old Kyle, like tucked in, buttoned up shirt, walking back out. "I got it right here," right? With the folder. This is everything you need right here. This is, yeah.
• 11:08
  But the problem is, and Kyle can probably, you know, speak to this, when you would go back to get that folder, a lot of the times the information's missing.
• 11:15
  So now you look like an idiot coming out and saying, "Oh, I was gonna get this for you, but I can't find it." Right? Yeah.
• 11:20
  So having that information at your fingertips, no matter where that customer starts their journey, whether that's online, in person, over the phone, whatever it is, they're leaving the dealership without a car.
• 11:30
  Now they're not leaving with a forgotten story. They remember everything about you, and they use it for you instead of against you like they do a number, right? 'Cause you're showing them, "Hey, this is what's important.
• 11:40
  If you go to the next dealership, you go shop, that's fine. Paul, I want you to go shop. I want you to make the right decision for you and your family.
• 11:46
  I know it's gonna be me 'cause I'm being upfront and honest and I'm showing you everything that you need to know here.
• 11:51
  Matter of fact, if you go to the next dealership, make sure you ask them these hard questions," because if they start sidestepping you on this, what else might they be lying to you about, Paul?
• 12:00
  Is, is that, where do you see the highest level of adoption? Is it in the BDC? Is it post, you know, post-visit? Is it online? Where, where is the highest level of adoption right now?
• 12:09
  I know this sounds so cliche for me to say, Kyle, but it's everywhere. [laughs] Yeah.
• 12:16
  I mean, we work with about 2,700 partners across the country, and we see it from all different avenues: salespeople, BDC, on the website, the engagement that it gets out of there, phone ups.
• 12:26
  Phone ups is a whole 'nother story. I mean, think about it. As a- Right...
• 12:29
  as a, as a BDC person answering the phone, sometimes a lot of those people don't have experience in the business, so they're trying to answer as quickly and accurately as possible.
• 12:38
  But if they can't get the answer for you, the go-to line is, "Hey, Paul, I know that's important to you. Let me call you back." Right? Mm. They go to call back, what happens? Endless phone chasing, right?
• 12:48
  What, what's some examples of, like, the details that's provided in this level, this digital evidence manual, what you, what you call it?
• 12:56
  Yeah, I mean, the, uh, MSRP information, the original MSRP or window sticker for that car. We have it on ab- about 30 different OEMs direct from manufacturer. Um, the CPO information, if it's a certified car.
• 13:07
  The CARFAX or AutoCheck will be in there. The brochure for the car. One of the biggest ones, the service receipt.
• 13:12
  That's probably, like, the hidden investment the dealership has they don't realize they can make money off of. They disclose why they did the work, and that the other dealerships aren't doing that type of work.
• 13:22
  Um, and then just really anything that they wanna put in those packets, guys, to enhance the storytelling. Mm.
• 13:27
  I like to tell people we're the vessel of information to provide as much as we can from our side, but it's your story. You have something unique to you, and it's not the cookies. It's not the coffee, right?
• 13:37
  [laughs] You guys have joked about that before, but it's true. It's never the coffee. The coffee doesn't- It's definitely not the coffee-... it's not the coffee... except for at Champ Honda- But it's something bigger...
• 13:44
  in Ca- in Colorado. That's the only place where the coffee- It's the coffee?... actually makes it. Yes, absolutely. I've been there. But everywhere else, it's not the coffee. But everyone has a story.
• 13:51
  I mean, you think back to the marketing days, Kyle.
• 13:54
  Everyone has a story that they wanna get out to the customer, but it gets broken down so much between what the customer understands, what the salespeople say, what the BDC relays, and what actually happens.
• 14:04
  So getting all that information- You just brought up a, a big, a big point is, like, and, and Paul, you were saying this earlier, is the, the chasm between personnel and the stories that they're telling, right?
• 14:19
  Is most of the time not intentional, right? It's not like- Right... one person's trying to tell the wrong story, the other person is telling a different story, right? It's just the gap of information creates- Correct...
• 14:29
  this, like- Yeah... almost perception of deceit- Or trying to hide... even though it's not the case. Right. Right? This, this aligns everybody with a single story though.
• 14:40
  And you, you- All your information at your fingertips. You, you put, put it, uh, a way I've never heard it before, in saying every...
