Latest / Auto Collabs / For The Love of Automotive with Steve Laureys

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For The Love of Automotive with Steve Laureys · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Did I ever tell you about that time I moved to Australia? [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. [laughs] Is it serious?
• 0:14
  No, but I bet they s- I bet they say La Croix correctly in Aust- La Croix. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna teach- Okay... I'm gonna teach both of you to speak Australian right now. Say, say that for me.
• 0:25
  [laughs] Rise up lights. Rise up lights. Say it again. Rise up lights. Just say it in your American accent. Rise up lights. Say it in your American accent. Rise up lights. Rise up lights. Yeah. Rise up lights.
• 0:35
  What is it? [laughs] What, what- Rise up lights... you're saying in Australian- Is rise up lights... yes, is actually- Yeah. Rise- Rise up lights. Rise up lights... rise up lights. Um, so when I was there I met a guy,
• 0:47
  and he goes... And I introduced, "Hey, I'm Michael. Who, who are you?" And, and he says, "Yeah, I'm Tiny." And I'm like- [laughs]... "Tiny?" He says, "Yeah, I'm Tiny."
• 0:56
  And I said- Oh, is that, like, a sarcastic thing 'cause you're bigger than me? [laughs] Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'm like, "Spell that for me." He goes, "T-O-N-Y. Tiny." [laughs] Tiny.
• 1:06
  [laughs] And, uh- I, what I, what I always wonder is when you're in the elementary school class, are they like, "Tey." Are the kids, "Tey." [laughs] And they're like, "I" [laughs] Right?
• 1:18
  Like, how does that actually sound? Are they like, "O"? O. And it was like, "O," and they're like, "Tiny." [laughs] Yeah, but everything, everything's a question.
• 1:26
  I, and I think even Australian, like, n- uh, you make a statement, like what would a statement be? Like, um, I like blue hats, right? I like blue hats. There it'd be like, "I like blue hats?"
• 1:37
  [laughs] It's like- You're like- You're like, "Do you, though?" [laughs] Do you, though? Are you sure about that? Oh, man. We have to, we have to get some more Aussies on this show- Yeah...
• 1:47
  'cause I feel like this is a deep conversation waiting to happen. Which I think, I don't think Steve is an Aussie. I don't... We're just- Say-... gonna go with he's not. So Steve Loris- Loris...
• 1:56
  is gonna be our guest today. Loris. How do you say his last name with an Australian accent? Loris. Loris. Loray? Loray. Yeah. That could fit. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. That's something, though, what, what it is.
• 2:05
  He has no idea- Uh, but Steve Loris... what he's getting into. [laughs] Loris. Lor- Loris. Loris. Lor- we're gonna say it whatever, you know. Loris. Loris. Loris. Loris. Mm-hmm. With Relevant Dealer is on the show today.
• 2:15
  He's gonna be at ASOTU CON. Got a booth there hanging out, and, uh, he's a big, big part of the, uh, ASOTU community these days, and we can't wait to have this conversation.
• 2:24
  So it's probably not gonna be anything about Australia- [laughs]... but we hope you enjoyed that- You never know... and we hope you enjoyed this conversation.
• 2:34
  [upbeat music] All right, Steve Loris, thanks for joining us here on Auto Collabs today. Thank you. I appreciate you guys having us. Yeah, man.
• 2:43
  So my first, the, the first question we gotta ask, and, and if people are listening on the podcast, there's about 845 lanyards behind you [laughs]...
• 2:55
  with what looks like every conference since, like, 2001 hanging from the back there. What's your, like, do you have a count on the number of conferences you've been to in and outside of automotive at this point? No.
• 3:11
  So what's funny is I started collecting those, uh, about 10 years ago.
• 3:14
  And, um, you know, it was just one of those random things where it was, like, thrown in a box, and then more things were added to the box, and finally I was like, "Man, I should do something with this box of these," right?
• 3:23
  Either throw them away or, or do something with them. Uh, but there's about 70 up there right now, and, you know- Come on... from speaker positions, exhibitor, um, there you go. Yes, my man. [laughs] Exactly right.
• 3:35
  Like, you gotta do something here, right? [laughs] Paul just put Paul up. [laughs] Yo, Adrian. [laughs] That's right. [laughs] You know what? These are from about the last 10 years. I feel like- There you go...
