Monday Encouragement, Live Conversations From NADA, Wheels Up to TX!

February 6, 2023
Welcome to a relaxed Monday as we ramp up into the week. We have a special treat today as we replay some of the conversations we had with dealers and industry leaders from NADA.
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  • Alain Nana-Sinkhain and Matt Jones of TrueCar reminded us to have the courage to doubt yourself. Don’t hold on so tightly to what you know that you aren’t open to what could be true in the future.
  • Alex Vetter of Cars.com encouraged dealers to lead with technology in a way that empowers the consumer.
  • Christopher Singleton, COO of the Mike Terry Auto Group shared what their group has learned after making multiple acquisitions and the importance of systems and processes.
  • Jon Lett and CJ Settles of Pure Country Automotive told us what they’re doing to impact their community and how that makes it all worth it.

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SPEAKERS

Christopher Singleton, Paul Daly, CJ, Alain Nana-Sinkham, Alex Vetter, Kyle Mountsier, John


Paul Daly  00:01

Yo, it's a totally new week, first full week of February. It's Monday, you're ready to go, I'm ready to go. We need to make sure everybody else is ready. Go. The people really want to ask so many when they see so many, you know, for the new people, we used to bounce all the time. And then we realized, when we bounce and you can't hear the music, we look really weird.


Kyle Mountsier  00:29

Everybody's on LinkedIn, like, what are these guys doing


Paul Daly  00:32

that a condition is something over there, we can get a prescription for that condition. Hey, so fun to know that we have so many new people in this community after nada. Because, you know, obviously, people are going to get turned on to the podcast, and the daily email, if you're not you should be a soda.com and the social media channels. And so there's an element of just knowing that new people are in this community that we can kind of onboard into the a soda verse or a soda culture, because now you're a part of it. Whether you like it or not, we need


Kyle Mountsier  01:03

to do one of those story episodes, you know, bring people like there's a sound beginning,


Paul Daly  01:08

right as a sound effect that needs to happen here. Actually, I don't know. I think I actually have it. What is it? What is it? Here's Storytime with cobnuts here.


Kyle Mountsier  01:21

We're not going to do this story today. But maybe we will. I don't know we should find like a video we should do. We should do like, dynamic story. We told it a few times. But the history of so do goes way, way, way, way back. COVID time it's like been building things ever since just really building community drawing together people that are like my mind, think think think similar ways and want to progress the industry forward really care about the culture of the industry, the perception of the industry outside of the industry. And yeah, so that's why we do the daily email on the show and things and the events, because that just draws community together. And we all move in the same direction. So that's the truth.


Paul Daly  01:59

It's the truth. Well, look, you know, last week and a little bit in the week before, we talked about nada, so much. And there's all this news to talk about, there's always news to talk about. Every day, we wake up and we read it, we're like, oh, there's always something to talk about, which is great. What we want to do today is start the week off by giving you some of the best moments that we remember from NAD are some of the stuff that we have recorded that feel like we feel like he's really good because you can't see it all. We can't share it all. You can't see every social media post, you can't listen to every podcast. And so we wanted to curate a few clips of conversations we had throughout the week that we think are applicable to you on a Monday to unlock some thinking to unlock some energy and motivation, so that you can go out there and like literally like be a passthrough take it from here. And if you don't give it to somebody else, then you're doing it incorrectly. So doing it wrong, as Carl always says, it's that's one of your sayings.


Kyle Mountsier  02:52

I'm doing it wrong, right doing it wrong, put that on the shirt.


Paul Daly  02:56

If you're not blank, you're doing it wrong, right. So so here, we hope you enjoy these few clips, we're gonna go bounce around, and we're also gonna put links to the full episodes. A lot of these things come from full podcast episodes. And when we say that we mean like 15 minutes, we try to keep it short for you. So who's got time for Joe Rogan? Not? Not anything against him. I just don't have time. I don't four hours a day to listen to a podcast. So here are a few clips from from the best times of nada. They're linked to longer podcast and hope you enjoy hope that they contribute a little bit to your Monday morning. We'll see you back here in a few minutes. Come on you our friends at TrueCar know how to do it right Alan, thanks for joining us, Matt Jones. Thanks for joining us again. Always fun to have you here.


Kyle Mountsier  03:36

Do me a favor I encourage some dealers what what would you encourage people within this next year because all of this like change and change has been happening and like you've been on the franchise side and and the vendor side and the partner side? What do you like? What are you charging dealers with?


Alain Nana-Sinkham  03:54

This is gonna sound crazy and a lot of them have the courage to doubt yourself. Have the courage right,


Kyle Mountsier  04:01

someone put down a shirt y'all


Alain Nana-Sinkham  04:04

have the courage to consider that everything that you've accumulated Oh, wow. To this point,


Kyle Mountsier  04:11

someone said they might


Alain Nana-Sinkham  04:13

be no longer valid. Yeah. Wow. As as as the situation changes as our industry evolves, things that we believe I'll tell you real quick story. And myself again, I sold


Kyle Mountsier  04:28

I'm at this point I'm like when I know.


Alain Nana-Sinkham  04:32

So I sold I sold Chevy's and GIOS and Hyundai's at my first dealership and we used to get programmed cars from the rental car companies. We got a big shipment of Chevy Corsica. Again, this was back in the day.


Paul Daly  04:45

I love this very real, I can actually smell it. Right. You know exactly what I mean.


