The dealer tech stack purge: vendors vs. partners.

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

Chris Keene (00:01): Well, here you are folks. are back. We are on season two, episode number 22. Gentlemen, this is lot talk powered by lot pop. I'm Chris Keene, of the co-hosts and joined Hailing from the great state of Indiana. But even though he doesn't live there, he is screaming the IU right now. Mr. John Anderson, Hailing from the great state of Texas, even though he doesn't live there, he is screaming guns up right now with our Texas tech red Raiders. Guys, we have got a whole lot of moving parts going on right now. There's so much fun happening in college football. There's so much fun right now happening in the car business. I am ready to dive in and start looking at these last several weeks. 25 is almost over with. We are been really, really, really focusing in on helping dealers get themselves your level set.

Renaldo Leonard (00:31): Wreck

Chris Keene (01:01): As 26 is staring at us waving saying, guys, I'm here. Are you guys ready for me? Anderson, what's your thoughts brother?

John Anderson (01:12): Well, my thoughts are we're all in the same bracket, baby. So come on, man. you tech and IU are all in the same bracket. it's one of us, one of, one of us is going to have some bragging rights. One of us going to have some bragging rights into this thing. So, so it's going to be fun. So yeah, it's going to be fun, man. Yeah. So, so no, yeah, man, it's always this time of year. that,

Renaldo Leonard (01:16): you

Chris Keene (01:20): I didn't even bring it up, but I didn't even bring it up.

Chris Keene (01:27): Ha ha.

John Anderson (01:40): You really should be, you know, thinking forward and you're in that, know, having been on that side of it and done that for many years. then now over here, um, on, on this side of it, looking at it from a 20,000 foot view, man. You know, it's much, it's much easier to talk about than it is to do, right? When you're in the, when you're in the store, right. Man, just got, you know, your focus, your focus is your, it's hard not to be focused on, on the day to day. Right. Cause I got to produce every day. So it's, you know, being able to, able to, you know, project and, and, project your team, get your team, you know, cause there's always a tendency right at the end of things. Right. So the end of the week, right. The end of the month, the end of the year. You know, there's always a tendency to want to stop and take a deep breath. Hey, you know, I wear this bracelet that says me versus me, because that's what it really comes down to every day. is me versus me. Right. and so I remember I used to be my own worst enemy as a salesperson when I had a big month. Cause I'd come off that big month, take a deep breath and go, man, I my butt off. I deserve a couple of days to relax. Right. And you know, and then the problem with that is those couple of days turn into five. Right. Because.

John Anderson (03:14): You relax for a couple and then it takes you three to get going again. So now you've lost the first week of the following month because you had a good month. And then you wonder why you're up and down, right? Cause I took a week off. I took two days, but it cost me a week. Right. So I think there's a lot of symbolism in that as we approach the end of the year, whether we're struggling or whether we're doing really good. I saw a LinkedIn, which I commented on. saw a LinkedIn post from a guy that. was talking about the things that you should be doing right now, preparing for 2026. And my comment was to him is I agree with you 100%, but we probably should have been doing those things at the end of October, not now. Right now is a little, now's a little bit, now's a little bit late right now, but listen, doing something now is better than doing nothing. But if we waited till now and we got, you know, as our company, what we look at right is, you know,

Chris Keene (03:57): Mmm.

John Anderson (04:12): one of the major metrics is, you know, what are our age buckets look like? And if we've got a lot of aged inventory sitting in our age buckets, man, that's a hefty job for December. the good news is, is, um, shopper shopper indexes should start to climb at some point. I'm a little surprised they haven't yet, but they should start to climb at some point. And which means, uh, shoppers are coming back into the market. So You know, we're right there on the precipice of that. So yeah, I mean, all these things we've been talking about and hopefully, you know, people are receiving it in a good way or, or things that, that, know, we, I, we, I think all three of us, when we were in the dealership, all had those on our list to do. Right. But it's just, you know, how are you approaching them and are you going to be able to get to everything? Because it is easily, it easy, as easy as an upper level management. a person in a store to get distracted. Right. Because now you, maybe you got, you know, maybe you're having a busy day. got 10 customers on the showroom floor. You're trying to submit deals, appraise trades and all that stuff. And when you're doing that, the stuff you need to be doing to prepare has to be pushed to the back. Right. So how many times do we, how many times do we push it to the back or man, I know I'm taking a lot of time here off the but a lot of this stuff is stringing together. Right. you know, I was trying to talk to my son.

Chris Keene (05:33): you're smiling.

John Anderson (05:39): because over the weekend, you know, we discovered that we discovered through, you know, God's an amazing guy because he, he, he unfolds things in front of you. So we discovered that we made a couple of bad decisions. Right. And so I pulled up, I pulled up a Nick Saban, I saved it in my phone, Nick Saban talking to a group of incoming, college athletes and what he was talking about is that bridge between what I know I have to do.

John Anderson (06:15): And what I can get away with. Right. In other words, he was saying, you know, I know, I know I have to get up in the morning, answer my alarm clock and go to school. know that I, I know that I have to go to practice. know that I have to study. know that I have to go to church. I know that I have to work out. Right. But when you allow your feelings to get in the way, then you start saying, I don't feel like getting up. I don't feel like going to church. I don't feel like working out. And what does that, how does that cost us, right? As a result of allowing our feelings to get in the way of our actions, right? And so I say that only to say this, as we look back at dealers, as a dealer, be honest with yourself. How many times have your feelings got in the way of your actions? And then as a result of it, where do you find yourself in your preparation for 2026? And I'll leave it right there.

Chris Keene (07:10): Yeah, that's strong right there. You know, and that's actually a really good dovetail Ronaldo into one of the things that you've been saying over these last several weeks. And we've, as we've kind of been in these OTAs, if you will, but you talked specifically, for multiple weeks now about a proactive approach to everything versus, shit's at the fan. Now what, you know, let's get reactive, but you've been talking about that proactive approach. And that dovetails really good into what John's talking about in terms of, well, I don't feel like doing this. I don't feel like doing that. here, let me just save my way into a profit because I didn't feel like working my bucket management. I didn't feel like working the facts. And now I've got ownership in, and if you're a publicly held company, you've got your board members and you got to, you got a statement, you got to print for the shareholders. So now all of sudden we start. taking a reactionary approach and trying to save our way into a profit. But you talked very specific into that proactive approach. Elaborate a little bit more on that with that beautiful dovetail that John just gave you.

