Latest / Auto Collabs / Podcasting During a Delivery with Matt Lasher

Transcript

Podcasting During a Delivery with Matt Lasher · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Some people say that you have to post on LinkedIn every single day. Who are those people? [upbeat music] This is AutoCollabs. Well, Matt Lasher is not one of those people.
• 0:16
  [laughs] But when he does post on LinkedIn, I'm telling you, literally everybody and their brother listens.
• 0:24
  [laughs] It's like a flock of seagulls flying in like- [laughs] "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine" Because you know he's about to drop some serious wisdom on us.
• 0:33
  And not just that, every vendor, I think, in the whole country wants to be on the West Herr roster.
• 0:39
  Um, but what I love about, uh, Matt is he's not out here trying to just purport as someone that's trying to, you know, shake up things or anything like that.
• 0:49
  He is dialed in, and thoughtful, and tactical about the conversations and the way he engages people.
• 0:56
  And the way that he even approaches industry dynamics, showroom relationships, retailing, marketing, he's just thoughtful at every move. It's deeply ingrained in him, to your point.
• 1:07
  Like, one time, we were doing a series of, like, almost, like, client appreciation webinars, like, client-only webinars, and we asked Matt to join us once. And he hit me up, and he was like, "Bro, I got my timing off,
• 1:22
  but I'm, I'm at the ski hill with my family." [laughs] "But, but it's all good. I'm just gonna find a quiet corner." And he straight up found a quiet corner. I don't know many people... Like, you...
• 1:33
  All of that to say, like, you have to have this running, this industry running so deeply through your veins to be able to just find a c- a corner at a ski resort and be able to rip out the amount of knowledge.
• 1:46
  And by the way, to your point about LinkedIn, anytime I see someone s- someone posted something to Auto Genius that's trending, it's always a Matt Lasher post. [laughs] Right. Right. It's great.
• 1:59
  You know, I think Matt is... Like, your story there about the, the ski, the ski, you know, the, the, the ski trip where he found a little corner.
• 2:08
  In this interview that you're about to hear, Matt and I were driving in a car on a way to deliver it to Gary Vaynerchuk in New York City. And I handed him a microphone.
• 2:18
  I'm like, "Oh, by the way, we're gonna record a podcast today." He's like, "Oh, okay, man. Cool. All right, what do you wanna talk about?" [laughs] Right? So everything you hear is us just, me just asking questions.
• 2:28
  And he's, he's the one that's actually driving, if you're not watching the video. And the depth of understanding that he just has of what's going on in general, it's the least car guy thing you're gonna hear.
• 2:38
  But I think it's incredibly practical and just... I, I think it's j- he's just inherently human when he approaches things. And, you know, he's got kind of a, uh, he, uh...
• 2:48
  Somebody stole him out of Southern California because he just [laughs] has that vibe. Just so s- Wow. Like, So- they, the SoCal wants, wants their guy back.
• 2:57
  At some point, they'll come, you know, kidnap him and take him back to where he's from. He just doesn't realize it yet.
• 3:02
  Um [laughs] so we hope that you have a good time, as much fun as we did, enjoying this conversation with Matt Lasher.
• 3:13
  [upbeat music] So Matt, you and I are in a brand-new vehicle that we're on our way to VaynerMedia to deliver to Gary Vaynerchuk's driver- Let-... as his next vehicle. Let's go. Let's go, Avi. We're ready.
• 3:25
  We're, we're coming for you. I, I didn't expect our podcast to happen, but I was like, "We're going. We're gonna be together." 'Cause it was gonna be virtual. I was like, "We're doing this sucker in person."
• 3:33
  I'm excited to be here. I am, too. Got your boys in the back, if you can't see. We got, we got dueling blue headphoned, uh, beautiful young children. It's a family affair here at West Herr.
• 3:44
  Have they ever been to New York City? They've never been to New York City. And two days ago, my seven-year-old, Brecken, he, uh, he said, "Dad, can I come deliver the car with you?" Yes. And I said, "Of course you can."
• 3:54
  So we're making it happen. We're gonna show him Times Square, do a little dinner tonight. Wow. Fly home to Buffalo tomorrow. I love it. Maybe a little Lego store? May- maybe. Maybe. Something- Can I afford that?
• 4:04
  Something intense. I don't know if I can afford that. [laughs] I think, I think you can get a couple Legos. [laughs] Just a couple Legos. The auto business is doing okay. Um,
• 4:12
  you are always the wild card in any conversation. We were just talking about this. Um, you know, you have the industry standbys. And then when Matt shows up, it's usually like, "Uh, which grenade is he gonna lob in?"
