Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep.80 - "They Say One Price. You Pay Another. | Business Transparency in NWA

Transcript

Ep.80 - "They Say One Price. You Pay Another. | Business Transparency in NWA · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

0:00
SPEAKER_03: I worked over here and you were 1,000% spot on.
0:04
SPEAKER_03: Like people think we're making this up, and they're like, you were spot on.
0:07
SPEAKER_03: That vehicle was never for sale.
0:08
SPEAKER_03: No one could ever achieve that maximum money off.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: They would get in there and tell them they didn't apply because this they didn't apply because of this.
0:15
SPEAKER_03: They couldn't get it because of this.
0:16
SPEAKER_03: And the people would be so mad and they'd be like, whoa, what if I could do this right here?
0:20
SPEAKER_03: What if I could be 11,200 off?
0:24
SPEAKER_03: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business while working through adversity and pouring back into our community that keeps our doors open every single day.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: We're your hosts, Shelby, Matt, and Taylor, and we'll be bringing you real relevant local business advice, maybe some automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business or buying a car, and maybe even throwing a plug for you to do business with us here locally.
0:54
SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with Lewis Brothers, episode number 80.
0:59
SPEAKER_03: Ain't bad.
1:00
SPEAKER_03: 80 deep in it.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: Still figuring out something to say, and hopefully somebody's listening on the other side.
1:04
SPEAKER_03: Hopefully so.
1:05
SPEAKER_03: If not, we're at least recording this for our kids later on.
1:07
SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna listen either.
1:09
SPEAKER_03: But maybe they are, you know.
1:11
SPEAKER_03: So uh this week we're gonna talk about you know, this title.
1:15
SPEAKER_03: I want to say it, they say one price, you pay another.
1:18
SPEAKER_03: And we're talking business transparency in NWA.
1:24
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
1:25
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:26
SPEAKER_03: And we just want to break that down because uh this quote here says, you know, transparency is one of those words that everybody uses.
1:34
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:34
SPEAKER_03: And they say, every business, every brand, we're transparent.
1:37
SPEAKER_03: Air quotes.
1:39
SPEAKER_03: We're honest, we're different, and look, that's great.
1:41
SPEAKER_03: But here's one thing there's a big difference between putting that on your website and actually living out every single day inside your business, every single time.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: That's something we work extremely hard at.
1:51
SPEAKER_03: And I say work extremely hard at because it's an everyday.
1:55
SPEAKER_03: It's not a set and forget it.
1:57
SPEAKER_03: It is not.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: We've been doing this for 80 years, and uh we've worked super hard to make sure that we keep that.
2:03
SPEAKER_03: Our name and our brand, uh we do what we say, we're gonna do, and when we say it, we're actually going to do it.
2:08
SPEAKER_03: So that's super important there.
2:09
SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you've ever walked into a business and felt like you were promised one thing, you ended up with completely two different things.
2:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's the episode of how we're gonna break down transparency and actually walking the walk.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be a good one.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Recap last week of going through the growth trap.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Do not get hung up in not growing.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Don't get hung up in the overgrowing aspect of losing what your culture is, what your standards are.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: So go back and check that out.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Episode 79.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: That was a good one to go.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Always check us out online at lewis superstore.com and crossroads conversation podcast.com for our latest episodes of the drop.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's happening local?
2:45
SPEAKER_02: Hey, we've got one of our favorites coming up.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: You guys know we love doing events, and if you follow us on social at all, you know we're always into something that really doesn't even have to do with selling a car, yeah, but just having fun, whether it's important local community events or having our own events here.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: Well, this is one of our largest events of the entire year, if not the largest event that's on our campus.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: And it's our car show.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Our car show is coming up, and you heard us talk about it.
3:07
SPEAKER_02: It's a previous episode.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: It's Ford versus Mopar versus everybody.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: And why we say that is because we we think about how like the car and the emotional side that the car is, and everybody's got their favorites and their brands, and and you get to bond generations there and a grandfather bringing out a grandson to check the cars out.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: We got it all.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: We got it all.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: And it's going on here at our location here in Fayetteville, Saturday, May 23rd, 9 to 12.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Make sure to check out our social pages for details because you'll get some preview on that.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: You'll get all the details.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: It's a free car show, uh, both free to enter your car and free to attend.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: All donations go 100% to Arkansas Children's Hospital, which we've loved partnering with them.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we provide all the trophies, all the rest of that stuff, and we'll have some great partners with us as well.
3:54
SPEAKER_02: But last year, did we go over 300 cars last year?
3:57
SPEAKER_03: Over 300 cars that ended up registering, over 2,000 participants of crowd people.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and it was kind of a thing of like we were Ford versus Mopar, and then we were Ford versus Mopar.
4:09
SPEAKER_03: And then it's like, let's open it up.
4:11
SPEAKER_03: And so we get to clear out a parking lot, and we kind of with registration, we're working on the idea of pre-registration to be able to save time when you get here.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: Uh just tip uh you got to be careful people trying to every year there's somebody trying to spam or scam on our page.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: But you're gonna go to our Facebook page, go to other click events, you'll see our event page, and we'll release all the things on there.
4:31
SPEAKER_03: But when we got over 300, we realized we might have to clear out some more of the parking lot.
4:35
SPEAKER_03: But we saw low riders, yeah.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: We sold old classic uh trucks, we saw lifted stuff, uh, we saw a couple people bring some things on trailers with some hot rods.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: We saw some Model A's, Model T's, uh, we saw some supercars, some Seferaris, uh, saw a NASCAR car out here, um, and and all your standard classics and new age stuff.
4:57
SPEAKER_02: So and some overlanding stuff, some full-wheel drive stuff, broncos and jeeps.
5:01
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
5:01
SPEAKER_03: And there's there's no uh there's no gimmick to it.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: It's not like, oh, and then you have to buy a car.
5:07
SPEAKER_03: It's one of the things of just like a fun weekend.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: It's just come hang out.
5:10
SPEAKER_03: Uh and uh we got our DJ booked.
5:12
SPEAKER_03: Uh we we were confirmed with a lot of the groups.
5:15
SPEAKER_03: We worked on some promo videos uh of some.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: You did fire Taylor and I this year on being the DJ.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: You said I released somewhere else.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
5:23
SPEAKER_03: That's you guys set it up, and then I had to run the music, and then somebody would call me, and then it just got wise.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: That that's a good business deal.
5:34
SPEAKER_03: Money well invested.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: So we've got uh Brock with Brock Entertainment is gonna be here, DJ and bringing the excitement with that.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: So May 23rd from 9 to 12, uh we'll clear the parking lot and fill it up full of classics.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: And I think to prove that it's not to try to sell you a car, we had over 2,000 people come through because it's known, and I'll just throw this out there.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: It's probably the largest and most diverse car show you'll find in Northwest Orkans.
6:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's free to enter and it's free to come look at it.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
6:07
SPEAKER_03: Of all the car shows we grew up to, there was never free ones, right?
6:10
SPEAKER_02: And not only is it free, free, then people's donations.
