39 Feet of Paper with Greg Uland

Kyle Mountsier: 0:02

There was a long pause before the start of the podcast

‍Unknown: 0:11

this is Auto Collabs

Kyle Mountsier: 0:12

I don't know exactly is because

Paul J Daly: 0:14

I know why is because Michael look to the side. And he had that face like he's about to say something. And I think we were both waiting for him to say something and then

Kyle Mountsier: 0:22

and then and then the only side of his face that we could see have that spark like someone else better start talking right now

Paul J Daly: 0:29

because it was just, it was a polite leaning up to the microphone. Like I have to at least pretend I'm going to try to start this podcast. I

Michael Cirillo: 0:35

love those podcasts, though, where the three of us are like, Wait, who's gonna start and then all three of us are like,

Paul J Daly: 0:41

we all do. We feel the need to do it. Today's guests. Greg ulan, Chief Marketing Officer of Reynolds and Reynolds is also a podcaster. So he's going to understand where we're coming from. It's not often that you see like a higher level exec making so much content. Yes.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:57

I actually, I remember last year at NADA, I loved their booth, because like everybody else was doing stages and podcasts and stuff from like these massive stages. And he's got like this nicely designed with, like, all sound proofed. And it's, you know, he's got like, it just looks like a podcast deal. And it was, it was really cool. So this man understands content. He's a marketer. But he's also extremely savvy when it comes to like the actual business operations, he ties marketing to operations really well in the conversations that we've had with him. So we hope you enjoy this conversation that we are having with Greg.

Paul J Daly: 1:36

Hey, Greg, thank you so much for joining us today. We're excited to be here with you. Always

Greg Uland: 1:40

a pleasure. Always a pleasure. We don't get to connect as much as I'd like to certainly, but it's always fun. Hey,

Paul J Daly: 1:46

If this is a step in the right direction. You know, one of the things I was excited about having you on the show is that you obviously make or maybe people don't know this, but you make a lot of content. You're usually in the studio talking to dealers and other industry partners. Just trying to build the conversation around a lot of different topics. And you know, so we were we were wondering how you were going to show up today day before Thanksgiving. Was it studio? Greg? Was it office work, Greg and I think now people see get to see the Clark Kent behind the super.

Greg Uland: 2:18

Yeah, there's there's many faces right you guys you guys always have the same on I mean, I'm surprised you're not in the soccer scarves. While you're recording

Paul J Daly: 2:26

to we can fix that.

Greg Uland: 2:31

What is the story behind the soccer scarves? Why? I don't know I just every time it catches my attention,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:35

listen to this guy. He's actually he's like, Okay, now see, I'm gonna interview you. Alright, yeah, one question. You get one question. So, you know, I'm a if you if you're watching, if you're not watching behind me is like a stack deep of like 12 or 15, scarves, another couple of soccer scarves over there. And then I have another 12 Over there hanging up. And then another 20 Probably in my, in my.

Paul J Daly: 3:04

So it's a process over there. So we have a problem here.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:06

So I have a little bit of a problem. So two of these are soda cones. So the reason why we chose soccer scarves is because we were headed toward a soda con 2022. And we're like what merch item are we going to do? The kind of sets the stage sets it apart, right? Nobody likes, you know? Yeah, I've read. He's got notebooks from every company ever. Right? And we just started to wreck and I started to talk through like, what's the soccer mentality? Well, it's extreme fandom. It's community. It's year after year, we're redesigning and redeveloping and recreating, and there's always like an extreme energy and passion around soccer. And so we're like, what better than the signify what this automotive community is then throw a soccer scarf

Paul J Daly: 3:51

and it was the first one I ever owned the first ASOTU CON soccer scarf. Yeah, cuz I didn't, you know, I'm not not a real soccer fan. But when I when I like was introduced, really introduced to soccer a lot by Kyle and just the energy of it. I put it on first. I never took it off. I had it on the whole we will have to send you we have we still have some from 2022 and 23. We'll send them to you. All right.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:17

All right. So you I have we have to go back real quick, because found out you know, you haven't always been with Reynolds company. Talk to us a little bit about exactly how you got into the auto side of the business because it wasn't all on the industry. Partner side is like your your role is right now. Yeah.

