Transforming Car Buying: The Power of Connected Auto Retailing

Ann-Marie Johnson  
Hey everyone. Welcome back. We are going to have another ASOTU Edge webinar today. Today we're joined by our friends at upstart. We're going to be talking about transforming car buying the power of connected auto retailing. So joining us today are going to be our hosts, Paul J. Daly and Kyle Mountsier, who you probably know if you're here, but we're also going to be joined by Karen bird. She is the GM at Colonial Volkswagen and Subaru as well as Exxon and Campbell. She's a dealer Success Manager with upstart and you're in for a lot of fun. So you definitely chose to be in the right place today. I'm gonna kick it on over to our hosts, and thanks again for being here.

Paul J Daly  
Hey, thanks. Hey, MJ, thank you. Okay, Paul, we got one. No. So we always talk about these webinars like, look, they're fun. They're fast pace. And before before we start these, right, we always go backstage greenroom, we hang out with the guests for a little bit. And like, we're I texted, I was like, this is a fun group. I always say that a lot. But we really mean, you know, when you're making fun of each other, like when you first meet like, you know, you're gonna be just fine. You're

Kyle Mountsier  
gonna be just fine. Yeah, and I love the topic of conversation today. Because I feel like everybody in the industry is always saying, we need a better experience. Right? Yeah.

Paul J Daly  
Everybody. treat guests better go get steak,

Kyle Mountsier  
right. I mean, what in the world does getting a better experience mean look like? And I think that's the the answer that we have in one way that might be right for a good large swath of people in auto, because the game is changing on what online versus offline looks like. Because it used to be verse in the very

Paul J Daly  
clear, it used to be very clear. And you know, you and I have had an opportunity to travel around and do some work with a lot of dealer groups large and small around the country. And this is a challenge that everyone is trying to solve in one way or another. And frankly, the bigger the bigger your store, the bigger your group, the more challenging it becomes. And so the technology tools that actually help you pull it all together are such a cool critical component of making a cultural shift to having everything seamless, because you do need both. And I think that's something that anyone who's tried to like, deploy a piece of technology to fix it all. They realize really quickly, a piece of technology just doesn't fix it all. But you need the piece of technology, or you'll never fix it. All

Kyle Mountsier  
right, people process technology in that order, but all necessary. And I think that, that is that's the key to make, making sure that we manage the customer and the sales experience really, really well. Well. So our two guests today are dialed in on that. We have Karen Byrd, and she is the general manager at Colonial VW Subaru. And then Oksana is joining us from upstart and they have a very unique partnership that you can tell just on screen even that, it they rely on each other to make sure that they are understanding this matrix of people process technology and how it all integrates to serve the customer. All right, well, let's

Paul J Daly  
let's bring them into the show. Carrie, why don't we make

Speaker 1  
today's car buyers demand a modern customer experience? Connect with upstart auto retail to deliver the experience they deserve?

Karen Byrd  
While forfeit their? Wow. Cool. I wonder where you went?

Paul J Daly  
When I tell you? What did I tell you? Carradice setup. Welcome to the webinar. We're so excited to go through the content with you. Let's just start out Karen, can you I think every dealer when they listen to other dealers, it's always helpful to get some context as far as a little bit of what you've done in the industry, like how you've gotten to the point you're at, and then maybe a little bit of an idea of your store or your group and the size and scope.

Karen Byrd  
Fantastic. So thank you for asking, Paul. So I I've been in the industry for 27 years to be exact just a couple months ago, I started when I was like two years old. wondering, how does she do it? Right, right. I, I love I love this business. This business is all I know, I say to people, it's It's my only claim to fame. You know, and I'm very grateful to have been here at Colonial for the past 16 and a half years with the ownership team that we have the executive management team and, you know, the entire team in general, it's been a great journey for me great experience. They've all, you know, helped me to grow, you know, as a general manager into my role. Yeah.

Kyle Mountsier  
So tell tell us about the group. Yeah, yeah, it's not the group and the store the size, the kind of scope of what you know, service and sales looks like for you got

Karen Byrd  
it. So we are a very small, I would say, dealership, you know, we're dual point, Volkswagen and Subaru. Maybe one of the very few dual points, you know, left in the country. We've been in business now for over 50 years, the family has been been in business for over 50 years. We, you know, we probably I would say, We, on average, we probably sell about 130 cars a month, you know, with all brands and used cars. We have a very large, you know, service based business as well. You know, service imparts it's a very unique, you know, organization culture, very family oriented. It's just just a great place to be. It's, I've been here almost 17 years, so, a lot of people have been here full time too. So it's good. She says it's

Aksana Campbell  
130 cars. Yeah. All right.