6:13
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go ahead and throw this out here.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: People's donations that they give, then we match that stuff, yeah, you know, from a company standpoint.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: So it's fun, it's exciting, and then we give back to Arkansas Children's Hospital, which is a an amazing place.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: So put that on your calendar.
6:27
SPEAKER_03: May 23rd.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: All right, so we're talking about transparency.
6:30
SPEAKER_03: It's a standard, not a marketing slogan.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: I want to start this off with a little bit of context before we get in because I feel like, yes, we're in the automotive business.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we may be some of the most expert people out there on being challenged for transparency.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: And let me prove it.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: There's people that talk about transparency that sell five and ten dollar items that are brand new and they're online.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, that's a$5 item.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: I put it in my cart, it stayed$5, I got it, boom, that's easy.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: All they did was sell the product.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: And then and then you get, let's go a little more complex.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: Let's get into the repair industry.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: You get into plumbing, you get into HVAC, uh, you get into electrical, and somebody needs an estimate on a repair for something.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: And and you try to be as transparent as possible.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes until you open the wall up in-house, you don't really see what's going on there.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: And and sometimes they get a bad rap, they try to be transparent, but then they open the wall up and there's a mess of stuff in there, and they try to show the customer, well, the customer's not expensive, excited about spending more money, but they're trying to be transparent, but they still get fried by a Google review.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: And if this is you out there, we we we feel your pain.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: And they tried to be transparent, but somebody put on there that they weren't transparent.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: Well, then you get somebody like us, okay?
7:57
SPEAKER_02: And not only do we sell a new vehicle that has discounts from us, but then we deal with the manufacturer on both a national rebate level and then a regional rebate level that we have zero control over, but we want to offer up to everybody that would qualify.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: We have to walk somebody through all those qualifications, trying to be transparent.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: And then also, we're one of the few industries that then will take your trade in as a pre-owned.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: Try to go trade your bike in or your refrigerator, your microwave, or your old your old water heater.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: It ain't working.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: So we try to be transparent there as well.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: And then we have the repair, the same thing as the the HVC guy, the plumber that opened up the wall.
8:39
SPEAKER_02: We got to open the engine up.
8:41
SPEAKER_02: So I know that's a lot.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: I introed there, but when it comes to transparency, we have dealt with all the pieces.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: And I think what it comes down to, because we say they say one price, you pay another, uh, it's not a bait and switch style.
8:56
SPEAKER_03: And I think the automotive industry, and maybe it's just because it's what we're in, oftentimes gets that rap for, yeah, they said this, but I couldn't go there and get that.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: And we deal with that constantly because we have to know what the market offering is.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
9:10
SPEAKER_03: You know, the market there we're in, what does the market look like?
9:13
SPEAKER_03: And so oftentimes you see, um, and as a matter of fact, I might as well bring it up.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: The FTC, Federal Trade Commission, that uh governs a lot of things, but the automotive sector of it just last month uh sent out over 50, I think it was like 97 letters, two dealerships, large automotive groups who were not in compliance of their price of what it was priced online for, and if there was any exclusionary things versus what they could acquire the vehicle for if they walked in of anyone, you know, no matter who you were, what you're trading, or how you did it.
9:45
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and and so it's a big talk right now.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: Uh in Arkansas, they follow those same guidelines.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: You've got the state and the government guidelines.
9:53
SPEAKER_03: And so oftentimes we see that someone says, hey, get up to$15,000 off on this.
9:59
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
9:59
SPEAKER_03: Or your oil change is$79.
10:02
SPEAKER_03: Well, those two things there, when you come in to purchase that either one of the things the FTC was after was, is the vehicle available?
10:10
SPEAKER_03: If it's not, you need to take that message away.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: Well, because they didn't want to sell it for$15,000 off, because newsflash, you don't have that much markup in a car.
10:18
SPEAKER_03: You know, you've got on average$3,000, you know, some of them are$200.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: I say average, that's way too high.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: It's like you're being pretty generous.
10:28
SPEAKER_03: I'm just saying across the, you know, if you figure in all the high-end of Cadillacs up to$150,000, not our brand.
10:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so they don't want to sell it for$15,000 off because that's going to lose them thousands of thousands of thousands of dollars, but yet they don't want to not advertise it because they're going to miss the customers not going to their store because someone else is polluting the water.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a good point.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: And I think too, what we face is so manufacturer without getting weigh in the weeds, yeah.
10:56
SPEAKER_02: Manufacturer might give an extra$1,500 if you finance.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: They may give another$1,000 if you have a trade in.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:02
SPEAKER_02: And we have to submit that finance contract in or that trade VIN showing on there to be able to claim that other$2,500 worth of rebate.
11:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: Well, so we battle with, and you know, you sit on the board with AADA.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: We we battle with like, do you not put any of those on so you're 100% transparent for the cash buyer that doesn't have anything?
11:22
SPEAKER_02: Well, then what happens?
11:23
SPEAKER_02: Well, then the guy down the road uses all that.
11:25
SPEAKER_03: It looks way cheaper.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: It looks way cheaper, and you're like, hey, you're trying to rip me off.
11:29
SPEAKER_03: But then you get there and you don't and you don't get it.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: So what we've worked really hard on our website is to make sure all the offers are there, but then they're labeled.
11:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and that's one of those things that and we've continued to work through because a lot of people just have the money off and they don't label it.
11:43
SPEAKER_03: It says seed dealer for details.
11:45
SPEAKER_03: Well, in print, you can't say that.
11:47
SPEAKER_03: You can say that over the air.
11:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:49
SPEAKER_03: You can't do that on print.
11:51
SPEAKER_03: Uh by print, I mean something you can visually read.
11:53
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
11:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so oftentimes they don't label that.
11:56
SPEAKER_03: And then it gets even deeper and hairier of like, well, why do you offer this and can't do that?
12:01
SPEAKER_03: And why can the manufacturer do it?
12:03
SPEAKER_03: But the dealers can't do it of a trade assistance or a finance assistance.
12:07
SPEAKER_03: I don't know, but it is what it is.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: So we work super hard to be relevant so that you say, okay, I still want to do business at Lewis.
12:14
SPEAKER_03: You know, if you see F-150s are 10K off here, but you go down the road and they're 15K off, they're like, I love Lewis.
12:20
SPEAKER_03: I've been doing business a long time, but I can get it$5,000 cheaper down the road.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, we know sometimes you cannot get it for$5,000.
12:26
SPEAKER_03: And they say, and we're not here to throw salt in any wound in anybody else.
12:30
SPEAKER_03: Like we're here for our business, and we have a good agreement with a lot of the local dealers.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: Like, there's enough business for all of us.
12:36
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
12:36
SPEAKER_03: Right?
12:37
SPEAKER_03: Let's just not step on each other's toes and let's not jab each other.
12:40
SPEAKER_03: Like, like there's not that much margin.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: So let's not burn what margin we have.
12:45
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and so we work super hard to make sure that we live out that that it's what we say online is what you can actually get.
