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Using Your Own Tech with Steve Roessler · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  So none of us really have this same problem. [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs... that Steve Russler, our guest today, has.
• 0:13
  And that problem is that we don't really ever have to worry about, everyone show him, show him your hair. Everyone. Nope, none of that stuff going on.
• 0:20
  [laughs] Steve Russler, better known as the hair of the industry, uh, is, uh- [laughs] I- i- it's just got this, like, gorgeous mane. It's all swept back, all that. We just don't have to wor- I don't know.
• 0:31
  He and Frank Lopes, he and Frank Lopes- Ah, that's true... have a bit of a rivalry going. Mm. And we did, we did put this out to the public a couple years ago.
• 0:37
  We put a side by side, and we're like, "Who, who does," you know, "who wears it better?" Does it better, yeah. And, and they're different. Steve Russler has the height- Yes...
• 0:44
  and kind of the intensity, and Lopes is, like, always, like, dialed in. Full on dialed in. Very sophisticated. Yes. [laughs] Yeah. We don't have those issues.
• 0:52
  I'd love a fight card graphic with, like, close-ups of their faces and, like, you know- Yeah... we, we need to run that poll again, I think. Like Mortal, Mortal Kombat style- Yeah... with the verses in between.
• 1:02
  Absolutely. Actually, I think we should- No, but I mean-... we should do that at NADA.
• 1:06
  Like, it should, like, we should have like a scale, and they should have to, like, weigh themselves somehow with and without the hair or something like that. Like- [laughs] Can we get those buttons- I don't, I think-...
• 1:15
  like you rate the public bathroom? Like, so people can- I-... just, like, push a button for- Oh, the, the buttons? Yes. That'd be an easy just net promoter. Love those. Would you recommend this hair, yes or no?
• 1:23
  [laughs] I think Steve, I think that, I think their, Steve Russler and Frank Lopes, I think their hair weighs the same. Steve has, like, more hair. More hair, more gel. Lopes has more product. Right? More hair, more gel.
• 1:33
  Yeah, yeah. [laughs] Exactly. You're right where I was going with that. With that. I mean, but, you know, Steve's personality, the energy matches the hair. Yes. Absolutely. Right?
• 1:40
  Because he is always, you watch him on social media, you watch him around people, and without a doubt, he is always engaged in the moment, which is one of the things I really like about being around him.
• 1:51
  Like, it's so genuine, and sometimes it's so outrageous, but it is so authentic every time and always.
• 1:59
  I think about, like, how far this industry has moved in its also, like, style and its approach just in the last decade.
• 2:09
  I mean, 15 years ago, I was, guys I'm not kidding you, like, three-piece suited up at everything I went to. There's a picture- Hm... of that on your website. You look good in it, by the way. You look great. Oh, shucks.
• 2:19
  Now I'm blushing. They look like nice suits.
• 2:20
  [laughs] But when I think about him, like, he's brought this, like, sense of comedy and, you know, quick-wittedness and kind of, not dressed down, but, like, a little bit more casual, which, like, softens the vibe.
• 2:34
  And, and, and I think about him in that regard 'cause, like, the industry as a whole, I mean, like, look at us. I don't know, guys.
• 2:40
  15 years ago if we showed up, black ball caps, black T-shirts, rolling into a conference wearing, you know, our, our Nikes and whatever, people would be like, "What is this?"
• 2:49
  And it still is that way in a lot of parts of the world. But Steve kind of bring- Yeah... he, he kind of- It brings the energy around it... reinforces what... For sure. Yeah, for sure.
• 2:57
  Well, hey, we hope that you enjoy our conversation, uh, with Steve Russler of Drive Centric. [upbeat music] All right. I am hanging out with my man Steve Russler, uh, the Live With Drive guy.
• 3:13
  You know that guy- That's right, baby... with the hair. Live With Drive, Get Live With Drive. You, you, before we get started, you gotta tell me, like, when did that...
• 3:20
  Because I know every, some people could think, like, oh, well everybody's been saying that for a long time. How did Live With Drive come up? Where was the first time that someone said that?
• 3:29
  Dude, that, I, I'll tell you what, it was by accident. Which I think the best ideas come up by accident. Um- Yeah... but I would...
