You are in an abusive relationship with your data.

Transcript is auto-generated from the episode recording and lightly formatted. It may contain transcription errors.

Chris Keene (00:14): Well, here we are, folks. Welcome back. We are on season number two. We are on episode three. We have kicked it off this season with some really good stuff here. I mean, my gosh, we started the season off with Rob Ruth, the owner, the president of the Bob Ruth Ford store out there in Pennsylvania. We ran season two, John, with some snippets from Nate Shaver out on the West Coast with Mr. Chris Palmer in the center of the U.S., And then, of course, with Rob Dell, the VP over at Bob Ruth. We ran some really, really, really good stuff and some really good snippets. I hope you listeners and viewers, when you tuned in to LotWalk, powered by LotPop, I hope you guys went back and watched those episodes. They were absolutely fantastic to help kick off the second part of this year. Folks, welcome back. I'm Chris Keen, one of your co-hosts. I'm joined by the infamous John Anderson, but our brother, Ronaldo, gosh, I hope you get the frog out your throat. He's down and out. He can't even talk today. And guess what? All that means, John, is these folks get to get more of my antics today because we don't have Ronaldo.

John Anderson (00:44): I got... More time for you, brother. More time for you. Come on, baby. Let's do it.

Chris Keene (00:48): So we've got a really interesting episode today. And by the title of it, I mean, you guys are probably sitting there going, what are these guys thinking? Well, we're thinking about you. We're thinking about you, salesperson that's listening. We're thinking about you, dealer principal that's listening, sales manager, used car manager, GM, GSM, new car manager, BDC manager. We're thinking about you right now. But we're also thinking about the consumer. Because when we talk about all of this paralyzing data that is out there, it is no wonder some of the stats that we've heard lately are what they are today. Now, we're thinking about you. The title of this episode is because we're thinking about you, which also takes me back to why we even do Lot Talk powered by Lot Pop is because we're thinking about you. Because we get the privilege to be on hundreds and thousands of calls each and every month, listening to what our dealer partners, your peers, the things that they're doing to win, the things that they're doing to help mitigate loss. We get to listen to other industry experts like the people from Cars.com, like the people from Cox Automotive, like people from CDK. We get the privilege to partnering with a lot of different people out there and help kind of weave through this messy bowl of spaghetti. But before I get into anything even deeper, John Anderson, my brother, give the folks a little bit more preview of why we're doing what we're doing.

John Anderson (01:26): Um, you know, it's, it's, it's awesome. You brought that up. Um, before I jumped on a cause I was actually on my phone and uh the bible app just doing a little scripture reading and you know it the what I was reading was talking about our responsibility right and that's to um it was more leading it was more about justice and righteousness right and our responsibility as as as human beings to help those that are underprivileged or struggling know going through a rough time homeless right but really the overall meaning of it was it's our responsibility to be uh helpful and of service right and I think um that's where that's where it really comes from um and and you know I know sometimes I'm sure some of the dealers that I talk to on on the on our calls on a on a weekly basis would probably uh would probably refute a little bit well you don't come across that way sometimes and and you know because of my passion and and I you know I do sometimes it does come but come to a point where uh chris and I know you do the same thing sometimes you got to call the baby ugly right and and that makes people uncomfortable but you know uh we really look I don't know how many people watch or listen. We have data that we look at from the podcast and it looks like it's growing. Listen, I've always said this. If one person watched us live or watched the recording and they took something away that they put in play and it helped them grow their business, then success. Success on our behalf because That's what it's all about. We're a couple of car guys that have access to a nice-sized dealer partner body. We're in the trenches every week. Like our CEO, Jason Rice, used to say, we're in there rolling up our sleeves with you. We have access now to what? We're twelve years now? We have access now to twelve years worth of twelve years worth of data. Right. So just just shy a few months, just shy of twelve years. Right. So we're we're just a bunch of car guys that are trying to give back to an industry that's been so good to us. And we have some we have a knowledge base that we can pull from that hopefully help us do that. So, yeah, it's it's a blessing. It's a blessing.

Chris Keene (02:29): Yeah, it is. It's a big time blessing. And, you know, what? You know, I know everybody listening may not be into scripture, but you can't argue the fact that regardless if you're in scripture or not, it makes no difference. I mean, in another conversation for me, it makes a big difference. I hope you are. But if you're not, you know what John was listening to of, you know, helping those that need help, helping those in need. And that's what we want to do. We want to help those in need. And trying to unravel this messy bowl of spaghetti, it's a chore and it's a daily chore. And we are privileged that we get to do this and we are honored that we get to do it with a lot of dealer partners out there, which this is a perfect segue for me to sit there and tell you, for those listening in, It doesn't matter if you're a dealer partner of ours or not. Right. Comment below, drop your information or reach out to myself directly. Reach out to John directly. You can find all of our information at lottalkpodcast.com. And we will help you at no charge. We'll help you at no charge. Pointing to my cell phone number, but I hit my microphone, but there's our cell crew below our names are our cell phone, direct cell phone. So, you know, don't hesitate if you got a question or you'd say, Hey, I think you guys are full of crap. We can take that too.