Renaldo Leonard (08:25): Well, anytime that you have a specific mindset that you want to be pro actionary as opposed to reactionary, it puts you in a position to take advantage of situations that a lot of people don't see coming because they are being reactionary. so Gittin and yeah, John, thank you for mentioning Nick Saban. I mean, he is a master of taking people. and building them into a cohesive unit that gets goals accomplished. And that's what it's about at end of the day. What are my goals and how am I going to get there from where I am right now? so taking advantage of just setting a few moments aside every day to think forward and think ahead. If the market does this, I want to be prepared. If the market does

Chris Keene (09:00): you

Renaldo Leonard (09:23): something else, I also want to be prepared. And we've been shouting from the mountaintops from day one, right? That if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. And the only way that you could stay ready is by taking the facts, taking what you have available and that you have at your disposal to work with resources and people being the most important of that.

Chris Keene (09:29): Yeah.

Chris Keene (09:46): Mm-hmm. Yes.

Renaldo Leonard (09:49): and then assess and everything and position yourself to be able to stay ahead of the curve and make your moves accordingly. No matter, because there's only, I mean, there's only a few things that we can actually control day in and day out. The rest of it is out of our control and we really can't worry about it. We can't plan for it. We can plan to stay ahead of it if we take the time to make sure that our inventories lean and tight and that we're not letting the bucket management that we talk about so often get out of control. How many times have we seen dealers who have the majority of their inventories in an aged situation? And so they concentrate on cleaning up that aged inventory, but at the same time, the rest of the inventory is coming downhill because we don't have our focus on it. And we're just, you know,

Chris Keene (10:29): Mm-hmm.

Renaldo Leonard (10:49): We're like a cat chasing its tail. We'll never catch up because the things that we're doing today are setting us up to be in the same position tomorrow. yeah, it's just, it's so much goes into just the things that we don't feel like doing. John mentioned, yes. The things that really give you a competitive advantage, they suck. I mean,

Chris Keene (10:59): Mm.

Renaldo Leonard (11:18): But you got to find a way to embrace doing those things that are going to give you that advantage and put you ahead of a curve in the eight ball. So at the end of the day, when we talked a few weeks ago, what are the things that we should be doing today to prepare for 26? All of those things are things that you have to make time to be able to be prepared at this stage of the game.

Chris Keene (11:26): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Renaldo Leonard (11:48): We talked about six weeks ago, taking a look at your tech stack, doing a needs assessment. Where in my organization do we have a weak link? And then how can I prepare myself to make sure that we're in a better position when 26 comes around? If we haven't done that, right now, today, you're in a reactionary situation. Where, what do we have less? Three weeks in the year?

Chris Keene (12:06): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (12:18): Yes,

Renaldo Leonard (12:18): I think that's right. Yeah, we're sitting and that's when people start to make those reactionary decisions, trying to save their way into a profit, which never works out. Yeah, but yeah, at the end of the day, it's a mindset. It's just a mindset. What can I do today that's gonna benefit my organization 90 days from now?

Chris Keene (12:20): Yeah, I mean, that's it.

Chris Keene (12:31): Well, that's just to see, y'all.

Renaldo Leonard (12:47): Take a look at it, take all the emotion out of it and work the facts. It's it's that cut and dry. Absolutely, absolutely.

Chris Keene (12:48): No, this... That's solid.

Chris Keene (12:53): Take that feeling out. Well, that being said, know, John, you alluded to it, just a minute ago and I threw it up on the screen for a second, but for the listeners, you know, we'll explain this, the best we can, but for the viewers, you know, you talked about it. You're like, man, I'm surprised that shopper index hasn't come back up yet because historically speaking, and what we're showing here on the screen is it's an eye chart, but you know, for the lists or for the viewers, You know, put your focus on the red line. The red line is that shopper index, that information that we're pulling from a national level, courtesy of Black Book and Google. When we're looking at wholesale index, when shopper index, we're looking at, you know, retail days to turn. And of course, there's a green line in there that is our, lot pop dealers. But John, you know, you're, you're right. mean, it's wow. The shopper index is, is down. And I looked across over the last five years. It has not been in used cars this far down since December of 20.

John Anderson (14:09): Right. And I think it, I think if I'm not mistaken, it started to rebound prior to this date. well, no, we're 12, eight. No, that's not accurate. I think the last two years it has started to trend up at the end of November, but I think prior to the last two years, was middle to end of December before it started trending. So I got, yeah, I haven't talked to you guys about this, but

Chris Keene (14:32): Yes, in 23 and 24.

John Anderson (14:38): I'd be interested. know what my take, I know what my take is on it. Now, since you've got this up, Chris, don't you find it interesting that, wholesale sold percentage is dropping. shopper index is continuing to plummet, look what's happening to the retail days to turn. So I know what, I know what, I know what I think's happening. What, what's your guys take on why the retail days to turn is trending back down again?

Chris Keene (15:10): I think a lot of dealers right now are paying attention. I think there's a lot of dealers right now paying attention and they're realizing that we can't go draw 100, 100, 203 % and they're putting their cars on the money and turning and burning the inventory a little bit faster.

Renaldo Leonard (15:31): Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Chris Keene (15:34): I think they're realizing that, shit, my market's 96%. It's no longer 99, 102. We're 96%. Let's turn a burn. Let's go get our F &I income. Let's get our trade opportunities. Let's work on our fixed absorption rate. Let's work on our market share. because there's less customers out there. Our opportunities are declining. So we've got to feed the opportunities. Let's make sure our cars are merchandise properly. Let's make sure that, you know, we're leveraging our third party advertising to the fullest extent. Let's make sure that we are searchable. Let's make sure our VLAs look good. Let's make sure our SEO is right. Let's make sure our SEMs right. I think that's what you're seeing a lot of there. That's my opinion on it, John.