• 4:22
  [laughs] "I see he's got a full belt of grenades." [laughs] "I just don't know which one he's gonna lob into the conversation."
• 4:27
  So, um, let's just talk for a few minutes about what your perspective is on the velocity of change inside retail automotive currently. Yeah.
• 4:35
  So I, my observation is I think there's a lot of smart people, well-intentioned people, giving the vision of where the industry is going. Um, you know, I don't know if you have your Amazon shirt on today. Not today.
• 4:47
  Uh, and you know, I think that there's a lot of cr- uh, credence and validity in a lot of these statements. Reducing friction primarily, um, working on improving the customer experience.
• 4:57
  But there's also a lot of noise in the system, uh, primarily from people that have the most to gain, uh, from this, quote-unquote, "disruption".
• 5:04
  And one of the things, uh, that I'm most interested by is successful businesses and why or how they innovate. You have a lot of regionally strong dealer groups, like West Herr, um, who are getting stronger.
• 5:16
  They're well capitalized. They have good processes in place. More importantly, they have the good people in place. And they can leverage technology that's available to them.
• 5:24
  Um, however, it's not this stark, you know, blow-up-the-whole-industry vibe that I often hear, um, where dealers are being criticized for being archaic or out of touch, um, or old school, right?
• 5:38
  I think that there's this consumer, uh, behavior situation where change happens slow. Happens really slow over time.
• 5:46
  And so I think, um, I think some of the velocity maybe is over-hyped by people that are trying to wedge their way into the industry. Gotcha.
• 5:54
  So you're saying that things are good right now, and especially for the larger groups.That change is actually happening much more incrementally than, you know, if you were just to browse the headlines on LinkedIn or kind of look at the news, which is saying, like, "The sky is falling.
• 6:11
  Change or die." You're saying from the inside it doesn't always feel that way, or it doesn't feel that way. When we have big companies, West Herr has 2,700 employ- 2,700 employees, right? A couple.
• 6:21
  So, um- How many, how many rooftops? Uh, over 30 now. Okay. Depends on how you count the rooftops. We say 35 in our marketing, uh, propaganda, though. [laughs] Um, and about, you know, 4,000 used cars.
• 6:32
  And you, so you think about all of these people within that system, they're not going anywhere. We're not gonna blow up the system and replace them with kiosks overnight. Right. Right? That's just...
• 6:42
  Nor do consumers want that. Right. That's what I was gonna say. Like, what do you see the actual demand...
• 6:45
  Because, you know, Scott, the, Scott Buehler, the owner of West Herr, is a very hands-in-the-dirt owner, like I've, I've rarely, rarely seen, especially for a group your size.
• 6:56
  Um, and you spend a lot of time in the dirt as well. Uh, very high-touch, uh, leadership. How many marketing directors are delivering a car today? That's what I'm talking about. You know? Let's go.
• 7:05
  And, and by the way, I'm pretty sure I picked the very worst stretch of highway to start this podcast. [laughs] So it's gonna be a little more of a jarring experience if you're watching.
• 7:13
  We're gonna try to chill it out, though. Um, yeah, exactly, right? Like, you're in touch. You're in touch with your managers. You're helping to put things together.
• 7:20
  So everybody says the consumer wants things one way, but in the showroom, sometimes it's a, it's an actual different perception of what you see happening.
• 7:29
  Um, what do you feel like the consumer position really is when it comes to wanting to do things online or wanting to go EV?
• 7:36
  You know, if you read the headlines, you would think everyone, and I, I'm, I'm betting that's probably not the case in the showroom.
• 7:42
  Listen, man, I mean, consumers say, "I don't wanna negotiate" until they get into the showroom floor, and then all of a sudden they wanna negotiate. [laughs] So, so you see a lot of negotiation. So...
• 7:53
  Well, it's, so these days, obviously with new car inventory- Right... being what it is- There's a little much of any negotiation, right... it's a little different. Um, yeah, the, the narrative is, "We don't have any.
• 7:59
  You wanna put your name on a list?" And- Yep. However, you know, West Herr's proud of the fact that we don't, we do not sell new cars over MSRP. Yep.
• 8:07
  Where there's many dealers across the country that are choosing to do that, take that short-term, uh, you know, hiccup in the matrix. It's a lively debate. It is a liv- You know, and like- Spirited...