• 3:36
  Okay, so we were, gosh, I was just getting in automotive and, you know, launching stores or signing up stores. And I'll never forget, it was my buddy, uh, Jimmy down in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 3:47
  And I, I said, uh- You're in Tennessee. Got it... I, I know. Isn't it great? Well, yeah. Go, figure, you're from Tennessee. So I, I would always be asking, 'cause I'm a one syllable type of guy. Yeah.
• 3:58
  I like everything one syllable. So I would literally just be calling him up, and I probably said this subconsciously without even thinking about it, and I said, "So Jimmy, when are we gonna go live with Drive?"
• 4:08
  [laughs] And he said, "What'd you say?" You lowered your voice just like that. "Live with Drive." Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm on the phone, right? [laughs] I'm like, "Jimmy, when are we gonna go live with Drive?"
• 4:15
  You know, whatever. Yeah. And, um, and he literally just said, "Dude, what, what'd you say?" I said, "When are you gonna go live with Drive?" You know, go, you know, move forward. Get the CRM. Get Drive Centric.
• 4:24
  When are we gonna go? You know, that's all I was saying. And he said- Yeah... "Dude, you just said there was gold." I'm like, "What'd I just say?" He goes, "Live with Drive." [laughs] I didn't even catch it. Yeah.
• 4:33
  I mean, I really didn't.
• 4:34
  And so some of the things that you just go out there and as you, you know, build a brand for yourself or, you know, you have a name, um, uh, you know, just you just come up with, like, these things.
• 4:44
  And we actually got that, uh, branded. Um, we went out there and, and paid to have that- You trademarked it? Trademarked, yeah. I love it. I mean, it was- That's so good... about two years ago we got that trademarked.
• 4:55
  And I would've never dreamed. Nice. So I was like, "Oh my gosh, one of my ideas worked." We came up with a trademark. Yeah. [laughs] That's just great. Right, right. So you said- But I-...
• 5:02
  earlier you said, "When I got in automotive," because Drive Centric is your introduction to automotive, right? Yep. Yeah.
• 5:08
  And so what, what does your history of, of being in the, the, the career job world, uh, consist of? Oh, gosh. Yeah, so I've been in th- uh, well, now three industries.
• 5:19
  So, um, I graduated, I, I'll try to keep it short, but, um, I'm an engineer by degree, so I did engineering sales. I always knew I wanted to get sales- Huh... but I wanted to get into something technical.
• 5:30
  So, um, and I was, I love math, so I tutored math all my life, but engineering was the way to go. Did all my, you know, calc one, two, three, differential equations. Yeah, matrix theory, all that stuff.
• 5:41
  Um, and so once I graduated, I did that for five years, and then a buddy of mine, 'cause I moved to Evansville, Indiana, uh, to take a job to be in the pharmaceutical world with a, which was, uh, Jones Pharmaceuticals here actually in St.
• 5:53
  Louis before it got sold.
• 5:55
  But I got into medical industry then and I did various jobs f- you know, from pharmaceuticals to surgery to testing drugs to, you know, seeing, it, just all sorts of crazy stuff in the medical, uh, world for 16 years.
• 6:09
  But-Um, a good eight of those years were startups. So, uh, I, anyway, I got into the startup world. I got a taste of startups. I love the startup world.
• 6:21
  And then, uh, my neighbor, Dave, who worked for Jamonaid, said, "Hey man, I'm working on this CRM and I want you to take a look at it," 'cause he knew I love CRM. And I've been on a lot of CRMs in various industries.
• 6:32
  And, um, anyway, I looked at it and it had video. And I just said, "Dude, I could sell this in the medical industry." He goes, "Well, how about you do it in automotive?"
• 6:40
  [laughs] Let's start with automotive, then maybe we can go to- And I'm just like, "Dude, are you kidding me? I could walk in any hospital across the country, dude. You want me to change professions?" And, um,
• 6:53
  a- you know, he, he asked me to be part owner with him and I- it was my first opportunity to be an owner of a company. And so that's, um- Wow... and, and again, I, I, I just, uh, I learned so much.
• 7:02
  I mean, I learned- So, okay, so you came from... I, I wanna get, before we get back into auto, because, uh, especially in the medical profession, but in sales, you came from utilizing CRMs or being a part of CRMs.
• 7:14
  What were some of the ones that you got the opportunity to be a part of or, or learn in, in that healthcare career? Oh, gosh. Well, they're, um, well, I'll date myself for all the, uh, older folks listening to this.
• 7:25
  Uh, so ACT was the very first software I used where- All right... uh, literally you would download that to your computer. You almost- Yep... needed just a computer to run ACT before it was cloud-based.
