Latest / Auto Collabs / Find the Pony with Carol Marshall
Transcript
- 0:00It's gone country. Sorry Demonetized [upbeat music] This is Auto Collabs. [laughs] That's the least of our concerns, Michael. [laughs] Unbelievable.
- 0:18You know how- Unbelievable... much that would change my life if we got demonetized? [laughs] I would at least be excited that someone was paying attention. [laughs] Yeah. There you go.
- 0:28You get that copyright claim on YouTube, and you're like, "We did something." Oh, somebody cares. It's like, what's that movie with Steve Martin where he's like, "The new phone book's here. I'm somebody now," you know?
- 0:39Oh, The Jerk. It's like, that's how I feel when I get a copyright claim on, um- Ky-... YouTube... Kyle, have you ever seen the movie The Jerk- [laughs]... with Steve Martin? No. Oh my gosh.
- 0:48It is- But I feel like I have because Steve Martin's the same character in every movie, right? He is. Yeah. But this- Right? Okay... this is, like, early Steve Martin when he was- [laughs]...
- 0:55really all in on this character, and it's like, the phone book comes, and he's excited. "The phone books are here." And he looks at his name, and he finds that his name is, like, in there. He's like, "I'm a somebody."
- 1:06And then it's a hard cut to, like... It's like a, like, a, a rando, like, shooter who's looking through the book and just picks a name at random, like who he's gonna go try to shoot at, and it's his name.
- 1:16I love that movie. And then the movie- That's amazing... is off and running. So I don't know. [laughs] Speaking of being... I don't know where we go from that. Let's go back to the hat.
- 1:23[laughs] So the hat is the first new look that the More Than Cars ecosystem has had in forever, and it feels a little Nashville. It feels a little Texas. It feels a little human. And, uh, you can buy these.
- 1:35We're gonna be selling them. Uh, we released them at ASOTU CON, and now we're gonna be selling them online at shop.asotu.com. You should have one. There you go. 'Cause this is- You should get one...
- 1:43this is cool weekend wear. Like, I don't know if this is showroom wear, but this is weekend wear. It definitely is. It depends on your showroom, I guess. Yeah, maybe.
- 1:49But you, you know who really helped push some of those is who we're gonna be talking to today, Carol Marshall from Active Engage. Mm-hmm. They were hanging out at the, uh, hospitality- God, they did such a good job...
- 1:58what do we ca- what did we call it? Area, center- The hospitality sp-... hub... sponsor, but they had the shirts on that were like, "Hospitality, how can we help you?" Yes. And just blended in as- So good...
- 2:09those willing to serve people. Um- Yeah. You know, we've, we've had her on before, and it's always an engaging conversation.
- 2:15Um, you know, she's somebody that thinks deeply about a lot of different aspects of the industry, and we know...
- 2:22I mean, we love her 'cause she's a good partner, and, you know, they just did a bang-up job in the hospitality area of- Area... ASOTU CON. So, uh, why don't we dig in? Why don't we, uh, bring her on in?
- 2:32And hope you guys enjoy this conversation with the Carol Marshall. [upbeat music] All right. We're hanging out with Carol. Carol, it is so good to see you again. How's, how's life in the Active Engage in your world?
- 2:48Let's start with that. Let's get, let's get into just how's life? How's life? Thank you, first of all, for inviting me. It is good to see you both again. Um, life is good. Life is super busy.
- 3:01Um, we're growing the team, and that's always interesting and fun, and you learn new things and new people, and, um, that's exciting for us. Um, growing- Yeah... people, growing products. It's, it's...
- 3:16Growth is good, so. I think- Do you find... Uh, I just gotta- Go ahead... ask this- Yes, yes... 'cause I'm curious. 'Cause- It- 'Cause I'm in the...
- 3:22We're in the same boat, growing teams- I was, I was gonna ask the same question- Yeah... so I'm glad you're asking it. Yeah. Okay. Okay, good. I'm like, do you find... You know, we...
- 3:30O- oftentimes I feel like in business we're like, "You know what? Like, growing revenue is hard," and then it comes around to hiring, and you're like, "I think growing a team is the most difficult thing ever." Yeah.