• 8:16
  look, free, free market, do what, do what you want, right? Absolutely. Um, but we made an, we made a commitment to the manufacturers we represent that we would not do that. Um, and so we're proud of that.
• 8:24
  We're proud of we, we, we don't do that. But it has led to some interesting conversations.
• 8:27
  We have people from out of the s- out of the area, out of state, calling us, wanting a Chevy Tahoe that we're driving to New York City. Right, 'cause when you're doing national searches all of a sudden.
• 8:36
  All of a sudden, right? And so, um, we've actually had to decline some business that, from people that are out of the s- out of our area, just because, um, we wanna have some product for- Right. Well-...
• 8:46
  Western New York... well, if you're limit, well, if you're limited on product, too, it, it just, it starts to dilute the efficacy of your, your customer retention dollars. Like, you can't service them, right?
• 8:54
  You know, you know- Yeah... they're never coming back. Yeah. You know, it's a fascinating thing with the shortage of inventory.
• 9:00
  I think OEMs are, many OEMs are taking a position where people are less important in the process.
• 9:06
  Um, and I would say this is just a really short-term blip, because what's gonna happen, I think, is some OEM will produce a few cars and start getting a little bit of market share, and then the others will follow suit.
• 9:18
  We'll get a little overproduction like we had. Once we can catch up- Yep... once we can catch up. And it's probably 12 to 18 months away. Um, one thing I don't hear people talking about, West Herr has 10,000
• 9:29
  sold orders pending delivery. We have new cars. So we have 10,000 people waiting for their new car to come off a truck, okay? So, you know, we sell about 5,000 cars a month total, about 2,500 new. Wow. Okay?
• 9:43
  And you have 10,000- And we have 10,000. So-... waiting to deliver... e- even if we stop doing business today, we have four months of sales- Of a full roster... of just you gotta get the cars off the truck.
• 9:54
  So I think that's really gonna be the indicator when used car de- m- used car market starts to normalize back to the mean.
• 10:00
  Once those sold pending lists start to shrink, um, I think then you'll start to see wholesale, uh, the wholesale market behave in a more rational manner. Um, and then you'll also see incentives come back. So- Yeah.
• 10:14
  What's, what's your perspec- perspective on what do you think's going to happen with rebates, um, day supply on the ground? M- I, I have my thoughts about it.
• 10:24
  Every, you know, I've heard various opinions, some that I would consider wildly optimistic, um, and then some that I would consider, like, wildly cynical. Wh- where do you fall?
• 10:37
  Are you gonna share any of those opinions, or you wanna- I, I, well-... march straight away? So-... this is about you. Listen, man, so- I'll share my opinions- All right... after you share yours.
• 10:42
  [laughs] You show me, I'll show you. I share mine every day. Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] Uh, listen, some brands have done a good job with keeping day supply low. Toyota, Subaru come to mind.
• 10:50
  They've, uh, pre-pandemic operated in a very lean environment. Mm-hmm.
• 10:56
  Um, I think that some other manufacturers have legacy issues to deal with res- with respect to workforces, and I think that there's pressure to overproduce- Yep... um, based on those systems.
• 11:08
  So, um, I think we'll get back to an environment that has a higher day supply. Um, and you know, I mean, look, give the manufacturer some credit. Predicting consumer demand three years out or whatever- Yeah...
• 11:19
  it ha- to, it... That's a hard thing, right? Yeah, it's not an easy thing, right. So you miss the mark, you produce too many base F-150s or whatever, right?
• 11:28
  And you're gonna have to figure out how to retail your way- Gotta sell 'em... out of 'em, right? Gotta sell 'em. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
• 11:32
  So it's, you're, you're predicting a return to that level of, of market normalcy, but you know, it's kind of more of a measured, like, "Well, we'll see." It's like we're gonna ramp down.
• 11:43
  It's gonna be, it's not gonna be a faucet. It's gonna be a, a, you know, like a, an on-ramp, off-ramp for your- I mean, don't forget, OEMs make money selling to dealers- Absolutely... primarily, right? That's, yes.
• 11:53
  So, like, they wanna sell cars to dealers. Absolutely. That's their business.
• 11:56
  And, and prior to the pandemic, or prior to this disruption in supply-Um, every OEM representative was primarily a salesperson selling to the dealer, right? Like it's- That's right... this wholesale channel.
• 12:09
  Um- With a whole system in place to sell cars to dealers. Right. And so I think there's gonna be a lot of reasons why people go back to how it was.
• 12:16
  Um, but the challenge for dealers in particular in a rising interest rate environment, so floor plan costs will go up as inventories go higher. Yep.