Greg Uland: 4:37

I mean, it goes back quite a ways. But I will tell you with Reynolds, you know, I've been here for over 15 years. I joined Reynolds in May of 2008. Yeah, yeah. And I was told by multiple people on many different occasions that might not have been the best career decision ever, you know, to join a company that serves car dealerships exclusively. We

Paul J Daly: 4:55

may have heard that once or twice. So you know,

Greg Uland: 4:58

but it gives you a front row seat to due to how great this industry is, how resilient the industry is how great car dealers are, how resilient they are. But you know, going back, I mean, I actually grew up in an auto parts store, retail auto parts store, my grandparents had had a few parts store. So I got to, I got to grow up working alongside, you know, my dad, my grandpa in retail auto parts, and then kind of continued in retail through college. And then after college has started the wholesale parts business delivery business, and then after that it came to Reynolds. So been, you know, been around automotive pretty, I mean, quite literally my entire life. But in retail automotive, for the last 15 and a half years. I

Paul J Daly: 5:36

mean, coming from the parts the side of the business, it's, I mean, like it's a pretty, it's rare enough that like an auto GM come from the service side of the business. Right, having have a marketing executive, like coming from the parts side is. I mean, there's there's much there's not much more ground floor than that, right? You get to see the good, bad and the ugly when you're on the part stuff.

Greg Uland: 5:57

Yeah, I mean, I got my first job, you know, my grandma would pay me 10 bucks a week to clean the bathrooms in the in the office. So that was that was my first gig. You know, scrubbing scrubbing.

Paul J Daly: 6:06

I like it, that the grandmas, the one making the deal to, you know,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:10

I was actually thinking like, on this morning, I was having this thought because someone posted on LinkedIn about CRMs. And DMS is in the auto space and how it's different than like the rest of the world. And my first thought wasn't like, how do we sell a car? How do we reach out to a customer that wants to buy a car, my first thought was, the things that I've been through. And I'm sure like being with Reynolds that you've seen now, but also in the wholesale and the retail parts business, the things that are so dramatically different just about the parts business within Auto, and the connections and the integrations and the way that parts are listed. And then the way that they're changed over time. And it's not just a straight up SKU number and all that type of stuff. Like what was your experience, and has been your experience in in the part side of the business? Because that's not one we get to talk about in the auto industry a

Greg Uland: 7:04

lot? Sure, well, I'd say you know, first kind of retail part's outside of you know, the dealership world, outside of the franchise dealership portal is definitely different, right you have, you have a lot more control over what you carry, and a lot more control over what you don't carry, you know, how much you carry. You know, in today's world, for a franchise dealer, a lot of that is going to be dictated by the OEM, right, and there's software that basically stocks your department for you. So if you want to have a parts operation, that that you have more control over, you end up going down the wholesale path, and a lot of dealers are really successful in that world, you know, selling wholesale and delivering parts and you know, a lot of them have very large parts operations that are profitable. But, you know, there's really those two different pieces to it. I mean, if you're running a parts department to defeat your service department, that's great. And you're gonna get the parts that you need most likely or special order the stuff that that the manufacturer says that you don't need every single day. But you know, when you're when you're looking at expanding and finding new avenues of revenue and profitability, that wholesale world is one that a lot of dealers have found success in. Does

Michael Cirillo: 8:15

the parts department have its own subsection of buzzwords, you know, like the industry is, like one I hear. Here's an example like how often back in the day did you hear the word obsolescence? Cuz boy, do I hear that one a lot.

Greg Uland: 8:31

obsolescence and dirty cores. You know, when you tell somebody about, you know, dirty? Why don't you just call me. Really be careful to pronounce your words. Clearly.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:44

You get that SOP? No, the SOP the SOP, 30

Paul J Daly: 8:49

Cor, bro.

Greg Uland: 8:53

Definitely, there are definitely those those those phrases that if you're not around it, you know what, what are you talking about? Yeah.

Michael Cirillo: 9:00

So let me ask you this over the last 50 You said over 15 years now at Reynolds, from 2008 to now what have you seen as kind of the biggest developments the biggest things that you've you've noticed being in a company that long? Because I mean, that's that's longer than most people's careers? You know, so that's you've got some some vision there over a broad timeframe of how Ray Ray dare I call it has evolved.

Greg Uland: 9:27

First, I appreciate you calling me old without calling me old that's

Paul J Daly: 9:31

got to weigh about okay. Yeah, I guess I got a real way about him. He always a backhanded compliment. Thanks. So,