John Anderson (03:14): I mean, we're listen, let's, uh, some of the, some of the greatest, some of the greatest institutions of knowledge have come about from debate. Yes. Right. So yes. Um, Please, man, if you guys have watched us before, you're watching now, and you hear something that you don't like or you contest, man, reach out to us. We'll invite you on. Let's debate. Look, I think Chris would agree with me. Neither one of us, I can promise you this, neither one of us feel like we know it all. Trust us. But some of the greatest things that we learn are from our dealer partners. And that's the stuff that we try to pass along, stuff that we see that guys are doing, they're having success with. And we see it successful week in and week out. And some of it was... you know, from a contested call where we had a debate with a dealer partner and we went back and forth and they're like, okay, you know, we have to be open to seeing it another way as well. You have to be. So by all means, man, right there, I'll try not to hit the mic, but there's a cell phone number. Give us a call.

Chris Keene (04:33): So as long as you don't hit your cup of coffee and spill it all over. I got that off to the side, brother. Got that off to the side. So let's dive in, John. Let's just dive into it because, I mean, this is a topic that, guys, we start talking about all this data. And I want to jump in because also, John, right before we went live today, you sat there and said you were listening to one of the public forum calls on Clubhouse. And today on Clubhouse, we had some data analysts and some really smart people from cars.com on there. And for the longest time, consumers had been visiting about one point four, one point five dealerships, physically visiting them before they made their transaction. Now, that number on the cars.com side, that number has jumped all the way to, would you say, four?

John Anderson (05:33): That was from one point four to four point one. And I'll give props to David Long and his team. If you guys haven't tuned in, it's a great forum and there's a lot of high... big brain people. Absolutely. So it's all things used cars every Friday at nine Eastern time, eight central time. And there's a lot of big brain folks on there. So there's good information coming out, but that's where I heard that this morning.

Chris Keene (06:05): Yeah. One point four to four point one. So that's a, that's a pretty major shift. And when you take Cars.com or their parent company, Cars Commerce, that's a big player in our industry. The other big player is Cox Automotive. And as soon as you had told me that, John, I started looking back up some data again, and their number wasn't as strong as Cars Commerce. And as a dealer, as a manager, as a GM, you're sitting there going, shoot, what number do I believe? Well, all of them. Because what cars commerce is, is they're looking across theirs and their numbers, right? Cox item move is they're looking across their dealer body and their numbers, right? And yeah, The last publication I've seen from Cox Automotive, it was somewhere around two and a half dealerships. So if you take the two and a half and the four point one and you look at the six point six rounded up to seven, consumers are visiting three and a half dealerships. It regardless, either way, it is still more than what they were doing before. Now, here's part of why, in my humble opinion, and John, I'm going to use you as the guinea pig. How many Chevy Tahoe's up until the current Chevy Tahoe that you own now? How many Chevy Tahoe's have you owned in the last fifteen, twenty years?

John Anderson (07:39): Zero.

Chris Keene (07:40): OK, so think about this for a minute, listeners. The consumer public, which John, myself included, we're part of the consumer public now because we're not in the dealership. We're not running dealerships. We're not running departments. We're on the outside. We're the indirect side of the automotive industry. John has never owned a Chevy Tahoe. John decides to buy a Chevy Tahoe. John visited one dealership. but john how many dealerships did you inquire with about a chevy tahoe that they had on their lot

John Anderson (08:30): five

Chris Keene (08:30): of the five how many of them fed you the information that you needed to make an educated buying decision

John Anderson (08:43): um I would say one and a half. I mean, I got response from two of the five, but the one I bought the Tahoe ad obviously was mountaintops away from everyone else and the amount of information that was being given to me over a two-week period. Okay. The amount of, I call, I like to call it a drip campaign. The amount of, the amount of drips that she was laying on me on a, on a daily or every other day basis.

Chris Keene (09:17): Now was it, Hey John, are you still in the market for a vehicle? Hey John, what time can you be by here this afternoon? Hey John, we still have that Tahoe in stock. Was it that?

John Anderson (09:28): No, actually I don't, I don't think. To be honest with you, Chris, as I'm thinking about it, I don't think that question was asked of me one time. I mean, even initially.

Chris Keene (09:41): Didn't the sales rep or the BDA agent or the manager, whoever it is that you spoke with, doesn't matter. The dealership representative, for lack of better terms, they found out, was it safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy, or dependability? And then they fed information to you based upon your hot buttons and buying motives. Is that correct?

