Chris Dukes, Territory Sales Manager, Autosoft, Inc

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is In the Dirt With ASOTU. All right, we're hanging out here at NAMAD. I have Chris Dukes with AutoSoft Territory Sales Manager. So I'm hoping you like to talk most salespeople do so we'll be good. Um, first I want to say, we got to say to all the people, so appreciate the ability to get to garnish some of your power here. We didn't pay for the power or try to pay it back with a little bit of content. Okay, first first question. You're a DMS provider who owns the debt. I'm just kidding. We're not gonna go there.

‍Chris Dukes: 0:34

He's like, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. people own their own data.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:40

There you go. Exactly. Dancer love said done. No, no, no. Well, you said that you had a little bit of a story. You know, I love we I love to hear stories because stories, humanize people products, anything brands. So tell me your story. Just what part of your story that people should know.

Unknown: 0:59

Okay. Well, I come from a very long line of automotive people. D My grandfather was actually worked in a car dealership when? Way back in the day. My dad was a car dealer. He started a he had a car dealership in 1951. His name was Arielle Dukes, Oldsmobile and I'm sorry, Earl Dukes. And we had a GM store. My brother's a car dealer. I was I was a car dealer. And now I've been in the automotive industry for 45 years now. Wow. Yeah. So and I've worked in every aspect of the car business. Okay, so generational

Kyle Mountsier: 1:41

generational understanding of the ebbs. And you know, one of the interesting things that I've been talking to a lot of people that have this generational understanding of the industry about is the fact that right now, especially like, as we're in this, you know, coming out of pandemic inventory shortage, bunch of different things happening in auto electrification, digital revolution, there's just like, all of these things that are coming in. And I think a lot of people, especially that are young, in the business, been in the business, maybe 5 10 15 years, are seeing this as like, this has never happened before. But when I talk to people, and I'd like to kind of get your perspective on this, they've been in the industry or have some generational legacy. There's, it's just another wave of similar things that have happened in our industry. So how are you seeing dealers, industry partners, OEMs approach, this new wave of change in similar or different ways than other waves of change have happened in our industry? Well, I

Chris Dukes: 2:39

can tell you, one of the things that's going on right now is a lot of uncertainty. Yes. And you don't really a lot of dealers don't know what to do many times. But you know, what I what I have learned in my years of relating and communicating with car dealers is that they're very, very resilient. Yeah. And that's important, especially, I mean, and I think above any other types of businesses, car dealers are able to adapt. And so those who do are successful, yeah, those who don't tend to kind of fall by the wayside. You know, I, I can tell you this, you know, you have to be ready to change, things are changing, change it, you know, doing things the same way over and over again, you know, what that gets you. So, you know, I, when I go into dealers and talk to them about their businesses, I talked to them about what I can do to help number one, at not only what I can do to help, but how I can help them. Yeah, you know, and that's what I do. And so yeah, they do have to adapt

Kyle Mountsier: 3:44

well. And so when I think about like a DMS in particular, it's a core part of a business, right? Because, yeah, it's a cash register. But it's also a data source. It's a large data source for not just a single dealership, but our industry. What's the revolution that has to happen in order for a core portion of our business to support some of the changes?

Chris Dukes: 4:15

You know, it's tough for me, but I take the time out to learn what's going on and how to how are my I have two daughters. They, they run rings around me in the digital digital world. But they we talk about it, and I learned from them. Yeah, I've always also said that, you know, the older generation needs the younger generation, and they need generation.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:40

Absolutely. Well, because like your first thing, the first thing that you said out of your mouth was we need to learn, right? And I think a lot of times the younger generation, the first thing out of the mouth is we need to do Yeah, and both has to have to happen. But if we do one without the other, then either we're sitting Learning in in perpetuity or we're constantly doing and not learning from our mistakes or learning from history or anything like that. So I think that's a great perspective. And I really appreciate you coming on sharing a little bit of your story and just your insight into what we how we should be approaching current.

Unknown: 5:16

Well, I can I'm still you know, in the auto industry, I love what I do. AutoSoft has been a great company for me. It's in the arena that I like to be in I can be in the dealership but not have to actually work inside the dealership, right. So but I still love the car business and they always said, people tell me if you cut Chris's wrist, he's gonna bleed motor oil.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:42

I love it bleed motor oil with Chris. That's a new podcast for you. There we go. We start. You heard it here. We started here first. Thanks for coming on.

Chris Dukes: 5:49

Thank you. All right.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:52

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.

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