Greg Uland: 9:39

yeah, as far as kind of what what's changed? I mean, I think the biggest thing that's extremely noticeable, and this is this is Reynolds, but this is across the industry is just the sophistication of the technology. Right? I mean, the things that we can do with software today that weren't possible 10 Five, three years ago. It's It's unbelievable. So I'm That's that's the big thing that stands out is how sophisticated the technology is, you know, I've seen this company, specifically Reynolds, Reynolds, you know, make a real strategic decision. And this is going back quite a few years, to focus on building out an entire retail management system for dealers. And there's a lot of different approaches to it, we don't need to get into the details. But I would say, you know, the decision to do that and build this, this platform in this ecosystem to run your entire retail operation on has really enabled a lot of those advancements. I mean, you look at some of the stuff that's out there today, and I'll speak to our stuff because I have experienced with it, but you know, you look at things like occupied and you look at things like advanced servers, back and fixed operations. And you look at what we're able to do from an online retailing perspective and having a single deal, you can really only do that with a single system. So that's been the biggest shift and the most visible one. I would also say, you know, the way that we work with customers, work alongside them and really partner with customers is, is something that's been really fun to watch, grow and evolve, we've always, you know, had a focus on our customer success, but the way that we've evolved and really worked hand in hand with our customers, certainly over the last few years, it's been, it's been a really fun, fun ride to be a part of.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:22

It is awesome. So like, there is all of this tech, and there is all of this, like, trying to get everything into a single system or a single dealer, like our our industry has been obsessed with, how do we have the tech to enable like our people to do their daily job? When When do we start talking about? Like, do you really feel like we're mapping that to customer experience? Or is it this like innate desire to create something new? Or to connect something that we have more pain for than the customer has? Like, where's the where's the connection point there?

Greg Uland: 12:02

Well, I think there's a lot of that's a that's a question. There's a lot of ways to look at and I starting with with consumer experience, are we mapping to it? I think the short answer is, is yes. But at the end of the day, you don't necessarily want to be reactive to the consumer experience, right, it's important to understand what they want, what they expect what they're seeing in other places. But but the I think the true core value that we're going to add as an automotive retail kind of ecosystem is, is building experiences that are certainly great for the consumer that they may or may not know that they want. But also create kind of net new opportunities for us as a car dealership to really interact with our customers and profit, right and create that value in every interaction. So when you think about it that way, and you think about, yes, we need to make sure we're meeting customers where they are. And quite honestly, I think a lot of us that, that talk about this stuff for a living, whether that's we started by talking about, you know, content creation, we're all consumers, right. And I think we're consumers every single second of every single day. Whereas, you know, car dealers are their car dealers a vast majority of their time, their consumers too. But making sure to look at it through both lenses is important. And it's, I think, a lot easier for a lot of folks to communicate what it's like as a consumer, because they live it every day versus what it's like as a dealer to try to create opportunities. And you think about what's, what's possible today. Quick example. So we've probably all done this before, right? You're, you're sitting around probably the three of you. Just just watching you interact, I'm guessing that you talk to each other outside of these, these podcasts that you do so you're sitting around you're talking and thinking about you know, a concert you want to go see or an album that you want to buy something like that. And a couple hours later, you're sitting at home, maybe on the couch by yourself and you're scrolling through your phone, right and all of a sudden miraculously an ad pops up, or a Buy Now button for tickets to that concert, or you know to download songs from that album. And we've probably all said it.

Kyle Mountsier: 14:03

How's the only Swifty? Is he okay? Don't you start with me on that

Greg Uland: 14:10

now you watch you're gonna have something pop up on your phone later today but the point is right these these kind of big tech companies they have so much information about us they can create experiences right experiences that are great for us because I want that and Kyle wants those tickets that Taylor Swift concert he does yeah and and for you know whoever serving that up to me Facebook as an example right there creating an opportunity for for profit basically. So you think about all the information these companies have on us Google as an example right? They know everything about me certainly everything about you guys probably but I mean, they know everything I search online because he has a Chrome browser. They know my calendar because I use Gmail. They know when a home in a way because I have a nest thermostat. They know my driving habits because I use Waze what else they know what I watch on TV because I'm a YouTube TV subscriber. All these things, right all your emails? Yeah, exactly. But in a silo, all this information doesn't do a lot. But when you tie it together, that's when they're able to create these cool experiences. And you think about a dealership, and the information they have on their customers, right? They know who they are, where they live, how much money they make, who their spouse is, what their driving habits are, like, they know a lot. But the, the real fun starts when you can tie all that information together to then create these kind of next level experiences. So that's a really, really long winded way of answering your question, but I think there's a lot of ways to look at it. And it's really a blend of Yes, reacting to the consumer what they expect, but also creating these net new experiences that that are great for the consumer, but also great for the business. You

Paul J Daly: 15:43

know, you have a really difficult job. Because, you know, obviously, there's a lot of legacy around the company. Sure. Company. Seven

Greg Uland: 15:51

years. Yeah. Oh,

Paul J Daly: 15:53

my gosh, I didn't realize it was that better. Warren, thank

Michael Cirillo: 15:56

you. How many is a 157? What did Reynolds

Paul J Daly: 15:59

and Reynolds do before they were automobiles? Yeah.