• 3:45
  we've probably been in all the same places. [laughs] Most likely. That's unbelievable. At all the same times. You guys need to put those together and make a quilt. [laughs] That's unbelievable. How...
• 3:56
  Wait, so, are, are they- We could escape from a third story window with our lanyards easily. [laughs] That's exactly right. Yeah. Are they all auto or have you been, uh, to, like, stuff else? They're all auto.
• 4:04
  Almost all are auto. There's, there's a couple- Really?... that are not auto, but, you know, like, um, Mozcon, uh, which isn't specifically, but, um- What is that? If you like digital marketing. What's that one?
• 4:14
  What's Mozcon? That's, uh- Mozcon is, uh- Oh... Moz SEO. So they do their- Right... their yearly thing and, uh- Oh, okay... but it's not automotive specific. Gotcha. It's for all industries.
• 4:24
  So which one was your favorite one and why was it ASOTU CON? No. [laughs] [laughs] Oh, that's funny.
• 4:35
  Uh, yeah, so, um, I, I would say it's probably would've been one of the, uh, Drive In Sales when they were first doing Drive In Sales. Oh, gee. Uh, it was such a different view, right? Yeah.
• 4:45
  Um, different insight, different speakers. Just, um, it was not that, you know, basic internet manager, basic BDC rep, first, first conference type thing.
• 4:55
  You know, we got into a lot of the meats and potatoes and it was r- really designed for the executive roles. Yeah. And do- Absolutely... I, I'm just also looking at the environment. Is there, are there,
• 5:05
  uh, is there a coffee machine for every one of those lanyards as well? [laughs] I, I count two, three. [laughs] That's a nice machine. There are three coffee pots there. That's not by accident. [laughs] Do they- Uh-...
• 5:14
  different types of coffee? What's happening here? Are you a coffee- It's the ice machine... what, what's the word? You know, a, a sommelier? Not a connoisseur of any kind.
• 5:22
  No, man, uh, 30 years in the dealerships, right? So it's al- always just black coffee. [laughs] But you got the Keurig for the, like, I just need a cup now.
• 5:29
  You got the full, the Bunn, which is the full pot, get the day started, and the other one's for the, any flavor stuff that you might need for the evening stuff. [laughs] All right. Okay.
• 5:39
  Is there a soundtrack with each of those? [laughs] Right. [laughs] I feel like there's a playlist for each of the three things that you just described. [laughs] Right. There is a light playlist.
• 5:47
  Well, like, if, if, if he's matching the dealership, he's got, like, classical music playing for the morning pot, right? [laughs] 'Cause, like, before, when just service gets there, it's classical music.
• 5:57
  [laughs] And all of a sudden it, like, for the Keurig, it's, like, pop rock, which is very-... very curated, right? Yeah.
• 6:02
  And then, like, the night crowd comes back and gets, like, smooth jazz, right, for the, like, dinner stuff, right? Oh, wow. Yeah, really wind it down.
• 6:08
  Or Bruno Mars, depending on which way- [laughs] Whether it goes up or goes down. Okay, I have, I have a work question now. [laughs] Have fun. Let's do that. Yeah, okay, fine. Fine.
• 6:19
  [laughs] I have a, I have a grown-up question. Um, so I noticed that there is an Auto- AutoGenius member, uh, in your LinkedIn profile. Mm-hmm. How did that come about?
• 6:30
  So that came about, one of our, uh, you know, prior to, um, starting Relevant Dealer, I was working with a dealer group which is, uh, out of Omaha. Okay, that was, that was the connection. Yep.
• 6:39
  'Cause I was like, "I know you can't get one of those unless..." Yeah. So.
• 6:44
  So they've made us our, uh, or made me their CMO for their group, and so he was just like, "Man, you gotta check out this group, this AutoGenius group.
• 6:51
  Man, like, there's all kinds of great information that's coming on, and, like, I want you to be able to utilize this for our marketing. So, like, can you get into this group?"
• 7:00
  [laughs] So- He's like, "All right, I'll see what I can do." Right. That's awesome. It's been great. I mean, it's open in my other window right now. Nice. So are you... Like, you said 30 years in the dealership. Right.