• 7:35
  [laughs] Uh, then I used a program called GoldMine. GoldMine was another one. Uh, in the medical industry there was LeapFrog. Uh, and then when I got the taste of startup, I used Salesforce. Um- Okay...
• 7:46
  and I always loved Salesforce 'cause that was the only thing I knew.
• 7:49
  And then, um, then I used HubSpot, and then, uh, obviously I started using DriveCentric 'cause we couldn't afford CRM as a startup, so I used our own CRM company to grow the business.
• 7:58
  And I, I mean, that's- Oh, oh, oh, oh, wait. Okay. So wait, you all utilize your own CRM? Well, we did back in the day, just- Back in the day, okay... you know, ke- keeping our cost down.
• 8:08
  W- right now it's, uh, you know, because this CRM, that's one of the things I appreciate about CRMs, is you can have an entity-based CRM and a company-based CRM. Yep.
• 8:17
  To where, like, the Salesforce, the HubSpots, the LeapFrogs, the ACT, I could put in like Nelson Automotive, and then I would have, you know, Kyle and all the people underneath one account and I could email everybody.
• 8:28
  In DriveCentric, because it's entity, you gotta indivi- you know, send that email individually to people. You know, so it's- Yeah... it's a little bit different. But I made it work. Uh, and I was able to send videos.
• 8:37
  We still do use it a tad bit for obviously all the video portion, but now we, we do put everything in a different CRM so we can track CRMs, DMSs, inventory, what's everybody using so we can talk to the customer more about the tools that they're using.
• 8:53
  All right, so you gotta tell me, are you using Salesforce, using HubSpot? Yeah, we're using Salesforce. Okay, awesome. We use Salesforce and HubSpot, but we're on Salesforce mostly.
• 8:59
  Well, I, uh, I will say I appreciate the fact that you at least started the grind utilizing your own CRM- Uh-huh...
• 9:07
  because I think one of the hard things that I see a lot of in auto is like enterprise tech is great for everywhere outside of auto, but in auto we kinda have to use our own s- thing.
• 9:16
  So for you all to start off, like, using the product that you use to sell dealers, you know, that they're gonna use, it, it totally changes the game and, like, your aptitude to innovate quicker because of what y- what of, what you need.
• 9:31
  Now, here's- Yeah... a question that I have. Because there is this, like, identity verse, uh, uh, verse entity or entity verse company, however you wanna talk about that. Yeah.
• 9:43
  Y- y- do you see an end road to automotive thinking more like a company that might use a Salesforce that's company based and, and think about that as, like, the, the identity of, like, the household or the identity of the vehicle and managing some of the tracking like that?
• 10:00
  D- h- are you all looking at that at DriveCentric, thinking, "Hey, look, this is what we're experiencing over here in CRM and, and we're serving this up in auto.
• 10:10
  How do we make those more closely aligned to, to take enterprise tech and bring it to auto?" Well, uh, I mean, number one, it's a great question. Um, and h- here, I'll answer it this way.
• 10:21
  The answer is, is we can do anything we wanna do. Um, you know, you know, uh, being a tech company. I mean, right now we can't even get people to put in notes about, you know, Kyle, you have two kids.
• 10:30
  You know what I mean? So, uh, to sit there and say they're gonna have like a tree of, like, a parent, kids, grandpa, whatever it may be, that's a, a- it's a great way of thinking about it.
• 10:40
  Um, while we could build that, um, uh, again, our whole thing is, you know, let's help these deal- uh, customers, or let's have dealerships sell more cars. Um, but it is a great idea.
• 10:50
  I mean, we, we have places where putting, people put in notes, where we give them, you know, LinkedIn profiles and things like that, and we're going out there teaching dealerships how to just do the little things, you know- Right...
• 11:01
  to get a better customer experience so they know who they're dealing with. But it, no, it's a great, uh, opportunity to do something like that. Um, could be on our roadmap.
• 11:09
  We, we can, we, we'll never say no to anything, but it's just we have to prioritize what we're gonna build, you know- If, if when... for the future. Yeah, yeah.
• 11:16
  You know, one of the things that I love about, like, enterprise tech CRMs is this ability to, like, you enter someone, and if their email is connected to an entity, boom, you just get brrr, right?
• 11:28
  And I think, like you were saying, you're providing at least social profiles, right? So that there's that social, oh, we found this person, it's connected to a couple things. Go, there's your research in.