12:53
SPEAKER_03: And it's not, you know, the$79 oil change, I'm not saying we have that, but if someone says that they don't have to have a coupon and this, this, and this, when they walk in, we say, congratulations, today's our half-off oil change sell.
13:04
SPEAKER_03: Congratulations, you qualify.
13:05
SPEAKER_02: There's two trains of thought with what Shelby's talking about.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: So if a dealer advertises$15,000 off, but it's what's what's called a conditional offer.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: That's really a conditional offer because it's got two or three things you may have to qualify for.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you do, maybe you don't.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: They're betting on just getting a bunch of people in the door.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: And yes, there will be some pissed-off people that then leave.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
13:28
SPEAKER_02: Some people will get mad, but they're already there and they'll proceed forward.
13:32
SPEAKER_02: They're betting on that.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: That's what they're betting on.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: We are betting on an amazing experience that exactly what somebody sees online is what they'll get in the store without having to kick scream or anything else.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: What it cost us are some of those people that go to another dealership because they had this offer that everybody can't get.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:55
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but again, we're playing the long-term game, and it's why you can go online, you can see our Google reviews, you can see our Facebook reviews, you can see why we have so many people coming in time and time again.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: On the other side of that, internally, we've had management and other people that come from old school that then they'll try to recoup some of that 15,000.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: And if we've had to pull them in the office and say, if you do that again, you'll no longer be a part of the team.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: I know that's exclusive.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: They were used to it being on the other side of like, hey, that just to get them here.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: You can't actually sell it for that.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:29
SPEAKER_03: Like you're gonna have to make it up somewhere.
14:32
SPEAKER_03: And so they say you have to finance with us, you can't put any money down.
14:36
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be with this finance, you must have a trade in, uh, and it's gonna be this, this, and this.
14:41
SPEAKER_03: And so then we we make sure that team, our team understands that every single time without fail, even if we're not sitting right next to you, that's what they get.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, and what we've had to reinstill confidence in them because a$15,000 off truck that maybe the real amount's$11,000 or$10,000 off, that$10,000 off truck that's real that anybody can get, it's still losing money.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: So then that manager looks at it and they think it's their responsibility to try to recoup the money and that they've done a good job.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: But in fact, that's giving us a black eye.
15:13
SPEAKER_02: Even if the customer says yes, they had a bad experience.
15:16
SPEAKER_03: It's one of those things where we've given them the all pass on this unit to say, hey, so that we can be lucrative within the market, yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_03: This truck right here is 15,000.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: We realize it's gonna lose$6,400, and we don't like it any more than you do.
15:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:30
SPEAKER_03: But when they show up here, you give them the VIP experience like you were making a ton of money and like it was your family, and you give them great treatment, and don't try to make up the money.
15:40
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: You want to attract the people here.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest difference, too, because there's a lot of people that are probably listening to this podcast saying, well, that doesn't happen, that I don't have management try to go the other way, or it doesn't do this or do that.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: We're sitting here saying our management does that.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: The only difference is we continually go around and inspect, and whenever it happens, you put them right back in.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: We make it right and we move forward.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: It happens on your team.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not paying attention, it you're just putting a blind eye to it.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: I would yeah.
16:13
SPEAKER_03: It's funny because we talk about it, and you know, in any industry, people move around, right?
16:18
SPEAKER_03: And so then we talk about this.
16:19
SPEAKER_03: We talk about it on the podcast because it's important that people know that's our transparency.
16:24
SPEAKER_03: But we talk about in our sales meetings like, hey, here's how you combat this versus this.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: So some what rubber meets the road, and they're like, someone would be like, raise their hand, they just came from another store or like worked at another store, and they're like, Can I be honest?
16:36
SPEAKER_03: It's like, please do.
16:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and they're like, I worked over here and you were 1,000% spot on.
16:42
SPEAKER_03: Like, people think we're making this up, and they're like, You were spot on.
16:46
SPEAKER_03: That vehicle was never for sale, no one could ever achieve that maximum money off.
16:50
SPEAKER_03: They would get in there and tell them they didn't apply because this, they didn't apply because this, they couldn't get it because of this.
16:55
SPEAKER_03: And the people would be so mad and they'd be like, Whoa, what if I could do this right here?
16:59
SPEAKER_03: What if I could be 11,200 off?
17:02
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, it was not fun as a sales professional, not fun as a sales manager, because every customer came in angry once they realized they could not achieve that.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
17:13
SPEAKER_03: So why would we ever do that?
17:15
SPEAKER_02: I think um and what if you were sitting in a meeting with us and we were going over this, and I'm talking about going over this the finance manager, sales managers, GSMs, GMs, and then all the salespeople in there, because we have them all in the same room.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: We will stand up and look them all in the eye and say, if this happens, you come see one of the three of us immediately.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: Bypass your manager and see one of the three of us immediately.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: And if one of them happened last week, you know what I mean?
17:42
SPEAKER_02: And then we had to address that.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: And if it keeps happening, then obviously then we've got to move on.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't think it's happening in your business, you're oblivious.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: Because we are in the business 14 hours a day, every single day, talking about everything that we talk about on the podcast here, and we still have to set up checks and balances when you have that many moving pieces.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Just because the hook has to be big enough that people pay attention, but it needs to be clean enough that you can trust it.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
18:15
SPEAKER_03: You know?
18:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: It has to be on both ways there.
18:18
SPEAKER_03: So I think that breaks down transparency is a standard, not a marketing slogan.
18:23
SPEAKER_03: It's how you operate.
18:24
SPEAKER_02: And and I'll give you one, and you've heard me talk about this on podcasts before.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: One of the things I really like doing is studying people that are more successful than we are in certain areas.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that's happened over the past decade is you've seen companies like Carvano or Carmax come into the industry and be a little disruptive.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: So then you look and you go, okay, well, well, how are they disruptive?
18:47
SPEAKER_02: And we've been, we've missed, we mystery shop them, we call them, we go in person, and we found that they don't have near the talent that we have.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: But what they have is a system in place and transparency.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: And the vehicles that, and it's hassle-free.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Um it's just easy to do business.
19:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and because they're not, well, mainly not in the new car market, they're in the used car market.
19:13
SPEAKER_03: Used car market, you still got to be on the money, but they've created such a branding of that you can go nationwide and be in this game that they'll give what they say top money, and this in their first offer to buy your car.
19:25
SPEAKER_03: And when you get it here for inspected, then they put it on the real money.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: Which is where most people are on the real money, you know, uh, honest people.
19:32
SPEAKER_03: But then they spend the money, recondition it, and they might pay a little bit more.
19:36
SPEAKER_03: Well, then that means their car they've spent more, so they have to sell it for more.
19:40
SPEAKER_03: They've created that system and that process is so quick, you're gonna end up paying more for a used car there than you would anywhere else because they kept their hand up the longest.
19:49
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
19:49
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but people continue to go there because of the system and the transparency.