- 3:41Tell us your secrets. How do you find the right people?
- 3:44Um, our secret is we, we listen and we pay attention, and early, early, like years ago, I read a book, Hiring for Attitude, and it described how Southwest Airlines hires.
- 3:57And it was so insightful, and it involved, yeah, hiring for attitude, and it involved asking a series of questions, and you ask it of your entire team, and then you noted how did your high performers answer versus your lower performers.
- 4:13Mm-hmm. And now you have an answer key to when you interview people.
- 4:17It also gave tips like if people answer questions with never or always, they tend to be very dramatic people, and so you might wanna stay away from that, um, if you don't wanna have a lot of workplace drama.
- 4:31And- There goes all the Italians. [laughs] I never. [laughs] So we- What? [laughs] I know. Sometimes. They gotta say sometimes. That's interesting. Yeah. Huh? That...
- 4:45No, that, that's interesting though because those are... There, there's common language, and I, I just find- Yeah... you know, everyone's resume is a good lie. You know? It's just like a good lie. Yeah.
- 4:54Like a cover letter, strong interpersonal communication skills. You're like, "Eh." Yeah. Right. So now we have a hiring team, and it's cross-depart- departmental.
- 5:05Our HR team has trained all of these folks on how to interview, and we went through this Be Amazing or Go Home, um, workshop off... based on the book by Shep Hyken, um, Be Amazing or Go Home.
- 5:21And let me tell you, when you have an amazing team and you're looking to grow, they will smell out the ones that need to go home so quick, [laughs] because now they're listening for that extra. They're, they're- Mm...
- 5:36really tuned in. And so, um, in fact, today, I just made the proclamation I'm not hiring anyone anymore because I'm too hopeful in my hires. You know? Hmm.
- 5:49I'm more, "Oh, I think this person can get there," and- I can get them over that never hump. [laughs] Yeah. The team does great though. Um, the team- Wow... and I think that's, that's the combination is. Okay.
- 6:03So, so we've got a book called Hiring for Attitude. Is it the book Be Amazing or Go Home? Or is it a dif- Yeah... it's a different... Yeah. It's that book? Yeah.
- 6:10We'll put that in the show notes 'cause I-Well, I think i- if we all point to, especially Southwest back in the day, right? Yeah. I, I think Southwest has waned a little bit. Yeah.
- 6:20You always got on a Southwest flight and you were like, "How did they find these amazing people to fly in- Right... steel cans all day," right? [laughs] Like- They all had the same kind of attitude.
- 6:31And in that book, it explains that, you know, 99% of the people applying for pilot are ex-military.
- 6:39And so they come in in their suits and their ties, and they put them all in a huge conference room and explain, "Oh, there's been some delays, and we just need you to wait."
- 6:49And they would make that conference room really warm. And then after 45 minutes, an hour, they would come in with a box of Bermuda shorts and go, "We know you guys must be warm.
- 7:01Feel free to grab a pair of shorts while you're waiting." And the ones who did not take shorts, they never interviewed because- No way... that did not fit the persona of Southwest, of having- Ah...
- 7:15fun and adapting and going with it. [laughs] Yeah. Interesting. That's unbelievable. Yeah. The- they called it the brown shorts test. Yeah. I just learned something about myself.
- 7:26I'm like, "You better not put those shorts on." [laughs] "You are a pilot." You're right. Right. "There are souls on board." Right.
- 7:33But think about, like you said, Kyle, back in the day, when you think about the things that were said on the PA system in Southwest flights- Oh, yeah... you're like, "Whoa." Yeah. But yeah, you don't- Wow...
- 7:45you don't just find this. Well, I, and I think you've said it, is, you know, you can, you can try... We all know this, right? Yeah.
- 7:53It's like you've got a top salesperson, performs, sells 35, 40 cars a month, but is just a cancer- Yeah... to the entire organization. Yeah.
- 8:02And, like, that's an example of not hiring for attitude because you potentially hired for skill or all- Right... all of a sudden they, like, grew into that skill and became a cancer because of attitude. But- Yeah...