Paul J Daly  
A lot of dreams on Asana. And

Kyle Mountsier  
yes, she's like this is we're ready to go. Asana tell us tell us a little bit about your role at upstart and how long you been there and then how you got connected into the account relationship with colonial.

Aksana Campbell  
Um, okay, so I am a dealer Success Manager at upstart. So I'm her account manager. I oversee the dealerships on the platform. This is actually my second digital retail tool I've worked for and then I worked in automotive for about in dealerships about five years prior to that. Karen is actually a little tidbit she's not supposed to be in my region. So I live in Michigan, and there was somebody where, you know, her account just needed me to take care of it for a little while. And the second I met her I have said, No, she's mine. I'm not getting her dibs. Region. Yeah, it was like she's on my nobody can take or we hired somebody else in that read. Jen, and I was like, sorry, but she's online. So

Kyle Mountsier  
that's amazing.

Paul J Daly  
All right, so bringing this together, obviously, you know, Karen is on the platform. And she's very, very, like, she's a champion of the platform for a reason. Right? And that reason is because something that's something's working. So maybe maybe it makes sense for Karen, tell us a little bit about, you know, why you've deployed upstart how you're using, like, why you strategically are using the platform in your sales process? What's it doing for you?

Karen Byrd  
So to start with, you know, the pandemic, you know, created a new way for us to do business, obviously, by meeting customers where they want to be met, whether it's remote, or you know, or in store. And also, it also, you know, it was a period where we had, we wanted to minimize the touch points, right. So remember, the days where we had to be six feet apart, you know, we had no contact, you know, with each other. So I think it just created this whole new environment. And, and I'm, you know, even though Yeah, things did go back, some things did go back to the, you know, we remove, like, the six feet apart, you know, stuff, I mean, still people, you know, they just want to do their customers want, they still want us to meet them where they want to be met, not the old way of just doing things. And, and not only that, I mean, I noticed, I noticed that even even after all of that happened, there was there was a shift taking place, there really was a shift taking place to the conversation began with some research, trying to find out from you know, my other colleagues, and basically, some of our vendors, like, you know, a shift digital, the consultants that were coming in, you know, what's really happening in the entire landscape. Now, today, you know, you want we are going through, you know, the inventory limitations, you know, because of all the supply constraints that we were facing, the lead count was down, obviously, you know, there's no inventory and website, nobody's calling from stop ringing, they're not coming in, because you have nothing. So that's where the conversation really started. And I was very fortunate to it was actually good timing, let me sit it was really good timing, because my shift digital rep rep at the time, said, You know, it's funny that you should ask that question, because that really is the conversation right now. And he said, You know, I do have a dealer that's been doing this, you know, this, just because my question was a one time sales process, I didn't know that there was such a thing as a single point, you know, system going on. So in any event, so he said, if you're interested, I would love to be able to, you know, introduce you to this dealer and, you know, schedule a time when maybe you can meet if they're willing to do it, and then we can go from there. So that's what started the conversation.

Kyle Mountsier  
That's awesome. So what what did it look like to once you decided that upstart and this target of getting a one touch sales process or single point of contact process, some point in the future? What does it take in, in getting everyone to adopt the same mentality at the store, because that's not an easy kind of move to go, we're going to, we're going to break down a process to the bottom and then rebuild it, with technology surrounding it. Correct?

Karen Byrd  
The what I have to say is that I was very grateful that one, I had the opportunity to visit a neighboring dealer who was already, you know, on this process since 2018, I didn't even know there was a thing in 2018. And they were so gracious and kind to allow me to come in, I spend time with the dealership with a dealer principal, with US Operations Manager, they gave me a tour of their dealership, they actually had me, you know, you know, you know, first see the entire process and the operation, you know, how everything work? I had a lot of questions, obviously, because yes, you're right. How do I how do I, you know, you know, convince my team, you know, that, you know, you know, maybe this is what we should be considering, because, you know, change to a lot of people is very scary. It's very scary. Very, very scary. So, um, you know, like I said, you know, having the experience of going there seeing the operation, it just gave me more comfort, to be able to come back and have a discussion with my team.

