A Luxury Mustang and How Dealers Win

Daniel Govaer: 0:00An article in Business Insider and an article in Forbes about two completely different things use the same stock photo on the front of a dealership. And neither article is really about Ford actually either. But that was this

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:14

Ford dealership got slammed with that what is that I'm

Paul Daly: 0:17

trying to read is it say I can't do

Kyle Mountsier: 0:19

a little image upscaling for us, please. Wow. Well,

Daniel Govaer: 0:23

listen, this isn't like a spy show that

Paul Daly: 0:26

investigative journalism Cairo

Daniel Govaer: 0:33

Welcome back, everybody to our Can you believe it? It's our fourth consecutive wheelhouse. And today we've got a bunch of some very spicy topics as our friends for Montreal but might say Kellyanne de and are we doing the stock photo thing again? Let me take a minute. Let me take a minute just to introduce who we've got with us today because we've got like a 50% new cast. First of all, the two guys that you already know the two only two people on earth that could evade satellite surveillance just by taking their hats off. From from a soda thank you guys for being here. Patrick Patrick Eva from Beaver Toyota company started at one of probably the most successful dealerships that's in the country and one of the best gyms it's all the way around. And I have to now also wash cars and mow the grass at the dealership for I'm not sure I'm a specified amount of time. But that's what I had to offer up to get him on the show. And then joining us Gen Suzuki President II dealer solutions also a nine time nine year old EDA guest instructor, absolutely one of the best to do it in in and out of stores talking to both dealerships and customers all the time. So I think we've got a pretty good round here. I'm going to let everybody as we traditionally start out after some intros, and also of course, just a quick disclaimer to say that the opinions expressed here today are those of the presenter only and not of the company or those who are employed by that company as well. Just the person who's talking. All right. 30 seconds.

Paul Daly: 2:00

We said we said even in Jen's case,

Daniel Govaer: 2:05

we didn't say it was a no calorie food. It was a low calorie food. Alright. All 30 seconds on the clock starts off. Oh my gosh,

Paul Daly: 2:13

I just got caught sleeping on this. Most important thing I'm thinking I'm in the car business. I don't know you literally have me speechless right now. That's like, inventory. Strike pending. Right? Like too many movies.

Jen Suzuki: 2:28

Oh, come on. You got something better than that?

Paul Daly: 2:31

Yeah. Okay, I got a good one. It's a little bit shameless. I have 10 seconds left, we're heading into conference season, everyone's gonna have to pick which ones they want to go to. I

Daniel Govaer: 2:39

hope that you pick ours. So there's still time left even after that. Amazing, amazing job. Lucid points already I can tell underwhelming everyone in under 10 seconds as usual.

Jen Suzuki: 2:54

I feel like you're gonna make me look better, though. And I thank you for that in advance. You know,

Paul Daly: 2:58

actually, that was the conversation we had were like, Look, you really have to actually lay down

Kyle Mountsier: 3:03

on prompter. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 3:05

Kyle be a wingman and pull him up there. 30 seconds. Well,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:09

my 30 seconds on stage, the industry thing slash biggest thing that I'm thinking is is the fact that everybody seems to follow everybody else into the unknown of nowhere else. And that is a plan for failure right now. And so I say chart a course and set your own weather at the dealership or you're an industry partner, anyone, like stop paying attention to all the rigmarole that is the news, and start seeing what your customers need? And make that make that your course. And I bet you'll come out better for it.

Daniel Govaer: 3:38

All right. Okay. And I want to just anybody that's new here that the show also does have points. You'll get points as you make good points. And the points matter about as much as look to book does to your front end gross, but it we'd like to keep track of it. So I'm in will allocate it sort of as necessary. Patrick, are you ready? 30 seconds.

Patrick Abad: 3:56

Okay. Yeah. Number one, I'm honored to even be in the same square with Jen Zuki. She's a badass. So thanks for putting me on with her. No, I think it kind of sticks with what Kyle said. The slowdown that everybody's been talking about, like right now like that's big news. They've been saying that shit for like three years now. But they seriously been saying that for three years. So even if it does happen, just put yourself in a position to where you're like not affected by that. And it doesn't actually matter how many cars are sold in the world.

Daniel Govaer: 4:30

See, instead of complementing Jen, you could have gotten that point across in the first six seconds but we all make choices. Jen Zuki 30 seconds all yours.