• 7:10
  Has it been mainly around the marketing side of stuff that you've been in auto, or have you kind of touched everything at this point? No, it's been pretty much everything.
• 7:17
  So I started off in a Ford/Hyundai/Isuzu lot, um, in the great state of Pennsylvania. [laughs] Whoa. I can never, I can never hear Isuzu without smiling- [laughs]... 'cause of Joe Isuzu, but go ahead.
• 7:28
  Oh, yeah, that was back when Hyundai was, like, terrible, right? A combo, yeah. They forced me to sell three of their cars- [laughs]... to the lot that I was there. They were garbage, right?
• 7:38
  Um, so anyway, I was, uh, with them.
• 7:41
  I started off there as sales, and then, like, within nine months I was, um, out drinking one night with, uh, and met a couple of guys from this, uh, it was a Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge/Pontiac/Buick/GMC store.
• 7:51
  [laughs] And we get to shooting this, you know, the conversation around- Jeep...
• 7:55
  and he's just like, "Hey, man, like, if you're as, you know, if, if you're half as good as I think you are, you should be our sales manager."
• 8:01
  So that started my first understanding of maybe I can't stay at the same dealership to gain that elevation, right? This is back, obviously, '94. Um, so I- Wow...
• 8:10
  from there I, I was a sales manager at a few stores and then was a GM.
• 8:13
  And, uh, then, uh, later on in, in the career, God, this would've been about 12, 15 years ago, uh, I had one of our, our partners I was working with who's a website builder, and he's like, we were...
• 8:24
  I was out there on site, was working with him here in, uh, in Elkhorn, Indiana, and he's like, "By the way, I know of a group that's looking for an e-commerce director." You know? Mm-hmm.
• 8:33
  Um, basically newer, or a bigger group. They got like 13 stores here locally, whatever. "So if you know somebody, they're actively looking." I'm like, "Cool. What's an e-commerce director?"
• 8:43
  [laughs] Like- Well, that was what? 2008 or something like that, right? Uh, yeah, yeah, real close to that. So I was like- I mean, that's, that was a real question. [laughs] That's a real question.
• 8:52
  Like, we maybe had some internet managers out there that were just basically glorified leads people, right? Right.
• 8:57
  But, like, to, for a group to be thinking e-commerce director at that point, that's a very new question, right? It was.
• 9:03
  But like anything in sales, I had to know 1% more than the owner did, and so I became their e-commerce director over the 13 stores. Yep. [laughs] So- Wow...
• 9:11
  and I just started studying and figuring out everything that, that we could figure out, um, as it was going on. What was one of the coolest learnings that you had out of that, like, early time?
• 9:21
  'Cause that's, you know- Ooh... you know, what, what did, what did you, like, learn or see or do that maybe was, you know, bleeding or cutting edge that, that was still kind of, like, c- early could be wrong type stuff?
• 9:33
  Yeah, so I think the first thing was really, um, it, I was actually at a meeting with Audi, so it was one of their regional meetings. And, uh, you know, we had two Audi stores at the time.
• 9:42
  And so they, they got into, um, using behavior and using, uh, behavior analysis to determine how to deliver ads. And I was like, "Man, I read a couple articles on that," right?
• 9:54
  Like, I kinda get the gist of, of what that is. Um, so [laughs] as we were talking, they were asking questions, and the moderator, the, the speaker really couldn't answer to 'em.
• 10:03
  So I was, you know, raised my hand and like, "Hey, I know that answer." So they stopped me afterwards and, or at lunchtime, right before lunch, and said, "Hey, after the break, would you mind talking longer on that?
• 10:12
  Like, could you do, like, 30 minutes on, on this section?" Uh, sure. [laughs] Me? Right? [laughs] Yeah, like, okay. So it forced me on the spot to start, like, digging into this thing, right?
• 10:24
  So my wife calls me, uh, while I'm doing it. I'm like, "Honey, I, I gotta speak in, like, 20 minutes on, uh, behavioral analysis and how it relates to paid search ads. Like, I gotta study up on this." She's like,
• 10:36
  "You don't know what you're speaking on?" I said, "I didn't know I was speaking." [laughs] And so, no, I didn't. That's, that's unreal.
• 10:43
  But after that, that really started a, a really cool path for us, um, you know, in, in, in really understanding how the behavior points and how we can measure them and then apply 'em back to, uh, paid search. Hmm.