Paul J Daly  
And you probably had a lot of vendors, right, like everyone has their vendor that they migrate to. And so like when you put a platform like this in place, obviously, it is a simplification of the vendor roster. So what what was that process like? Like, what situation were you in before you decided to go to with a more streamlined platform? Well,

Karen Byrd  
we were with another digital company because thankfully, when the pandemic happened And we were actually a beta store for them. But, you know, at that time, which was about a year ago, I don't think that they had evolved to the in store piece that we're missing. And the dealership that I had the opportunity to visit, they were already using upstart. So I was inspired. I mean, I was really inspired by the seamless, you know, experience, not just from the customer standpoint, because I had an opportunity to try it on their website, myself online, and then to see what happened in store and how they were really engaging with it. I mean, I was sold, you know,

Kyle Mountsier  
axon, that that's one thing that I think, is a new conversation topic that during the pandemic, it was all about, how do we do digital retailing? How do we make sure customers can like, do something online? But the reality is, is that we found that 97% of transactions actually happened in store? How, what does upstart enable that maybe is different than just like this theory of digital retailing? And, and how far does it go into the overall retailing process?

Aksana Campbell  
You're totally right that we everyone was like rushing to get something where everyone can do everything online. And then we all figured out, oh, actually, they still want to come in store, ultimately. Goodness, they still want that. But what we do is we enable and offer the customer with the experience to be able to do everything online up until that point. So they can do everything from getting a trade in value, creating their own payments, submitting their credit application, even with upstart getting the upstart approval through us and everything like that. So then once they get to the end, they schedule the appointment, they can come in, and they all they need to do is just sign and drive. So I think the way that we're different is that we offer them the option to do anything like whether it's only one step of the process or the full process. And then with that in store solution, it's really really a seamless process for the the sales managers and sales reps to pick up exactly where they left off and continue from there. If you if you started online,

Paul J Daly  
the most frustrating thing. Yeah, I hate that even on a phone conversation with like customer service. Yeah, where like, they'll ask you to verify your account. And then the next person that gets on the phone is asking you questions about the same stuff. It's just like, No, there is a better way. I know, even the simple stuff.

Aksana Campbell  
I tell all my dealers, I compare it to going to the doctor's office, I say how many nurses do you have to tell them your problem? And then when the doctor comes in, you have to explain it all.

Paul J Daly  
Right, well, that's a great illustration, that

Karen Byrd  
was a major pain point that we were looking to solve initially, in the wouldwould, which prompted the initial conversation, because we want the customer we want the customer, we want to be able to mirror the customer's experience online, and have that translate in store the same. And with the use of the iPad for the sales staff. It also made it even more seamless for them. Because like Asana touched on earlier, you know, everything, you know, from vehicle selections, you know, specs, inventory, selection, whatever, whatever it is that they need, everything is in the same place. And it also helps him to spend more time with a customer as well, because that was another issue that we heard customers were complaining about, you know, the salesperson is not attentive, you know, so the iPad really was instrumental in bringing this all together. Yeah. So

Paul J Daly  
it's obviously, it's obvious that you found a fit for the direction that you're heading. Right, it solves some problems. Now, you have you have single point of contact in your sights, right moving toward that. However, you've I think a lot of dealers want to hear, like, what actually changed? What are the results that you got from switching to a certain process that they might be considering or piece of technology that they might be considering? There, there was a case study that was done, right, um, can you tell us about some of some of the impacts that have had like on sales leads and things like that.

Karen Byrd  
So since we've, since we've been used since we've implemented upstart and the whole entire process online and in store, we've noticed an increase in our impact sales. And I didn't even know there was a thing as impacts

Paul J Daly  
I was gonna say, explain the impact sales for those of us in the room that might not be fully familiar.

Karen Byrd  
So this is my understanding the impact sales relates to the number of sold reported sold sales to leaves. So any customer that's coming to us by way of online or in store through this whole process that we're using, we are actually capturing about 70% which when we compare the numbers because I even had axon to dial in, I said Axanar said, there is an anomaly going on here. This can't be right. But we're closing about 70% of those deals, because everybody, every one that comes in the store, that is our process, everything is digital. Everything has to go through the iPad 100%. I mean, there used to be those days when, you know, we were like, oh, yeah, I bet you know, people get on the lot. And they're not getting logged in, well, guess what? You're working numbers, they're getting logged in, you don't have a driver's license scanned in, you're not getting numbers.

