Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Tuesday, December 26th. Everybody actually had a real honest-to-goodness day off yesterday, so we thought we would come back and share with you five dealers, yes, five dealers, in a conversation we had. 0:13 Everywhere I go- Five awesome dealers... people do pretty well know who I is and who I ain't. Really awesome people at dealers. I mean- Still glitz, still glamour, still bling. No need to repeat. 0:20 Run up on me, boy, watch how you speak. Yeah. You'll get to meet them in a second if you didn't meet them last week at the Year-End Extravaganza. 0:25 They- So last, yeah, last week we did have the Year-End Extravaganza, which has been live streaming over the weekend, over the long weekend, and is still available. 0:34 Uh, probably the best place, I mean, it's not on LinkedIn, but the best place to see it is to go to our YouTube channel, which is- Yep... 0:40 ASOTUBE, A-S-O-T-U dot B-E, and you'll see a ton of content there that you probably didn't know existed, but it does. But toward the very top you'll see the Year-End Extravaganza. 0:49 It's our, uh, third annual show we put together. Brought in, I heard, over 100 voices [laughs] from the industry showing up. Yeah. That's like people that were in the show. Not watching the show, in the show. Yeah. 1:02 [laughs] Yeah. Right, right. It's crazy. That's our strategy, to have m- many people as we can in the show just so we can get the head count up. No- Yeah... there were 100 people. 1:09 And we had, uh, this one conversation we're gonna share with you today with five dealers or general managers, right, like some dealers, some GMs, um, talking about some of the different things in the industry, strategies. 1:21 Uh, we ask Erica Tiffany Wells what it's like becoming a GM, what she didn't know, what she wished she knew going into it. So, uh, we have fa- Wait, wait, wait. Before we get to it, before we get to it- Uh-huh... 1:30 I just have to note, Paul, I, I think we've, the last two years that we've been doing this, like, post-Christmas- Mm-hmm, episode... podcasting thing- Mm-hmm... 1:40 I, I think I've reminded you of this but, like, I have to note, for all of the people that have not been in dealerships in a long time- [laughs]... not spent a lot of time in dealerships or anything like that, like, 1:51 if you think Saturdays are busy or you think, like, Aug- Saturday, August 8th is exciting- [laughs]... in the car business, you've never walked in on the 26th- Oh... 2:03 and gotten the, the, like, level of, like, riled up energy within you about what's about to happen over the next five days. It is just- Yeah. Forget end of month... full nuts. 2:13 This is end of month, end of quarter, end of year. It's like tennis. This is game, set, match point in auto months. [laughs] Game, set, match. Like, it is just unhinged. So for all of you out there- [laughs]... 2:23 that are walking into that- Such a great point... I am, like, I am just rooting for you, pumped for you. Like, get game face on, have a whole ton of fun. 2:33 Um, but yeah, we do wanna share this conversation with you, but I had to bring that up. It's like- That's so good. No, no... it's this, like, pretty wonderful day... closing out 2023- Yeah... everyone's in it. 2:40 Well, I think this conversation will contribute to that- Absolutely... because definitely everyone that's in this segment is 1,000% in the mode that you just described right now. Yes, they are. Yeah. All day. 2:51 So, um, we have Fabiola Maez Mathis, Erica Tiffany Wells, Ed Roberts, Mickey Anderson, and Michael Lee. All people that we've introduced you to in content throughout the year. 3:00 All people that I wanna sit down and have dinner with, uh, in this next year, and we really think you'll enjoy this conversation we had with them at the Year-End Extravaganza. 3:09 What better way to start the Year-End Extravaganza than by hearing from the driving force behind our industry, the auto dealer. 3:15 So please welcome to the show some new and familiar faces, Ed Roberts, Michael Lee, Erica Tiffany Wells, Mickey Anderson, and Fabiola Mathis. Uh, you know, we wanna look a little bit back at the year that was. 3:29 And, um, uh, you know, there's been a lot of conversation in dealers and, and it feels like there's been just a massive up and down. 3:37 One of the c- recent conversations that we've got to have is, Mickey, with you, particularly around what's going on in the EV space, which is impacting so many dealers in, in, in unique and different ways, but also similar ways. 3:50 Um, Mickey, give us a little bit of a recap on exactly, uh, the, the people that you've brought together to have a conversation, um, with political parties about, um, how EVs are impacting dealers and consumers alike. 4:04 Yeah. Well, thanks. It- happy holidays, and thanks for, for, uh, inviting me. Um, you know, in 2023 we saw the, the, probably the greatest influx of, of, uh, BEVs in the history of the industry. 