John Anderson (16:22): Yeah, I would agree with that, with this caveat. think it's all in aged inventory. think that's why you're seeing that. I I think dealers are trying to dump their aged inventory right now. And that's why you're seeing, I think they are dumping their aged inventory right now. And I think that's why you're seeing that because that's a pretty dramatic turn in a short period of time. So it has to be coming from, you know, for that to drop like that, it has to, in my opinion, it has to be coming from the aged inventory. So. Why do I bring that up and how does this coincide with what we're talking about? Well, you know, I'm going to throw this out there for discussion, but you know, dealers, if you're sitting on Aged Inventory, I would certainly, I would certainly take this chart into account and understand right now. Um, you know, one of the things that we track for our dealers is we call it our lot predictor, but we can predict, um, pretty much spot on when a, when a specific vehicle is going to sell out of your inventory. And it's nothing, it's nothing we're doing other than tracking your sales performance and then trending that out for 60 days and then 15 days. basically predicting when your car is, when your vehicle is going to leave the market and at what price the market it's going to leave. so When you start looking at that metric, um, here's one of the things that we've been seeing is that in a lot of stores, when you look at the 60 day compared to the 15 day, you're starting to see that metric in the 15 day turn up. other words, over the last 60 days, you may have been selling cars, selling a particular vehicle to an average of, uh, you know, 37 days at. 97 % and then you look at the 15 day and that's down to 30 days at 99%. Right. So it's turning up by a percent or two. Right. And so if you're clean, if you're a dealer, it's running really clean. You've got, uh, you have, uh, your cell and what you're stocking first and foremost guys right now, this time of year, that has to be number one. If we're stocking a hundred units, we got to sell a hundred units. Otherwise.

Chris Keene (18:27): Mm-hmm.

Chris Keene (18:44): Mmm.

John Anderson (18:47): the, the, just the basic mathematics of that, you're going to have an aging problem. If you're not selling what you're stocking, that inventory has to go somewhere, right? So it's going to age on you. so that's the first thing. then, my point to this was, and I'm interested on your two guys take on this is if dealers are, if dealers are truly flush in their aged inventory, which it makes sense this time of year, and you're seeing that tip down in retail days to turn, then can I go into. Can I look at my agent inventory the same way that I have been over the last 60 days or no, right? I see Chris shaking his head. No, right. I, you know, if I've been selling that aged inventory around 92 % is 92 92 % going to still get that job done. If dealers are dumping their aged inventory out there, they're gutting it right, right now. And so again, you know, we always say this jokingly, but no customer is ever going to walk in your dealership and go, Hey, John, I've been watching this car and you've been had it priced at 95%. Um, if you would get that down to 92%, I'll buy it. Right. You're never going to hear that. Right. Price to market and cost of market percentages are for dealers, right? Not customers. But here's the thing. If you've got a savvy, if dealers are dumping a bunch of ages inventory, I won't call them savvy, but if you, if you've got dealers in your market, they're a bunch, dumping a bunch of ages inventory and they're getting pricing. And now you've got a unit.

Chris Keene (19:51): You

Chris Keene (19:56): Yeah

Chris Keene (20:03): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (20:16): And it's comparable, right? When all things relatively are the same, what is the customer going to gravitate towards? lowest price point lowest price point. Right. So if I, if I'm even, if I'm even somewhat close in the same type of vehicle and there's a dealer that's gotten this price, then I'm going to lose. Right. And I think you're, I think that's what I think in my opinion, that's why you're seeing that, that tip down. I, the most part, I would agree with you, Chris. I dealers are getting the message and they're starting to adjust. But I think the reason why you've seen that big drop off, I think, is it's mostly coming out of aged inventory.

Chris Keene (20:26): price.

John Anderson (20:55): And if I've got aged inventory, I got to be concerned about that. Cause I, if I want to sell my age inventory, now I'm all sudden. Now I am truly in a competition of race to the bottom. Unfortunately, that's what I'm in.

Chris Keene (21:07): And dealers race their own selves to the bottom. It is not any type of inventory management tool. that inventory management tools are raised above. No, you know, dealers, you do it yourself. I mean, let's let's just be real here by what John talked about at the beginning that feel you. I don't feel like merchandise in my cars right now. I'm too busy. I've got this going on. Listen, I'm a I've got a little bit of vinegar. I got a little bit of vinegar in me right now. And a lot of it has to do with these facts that we're seeing. Here's a top performing dealer with lot walk. This dealership carries over 300 cars. Used cars in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. 0 to 15, 264 cars. But the point being here, these guys don't.

John Anderson (21:54): 264 and there's zero to 15 day bucket, man. Look at that. Woo. Yeah.

Chris Keene (22:03): feel like doing it when they want to do it, they've got to process, they do it consistently each and every time without fail with no equivocations. They 100 % do it each and every time. 79 % of their sales come from their first 30, 91 % of their inventory is in the first 30. This dealership is not just feeling like doing it when they want to do it. They have a process. And they are very proactive with their approach each and every single day. And when you sit here and look, 91 % of their inventory sitting in the first 30, they don't have any aged inventory. Five pieces of inventory. Hell take even the 26, 31 pieces of inventory north of 30 days. But yet 79 % of their sales coming from the first 30. Oh, and by the way, they're selling on average at 98 % in their first 30. So is it the market? No, they define their own market. And you can do the same thing when you put the disciplines in place right now versus, well, man, we got to wait till the sellout season. Yo, let's go ahead and trim this back. Let's trim that back. You know, we started this conversation out about talking about, you know, flushing out things. And I want to applaud. The car dealership guy for a minute. His prediction dealers will nuke a third of their software stack over the next, over the next 12 to 18 months. And I'm going to share this on the screen for those that are watching. Let me, let me put this on the screen for a minute.

Chris Keene (23:55): He sat there and said, dealers will nuke a third of their software stack over the next 12 to 18 months. Most of them will do it arguably out of pure reaction because they're looking at a financial statement. Is the financial statement important? You damn right it is. But are you vetting out what you're nuking because Your team decided not to use it because you're the leader of the store and you can't get your team to do it. Well, that's a whole nother conversation and 405-234-6402. Give me a call. I love to have that conversation with you when you can't get your team to do it. Vendor bloat is at an all time high. I don't disagree. Don't disagree at all. Dealers are tired of the noise, the logins and so many point of solutions. 100 % agreed.