John Anderson (10:04): Well, I may be a little, I don't, you know what I was about to say. I don't think I am. I, cause I see it in C I see it in CRMs when we jump in there to, to look at quality of conversation. I mean, I, you know, I come in, I come in relatively hot. You know, I, I came in and said, I even explained, and I know some dealers kind of you know, take a mindset, well, you're not in the business anymore, right? But I come in and explain, look, you know, I was on the dealership side for thirty seven years. I really I don't have a ton of time. You know, I'm an easy sell. I want to get this. I want to get this handled. And and so I need a Tahoe. And here's why. So I offer a lot of information up front because I want you know, I'm hoping to get uh, information back as quickly as I can. So, you know, I, I explained what I was, what I was doing with the Tahoe.

Chris Keene (10:55): So you're a little bit easier than the average Joe.

John Anderson (11:00): So before I don't know, easier, I think I just, I think I probably, you know, a lot of times we'll get in there and we'll see, uh, uh, uh, uh, customers say, Hey, um, I'm interested in this vehicle. Is it still available? Right. But I, obviously I went a lot deeper than that. I, you know, I'm interested in this vehicle. Here's the reason why.

Chris Keene (11:18): You told her exactly how to sell you.

John Anderson (11:21): I did. I did.

Chris Keene (11:22): Okay. And that's fine. The piece though that listeners and viewers that you got to remember these customers that are visiting your virtual dealership, you have got to listen to them because they are going to tell you exactly how to sell them. If they're saying, is this vehicle still available? Well, that's a yes or no question. And now they're selling you. So, and you answer yes. And if you immediately followed up with what time can you be here this afternoon? Have we thought about asking the basic simple question of absolutely. It is still available. Hey, what's making you look at this vehicle today? What about the vehicle you're currently in? What do you love about it? What do you hate about it? Why are you looking at this vehicle? I have a strong notion because the way that that individual took care of you, John, and the way that they fed you the information you needed based upon what you're using the vehicle for, I have a strong notion that they would have asked those same questions to you.

John Anderson (12:34): Oh, there's no doubt she would have. No doubt about it.

Chris Keene (12:38): I bring all of that up. Go ahead. Go ahead, John.

John Anderson (12:42): I was just going to say, you're spot on, man. You know... How many times, let's go outside of our industry, right? There's a book I love that, you know, how to win one hundred and fifty thousand of your closest friends, right? I love the book. It's short, but it's a networking book. And anytime you read anything about communication with people that you that you've never met before, what is the constant that is all, I don't care what you read. If it's, you know, you walk into a room and you generate conversation with someone, what is always the constant that you, that those books coach you on? Ask them about them. And so what you just described, Chris, is exactly what you're doing for that customer is you're asking about themselves. When you immediately go from, yes, it's available, what time do you want to come in and see it? You're centered on yourself. You're not centered on the customer. You're trying to set an appointment for you and the dealership. Look, I understand. And there's a time and a place for that. But The way you started this was the change, right? Look, I was extremely surprised by that. I've been surprised a lot here recently by the amount of time that people are doing research went up by five to six hours.

Chris Keene (14:25): John, I'm not surprised. I am not surprised.

John Anderson (14:29): Well, I, you know, and again, I know you're going to get into that, but I have been. I thought, look, in my mind, I thought with the amount of technology and the amount of tools that are available for the consumer out there, I felt like, because I know how I research, right? I know how I do. Anytime I buy, I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's – I don't care if it's replacement – Well, that's, yeah, that's happening right now, but I don't care if it's a replacement string for my weed eater. I'll get on and do some research on it and look and I'll look and I always look at, you know, what's the star rating, what are the reviews, right? So I just felt like with all those tools, Chris, quite honestly, I felt like that it was going to shorten the cycle, right? And people would, because of all those tools being available, people would be able to narrow it down and go, okay, here's what I want, right? But To the contrary, something else is going on, and I know you can address that. But yeah, to the contrary, it seems like something else is going on there.