4:15 And, uh, and I will tell you, we opened up the year with, with tremendous enthusiasm. Most of us had some, some wait lists for a lot of those great products. Um, and, um, and we saw a lot of enthusiasm. 4:26 But as the year wore on, we saw those wait lists go away. We saw supply come up and demand come down. 4:34 And, uh, uh, certainly as you got into the back end of the summer and into the fall, we started to see large inventories and very high day supply of some really expensive EVs. 4:43 Listening to our customers, we heard them say, "We love the technology. We wanna do our part to help with the environment. 4:49 But we can't afford these cars, we can't charge these cars, we can't use these cars, and we're not ready for a full electric vehicle." So that was kind of the backdrop. 4:57 Um, had a chance to talk to many dealer peers across the country, 5:02 and in a matter of literally a week or so, we had 4,000 dealers signed on to a, to a letter to the president just letting them know what we're hearing from our customers. Yeah. That's awesome. 5:13 You know, c- consumers are always at the, at the center of a lot of our conversations. 5:17 And, um, you know, uh, Ed, you are consistently an, an advocate for giving an incredible consumer experience that tart- starts with a great employee experience. 5:29 How have you all been approaching in this last year and looking forward to approaching particularly the consumer experience? 5:35 What are some of the things that you're doing that are, that are maybe setting the stage for a great consumer engagement and relationship? Well, it's just like you said. You get... 5:44 It starts with employee engagement, and then it carries out. But in everything that we do, we want all of our people to look through the customer lens. Don't do what's convenient for us inside the dealership. 5:56 Follow it through, play it all the way out. Play that tape all the way forward, and how does it work for the customer? And that's what we need to work backwards from. 6:03 And if we do that and then enhance it internally-Then the c- the employee experience goes up, and customer experience continues to climb. 6:10 And, uh, when you do that in a growing environment, 'cause easy to lose track of some of those things when you're growing. It's much easier to hang onto that as you're contracting a bit. 6:19 But our business g- is constantly growing, and to continue to do that, y- it, it takes intentionality to continue to push that through every one of our department leaders to do that. 6:29 And- You, r- real quick, you've been intentionally growing your, uh, mobile service department, and I've seen a lot of commitment to that, which is a commitment internally, but also externally. 6:38 Talk a little bit about how that's gone, and what, uh, what the roadmap for that in the future looks like. Well, you... Most people will hear it first here. We are going to blow up remote services in 2024. 6:50 The, uh, some of you guys have seen it, but we have hired a, uh, remote services director. Uh, y- it's a name that you guys are familiar with, and it is Jeremy Stevens. Hey. Yeah. 7:00 He, he had left his automotive group that he was at and came down to be a part of this ride. And, uh, our customers have told us for decades that they don't wanna go through the process that we force them to. 7:09 So we wanna meet them on their terms and, uh, go out and meet them in field and take care of them. And, uh, if we can't do it in field, we'll do pickup delivery, or we'll send a rollback for them. 7:17 But we want to enhance the ownership experience, rather than just focusing on a buy- focus on a buying experience. That's amazing. We can't hear, uh, wait to hear more about that. We heard it here first. There you go. 7:27 [laughs] Um, Erica, I wanna, I wanna shift the conversation up to you. Um, now firmly in the GM seat- Yes... congratulations again. 7:36 I know that's been something you've been, you've been talking about for years, and it was amazing to watch that materialize in real time. Um, now being in the GM seat, 7:44 what is it that you've realized that no amount of training or preparation could have prepared you for? Wow. Watching and seeing how the in- the departments go together. 7:54 You know, I think until you get to the general manager position, you don't really understand the delicate balance of all of the departments and how they work together. Mm-hmm. 8:02 Uh, you start to wal- watch the nuances, where one little thing off in this department is gonna throw a domino effect somewhere else. 8:09 You know, the relationships with your people, I went from managing 30 people on the front end as a GSM to 80 people, including technicians and service advisors and lot techs. 8:18 And all those relationships together, and as you build a relationship with those people and start investing into the emotional equity, they get your phone number. They wanna come in your office. 8:26 They wanna talk about their pay plans, their personal life. 8:28 And you have to figure out how to, to, to balance that, you know, to do what's best for the company and build those personal relationships, but also realizing that every single day, you're responsible for all of these families. 