Renaldo Leonard (24:28): you

Chris Keene (24:47): The future is fewer, deeper systems. Absolutely 100%. Because if you look at what it takes, and John Ronaldo, I've said this a million times. If you look at what it takes to work a cardio, it ain't the good old days of a green Sharpie and a was now sticker and a write-up sheet. It ain't them days anymore. These suckers, they got to pull up well beyond an OFAC. I mean, we got 37 things we got to pull up just to sell a cash and carry use car. The amount of paperwork you have to do to sell a car, the amount of clicks you've got to do to sell a car. He's right. The future is fewer, deeper systems. And this right here, when we first looked at it as a company, it was like, uh-oh, this guy's, you know, pinpointing Vendors. Yeah, he is. And when we first looked at it, listeners and viewers, some people in our company said, my gosh, we're right in the crosshairs. Well, no, I pushed back on that 100%. We didn't talk about this backstage, but I'm going to get on this soapbox. Ladies and gentlemen, Lotpop is not a vendor. And we have done our best over the last 18 months to do nothing but pour back into our industry and give a lot of insights that we're finding from great dealers, other third party companies out there, factual information as we continue to work the facts each and every day. But I'm going to say this right now and John and Ronaldo and Brett, who is backstage, our producer and COO. They don't even know I'm going to say this, but I'm going to tell you now listeners and viewers. If you're one of our clients and you think you're going to nuke us over the next 12 to 18 months, don't chop your nose off, spite your face. Because one of the things that John Anderson, is our president or excuse me, our vice president, executive vice president, chief experience officer. One of the things he said that I do not disagree with is we as Lop Pop.

Chris Keene (26:59): We draw the line and we sit there and show you that direct line between how our consulting, backed by our powerful data, extrapolated from inventory management and CRM helps drive more volume, more growth. And we are not a vendor. We are not a widget. We are truly a partner. We are truly a partner. So listeners and viewers, If you don't have a partner in your tech stack, somebody that's willing to get in the trenches with you each and every single day, somebody that's willing to take at minimum one hour to say, Hey, here's where you're winning. Let's duplicate that. Here's where you're losing. Let's mitigate those losses. Here are some things you can't see because you got bullets whizzing by your head all day long, having to be a counselor, a cheerleader, a manager, a problem solver, a firefighter inside your dealership every day. If your tech stack doesn't provide that for you, then you're right. Nuke them over the next 12 to 18 months, nuke them, get them out of there. Because I get it. You're tired of the noise. You're tired of the long edge. You're tired of so many points of solution. Your vendor bloat is high. I a hundred percent get that. But find you a partner. Don't find a vendor. If you want a vendor call Sentos, call Coca-Cola. They could put some nice floor mats inside your dealership. Make it look real nice and pretty and fill your pop machines up and your candy machines up and make sure your customers in the waiting lounge are supplied with refreshments. But this is the time right now. You've got to start looking at your stuff and go, Hey, do I get a partner or do I got sent off to Coca-Cola? And am I paying an exorbitant amount of money for something that doesn't provide me insights that doesn't provide me the coaching and accountability? Lot Pop does. Why? Because Jason Rice had a vision.

Chris Keene (29:13): 12, 13 years ago, this and the inventory management tool is missing so many different things. And he said, let's work the facts. So for the last 12, 13 years, that's what we have been doing is we've been working the facts. There's my soapbox.

Renaldo Leonard (29:35): I mean, what you said was 100 % true. And when you look at dealerships that have those inflated and bloated tech stacks, it generally goes back more times than not to the fact that the basic blocking and tackling is not being taken care of the way it should be taken care of. If you've got leads coming in on inventory,

Chris Keene (29:59): Thank you.

Renaldo Leonard (30:04): and you're not engaging those leads effectively, somewhere down the line somebody said, okay, well, let's add AI follow-up to our tech stack because I can't get my salespeople to follow up on the leads that I'm generating. And I can't get them to go inside of the CRM to identify the leads that they need to follow up on. So you add AI technology. and you add in the ability to text your customers through your CRM. You don't see the results from that. And then you add the ability to shoot video messages to your prospects through the CRM. And all of that has got, it has come from a situation where you didn't have someone that would sit the team down and say, this is non-negotiable. I'm paying $300 for each lead that we're generating. And if you're not going to follow up with my customers, I'll find someone who is. Would that eliminate having an inordinate amount of tools that you pay for on a monthly basis just to follow up with customers?

Chris Keene (31:19): Mm-hmm.

Renaldo Leonard (31:29): Absolutely, it would. But it goes back to everything that we've talked about. I always try to boil it down to one quote. There was a quote from Bobby Knight. Everybody says they have a will to win, but very few have the ability to do the things that it takes to prepare to win. And you you nailed it. You hit the nail on the head.

Chris Keene (31:42): Yeah.

Renaldo Leonard (31:58): If you have a vendor where or you have a service and you don't talk to someone on a regular basis about how to maximize that service, that's a vendor. If you have a service and you don't know who to contact if you have a problem and an issue, that's a vendor. But if you're on a phone with someone who is a partner with you and you express that you have an issue and you can't figure out how to fix it with a piece of software and they immediately have the answer or can get back to you in the next 30 or 45 minutes with

Chris Keene (32:18): lordy.

Renaldo Leonard (32:41): If not who you can contact, how you can go in yourself and take care of that issue. That's a partner. And we don't do a good enough job of vetting some of the services that we sign up with. Yeah. And we've joked about it with John and we've all been guilty of it. You know, you go to the show and you see something and you're like, that's cool. Okay. So yeah. If I don't have to pay a sign up, I'm in and you're rocking and rolling and down the road. Yeah.

Chris Keene (33:09): Shiny object, red balloon.

Chris Keene (33:16): Right. Can I get the free speaker? Can I get the free speaker with the two?

Renaldo Leonard (33:21): Right, right. But it's just, you know, from the onset. is this service or this performance manager, performance engineer going to be there day in and day out to help me sift through the BS, shut down the noise, and help me improve my business on a daily basis? And if you can't say yes without a doubt, yeah, that's

Chris Keene (33:47): But more importantly, Ronaldo, are they going to hold themselves accountable for the promise they gave you when they sold you the tech stack?

Renaldo Leonard (33:57): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right.

Chris Keene (33:58): That's the question is I can promise you we do it anytime. Listen, we're not immune to cancellation of services. We get them just like everybody else. We take it personal. We take it extremely personal because of the blood, the sweat, the tears we put into what we do each every week. I said this to our team last Friday.

Renaldo Leonard (34:16): Mm-hmm.