• 14:47
  Early in, in this conversation, where you said every customer's putting together a puzzle, right? And we're trying to give them the next piece. I think
• 14:56
  that's a very helpful visual for anyone who's in sales or marketing to think of it that way, because every customer's looking for a different piece of the puzzle at a different time. Correct.
• 15:07
  And, and you even said toward the end, like, this is an opportunity to tell customers what puzzle pieces they actually should be looking for. Right. And a lot of w- like, you know what I mean?
• 15:16
  Like, "Hey, when you go here, there, there, you might have not known there was, like, this dark spot on your puzzle. You couldn't see the pieces, and we've just said, 'You need this piece- Bingo...
• 15:25
  you need this piece, and you need this piece.'" And when you, the moment you do that, I think you build intense trust with a customer, where they're like, "Oh, thank you for giving me that information, and now I know.
• 15:36
  Now I feel smarter." That helps bring the temperature down of the whole conversation and the whole process. Yeah. I just love that visual.
• 15:42
  I think that's so h- I love visuals that are helpful, and I think anyone in sales, when you're looking at the customer and you can see it in their eyes, you know they're looking for something.
• 15:51
  To be like, "What puzzle piece are they looking for right now?" Right. Right. "And how can I have it right here for them?" Yeah.
• 15:56
  And, and not only that, and we'll, we'll move on from this conversation onto more fun things here, right?
• 16:00
  But when you think about that puzzle on the website, there's a lot of it that's already there for the customer, but you're expecting them to put it together the way you want them to see it, right? Right.
• 16:11
  What if you already had that puzzle put together for them? They see the picture of what the box should be, and now they go after the puzzle pieces that make most sense to them.
• 16:19
  Well, isn't that what separates the great websites, right? It is. 'Cause every, most people- It is... can say, "All the information is on our website," right? But it's everywhere.
• 16:28
  But it's in, and usually in places that you've intentionally blocked them from getting it, right? [laughs] Right. Exactly. Right? Right.
• 16:34
  And so, and so, like, intentionally, and then there's a lot that's unintentional, right? It's buried by six pop-ups, some sliders. It's on a page, right? It's, like, behind the thing.
• 16:44
  And so, like, I think that what you're, what you're talking about is, like, great website design and great, you know, customer experience design gives people what they need exactly when they need it. Of course.
• 16:56
  Of course. How do you, how else can you build trust and value with somebody you've never met before?
• 16:59
  'Cause that's what that customer is on your website, somebody you've never met before, somebody you never get a chance to speak to, unless they actually inquire, right? So how do you do that?
• 17:07
  You give them more and more information to help them build that trust.
• 17:11
  You know, there's a conversation going about how this type of technology is now bleeding into the back of the house, and now they're having more advanced technology as well as being, like, from the recon side, being, you know, a very important part of customer retention and then, you know, bringing people back into the sales process or just having a great service experience and saying yes, uh, to repairs and things of that nature.
• 17:32
  Uh, what you, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I, I think you're 100% right on that. I mean, you have to bring it from both sides of the house, right? Sales is one aspect. Marketing's one aspect.
• 17:43
  But, but your, your bigger, you know, uh, picture that you're gonna deal with daily is your fixed ops.
• 17:49
  So, you know, having that visual on kind of the, the same scope of what we do here on the sales side, also bringing it over to the, the fixed op side is tremendous. Well, Andrew- And what do you- Go ahead. Sorry.
• 18:03
  Go ahead. Well, I was gonna say, like, what are you, what are you excited about? Uh, what's, uh, what's the next path? Because you're a 12-year-old company now at this point, right?
• 18:10
  Um, you're, you're y- you're not the, the new baby company anymore. No. No.
• 18:14
  Uh, but you're still, you know, you still got some of those startup vibes hanging out, and so what's, what's next on the path for you all in enabling, uh, in, in enabling dealerships?
• 18:25
  Like, what should people be coming to a SoDoCon asking you about?Yeah, I mean, just continuing the evolution and, and the product. I mean, we, we never stand still.
• 18:33
  I mean, that's one thing is o- over the past 12 years, we've never been that company that's been content with what we have.
• 18:39
  We wanna keep pushing the envelope and making things easier from all sides, customer experience, as well as the people who are actually using the product.
• 18:46
  Um, but just what we talked about there a second with Paul, uh, we're also, you know, we just launched at NADA, iPacket Recon. So we did jump into the fixed op side.