8:39 You're responsible for a budget. You're responsible for banks, and it is a lot. And I'm enjoying it, but I am also drinking from the water faucet- [laughs]... as I, um, as I, as I get what I've asked for, right? Yes. 8:49 Well, I- I see everybody on the screen is, like- [laughs]... nodding something like this, you know? [laughs] Erica, what is one piece of advice you would give? A lot of people in the industry are on the hunt. 9:00 Uh, general manager is kind of one of the positions at the end of their rainbow, if it's not being an owner. 9:06 Um, what would you say to the, to the folks that, uh, see general manager in their, in their sights in the next year or two? What, what do you wish you were paying a little more attention to? Service. 9:17 You know, service is crucial, and I think a lot of general managers don't actually learn service until they get inside the job. Uh, service is a big part, a, a large part of the entire focus of the dealership. 9:28 And when you understand how, um, influential it is to that, to that balance I was telling you about, you learn to appreciate a little bit differently. Um, our sales and service departments don't work well together. 9:38 Our parts and service departments don't often work well together. 9:41 And when you can figure out a way to guide all those departments together with a mutual respect, you start to get the lift and the buy-in and the confidence and the leadership to get each department to understand how critical it is, to the point that we've even bonused departments to work together to have common goals. 9:55 Because when the dealership's goals are all aligned, and all your people are backing every single one of them, then they understand, instead of pointing fingers at other departments, that let's work well together. 10:04 So we've created these monthly or these daily huddles, where we make every department manager meet for 20 minutes every day, and we talk about how well those departments should work together, any issues and concerns. 10:14 So there's never any of that bubbling over volcano in the back, that they're coming together every single day to address the issues and realizing how well their departments have to work together for the success of the store. 10:23 I mean, I've seen Ed Roberts smile a lot. Like- I know. [laughs]... if, if Ed is awake, he's smiling. 10:28 But I don't know that I've ever seen him smile bigger than I did while you were talking about service department, focusing on it, and getting all the departments to work together. [laughs] Yeah, and Fabiola's over here. 10:37 I think she's about to nod her head. She's, like- [laughs]... at a rock concert because she's... I mean, it sounds like you're experiencing so much of this. 10:44 And, and this is the stuff, you know, from a, from an industry perspective, a lot of the conversation gets pointed at some of the macro trends and some of the big things that are happening in our industry, but the reality is that the ground game is played in the dealership every single day. 10:58 What's the ground game for you look like right now, Fabiola, and what are the, what are the biggest projects that you're looking to tackle here as we go into 2024? 11:05 Well, the biggest things that I'm just tackling right now is just all new leadership. This dealership needed somebody to spearhead it and actually put it in the right direction. We weren't putting our customers first. 11:16 We were putting ourselves first. And through the COVID times, you know, you could do the markups. You can have the inventory. You can have that list of customers that was waiting for you. 11:25 And now you actually have to teach these new guys to actually sell a car and not be an order taker. So that's been a huge thing that we've been working on. 11:33 [clears throat] I've actually preferred to hire new people that have never been in the industry before because it's so much easier to program somebody than to deprogram them from that time of just being an order taker. 11:45 So from the sales side, that's a big thing that's going on here, new sales managers learning how to do their jobs effectively. 11:52 "Hey, you were great at being a salesperson, but can you lead the people that were your comrades?" And then just like Erica was talking about, service. 12:01 People forget that service is the reason why we retain our customers, not only with our dealership but also with our brand. A lot of people forget that, that brand effectiveness. 12:11 Most of us have our competitors right next door, the BMW store, Cadillac, Lexus, uh, Audi, and they're great manufacturers. 12:18 But with Mercedes-Benz, I chose this store because I believe Mercedes-Benz has the best product, but we also have to retain our customers, and a big part of that is retaining them in service right now. 12:30 So making sure that we're doing everything from start to finish. I'm very process-oriented and very detail-oriented, so if you put together a process, you can't get it wrong. 