Jen Suzuki: 4:41

Okay, you just gave me enough time to come up with something but in in extending that thought. You know, even if there's a slowdown, I always feel like there's always customers in the database. And when I'm traveling in stores, especially right now, I can't get over the fact that people are not hustling the database to try to maintain the cars persistency of the floor traffic, maintain the consistency of the sales. There's been plenty of cars that we didn't have before that people are looking for. And now they're coming in and you're not calling them. And so I think we got to stop telling people No, that's what that's a major epidemic. We have it. So I'm saying now,

Daniel Govaer: 5:17

still playing the waiting game, right? Couldn't agree more. All right. Well, before we get into this, we're going to take some of that we're gonna see that here a little bit later. And some of the topics we've got just a couple of quick headlines that we're gonna go through first of all, and of course, since this just recently happened, Bob Barker recently passed away. And so that's sad news for millions of kids staying home from school also, one of the only people other than a Carvana buyer that could make a gold no sunroof power no power locks no power windows Toyota Corolla seemed like it was 20 grand and really good thing and worth it and a nice gift. So that's pretty important. I think that you know, I feel for the Carvanha buyers currently at the

Paul Daly: 5:50

drop me back with that. That's literally what I would watch it. I was home for school and I was sick. 11 o'clock. I'm watching prices, right. I mean, every time. That's,

Jen Suzuki: 6:00

you know, oddly, what that show. There's like two shows, I think running in the daytime. I don't know why I know that. But how is that show so popular? They have a daytime, nighttime prices right now.

Daniel Govaer: 6:12

I didn't know that there was an African American. No,

Patrick Abad: 6:14

I did not either. And I think it takes away from like the price is right for all of us. Loli.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:20

crave that sick day? Just like 14 997?

Jen Suzuki: 6:28

Well, we're

Daniel Govaer: 6:30

right. Well, that's what. And that's what they said about Mr. Barker, that he got as close as possible to 100 without actually getting there. So

Kyle Mountsier: 6:40

he went there. Yep, that was it.

Daniel Govaer: 6:42

That is poetic. Thank you for everything that you did for me when I was also home from school. All right, we're gonna take a look for just a second here at Chicago. And I know you're thinking like, well, how does that matter in two things? Well, Tiktok and Chicago, have got the mayor of Chicago thinking that the way to solve his auto theft problem in the city of Chicago, the windy city that's had 19,000 cars stolen already this year, is to sue Kia and Hyundai based off of some issues they're having with cars that make it not only easy to steal them, but apparently quite trendy to do that, as well as some viral content. So we've seen Feds investigate OEMs. For recalls before I think this is the first time we're saying that the mayor is going to solve the auto theft problem by suing the manufacturers and tell them like make better cars, or the city will sue you. And then that might be just a dangerous precedent.

Paul Daly: 7:32

Cool. We're just jumping in on this. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 7:34

hard to just plead the fifth on this one. Well, this

Paul Daly: 7:36

is so hard to get in, right, like go back to your original statement about like the views expressed, right? How do you get into this without somebody feeling like you're somewhat political, I will say this, you always have to talk about something. And if doors were getting kicked in, you would never sue the lock company for making a stronger lock. You know, this is another thing that manufacturers are going to have to respond to we've seen them respond in some some, I guess really simple ways by like mailing out the club, which again, the club commercials were probably running when I was watching prices right? In high in elementary school. But I mean, I think it's another thing manufacturers gonna have to deal with. And they have an opportunity, like always in a PR situation to actually spin this in a good way for the brand. So I think opportunity is all on the manufacturer right now.

Daniel Govaer: 8:23

Spin it can you spin it? The mayor of Chicago is suing you for making cars that are too easy to steal. What's the spin? Oh, gosh,

Paul Daly: 8:29

I could come up with one but

Kyle Mountsier: 8:32

PR departments exist Yeah, good

Paul Daly: 8:35

ones too. Literally why they exist? And I don't know if you'd be better than Chicago one because there's been enough this up to be the manufacturers fault. So

Daniel Govaer: 8:42

right I mean, that's kind of that's exactly my thing. So what what is what is is going to be out than what's out of balance, then what are what are our Toyota

Kyle Mountsier: 8:50

dealerships dealing with?

Patrick Abad: 8:53

We're not Cago mayors as the board like seriously like there's bigger fish to fry locks are made to keep good people out. So if it's not that they're going to be talking about something else stupid, like you got bigger problems, dude, go literally go fix your city.

Jen Suzuki: 9:08

What when I saw that, I was like, how do you stop dumbasses from doing dumb as shit? I mean, like, that's really not your job to do that. Why is that your job anyway? But okay. The other thing is, I was thinking to myself, you know, if you have this issue, you can turn those sorts of negative thoughts into positive thoughts. And all I kept thinking was when I read that was, this is a great opportunity for salespeople to step up and be like, I have a product to add on. And we got validity to it. You know, you need to get some low Jack some icon.