• 18:55
  Um, so everything that you love about iPacket as far as the automations, the ease, the efficiency, and everything like that, we're now bringing it to a side that...
• 19:03
  I mean, I'm, I'm not super confident with speaking to the recon side, 'cause I was never in that. [laughs] Um, but bringing those efficiencies and the ease.
• 19:12
  Um, a lot of the products that I looked at, even when I was in the dealership dealing with those vendors, a lot of the fixed op products are just so difficult for somebody to use.
• 19:22
  So it's hard to get that adoption and that usage out of the back end of the house, 'cause a lot of those people aren't savvy with technology, unfortunately, like salespeople, like the marketing side, right?
• 19:32
  So getting that, uh, automation, getting that ease into their hands to be able to put a bigger, um, emphasis and scope on what they're doing on their fixed op side to start getting that gross.
• 19:43
  'Cause the battle for gross is won as soon as you, as soon as you acquire that trade. That's right. When you're acquiring, when you're acquiring that trade, right?
• 19:50
  When you're putting the number on it, when you're, when you're understanding what kind of money you're gonna put in recon and everything on that car, that's when your battle for gross starts.
• 19:57
  So when we talk about the margin compressions, it's a lot of times at fault of what they did to start with, not what sales is doing. Ah. That's the epic- Adam... the epic conversation right there. Adam.
• 20:07
  [laughs] Andrew Breedlove, sales director at iPacket. We are so excited that you're gonna be joining us at ASOTU CON, so we're looking forward to continuing our conversation there.
• 20:16
  But thank you so much for giving us some time and, uh, insights today on Auto Collapse. Hey, I appreciate it, guys. It was a great time hanging out.
• 20:23
  [upbeat music] Look, you guys never got the joy of walking back to the bullpen. That's what we called it, the place where we had to go sit and got on the phones. Walking back to the bullpen, thumbing through
• 20:38
  a bunch of- [laughs]... uh, manila folders that were used 18 times, 'cause we couldn't afford a new manila folder for every car. Thumbing, thumbing, thumbing through. That was 13 cents, bro. 13 cents a piece. Shoop.
• 20:49
  Popping that thing out, praying to goodness that, like, the CARFAX, and the tech sheet, and all of the stuff that was supposed to be in there was done by the greenie- Was in there... right- Yeah...
• 21:01
  that was forced to do the evidence manual on all the cars. It was never right. You couldn't... And then you walk out to the customer.
• 21:08
  You'd have, like, the one thing that you'd, uh, like the CARFAX w- paper was still hot, 'cause you had to go print it out. You're like, "Look, I got this evidence manual of all the stuff about the car." Right?
• 21:17
  [laughs] That, you never got the joy of that. So I'm trying to give you that essence right now- [laughs]... is the whole point. Sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. It wasn't a lot of fun. So I, like- No, it doesn't.
• 21:29
  I was lying...
• 21:29
  just, like, from the sales enablement alone, to have things and tools at our disposal these days to communicate to customers online and in the showroom that do that process of the pain that I felt in 2010 is magical.
• 21:44
  I don't know. Michael, do we have anything to add to that? [laughs] I was gonna... I'm so sorry I missed that. [laughs] Yeah. Oh, darn. Don't you start. Hey. Ah, don't, darn. Gee whiz. No, I was like...
• 21:56
  And by the way, on paper that, like, Reynolds provided to your dealership. [laughs] Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. They still do provide that. Below, below that dealership. They still do provide the paper.
• 22:04
  Still providing the paper. So, you know, I feel like all of that goes to show that sometimes I feel like we, we overshoot the mark in our industry. Like,
• 22:14
  w- we think, "Oh, in order to be innovative, I have to just push past the mark," when often the answer is sitting right in front of our face, like what you're saying.
• 22:22
  Hey, what if there was just an easy thing to give to the customer that had all of that together? Boom. Mm-hmm. Done.
• 22:29
  Well, while Michael and I are lamenting the fact that we never will get to go through the bad part of that experience, [laughs] on behalf of Michael Cirillo, Kyle Mountsier, and myself, thanks for joining us today on Auto Collapse.
• 22:41
  Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 22:54
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 23:01
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Why are we recording?
• 23:18
  Are we rolling yet? Not yet.