Paul J Daly  
So and so what it actually did was, it sounds like it inserted a lot of accountability into your sales process that is hard to police otherwise, absolutely. Yeah, I think most managers can say like, that is one of the most challenging parts of the position is just getting their team to do all the steps in order. And it sounds like this implementation forces you to like, this is how we do it. And so it's just like a silent accountability partner. And

Karen Byrd  
you asked a question earlier, you know, how how, how were we able to, you know, you know, encourage the team as a whole right to adopt this new, this new process. And, you know, one of the things that I learned is the grow method. I don't know if you've, you've ever heard about it, but obviously, what is your goal? Right? And, you know, we discuss what that goal is, why we're doing what we're doing, why? And, you know, what is our reality? You know, what are we experiencing right now? What is not working? And then the, you know, how are we going to move forward? Right? What are the options? And so we have, we have a discussion with the entire team, and we talk about it, so no one was ever left out. So we did a

Kyle Mountsier  
collective brought in, it wasn't like, Guess what, everybody, we're doing a new thing, because I feel like it it was come on along in this process, let's discover.

Karen Byrd  
And then we created, you know, some action items that we, you know, you know, set a timeline, you know, we held each other accountable, we supported each other through it, you know, even when some people were trying to still resist it, you know, I'm here to support you. And then with the help of upstart and the support that they provided for us, I mean, it just it made the transition so much smoother. What's

Paul J Daly  
the W, you said? Goal, reward options.

Karen Byrd  
So goal, the goal was to accomplish and why Yep, the reality where we're at working on the options is where we have everybody come up with options, how can we do a better job? How would you do it better? Oh, then grow gr O. W. O. W is the way forward the way forward are agreed upon action items with a timeline that we're going to hold each other accountable, loved? And yes, and then we're going to support each other, you know, make adjustments if needed, we're going to make the process work collectively.

Aksana Campbell  
I think that's where Karen differs from most dealerships and sees the most success with any tool, honestly, is the fact that she got her sales team to be to be bought in, she cares about their opinion. She even asked him she did some one on ones with them to check in and say like, how are you feeling about upstart? And she got all their honest feedback to know whether they're happy or not. And that's, I mean, that's it goes from top down and down, up, like nobody pays attention to that. But you have to have the buy in on both ends of the spectrum. So that's what she's done. So

Paul J Daly  
the technology providers saying it can't just be the technology. Yeah. And

Kyle Mountsier  
that's really great. So what, like what's the what's the path to getting to this single point of contact? Because I think there are a lot of dealers that are saying, like, how have you chunked away at that? Because a lot of dealers, I think, have some fear around changing what may have been the history and how do you how have you gone about, like the simple steps to get there, while bringing along the technology along the way?

Karen Byrd  
Um, very good question. Um, Kyle. Um, I don't I don't know if there's a one way to say okay, this is the way you know, maybe it's, it has to be for it to happen. For the dealers, that one that is considering it and maybe just want some ideas, I would say, you know, if it works for you, maybe a step by step implementation, choose a great provider, like upstart, they're there every step of the way. When there's hurdles, there's bumps in the road, they're there. I mean, there's there's never been a time that we needed something their support staff is amazing. 24/7 They've always been the wish I feel that without that, we would have never been able to accomplish what we are accomplishing today. We have just also started the financing online so now you can complete it. car buying financing 100% in the state of PA urine colonial, which I again, it's given the customer the access to be able to do the deal from start to finish the way they want to. And I would say there's nothing to fear, it really isn't nothing to fear, you know, when the customer is satisfied, and the customers happy, I think at the end of the day, that's what matters the most. Absolutely,

Paul J Daly  
yeah. Yeah, when that, when that happens to we don't need the FTC to put in a bunch of regulations, because we just took care of the customer. No,

Karen Byrd  
we didn't talk, we didn't even touch on it. But I believe someone said earlier about the feedback. So I did share some feedback from some of my team members and, and how they, you know, how they're, they're experienced, you know, using the team. And one of the things that one of my managers talked about is the compliance part of it. So it's to be able to have everything done digitally. It eliminates the paperwork for word, conversation. So you're absolutely right, that is a huge piece. And especially today, compliance is huge.