• 10:54
  It blows my mind that before the internet, I mean, there were obviously people doing this. You have, like, what was that, what was that, um, music company, um, that would send you a subscription in the mail?
• 11:05
  Like, w- was it- Columbia House... Columbia House? Yeah.
• 11:08
  Like, it, it's cool to hear how companies like that were tracking behavior pre-internet, but how, to your point, mainstream, most companies didn't realize, wait, there's more to a customer's behavior than walking on a lot and then leaving the lot without talking to anybody.
• 11:23
  Right. And just how many touch points there are. Have you seen any evolution of, of that behavior analysis from the time that you were first exposed to it to now?
• 11:32
  Like, are we, are we able to track more, or is it still relevant, or r- relatively the same? See, relevant's a great word. But [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] There has been a, uh, a substantial, uh, change in that, right?
• 11:46
  So, like, one of the tools that, that we deploy allows us to be able to tell who's on the website, whether they complete a form or not, right?
• 11:53
  So it's taking what we know, what's known about them through 27 of our other different data sources, right, and it's creating, like, a profile.... of these people externally.
• 12:03
  So when that MAID's ID, that individual device ID then visits the site, we already know a little bit about who they are, right? Including their name, their address, their phone number.
• 12:13
  Uh, and that allows us then to be able to create them into seg- into different segmented list. And that really wasn't available, you know, two and a half, three years ago, at least, you know, to marketing in general.
• 12:24
  Um, we saw some applications obviously [laughs] in the military and, um, outside into the, um, you know, the government issues, but nothing that we were able to access for marketing purposes.
• 12:34
  So getting down to that level, and, and really that's the new best thing, right? Is creating the profiles of who the users are.
• 12:40
  So we're stop talking about 30,000 visitors to the site, and we start getting into who these visitors are and why they didn't shop with us, and if they were really a shopper to begin with. You've seen...
• 12:51
  You've been around now, and you've seen several transitions, um, of technology, right? And the evolution over the last 20 years has been, has been very regular, right? Mm-hmm.
• 13:00
  Every six or seven years something comes along that kind of changes the game, maybe even at a faster pace. Do you see any common threads between those and, like, to where we are right now?
• 13:08
  Obviously right now we're in another one of those moments, right? A year or two ago we thought Web3 was gonna disrupt things faster, right?
• 13:17
  And it's doing things, right, and it is working in the background, but this whole conversation around AI and what that's gonna do for the marketing ecosystem, if you think about all these transitions, do you see a common thread in how people typically react to them from a marketing standpoint, and you see, like, "Oh, I see this pattern.
• 13:34
  Here it comes again"? Yeah. I think the one thing that, um, that kind of coincides with that, right, which is how we find success with those. 'Cause really it doesn't...
• 13:42
  You can have two different programs that are running.
• 13:44
  One is very old school, old tech, um, using basic display ads and basic, um, paid search ads, running them off an Excel spreadsheet, and be more successful than someone that's using fully programic, right?
• 13:57
  But it all comes down to how the dealership is ready to receive those customers when they're coming to the site. Mm-hmm. That's the biggest thing, right?
• 14:04
  So we, we talked to, uh, one of our dealers just the other day, and they're like, "Man, you know, I feel like we're hitting everything to exactly the way we should be. The web metrics all look great.
• 14:13
  We've got great engagement on site. Our, you know, our overall conversion rate is extremely high, but our sales aren't lifting." [laughs] Right? Yeah. "They're still not lifting. What's the problem?"
• 14:24
  So I'm like, we say, "Hey, you know, let's take a look through the CRM. Let's take a look at some regular metrics. Let's look, look at the, um, you know, the number of people that we're reaching out to.
• 14:33
  How many are we making contact with? How many are we asking for an appointment with? How many are they setting the appointment with? And how many of those people are showing up?
• 14:39
  All right, let's just look at basics for a minute." And it was unmistakable. I mean, it was a 50% increase that they can gain without spending any more money in marketing, just covering their basics.
• 14:49
  What are some of the basics? Like, what's the low-hanging fruit out there for everyone listening? Yeah. The two biggest things are phone and internet, right?