- 8:12like you hire for attitude. I, um, my good friend who I think you guys know, Patrick Abad, he always says like, "We hire happy people because happy people make happy people," right? Smart. Right. Right.
- 8:23Like, it, it's like this residual effect. Like, if you hire happy people, there's going to be happy people in your business, in your client base, all of those type of things. Right. Right.
- 8:31And you can't just like force happiness. No, you can't. Force attitude. It's an atti- it is an attitude. It's how you're, it's how you're trained to think, you know?
- 8:40It's the, the old joke about the two boys and the one kid gets all the presents and the other kid, a room opens up and it's a room full of horse crap.
- 8:50And, you know, they come back and check on the one kid with all the, the kid with all the presents. He's like, I, I... They're like, "Why don't you play with them?"
- 8:56And he's like, "Well, I'm afraid I'll break one and you'll be really angry and duh" And he's crying, right?
- 9:02They go back to the kid with the room, all the horse crap, and he's just joyfully slinging this crap left and right. [laughs] And they're like, "Why are you so happy?"
- 9:11And he goes, "Well, all this horse crap, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere." So. [laughs] Wow. Ooh.
- 9:19And that's- See, now I'm thinking, I'm thinking we need to, the next time we hire people, Kyle, we gotta put them in the boardroom.
- 9:25[laughs] We have to crank up the heat and then like at some point we come in with just like clippers, like hair clippers. [laughs] And we're like, "We know it must be hot. Ah." And just throw like clippers out. Yeah.
- 9:39See who shaves their head to look like us first. [laughs] We'll put like some fake beards on the table and we'll see who- Fake beards. Yeah. Yeah. I think you can- And see who-... do something with the fake beards.
- 9:48I don't know that you really want people willing to, to go bald. Shave their head. [laughs] Yeah. I mean, I don't think that'll work. I don't think that would.
- 9:55But here's, here's what I know and, and when you think about an organization like Active & Engaged that is, that is grown and is larger, and you all just were at a SoDoCon and we kind of, we early on presented this, this option and it was in our, you know, our media kit, our sales deck and all that type of stuff.
- 10:13[laughs] But we said we wanted someone to partner with us from a hospitality perspective to like- Right...
- 10:18greet people and be available and actually come to serve instead of just like be served by having sales output, right? Right. Right. And you all, like it's hard to find nine, 10 people to come- Yeah... that are like...
- 10:33I mean, to be, to be fair, kind of paying to work. It's like, no, we're gonna throw down because we know that if we serve well- Yeah...
- 10:41people will look at us and go, "Wow, that's a different type of company to interact with." Yeah. How did that kind of come about and then like the talks internally to get people ready for- Yeah... serving at that level?
- 10:53So when we saw what the packages that were being offered were offered, uh, hospitality is just, uh, I don't know, it's a core part of me. I have two daughters in the hospitality industry and- Okay...
- 11:07I have a son training to be a pilot. I don't know if he'll put the shorts on, but... Um, so hospitality means something. It, it means something. And I, and I think that's the whole thing.
- 11:18When you go through that Be Amazing or Go Home book, and we put everyone through it, but you gotta be ready to stand on your business and mean it.
- 11:28And so when we started talking to Anne Marie, and I think it said two or three people to help, you know, with registration or whatever, and I was like, "I, I think we can do more."
- 11:38There's more to being hospitable when, I mean, we all go to conferences and we understand, you know, if you're really need to find the bathroom or whatever that situation is, um, there's just so much more you can do.
- 11:52And we wanna be amazing in every single thing that we do as a company. So that, yes, that means the conversations with shoppers on the dealer's websites or AutoTrader or wherever that is.
- 12:05That means, too, when I pass someone in the hallway or I see someone at a conference, you're gonna be amazing.And so when we started the conversation with you guys, y-
- 12:18y- you were like, "Well, how many people can you bring?" And I said, "How many do you need?" [laughs] And, uh, so it was a couple weeks that you came back and, and I said yes. So I mean, I have two people in sales.
- 12:31That's it, two. Yeah. So I tapped some people in customer care, marketing, strategic partnerships, um, and, and that's the team. And yes, we've been meeting.