• 11:40
  Because that's what, that's what, like, SAS companies do. They, they go research a someone or a company based on these integrated profiles, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:49
  No, and, and, you know, and there's, there's all these... I think the perception of what CRM is, is I think we're redefining what it is. And, you know, like
• 11:59
  if people learned how to use a CRM for what it is today, w- what the customers are doing, I think they would, uh, better leverage some of the things like you're talking about, like understand relationships between customers and things of that nature.
• 12:10
  But, uh, uh, you know, but we do. We go out there and teach about social connecting. Obviously, if you can link in Facebook with somebody and understand a little bit more about the customer.
• 12:19
  You know, do they have three kids? No wonder why they want third row seating. Um, so it, again, it's, uh, there's a lot that we can do.
• 12:26
  Uh, but a lot of times we're just teaching people, like for example, how to send videosYeah. You know?
• 12:30
  [laughs] Well, okay, so here, let's just dispel something right now, because we get people that listen all across the industry to this- Yeah... and, and outside of our industry.
• 12:38
  And I think the word CRM, whether someone knows what Salesforce is because they're just a customer and they've heard it, or they've seen it on the F1 track, or they're in the industry and they've heard CRM from their manager 800 times over the last two weeks, right?
• 12:52
  Yeah. It always blew my mind how many people would be in the industry for three, four, five years, and CRM was still just an acronym. So what does CRM actually mean, Steve? Oh, my gosh.
• 13:06
  You know, I did a whole video on this, uh, [laughs] 'cause I would go around at NADA as, uh, "What does CRM stand for?" And you heard everything. It was about a 50% people got it right.
• 13:16
  It's actually a video on our YouTube page. It's classic. But it- Client recall management Oh, my God. [laughs] You get it all. You get it all. But there's so many- That's wild... acronyms, right? It's so nuts.
• 13:27
  But yeah, a customer relationship management tool. There you go. So here's the thing. It's like we forget the second, the second word there a lot. We're like, "Oh, the CRM, it's a task manager."
• 13:42
  I would, I would disagree. It's a relationship manager, and I think that's what you're pressing back on when you're talking about video and social profiles, that you're going, it's not a task manager.
• 13:52
  It's a relationship manager. And the approach to the industry from a consumer side totally changes if you look at it differently, right?
• 14:00
  Well, well totally, and yeah, relationship, uh, but I think even that acronym is, you know, I always say has gotta change. I mean, we go out there and we talk about more engagement focus than data management focus.
• 14:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:12
  While every CRM, including ours, obviously s- houses the data to, and you know, to put in the information about the relationship and all the things, but right now in the car industry, people are all about right now, and not thinking about the, you know, I build the relationship which creates upstream marketing and easier conversation for when you're down the road if I use it for that relationship part of it.
• 14:34
  And unfortunately, um, uh, and again, I've been in, obviously, all these different industries. I've never had business rules in any other industry.
• 14:43
  So when you talk about task management, um, that's why people don't like it. I've got 100 things to do. What do I do first, boss? You know?
• 14:50
  And, um, I would rather have you reply to customers that are talking back to you today is the way we gotta think about it.
• 14:56
  And so when we go out there and preach, uh, about how to leverage a CRM, and I don't care what CRM you're on. You need to evaluate how many customers are talking to your store today.
• 15:06
  Think of CRM as almost like a chat tool. You're chatting with text, you're chatting with video, you're chatting with live streaming, you're chatting with chat.
• 15:14
  You have to think of the first time your CRM is now an engagement platform managing all your conversations in one place. That's how- Well, and you just said something.
• 15:23
  You said that, that in other industries, business rules are not a thing. So explain first what business rules mean when it comes to, like, a CRM or a task management system.
• 15:34
  Explain that, and then explain, like, how other industries or how you've in the past or currently perceive conversation versus business rule. Yeah.
• 15:44
  Well, now again, keep this in mind, is I've been in industries where the average buying cycle could've been six months or a year. Sure. You know what I mean? Yeah. So selling a CRM, for example, it's no...
• 15:53
  You know, buying a car 70% of the time in four days is a lot different than buying a car in six months, right? Sure.
• 15:59
  So, um, yeah, what I would be doing is, uh, the way I would always put in my notes, and I'm always leveraging my future task, and I scheduled all my own tasks, and I put in there what I'm gonna be doing for the future so I don't have to think about it.
