Live From Digital Dealer in Tampa, Mercedes and F1, Walmart Trains Leaders

SPEAKERS

Paul Daly, Kyle Mountsier

Paul Daly  00:00

It's Tuesday, May 2, and we are here at the Digital dealer 2023 conference in Tampa, Florida. So we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about Mercedes passenger vehicle department partnering with their f1 division yesterday f1 division and also Walmart leading into their managers Academy. How we landed here. We both got in yesterday you actually went right to a dealership right

Kyle Mountsier  00:21

to a dealership I saw Brad wise Furman Chevy he walked me around introduced me to a bunch of people got three really cool interviews that we're gonna be launching on our in the dirt podcast. But like, the fun thing about that was I drove up, got dropped off off off in the Uber. And the energy there. Right from the beginning like that salespeople that were out as I walked in, like people were flying back and forth in the showroom. And this was morning, it was like 930. And the thing was just going and it was clock in and there was energy, their service department was buzzing, people were pulling in. And I just got you know, that feeling. Ah, this is good. And then we go to the party last night, predigital dealer, and like the energy again, right, you're energized by the people that are in this industry by the dealers and industry partners that are there and given hugs. And it's like you realize this is the industry, we're a part of, you know, that type of energy every single day. And we're

Paul Daly  01:19

going to try to bring as much of that as we can to us. So if you follow our social media accounts, obviously, if you follow us on LinkedIn is usually the best place to be. But also the events like these, we fill up the stories with pictures and things that are happening. So your followers, so two or so two events, on Instagram, and we'll try to bring you as much of the energy as we can. Because we know sometimes you're out there. And you might be part of a small group in your dealership group that thinks the same way that has this love people more than you love cars idea, and you're not by yourself. So we want to bring you into this community as much as we can. While we're here. We're having our big premiere tonight, of more than more than our TV show pilot that we filmed went three dealerships in Arlington. I can't wait to see it. A lot of people seem excited. And when you told people, we were going to have a theater and a red car and popcorn. I'm

Kyle Mountsier  02:03

going everyone that was the most exciting part. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So we're opening

Paul Daly  02:08

the concession stands. So if you come in, you can actually get free concessions. So have you ever wanted you buy a ticket, and then you get free concessions. So if you ever wanted to do that, as a kid, just all the popcorn and all the candy and all the stuff from the air. So if you're in Tampa or within driving distance or digital dealer, just go to a so two x.com Pick Tampa event, and you can get tickets there. And we'll see you tonight. Let's talk about some news. Let's do it. Let's get right to it. So Mercedes is partnering, their passenger vehicle division is partnering with their f1 division because they do have an f1 car. Yeah, right. And there's a lot of pressure. Good one a bet. I bet that doesn't surprise me. There's a lot of pressure for Mercedes to always deliver, right. They're always technologically advanced, they're always the ones that can actually get it across the finish line. And so with all that pressure to keep up with tests on all that they tap their f1 department to work on things like the rolling the rolling chassis, and like how well and how effortlessly the vehicle rolls also, obviously, aerodynamics and electric engine integration, because I didn't know this, but f ones have like some kind of there's a there's a power side on it. Yep. You're doing Yep. And so So Mercedes is partnering with them a year ago. They are last year, they unveiled their EQ x x concept car that actually gets super efficient, and it gets 745 Miles

Kyle Mountsier  03:25

narrow range. That's wild. Yeah, that's like just about double slapping everyone in the face. Like, here you go, we got 745 Out of the Joker.

Paul Daly  03:32

But the real kicker is it only took them 18 months to develop that coach

Kyle Mountsier  03:36

makes a ton of sense. Because if you think about the f1 teams, they're actually redeveloping cars every single year, even just this year, the car completely changed, like all the standards from from the governing body completely changed the way that the wheels work everything. And so they only have like four or five months actually to develop that car used to go and read it and get it live. Right. So they're used to a very agile process of getting engine technology, getting vehicle technology to the wheels. So it makes a ton of sense to tap them and start to think outside of like, here's the business sector, the consumer sector. Alright, we have this other business sector, how can we integrate those to provide a better experience at the at the the customer customer level? So you know,

Paul Daly  04:22

there's a lot to be learned in this nature. We talked about we use word collaboration a lot. Yep. Right. And it's kind of a fundamental part of what we talk about. But that's why we bring so much thinking inside to automotive, from outside to automotive, because we know that there are best practices and there are perspectives that other people are going to see. Hospitality is a big area for us. Because dealers you walk into the store, you're dealing with customers hospitality is a major component of that. And we know a lot of dealers that are stay in really nice places, and they eat in really nice steak houses and they're friends with the owners. And can you imagine what it would be like if the general manager of the dealer invited the the GM of the steakhouse to come in and if they there why they're coming here? And what do you see?

Kyle Mountsier  05:02

What do you see? The lens? Yep, go through it, see how my story looks and feels and how my people care for consumers when they walk in, walk through the door, because especially a top end restaurant is thinking about those things all day every day. And sometimes it just takes that outside perspective, to understand how to how to change what you're doing.

Paul Daly  05:23

But they'd have one or two things right out of the gate, to say like, Hey, when they walked in, what do you how they did that? What if instead, you put this thing there, and watch what happens? You know, there's things like that. Yeah. Speaking to things that are not really super easy by Walmart, Walmart is leaning into their management academy, they've just launched a week long Management Academy, that they're incorporating all their frontline managers with, to try to number one, train them. But number two, really importantly, more importantly,

Kyle Mountsier  05:52

build community. Yeah. Which is really cool. Like, I mean, think about that the way that even graduate programs create cohorts. Yeah. Right. Because that the intentional community built around learning the ongoing that actually allows you to, like take that training further and push it down into culture systems. You know, or like, I even think about, if we started a couple of salespeople at the same time, like those two people were always endear to each other they always checked in how are you doing? What are you learning? What are you doing now? Because that was that starting point. And so for for them to go, Hey, we're gonna create this this academy and and like, the training objectives are not like, we're going to teach you how to be more efficient. How to Yeah. It's things like understanding values and culture, leading with empathy, empathy. With your employees, that'll work. Wow, that'll that'll Absolutely, please think

Paul Daly  06:45

of the last one was last time you were in a Walmart and you feel like the person who dealt with

06:48

empathy. Yeah, no, not my Walmart's not my Walmart's learning how to further engage with retail consumers and communities. And they must be taking notes, and then embracing change and being an examples to to others. So with all with that as like the primary guiding, and communities, it's really a leadership play. It's not a how do we become more efficient, and that's actually probably going to do a lot more for Walmart as an organization than any training on how to order stock could ever be. I mean, that's

Paul Daly  07:20

exactly why events like this work, regardless of what you learn in the sessions, the value that you walk away with other relationships that you make, and the people that you talk to you that you can stay in contact with. days, weeks, months, years, that's it lifetimes, you see life, you know, relationships at startup places like this. And it's that constant pursuit, you can lean on, run things by them. Ask them about this so much we're trying to do here with a soda. We want to thank you for being part of this community. We want you to know that we're here for you. We have a lot of connections. A lot of dealers, industry partners, always we never say this but like if you need something or want to try to find a vendor, just respond to our daily email, send us a message we're easy to find on LinkedIn. We're really here to help serve that to build a community of retail automotive show. We can love people more than we love cars. We will see you later today.

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