Daniel Govaer: 9:43

Right, because the mayor's telling me Yeah, I don't know that salespeople are going to be able to really, yeah, I mean, I agree with the sort of overall approach that there's opportunity silver lining there, but I don't That's a tough I'm not sure what that phone call sounds like when you call somebody and say I don't know if you heard but the mayor suing the manufacturer of your car. What I was saying means you should come in and buy Logitech. And I don't know that that's just a call that's easy to make. But moving on to article. And this is how have we gotten this ambiguous? Are you ubiquitous or something is in the car business that an article in Business Insider and an article in Forbes about two completely different things use the same stock photo of the front of a dealership? And neither article is really about Ford? Actually, either. But that was this

Kyle Mountsier: 10:28

Ford dealership got slammed with that, what is

Paul Daly: 10:30

that I'm trying to read? Is it say I can't read a little

Kyle Mountsier: 10:33

image are scaling for us, please? Wow, well,

Daniel Govaer: 10:36

listen, this isn't like a spy show than

Paul Daly: 10:40

investigative journalism. So so that's where

Daniel Govaer: 10:43

we are in the eyes of the media. But actually, if you it reading the article itself, here was actually one thing that's interesting, because they're sort of explaining to the public. What's the deal with these EVs is, as Paul Bailey once famously quipped on the show. And it what's interesting is that in the mainstream media, now they're saying our manufacturers are manufacturers possibly so interested in evey sales, that because this opens up a channel for them to have direct sales. And I know people have said, we've talked about direct sales here. But no, no, no, here's the interesting thing is mainstream media is explaining to people that essentially, possibly what the good reason that they're so interested in these channels are, is because it allows them direct sales to their clients. So at a dealership level, then what do you do then to make sure that your clients stay yours. And if this happens, that you're not susceptible to that?

Patrick Abad: 11:31

Well, I can talk from the dealership level, I think the most important thing that we can do is come through for people when they when they need you. I think that doesn't happen in a direct to consumer model, I think. And listen, I don't want to go down that road, because we've had a zillion conversations about it. But the reality is, is people in their time of need will always will always remember who was there from who wasn't. And that's just not an auto sales, that's just freaking in life. Like if you are there for people, like they will never give up on you. And I think when the community around you, and this is like, and this is plugged in the subtle, like I love what they're doing with their more than cars, because when the community around you support you and loves you that I don't I don't worry about that. Maybe I should maybe I'm the guy who's gonna get hit over the head. And but I just think if you just create a place that people want to hang out, want to be around and with really good people, you'll be fine. That's just my take.

Daniel Govaer: 12:25

Jen, how do we how do we keep ourselves? How do we keep our clients, our clients, Jen? Even if the manufacturer says you got to talk to us to order a car?

Jen Suzuki: 12:32

Well, the main problem we've seen forever, even to this day is that, you know, we don't really put measures in place to keep people connected to customers, they sell the car and they'd gone. It's a culture, it's a culture change, you know, where we want to nurture customers, I just had a class today. And and I would say, you know, I really want to just talk about the fact that we need to communicate every quarter with these people that's prospecting. It's keeping them in your queue. But it's also bring something to the table, not just be saying some stuff, like I'm checking in touch base, following up, like you're actually contacting people with valuable reasons. Give them something of value, remind them they have a service contract, help them, you know, with with things, give them links to their, to the to their to the book car they bought and some of the tech that's on it, that they may not remember how to use. Do you know what I mean? Like you got to keep bringing stuff to the table for people so that

Kyle Mountsier: 13:20

because our work is insky was one of the best salespeople I ever knew he was. I sold with him about six months into selling cars. Fred Kaczynski, when he called people he actually called people he didn't call clients. That's the difference. Okay, we touched on on people how to do that. It's game over. Yeah,

Daniel Govaer: 13:41

I agree. Okay, so give me more. I'll allow it. So give me give me one thing, then that you when you're going back to the store right now, this is forefront on your mind. Right? And you're telling me I need to treat people like people, right? And then what's what's the first thing? How do you start that? What's your first step?

Kyle Mountsier: 13:57

Yeah, I mean, I think I literally do training to get people out of business mindset, right? Like we we so often, when we're in like the minute we pick up a phone off of us that has a business phone. We're like, Oh, we're in business mode right? There. We pick up our cell phone and call someone and we're in human person mode. And I would I would do interactive training to make sure that people actually interacted as humans. So Fred Kaczynski, that was that was the thing that he did is he picked it up. He'd say, Hi, Maggie. So good to hear from you. How are the kids doing? How's the husband doing? I know you guys are going out on vacation, happy birthday, you know, like these real things. And he had notes on notes on notes about the people that these people were in the CRM. And I mean, it was just it was religion for him and literally Fred Kaczynski back in back in the days when like everybody wanted to be out on the lot to go find the person that was driving in the door. Net literally, I never saw him do it. Why It's is that you could have a whole team of people doing that.