12:40 So it's, it's a big thing about if you do it over and over and over, you build that confidence within your salespeople, your service people, that they can't fail themselves because they've done it the same way over and over.You know... 12:53 Oh, go ahead. Do you have something? I do. I mean, but if you have something- We always, we always have something [laughs] Yes. 12:57 I was gonna say, you know, Michael has been, uh, you know, you've, you've recently become a dealer in the, in the ti- in during COVID, right? 13:04 And, um, you know, as Fabiola was talking about leadership, I, I wanna recognize that leadership in a dealership is not just about who you're caring for internally, but also caring for the community externally. 13:16 And you've taken a unique approach at how your dealerships care for the community. 13:21 Um, can you talk a little bit about how balancing leadership inside the dealership and outside of the dealership is important to the success of your stores? Yeah. Yes. Oh, sorry. That was for Michael. For Michael. 13:32 [laughs] My bad. Yeah, it's, uh- Got me excited about that one. That's right. I, I, I will take any advice that you have for me on that in the future as well, Fabiola, 'cause I- [laughs]... 13:41 I could always take additional advice, um, other, how other people do it. But, um, you know, one thing that we did this year is we, we partner with nonprofits, you know, through, through the pass. 13:51 And, um, this year we decided, you know, "Why can't we do it every month," right? Instead of just doing special events. We did it. 13:58 So we did it every month and we, we took a vote, as we talked about in our previous episode, uh, the live, uh, recording. 14:04 Um, we started with asking our salespeople, "Hey, you know, would you wanna participate in donating to a nonprofit?" 14:11 You know, every month we, we pack $50 per car, uh, that we sell, and the salesman of the month gets to pick whatever charity that they get involved with. 14:20 Now, I told you this before, we took, we wanted them to be involved, so we took it up one level this year after the Christmas party last week. Our GM, our sales manager, and the team got together and said, "Hey, listen. 14:31 We're gonna also volunteer as a team once a quarter to one of those nonprofits that we do. 14:37 So whether it's one hour, two hours, four hours, but it's gonna be one Sunday every quarter the whole entire team gets together and we're gonna go build a house, or put a roof on or, you know, hand out food or whatever the case might be." 14:51 Now, hopefully, they have, uh, proper guidance for building a house, 'cause I don't know how salespeople are at building houses. [laughs] [laughs] Enthusiastic but not... Right? [laughs] We'll just hand out food. 15:02 We'll be good with- Enthusiastic. Sure. That's great. We're gonna have a little, you know, disclaimer, whatever. A QC. "Hey, whatever we build, there's no, no warranties behind it, you know. 15:11 We can't guarantee that-" We need the FixDocks people in on this one. [laughs] Yes. There you go. There you go. Oh, well, thank you so much. I w- I mean, this is, we, we're gonna do this again- Yes... 15:19 and we're probably gonna organize, uh, some kind of meal in my dream state where we all get to sit around a table and share these stories. Um, we're gonna do more. Thank you so much. 15:28 Unfortunately, we're out of time for today. 15:30 Um, you all are really the reason that the auto industry is the greatest industry in the country and, and in the world is because of your level of care, concern, and that's no good without some operational excellence because we need to be- Yeah... 15:42 profitable. Absolutely. So thank you for being an example to all of us and sharing some of your time with us today. Paul, what a segment. I'm telling you what. That, it got me fired up. 15:54 At the end of it, we said to all of them off-camera, we were like, "Can we just have you guys over for dinner? And we'll just kinda, like, let you talk for an hour or so." [laughs] Gonna happen. 16:02 Hey, I, I'm dead serious we need to get every single one of them out to ASOTU CON. I think we will. Absolutely. And it's a great time to mention, did you know that ASOTU CON is already on the calendar next year? 16:14 It is on the calendar. Yep. It is. Yep. I'm not good with dates, but I can tell you it's in May. Kyle, what are the dates? May 14th through 17th. 16:19 [laughs] And you can go to ASOTU CON right now and already start finding out more info about it. We're gonna be releasing speakers and content and all the things- And early bird tickets... 16:28 and, and all the tickets here over the next month. So stay tuned on that. All right. Well, I, oh, I gotta trigger the music. You gotta go. I got so excited I forgot to trigger the music. You gotta go. 16:37 You have the last day, or the last week of the last month of the entire year- Mm... to go out there and sell. So we're gonna bump the music a little bit. Just get your game face on. It's time to close it out strong. 16:49 [upbeat music]