• 14:56
  A lot of dealerships on the phone side of things, they're not really tracking any of those, uh, those calls that are coming in.
• 15:02
  Some have phone tracking services where they're going in and listening to them periodically, but they're not comparing that to the CRM, right? Mm-hmm.
• 15:09
  So they look at the end of the month and they said, "Oh, I had 20 phone ups for the month. Uh, two more than last month. We're doing better." [laughs] Right?
• 15:16
  [laughs] But there's no way that phone only rang 20 times through the period- [laughs] through the entire month. Right. Those calls aren't being logged. Yeah. Did we connect?
• 15:22
  Like, we got that person into a place that's trackable, and we can actually measure whether or not we were successful on the end of it, for sure. Correct. And then same thing on the internet side of it, right?
• 15:33
  Um, e- before the pandemic, um, before it was, uh, telling customers basically, "If you don't like the pri- the MSRP of this vehicle, uh, we don't have to sell it to you. Wait till the next person comes in," right?
• 15:44
  "Because we're sold out four months, six months in advance." Inventories are rebounding, right? We're starting to see that every day.
• 15:52
  And we've got dealers that are now sitting with cars on the lot and going, "Man, I'm gonna have to start discounting these again," when really the, the first step they need to do is take a look at their follow-up process.
• 16:01
  Are you even reaching out to these customers after they put a lead in?
• 16:04
  Or have you conditioned the team so much over the last two years that if someone's not responsive to you inside of 24 to 48 hours, that it's a dead lead, kill it, move on to the next one? Mm-hmm. Right? Man.
• 16:16
  That's, uh, uh, it is. I've heard that m- multiple times.
• 16:19
  And what's, what's scary to me is, and I don't know if you're seeing this, but I'm starting to hear this like, well, margins are starting to be compressed again, right?
• 16:29
  Volume isn't maybe quite where it was, or maybe it's, or maybe it's just one or the other, not both. And there's a r- little bit of a recoil on marketing budgets out there. Mm-hmm.
• 16:41
  And we're recoiling on marketing budgets, yet we could expand them if process was, was great on the back end. Are you seeing some of that recoil?
• 16:50
  Uh, or at least, like, attempt to recoil in clients or, or dealers that you're working with? Yeah. And I think that's sometimes where the challenge comes in for stores, right?
• 16:58
  Is that their sales process, um, their sales follow-up systems are managed usually by somebody different than the person that is doing their marketing for them, right?
• 17:08
  So there's no, uh, there's often a lack of synergy or a blaming of each other. Mm-hmm. Right? "Oh, our sales are down. Oh, darn marketing." The marketing's like, "Oh, well, uh, you're, you're killing my budget.
• 17:18
  It's 'cause you guys can't sell anything," right? Instead of someone- Yeah... being able to look at those things holistically and to see what those challenges are, right?
• 17:25
  Because again, if I spend another $10,000 in marketing, but my sales funnel, my sales team isn't ready to deliver those, right? Then I'm wasting that money into that.
• 17:34
  So recoiling that, that spend is, is generally not the answer. It's taking a moment, relooking at your processes, uh, and making those changes for it.
• 17:42
  But yes, absolutely, we're seeing some folks who are saying, "Hey, we've got to cut our spend by 30%." Why? Well, 'cause our sales are down 30%. [laughs] Wow. Yeah, yeah. Right?
• 17:52
  Which is, like, counterintuitive in my book, at least, right? I'm like, wait, sales are down- 'Cause you're a marketer... I maybe need more people. 'Cause you're a marketer.
• 17:59
  [laughs] Well, and it's a downward spiral, right? You understand the chicken and the egg, right? [laughs] It's- Right. Right. But it's a downward spiral.
• 18:06
  If you keep cutting your marketing-A- and because your sales are down y- and you're not fixing your process, your sales are just gonna keep going down Yeah, you can't cut your way to growth. That's correct.
• 18:15
  You can't do it. Yeah. I mean, you see a pr- you see a way that this is happening day in and day out where, where teams are gaming the, the CRM, right?
• 18:24
  So a lead comes in, and they immediately mark it as lost because it shows that their response time was faster, and then it, and then it just, like, games the whole system, and then they forget that they need to go mark that as un-lost when they actually ac- try to go follow up with it.
