Aladdin A. Khazravan and Eric Khazravan on Reigniting the Personalized Customer Experience with DealerCards

Paul Daly: 0:00Today on the show, we have Aladdin Khazravan, co founder of dealer cards. And Eric Khazravan. Who is the chief dot collector.Unknown: 0:06

Yeah, this is amplify,a retail automotive podcast brought to you by Reuters events and ASOTU, it's time to make the most innovative voices in retail automotive louder

Paul Daly: 0:23

we can tell by the energy of this one that you you're both ready to go and your brothers so

Kyle Mountsier: 0:28

it's gonna be a little real for we're gonna let them banter over here for a minute or five.

Paul Daly: 0:33

People always ask Kyle and if we're brothers and we're not so like the real brothers thing. All right.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:37

So Paul, you don't know this yet. But they've got a really, really unique family story as to how they came into the automotive industry.And so I'm gonna challenge I don't care who does it. One of you got to raise your hand. But you got to do it in like 90seconds or less. You got to give us the hot how you got in the auto industry? Family?

Aladdin A Khazravan: 0:54

Yeah, go No problem, man. Yeah, you know, we came from humble beginnings.Poor family. And we're just natural natural at hustlin. And no choice at 16, 17 years old started getting in the automotive space. We followed big brothers dreams and his steps. And, you know, you we want to say overnight success. I mean, it took 10 years. But we you know, we found overnight success. We're really good at talking to people and making it make sense. And we found our first store is a broken Hyundai store. We bought it back in2004. And in a short four year window, we grew that to seven rooftops, you know, doing with500 employees. And it was nice.It's real nice. We grew real fast, real fast.

Paul Daly: 1:39

Wow. What did you miss there? It

Eric Khazravan: 1:41

was a great adventure. You know, what we brought was World Class marketing to it and just being innovative in the space. And like he said, we went from one store to building a $75 million company at our peak. So it was a fun, you know, we had a good time doing it. And

Kyle Mountsier: 2:01

what's most you said? We brought world class marketing to it. What is what's like I needed one or two elements. Oh, my God made world class marketing world class. Oh,okay.

Eric Khazravan: 2:10

Well, I actually show yeah, launch an infomercial. That was a lot of fun. So it was just free flowing, not scripted. And so I brought an infomercial to and I was on TV every single day. And we had a great time on TV every day. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty much local TV.

Aladdin A Khazravan: 2:29

We would dress up our staff and costumes and outfits, pull every car in the line. And then he would be the emcee the host. And then they'd make deals right on right on camera right on camera with the driver. Mark, it was

Eric Khazravan: 2:40

this. This is in Florida, Northeast Florida, and then the Atlanta metropolitan area, but we had a good time with it. We'd bring, you know,local celebrities. I had Flavor Flav on the show.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:54

Okay, I get world class marketing. Now you don't have to explain it. I know. Like all the drip down was hey, man, it was like a mash brand marketing all of that,right. It wasn't just like finding the right audience strategy, Facebook ads, which Facebook didn't exist back then.Barely, at least you

Paul Daly: 3:10

did. It was like crying for like social media.You were ahead of your

Aladdin A Khazravan: 3:15

time. We were there the shows and we get100 150 phone calls in like two hours. Like, Dad, I want to meet that guy.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:24

That's believable. All right, fast forward. And you you've continued to do innovative marketing stuff. And now you all have partnered and founded to create this thing called dealer cards, which I'm gonna like, I'm gonna give you your new tagline.If it's not anything, I don't know your tagline. But it's like, bringing back what used to be cool or something like that,right like that. It used to be cool to write people words, but we don't write people cards anymore. Where did this idea come up? From? Yeah, you know,

Aladdin A Khazravan: 3:55

my business partner. You know, he's best friends for 15 years, but sold them cars for 15 years. And during COVID His wife got an itch to go look at a great Highlander. He's like, Hey,let's go look at this car. So they ended up going and taking a look right? And then he calls me he calls me like the next day like Dude, my wife went and bought a car somewhere else is like, finding out and it was great because it like really made me start looking at like,wow, how are we showing up in people's lives to the fact that like, this is my best friend's wife. Um, she sees me looking up cars on Mannheim and finding and ordering cars and shipping it to his house like she just went and bought a car somewhere else. So we started looking at it and we're like, you know what, we got to fix this problem. And it's not just our problem. Every dealer in this country has this problem bro. This the entire automotive space is a hero to zero mentality. And you know what I mean? We the car hits the curb and we're on to the next sale, bro. We don't think about these people anymore. And that's sad and we want to change that in this space. So dealer cards is is a hands free automated system that doesn't have to rely on the salespeople to tell people that they're important. I mean, it's like your birthday.Happy birthday. You know, it's your birthday.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:13

Head, bringing the content guy back. For that,

Eric Khazravan: 5:18

right, yeah, I think that's most important,right? So it doesn't matter whether you're buying a car, or staying in a nice hotel or going to a restaurant, it's just that experience that you bring to people. And then who doesn't like to be remembered? Who doesn't like to be appreciated?It's really geared all around appreciation, marketing, and just letting people know that you care. Right? And then being there and present and, and just branding branding yourself and,and, you know, it's easy. I say,it's easy to earn someone's business one time, but you know,create it. We don't like to create clients or customers, we like to create raving fans. So they tell everyone they know you're, you know,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:00

like if you've read a book or two that I've read

Paul Daly: 6:04

I've never heard the term appreciation marketing before. Yeah, it's

Aladdin A Khazravan: 6:07

quite it's actually my business partners books, a great books national best selling book, I believe it.You guys a copy is hilarious,bro. And it's, you know, you'll you'll read it in your laughter let me tell you the beat. Yeah,you'll laughter me. Because it's, it's so common sense. But it's not common practice. It's so not common practice,especially in this industry. By the way, our tagline for businesses be remembered. You know?