Chris Keene (34:30): And it's a quote from an author. have no idea who said it, but I love it because it embodies who we are at lot pop. So I'm going to read this quote to you listeners and viewers. You weren't born to tiptoe through life, take up space, speak your truth and make them feel your presence. Be bold, be fierce, be unapologetically you. And if y'all be listening to that. Lot Talk for the last 18 months, there is no doubt I am unapologetically me as Chris Keene as an individual. And I will not apologize for us working the facts, speaking the truth, each and every single podcast that we're on every time we're on with the dealer. So if you want somebody to be a coach and an accountability partner, you need to go to LotTalkPodcast.com and put us in your tech stack for 2026. I know we've tried not to make this a public service announcement or an advertisement for lot pop, but I can't sit on my hands anymore watching dealers get their asses handed to them because of all the white noise and all the bloat that's going out there of that red balloon of that shiny object that promises to do this, that or another for a dealer. Well, we're going to back our promise. It starts all the way from our president and founder CEO, Jason Rice, who will jump on calls each and every single week with people with John Anderson, the right hand man, our executive vice president, chief experience officer, Ronaldo Leonard, our director of performance and training myself, any of our performance team, any of our account management team, we will 100 % jump in.

Chris Keene (36:29): Name another company that you work with today. I bet you out of 10 stacks that you have. You ain't talking to the president founder CEO. out of at least half of them. We will.

John Anderson (36:48): Mm-mm.

Chris Keene (36:50): We will 100 % unapologetically us because we ain't gonna tiptoe around working these facts. We're not going to do it. John, over to you.

John Anderson (37:07): He's funny, dude. He's just like, I'm done talking. John over to you.

Chris Keene (37:14): Well, I'm a little fired up today, guys. I'm a little fired up.

John Anderson (37:17): When are you, when aren't you brother? When are you? That's good. That's a good quality. Yeah. I don't know, man. I, I really don't want it to sound like a commercial. Cause I'm kind of, I'm, you know, I'm kind of old school in the way that. It's a hard fight for me, man. Cause you mentioned it earlier, Chris, I do take a personal man and look, as I look back on my career, did I do everything right? Hell no. I didn't, um, made a lot of mistakes. Still do still do. I mean, I still do. Right. think that's why I love about our company. And I love about this platform is, uh, you know, we invite people on. We've had some great people on in 2025, uh, as guests that.

Chris Keene (37:50): Far from right. Mmm.

John Anderson (38:07): Look, we reached out to them and, and they said yes. And I can't tell you how honored and blessed I felt that they did every one of them that said yes. Right. And so every time we have somebody on, learned something. I'm taking freaking notes. I know you guys are, I see you writing down. Right. So, you know, I'm still learning. but to your point, Chris, I do take it personal, man. And here's the reason why. and I say it on our launch call when we, when we do a launch call, you know, Chris, you, you, you always give me an opportunity to, know, you introduced me, give me an opportunity to talk to the new dealers. And, know, I kind of always say the same thing from this perspective, man, we're just a bunch of car guys that we were fortunate enough to, we're fortunate enough to be led by a car guy that is a brainiac and come up with a way to do a little bit deeper drill down based on the individual dealers performance metrics, not the market, right? The individual dealers performance metrics. And so we're just a bunch of car guys that are truly trying to help. But here's where it hurts me. because I've heard all the excuses because we do get cancellations and I've heard all the excuses. but here's where it hurts me. is that.

John Anderson (39:48): What, what we do look, I've been with Lattpop over nine years now. And prior to that, I used the data and Jason's coaching for three years when I was general manager of a, a store that had a high producing use car department. and I know back then. my meeting with Jason was every Wednesday from 10 to 11 o'clock. And then,

John Anderson (40:26): that following week, the things that were pointed out is where I tried to communicate to the managers of the store and what I tried to focus on to try to get lift in the areas that were brought to my attention during that weekly meeting on Wednesday. and I made, you know, I referenced it on here. were a couple, a couple of specific times that I remember where I, know, excuse me. You know, our store sold a lot of trucks and a lot of SUVs, right? And, and so I sold a lot of Ram trucks. And I remember specifically having overstocked and Ram trucks. And, know, Jason was having a discussion with me about putting the trucks on the money because I'd, I'd priced them high. And I had made a comment that, you know, I wanted to hang in there a little bit longer because I couldn't go back out and replace them. And he laughed and said,

Renaldo Leonard (41:24): You

John Anderson (41:25): John, you're not selling them. Why in the hell would you want to go out and replace them?

Renaldo Leonard (41:29): Right?

John Anderson (41:31): And so, so, you know, I, you know, I know I belabored this point, but my point is, is what we do works. It does. It does. And so it is painful when we're working with a dealer that won't, won't attempt to get it. There's a reason why.

Chris Keene (41:44): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (42:01): A dealer meets with a, and listen, those guys made a comment. was the king of it. My 20 group used to, anytime there was a new, a new application that they want to talk about in a 20 group, they had all point to me and go, Hey, ask John about it. He's probably tried it. Cause I, I did chase a lot of shiny objects, right. And tried things through a lot of stuff against the wall. Right. I know my managers, I drove them nuts a lot of times, you know, when I went away, cause they're.

Chris Keene (42:11): it

John Anderson (42:30): I'm sure every time I went to a conference, they're like, Oh my gosh, here in a couple of days, we're going to, you know, we're going to be inundated with two or three new applications. Right. Um, but, but the, what frustrates me a lot of times is what we do works. Um, if it didn't, I wouldn't still have a job. If it didn't, lot pop wouldn't be around. I mean, we have, we have time and we have dealers that have been with us from the start. since 2013, right? And so what we do works. So if it works for several dealers, how can it not work for everybody? mean, I, that's what I just don't understand. What are, what are the, what are the obstacles that are keeping it work? You know, listen, there's a reason why we get hired. And so what was the reason why you reached out to it and hired into us and hired us because we haven't listened.

Chris Keene (43:02): Google Sheets.