• 16:14
  So Kyle, if you're l- you're gonna say, "Hey, I'm installing a website this w- you know, for the next 30 days at my three stores", I'd be going in there and I'd put in my notes and I'd say, "I'm calling him up in 30 days.
• 16:24
  How's the website project going? Are you done?" Yeah. And I know I'm calling Kyle up and I'm saying, "Hey, Kyle, um, how'd you do on your website?"
• 16:31
  It's nothing about DriveCentric, but I know what you're doing, and that's the relationship part that nobody's thinking about. If a customer goes on vacation for two weeks, "Hey, how was your vacation?"
• 16:42
  People are gonna engage you back by not talking business right away. Yeah. And that's how you le- Well, and that's a lot different than, like, here's my five-day task.
• 16:50
  Picked up the phone, didn't answer, left a message, next. Here's my other seven-day task, right? Hopefully there's another task in there for me because my internet manager set it up, and I'll get back to that one, right?
• 17:02
  What you're saying is, like, no, that's a human that you need to have a human connection with, and you leverage the technology to, to allow you to remember and cultivate that human relationship, right? Yeah.
• 17:15
  That, that's the way it should be. You go in other industries and... I mean, now, don't get me wrong. Could you have, like, rules up or things like that?
• 17:21
  You can, but I never in any of the industries I had, I never had a business rule. And I think if you go outside, just even ask any friend in any other industry, "If you got an internet lead, do you have business rules?"
• 17:33
  They'd be like, "What the heck is a business rule?" "Well, do you tell somebody to follow up?" They're gonna laugh. They're gonna laugh.
• 17:39
  [laughs] They're gonna be like, "You mean you gotta tell somebody to follow up with a, an inquiry- [laughs]... somebody that's interested in your product?" Go ask. It's comical. It's comical. I mean- Yeah...
• 17:46
  and like I said, that's the very first thing I had to learn in this industry.
• 17:50
  And I think as an outsider looking in, we've made our salespeople into robots because now they don't know how to think for themselves as far as where the customer is at in the journey of buying a car because we dictated them and told them that you are gonna be doing all these tasks versus teaching them about, hey, we need s- you can schedule your own future task.
• 18:08
  And it, it, it all revolves around trainingSo- Yep. Yep.
• 18:13
  Well, okay, so when, when you look at, like, where this industry is kind of headed in, um, in the way that we're, like, managing conversations, and you're saying, like, training needs to happen, what are you seeing kind of in the ways that the most progressive dealers right now are engaging and interacting, um, with customers?
• 18:34
  Like, what, what are people that are pushing the boundaries doing to engage customers in the showroom, outside the showroom, you know, in, in follow-up with leads? What are those dealerships doing?
• 18:45
  'Cause you get to be in and amongst a lot of these dealers, and- Oh, yeah... you're always traveling and that type of stuff.
• 18:50
  Yeah, no, I think the biggest thing is obviously everybody wants to get everybody in the physical showroom, right? We all know that.
• 18:56
  Um, but I think the, the days of doing 100 phone calls and 50 emails a day are long gone. I mean- Mm... I say that probably on every podcast. I hope somebody listens to this and it resonates.
• 19:05
  But, you know, texting's the number one [laughs] form of communication, and I think if you take a look at how customers are communicating, especially the Millennials, the Gen Zs, and the Gen As, um, they process communication differently.
• 19:17
  Just the way it is. So, um, I'm actually doing a, um...
• 19:21
  it's kinda funny, a, a class at Digital Dealer on are you dating your internet leads, and what I'm showing is, uh, a parallel on doing, like, doing on an app like Bumble, not that I'm m- I'm married, so I, I have to learn all this stuff on the dating apps, right?
• 19:35
  [laughs] Okay? So I'm sure if my wife's watching- Right, right, right... I'm not on Bumble, honey. I did ask her if I could do a dating app just for, like, role-playing type stuff. But anyway. Just to see. Yeah.
• 19:44
  [laughs] But anyway. That's great. But, you know, they take the communication from the dating app and they transfer it to what do you think, Kyle? Facebook Messenger. [laughs] No. No. Okay. No. Snapchat. No way. Yeah.
• 20:00
  Yeah. Wow. Think about it. You know, you know what's crazy?
• 20:03
  I had a, I had a conversation with, before Snap did a whole bunch of reorganization, is their actual monthly active user growth is faster than both, like, all other platforms right now. Yeah.