19:52
SPEAKER_03: So if you could have both, then you really get to win.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: And that's our trajectory.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: You know, that that's what we've really tried to evolve to uh is making sure we're transparent with better talent, listening to people, walking them through their needs.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: And then too, and you know, and Carvana's not in the wrong here, but I've heard people talk about them not being transparent about trade values.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: Well, was it the and I sounds like I'm backing Carvana here, which is crazy from an OEM dealer, but was it that the company wasn't being transparent or was it the customer wasn't being transparent?
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you told them that your car was was perfect and you just put new tires on it and it didn't need anything.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, when it got gets in, we look at the date on the tires and they were replaced in 24.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you only have one key, yeah, and your windshield's broke and your check engine lights on.
20:42
SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, the prices decrease because a true appraisal happened.
20:45
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: So um hopefully that gives everybody an insight and just just know we're in multiple sides of the old transparency game.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Hey, diving into a quick section here fact or fiction.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, customers care more about price than they do about trust.
21:05
SPEAKER_02: It is a fiction, but it is I I need to say this.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: It initially looks like that is the fact and the only fact because it's what somebody can grab a hold of is a consistent thing to rank dealers.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: The price.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: The price.
21:22
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
21:23
SPEAKER_02: But then they actually get into okay, who am I doing business with?
21:27
SPEAKER_02: And as long as you're close and we use all of our computer-generated stuff to make sure we're close, our goal is not to be the cheapest of the market.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: We in News Flash, just like everybody out there that owns a company.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: We have to be profitable if you want us to take care of you after the sale.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: If you want us to employ really good people that can help you.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: That's the important part.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: You know, that can help you.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: We have to make money to pay them.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: And that comes down to just fair.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Just be fair.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Being fair and taking care of customers.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: All right.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: Transparency starts inside.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: The building before it ever reaches the customer.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: And I think really, and I'll get you guys a thought on this, when it says inside the building, transparency starts with our team first.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: And it's funny they say this because you guys know every Monday and Friday when we're going over our fresh trades, hey, pull up our Slack, our internal communication, pull up the auto, pull up the website.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: How transparent are we all on the same page with the pricing on this vehicle we just traded for?
22:31
SPEAKER_02: But it has to start internally first.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: It does.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And you always push down the managers there, you know, always, you know, going through meetings, we want, we want to practice before we're dealing with our customers, the people that write our check, the people that that fund our business.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: So many times we get in there and your sales professionals or your management team or anything will be practicing on customers.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Why would you do that?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Do not practice on customers to make sure you're doing the right um the right process and taking care of them.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: So it really starts with our team internally.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that's something that we tipped into earlier, but we talk about in our in our sales meetings and our learning meetings and all the meetings that we have.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: Hey, here's here's our special today, or hey, here's what we're going over this week, and this is how you get to that number, not just, hey, here's how it is figured out, uh, or hey, here's our uh service promotion, here are our parts, buy three, get one free.
23:28
SPEAKER_03: Here's how you arrive at that.
23:29
SPEAKER_03: One, so they have confidence.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: Right?
23:31
SPEAKER_03: So they have confidence with the customer, they're not having to say, let me get my manager.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: Hey, let me give my manager.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: Man, I don't know.
23:36
SPEAKER_03: I don't think that one's here.
23:37
SPEAKER_03: Or like, I don't know if we can achieve that.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: Like, eh, I don't know.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: So there's transparency if you say, hey, I trust you enough that I want to give you all the details and the know-how, because then I I trust you enough that you're gonna go display that wealth to the customer, gonna take care of the customer properly, right?
23:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I I think it's important that you make sure that that transparency and trust starts very early with your team to say, here's the game plan, here's the goal, here's how we achieve it.
24:04
SPEAKER_02: I think you there's no way you can expect your employees to be transparent externally to the customer if you're not transparent with them first.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: And we talk about that in marketing as well.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: And I'll say again on the transparency side, because we haven't really dove into this side, but let me get y'all's thoughts here.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that we work on in parts and service is when we quote you a repair job to fix your vehicle, it's got parts on there, it's got labor on there, it's got shop supplies on there, and it's got your taxes.
24:36
SPEAKER_02: It's an all-in number.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: And one of the easy ones to talk about there that isn't transparent that you might find up and down the road is if you're buying new tires.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: Somebody might just quote the four tires.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, what else comes with four tires?
24:49
SPEAKER_02: You gotta be able to put them on.
24:50
SPEAKER_02: You gotta mountain balance them, then you better realign your vehicle.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: If not, you're gonna blow through them really quick.
24:56
SPEAKER_02: And Arkansas, the state of Arkansas charges a tire tax to be able to dispose tires correctly.
25:02
SPEAKER_02: So you might find somebody up and down the road that's$300 less for the tires.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: But you get there and you get ready to check out, and they're like, well, we had mountain balancing and we needed to alight it.
25:12
SPEAKER_02: And so again, that transparency right there builds trust.
25:14
SPEAKER_03: That was the thing that we realized like reduce friction, reduce friction, reduce friction.
25:19
SPEAKER_03: Because what'll happen is you know, you go online, tire rag, Google, Walmart, whatever it is, and you say, hey, I need a 275-65 R17.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: You find a good, better, best, and you land on this one, or you say you call the place down the road, and they're like, oh, it's 174 tire.
25:34
SPEAKER_03: Well, it was actually 174.99.
25:38
SPEAKER_03: And so what do they do?
25:39
SPEAKER_03: They take 174 times four, and that's how much their tires are gonna cost.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: That's what they're expecting.
25:43
SPEAKER_03: News flash, you're gonna have to pay almost 10% tax on that, plus you're gonna have to pay your tire tax, plus your alignment, plus your mountain balance, plus fitted transfer sensors or any of those things.
25:54
SPEAKER_03: And so then they think your line's still cheating from them, but you didn't get the full all in from the other place.
26:00
SPEAKER_03: So we just want to give you everything up front.
26:02
SPEAKER_03: But we have to be transparent enough with our team that we explain that to our team, or we'll never get the opportunity to actually perform that.
26:09
SPEAKER_03: Because it'd be like, man, just got quoted at the dealership.
26:12
SPEAKER_03: This, you know, this part, I just looked it up.
26:14
SPEAKER_03: I just Googled this 26S40.
26:16
SPEAKER_03: It's only$28, and I just got quoted the$1,800 at the forge to the crook.
26:22
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to the shade tree mechanic.
26:24
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna fix it for$400.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: It's a$28 part.
26:27
SPEAKER_03: And you're like, can I break that down for you?
26:29
SPEAKER_03: So you have to help them, otherwise, they get defeated.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: Your advisors, your parts counterpeople, and they're like, hey, I gotta go somewhere else.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: We're price gouging or something.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: And you're like, no, we're not.
26:39
SPEAKER_03: We'll explain this to you.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: You didn't properly set up the all-in cost.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:45
SPEAKER_03: Uh so understanding that's important.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: So there's there's two pieces there is one, okay, the process is in place to have all in transparent pricing.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: But then two, you have to have the right verbiage walking somebody through what all like you got to teach them what all's in there.
27:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:00
SPEAKER_02: And why it's that way.
