Durran Cage, Founder and CEO, Cage Automotive

December 1, 2022
ASOTU was on the ground with Durran Cage during the 2022 NAMAD Annual Conference.
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Durran Cage is the Founder and CEO of Cage Automotive.



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Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is In the Dirt with ASOTU.

Paul Daly: 0:05

All right here with Durran Cage Cage Automotive, I gotta make sure I stand up super tall. You can slouch I'll stand up tall. And hey, so I don't think we've ever done content in person. Have we?

Durran Cage: 0:15

Maybe late at night? You know, I think it was a maybe it was no, no, we didn't get a chance to do it. We did. It was Kyle and I. That's what it was earlier this year. Colin,

Paul Daly: 0:26

so tell me this year, what are your thoughts about around the NAMAD convention and your experience here with your wife,

Durran Cage: 0:31

phenomenal, phenomenal, um, the connecting with people like it's almost like a community came to live here. But um, what I like about specially in the session, not to give a plug but the session that you guys had in the panel, I thought it was the craziest thing in the world, the future of automotive retail here I am note pads and everything thinking it's going to be in Kyle mentioned this, you know, VDPs SRP structuring your website, everything. And it was all about people experience culture. And it excites me that that's the future of automotive retail.

Paul Daly: 1:03

You know, one of the things about that conversation is that we did not plan it or structure it to go in that way. Right? That the people side of the business was one of several topics that we had loaded up on the slides. And you saw we got to that naturally, from an early conversation and we just stay there. And you know, we watched from from dealers to dealer, right to like Alex Vetter at CARS, really sing this, sing off the same song sheet and say like, whether you're an industry partner, or whether you're a dealer, the really the people side of the business is the one that's going to help you win in the next in the next generation. And you do a lot of that. Yep. Right, like so talk about a little bit because, you know, you always say like, why work on BDC? But I'm actually mostly therapists.

Durran Cage: 1:43

That's right. Yeah. Because it's, it's all connected. So it's kind of like yesterday, I was telling everybody, like, close your eyes and think about it, like, how do you really feel? And then think about it. Think about your employees, if they're not feeling well? What is that going to do for your customer? So

Paul Daly: 1:59

what do you mean? Like, walk us through that for a second? Because I think it'd be valuable for people watching this. Yeah. What do you mean, close your eyes? And how do you really feel?

Durran Cage: 2:05

Yeah, so when I say close your eyes, I want to, I want us to have time to really just focus because sometimes, you know, when your eyes are open, it's like there's distractions, right. So when you really close your eyes, your own is like, how do I really feel? I just take a moment. It's almost like a silent meditation. But it's like three seconds, but it's enough time to just do a health check to be like, Man, I don't really feel too well. And then it's like, why don't I? Is it mental? Is it physical and spiritual? Like, what is that? And then make sure that you get yourself right in. And if you're not, I feel like the stores should have like that, that level of hey, man, if you're not feeling good, it's okay. We've been there talk to me, and have either resources on site, or just people that are like diving in and they can feel that energy like, man, talk to me what's going on? It's kind of like the updated version of a one on one that sometimes maybe doesn't need to be business focus. It could be just person focused, if that makes

Paul Daly: 2:54

sense. No, it totally makes sense. So updated, updated one on one, one on ones, or something that we know is super valuable. And for any leader in any organization? Why do you think people don't do one on ones in automotive? As much as they should?

Durran Cage: 3:07

Yeah, well, one, let's maybe we should remove the name. So we should change the name right now, right? Let's connect whatever you want to call. But maybe we need to update and refresh that name. Because I think it could cause intimidation, you know, because some people are like, Man, I don't know how that works. Or it could be leadership, development training, like a lot of leaders. We talked about this man or shot over there. But we talked about how when leaders sometimes get put in that position, you're not really taught how to coach people, you know, you're taught how to help you were just,

Paul Daly: 3:38

you were just good at what you did. A lot of times in automotive, right, you were a great salesperson. So we obviously put you in charge of all the other salespeople, but now it's a totally different scenario, because selling the car is just a fraction of success. People forget the business. Yeah. Update one on ones and call out or whatever development moment or whatever. Okay, and but why do you think people don't do it?

Durran Cage: 4:00

Well, so goes back to the quote, right? What's easy to do is easier not to do so it's really not hard, right? So it's, but it's like, you have to have a plan. And you got to have time for that. So typically, if you're a leader, and you go into a dealership, you're normally you go in to solve problems first, right? But that's not what you need to be doing. You need to go into prevent problems first. Right? And that's what the disconnect is I

Paul Daly: 4:26

put you got to plug the holes in the boat. Exactly right. So then, then you can deal with the water because if you're just bailing water out, it's coming in doesn't matter. Alright, you get one piece of advice to all the dealers and industry partners out there today. What are you going to encourage them to do?

Durran Cage: 4:40

I'm going to encourage you to do the same thing I'm doing right now all the way down to the pants to the shoes. And I talked about this yesterday, but it kind of went off a little bit because of the mic, but I'm going to encourage everybody that's watching this listening to this to rebrand and restriction just be rethinking like, I want you to just like I just did here that wasn't planned. He's at one on one That's that's the thing I need to rebrand what a one on one is like we need to update that to moderate to the to the next gen that's coming in. But that will be my tip is that if you hadn't made any changes and you hadn't gotten really uncomfortable recently? I don't know what you were supposed to be looking at. But if you hadn't done that, yeah, I want you to take that time to just get with your team. Don't do it alone, right? And just rethink rebrand. I'm gonna do the same thing next week. I'm super excited. Let's

Paul Daly: 5:25

put some words into people's mouths, right? Because it's a great cut topic. Yeah, you got it. You got to load their lips for a second, right? Okay, what sentence are they going to say to their team that they want to get together? I want to get together to what I want

Durran Cage: 5:38

us to get together to act like we just started next week. That's what I want them to say like next week, I want you to act like next week is the first day we ever started an automotive industry. I want you to bring that focus and energy into the business and those ideas as well.

Paul Daly: 5:54

All right, we're gonna call the segment new beginnings with Durran cage. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Appreciate it, brother.

Durran Cage: 6:00

Thank you guys. All right.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:03

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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