• 20:16
  Which is kind of mind-boggling to me. So you're saying that they take it off platform, but they don't go to texting or phone calls or, or Messenger. They go to Snapchat as their preferred communication platform.
• 20:28
  Exa- because there's no personal information given. Wow. It takes... Like, I mean, I'm serious. It's, I don't wanna give away everything, uh, on this, but it's a really good analogy the way...
• 20:36
  What I'm trying to do is show how customers are communicating from that generation, and it's almost like you have to earn the right to transfer it to that phone call.
• 20:46
  So texting's gonna be the on- like as David King will say, the on-ramp, but I always say to earn the right to get the customer on the phone.
• 20:53
  And it, you know, we have to teach the younger generation, okay, what are the times where I have to ask for a phone call? Obviously video.
• 21:00
  You know, people wanna know, like for example, um, I'll give you this little tidbit. Believe it or not, when you go on these dating apps, people will go on four Zoom dates before they go on an actual date. Wow.
• 21:13
  Because they wanna know they're not being catfished. Yeah. So catfishing in the auto industry is a lot like dating. So I wanna know who the hell I'm talking with. Is the car available?
• 21:22
  We talk about transparencies, and that's where video and live streaming, all the technology that are in all these other worlds like dating, are applicable in the car industry.
• 21:33
  And it becomes, uh, very synergistic and normal to the customer when you offer that. But right now we, we're, we're offering technology of communication. Like, who... Do you email your friends and family? I bet not.
• 21:47
  Never. Not a chance. So what does that make the customer? Do you- I don't know. My uncle sometimes emails me some weird article off of Facebook. But- But that's about it. [laughs] Yeah. And, you know,
• 21:57
  but, but you know, we don't email our friends and family, and I tell everybody- No... just pretend the customer is a friend. Communicate like they're your friends, and you'll be better.
• 22:05
  And if we just take that, I don't care what CRM you're on, but just take the practice of what you do in your everyday life and say, "Would I do that to a customer? I'm emailing a customer?
• 22:14
  That doesn't make a lot of sense. But I'll send a Snapchat video to my friends," so send a video to your customers, your prospects. Are you seeing anyone take...
• 22:21
  Because I think this would be really, like, what's your Snapchat? Like, why wouldn't we, why wouldn't we engage, like, if you s- if you have someone that's, like, what's your preferred mode of communication?
• 22:31
  Like, it, and then, and then the answer is, like, should I text you, Facebook Message, uh, Snapchat, or, or, or video chat you? Like- Yeah, well-... if those were the options, what if we did that as an industry?
• 22:44
  Well, no, well, that's what you can do, right? I mean, there's nothing to say you couldn't do that today. It's gonna be hard to get somebody's Snapchat. I mean, you gotta search it and kinda find it. Sure.
• 22:51
  But, but look, if I get a dealer, I'll just play it from what we do every day. If I have a dealer that's not responding to my email, why is he not responding to my email?
• 22:59
  Probably 'cause he's got 500 of them in his inbox. 800. Now, I'm not gonna have a cell phone number. I'm probably gonna have the dealership number, and I guarantee it's gonna go to his voicemail, and he's gonna- Right...
• 23:07
  delete all his voicemails. Period, end of story. You know what I'm gonna do?
• 23:09
  I'm gonna go on Facebook, I'm gonna go on LinkedIn, and I'm gonna friend him up, and I'm just gonna, you know, maybe have a little dialogue with him or, you know, you know, a re- you know, just if I'm gonna be in the area and- Yeah, like I, I think that we're too maybe afraid as, as businesses to believe that, like,
• 23:24
  that B2C can't act similar to B2B. Like, that happens in the B2B world. Why wouldn't- Yeah... we do that in the B2C world? Go find that person and engage with them. Like, uh, it's a client relationship.
• 23:34
  Doesn't matter where it at, uh, where it's at, and I, I, man, I, like, even I've been blind to that as an opportunity to engage with a potential customer, you know?
• 23:44
  Yeah, I think- And if they don't want to, they won't accept it. That's fine, you know? That's right. Keep the communication channel where they want to, but open up the opportunity, you know? Yeah.
• 23:51
  Spray and pray, and that includes, uh, to our point right here, social media. [laughs] Could be Snapchat.
• 23:56
  I think j- you know, if, if you get somebody on Snapchat, though, that's, you, you've earned, yeah, that's a pretty cool relationship in my opinion. Right. Right. Uh- You're in...