• 18:39
  But by the time they actually try and go follow up with it, it's actually lost- It is lost [laughs]... because that person bought somewhere else. Exactly. Man. Exactly.
• 18:47
  Or they send that cocky- Did I just, did I just scrum acord, Kyle? [laughs] I'm just- Yeah. I'm about to go, like, cry in a corner somewhere. [laughs] You guys just come find me, okay?
• 18:58
  [laughs] All these thoughts and feelings that are coming up in my head.
• 19:04
  So what is, like, when you go in, because as you're working with dealers, with Relevant Dealer, and you're, you know, obviously you have clients, but when you go in and you're kinda like taking a, a, a first look at the way, you know, strategy and campaign and process are, where, where, w- what are the things that you're doing first?
• 19:22
  Like, if someone wants to take fresh eyes at their business, right, and kind of attack the things that m- are most likely places where they can find gaps, where would you encourage them to go look for those gaps first?
• 19:36
  And, and it, maybe it matches kind of like your process. Yeah. So it depend on the, on the client, right? So we've got some that, uh, utilize us as a fractional CMO.
• 19:45
  So essentially, we're taking care of their digital marketing, um, decisions and helping them with, um, making sure that they're, they're getting the most out of their campaigns that they're running, right?
• 19:54
  W- we're in a fractional, uh, scenario. Our first, uh, plan of attack is to look at their Google My Business listing, look at their directory listings, and look at their website, right?
• 20:02
  'Cause that's the foundation of everything marketing. Mm-hmm. If you're spending $10,000 a month to drive search traffic to a website that is rough, [laughs] right? Um- At best, yeah... you've got images that are broken.
• 20:14
  That's very kind. Yeah. I mean, a- and you see all of that, right? Especially as you look through different dealer sites.
• 20:19
  And sometimes we'll re- we'll actually reach out to somebody and be like, "Dude, I was looking at your site,
• 20:25
  just happened to be looking at it as a competitive, uh, site to someone we're working with, and here's five things that, like, just fix 'em. Like- Right... you don't even have to email me back.
• 20:32
  Like, you don't have to respond to me. Just please fix these things." [laughs] Please. [laughs] For the love of automotive, fix these things. [laughs] For the love of automotive. Ah, that's a great shirt.
• 20:42
  [laughs] Yeah, that is. Yeah. For the love- We had one guy that had a, you know, his, uh, map view was showing that his dealership was in China. And we're like, "How do you-" Oh my God. [laughs] Please fix this.
• 20:55
  [laughs] Like, man, and he's like, "Oh, we got the website handled. Don't worry about it." You know, cool. All set. Show you're not in China. That's all I'm saying. Like, I mean...
• 21:03
  [laughs] So we, we wanna make sure- That's amazing... they're on a, a very, very solid foundation, right?
• 21:08
  Directory listings, typically these folks have got, you know, 10 or 15% of those that are claimed or are showing their information, and the rest of them are showing them really poorly, right? And that helps.
• 21:18
  Uh, there's all the things, all these different channels that a customer can find them on, making sure that they can actually contact them. Yeah.
• 21:24
  And then in their Google My Business listings, um, a lot of times they're not filling that out completely, or they don't even have their market areas that are indicated in there, or what model, you know, that they're a Hyundai dealer versus just a car dealer, or worse, a parts store.
• 21:39
  Um, [laughs] we've seen those as well. So once that- Hmm... foundation is laid, then we'll start talking to them about, here's, here's how we would devise that from there, right? Yeah.
• 21:48
  Uh, but ultimately- It's almost like, it's almost like, you know, when, when, uh, like, I don't know, Bar Rescue goes in. What do they do? They're like, "Okay, first of all, this place looks terrible." Right.
• 22:00
  "We're gonna make it look good, and then we'll talk about-" Change that light bulb. "... people in the process." Right. [laughs] Like, change the light bulb. Make sure that the lights turn- Sweep the floor. Yeah.
• 22:08
  Sweep the floor.
• 22:08
  Like, that's what you're saying is, like, hey, if people can't get in touch, if the digital showroom just isn't ready to receive someone, then we can't talk about sending the right people there, because they're just- Right...
• 22:19
  gonna get lost along the way anyway. Correct. And they're not gonna see results from what we do. Yeah. Right? If we send another 10,000 people to that site, doesn't mean they're gonna convert, and they won't. Right. Yep.