Kyle Mountsier: 6:36

That's good.That's good. Back to the base.Like I feel like you're gonna have a little bit more jab with your TED. Yeah, like y'all have just a little jab

Paul Daly: 6:43

be remembered. be remembered. You're just saying a little little Hallmark you

Eric Khazravan: 6:49

guys, I was critiquing him last night because about his pitch and I tell him to do what you were gonna say your opening line.

Aladdin A Khazravan: 6:57

Oh, my opening line. My opening line was today or before we change what we changed in my opening line for today's talk would have been like, you ever heard that?Saying? If you don't appreciate your spouse, someone else will.customers

Kyle Mountsier: 7:23

feel like that would have hit?

Paul Daly: 7:25

What what does it end up being? appreciation is at the Central. Yeah, right. All sterile now. What does it end up?

Aladdin A Khazravan: 7:35

Ended up being went to? I think you would you'd agree with me by show of hands. How many of you agree with me that in today's competitive space? It is imperative to be remembered.

Unknown: 7:49

Because it's so it is a business. It's a business

Kyle Mountsier: 7:53

guys are wordsmith he is he's like,

Paul Daly: 7:56

I don't really do anything. He's like, Hold on.Let Would you agree with me by show of hands?

Kyle Mountsier: 8:02

Like who needs Chat? GPT

Paul Daly: 8:04

perfect. So tell me tell me, like, more practically what I'm a customer, I buy a car. The dealer, you know, is a dealer cars client. What's happening,

Aladdin A Khazravan: 8:17

bro, let me tell you so it's so streamlined is so amazing. So you go in and you buy a car, you pick your car, you go in the finance office, and you're signing your paperwork finance manager hits sold or delivered or whatever system they use, it triggers five years of personalized cards to that customer to you. So for the next five years, we're sending you birthday cards,we're sending you car,anniversary cards, Christmas cards, holiday cards, customer appreciation cards, and the whole time it's just about loving you. It's everything you wish your salespeople were doing at the dealership, which is taking the time to tell the customer that they're important,taking the time to say, Hey,listen, we see you. Thanks for buying from us. And let me tell you, in all reality, you're not worth one deal, right? Like we buy a car every three to four years, three to five years, we get the itch to go buy that

Eric Khazravan: 9:09

unless you buy it from me. And then every six months, baby, well, you get it.

Aladdin A Khazravan: 9:13

So that means in 10 years, you're gonna buy three cars, you're married,so your spouse is gonna buy three cars, you got a 16 year old that's going to be of age.So that's three cars do is I'm telling you, bro. So that means one person is worth 12transactions. But the sad part about it is I collect your money. I make my little bit of money on that transaction, and I move on and go sell another car.And I never talked to you again.And I assume you're going to be loyal.

Paul Daly: 9:36

Right? Like I earned it and you're disappointed if you're not like I'm all butthurt Yeah, you gave me a bunch of money once how come you didn't give me a bunch of money a second time?

Eric Khazravan: 9:45

Yeah, right. And even with new car franchise dealers, I mean, this is this business that we have is really good for everyone on every sector but even with the new car franchises they live and die by their car sigh right to get that good CSI from customers. And then that retention of bringing them back to their service department asking for a referral. So it's endless The possibilities are endless with what kind of campaigns we can launch and, and grow.

Aladdin A Khazravan: 10:14

We do it like a ninja bro. Let me tell you we do it like a ninja. And let me tell you why. Because the first half, the first half hour isn't so bad. Well, let me tell you, the first half, all we do is tell you how important you are, and how special you are on and it's your birthday. So bring your car in, let me wash it for you on your date night with your wife or whatever it is. And then the second half, right that time where it's like three, four years, our language starts changing. Yeah, we're like,Listen, I need you now, bro, I need you to bring that car and let me see it. I want to drive it. Let me put a number on it for you. I know you've been thinking about that purple day toner or whatever. You know what I mean. And at that point, you have earned their business without them even coming in

Eric Khazravan: 11:02

big difference between selling someone a car and then earning their business as a client for life. You know,but really, it's not that big of a difference. Honestly, I think the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is what two millimeters, right? Just going that extra step that extra mile boom

Paul Daly: 11:19

had ended there because we added a lot. And Eric, thank you so much for spending time with us and inspiring us all to just be a little bit better and caring for me. Thank you. Thank you.

Unknown: 11:28

Appreciate you guys,listening to the AMPLIFi podcast brought to you by Reuters events and Associates. For more engaging episodes like this,subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast platform. You can learn more about our hosts Paul J. Daly and Kyle Mountsier by visiting ASOTU.com

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