Alan Brown, GM, Sam Pack's Five Star Chevrolet

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is in the dirt with ASOTU.Paul Daly: 0:04

Alright, I'm here with my new friend Alan Brown we met for the first time. And I saw you winning or coming in a very close second one point away from the best best dealer idea. Yes. Again, second year in a row. Second year is number two. No, no, we

Alan Brown: 0:18

were number one last year. Okay. Okay, this year.

Paul Daly: 0:20

Okay, what a great event. You gotta let the kids show up. You know what I mean? Give me a little space for a mil. Okay, that's good. You want to win again next year. So tell us a little bit about your new to our audience. We've just met. Can you talk about your stores or your group

Alan Brown: 0:33

and your position? Yeah. So I'm Alan Brown. I'm the Executive General Manager of Sam Pack's Five Star Chevrolet. Sam Pack obviously has six dealerships in the Dallas market. We have several others in the Oklahoma market and one in the Louisiana market. And so just just a great, great group. Great operator. Sam Pack has been in the business for 43 years going on 44 years. And if I've got this correct, he was the first dealer put into the Ford Motor Company Hall of Fame

Paul Daly: 1:05

way. Yeah, he gets a little bragging rights right there. He

Alan Brown: 1:09

has a unique, unique story. Okay, so

Paul Daly: 1:12

where are you based

Alan Brown: 1:13

out of so I'm in Carrollton, Texas, and outside the Dallas market inside the Dallas market. And I'm at the Chevrolet store, which is probably 40 minutes from everything I know. I'm just a hair north of the airport. So I'm easy to find. I'm centrally located.

Paul Daly: 1:27

We were just man. I wish see this is the thing. We were just in Arlington. Yeah, two weeks ago. And we didn't know each other, you had no idea what we were doing there. And you're exactly the type of person that we want to connect with. So we're connected now though. That's the best thing about this industry. So tell us about your submission for the best idea award. And why why it works for you. I love that, by the

Alan Brown: 1:49

way. Well, thank you. So our best idea was the pep rally. And this pep rally I believe is very unique. Because this is 30 something years in the making us I started washing cars and going to college. I was 18 years old. I wasn't planning on staying in the business. But because of a snowstorm I started washing cars just as a job. Yeah. So my grandfather, he closed the Ford plant in Dallas. And he was retired. He knew I was coming out of high school, he knew I was crazy about cars, and said, hey, the Ford dealer down the street, there's an ad in the newspaper. They're hiring for a car washer. So I went applied, the rest was history. I was with that group for 27 years partnering, and three Volkswagen stores with them. And

Paul Daly: 2:32

so from car washer, to dealer principal, that's correct. I love that story. So it's a lot

Alan Brown: 2:37

of fun. So this pep rally was a concept that really galvanized me in the business and got me hooked up and got me excited when I was 18-19 years old, we would do it once a month on the showroom floor, we'd recognize top performers, and and you know anyone that has drive to do something greater than what they're currently doing. And they have great mentors. That's just rocket fuel man, no kid, that type of environment. And so that was what really launched me and what made me fall in love with the people in the process in the car industry. And so I pay that back every single day and every single month with our pep rally.

Paul Daly: 3:14

So talk about the pep rally the mechanics of it, so you call it a pep rally. And it is it happens once

Alan Brown: 3:20

a month, once a month. So the first Friday of the month, at 12 o'clock, we feed all the employees at two o'clock we all gather in the shop. And now it's robotic, they just know at two at 150. Everybody starts to huddle up. I have a huge blackjack grill, and blackjack pays $500 the other numbers pay anywhere from 100 to $250. And then we have a very detailed agenda that we go through.

Paul Daly: 3:46

So how long does it take from start to finish start

Unknown: 3:49

finish 15 to 20 minutes. In fact, once you come to to the next pepper, I would love we'd love to have I would love to cover that and we'd love to have you. But first of all, I'm gonna go through anniversaries and birthdays. And I'm going to celebrate that with a handwritten note and $20 in the in the card for lunch, whatever they want to do. Next, I go into employees of the month for the last month that we just closed out. And it's it's got about 12 categories of employees of the month. Next, we're going to recap the month. So the general recap of how was the store the health of the store and the priorities

Paul Daly: 4:21

to the business of the business. Right. So starting with the people get so starting with the food, that's the people and celebrating them some of the people's right and then we're going to talk about business.

Unknown: 4:32

And I go through every business number. I'm an open book. And then the last piece of this is I'm going to go through the forecast of the next month. So whether you're a porter or our General Sales Manager is going to walk out that pep rally in a 15-20 minute window and you're going to know that you are loved on and you're gonna know what our agenda is for the next month. There's no hidden secret. The cool thing is we're in this big circle. I have factory officials from all of General Motors GM Financial General Motors will be there On Star, our accessories division. So now all of these corporate people attend and they speak on their KPI and what they're chasing. I asked that factory guy and gal all the time. I want to know one thing. What is your win?

Paul Daly: 5:19

Right? How do you win? How

Alan Brown: 5:21

do I help you win? Because now you want to give me those resources? Because I know what makes you

Paul Daly: 5:28

I understand what you're doing and we go after it together. That sounds like an actual relationship. It really is. And so, so the best that people that if I remember the video, right, the best performers get the spin the wheel hits, right and everyone claps and sometimes this church at a Chevrolet dealership and so is that the only dealer they do

Unknown: 5:49

that rally? Oh, what's interesting, Sam Pack is now adopted this over the last couple of years in all of our locations. And so that that that makes me at warms my heart, but you said something

Paul Daly: 5:59

really powerful. You said, this is something that if we didn't do this, I probably wouldn't want to work in this environment. I'd resign. That's powerful. Because

Unknown: 6:07

let me tell you, we can all go out and get an investor do a deal put a store together. Yeah. But we can't go out and stop turnover. There's not a widget here today that you can plug in and stop turnover and create culture. You have to have a heart you have to drive that each and every day. And it's a lot of work. And I enjoy that piece of it. So you would be taking away I believe my strength that I bring to the team if you took that piece of the pep rally away that

Paul Daly: 6:37

that look that resonates we have these shirts right here love people more than you love cars. And that is the driver that is the heart of so many dealers out there. And thanks for glad we met and thanks for sharing that little bit of wisdom and we will come visit. I would love that. Thank you.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:52

Thank you for listening to in the dirt with ASOTU. We love the automotive industry and the people who make it run day in and day out. We would love to connect with you more through our daily dose of fun, a free email that you can sign up for at ASOTU.com That's a s o t u.com. We put our heart and soul into it every day. Thanks again for listening. Join us next time for more Conversations in the dirt with ASOTU

‍