- 12:41Um, we, we met repeatedly to prepare ourselves to be that hospitality that'll make you guys proud. Because I know you all put together such a professional, polished product in everything you do.
- 13:00Um, we will not be the chink in that armor. And so that's the way we've approached it and trained and prepared for it. Um- That's so cool. Like that, like, pulling that together I think is, is, it's a,
- 13:13it's a different way of looking at serving the industry. And I think when, when you pair that with, like, the question of what do we build next, right? What do we build for the dealer next?
- 13:23What do we build for the consumer next? Yeah. You're probably approaching it with a s- with a similar type of heart and mentality. It's not just like, "Oh, someone did this. We should do the same thing." Yeah.
- 13:35It's like, you know, you're asking the, like, right question initially. So I'd love to hear, like, how has that been productized? How has that been thought of in the business output of what you're doing right now?
- 13:44How is that transferring to the way we, you serve customers, the way you serve dealers? Yeah. It's interesting.
- 13:50The, what we're hearing back, um, from our, our sales and our partnership teams now is the industry, the dealer body, has kind of been, they've been trained to believe that if you pay a company to handle your messaging, you need to watch those conversations and jump in and save 'em or take them over.
- 14:13And so us coming in and trying to explain, "You don't need to do that with us. You're gonna get better results with us," um, it's tough. It's, it's a, it's a hill to climb.
- 14:23Even though we're the oldest in the industry, it's just not what anyone else does. The way that we train and do quality eval. And our goal is to get that shopper sticky with that dealer and get them into the dealership.
- 14:39Leads are easy. We don't care about leads. We care about the quality of that connection from the time they enter the site through to the dealership, so that the sales team in store, they have quality people to talk to.
- 14:53That, that person's gonna answer your email. They're gonna answer your phone call. I mean, it, it's hard to, as a sales manager, to get your team, "Call these leads.
- 15:03Call these leads," and nobody answers, and nobody answers an email because that was just a form fill or it was a, a, not a good experience, and you've lost their trust and they've moved on, right?
- 15:16And so then, yes, we're working on additional products in terms of, um, following up on leads already in the CRM, and we'll have all those products out the second half of the year.
- 15:26We also have flip to text, which is if the dealership phone line is busy, the cun- consumer can change that to a text. So now they're getting that same human conversation- Mm...
- 15:37right from the jump to, again, build that connection.
- 15:40It's, it's, it's tough when we're the w- I know a lot of people say a lot of things, and all I can say is we really mean it, and that was part of why we wanted to be hospitality at AzotoCon. Is like,
- 15:57you can feel us, touch us, look us in the face, and, like, we're, we're trying to back up what we're saying and be more visible in that way, so. I feel like, speaking of people saying a lot of things, I'm interested.
- 16:09This is my crack at a Kyle Mountserre segue. [laughs] Uh, th- this is not a dealership thing. This is a human thing. I want to be clear about this because we are, we are advocates.
- 16:21I know all of us are advocates for the dealer body here. But- Yeah... one thing we hear dealers say a lot is, a- across the board, "Oh, the leads stink." Right. "The leads are awful."
- 16:32And I think of the impact of that on whatever follows if the starting point is always, "The lead stinks," right? What does that do to morale? How they handle opportunities?
- 16:44How does it kill hospitality versus what you've just said?
- 16:48Um, I love how you said, "We will not be the chink in your armor," and I know you were directing at, that at us, but I mean, Kyle kind of drew a throughput there. That's your sentiment. I can hear it- Exactly right...
- 16:59with, with your, with your client partners. Yeah.
- 17:01Not being the chink in their armor, having quality eval, making sure the customer, the shopper experience is where it needs to be and ensuring the quality of the connection. Yeah.
- 17:09What are you seeing is the impact now of a pre-vetted, higher quality opportunity on the dealer's ability to provide better hospitality?
- 17:19So I just, before we started this, I heard of, um, there was a dealer that signed on with us two weeks ago, um, who really thought they wanted to do self-manage and handle the conversations themselves.
- 17:30And because of turnover, they, they had to change plans, right? And we're like, "You know what? We'll do fully managed for you. Our team can handle the conversations. Let's just go ahead and launch."