John Anderson (43:31): I don't think there's, I don't think anything, I don't think anything that we, I don't think that anything, for instance, our two pillars, our two pillars, our main pillars is sell what you're stocking. And then when you're selling what you're stocking, have 65 % of those sales come out of your zero to 30 day. I don't think anybody that knows lot pop or has ever heard a lot pop doesn't understand that those are our two core pillars. Right? So. If you're reaching out to us to partner with us, have to understand that's where we're going to try to take you. Ultimately, our guidance, our communication, our point is to get you to do those two things because we know, as our CEO knows and told dealers when he was working with dealers himself, starting his company out. If we can get you doing those two things, then you're reaching that holy grail that I was told was never possible. that you can have gross and volume at the same time. Right. I was always told you had to sacrifice one for the other and that's just not true. Right. It's just, we've, we've debunked that a long time ago. Right. You can have volume and gross. Right. So, so to your, to your guy's point, you know, and I know I've taken us off track here a little bit, but Chris, you brought it up is, know, uh, we do, I do take it personal. That as a matter of fact, that's my, that's my role with the company is trying to, trying to.

Chris Keene (44:48): Go!

John Anderson (44:54): reach out to dealers that are underperforming and find out how we can help more. And so I do take it personal when we do get a cancellation because I don't understand it. I was like, how can it work for so many dealers and it doesn't work for this dealer? Right. And so trying to solve that issue, I've come to realize, I don't think anything's impossible, but that's such a moving target because there are so many things that have to happen. Right. Once this partnership starts,

Chris Keene (45:21): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (45:23): Once this partnership starts, yes, 50 % of it is on us, but the other 50 % of it's on the dealer. Right. We, we have a, that's with any vendor and I'm not any partner. hate the vendor word too. So that's with anybody. Right. You have a response.

Chris Keene (45:35): Yeah, don't do the God. I don't do the vendor word when it comes to us because we vendors.

John Anderson (45:40): I get it. I get it. But, but when you have a partnership with somebody, that means that it's a partnership, right? Part of it has to come from one side and part of it has to come from the other. And so if, if what we do works and we know that our strategies, uh, based on the data work, then where's the breaking communication, right? And so that's, you know, that's the ultimate. And again, we're talking about going into 2026. And so. You know, and what adjustment listen dealers out there that are listening, managers that are listening to this. Look, man, what I would say to you is how one, how long have you been with the store? And if you've been with the store, any long, any, any amount of tenure. So if you've been with the store, you know, one, two, three, four, five plus years, right? What I would ask you to take an honest look at is over those. One, two, three, four, five plus years. What does our year look like? Are we fighting the same things over and over again? You know, are we, are we up in the springtime when the customers are in the market and things are rolling and then do our sales drop off? And then do we trend up during the summer season and then do our sales drop down and, and then we wait till, cause if that's the case, right. All you're doing.

Chris Keene (46:48): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (47:07): All you're doing is waiting on the market and customers to come into the market. You're just reactionary to the market. But here's the challenge. Can I be consistent throughout the year? Can I bring consistency to the table month in and month out? That's the challenge that you should be trying to answer because the answer to that is yes, you can. Cause we have plenty of dealers that are doing it. Right.

Renaldo Leonard (47:13): Yep.

Chris Keene (47:16): Mm-mm.

John Anderson (47:38): So here's my challenge to dealers going into 2026 is look at your year and how erratic have the results been? Right? And here, here, the other side of that. So that's for dealers that are struggling. Here's the other side of the equation for dealers that are successful. Cause I see it all the time. If you've had success consistently, how much more squeezes, how much more squeezes in that orange for you?

Chris Keene (48:04): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (48:07): Are you just settling? Are you settling because you've had success? I had a dealer the other day tell me, I got on the phone with them after my meeting with them and I had a dealer tell me, know our used cars have off. I know our used cars are off, but, but we looked at the, we looked at the state data and we're the number one used car department in the state. Well, wait a minute. That's all great. I'm proud. I'm happy for you and I'm proud of you.

Chris Keene (48:31): Thank

John Anderson (48:37): But are you using that as a, okay, you're number one in the state. So you're just telling yourself as a result of being ranked number one, I can't get any better. And I just don't buy that. I'm looking at the data and I'm saying you got a ton more squeeze in the operation if you want to get there. But it just sounds like that you've settled because in the rankings were number one. Right? So on both ends, there needs to be a, you always need to be challenging yourself. Right? Look, I would assume anybody in this business has gotten this business because it's competitive.

Renaldo Leonard (48:48): .

John Anderson (49:07): You got to be competitive to be in this industry. You have to be otherwise you get your teeth kicked in. So, you know, again, I, I could be labor this on and on again, but I would hunt 100 % agree. I will 100 % agree with Chris and Ronaldo, man. You want a partner out there, man. Somebody that's going to go the extra length for you and not just, thanks. And then you don't hear from them again. you know, You want somebody that's going to get in the trenches with you. want somebody that's going to call you out, right? listen, I can remember I, Chris and I take the brunt of it. Ronaldo, Ronaldo, maybe that hat does, but he hasn't talked about it a lot, but I can tell you that I've been MFed more than enough times because I've been pushing on somebody.

John Anderson (50:04): I've definitely, I've definitely hit some raw nerves over the, over the nine years I've been at this. So yeah.

Chris Keene (50:06): I'm listening.

Chris Keene (50:13): But you know, there's takeaway if listeners and viewers for 50 minutes, you know, we have really screwed on this as part of the OTAs going into 2026. Yeah, there's the car dealership guy is probably right. 12 to 18 months, a third of tech stacks are going to get canceled out and for a lot of good reasons. But one of the number one things you should look at, Ronaldo started with it, with the proactive approaches, not only from you at the dealership, but with your partners or vendors. Okay. If you've got somebody with a proactive approach that is not employed by your dealership, but you've hired them as a third party as an indirect portion of your dealership. And they're coming at you weekly, daily, weekly, daily about areas to get, as John just talked about more juice, more squeeze there. Then you need to stay with them. If they're not. And you couldn't even, as Roudelno talked about, you don't even know who the hell your rep is. Well, then yeah, you probably need to get rid of them. But before you do that, you need to ask yourself the question, have I made an attempt to understand said product that either myself or my leadership team said is going to be something that's going to help us? You better make sure you do that before you just start playing whack-a-mole.

Chris Keene (52:04): Naldo, over to you.