Daniel Govaer: 15:04

Yeah. That's not the Unabomber, right? No.

Paul Daly: 15:09

That was Ted Kaczynski. Oh, sample letters. I thought, you know, I thought I'm like, why does that name sounds so familiar? Don't know that was that was plan B.

Jen Suzuki: 15:23

But it's that's the real talk. That's what people want to deal with real people that say real things, not like you changed your whole vibe. Because you're at work and you think you need to be overly professional people don't like that anymore. That's why you don't work stoats anymore.

Paul Daly: 15:38

I'll tell you what, Kyle and I get to go all over the country. And we always interview people in the cities we're in. We just randomly walk up to people and to a person. Everyone we'd like. What did you like about your last car buying experience? We always ask where you bought it? What did you like? Everyone always says the person that they dealt with everyone. All the time?

Jen Suzuki: 15:56

Yeah. Online reviews, too. It's so validating, you know?

Daniel Govaer: 16:00

Yeah. Okay. So before, before Nathan starts yelling at me in my ear. We're gonna move on to the next topic. All right, because the buzzer went off on this one a minute ago. All right. So Jim Farley gave a great interview. And I'm actually I'm a little bit man crushing on that guy. I think. I think some of the stuff he said was pretty interesting. I think you said a lot of the things that many of the things that we're thinking about, so back at Pebble Beach or a little bit before that they did introduce a$300,000 street legal Mustang race car that apparently won't land in ditches after cars and coffee. But we'll absolutely exhilarate everybody at the track and then street legal after that. But what's interesting, so I think I mean, you know, I mean, I've said that, like, don't go outside, don't out, take your coverage if you don't have a $500,000 car in your lineup. Don't build one now. But Ford's had $300,000 cars and up with the Ford GT and done very well with those. But what's interesting is he said he's quoted according the article saying, I want to make Porsche, Mercedes and Aston Martin sweat. Because when people drive a Porsche, you become a different part of you become part of society in a different way than just an automobile. And that's what I want to make people. I don't want to make Porsche sweat. Is it just the car? Isn't it? Is it more, isn't it more than just the car? Mr. Farley? With due respect?

Paul Daly: 17:09

It's way more than just the car. I. I don't. I mean, he loves his brand. I love him for that. But I don't see any similarities between this Mustang and a Porsche and how someone feels when they call it my

Kyle Mountsier: 17:26

man Mark Hanley got around to watching Ford versus Ferrari. Doing it or doing it.

Paul Daly: 17:32

That's it. But yeah, I just think there's so much different like what those cars say about the person that owns them is so different than what someone buys a Mustang like this is looking to say about themselves.

Jen Suzuki: 17:46

I mean, who who is seriously buying a 300 you at 300k You're gonna go get a car. You're gonna get a Ford.

Daniel Govaer: 17:53

Yeah, I don't think they're gonna have a problem with that. I don't I don't think they're gonna have a problem with that

Paul Daly: 17:56

syllable. Yeah,

Patrick Abad: 18:00

but that's a whole different. You're trying to go it's you're trying to go get a customer that's not yours. That's how I feel like you're really gonna. Porsche customers never looked at a Mustang. You're what you're doing by creating a $300,000 Mustang is creating something for people to dream of who are Mustang lovers. But listen, Mustang has got the one of the most loyal followings on the planet, right? People love Mustangs. Most people who love Mustangs look at some Porsches like their, their their junk, right? There's just two different worlds. And I think he's trying to connect it. And I say, that's when I think he's going through an identity crisis.

Daniel Govaer: 18:36

And it's it's funny too, because when the interviewer pointed out something like, you know, in Germany, you know, where they make the 911 that Mustangs outsell nine elevens. They absolutely do. Oh, yeah. And just in Germany, not just you know, in general. So it's

Kyle Mountsier: 18:49

a huge import car. Yeah. I mean, it's like the way that we look at our import cars.

Daniel Govaer: 18:53

Muscle, right? Yeah. What are you going to do different at the store? What different service department are you going to have? What other amenities are you going to have? What other like Patrick said, if your biggest thing

Kyle Mountsier: 19:01

is like, that customer now has to be all the way through the funnel. Like, you know, your your run of the mill Ford dealership is not that customer expectation.