- 17:40So, um, and it's a Volkswagen store. And in two weeks, we've set eight appointments and they've sold all, all eight. So- Excuse me? Yeah. [laughs] Right. And I'm like... Right. Hold on. [laughs] Right.
- 17:59I, I was like, I was like, "And they all showed up and three of them bought." And I was like, "That's gonna be pretty good." Yeah. "I was gonna be down for that." But she goes, "And they sold all eight." Yeah.
- 18:07Just all chill like that.
- 18:08They sold all eight.Oh, well we haven't played that card And so, and this was a dealer who was just so determined that his team was, would do it, and he had a guy, and it would be great, and da, da, da, da, da.
- 18:20And look, I appreciate... I, I came from the dealership. I appreciate everything a salesperson in a dealership needs to do, especially today. You kidding me? Yeah. You've got EVs- All the paperwork, all the-...
- 18:33you've got hybrids, you've got tariffs. Are y- uh, like, it's all full blast.
- 18:39So to sit and watch someone else have a chat, or to try and do that yourself when the ad- average volume for a dealer, you know, it's gonna be a lot of waiting to, for something to come in if you're one dealer.
- 18:53That just doesn't make sense to me. It's not, it's not efficient, it's not economical, and the results are not gonna be as good, so. What I love about it is, is this, Carol.
- 19:02I, I love that, you know, too often I think in our industry, again, back to human nature, we make this a very, like, poi- finger pointer, finger-pointing type- Yeah... conversation.
- 19:12It's like, "Well, that must mean that dealer stinks." You know what I mean? Yeah. They're always, like, that kind of thing. Yeah. And, and what I love is I don't get that sense- No... here at all. Mm-mm.
- 19:21In fact, you know, what I'm hearing you say is, like, hey, like, there's so much nuance to why potentially an organization couldn't ba- handle their leads. Bandwidth- Right... training, whatever it might be. Yeah.
- 19:34You're saying, "Hey, we're, we're not saying we sold all these eight cars. What we're saying is we set them up at bat with the right-" Right...
- 19:43you know, pitch at the right speed for their organization so that they could knock it out of the park. They still had to do their side of it, but we set them up in a way, and I think that's so important to distinguish.
- 19:54Yeah. And, and maybe I'm overcompensating, but I f- I hear that way too much. It's like, "Look at the problem we solved for the dealer." It's like, nah, but the dealer- No...
- 20:03still did so much work, and I, and I love that I'm not getting that sense- Yeah, no... here from you. No, we're, w- we are their partner. That's it. Um, we are not, you know, they still have a lot to do. Um.
- 20:15I think, I, I was listening to you earlier and I almost brought this up, but now that, now it's, like, eight people, eight, eight sold, right? With this one particular dealer.
- 20:24Well, one, I'm still just, like, kind of reeling from that. But also you, you, you said something earlier, and I can't remember exactly how you said it, but it was something like, we, we are building a,
- 20:37like, we're m- the communication with the customer is building trust such that when they come to the store, when they interact with the store, and, and it's building trust from the store that when that, when that person comes in contact with someone at the store level, that they trust that it's a good connection, right?
- 20:54That's right. Like- Right... like, that's quality. That's a quality person on the other side. That's right. I'm guessing you've... Have you read Steven Covey's Speed of Trust? I have not. Okay. You got- I will now...
- 21:04uh, you gotta check out- Yeah... Steven Covey's Speed of Trust- Yeah... because I think it can be a, it, it, it'll just be a continuation.
- 21:10But when I think about, like, a person that has a great attitude, that approaches every si- single day with being amazing, and understands that the speed of trust is a massive impact factor to every piece of a relationship.
- 21:28It's like employee to employee, employee to customer- That's right... customer to- Yeah... to dealership, dealership back to Active Engage, right? Yeah. That level of, like, the increase in, in speed of trust- Yeah...
- 21:40increases efficiency, increases throughput, increases c- conversation. Yeah. And you, like, you wrap all the... Th- there's three books that people are gonna have to read after this podcast.