Alain Nana-Sinkham  04:51

So I get a phone up. And the guy says, Hey, I was driving past la I saw this great green one and a What? What can I buy that car for? And I'm Greenpeace sales for some two months in the business, I get all excited, I put the phone down, I've run over to the tower. I'm like, I think this guy is really interested. He's on the courses out there on the point. And he wants to know what he can buy it for. My sales manager looks down his glasses, you know, yeah, like this. We don't give out prices over the phone. If he wants to buy the car, he can come down here and I'll tell him what he can buy it for. He would not recognize our business right now. But what he knew at that time, so we don't sell cars over the phone. That was an article of faith at that time. Right. So here's the thing, what are the things that the four of us believe are articles of faith right now? A year from now we're going to look back and say to us, man, you remember when we thought


Paul Daly  05:51

we are here at the cars booth with the one and only CEO Alex better. Nice to have you. Thanks for giving us a few minutes.


Alex Vetter  05:58

Thanks for being here, guys.


05:59

What was what was the go back to the first booth that you guys ever had? How long? Or how long ago was that? What did it feel like look like?


Paul Daly  06:06

He's like, want to see my briefcase.


Alex Vetter  06:07

It was backed by a dark closet. I think the janitor's closet was next to where we bigger? No, and it wasn't, it wasn't, let's just say, a very popular destination. Back in the day,


Paul Daly  06:20

you've always been a massive advocate about putting giving the dealers more power in the process and focusing the whole business toward like, how can we make that endpoint, the hero of the entire narrative? What are you seeing with that? And kind of the trajectory moving in 2023?


Alex Vetter  06:37

Well, look, I think the dealers that are leading with technology are communicating directly that that I'm the place you want to be


Paul Daly  06:46

when you say the dealers leading with technology, what do you mean by that


Alex Vetter  06:49

they're doing online financing, they're not making you sit down and negotiate that they're showing you a digital menu of banks and what they'll give you in terms of your overall credit worthiness and your monthly payment. They're doing that online in a way where the consumer feels that am empowered and I'm in control on the trade inside with Accu trade, they're giving them real time data and, and a display of what the car is really worth. They're they're leading with reputation showing that I'm a five star rated service operation, you want to buy this new 2023 Toyota for me, not down the street, because I'm the number one service, you know, ranking dealership in my region. And when I say leading with technology, it's being where people are expected to be which is out in the open.


Paul Daly  07:40

Yeah, I don't hear my man Christopher Singleton. Sir, one of the best dressed men on the floor, I must say,


Christopher Singleton  07:46

I'm the CEO of the mike Terry Auto Group. And so we're rapidly expanding. We've gotten six doors in the last three years. So we look forward to to keep growing and making it happen.


Paul Daly  07:57

Okay, so you're rapidly expanding? I think this is a challenge that a lot of small groups turning to medium groups and medium groups or into large groups. It's a very common conversation amidst the mass consolidation. What do you what do you feel like are the most challenging things about acquiring stores and kind of bringing them together with your existing stores? I


Christopher Singleton  08:14

think the biggest thing is finding quality people. So being able to find quality people we call it Ben string. So being able to have there been strength to train develop and really create the same culture microcosms of that culture at each one of your individual locations.


Paul Daly  08:30

And so what would you say to small group about to acquire a store any practical things that you can give them going into the acquisition to prepare them well, to kind of like assimilate, bring the cultures together.


Christopher Singleton  08:43

One of the biggest thing is, is creating an infrastructure and have systems in place that you can plug anybody into, and so have it to be successful. So I think, have a firm plan of where it is that you want to go and have systems and processes in place that you can plug any people into and make it work and I would say Howard character and train skills so have high character,


Kyle Mountsier  09:08

John and CJ, where are you guys at in the country dealer? And what are your roles? roll that down real quick.


John  09:14

We're from the eastern part of Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, tri state area, and I'm the dealer principal at a Ford cdjr dual point and a Chevrolet single point. That's


Kyle Mountsier  09:26

Ford cdjr. How does that go?


John  09:28

goes? Well,


Kyle Mountsier  09:29

amazing. And you're both I'm the general manager. Congrats. That's a big deal. What type of things are you doing in the community? Currently, I'm sure I mean, I Oh, yeah. Like, you're like, do we have a seat over here somewhere? Talk to me at CJ a little bit about what your dealerships or dealership group is doing in the community to impact I


CJ  09:48

mean, we try to do everything with with the community that we're huge on community. We have local you know, Rotary Clubs, we have local sports teams, Chevrolet does a good job with They do a program where you come in you test drive car, it goes to money for Little League, I mean, you know, anything we can do to sponsor, you know, the high schools, the elementary schools, anything that, you know, we can do to help the children and also get our name out there. We do all of that stuff. So we're huge on that. Yeah,


John  10:17

corporate sponsor Greisen, memory days, week long festival in the round Memorial Day, and we had our first annual pure country Jeep show last year, and that was a real success.


Kyle Mountsier  10:32

Is there a story or something that you remember, from the last few years of engaging with the community that's been significantly impactful for your store for the community? Well, yeah,


CJ  10:42

you know, I think we do a thing every year around Christmas, where we give something away, and we did a car one year, and, you know, it went to a family who their daughter was going to school and, you know, they won the car come in, and it just, you know, I really think that that probably changed their their lives with with being able to do that and not have to worry about that financial burden that we were able to give back to them. And, you know, I think any anything that we can do to help somebody, I think it goes a long way. So, you know, that, you know, business is stressful, but seeing, you know, being able to, to afford to help people makes it all work. Good.


Paul Daly  11:21

So there you have it, we hope that you can take some of that into your Monday. Again, one. Oh, so you got to, you got to pass it along, though. Because it stops right here. Then like you're not being open handed. You got to give that to somebody now. Yeah,


Kyle Mountsier  11:33

we can't get all the 2.1 million people together to share with it and you probably know six or seven of them. So share that with everybody. share those thoughts and ideas. Get into your week, but build community as you go. It's a lot more fun together than alone. Let's


Paul Daly  11:48

come back tomorrow, actually from the great state of Texas, yet again.

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