Daniel Govaer: 19:12

So the next thing that they then asked him was about you know, because he's saying like, we're good, we're forward we're good at muscle cars and they said you ever gonna electrify one and he's any any actually basically says that there's the danger is that there's a disconnect between emotion you know, an Eevee really loses the emotion and that's the disconnect and the interviewer has said so is that the prop? Is that the danger and he goes That's the danger so if and I kind of Yeah, I mean kind of I've seen I kind of no no no, I think he's wrong so if that's the thing and we know that that sort of like the missing ingredient perhaps is the excitement how do we bring back excitement into the into the my new cars and is an Eevee?

Kyle Mountsier: 19:49

I don't know a year round effects. Have you ever been pinned back in in a Tesla?

Patrick Abad: 19:55

Yes, it will. So those EVs the ones that we see that people are buying it's They're second and third car and they're actually buying them for fun. Like people are buying because they're intrigued about them. They're now their service sucks, they can't get service, they gotta ship their car, five hours away all that other stuff. But it's typically we've seen it as a second and third car here in in Atlanta. And it's not an everyday driver, and it's fun. And it's a Porsche take on and it's, you know, it's a What's crazy fast Tesla, you know, it's though, we sold those out of a Toyota store, right? And it's because people are having fun with them. So I just, I don't think it's a an emotional disconnect between the two. I think it's just a different emotion.

Paul Daly: 20:37

Different Kinect.

Patrick Abad: 20:39

Kinect. Yeah. So it's, I don't know, I think it's just two different worlds we're talking about we're comparing apples to footballs like that's kind of how I feel. Which was

Paul Daly: 20:53

easy. Hey, wait, would dodge did it with it was it was the Hellcat that they did to? Was there a different model where they like put the sound effects. And you know, we were like, they should put haptics in the steering wheel, and then the driver seat. Like, you could make that thing super ferocious. And then if it goes as fast as it does, you'd feel like you're on it. Like literally flying like a TIE Fighter. It'd be amazing. Actually, the Thai fighter sound is what you should put in. Here. Nothing's free, Mumbai.

Daniel Govaer: 21:20

Everybody uses sound effects in their cars now though, are they? I mean, to some degree. I mean, that's just par for the course. Yeah, not in those kinds of sound effects. No. Oh, okay. Be

Paul Daly: 21:29

great, though. You got it.

Kyle Mountsier: 21:33

You got you know that like back in the day when we had we had a Nissan LEAF a long time ago. My wife called it the Sneak Attack vehicle, right? I love just sneaking up on people. You were like just crawling along at three miles an hour. There's like

Daniel Govaer: 21:51

Wait better than the quiet snail that I think most people thought about it as but there's Alright. Wait, if you want can one thing can a client have? Can you get the emotional relationship? That level of excitement? Can that happen between a customer and the brand or customer in the dealership? A customer and the sales professional? If it's not happening with the customer in the car? Can you still have it with the surrounding area? If it's not the car at the center of it? Absolutely.

Patrick Abad: 22:19

Yeah. Damn good, though, right? Yeah, we'll have one you gotta be really good at the other way. There's people out there who choose to buy a car from a dealer strictly based because that dealers amazing. Totally. If that dealer was selling vacuum cleaners in the middle of the forest, they would go find a way to go do business with them. Now, that's far there's not a lot of those. But I think there's more today than there was 10 years ago.

Daniel Govaer: 22:41

Yep. Yep. Okay. So then let's let's kind of get to the meat of it, which we've been sort of like flirting with all around. So there's all sorts of mixed bag news about the economy. And usually we cover a little bit of it, but we're not an economy shows. We're not gonna we're not gonna go over all of that. There's pluses there's minuses, there's there's things that could lead anybody to think in any sort of a direction. The question is, is, is as enough stuffs coming out that like they're in a lot of us feel that there can be different areas that are slowing down. If a slowdown were to come? Who's going to come out of it the winter dealers that XYZ which ones are those dealers are going to come out of it ahead. In which ones which ones are we going to see that are going to be suffering from it.

Jen Suzuki: 23:26

I feel like fleurs are entrepreneurs, and they always figure everything out.

Kyle Mountsier: 23:33

Yeah, but there's some that aren't. No, yeah. Because I mean, look at the recession, you saw a massive downturn in the number of rooftops in the US, right? I

Paul Daly: 23:41

think it's it's not a question of motivation more than ability. Yeah.

Daniel Govaer: 23:46

But like, What's one thing if you go back to the store right now, what's the thing that you what, what's the one thing that you can do? And don't say training without being specific? Right. But what's the one? What's the one thing you can start doing today? To prepare your staff for an eventuality? We're already seeing like Jen said, like, it's already we have cars, but but people aren't coming in at the same rate that they were. I mean, however, whatever part of the country you're in to some degree, there's some degree of truth in that and we don't think it's going to get like much perkier at the moment. So what what's one thing you go back to the store and start working with your people on so they're insulated?