Greg Uland: 16:03

So it was basically a general business forms company. So we print paper forms for businesses to think like a general ledger, right? Something that accountant would use or business owner reviews,

Michael Cirillo: 16:14

and checks, like business checks and stuff like you. We still do? We actually

Greg Uland: 16:19

still do. But yeah, so checks forms.

Kyle Mountsier: 16:22

You too may not know this, but Reynolds still is the provider of the majority of the industry's paper.

Paul J Daly: 16:31

Like I did not know that. Yeah. So

Kyle Mountsier: 16:33

like, and, and and not just like the majority of the industry is paper, like some of their largest competitors. And correct me if I'm wrong here, but some of their largest competitors still use Reynolds paper to get things done. Yeah. Just It's a nuts thing. It's nuts.

Greg Uland: 16:51

As you Yeah, absolutely. But as you move forward to, we're starting to see clearly a growth in moving that paper into digital formats. Right, which actually makes the licensing a lot easier. So, you know, for future competitors. But no, seriously, I mean, when you have a reach retail, a retail installment contract, right, the law 553. Everybody uses that contract, because it's recognized by all 50 states, there's, you know, all the associated f&i forms are available that

Paul J Daly: 17:20

those are licensed Reynolds products with the IP is yours. Right.

Michael Cirillo: 17:25

Right. Wow, I love what you do and 18 hundreds.dy.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:41

Let me let's map that, right. Because that's where the, it's actually the same exact thing. It's like, the connective tissue of auto is just moving digitally, right. And so what you're saying about the way that Google knows everything about, like, what your interaction is, to create really cool experiences, we're moving paper, digitally, we're moving interactions digitally, we're moving consumer data digitally. And whether you're, you know, in a single system, or in multiple systems, the necessity for that stuff to be licensed or accessed or available, quickly, is extremely high, like it is of necessity, right, right now that we do that, as an industry, and I'm sorry, I'm sure like Reynolds is dealing with how do we how do we make sure that the marketplace is is is ready for that right now?

Greg Uland: 18:34

Yeah, 100% and, you know, the realities of where we are right now, today, take all the all the voices out there in the world that are, you know, obviously positioning and kind of having their their voice heard, which is important. With where we are today, that still the most effective way. And one of the only ways to execute on tying all this together is to have a single system, where we're going, I think we're I think everybody sees sees this going and it's a matter of you guys talk about it all the time collaborating and finding ways to work together is, is you're still going to have a single system, right? And a single system that ties all these pieces together, but it's going to take in and spit out information and the power is going to be in that that kind of cleansing process for lack of a better word, right d duping and making sure everything's accurate. And then your words, right, Kyle and that you want it to be instantaneous, right? It can't be a push in a poll. It's it's one set. So in today's world, you do that with a single system. But when you look forward and as everything does go more and more digital, it's going to be extremely important for you know, our industry to be able to have that, that real time availability of all of those data points if we want to be able to create these these next level experiences

Michael Cirillo: 20:00

It reminds me just as we're winding down here reminds me of the CEO. This was a few years ago, the CEO of IBM, who stands on stage back then and says that data is the new natural resource. And then it pans to this room of people. And they're like, it might be the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. And you fast forward just a few years. And I think, I think I heard something, Greg, where it was like, every five years, we are experiencing 100 years worth of innovation. And so it's, it's cool to kind of get your vantage point 150 years of history at a company, there is certainly some understanding of how quickly and how rapidly innovation is happening. So I'm curious from from your vantage point now, what is the next bit based on what we've been talking about? What is the next three, five years? In your opinion, what look like

Greg Uland: 20:54

the next three to five years? Well, let me get the crystal ball out of the closet over there. I

Kyle Mountsier: 20:58

guess the next three to six month 590 days

Michael Cirillo: 21:01

look like now that Sam Altman's back? What is the next 90 days? So, all right, you're