Chris Keene (15:37): Well, this is why I'm not surprised, John. Here is why, listeners and viewers. Here is why I am not surprised that the number of dealerships a consumer is visiting is going up. Because of the overwhelming amount of resources that the consumer has, They are receiving paralysis by analysis. But they're also not getting the straightforward answers that they're looking for. They're not getting them. And now, I'm only speaking to what we see as the majority in our large sample size of dealers that we work with here at LotPop. But over and over and over, we talk about quality over quantity. Sales managers listening in, GMs, dealer principals. If you're still continually beating your people over the head about you need to have seven thousand phone calls, ten million emails, thirty thousand text messages, you need to have all that done by the time you leave today. If that's all you're focusing on, you're missing the boat. That's where you're losing some business. Because the consumers want, they want to be able to capture all the information without having to talk to thirty different people and narrow their search down. They want to be able to do that. They want to be able to transact online. But they can't. Because we've got dealers out there that are in far Southwest Texas talking about a Highline vehicle and asking the customer what time this evening can they be here and not reading the lead and understanding that the guy lives in far Northeastern Oklahoma. And that's a true story of something I just witnessed in the last ten days. that the sales and BDC rep is asking the customer, what time can you be here? Yeah, it's available, but not reading that the guy is in mountains, Oklahoma, and you're down in Southwest Texas. Well, that don't make a lick of sense. All you're doing to a person that is looking at a high line vehicle. They're looking at a. Twenty twenty three Land Rover. That guy's going, is this clown not paying any attention whatsoever? I mean, come on, guys. It's a no wonder that we're seeing that. Now, some people think it's because the resurgence of new car. Well, yeah, new car's back, guys. Some people think it's, well, there's a depletion of used cars. Well, not by the two big hitters I just talked about earlier with Cox Automotive and Cars Commerce. When you look at the listings on cars.com and you look at the listings on autotrader.com, that number ain't changed dramatically in used cars, but it has changed in new car. We saw the level of new cars up here and now the level of new car down here. And that number has stayed very consistent and they're both continuing to feed each other. It's not because we ain't selling cars. It's because the dealerships are getting new cars and the new cars are turning into trades and the two just keep feeding each other. So it's not a lack of inventory. It's a lack of quality of follow-up that you guys are doing out there that I would arguably tell you, please take me up on this offer. Take me up on this offer. Drop your information below. We will pull your information into LotPop at no charge for thirty days and I'll prove to you that you guys are missing the boat And it's circled around quality of follow-up. You're getting the activity. Hell, you look at your advertising budget. You're looking at how much you're spending and scratching your head going, why are my grosses depleting? Why is my volume down? Well, you're compressing your own market. So, sorry if I ruffled some feathers, but if you want to prove me wrong, drop your information below and prove me wrong. But I bet you dollars and donuts that were spot on because when we see it with over eighty five percent of the dealers that come on with us. We're not wrong. We're not wrong at all. So that's one of the biggest contributing factors, John, that we're seeing with this big slowdown in this margin compression and this volume compression. That's one of the things. Obviously, John, there's things outside that are out of the automotive industry's control. You know, politics, economics, those things are out of our control to a degree. But that's one of the biggest challenges. You're smiling over there, John. Why?

John Anderson (21:27): No, I well, I, you know. it was just something you said that made me laugh. So I typed, I typed in the back screen, Brett, there's a takeaway from Chris that you can, you can grab for us. No, but I think this is, I think this is a good segue to, you know, what we talked about earlier this week that we really wanted to address. Right. And, and man, I could get, throw it out there, throw it out there. I could say some things that could probably fire some people up. I, you know, I look what, what we talked about earlier this week was, you know, um, do, do, do we really feel like, um, I go back to when I was running a store as a GM. Um, and now that I know what I know, um, with everything that was circling around and going on in that store and the multiple hats that you typically have to wear when you're in the trenches, did I really have a good finger on the pulse of that store? Did I understand... Was I leading from a position of... my store, my people, my market, or was I, was I being led? Um, was I being led by the, uh, the partners that I had and the information that I was looking at there. And I'm going to give you a, for instance, um, uh, go to market data. Right. What was I? Was I making decisions with my inventory based more on go-to-market data versus what was really happening at my store? And the answer to that is yes. And I remember selling about this next one because I know how I felt as a salesperson. am I looking at, am I looking and setting up processes based on, uh, overall data for my salespeople, uh, that put pressure on my salespeople in a way that frustrates them. And the answer to the meat, the answer to that for me was yes, I was right. Because, and, and look, uh, I'm an avid fan of a, of a major CRM out there. I've, I've used it for years, so I'm an avid fan. So it's nothing against, uh, the, I'm not saying anything against CRMs. What I am saying is time, you know, it's interesting because Brett brought it up before we jumped on this call. He's like, I, you know, I feel like that. you know, things, things change so fast, but it seems like dealers are, are, you know, relatively slow to adapt to the changes. Right. And, and I think there was a lot of wisdom in there and that's coming from an individual that never said never spent a day in the automotive, uh, uh, dealership, but he's just observing from a distance. Right. And he can see it. And so, you know, when it comes to putting pressure on your salespeople to, uh, to, get a certain amount of tasks done in a day, right? And that's all here. I want to just see that number, right? But to your point, Chris, what you said earlier, what's the quality within those tasks, right? From a leadership, am I looking at it? Would it be more important for me, for a salesperson to knock out Or would I rather him get in and find a twenty five customers that are active, that are on inventory, that I can sell to? You know, I got an opportunity to set an appointment. And so would I rather him spend more time on those twenty five customers? getting them engaging in, in quality conversation, uh, where he's talking to them about what we talked about, right? He's asking them questions about themselves. And my point is, is, are we putting, are we putting undue pressure on our sales teams to, Hey, you got to get through like Chris alluded to earlier. Hey, I expect these seventy-five done by the end of the day. And so now you put your salesperson on a on a schedule that he's got a, he or she has to hit. And now it's a time. Now you put a timeframe on them, right? Whereas, you know, how many of those seventy five? And I'm not saying all those seventy five aren't important because they are. It's anytime you have anytime you have customers that support and contact them. But there has to be a hierarchy. And would I rather them spend more time with with customers that are it would make a difference, right? And so that was what we were talking about is are we doing with all the amounts of data and tools that we have at our fingertips in a dealership today, are we really pulling out the stuff that's going to be most beneficial to us? And you mentioned it earlier from customers, right? Paralysis by analysis. Oh, my goodness. Is that immensely possible with dealerships now, paralysis by analysis, right? Because I'm looking at all this different stuff, right? And so I guess my question, and I'll stop here, is am I – Am I using all the data in a way that is giving me a depth of knowledge about my operation with my people in my market? And I'm going to share this with you. One of the things for all the years that I was managing at dealerships, whether it was a desk manager in finance as a GM. One of the things that was common, and I probably did it as a desk manager, I'm sure I did, is that if we had a bad day, it was commonplace for a manager to go to the manager above them and say, hey, I know we had a bad day, but I talked to the dealership down the street, one of my buddies, and they had an off day too. Right. And, and as a man, as, as a GM, when I heard that, I just wanted to, man, I literally wanted to throw a chair through the window because I literally did not, honestly, I did not care about what the store down the street does. I care about what I'm doing. And that's, I guess that's my point is I, With all this data, do you really understand what your store is doing and is capable of doing? Or... Are you manipulating the data in such a way that you're giving yourself a false picture and thereby it's causing you issues, hidden issues that you're not seeing because I'm not looking at it from a perspective of what's actually happening on the grounds at my store. I see what's happening in the market and I'm thinking, well, that should be happening for me. But what if it's not? What if it's not? Do we know how to make those adjustments because we're so saturated and we know what's happening at our store that I know, okay, that's not happening for me. And here is why. Because maybe we went to market a little bit too strong on this car, even though the market said this is where it should be absorbed, right? So I think that's what we really wanted to segue to because... There's just so much stuff going on right now and so much stuff available at our fingertips. I think it's becoming more and more important for us to understand exactly what's happening at our stores with our people and with our customers, with our customers.