Patrick Abad: 24:17

Well, wow, this is just my my opinion. Right? And my, I guess, go back to you're here for Yeah, okay, good.

Daniel Govaer: 24:25

We'll send you with a microphone. I will praise a taxi cab with Brian later.

Patrick Abad: 24:32

But I just think you in you do have to create your own economy. And I think you literally could be the dealer. There's going to be everybody that's if it does slow down. If the industry slow down. There's going to be a whole big pile of dealers who are all doing the same things. Right. And then there's, there's like a book and I think somebody should burn the book on things to do when the business slows down. I think you should burn that book. And I think you should rewrite your own and you rewrite your story. everybody's pulling back and marketing marketing gets real cheap, why would you not buy it, then everybody stopped buying cars at the auctions, that means cars, that's when you go fill your inventory with cars, you can actually buy cheap, there's actually go against the grain of what the 95% of the world is doing, do it calculated, right. But in the triangle of inventory, marketing, and sales people and process that triangle, like, if you're going to grow it, we always say you got to grow it equally. But you can't. You can't be scared to press when things are hard. And I think that's what happens. Because people have what's happened in the past is created their new behaviors. So I say burn the book that tells you what to do when to slow down and go rewrite your own deal.

Jen Suzuki: 25:40

This is kind of what I mean by being an entrepreneur, you know, it's like your you will pivot you will adapt, you will find a way you will change something. And the people that don't know how to change. Well, those are the people that shake out, but then somebody else eats them up, and then they you know, do better in

Daniel Govaer: 25:56

sales, what's the most critical thing to change?

Jen Suzuki: 26:00

Now, I just feel like there's so many there's so many. But

Kyle Mountsier: 26:03

here's what I would prioritize, I would because as new car franchises, we prioritize training on two major things. One is the make that the make that we sell on the process that we have, and we don't prioritize training, specifically on used car inventory. And so I would prioritize training on used car inventory. Other make models that you typically keep in stock, you know what those are, you can look in your inventory management system to see the ones that sell best, the ones that you're probably going to stop over the next 90 days, do specific use car training on feature sets on your inventory, do daily, if not twice, daily inventory walks, understand like making every single salesperson and sales employee as good if not better at knowing their used car inventory as the used car manager, I think is any opportunity to win because you have control over your stocking, you have control over your costs, because you're always going to know what the auction costs or what your buy off the street costs can can potentially be, you have control over your own turn at that point. And you have the ability to have a speed to sale because you're because your team knows you're used cars. It's just not we typically like we allow process to sell used cars and not knowledge. And I would turn that into knowledge selling used cars, similar to how knowledge would sell new cars.

Jen Suzuki: 27:18

And while you're while you're in the database, looking to, you know, for those cars that you know, that you want in inventory, and you're going after those people, you know, you're tidying up the way that you approach people and you're really focusing on your culture, because, look, you're gonna have to go after people and you don't want to miss any opportunity. Every call that comes in, tighten up the process, every internet lead that comes in, tighten up, right, we still send in templates, you know what I mean? Like, think about the entire process and how you come into contact with people, and then just evaluate every little thing. So then that way, you're coming out with stuff that's relevant, it's still kills me today, when people are going like back in the 70s in the ad sales process. And it's not relevant for today, right now, today, right now was totally different than a year ago today, right now, you know what I mean? It's like, if you don't keep evolving, the process is you've got to change, you've got to change stuff, you've got to recognize that what you're saying or doing is closing doors, it's not opening door. So if you're going to get out there in the database, start looking for cars that you're going to buy go after these people, you know, to put them on cars that you do have coming in really target stuff, you better make sure that you got the right conversation got the right questions, you got the right, hello, you got the right, you know, value that you bring to the table really tidy up all the details. I mean, that's what I would focus on, because I feel like 90% of the time, you know, people just go out there and talk to customers without a game plan, they get

Daniel Govaer: 28:35

the role of the sales manager then to be just that person who's listening to every or looking at listening to every interaction with the client.

Jen Suzuki: 28:42

Well, first of all, why aren't you doing that? Because this is your money. So why aren't you evaluating your process? Why aren't you listening to your process? You know, like, a lot of times, I'm shocked at how many times that people don't listen to the recorded calls or don't even have a call recording system. If that's what the majority of your customers are.