Renaldo Leonard (52:06): Dude, I'm just sitting here and both I can tell by the look on John's face that he mentioned a minute ago that you know, you had some people come at you come at you and I wish I wish so that we could play a couple of phone phone calls and messages that we received over

Chris Keene (52:24): We can't play that one. Hey, hey, we can't play that one. Red fry backstage going, Chris, please don't play it. Please don't play it.

Renaldo Leonard (52:33): We could get Brett trained up on that little beep button. you... Well, no, I'm not going to go into it. But it would pretty much sound like, I can't wait to beep, beep, beep, talk to you, brainwashing my beep, beep, beep. Give me a call, you peeps.

Chris Keene (52:39): you

Chris Keene (52:54): that he would be, he'd be censoring. He would be censoring this one horribly. It would be bad.

Renaldo Leonard (53:03): But you know what? Even every situation that we go back and take a look at. All right. We came to the table and we did not pull the wool over anybody's eyes about what we do and how we do it. Right? And because of the fact that we asked some people to show up to the table ready to work and act on the information that we provided for And when they were not willing to do that was when those situations came about. I mean, we've all said it. The reason that we are doing this on a weekly basis is because it's a blessed opportunity to give back. Mistakes that we made in the business, things that we have been able to identify that we know will help our partners perform better on a daily basis.

Chris Keene (53:32): Mm-hmm.

Renaldo Leonard (54:03): And so we take it personal when somebody says that they don't, because it's not that difficult, right? You know, we've identified some areas that if you do these on a daily basis, and you know, I spend your entire day looking at your inventory, taking a look at the price to market percentages, taking a look at the information that's most important to you. You can win, you can win at a disproportionate level for the amount of work that it takes to get there. But yeah, some guys will never see the light, right? Because it doesn't involve coveralls and some work. They're looking for that easy button and I hadn't found a vendor who has that easy button. It doesn't exist. It just takes a little work and identifying the KPIs that are most important to measure to get the results that you want. And when it's as simple as stocking what you're selling and selling what you're stocking and selling the majority of your inventory in its first 30 days. I mean, yeah, we take it personal because we believe in what we do, because we know it works. and we know how it could change.

Chris Keene (55:28): We get the data to prove it works.

Renaldo Leonard (55:32): Right. Right. But even for those guys that hadn't come to the realization that we can affect their business in a substantial way, please, if we mentioned something during this call or during our podcast or whether you're watching it or listening to it, there's always something there that is going to help you improve the business. Take it. Use it. And if you have questions, reach out to us. because that's what we're committed to doing. Whether you partner with us or not, we're gonna provide you with everything that we possibly can to make a difference in your business.

John Anderson (56:12): you

Renaldo Leonard (56:13): And then if you don't agree with it, Chris, what was your number again? Throw it out there. Call Chris. Leave him a message. Show the week. man. Yeah.

Chris Keene (56:20): or 052346402.

John Anderson (56:21): You He

Chris Keene (56:28): I got some, Hey, I got some thick ass skin guys. Cause I can promise you it's, like John said, you know, we've been MF plenty of time and, and not proud of it.

Renaldo Leonard (56:41): We're actually getting MF'd right now. Absolutely, absolutely. But here's the thing, Nick. Right. Absolutely. But here's the thing that I rest in. Here's the thing that I rest in. If we're not doing the right thing, then we wouldn't have that. Everybody would be singing Kumbaya and telling everybody how great we are.

Chris Keene (56:43): 100 %

John Anderson (56:44): Somewhere, I promise you. I promise you. Five o'clock somewhere, guarantee it. We're getting it. Yeah. Listen, why would, listen to it.

Renaldo Leonard (57:10): But the fact that you have people that take the time out of their day to MF us and tell us how terrible they think that we are, means we're on the right track. That's what I get out of

John Anderson (57:23): We're pushing buttons. Listen, wouldn't you want... Look man, behind the scenes, the two guys on the screen with me, we've had some very contentious meetings. We had a person sit in, we had a person come at our CEO's request to sit in on our quarterly meeting to get a 20,000 foot view. And one of the things he said was he appreciated the respect in the room because we go after each other. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, we shake hands and pat each other on the back. And so the reason why I went down that road is don't you want somebody on your team that's going to challenge you? mean, do you want, do you want a bunch of yes people around you? Or do you want somebody, can you, do you get better by having a bunch of yes people around you? Or do you get better by people that are going to challenge your butt? You know, I mean, come on. Look, this is, uh, yeah.

Chris Keene (58:14): Yeah.

Chris Keene (58:27): Hey, John, no here. I'll put it out there because listeners and viewers, the very first time Anderson ever heard me say this, his eyeballs got about as big as saucers and he was waiting for the dealer to hang up the phone on the zoom call we were on. But then he saw the reaction from him and he was like, all right, shit. It is what it is. He ain't wrong, but I thought he was really going to piss him off. Every brand new dealer that comes on with lot pop. This is exactly what I say to them. And if your tech stack, if your partners are acting like vendors going into 2026 and can't stand behind this statement here that at lot pop, we ain't here to be friends with you. We're here to help you sell more cars, make more money. And if we become friends along the way, it's a bonus to the paycheck for you and I. If they're not willing to stand behind that and get scorched earth with you week after week of, you got to improve here and hold you accountable for that. The next week, you wasted your money flat out, wasting your money. That's a lot of the lies, John, what you're talking about.

John Anderson (59:48): Yeah. And listen, I always liked to drop and we've dropped some things on this. We've dropped some things in here that were nuggets and morsels, but I do want to, know we're, I know we're at the top of the hour, but look, here's one thing I would say definitely going into 2026 dealers. If what you are doing in your bricks and mortar dealership. you are not matching on your virtual dealership. There's a nugget right there for you. What you do on your bricks and mortar. You need to, you're running. If you're running one dealership, you're running two. If you're running two dealerships, you're running four because you have a bricks and mortar and you have a virtual and by the way, your virtual store gets most of your customers. Right? So if you'll throw a fit, if a customer drives on your lot and the salesperson is not out there in 30 seconds.

Chris Keene (01:00:56): Mmm.

John Anderson (01:00:56): Then you, you better throw a fit if a customer drives on your virtual lot and your team's not contacting or attempting to contact that customer every two to three days until they say, get off of me, or I'm going to set an appointment to come look at a vehicle. and, No, you don't let, I look, man, I know I'm going to, this is going to be a controversial statement, but I'm okay with that. No, you don't let AI handle your customers completely. No, you don't. I don't care what we do. I don't care what we do.