• 12:24
  So there might be some reluctance with some dealers to carry as much inventory as they once did. Yeah.
• 12:29
  Um, but you know, again, the well-capitalized regional based groups like West Herr are gonna take all the cars we can get. Yeah. Right. Because you know you can, you can find somebody to, to buy it. I, I agree with you.
• 12:41
  I think that we are gonna get back, and I think it only takes, it only takes one, right?
• 12:46
  And the second somebody can run a rebate or incentivize a purchase, there's gonna be pressure on everybody else to do the same, and pressure from their dealers to give them something to talk about as well.
• 12:57
  Um, and you know, cutting out floor planning costs almost completely on the new car side anyway, for the first time ever, or at at least since I've been in the business, seeing the new car department as an actual profit center on the P&L and not showing it as a loss, I think that'll be, um, a very healthy barrier to going too far.
• 13:18
  And, you know, EVs coming back, EVs being introduced to the market is a variable we haven't dealt with before, so it's not apples to apples.
• 13:25
  And, like, that whole thing is gonna throw a, throw a variable that we haven't seen. But I, I- So EVs, I don't know how much conversation you've had with, uh, de- other dealers.
• 13:33
  I was listening to a SinglePoint dealer educating me on e- energy costs. So he gave me this story that their, their dealership, don't quote me on the exact numbers, but 25 kilowatt whatever. Yep.
• 13:44
  Kilowatt hours is what the dealership consumed. Okay. They put in one level two charger for, to service their EV clientele that consumed 50.
• 13:54
  And a level two charger, so if you're not familiar, the Tesla Superchargers that you've heard about that, you know, just pump a bunch of energy into the car really quickly, can charge up to, like, 300 miles in, like, I don't know, it's like 30 minutes.
• 14:07
  A level two charger- It's like two hours I think, right? Right. Level two is like- 2 to 4... two hours, so it's not as much amperage flowing at the same time. So this dealership put in a level two charger. Is it...
• 14:15
  And this is a convenience charger that people can just plug into? That's right. And I think they maybe had to have it just with respect to OEM- Sure. It's probably a requirement or whatever... mandates or whatever. Yeah.
• 14:22
  But it was free to the consumer, right? Pull up, plug in. So, so you, but you have a 300% increase in energy consumption or whatever that is, right? Or 200% increase, uh- Do you know what state this was in?
• 14:34
  Um, I think Pennsylvania. Okay. So I don't, yeah, I don't know if there's nuances by state in terms of even credits and other things that you may get. Man, I don't know. I don't know.
• 14:42
  But- I think energy is just going up everywhere. [laughs] So it's, it's probably like- How do we invest in that? How do we buy some of that stock? [laughs] Well, first of all... [laughs] Oh, how do you buy that stock?
• 14:50
  [laughs] That's probably pretty easy. [laughs] But, but, uh, did the market buy it too much first is the question. So their energy cost doubled- Right... from one charger.
• 15:00
  So, so you think about the infrastructure constraints. It's, I think about Southern California and brownouts and, like, not having air conditioning and being a- have to turn off the streetlights at 9:00 PM- Yeah...
• 15:09
  and some of these interesting infrastructure things. Well, Texas is having an issue right now because they don't have enough... They, they have a lot of wind turbines, and they've built a portion of their grid.
• 15:17
  And we saw what happened over the winter when the wind turbines froze, and people didn't have power, and there was a massive grid failure.
• 15:23
  And now the wind wasn't, hasn't been blowing enough in the middle of this heat spell, so they're also having, uh, shutdowns.
• 15:30
  And yeah, the infrastructure concern majorly, it's like, it's- And that's, and we're operating at, well, I don't know, 3 to 5% EVs, something like that, right? Yeah. Like, I mean- Yeah. It's about that...
• 15:40
  it's, it's a small percentage. Um, and that's sold. Right. I don't think that's actually cars on the road. Okay. That's just, like- So, yeah... cars sold- Right... were, like, 3 to 5%.
• 15:47
  So you gotta think cars on the road's gotta be just a fraction of that number. It f- to me, it feels like we all move to an environment where every gas car will be a hybrid of some sort. Yep. Right? Yep.
• 15:57
  Um, and I think that's- Toyota's actually leaning in on that strategy. It seems to be, yeah. They're gonna make a hybrid of every model because that's...
• 16:03
  I mean, count, lean on Toyota to be conservative and measured in their approach. Uh, pop culture, I think, is driving the conversation right now, no pun intended. Um, and, and we'll see.