Kyle Mountsier: 28:59

I would change the role of the sales manager. I think the role of the sales manager being a desk managers is a long time gone, it takes three and a half minutes to pencil any deal with the technology that we have, why wouldn't they spend the majority of their time on training and coaching

Jen Suzuki: 29:11

mentor, be a mentor? Be a mentor?

Paul Daly: 29:13

How about your service department? Oh, hey, we're talking about the service department. Because when it comes to slow down, right, a lot of times the sales slowed down as the first one to hit. And you know, you're limited in what you can do. And we're talking about some of those things. But I feel like in the service department, you still have like this regular flow and I've seen some contrary, you know, information on like whether or not service is getting busier or slower. But anecdotally as I go around, I see really busy service departments. Yeah, I see people with waiting lists still. And

Daniel Govaer: 29:44

that's the point. Absolutely. Don't confuse waiting list with parts delays though.

Paul Daly: 29:50

That's true. I mean, like to get an appointment.

Daniel Govaer: 29:53

It's the same thing because the car is gonna get it worked on. You know what I mean? It's like, no, there's duality to the numbers. And I see what you're saying too. I mean, but I

Paul Daly: 29:59

do see it, but I do see it as a part of the dealership, where you have the opportunity to interact with more people on a regular basis. And those interactions allow you to make good impressions create great magical experience, vehicles out of the service Lane get people in, right. And so, you know, I just feel like service in a downturn is an area of focus, that gives you a lot of control over a lot of experience, time and time again, Patrick was throwing the book out for the service department,

Patrick Abad: 30:32

retention strategies, stop, stop putting$1 figure on the retention strategies and realize the long term play that it does gotta have a good retention strategy on keeping those customers and it is everything from communication to freebie shit, like stuff that you give them to just keep coming back and creating an environment where people actually want to hang out. I think that's I think it's if you create a environment in your store in service where people are okay hanging out there for just a little bit, I think they'll come more often. And and they won't choose the other guy because he's might be a little bit cheaper,

Jen Suzuki: 31:05

better personalized experiences. So if you know that customer was coming in, you know, they should we should have had a game plan to nurture that client experience while they're at your dealership, they can't just be sitting in the lounge, chillin, you know what I mean? Like we should we should be working on that relationship. Unless you got a

Kyle Mountsier: 31:21

freaking I think it's gonna

Daniel Govaer: 31:24

put a big squeeze on on middle on average managers and people who think that they are supposed to be managing sales teams, instead of leading sales teams and showing people how to make connections with clients, I think that this period is really going to put a big squeeze on most of that. Burning just a little bit behind. But we've got just a little bit of a segment today called it is what it is. And that's usually my thoughts on something. So it's, it's in this time, we're gonna go back up and it is what it is with EVs. What stop telling us that they're here, we know that you're here, we're quite bloated with inventory. That's aging, that happens to be EVs, and we've been dealing with it for quite some time. We also have invested most of us several hundreds of 1000s of dollars in the infrastructure here at our dealership that many of our naysayers really haven't had to do the same thing on their flash. But we had to do that almost a year in advance before we even got one of these cars. And even heads of manufacturers and other OEMs are saying it's not likely that they are going to see a return on profit on what they've invested in EVs in the near term future, we don't think that there's going to be just gas or ice for the rest of the universe or the our time on Earth. We don't think that but we also really haven't been presented with much evidence to show that battery electric vehicles are also going to be here to be sustainable and actually quite not sustainable to be the way to go. And we already see OEMs having to pledge not to use rare earth minerals inside their batteries. And that's already a process that they're committing to and they don't have an answer for yet. So it's not that we don't think that there needs to be some type of sustainable method to keep our planet green. We're just not 100% bought into the fact that we this current strategy is going to be the one to do it. But it's not that we pretend that they're not sitting out on our lot. And it's not that we pretend that they don't exist or that they're not here. And if anything else, we just take a slight reminder and and glance at China and see what's happened to their absolute collapsed Evie market after years of government subsidies and supporting OEMs there, how many OEMs have gone out of business, how many of these EVs are laying in fields everywhere throughout the country, because it was an artificial, an artificial market that was propped up by government subsidies. We've seen how that works. But yet we're sort of continuing down that same route. So pardon us if we just happened to be a little bit cautious. And if we aren't the most excited by a prospect of something that could be very dangerous to our business moving forward if we don't know how to handle it correctly, but it is what it is. They're EVs. Alright, we're gonna just