27:01
SPEAKER_02: If, you know, if you're in construction of houses, this one just came to me, and you have somebody and you ask them to quote your drywall.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: So somebody quotes your drywall and it's just hanging the drywall.
27:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: It's hanging.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: You said, quote me drywall.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: And a second person quotes the drywall.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Well, they quote hanging the drywall, mud, drywall.
27:20
SPEAKER_02: Mud, finish, and painting.
27:23
SPEAKER_02: Texture and painting.
27:24
SPEAKER_02: And their cost is going to be four times you know the amount.
27:27
SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: But they included an all-encompassed end.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: The other one's like, well, hung your drywall.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, no, I needed a finished wall.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
27:35
SPEAKER_03: So And sometimes people go too far and they're like, hey, I need to itemize everything.
27:40
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes you miss out on stuff because they're like, you charge how much for a roll of drywall tape?
27:44
SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, you need to be marking up your sublets.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: You know?
27:48
SPEAKER_03: And so if you're just crazy transparent there, they're going to be like, you'll never get the shot.
27:53
SPEAKER_03: But if you're not thorough enough, then you're either going to put yourself in a bad scenario or you're just setting yourself up for bad reviews and unhappy customers.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: You have to train your staff.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: You have to be transparent with them first.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: You have to have an all-in number, but not too complex when it goes to the customer, but willing to explain if the customer has questions.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, to be able to adapt to whatever else it may be.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, culture where employees know what's happening, where leadership communicates openly, and where the internal matches the external message.
28:27
SPEAKER_02: That's really what we're after there.
28:29
SPEAKER_03: And that was like you talk about Ultimate Challenge.
28:32
SPEAKER_03: We started, and we're just coming off of all the pieces and elements that, you know, it to the public eye, it's a one-month-long event.
28:41
SPEAKER_03: To us, it's a four-month-long event.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Uh starts in January of planning that, going through, hey, what will it look like?
28:49
SPEAKER_03: What's the the graphic style on this thing?
28:52
SPEAKER_03: What's the message?
28:54
SPEAKER_03: And then later we go, what's the number?
28:56
SPEAKER_03: Okay, and then where where do we market this thing?
28:58
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and then when we finally get that whole thing together, then we go to the team.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: Here's the game plan, here's what we're after, here's what it looks like, here's the internal message, and then we go external with the same message and we say, here's what it looks like, here's what it is, a month of March.
29:12
SPEAKER_03: And then we spend another, you know, half a month recapping and cleaning up and doing all the auctions and the stuff like that.
29:18
SPEAKER_03: But internal and external, same message.
29:21
SPEAKER_02: It is the same message.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: Any part of your business, that internal before the external, just take it to the bank.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, it no different than, okay, we're going through health insurance, so let's talk about that for just a second.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: We need to be really transparent with our employees because they knew open enrollment usually happened during March, then to change everything at April 1st.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: We weren't happy with all the quotes we got back.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh, so we changed open enrollment to May 1st.
29:45
SPEAKER_02: If we weren't transparent with our employees on while why we were doing that, you think some of them would start getting nervous about am I still going to have health insurance?
29:54
SPEAKER_02: And like, what are you doing?
29:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: You know, where we actually covered an additional expense to be able to give us a month and ended up getting them better coverage through some of our trusted partners, yeah.
30:04
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and without any rates up.
30:05
SPEAKER_02: But if we had not, even though we were doing a wonderful thing for the employees, if we had not communicated internally, they could have flipped the switch and gone the other way.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: You know?
30:15
SPEAKER_02: You know, think about this.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: Your employees know the truth, and eventually so do your customers.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: So, so make the truth true and tell them sooner.
30:27
SPEAKER_02: I think you hit on exactly where I was going there.
30:30
SPEAKER_02: And and what Shelby's saying once I said that statement was even if you say something different, your employee knows the truth.
30:38
SPEAKER_02: So you might as well say the truth.
30:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: So then you don't lose trust.
30:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:45
SPEAKER_03: And then tell the customers about it.
30:46
SPEAKER_03: Hey, it's ultimate challenge.
30:48
SPEAKER_03: We're doing this, this, and this.
30:49
SPEAKER_03: Hey, it's April.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: We're going on our thank you event and do this, this, and this.
30:52
SPEAKER_03: Congratulations, you pick an amazing time.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: You know, oftentimes, then you would go to a place that has an online that says you can only get this if you mention social because you saw it on social media.
31:03
SPEAKER_03: And then they're like, whatever you do, do not mention.
31:06
SPEAKER_03: Once they're here, do not mention the$15,000 off truck because it's not here.
31:10
SPEAKER_03: We won't sell it for that.
31:11
SPEAKER_03: Do you think they're talking about that in their meeting?
31:13
SPEAKER_03: They're, you know, they're not saying, hey, you need to promote this, put it on your social media.
31:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
31:18
SPEAKER_03: They're like, we covered the media, we'll drag people in, but once they get here, it's kind of like, and this is 2026.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: In our dealer 20 group meeting in November, I remember going around, I don't know why this was a thing, but they were asking a question.
31:34
SPEAKER_03: Somebody brought this up, and I thought, what are we doing?
31:37
SPEAKER_03: This is a waste of my time here.
31:39
SPEAKER_03: But they said, hey, everybody raised their hand, that their price is the same in store, that it is on your website, and that it is on social media.
31:48
SPEAKER_03: And there was only like 50% of people that raised their hand.
31:51
SPEAKER_03: It's like, what are we talking about here?
31:53
SPEAKER_03: Year 2000?
31:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like in 2000 we did that, didn't we?
31:57
SPEAKER_03: And they're like, Well, no, we've got it different in the newspaper.
32:00
SPEAKER_03: And then I was like, then these are people I in some areas look up to, and I look over and I'm like, You're doing what now?
32:08
SPEAKER_03: And they said, Well, unless a customer comes in and says, Hey, I saw this price online, then we just penciled back an MSRP.
32:14
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, you want to lose trust so quickly?
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, how are we not like winning at every level because our price is identical?
32:23
SPEAKER_03: And we've got it on so we have 52 different social media channels.
32:28
SPEAKER_03: And we have so many websites and our Slack channel, and then everyone posts them in Facebook Marketplace.
32:34
SPEAKER_03: And the only half of these 20 dealers said their price was the same online that it is in store.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, if you showed up.
32:42
SPEAKER_03: So you you need to make the transparency and the trust true, and then you need to tally, right?
32:47
SPEAKER_03: Because otherwise, you're going to go somewhere else and they're not going to tell them about your special of the day.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you a tip here.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: If you are struggling with this, if if you keep hitting your head against the wall and telling your employees about this and you're spending the money on the media just for them to show up and get something different.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something we did a long time ago.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: And you guys will resonate with this as soon as I say this.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: We spent a few hundred dollars, hundred dollars, okay, to make sure we had posters and tabletop tents all throughout our showroom.
33:21
SPEAKER_02: So when a customer came in, it was right in front of them.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: It was on every one of our salesperson's desks.