Chris Keene (01:01:26): you

Chris Keene (01:01:36): You can't lose that art of human interaction.

John Anderson (01:01:40): Yeah, you can't replace human interaction. I'm sorry. You can't, you can't. You people know when you're getting faked out eventually. So you can't, you can't listen. know AI is tremendous and there's a lot of great uses for it. We're using it ourselves, right? But you're not going to be able to completely replace the human interaction. You're just not going be able to do it. So, you know, all I want to, all I want to make sure that I left dealers with, because we do have to Rinaldo's point, I can't believe it. There's three weeks left in 2025. So I would really, really, really take an honest look at your operation. What am I doing in my bricks and mortar successful? And am I applying that same success to my virtual store? of them. Look, we see it all time. And I ask dealers, we ask dealers all time. If a customer come on, if a customer, if you were sitting in your sales desk and a customer walked through the front door, and you watch the interaction between the salesperson of yours and the customer. customer salesman walks up, introduces himself and the customer says, I'm here to see this 2024 blazer. And the salesperson says, I'm sorry, Mr. Customer, we sold that two days ago and turned around and walked back to his office and didn't say another word to the customer. What would you do? And the salesperson said I'd fire him on the spot or I'm sorry, the sales manager said I'd fire him on the spot. Okay. Well, okay. Dealers, let me ask you a question.

Chris Keene (01:03:12): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (01:03:15): How many leads you got sitting out there in your CRM that are still active that you have a vehicle that you can sell them and how often are your, is your team contact and I'm trying to sell them those vehicles. Do you have anything that's helping you? Do you have anything that's helping you find compatible vehicles that you can switch a customer to, or are you operating like a lot of times and mostly I had this at my store. used to drive me crazy. The word salesman would come up and go, Hey, the customer, the car, the customer wanted, we sold it.

Chris Keene (01:03:27): Mm-hmm.

John Anderson (01:03:46): What do need to go show them? Well, you're supposed to know your inventory, dude. It's your, it's your groceries you're working out of. Right. It's your groceries. Right. So anyway, I just have a couple of things I wanted to throw out there, you know, again, um, and, then what I said earlier, if you're not selling what you're stocking each month, that's job number one. That's job number one.

Chris Keene (01:04:11): Go to lot talk podcast.com and reach out to Ronaldo John myself. If you a sell what you stock in and if you a do it 65 % or more, your sales in the first 30 go to lot talk podcast.com. Reach out to us. We'll show you how to do

Renaldo Leonard (01:04:28): Yessir Yessir

Chris Keene (01:04:28): Naldo, anything from you as we wrap my friend.

Renaldo Leonard (01:04:34): if you think 25 was a doozy. Yeah, guess what's about to step on your toes and get nose to nose with you. Absolutely. it's, yeah, get back to the basics. If you and your team haven't mastered the basics, start yesterday. Back to the basics.

Chris Keene (01:04:39): you

Chris Keene (01:04:46): Yeah. 26 more to feelings.

Chris Keene (01:05:02): Mm-hmm.

Renaldo Leonard (01:05:03): Do I have inventory out in front of my building that is in the wheelhouse of what we have statistically shown in the past to do well with? Am I giving my sales team the opportunity to produce day in and day out?

Renaldo Leonard (01:05:29): On the inventory side of it, that's what I take care of it. On the lead side of it, am I holding my team accountable for reaching out to those leads that I'm generating? And am I holding them accountable and do they realize exactly that those groceries that they got to sell and they got to work with, they produce those sales from following up with those leads. And those leads on average are costing you $250, $350 to generate. Yeah. So, and if you don't understand that, give us a call.

Chris Keene (01:06:00): Mmm. Mmm.

Renaldo Leonard (01:06:10): break it down for you to its simplest terms.

Chris Keene (01:06:14): million percent, million percent, you know, echoing what Ronaldo talked about and weaving in what John just talked about as we wrap here. Yeah, you got to get your basics back in folks. You know, the human interaction is not going to go away. from the Harvard Business School, a professor named Kareem Lakhani. And if by chance he happened to be listening to this, if I bust your name, it's my fault. But he said, AI won't replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without AI. Right now, AI's the buzz. Mix that with acquisition as it's the buzz. And as we come into 26 and you're looking at all your different tech stacks. AI is important, but what John said, what Ronaldo said in closing here, you still got to have the human interaction. You still got to be watertight. You still got to be bulletproof with your humans because the AI is important. And as Kareem from Harvard says, humans with AI can replace humans without AI. And I agree with that a hundred percent.

Chris Keene (01:07:48): But dealers, got to understand. Government's going to start regulating this AI even more. So what are you going to do then? You still got people in your dealership that can move the deedle, put your investment in your people, train them, get the blocking and tackling down, get the basic fundamentals down because they ain't going away. They haven't changed and they're going to still be there. And as we've said throughout this entire podcast today, Hey, we touched the nerve, bounced on the nerve, hit you in the mouth and you're pissed off about it. 405-234-6402. Give me a call. Go to lottalkpodcast.com. Look us all up. If you're so pissed off at me, you don't want to talk to me and talk to Ronaldo because he's a lot nicer, better looking. By God call him up. Or if you want to talk to the curmudgeon of the group, pick up the phone and call John. You can find all his info at lottalkpodcast.com.

Renaldo Leonard (01:08:40): you

Chris Keene (01:08:50): And that's okay too, but we got a few more weeks left here in the next several weeks. We are going to have Jason Rice on our president and founder and CEO. He's going to give us one last, one last state of the market where we're at and where his Nostradamus visionary forward thinking brain sees us going into 2026 and the Q1 of it.

Renaldo Leonard (01:09:14): Thank

Chris Keene (01:09:19): So you're not going to want to miss out on that. You can catch us every single week, same bat time, same bat channel right here. Whether you're on YouTube, whether you're on Spotify, whether you're on Apple, you can catch us right here at the lot talk podcast. We thank you for tuning in. And on behalf of everybody at lot pop, we thank you. for tuning in right here to Lot Talk powered by the all great Lot Pop. Thank you guys. And we will talk to you next week. Same bat time, same bat channel. We out.

John Anderson (01:09:58): Hoosiers!

Renaldo Leonard (01:09:58): Rock on.