- 21:50[laughs] I'm just telling you right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, we are, of course, our executive team, I've been here over 16 years. Our executive team's been here over 10 years.
- 22:01And, um, I have over 80 years experience just in my training team, training and quality team, of their experience focused on these types of conversations. Mm. And then the, the culture is one where people are vocal.
- 22:16And if something's not right, like, they're raising their hand, usually to me, and that's okay, um, because I will find the pony. [laughs] And they'll be like, "This is not right.
- 22:26This didn't come across right, and I didn't get prepped." And I'm like, "Okay, okay." And then we come together and we talk about it and we get it right, because ultimately we gotta deliver.
- 22:36So, and it, it does require trust. It's like, you know, when you're first married and you have that first argument and you're like, "Oh, my God, he's gonna leave me," or whatever.
- 22:44And you just come to understand when you've been together so long, like, no one's leaving. We're going to communicate, and we're gonna get, get through to the solution. So, yeah. Wow.
- 22:55Well, listen, we trust you, and we're grateful that you trust us and that you're amazing hospitality partners. Uh, Carol, thank you so much for joining us on Auto Collabs today. Thank you. Thanks both.
- 23:09[upbeat music] All right. Here's my notes. [laughs] The books, don't forget 'em. They'll be in the show notes. Hiring for Attitude, Be Amazing or Go Home. Oh, love that. And The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey.
- 23:24Those three books- Classic...
- 23:25I think if you pull those three books together, you will have the essence of hospitality, trust, bringing the right team together, making sure that they're constantly encouraged to do their best.
- 23:38And you might just build an organization that has the staying power of, like, an Active Engage over time. Ah. Who knows?
- 23:46You know, I, I often, in my kind of hiring spiel, I usually get to, to speak to potential hires at the end of the interview process, right?
- 23:55They've, they've gone through several, several interviews, and we've determined some things. And I always say the same shtick to them. Say, I look at hiring in two tur- two ways, qualificat- or,
- 24:05qualifications and fit, right? Qualifications are you have the skills and the aptitude to do the job. Fit is you have the attitude and the aspiration to go in the direction- Mm-hmm... that we're going to.
- 24:16And fit will deraila very qualified person- Immediately... faster than anything else. Yep. You could be the best at what you do. So I love the focus on hiring for attitude, because you, you can train skills.
- 24:28It's very, very difficult to train. I would say you can't actually train attitude. You can train some behaviors in there, but that doesn't mean you get the attitude right- Nope... and it spills out.
- 24:38I don't know why you're, uh, like, as I'm listening to you talk this through, I'm thinking about when you use the wrong size Phillips screwdriver [laughs] and it just shreds the, the screw- It shreds... to bits.
- 24:51It shreds it, yeah. And, and it kinda makes me think of that. Hmm. She brought up stuff, like, I wrote down words that she was saying.
- 24:57Like, there's, there's words that you can listen for that people say that kinda give you an indication of what kind of employee they'll be, how they'll contribute or detract from the whole.
- 25:05One of them was the word never. People that use the word never commonly. They're absolutionists, yeah. Yeah, and they, and they tend to bring drama. And I'm like, "Huh."
- 25:15You know, and I think, how many times do we do that in our organizations where, you know, you might like the person, but the like of the person actually gets in the way with what she's talking about and what you just brought up, Paul- Yeah...
- 25:25where it's like, but it's not the right fit. We're just stripping away at a screw here that's never gonna- Mm... like, bring the whole thing together.
- 25:32So I, I thought- That's a great me- that's a great illustration, because then once you- Well, and illustration, I feel like- Once you strip the screw out, right, like, then you have to bring in the big tools, and you're really into it.
- 25:40Now you're drilling a house. I feel like you got a LinkedIn carousel just, like, ready to be made right there, fam. Oh, yeah. Hey, we hope you enjoyed this conversation with Cara Marshall. I know we certainly did.
- 25:51Hey, thanks for hanging out with us here on Auto Collabs. We will see you next time. And go get your hat.
- 25:55[upbeat music] Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
- 26:09If 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.
- 26:16[upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Why are we recording? [laughs] Are we rolling yet?
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