• 22:31
  Right? Exactly. They're gonna lose interest pretty quickly. So yeah, that's a great analogy. I like that analogy with the Bar Rescue. Cirillo's like, he's frustrated over here. He is. I'm enraged. Him.
• 22:41
  [laughs] I'm insane with anger. You can tell. I'm, I'm gnashing my teeth- [laughs]... with rage. Gnashing. Getting gnashing. Pronounced gnashing, by the way. [laughs] Yeah.
• 22:51
  Well, I, just similar to Kyle a few minutes ago, I'm like, "I need to go lay down in the corner." [laughs] I don't know what we're talking about right now. I've been on all of these sites you're telling me about. Yeah.
• 23:01
  I've seen them. But on that note, this has been so much fun. [laughs] It's been fun. This has been a blast. I love it. Steve Loris, man- Oh, man... thank, thank you so much for, for spending some time with us.
• 23:11
  How can those listening or watching, uh, get in touch with you? Absolutely. They can reach out to me, uh, directly at steve@relevantdealer.com, or visit us at relevantdealer.com.
• 23:21
  Hey, thanks so much for joining us here on Auto Flubs. Hey, thank you guys as well. [upbeat music] You know, I've been waiting. I have recorded hundreds, literally hundreds of podcasts in my career. Quit bragging.
• 23:36
  And, well- Okay... th- there's a segue to this, because speaking of bragging, I've been waiting for an opportunity to put on all of my conference lanyards.
• 23:45
  [laughs] And I forever owe Steve for giving me the opportunity [laughs] to do that. That's amazing. Yeah. [laughs] Look, you guys could probably go toe-to-toe. I don't... Have you done 70, f- what did he say?
• 23:56
  74 conferences, you think you've been to? I don't think I have 74. I don't have 74. That's a lot. That's a lot of moving around, so- I've gotta count. You know I have to count 'em now.
• 24:06
  What, what you can tell is, like-You know, some people go to conferences, like, straight up for the community. That's all they're doing. And when I say community, I really mean the drinks after the conference.
• 24:19
  [laughs] And some people go to do some real learning. And- That's very kind... it's clear that, that Steve has done some clear learning. Like, his...
• 24:30
  Just the, the fact that he said, "Hey, look, the early days of driving sales, those were my favorite," like, he's going to take notes and implement things when he goes to all these conferences.
• 24:40
  And you can tell, like, even just the, his approach is like, "Hey, every once in a while I'll be on a competitive dealer's site, find five things wrong, and just tell them, 'They don't even have to email me back.
• 24:52
  This is a free gift. Like, please just go fix it.'" For the love of automotive. [laughs] For the love of automotive. He just cares for the industry in that way.
• 25:00
  And, and being around 74 industry events over 10 years, kudos to him. Goodness. That's a lot.
• 25:07
  I love, like, hearing about the, some of those guys that were here for the early days of e-com and, and internet in, in automotive. Like, it, it brought to my mind, um, the late Ralph Paglia, who- Mm...
• 25:20
  in a similar vein, was, like, one of the, one of the first guys who ever started wrapping his head around e-com and, and had this, this hilarious story.
• 25:28
  He's like, o- one time at, at a conference, he's like, "Hey, Michael, you wanna know how to, how to get allocation from the OEM?" I said, "What?"
• 25:35
  He's like, "Well, when they redesigned the Corvette, I took in a half million dollars of down payments," [laughs] and Chevy had to come back and be like, "Uh, no, I, I don't think you can do that."
• 25:47
  He's like, "Well, now we gotta-" Wow "... deliver Corvettes 'cause I just have a half million dollars sitting in-" He's like, "Apparently I can." [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Wow. Yeah. Talk about digital retail- Oh...
• 25:57
  back in the early 2000s. Oh, man. Well, this was so much fun to spend some time with you. Thank you for tuning into Auto Collabs.
• 26:03
  And as always, on behalf of Kyle Mountserre, Michael Cirillo, and myself, we'll see you next time.
• 26:10
  Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail- Welcome to Auto Collabs [laughs]... media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. Are we recording?
• 26:20
  [laughs] That's A-S-O-T-U.com. If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 26:31
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording yet? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.