33:26
SPEAKER_02: If we're offering up$4,000 over blue book value or sales tax pay, whatever the message is we're talking about, it's in the store too.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: And it's so much in front of their face that nobody could swerve and go, oh no, we're not doing that.
33:40
SPEAKER_02: It's it's all over your shoulder.
33:41
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean you're not doing that?
33:43
SPEAKER_03: That was like proof of concept of rubbing their face in the mud, metaphorically.
33:47
SPEAKER_03: You think of the AI or the robot that you say, I'd love if my employees were AI or robot, because they never call in sick and they wouldn't put their own feelings or personal opinion.
33:56
SPEAKER_03: So that in the store of what's going on, that's marketing 101.
34:01
SPEAKER_03: But and the table tents are cheap because you're like, we're gonna put them in service on every one of those advisors.
34:06
SPEAKER_03: And it gives them something to talk about.
34:07
SPEAKER_03: So we completely flip that script.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: We're still in 2026.
34:11
SPEAKER_03: People are like avoiding their internet price like the plague.
34:15
SPEAKER_03: I know.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh that's just I don't get it.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: It is ridiculous.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: I don't get it.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: Okay, hey, next up, uh what did Google say?
34:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know Google's gotta be around.
34:24
SPEAKER_03: So what did Google say?
34:26
SPEAKER_03: What is the number one Google review complaint?
34:29
SPEAKER_03: Is it a communication or two hidden cost?
34:33
SPEAKER_01: You want me to answer this?
34:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, go ahead.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Communication.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: How's your answer?
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Communication.
34:39
SPEAKER_03: Well, so uh I'll tell you this that uh when we went to the NEDA conference in Vegas a couple months ago, I went to this seminar on Gen Z of how to sell and market to Gen Z.
34:51
SPEAKER_03: And I took notes as fast as much as I could.
34:53
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
34:54
SPEAKER_03: To come back and teach and learn on that.
34:56
SPEAKER_03: Um, and a big thing to them was the all-in price.
34:59
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
35:00
SPEAKER_03: Because of hidden costs.
35:01
SPEAKER_03: Now, communication is always and will always be the biggest complaint.
35:06
SPEAKER_02: I you know, and I think, you know, to flip that, not saying that we're wrong and you're right, but to flip that is, you know, on Google, what do most customers want?
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Thousand percent would be that.
35:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, no, you're right.
35:19
SPEAKER_03: Communication.
35:19
SPEAKER_03: So, hey, communication, I'm gonna say, is the right answer is but but uh hidden cost, where we talked about don't just quote the tires, quote the whole job.
35:27
SPEAKER_03: Because Gen Z said, hey, I want to know what the all-in price.
35:30
SPEAKER_03: So when I walk in on whatever it is, if I'm getting seven avocados and six BL me, how much is it with taxes, with the bag out the door?
35:40
SPEAKER_03: And then they get to make their decision.
35:42
SPEAKER_03: And then you're like, that's just Gen Z.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's pretty crazy without going down this of how influential they are backwards in all the generations.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: No, it's human nature now.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Take the big auction we were just going through, we learned from the previous year, which we know this, but going over our budget of making sure everything in there, what's the number one thing we forgot about the year before of taxes that all of our numbers have going through there?
36:07
SPEAKER_00: So we'd put everything in.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: So whenever I'd said, hey, Shelby, this is$399, that's all in cost.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: It's$340, it's$440 now.
36:16
SPEAKER_03: So that is a just human nature that you go to the tire, is this, the engine is this, the service is this, the and people are afraid to quote all that because they're like, man, if I can just get them that far committed in the door that I hit them with that, and they're like, oh man, it's more money.
36:36
SPEAKER_02: Here, here's the deal.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: And I just gotta say this.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: Please listen to this point here.
36:43
SPEAKER_02: Just because a customer comes in and still does business with you, even though you didn't give them an all-in price, does not mean they'll ever do business with you again or recommend you to anybody else.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: And that's the silent assassin.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, those are the Google reviews that don't get posted.
37:00
SPEAKER_02: They don't, and it's no different.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: We've talked about the restaurant deal.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: I I can go and order a steak and they serve me a hot dog.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: They can even come ask me about it.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: I won't ask for a discount.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: I won't ask for anything else.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: I won't fry you on Google.
37:13
SPEAKER_02: I'll never come back and I'll never recommend your restaurant.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: That's the same thing that's happening to a dealership that's offered$15,000 off.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: The customer finally says yes at$9,500 off.
37:23
SPEAKER_02: They still buy it because it's the color they wanted and this and that, but they'll tell everybody about their bad experience and they'll never come back.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: And we're after building incremental, yeah.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom.
37:35
SPEAKER_02: And then all of a sudden everybody's like, man, it must be nice.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: Look what you build.
37:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it must be nice.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
37:40
SPEAKER_03: I see quotes all the time.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: Must be nice.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: Like, didn't see you here this morning.
37:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you didn't admire you last night, like, hey, got my eight to five.
37:46
SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, whatever.
37:47
SPEAKER_03: You're only saying your eight to five is cool because you're not in what we're in.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: You're not in the current stage, and and I'm happy to be here super early and super late.
37:56
SPEAKER_03: And then and and then stages of life.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: So we could go down a whole loyalty, a whole loyalty customer thing.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: But if you think you're swinging hard enough that your loyal customers aren't just like, huh, I saw the 15,000 offer.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: I saw this.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Let me look over there.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: I love everything they've done, but let me look over there.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: I had a customer call me the other day that was going somewhere completely else, and luckily had had someone else that he was talking to.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: He's like, wait, did you talk to the Lewis brothers?
38:26
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, No, no, no.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: I'll have them take care of it, but I'm just gonna go over and do this.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, No, you get on the phone right now and call them.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: So luckily, some sort of loyalty had pushed it back into, and we had stayed up to date with that customer.
38:40
SPEAKER_03: It's just you always got to check yourself.
38:42
SPEAKER_03: And it's funny, while you're telling customer stories, and we talk about getting what you and they confuse the fire out of you.
38:47
SPEAKER_03: So I had during the month of Ultimate Challenge, I had a good friend of mine uh knew somebody down the road, and they were looking to buy a vehicle.
38:56
SPEAKER_03: And they said, Hey, they're at such and such way down the road.
39:00
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Hold on, don't buy.
39:02
SPEAKER_03: You need to go up and see the Lewis's.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: They got this sale going on.
39:04
SPEAKER_03: And so he said, Hey, here's the figures.
39:07
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, you don't have to give me those.
39:08
SPEAKER_03: I want to give them a good price.
39:09
SPEAKER_03: He said, No, let me just give you the figures.
39:11
SPEAKER_03: Like, they've been through the runaround.
39:12
SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: So he said, here's what they're selling it for, here's what they're giving the trade for.
39:16
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, you know, like generally I don't ask for that because I want to give my best offer.
39:21
SPEAKER_03: But I'm like, sure, whatever.
39:22
SPEAKER_03: So then I was like, Do you know what Vehicron trying to sell them?
39:25
SPEAKER_03: And he said, I don't know, it's a white explorer.
