Marcus Withers, Owner, Withers Automotive

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is In the Dirt with ASOTU. Alright, I'm here standing at name ad with my new best friend. This is Marcus withers. Marcus is the dealer principal whether it's automotive, newly named Withers automotive only nine months right and LouisvilleMarcus Withers: 0:16

correct Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. All right.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:20

So here's this is this is the little bit of background that I know about him is who's you were in auto, you

Unknown: 0:26

said or late 90s. Right? Late 90s in mid 2000,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:30

okay, in the mid 2000s. But you came out of the music industry left auto went to the real estate industry, and now you're back in automotive. So I'm sure that those two industries have some influence on how you're doing business now. And so what does that look like? What does it look like to come back in auto and start to like, bring bring a store into the way that you feel like a store needs to

Unknown: 0:52

be Yeah, just kind of look at a different man. You know, I'm, I'm what you call a guerrilla marketer. So we take our approach a different way, and our customers face, you know, the way we market to our customers different. Just our whole approach, and everything we do is different. So, you know, our customer comes first. Number one, we pride ourself in our CSI, which is at 1,000%. Currently, wow. You know, I love the opportunity. I'm blessed to be a New Dealer since February 25. No, it's because God's blessed us his hands on me.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:24

That's awesome. So tell everyone the story of exactly what happened. Because I think sometimes just being like active and being in the right place at the right time, is just something and then pursuing something, right. Yeah. Talk to that a

Unknown: 1:35

little bit. So absolutely. I was just, you know, in the right place at the right time, I had owned a music studio, which I just sold last month, just trying to focus totally in on the car business. So what happened was, my manager from my studio had called me he's like, Yo, we gotta gather a recording of the studio. That's the general manager of a Chrysler store. And I said, Hey, man, let them know, you know, if he's interested in selling, or his partner's interested in selling, I will be interested. Two months later, they call they said, Hey, we would like to sell the owner wanted to retire, and just kind of focusing on the horse and equine business. I said, Listen, I'm naturally Yeah, absolutely. I said, I'm absolutely interested. I told my CFO to find me a bank that could do the financing. For us. This is my first deal. He did some Google research, reached out to Live Oak Bank, live of bank was very adamant and helped me out to be able to do an SBA seven a loan. Yeah. And that's kind of how it went down.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:32

Wow. So okay, so you entered into the industry and like this weird, wild time of crazy profits, inventory shortages, Chip shortages, the whole nine yards, what's been the biggest challenge that you've had to like, overcome in the first nine months of being an operator at this point?

Unknown: 2:47

Yeah, I mean, probably the first biggest thing was, you know, I was the new owner, you know, I don't believe in coming in. And just firing on my staff, you know, I want to work with what I got. I'm a servant leader, I want to I want my people to, I want to work for my people. So I came in, you know, we had to tighten some things up. But probably the biggest, the biggest, I guess, challenge has been the inventory, the shortage, ship shortage, not being able to get inventory. You know, we sell about 125 to 150 cars per month. On the new side, we probably sell about another 20. So that being said, if we can get more inventory of Christ, so we're kind of just kind of loosen up. I know, it's, it's still a chip shortage, but being able to give us proper allocations on our inventory. So

Kyle Mountsier: 3:31

you're doing a lot of business on the used side, you see the opportunity on the new side is

Unknown: 3:35

absolutely accessible. Absolutely. I miss a lot of car sales, based on what we're selling on the US side, right? If we were to have the new car inventory, then you know, we will be able to move it just right now. You know, with the shortage that's going on, we're not able to get what we actually

Kyle Mountsier: 3:49

what are you looking forward to the most over the next 12 24 months as you continue to adjust and pull levers in your business?

Unknown: 3:56

Well, I'm kind of looking to see what the market is going to do. I'm interested to see you know, because I'm fine with you know, because right now we're selling cars, a full sticker, you know, or over stickers, in some cases, depending on what type of vehicle it is. Sure, but I'm interested to see where the market is gonna shift how it's gonna change, you know, we're gonna go back to what it used to be, you know, selling cars that invoice or a couple 100 bucks over invoice. You know, I like where we're at now, getting all the money for the vehicle. So I'd say no negotiations, no hassles, customer comes in, they understand what the markets doing. They understand, hey, I gotta pay out the money.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:29

Right? Yeah, but and it's good for the consumer. It's good. You say and CSI is high. Right? It's a good time. And so I think I think as learning as as an industry from this time, and to can you like continue to take that type of activity for it is going to be really good. Well, Marcus, man, thanks for hanging out with us. I dragged you over here but I love your story and appreciate that you're back in the auto side and just encouraging other dealers to do the same. Thank you. Thank you for listening to In the Dirt with ASOTU. We love the automotive industry and the people who make it run Day in and day out. We would love to connect with you more through our daily dose of fun, a free email that you can sign up for at asotu.com. That's a s o t u.com. We put our heart and soul into it every day. Thanks again for listening. Join us next time for more Conversations In the Dirt with ASOTU

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