Chris Keene (30:07): But to that point, John, did we as a dealership take that piece of inventory inside our inventory management system? Did we sit there and manipulate that data to make it look how we think it should be? Or did we put it out there based upon what the consumer is going to look at it like?

John Anderson (30:31): Great point. And Chris, to your point, we see that a lot. That's a big difference.

Chris Keene (30:33): Yeah, it is a big difference. I don't care which inventory management tool you use. It makes me no difference. The thing is, if you're looking at it and going, well, if you go two hundred fifty miles out, this thing's at ninety six percent. You can't replace this car. Well, why the hell would you want to replace it? I mean, it's eighty four days old. So are you manipulating your own data to make it look good? Or are you going to reality saying, okay, whoa, time out. Here's how we sell. Okay, I agree with inventory management tools. The data they're showing for the day supply, the market day supply, the like-mind market day supply, all the different attributes that they're showing. I agree with that data. So I'm not telling you, hear me close here. I am not telling you that the data inside your inventory management tool is wrong. I'm telling you it's a hundred percent dead on right. But it doesn't mean that's how you're going to sell. Put it in this perspective, John. If you're a Chevy store, and across the street you've got a Ford store, and all day long you keep seeing these Ford Explorers go in and out, in and out. They've got Ford Explorers parked on their front line. And those Ford Explorers keep changing. You're like, my gosh. You pick up the phone, you call your brother over there going, hey, man, y'all are selling a bunch of Ford Explorers. Oh, my God, yeah, it's the number one selling vehicle. We're doing great with them. Then you go into your inventory management tool and you look and it says it's got a really good day supply and there's plentiful in the market, but they're still turning. And all right, well, let me go buy some. And you go buy some and you buy ten of them. And you're the Chevy store. John, you may pop out two or three of them, but what's your next seven oldest vehicles?

John Anderson (32:39): Usually those, yeah.

Chris Keene (32:40): Okay, so now take that same example there, John, and you go buy ten Ford Explorers because you see the day supply and you see this, you see that, everything's rainbows and unicorns. But at the same time you buy those, you go across the street and you steal two salespeople from that Ford store. What are the first ten vehicles that those two salespeople are going to sell?

John Anderson (33:05): Those Ford Explorers.