Greg Uland: 21:07

gonna get me so next 90 days, first of all, is is NADA. So guys get ready, right? If you weren't ready for that, you should be now we're, we're like 10 weeks away at time of recording. So I don't know when this thing's gonna air. But so yeah, next next 90 days, I think you're gonna see obviously some some interesting things come out around an idea that's always a stake in the calendar for everybody. You know, we're certainly going to have some some pieces to that puzzle where we're tying things together from a data standpoint, like we've been talking about. But I think as we look forward to something that is going to continue to be important and potentially grow in importance is, you know, the US vehicle space, honestly, you know, when you think about dealers, right, and franchise dealers, they sell new cars. But the at the end of the day, they don't have a lot of control over what their margins look like in that new car space, right, the manufacturer is going to set the bar supply and demand is going to limit what they can do around that bar. When you look at the US vehicle space, while it's not their core business, they do control a lot more of it, right. So you decide what you buy the car, for you decide what you sell the car for the market indicates it a little bit, but for the most part, you you have much more control over that. So I think you're gonna see a decent focus there. On from a lot of different retailers, we've seen this kind of dip recently, right, where some of the, certainly the bigger, bigger groups have peeled back out of that world a little bit, there's been some volatility that struggled there. You know, with with everything, you're gonna have those ebbs and flows. And over the next six to 12 months, I do think that we're going to see an increased focus there. And it's important area for for dealers to be able to be successful, react quickly, and have what they need to be successful.

Michael Cirillo: 22:59

Awesome. Well, Greg, listen, it's always fun to be able to catch up with you. We're glad that we were able to do that today and want to thank you for joining us here on Auto Collabs.

Greg Uland: 23:07

Always a pleasure. We'll do it again soon. Hopefully, you can you guys can come back on connected, we'll catch up, or I'm sure we'll see NADA.

Paul J Daly: 23:17

I'm so sad that the last part of our conversation, after we hit after we said goodbye, we like stop recording, we kept talking. And he told us that if you laid out a car deal, end to end, it takes it's 39 feet worth of paper. It's brutal 39 on one deal,

Michael Cirillo: 23:39

at one deal where I'm sitting all the way to the end of my driveway. Right? Yeah. Basically, you've measured that. I just I've got a good sense of distance. Yes, they walk see

Kyle Mountsier: 23:51

unzips. And this is why I mean, then like, okay, 39 feet of paper times a SAR of 17 million units. And where do you start loading

Paul J Daly: 24:01

bars into the moon? We're gonna do this calculation right now or what?

Kyle Mountsier: 24:04

Well, either way, you start looking at the impact of like, what, like, let's get that straight before we start talking about EVs. Right? Like the number, the number of trees that automotive knocks down every single year because we don't have our digital processes in line. And I'm glad that that Reynolds and Gugu and their suite of companies is working toward toward eliminating or at least dramatically reducing that and a lot of the industry is I'm not saying it's everyone, but that's nuts. I

Paul J Daly: 24:31

feel like I'm doing some calculations that I think I'm doing them wrong, because now you don't hear what anybody else is saying because I'm on my calculator app and I'm going 39 times would you say 17,000 million 17 million annual Sar. All right, so we're going to 17 million. And now we're going to divide that by 5280 which is for the Canadians in the room that is the distance of a mile. That's 125,000 miles so If we can figure out how far the moon is, I feel like we have a social media post in the works. Everybody's duty, how many?

Kyle Mountsier: 25:07

How far is it to the moon 230 200 so we can get halfway to the moon. Okay,

Paul J Daly: 25:15

we could get halfway to the moon every year in paper that was supplied by Reynolds Reynolds to the automotive industry. That's a good business proposition.

Kyle Mountsier: 25:25

It's a great business proposition. Oh, man,

Paul J Daly: 25:27

the checkouts go. But But I think I mean, I always love when stuff like that comes out. Kyle knew when he dropped that in the interview. He was like, I knew that was gonna get the two of you, right? We love stupid stuff like that. It's not stupid. It just shows you that the evolution over time of any industry doesn't, doesn't typically, like get rid of everything they developed up into that point. They were making paper back in the 18. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 25:51

yeah, I mean, 156 years. 1800s. Good.

Paul J Daly: 25:54

Good night. Well, and they're still making paper and close the car deal. Contrast this

Michael Cirillo: 26:00

against the the news today about it. what innovation is it's like, yeah, there's a lot about the open AI stuff. And there's a lot about just AI in general and different, you know, doodads, and gadgets. But innovation can also like for the operators out there, innovation is also leveraging tools and resources that already exist, to create a new package to create a new experience. They're looking inward. So like my point being is Reynolds Reynolds is looking inward and saying, you know, it'd be innovative if we just figured out a way to kill all this paper, save the planet and, and make the process more efficient. And therein lies an innovation.

Kyle Mountsier: 26:44

There it is. On behalf of myself, Michael Cirillo, and Paul J. Daly, we really appreciate you joining us on this episode Auto Collabs See you next time. Sign

Unknown: 26:57

up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news and automotive, retail media and pop culture. You can get it now@asotu.com That's ASOTU.com If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time Welcome to recording

‍