• 16:13
  I mean, obviously we have some outspoken friends like Brian Binstock who even talks about the environmental impact. Um, are we gonna be able to keep up?
• 16:19
  Having to strip mine an acre of land to even produce one lithium battery, then what do we do with the batteries when they're spent? Right. Um, and on and on and on.
• 16:26
  I spoke with my brother-in-law, who lives in an area of upstate that we're familiar with, and it just has, um, you know, hundreds of windmills. And a, a friend of his is, is part of the maintenance crew.
• 16:36
  And each wind turbine takes 300 gallons of oil- Wow... to lubricate it. And they need to change it- You wouldn't know that. Yeah, they don't advertise that, do they? And they need to change it once a month. Incredible.
• 16:46
  So, so there, there are also, like, deep, deep-rooted issues. Can we provide the energy? Are we actually doing anything? But adoption is gonna be driven by infrastructure and, like, how fast is that gonna be?
• 16:56
  And what is that gonna do back to our conversation in incentives and rebates and inventory? Like, how are we gonna support it? I think there's just- And there'll still be, there will be dealers selling.
• 17:05
  Like, so, you know, West Herr, a- as the market shifts, we will sell more and more electric vehicles in proportion to what consumers want. Yep.
• 17:13
  But those systemic, like, big changes, maybe commercial trucking, some of those other areas, you know, that's probably where most of the EV s- activity happens first, I would guess.So just wanna use our last few minutes here to talk about marketing, because that's, you know, you're, you're- That's what we do.
• 17:29
  [laughs] Yeah. I, I consider you a savvy operational, um, force inside the dealership 'cause you know how to get things done. But really, your, your claim to fame in the automotive world is as a marketer.
• 17:39
  And, um, you, you come from, from the perspective of being inside a large group, and we see groups getting larger and larger and trying to figure out what to do with their marketing departments.
• 17:48
  Because often, especially when acquisitions are involved, there's fragmented vendors, there's fragmented, uh, staff, there's the, the struggle to centralize perhaps.
• 17:57
  Um, where are you right now, and where are you putting your focus for the next, you know, year or two? Yeah.
• 18:01
  Well, we, we've recently, in the last year, West Herr's added about, uh, 10 stores to our network, so, um, we're going through our own growth phase internally of how do we structure that.
• 18:10
  Historically, we have been a really centralized marketing team. Um, but we haven't grown our team proportionate to how we've grown our dealerships.
• 18:19
  So there's this, uh, maybe environment where we're not able to get to as many dealerships as we'd like to or s- provide that, uh, s- store level support as often as we'd like.
• 18:29
  Um, the one bonus, I guess you'd call it, during the pandemic, most of our efforts have shifted to a higher level branding thing that's more group-oriented in nature.
• 18:38
  Our Team West Herr stuff, our Josh Allen, Steve Tasker, Dion Dawkins kind of content. So we're, we're operating almost like a single rooftop from how we're supporting our company as, as a whole.
• 18:50
  But as we shift back to the mean, um, I think there's g- gonna be more and more desire for the tactical things, the offer things, the direct mail initiatives, the emails, the newspaper ads, the, you know, all the, all the, uh, levers that we pull in an effort to try to gain incremental sales.
• 19:08
  So we're thinking about how do we restructure ourselves, uh, how do we optimize our internal staff with the appropriate incentive structure to seek out additional work.
• 19:17
  Um, so there's, there's interesting, uh, ebbs and flows there, I think. Every group has to go through that. Um, but I guess I would just s- say this one thing.
• 19:26
  Um, you gotta have empathy between marketing and sales, and I talk about that- Oh... a fair bit. Man. Um, you know, salespe- salespeople, sales alphas are short-term thinkers often.
• 19:36
  Um, and marketers often think a little bit longer term. Yeah, 'cause they're both incentivized to be, or at least the sales staff is typically incentivized to be shorter term thinking, right? Right.
• 19:43
  You got m- month to month, right? It's part of the sales game. You got, you got sales to hit, right? You got sales objectives. Yep.
• 19:48
  So, um, so I think, I think you gotta deploy empathy on both sides and understand that there's always gonna be a little bit of healthy friction between the two teams- Yep... because of that difference. Yeah. Right?
• 19:57
  Um, and, and marketers, we need to challenge ourselves to be a little more short-term, little more tactical, a little more in the dirt- Mm... as it were, to quote, uh, Clouds and Dirt Gary Vee. I love it.