Kyle Mountsier: 33:34

just get him out of that side. Alright, I may kiss them right data. Yeah,

Daniel Govaer: 33:38

no, total up some points that I've been not keeping track of carefully here. So. Yeah, that's absolutely. Paul with 1100. Points. Kyle. Patrick, you started out with 5400. But you sounded a little bit too much like a governor in a state south of you when he talked about burning books and creating your own economy. So unfortunately burden. Books finished, are very spectable 1508. Our winner, our winner. Our winner today and there can only be one, what happened to be Genesis Zucchi with 41,000 points congrats. And as a reward, essentially, we're gonna we're gonna head over to some rapid fire questions. But actually, before that, I just want to do we've got a little bit of an fmk segment that we call by lease or wholesale. Right. So I just want to hear before we're going to close out with Jen and some rapid fire questions, but I want to know from everybody, what's your buy, lease or wholesale? If it's between a stolen Kia a $300,000 Mustang or an unused Chinese Evie

Patrick Abad: 35:02

I'll start that's easy. I would buy the Kia so I could give it away and be generous. I would release the 300k Mustang because I'd get tired of it very quickly. And I'd wholesale the Chinese Evie because I would never have one of those in my yard.

Kyle Mountsier: 35:16

I'll just second that. Oh, come on.

Paul Daly: 35:19

So good.

Jen Suzuki: 35:21

The answer, of course, was way more clever than I could have come up with. But um, I mean, I would be interested in that 300k car if it was just given to me because I like nice things. And it sounds like a collector but I'm gonna go with Patrick's answer.

Paul Daly: 35:36

I would buy the Mustang and hold it. I would lease the stolen Kia insure it very well and park it in Chicago. And then I would wholesale the Chinese

Daniel Govaer: 35:49

I mean, Patrick wants to buy have the key is we give it away to somebody who obviously needs a car so they can have it stolen.

Kyle Mountsier: 35:57

As long as you send it to Phoenix, Arizona, it's your you just got to send it to Phoenix.

Paul Daly: 36:04

And I don't know why pain it's just it's not Chicago. It feels pretty far from Chicago

Daniel Govaer: 36:10

for watching the graphics. We weren't trying to get you to take a whole graveyard it was just one of those cars that's in there. But all right. Yeah. And are you ready for some rapid fire to close this out? I don't know.

Paul Daly: 36:20

See you thought you won something joke's on you.

Daniel Govaer: 36:25

Exactly how we work okay, okay, so I'm going to ask is we're gonna go through it's gonna be 20 seconds get through as many questions as we can all right.

Paul Daly: 36:34

What's the record and by the way,

Daniel Govaer: 36:36

for I believe, who has that

Kyle Mountsier: 36:40

Oh, you're gonna ask that every week.

Paul Daly: 36:42

Is that until somebody gets five All right, ready?

Daniel Govaer: 36:48

Ready All right. What car did you get into your first accident with Lexus appraisal time can you repeat the question? No, I can't there's a timer on my trophy over here. Can we can we restart the clock can i I'm sorry this This shows just we've gone out of bounds here and so you know I pay by the minute for the lighting in here. Okay. Like he was

Paul Daly: 37:13

waiting for the model. I think that's what broke down. He was waiting for the Lexus.

Kyle Mountsier: 37:18

Patrick's on fire.

Jen Suzuki: 37:20

Rapid fire. Answer the questions fast.

Daniel Govaer: 37:26

Your first Alexa. I'm trying to picture you in an accident and then like what you like yeah, I

Paul Daly: 37:32

should have bought the Mercedes.

Daniel Govaer: 37:35

Alright, start that over again. All right. Ready? All right. Automatic manual. Okay. Oh, manual. Alright, what's the next car model to be given a luxury edition? Next car models I don't Okay, if there was an award for automotive podcast hosting How many times have you nominate me

Jen Suzuki: 37:54

I don't want to answer that

Daniel Govaer: 37:56

right your experience with what I do today

Paul Daly: 38:01

a half the obvious answer to the second question was a Mitsubishi Mirage obviously

Daniel Govaer: 38:09

if you've been following along alright, well that's everybody it's been it's been lovely seeing Jen here for the last time we really appreciate it there you got exactly guys just remember we are we are the wheelhouse we discuss all things automotive. If you're hungry for knowledge, just listen to this and you'll be hungry again in an hour. But in the meantime, we will see you guys with a special episode on or just before Labor Day. And I used it before Labor Day or we're going to record it before Labor Day but drop it after Labor Day one of those but it'll be a special Labor Day edition. And then also if you care to see this happen actually live if you want to see just how dysfunctional a host can be. That will probably happen on one of the days at the Soto con. So be excited for that. So thanks, everyone for joining us. Thanks for our esteemed panel of colleagues. I really appreciate you guys coming up Patrick just need a lawn mower when I get down there. I'll be glad to do the entire grass at the dealership from for joining us everybody and we'll see you next week on the wheelhouse.

‍