Chris Keene (33:06): So what does the data inside the, it has meaning, but you have to put all the pieces together is what I'm getting at. And to your point, those two salespeople have familiarity with their store, with their customer base in their market. And that's why they would gravitate towards those Ford Explorers. John, we've all done it. We've brought the used car manager in. Listen, how many times have you been in the Dodge store and you needed a used car manager and one comes across your waves and this guy, he's been killing it in the Toyota over at this Toyota store. Man, they've been selling a bunch of cars and we get an opportunity to take them and you bring that guy in and then forty five days later, you're a Dodge store and you look up and you got Corollas and Camry sitting on your used car lot.

John Anderson (34:00): Oh, yeah. Why? Oh, yeah. It's what he's familiar with. It's what he's, that's what he's been, you know, that's his, that's what he knows. That's his wheelhouse. That's what he knows. So typically, typically we're gonna, we're going to gravitate towards what we know. And that's why this is so, I think this topic is so important is, you know, we brought this up before on the, on this podcast, right? Are you a student of your game? Right. You know, Chris, you're a football coach, right? We both played sports, athletics, right? And, you know, the amount of study that's involved, right? Any NFL team, you know, the amount of study that's involved, the amount of film room work they do, you know, the amount of repetitions they do, right? because they're a student of their game and and I think you know listen am I what did I perfect this no by not not by any means and and uh what we're talking about is the hard stuff right because you have listen I think the reason why our company exists and why we're uh why we've had the amount of success we've had is because we literally do help dealers see the unseen stuff, right? And it's not because they don't know it. It's because a lot of times in a lot of stores, if you're a single point store, you actually have two stores. You have your virtual dealership and you have your bricks and mortar dealership. And the bricks and mortar dealership keeps you busy as all get out. You've got stuff going on everywhere, right? I've got customers in service. I've got Maybe I've got an upset customer. I've got a salesperson that called in this morning. I've got lot porters that need to know where these vehicles need to go. I've got to go back to my used car row and address... and and assess my my trade ins. Right. So that I can let my service manager give him information. I've got to do appraisals. I've got to I've got to submit deals to the bank. Right. All those things that we have going on on a daily basis in our bricks and mortar. And as a result of that, it's not it's it's nobody's fault. It's just busy. And and the number one place that you have customers visiting you is on your virtual lot.

Chris Keene (36:47): Oh, absolutely.

John Anderson (36:48): right and so if I've got all that info if I've got all that stuff going on in my bricks and mortar How can I do all the small stuff it takes and be a student of the game for both of my dealerships? And that's really the question, right? Because on top of that, I do need to get in as a manager and look at my conversations that are happening between my sales team or my BDC and my customers, right? Because I might see a conversation by doing that that I need to jump into as a manager, pick up the phone and call the customer. right um I I do need to understand uh where my ford explorers uh what day they're leaving my lot and what price to market they're leaving at right I do need to understand all that stuff and so where do I fit that stuff in at and that's really that that's really the that's really that's really the challenge here right am I being Am I being honest with myself and how I'm assessing those things so that I can make accurate adjustments and make accurate assessments on how to continue to produce sales within my variable operations. Right. So that I'm, uh, so do I have a handle on the new cars and how is it helping support the used cars? Do I handle on the used cars? How's it helping support the new cars? Right. So there's just a lot of, there's just a lot of things there and a lot of, a lot of moving parts in there. And so how, you know, I, I need to understand more than ever before that, what's happening uh at my store and the challenge is how do I do that right because a lot of the tools that I have at my fingertips give me market-based view of what what's happening out in the market Which is good. It is good. I'm not saying it's not good. A lot of tools that give me customer data that I have this group of customers that I need to reach out to, but it doesn't really define it down to... know where are my best opportunities to pair a customer that's in need with a vehicle that I have uh in stock um and and how am I finding those right um I you know I think about a lot of times right how many times in a dealership when you're working a sales desk did a salesperson approach you and go Hey, John just showed up and he was, uh, I've been talking to him about that Tahoe and we sold that thing three days ago. What can I show him? How many times did that happen at the sales desk? Right. Every day. And so how important it is, how important is it for you, uh, you know, to have those tools available, uh, for your salespeople to be able to find that, um, when they're talking to a customer. that's not even at your dealership yet. So again, there's just so much going on and, and having an understanding of what's happening within your doors, in my opinion, from what we see on a weekly basis is absolutely, what you need to understand in order to make, in order to make the proper decisions with the tools you have, that's what you have to understand. That has to be a priority.