• 20:06
  Um, but, but I think, I think that's the, that's the struggle, right? Just to deploy enough empathy. So if you could change... Last question.
• 20:15
  If you could change one thing, snap your fingers and change one thing in the automotive marketing ecosystem, what would you change and why? I would change our technology mandates.
• 20:28
  [laughs] So I think the free market has been disrupted, and I think that there's, um, some intermediaries that are stifling the ability of some groups to, quote, unquote, "innovate" in the direction that, uh, we're hearing we should.
• 20:43
  So that's what I would change. I would ch- I would change the co-op mandates, uh, and technology, uh, mandates, because there's scale ch- challenges with that. And it kind of brings everybody down to the lower average.
• 20:55
  Scale challenges. Matt, thanks so much. Time for, uh... Thank you so much for taking some time with us- Dude, thanks for-... in the middle of your drive... thanks for making this happen, Paul. Thanks. Let's go.
• 21:04
  [upbeat music] Okay, so we're talking pre-show about just the, the depth of knowledge that Matt has.
• 21:14
  You, you now convey to us heading into the interview that this all happens while not you are driving, but, but that he's driving through the streets of New York, just nonchalantly talking about, uh, the hype in the industry and the shortages- I wouldn't-...
• 21:27
  and just whatever... I wouldn't call it the streets of New York. It would be more like the highways on the way to New York. But- Okay, but still. That's fair... your story definitely elicits more drama in my mind. Okay.
• 21:36
  [laughs] Well, I think it's just 'cause you grew up in that neck of the woods. And f- but if... I would be white-knuckling it.
• 21:42
  [laughs] Um, he said something that I think is really interesting, a statement that can only be made when you're looking at a subsurface layer of this industry. He said that, um, change happens slow until it doesn't.
• 21:57
  That's basically the sentiment that he shares. Like- Yeah. Truth... and, and then he can confidently say, "I think all of these, these conversations we're hav- having about how quickly things are changing is over-hyped."
• 22:09
  What was your- Mm... sense as you were sitting next to him having this conversation? His, his attitude and his posture was like, it's a foregone conclusion, right? It's just like, "It's just gonna happen."
• 22:22
  [laughs] Like, it's already... In his mind, it's already happened, you know? And he's like, "And at some point everybody else will kind of catch up and realize it.
• 22:29
  But until then, we'll just keep doing what we're doing," you know? [laughs] It's- Yeah, yeah. So he knew. It was a truth to him. You know, I, I...
• 22:36
  One of the things that he constantly communicates, and he communicated it in and through, uh, this interview as well, is that, that people are, are, are really not understanding the level of complexity that, that you, that you ha- that you actually add by removing people, um, from the equation.
• 22:56
  And whether that be in digital retailing or direct to consumer and, and all of the things about pre-sold vehicles, and the way that, you know, salespeople are communicating to consumers and to people that are, have waited to pick up this ve- And that, that the people element of being in business is, and these are my words, but I think he would agree, that, that that's the unique selling proposition to retail automotive.
• 23:20
  And that if people can understand that what we're really doing with things like technology or online purchasing or the way that we manage inventory or anything, is freeing up people to be more human in their interaction in the sales relationship, um, that e- even like, you know, they, they have streamlined, West Herr created that.
• 23:42
  It, uh, what they see that as is freeing people up to better serve customers in credit, uh, like challenge credit s- situation. Mm-hmm.
• 23:51
  So, um, I just, I love his level-headed approach to, to that conversation in that don't lose sight of, of the people part of this business.
• 24:00
  And not just the, "Oh, the car business is the people business," but that it's not, it's not just that it is, it necessitates people being integral part to every process that we have across the industry. It's the truth.
• 24:13
  He's not somebody to buy into the hype. Right. And that's one of the things I love most about him, is, is he'll take it, he'll take it measured and say, "Well, let's see if that's actually true.
• 24:21
  Everyone seems really excited right now." So, um, we hope you enjoyed that little get to know you drive with Matt Lasher. I hope you get to meet him and talk with him a little bit at ASOTU Con.
• 24:31
  Or you can just look where the seagulls are gathering on LinkedIn and realizing Matt is just dropping wisdom in his latest LinkedIn post.
• 24:37
  So on behalf of Michael Cirillo, Kyle Mounts here, and myself, thanks for joining us on Auto Collapse.
• 24:42
  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 dot com.
• 24:54
  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.
• 25:03
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collapse. Welcome to Auto Collapse. [laughs] Why are we recording? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.