• 24:03
  'cause, I mean, you can't find people on Snapchat. You know, you gotta scan 'em in. But no, I got dealers that I Snap every now and then. I mean, I'm not, that's not my preferred.
• 24:11
  I'm usually on Messenger or LinkedIn- Yeah, yeah... uh, Instagram, whatever. Well, I think that the, the, the whole thought here is, like-Engage people where they wanna be engaged Totally...
• 24:22
  utilize the tools that we have in our industry for relationship, not task management, and push the boundaries. You know? Like,
• 24:29
  it, it, it's amazing to me that we just kind of like, we're just kind of willing to go at the, the regular flow. And I think everything I hear you consistently say is like, "No, push the boundaries. Try the next thing."
• 24:41
  Like, hey, look, it might not every, work for every customer, but why wouldn't you let them know you can do a video with them, right? Totally. Why wouldn't you let, give them the access to that?
• 24:49
  Like, push the boundaries, you know? Well, yeah. And look, and no CRM does, like, all these communications and track it all, you know?
• 24:55
  But what I do is if I, let's say, communicate with you, Kyle, and I'm hitting you on, uh, Facebook Messenger, then I'm gonna put in the notes of what I got out of my Facebook Messenger conversation in my CRM. Yeah.
• 25:09
  And I put it in as a call note. And I just put in there FB. Linked [censored] is LI. So I abbreviate. Yeah. So then I know where that communication's happening. I can go back and reference it. That's great. That's great.
• 25:22
  Well, Steve, I'm, I'm just encouraged. I'm ready to go, like, try some new things after having this conversation with you. Appreciate the time with you, Steve. Always, always energetic and encouraging.
• 25:33
  And thanks for all that you're doing for our industry. So on behalf of, uh, the whole Auto Collabs team, thanks for joining us today. You got... Man, you didn't even say anything about the hair. The hair is on point.
• 25:42
  I came in- The hair, the hair is dialed in. [laughs] Absolutely dialed in. [laughs] All right. All right, buddy. [upbeat music] Imagine
• 25:55
  for just a minute that all the tech companies in auto actually use their product, how much better that product would be. Oh, my goodness. So the fact that... Now, I know they don't do it now- Oh, my goodness...
• 26:07
  the, you know, because DriveCentric has kinda graduated.
• 26:09
  But the fact that early, the early days of DriveCentric, all their employees had to use their technology to sell and to engage with dealers, I, I know that that's why I think they're, like, six years in, I know that that's why they accelerated quickly.
• 26:24
  Because when you're forced to use what you use every single day and what your customers, your end user is using, it automatically increases- Stuff gets fixed... it just gets fixed quickly. Yeah.
• 26:37
  They call that eating your own cooking. There you go. Right? When you eat your own cooking, you understand. More salt, less salt. I'm never making that again. We need to work on that. We need to improve that.
• 26:47
  Without a doubt. I mean, unfortunately, there's not really an, an opportunity to do that across the, you know, platforms with tech companies, et cetera. But you're right, that is an amazing point.
• 26:57
  The second you start using it in the correct application, right? Not building it, not developing, not understanding how it works, right? Because every engineer understands how it works. Yeah.
• 27:09
  But n- not everyone understands how it feels on the other side of it working- Right... is really what it comes down to. The point that comes to my mind, too, to that effect is
• 27:19
  that when, when any business wants to adopt a new piece of technology or a new software platform, whatever, that's the question that always gets mixed, m- missed, missed rather, which is, do I have the full bandwidth to commit to this piece of software or this technology fully?
• 27:38
  Mm. Um, because we all know, to, to both of your points, if they did, how much more they would actually get from that software. But I mean- Right... all of us have had experiences.
• 27:47
  I mean, I even have software that I'm like, "Man, I'm probably not using that to the, the fullest of its capabilities, and if I did, what would actually come from it?" So super strong point.
• 27:56
  You know, obviously, we hope you enjoyed this conversation with Steve Rustler, like wrestler. The, the man with the hair.
• 28:03
  [upbeat music] On behalf of Pal Mounts here, Paul Jay Daly, and myself, Mike Petrillo, thanks for joining us here on Auto Collabs.
• 28:09
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• 28:22
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• 28:31
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] [laughs] [claps] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet?
• 28:48
  Not
• 29:09
  yet. [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] [claps] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.