39:27
SPEAKER_03: I said, okay.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, there's a lot of those, but you know, I let me so push come to shove.
39:32
SPEAKER_03: I finally kind of figure out what we're looking for.
39:34
SPEAKER_03: I go on this other dealer's website and I look at it, and it says, huge banner across their landing page.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: Save up to$15,000 off Explorer STs.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, do what?
39:46
SPEAKER_03: Because there's a thousand dollars rebate from Ford.
39:50
SPEAKER_03: Say$15,000.
39:52
SPEAKER_03: This is a popular vehicle.
39:54
SPEAKER_03: You don't need to be discounting.
39:55
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay.
39:57
SPEAKER_03: So then the customer shows up and I happen to have the almost identical car.
40:01
SPEAKER_03: And I show them this and I give them very, very good numbers.
40:05
SPEAKER_03: Not good for me, very good for them.
40:07
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but then I go back and I look at the number that he told me they're willing to sell.
40:12
SPEAKER_03: They were willing to sell for$10,400 off.
40:15
SPEAKER_03: Amazing deal.
40:16
SPEAKER_03: That's still$6,000 in the red, losing$6,000.
40:21
SPEAKER_03: But then what I noticed was$10,400 is a long ways away from$15,000 off.
40:29
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, what?
40:32
SPEAKER_03: This shows on your banner$15,000 off on this stock number, and somehow they're okay because it's still a good deal.
40:41
SPEAKER_03: $10,400.
40:42
SPEAKER_03: That's what they're hoping for.
40:44
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
40:44
SPEAKER_03: That's what they're hoping for, but they just blatantly lied to you right then.
40:47
SPEAKER_03: What else will they lie to you about?
40:50
SPEAKER_03: Right?
40:50
SPEAKER_03: Was that true money on your trade in?
40:52
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't.
40:53
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: I was able to give them much more for their trade in.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:57
SPEAKER_03: Right.
40:57
SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, the people are okay with it.
40:59
SPEAKER_03: They're lying about it.
41:01
SPEAKER_03: Like, what is what are we doing?
41:04
SPEAKER_03: And so we got to take care of them.
41:06
SPEAKER_03: And that's because 80 years of taking care of people, people like Taylor said, you know, would be like, hey, go check with these guys.
41:12
SPEAKER_03: They're going to treat you well now and forever.
41:15
SPEAKER_03: Right.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: So that's super important there.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: I would say both of those are definitely uh high on the priority of communication and hidden costs there.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: So what transparency actually costs, we've kind of already started talking to this of the silent assassin of losing that customer that you won't ever talk about, but real transparency has a price.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: It means sometimes you lose a deal because you told the truth.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: Because that's going to equate to something else down the road.
41:42
SPEAKER_03: Um so I'll tell you there, uh, you can't just say here's what the cost is, here's what the price is, and stop.
41:49
SPEAKER_04: Really?
41:50
SPEAKER_03: People do not buy because of low cost or low price.
41:54
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
41:54
SPEAKER_03: They buy because the whole bundle of the the the what's in it for me.
41:58
SPEAKER_03: How, why is this a good value?
42:00
SPEAKER_03: Walk me through why this makes sense.
42:01
SPEAKER_03: People do not buy based just upon cost, they buy based upon value.
42:06
SPEAKER_03: So you could lose a deal if you were the absolute cheapest, and you said, I gave them the all-in number, like the Lewis brothers told me to do.
42:13
SPEAKER_03: Well, if you don't give them why this makes sense, yeah.
42:16
SPEAKER_03: The fixed cost of our vehicle when you buy from us, gets a 336 powertrain warranty, a 10-year 120,000 mile powertrain warranty, meaning you are not going to have a variable cost in your maintenance for a long time.
42:30
SPEAKER_03: And then if you bought a maintenance package at half price, you could go four years without the price of oil ever having to go up and that ever having to come out of your pocket.
42:40
SPEAKER_03: So if you do not fully break that down, you're gonna miss some deals.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: You really are.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: You will.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: And going into, you know, don't hide fees, you don't dress up numbers, you don't let let a customer leave confused about what they agreed to.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be transparent through the process, taking care of the customer and really meaning that.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: One of the things I really like, and and y'all that are listening that have been around us long enough, you know you resonate with I'm getting ready to say this, is the amount we give you on your trade in, we'd write you a check for that.
43:12
SPEAKER_02: And if you ever want to be able to put a thermometer in if somebody's being honest with you or not, ask them, say, if I don't go forward with purchasing your vehicle or your four-wheeler or your boat or your RV, will you still write a check for what you're offering on my trade in?
43:29
SPEAKER_02: And if they say no, it's continued up on you buying that, there it's not real.
43:34
SPEAKER_02: It's not real, okay?
43:36
SPEAKER_02: It's not real.
43:37
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, well, but what do you mean it's not real?
43:39
SPEAKER_02: They are overallowing on that to try to make you feel better about it.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: Have real transparent pricing.
43:46
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: That that's it's just it's just so important.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: So cutting corners on honest honesty may win short term, but then it's building a ceiling for, I think, just a wall that comes up and it's slowly, whether it's in Internally in your team, and then externally to your customers, it'll continue to go very negatively down the road.
44:08
SPEAKER_02: Even with all the new platforms of advertising and marketing and social influencers and this and that, still the most powerful, either in a positive or a negative way, form of marketing is word of mouth.
44:23
SPEAKER_02: And with an influencer, then they take that word of mouth on a social platform.
44:27
SPEAKER_03: No doubt.
44:28
SPEAKER_03: That's the way they get the traction is they're using that word of mouth, but they're broadcasting it.
44:34
SPEAKER_02: So if you take a customer that goes forward and you have a short-term win, but like we talked about earlier, may never come back, it's going to hurt you in the long term.
44:44
SPEAKER_02: I would rather have steady 10% growth compounding on one another.
44:49
SPEAKER_02: So then you look up five years down the road and we're up 40%, 50%, then a spike of up 20%, then to start going back down 5% at a time.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's one of those things that we look at of vehicles in operation.
45:03
SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's one of those things the stats say that if a customer buys a vehicle or product and does not come back to get it worked on or serviced for their first visit, they are 80% most likely to go never come back.
45:18
SPEAKER_03: The loyalty, you're only gonna have 20% of the hundred.
45:21
SPEAKER_03: That's 20 of a hundred that are gonna show back up uh to give you opportunity to ever fix something, repair something, or to buy another vehicle from you.
45:29
SPEAKER_03: That's right, right?
45:30
SPEAKER_03: There's just less and less loyalty in this world.
45:32
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and so realizing that that you have to do that.
45:35
SPEAKER_03: So sometimes people are like, why would you sell a car and lose that much money?
45:38
SPEAKER_03: It's like it's overall units in operation and being able to keep them coming back.
45:43
SPEAKER_03: So you get to build that network and that word of mouth.
45:47
SPEAKER_03: And so then we could see that.
45:48
SPEAKER_03: So we look at that on a granular level of like an RO account.
45:52
SPEAKER_03: How many customer pay ROs did we have last month versus the previous 90 days versus that year over year number?
45:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
45:59
SPEAKER_03: And as long as we can keep that and then build on that a little bit, then we have one in that word of mouth and that building that network.
46:08
SPEAKER_01: Agreed.
46:08
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's not always just, hey, what's the profit of building that for you?
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I've got two questions for y'all, both the same question.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: So you can kind of tag off there.
46:19
SPEAKER_00: But um, the question is tip for businesses to be more transparent for each of y'all to be able to suggest.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, I'll jump on this first, and uh I I could or couldn't be taking your answer as well, Shelby.
46:33
SPEAKER_02: So uh figure just figure it out if I did.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, my tip, we already talked about it, but start internally.
46:41
SPEAKER_02: Start communication internally.
46:42
SPEAKER_02: So before you release a special, a program or whatever's going out marketing-wise, be a hundred percent transparent internally.
46:51
SPEAKER_02: So your team is ready to take the baton in this relay around the track and not fumble it.
46:58
unknown: Okay.
46:59
SPEAKER_03: So we'll go off of what Matt said, starting internally, so they understand, hey, here's what the sell is today, here's how we're gonna do it, and here's how we get to it.
47:07
SPEAKER_03: Then I would say my tip would be is what I will often do is I'm not waiting for the rest of my team to tell the world.
47:14
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna lead and then tell the world as well with my marketing, with my social, and I'm gonna say, hey guys, today our specialist just came out of this meeting, and here it is.
47:24
SPEAKER_03: And then we'll go around and hand out our point of sell materials.
47:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:28
SPEAKER_03: So oftentimes it's one of those things of being a father or being a dad or being a mentor uh or being a leader and a coach.
47:34
SPEAKER_03: You're going to tell them what you're gonna do, and then you're gonna go do it.
47:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and then you're gonna recap here's what we're doing.
47:41
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
47:42
SPEAKER_03: Right.
47:42
SPEAKER_03: And so then that's how you know is transparency.
47:45
SPEAKER_03: Like we talked about early on in the car wash.
47:47
SPEAKER_03: We built the car wash, we said everyone gets free car washes when they come in to get their car serviced.
47:52
SPEAKER_03: Well, they still were going around the car wash because they were trying to reduce friction of the time.
47:56
SPEAKER_03: So then it was we made the stickers, but the stickers on the window, there was just proof of concept in the store.
48:02
SPEAKER_03: Then we made the sandwich boards.
48:03
SPEAKER_03: It said when you pull in, oh, by the way, you get a free car wash.
48:06
SPEAKER_03: And then we would go out and ask people, hey, did they tell you about your car wash?
48:09
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
48:10
SPEAKER_03: And that was the transparency across the board to make you cannot, I don't care how good the message is, you cannot just say go and expect it to work.
48:19
SPEAKER_02: I'm coming back in on the third one here because you did just such a good job grabbing the baton from there.
48:24
SPEAKER_02: We're we're in the fourth leg here.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: And this is an important part here.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: Then, after your team's ready to go and you've launched it and you've done it and it's out there, then you have to have checks and balances in place.
48:37
SPEAKER_02: You have to make sure that your team is doing what you said.
48:40
SPEAKER_02: So pull some estimates, pull some repair orders, go out in the field.
48:45
SPEAKER_02: And when you find that it's being tested, and it will, it will, you correct it and you make an example in a positive way.
48:53
SPEAKER_02: In a positive way, you make an example of that's not how we do business, that's not who we stand for.
48:59
SPEAKER_02: You make it right with that customer, you have a one-on-one with that manager, you keep going forward.
49:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's so important that you do it right from the get-go.
49:07
SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, it creates a habit.
49:08
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
49:09
SPEAKER_03: You're like, hey, 15,000 off, but I figured out a way that I can get it, or just 10K off.
49:14
SPEAKER_03: Mm-mm.
49:14
SPEAKER_03: You you pull those quotes and you look at it, you call the customer, correct the problem.
49:18
SPEAKER_03: Hey, I apologize.
49:19
SPEAKER_03: We found another$5,000.
49:20
SPEAKER_03: I'll be mailing you a check.
49:22
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
49:22
SPEAKER_03: Then you go to the manager, hey, I saw where we messed this up.
49:25
SPEAKER_03: Can you walk me through what happened here?
49:27
SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you'll please process this check uh from your sales growth, so$5,000.
49:32
SPEAKER_03: And if you'll hand deliver it to the customer, uh, and then if you'll write me up uh a game plan of how we don't think that'll ever happen again.
49:39
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
49:39
SPEAKER_03: And I appreciate that.
49:40
SPEAKER_03: And if you get that delivered, that'd be amazing.
49:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
49:42
SPEAKER_03: And then you go over in a sales meeting.
49:44
SPEAKER_03: Hey, I know this could happen, but we're not gonna let it happen.
49:46
SPEAKER_03: And if it does, let me know.
49:47
SPEAKER_03: So we can make sure it doesn't happen.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: That's that's total ownership all the way around the process.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's the only way you can absolutely win at it in a day and age that it happens a lot.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what industry you're in.
49:59
SPEAKER_03: So and I think it's a dying thing.
50:01
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't think everybody wants to be in the transparency business.
50:04
SPEAKER_03: Not they're looking for the shortcuts.
50:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
50:07
SPEAKER_03: How do I get the rich by night?
50:08
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
50:09
SPEAKER_03: That's what everybody's at, which uh hey, I'm okay with that.
50:12
SPEAKER_03: Less people in the transparency game.
50:13
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it means we have to battle through some more crooks and things and that, but yeah, I don't think everybody wants to be in the transparency game.
50:20
SPEAKER_02: Very short-term game.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: There's there's people out there that want to build the business and the portfolio up and sell the business.
50:25
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
50:26
SPEAKER_03: The Instagram lifestyles, you know, is what they're after.
50:29
SPEAKER_03: It's like you might be killing it.
50:31
SPEAKER_03: You might be doing way better than I am.
50:34
SPEAKER_03: Kudos to you.
50:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
50:36
SPEAKER_03: Right?
50:36
SPEAKER_03: Uh, you figured out how not to work four to nine.
50:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh and and I'm proud of you, and I want to learn from you.
50:44
SPEAKER_03: But if transparency is an empty game and you want to do it, then that's what you got to do.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: Great episode on transparency, being completely around with your team today, making sure you inspect what you expect.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: Hey, check out all of our specials online at Lewis Superstore.com and all of our relevant episodes.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: We are up to 80 episodes now for 80 years of knowledge in the automotive business.
51:09
SPEAKER_00: Check us out at Crossroads Conversation Podcast.com.
51:13
SPEAKER_03: Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family.
51:17
SPEAKER_03: You can visit our website, send us the questions about what you want to know, what you want to hear, tell us about the automotive industry, family business in general.
51:24
SPEAKER_03: Who do you want to hear from?
51:26
SPEAKER_03: Send them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you have.
51:29
SPEAKER_03: But make sure you tune in next time where we bring in another guest and we talk more about the automotive industry and all the great things going on within our business.