Chris Keene (40:38): So let's give them some takeaways here on these first, because before time runs out, I want to hit one more subject. So let's talk about the first subject we're on with the quality of follow-up. So here's takeaway number one. Viewers, listeners, write this down. This is as basic, fundamental as you could possibly get. Some of you may know what this is. Some of you may not. You've heard me rattle it off several times over the last several episodes. Spaced. It's an acronym. S-P-A-C-E-D. Safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy, dependability. If your staff or you listening or watching, if you are part of that frontline troop that is talking to the consumer, if we're not discerning with the consumer spaced, What's most important to the customer? You're fifteen, twenty steps behind. And it is as simple as asking the customer. Mr. Customer, what's most important to you? Is it safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy or dependability? What did you love about your old vehicle? What did you not like about it? What do you want in your new vehicle? So there's takeaway number one I would give for the quality of follow up. Second thing, for what John just gave, I couldn't have even said it better. I can simplify it by saying this. Management team, salespeople, BDC team, internet team, GMs, GSM, new car, used car managers, you got bullets whizzing by your head all day long. Where the hell do I start? I'm in a firefight. I got this brick and mortar I got to worry about. Now you're telling me I got this digital dealership I got to worry about. Well, here's the beauty of it. So here's takeaway number two. In your digital dealership, you have people that supplied your digital retailing tool, your listings tools, your website, your chat, all these different things to supply your digital dealership. Pick up the telephone, set a meeting with them, And set the tonality with them. I don't need you coming in here selling me on why I need to keep your product. What I need you to do is explain, don't miss this, cause and effect. Because we've been doing this, what type of positive effect has it had? And because we've been doing this that we thought was going to have positive effect, if it had an adverse reaction, what can we do to improve it? That's what I would be doing with every last one of my third party. Those two are major takeaways, John, that I would tell our viewers, our listeners, when it comes to your digital dealership, because you can't manage both efficiently. But that's why you've got these reps or performance managers or what have you from these third parties. Listen, if you don't have somebody in the store that could go audit your website to make sure all your links are working. If you don't have somebody in your store that could go audit all your third-party sites to make sure they're working, to check your digital retailer, make sure it's working, make sure all the links are working, make sure everything's flowing through the workflow like it's supposed to. If you don't have somebody in your store that is auditing your process from the time that somebody takes a virtual up or a physical brick and mortar up to make sure that we are loading. If your process is loading the customer, the CRM first, then let that transact or, or move across all of your tools that you need to sell a car. Then take the people that sold you that product and, And hold them accountable for helping you do that because that's what they're there for. If they say they're not, then you got the wrong tool. Those are two major takeaways, John, right there that I would tell our viewers and listeners they should do.

John Anderson (45:12): Good stuff. I agree. I would add to that. No, I would just add to that. You know, I think the benefit of, of being, uh, on this side of things for the last nine years is, has taught me a lot of things. And, and, you know, hindsight's always, I wish I would've had this knowledge when I was, uh, right. And I'm sure sometimes, you know, I'm sure some of my old peers that I've worked with, if they watch this would like, dude, where were you at back then? Right. You know, and, and again, We had success, so we were a successful group and dealership. But I just think about how much more successful I would have been had I known some of the things I know now as a result of talking with dealers on a weekly basis and understanding some of these things. So I would add to what Chris said. There's another thing I heard this morning. that, that I want to throw out there. And it is, um, the average customer is spending between sixty six and seventy eight days. Uh, and that's gone up by thirty days, uh, to make a buying decision. So the folks out there, um, if you're dropping, if you're, if your team is moving leads to lost or bad, um, after you know, fourteen to twenty one days, man, I would I would surely get in there and change that and hang in there with your customers. Right. Content, content, content. Right. We all we all own cell phone. We all own cell phones. And we all we all. We all spend an exorbitant amount of time on our cell phones looking at what content. Content. Right. So meet your customers. Have your team meet your customers where they live, right? You know, we like to see every three-day contact attempts. And I know that... know I've heard it when I've gone into stores that to help train and sales people that question is and chris threw it out earlier what do you want me to what do you want me to do every three days I can't ask them to hey you want to buy the car you're right you can't that should that's that shouldn't be the first question you ask right but there's a ton of content that I can deliver my team can deliver uh to those customers right What if that customer has never been to your store before? How easy is it for you to crack open that cell phone and walk in the front, start out front, just like they're visiting the store and do a video, walking in the front door, introducing them to the receptionist, taking them back to your desk, showing them where your desk is at, showing them your awesome service department, the waiting room, all those benefits of your dealership. Because what happens when that customer... makes a decision to show up at your store, that anxiety level is down because they've seen, they've experienced that visually. They've been to your store, right? So that's a piece of content, right? Um, asking those questions that chris talked about if if we're asking uh if we're asking those questions he just went through that acronym if we're asking those questions now we've got a now we understand what kind of content we can send the customer based on how they answered that right so just staying in touch with that customer if look the other piece of data is the average customer sends out twelve to fifteen leads when they enter into marketplace So if that's the case, let's say it's not the case. Let's cut it in half. Let's say it's seven. So when I get a lead, I've got six other dealers I'm competing with, right? So if I'm consistent in delivering that content and those other six aren't, who's gonna end up earning that customer's business, right? And so as a manager, I understand that takes time. And so that's why I was saying earlier, I got to understand what customers are in my CRM that are on inventory that we have an opportunity to sell right now because I need that kind of activity going on with those customers. And then once my team has addressed those customers that day, you know, in the morning, right, or the fresh leads that have come across overnight, then they can go in and do those tasks. But don't hammer them. If they're addressing that, don't hammer them on, well, you had seventy-five and you only got to fifty. Well, you had quality happen on. And then it's happening with those fifty, right? And then the other thing I would say is zero to thirty day. Man, that's so important. That's so important. Zero to thirty day in my inventory. Look, again, if I was back in a store today, I would do everything I could to have a forty five day turn policy.