Kyle Mountsier  
And it's only going to get more complicated. It seems way more complicated. It's not one of the things that's that's big in the industry right now is the affordability, conversation around payments and pricing and whether approvals can happen and how lending meets the matchmaker of the vehicle or the profitability of the store. How How is upstart enabling a better process when it comes to answering those concerns from the consumer.

Aksana Campbell  
So I think what we're doing is we're offering the customer and the dealership the first time for the customer to have one experience through one tool. Because customers don't want as much as dealerships might think sometimes they don't want 17 Different CTAs that only do one thing in the process. So adding in that automotive lending side into it, like Karen mentioned that we just went live with a few weeks ago. It really gives the option to be able to do everything a to z through upstart and that's what dealerships are looking for. I mean, you have no idea how many times dealerships are saying Wait, can we replace our system with you guys? Like can we get rid of three of them, because there's just too many. So being able to offer them everything and just create an easier experience for both the customer and the sales team is the most important piece.

Paul J Daly  
I think there's probably questions on like, what what does a platform like this look like? Like, tangibly speaking like, what does it look like? I think we have a slide here that's a visual aid, so that we can put it up on the screen, we throw that up, Nathan. So talk about the slide a little bit for a minute. Axanar Yeah,

Aksana Campbell  
so the the phone screen is going to be like the customer portion of it, the customer journey looks like that's where they're going to be able to look at you know, building their deal. And then the iPad portion of it is the in store solution for the sales rep. So anything that the customer does on their phone or on their laptop, and then once they come in, the sales rep can pick up exactly where they left off. So it just it's no guessing you don't have to start from scratch. I tell my dealerships. These are not fresh ups. Do not ask them their name. Yeah, don't ask them what kind of car they're interested in, they already selected it, you're going to, you know, allow them to back out and say like, I wasn't shopping so

Paul J Daly  
nice. Yes, that's so nice when you're greeted with a salesperson associate, whatever you call them. And they have like a piece of knowledge already. Right? They understand they already have a little insight into what your preferences and they let you know, right out of the gate. Right? First of all, I'm gonna call you by your name. Second of all, I'm gonna say, uh, see, we're interested in this really nice, you know, a chord, like those are great cars. Are you still interested in that? And what right it just allows you to just not throw the awkwardness?

Aksana Campbell  
It just came out of detail? Are you ready to come in and testify? But right now I haven't ready for you, you know, just

Paul J Daly  
or actually have three just like it? You know what I mean? Or whatever it is? I did, I did see something I want to point out on that slide. There are two letters on their AI. And that's thrown around a lot, right? It says integrated AI powered financing. I have to ask because I don't know the answer to this question. What does that mean? Like? Is it really AI? What is it? It

Aksana Campbell  
is it is I will start it by saying I'm not the expert in it. I am still learning that. But with Otto with upstarts, they started in the personal loan space about 12 years ago. And it is the the founders came from Google. And so they are insanely smart. They know what they're talking about. They decided, you know, like credit doesn't determine whether somebody can pay back their loan or not, we need to look at more things about the customer than just a credit score. So they created this machine learning system that's going to be able to determine, I believe it looks at about like 1200 different points about a customer to determine if they're eligible for a loan or not. So just because they might have a lower credit score doesn't mean that they can't pay it back. Just because it's higher doesn't mean that they will so it's really a full spectrum lender. And it is It's really, uh, I would say it's, it's coming out and just being like a real big competitor in very

Karen Byrd  
competitive Yes, yeah.

Kyle Mountsier  
What I know about that lending spaces is it's quite impressive and is enabled and enabling some really cool transactions. Well, hey, we've we've wrapped our time, I want to thank both of you for giving of your time sharing the experience. It is a unique experience. And I know that people can find you all each online. If you are interested in finding out more, we will be sending a recap of this to every attendee with the case study. You can also go to upstart.com forward slash dealers to find out more and connect with upstart if you have questions. But thank you all for sharing about the unique way that you're solving for customer experience, and caring about people more than cars. Like you said, Karen, it is all about people and the way you treat them. And thank you to you if you're watching for hanging out with us on this edge webinar.

Unknown Speaker  
Thank you.

Karen Byrd  
Thank you.

Ann-Marie Johnson  
Alright, everyone, thank you so much, again for being here. I'm not sure if we mentioned this though. But there also will be a case study that you can download. That'll be on the registration page, and we'll also be attaching that to the recap email that we'll be sending out on Friday. So thanks to Karen thanks to Asana and I will see you guys next time.