Chris Keene (50:35): Oh, yeah. Because I hate John for that point. Fifteen is the new thirty. Thirty is the new forty five and forty five is the new sixty. Right.

John Anderson (50:46): Right. Because I just, listen, guys, we look at data all day, every day. And after forty five days. There's just nothing. There's you know, you can you can fool yourself and say, you know, we made we made such amount after forty five days. But calculate in your holding costs. there's just not a lot there after forty five days. So I would really, you know, that first thirty days is so critical. Right. And everything that happens in that first thirty. How fast am I getting my my vehicles to market? You know, inventory that I don't if I was a manager, I would focus on any inventory that I don't have a lead on. And I got to I got to. I got to focus on that. So having this focus on those small things will make a huge difference for you. And I think that's the point I wanted to make with this call today is, you know, we've got so much coming at us, but what are the important things that are going to help us drive our dealerships? Um, uh, are both our new and used car departments to support one another. And the more transactions I cranked through that dealership, everybody benefits from it. Service, sales, everybody benefits.

Chris Keene (52:01): So Yeah, one hundred percent. So, yeah, John, you're not wrong. And you know what? I said I was going to bring another topic up, but we're getting close to the top of the hour. And I don't want to do that because this next topic, I want to bring some I want to bring some other people on, some experts, some people that do a really good job in this area. But it's around. It's around acquisition. And I know that's a buzzword and a buzz thing that's going on right now. But I will say this. And I want dealers, used car managers, GMs, GSMs, new car managers, dealer principals, I want you to listen very closely. When we're appraising cars, you got to ask yourself a question. Am I in the wholesale business or the retail business? If I'm in the retail business, then I need to appraise a car based upon retail, not wholesale. If I'm going to appraise in a car and it's not a retail car for me, then yes, I need to appraise it based upon wholesale. But stop appraising all your cars based upon a wholesale mindset. I'm going to leave it at that, John, unless you want to add something else to it. But that is the nugget I want to kind of drop for our next episode.

John Anderson (53:21): No, that's perfect. As Mr. Kramer always says, who's the best end user? Absolutely. And, you know, I want to give another shout out to Clubhouse, you know, hosted by David Long, All Things Used Cars. You know, we've been talking about quite a bit earlier about how we need to understand how our store and our market with our people are selling. In a conversation that was on with the dealer right before this, was really around that in the quote that David Long talks about all the time, we create our own market. And that couldn't be more true.

Chris Keene (54:02): So the data guys that you're getting inside all of your third party tools, it's not wrong, but it's also based upon how you put it in there. That old adage of garbage in, garbage out. Are you either trick bagging yourself to make it look right? Or are you actually putting in truly how your store in your market with your people, how you're selling? If you're doing that, you're on the right path to outrun margin compression and volume compression. I know a lot of people don't talk about volume compression, but I'm gonna talk about volume compression. So those are things right there that listeners and viewers, I hope you take us up on the offer. lottalkpodcast.com. Reach out to John. Reach out to Ronaldo. Reach out to myself. We'll unpack your data with you, and we'll give you another pathway to help get some of these things on track, and we'll do that at no charge. lottalkpodcast.com. Reach out to John, reach out to Rinaldo, reach out to myself. John, anything from you in closing before we wrap today?

John Anderson (55:27): I mean, I've just enjoyed the time talking, you know, chopping it up with you, Chris. We've had some guests on here recently and haven't had a chance to do this in a while. So I'm really hoping that, you know, the viewers and listeners found this valuable because, you know, I think really being able to focus in on, you know, don't get distracted by all the stuff out there. Keep your focus on what the main, keep the main thing, the main thing, and you'll have success. And Like Chris said, if there's anything we can do to help, we'll help you. I think we've covered a lot of ground today, and hopefully our listeners and viewers have found it valuable.

Chris Keene (56:07): Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, folks, there you have it. There is episode number three of season two of Lot Talk powered by Lot Pop. I'm Chris Keen, one of the co-hosts. On behalf of John Anderson, Ronaldo Leonard, all of our family here at Lot Pop, we wish you nothing but the best success out there. And we'll catch you next week at the same bat time, same bat channel. See you guys. See you.