Pushing a Billy Goat with Ron Smith

Michael Cirillo: 0:00Today we are sitting down with the director of enterprise sales at Stella automotive Ron Smith

‍Unknown: 0:12

This is Auto collabs.

Paul Daly: 0:14

enterprise sales Sales

Michael Cirillo: 0:17

Director.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:18

Hey, guys get just real quick real quick. First of all, when you fly into Chicago and it's rainy and cloudy you're like oh, bout right

Paul Daly: 0:29

back to Chicago even not really Chicago we in the spring it should be a little nicer about

Kyle Mountsier: 0:34

this should be nicer. It's unbelievable. But I will say the salad that I had was extremely nice. And it was wondering about this salad. Keep talking about a salad. I got to talk about yourself promissory

Michael Cirillo: 0:44

note that real food will sooner restaurants because my restaurants bring it out for you.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:54

Well, it's okay. I just got invited to lunch. So maybe I'll go eat the meat here in a second. I'll go get.

Michael Cirillo: 1:01

Go get a deep dish. Well, hey, we are sitting down with the director of enterprise sales at Stella automotive, Ron Smith. Tell me a little bit more about what do you guys know about Ron, he won the pitch tank,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:15

won the pitch tank? That's most of what I know about Ron except for he works for Stella. No. Well, I met him I met him at ASOTU Con last year, tons of energy. I think he was actually new in the role. They brought their whole team to ASOTU CON, I will say just the stellar team. I just has a ton of energy. They're aligned with what we're doing here at ASOTU. Just as like person, like personally they are. And so it's always encouraging. Yeah, they're just kind people. It's always encouraging to jam with them. And so I'm sure that I'm sure that we're going to discover things that that, that we'll all look back and be like, yeah, Ron's one of our own, you know, just because I know the vibe of the people that they typically bring bring around. So we hope you enjoy this conversation with Ron Ron, what's up, man, we are excited to be hanging out with you, you were the winner of one of the months of pinch tank championships. So congratulations first on that, because that's a whole deal. And thanks.

Ron Smith: 2:16

We appreciate it. We appreciate the opportunity getting getting into there and winning it. So it's great to be here real quick.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:22

For those that don't know what pitch tank is. It's like a three minute audio only presentation. If you're watching this on video, Ron can actually he's got a great voice for radio too. But tell the people like what the preparation the process and the feeling is going into just having to explain everything you do in under three minutes. Without a deck. Like how does that? How does that work in your brain leading up to something like that? Oh, man,

Ron Smith: 2:49

well, like one thing that really helps us out is the fact that our API, we usually do live demos, and we can usually get on and off the phone in a minute and 20 seconds. So I can just fill up a minute and 20 of the three minutes.

Paul Daly: 3:01

That isn't on that's a pretty great advance.

Ron Smith: 3:03

That's that's like the easiest part about it. So we do we do like our little Intro Hey, this is what Stella does show something cool and new to everybody. And on the outro just, you know, just touch a little bit more put a hook and get the dealers to want to pump up but there was preparation we had to do on there. Right? I probably ran through it 10 times my VP of Marketing just to ensure that I was falling within that three minute timeframe. Did that change

Kyle Mountsier: 3:26

the game for you? Like with the rest of stuff because your pitch you know, you're in the sales environment? Did that change the game for you to pitch in, like you're in elevators at nada, just like just so you know, here it is, right? You know, it did

Ron Smith: 3:39

so just to tell you all this like a little behind the scenes, the last pitch that I did, we decided to change the entire pitch up 30 minutes before that's the first time I ever did that pitch. And, and legitimately the whole entire team has taken that pitch and just ran with it across the board. So like we found new ways to talk about Stella just by going through a little a three minute timeframe of a pitch tank it was pretty cool.

Paul Daly: 4:02

So tell me what it was like training the person that you call to sound just like Stella Just kidding, man I was on I was on that pitch and it was awesome to just hear hear go the way it went. And like you had such an advantage of like that mic drop moment, like oh, well you don't believe me? I'm gonna call in right now is probably how a lot of your pitches go.

Ron Smith: 4:28

It is. A lot of times I was like, wow, that that person just talked to me, right? They just responded. And so like many times when we go through the pitch, I'm always like, Alright, Mister missus car dealer. Just please let me get through these three calls. Usually after Call Number one, I don't go any further. I'm already answering questions because they're just like so intrigued about how fast that responsiveness was with the AI.

Michael Cirillo: 4:51

I was gonna say for those that are, you know, maybe tuning in for the first time or maybe this is the first time they've heard Stella. Can you can you give me the Cliff's Notes on what it is? What What problem does it solve?

Ron Smith: 5:06

So Stella is a conversational AI leading leading provider in all of automotive, right Stella will book change or cancel all of the inbound phone call traffic that comes into the service department will also do location hours roadside assistance. We also just launched a new product called our front end reception that will basically eliminate the the ability for an IVR, press one for sales, press two for service, just let Stella pick it up. I mean, on average, 20 30% of inbound phone calls are going just missed. So Stella just helps facilitate all of that traffic to ensure the dealers don't miss any more phone calls. Plus give the consumers the good experience of ensuring they're going to accomplish their goals when they're on the phone.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:47

Nice. Okay. Okay, enough about Stella, because this is a little bit more about Ron. Oh, yeah. You know, she's she's exciting and all that type of stuff. So, just so everyone knows, I'm in a mess of a day, I'm in the mood. I'm in a whole mood. I just had a really, really great salad that at a place that I've ever been, so I'm on I'm on cloud nine with the sound and

Michael Cirillo: 6:12

we know Kyle's a liar. Okay. Really good. Solid. Yeah.

Paul Daly: 6:17

Great, solid, great. All want to be somebody else. So Ron,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:21

take us back. Maybe not to your childhood. But, you know, talk to us a little bit about what your career in automotive has been. Have you it was stellar, the first stop or have you been in automotive and a few other places before that?

Ron Smith: 6:34

Oh, okay. So I'll take you back to my childhood. My dad's in the car business at now. So 13 years old, I was already pushing this thing called a billy goat through the lot for $5 An hour picking up all the cigarette butts. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. So. So that's what I started. So like I never asked my dad. I'll ask him at dinner was i How many cars you sell today? Right like that? Yeah. So I went into officially a lot porter at 18 sold cars for him. And then I was the house mouse apparently. Right. So what I had to do was moved from my dad down to Florida and started selling cars with Asbury automotive at Coggan Honda in Jack's. So I did that I made it all the way up to used car director for the first five years there and then I did a 10 year stint at Cox automotive trade in my last traded marketplace. I spent my last five years with V auto in particular. And then Stella decided to launch a sales team in August. I got a basically like my Shark Tank pitch. I got a three minute phone call with them. I was like okay, ai I'm in. So I came here in August. So I've been in the car business for over 20 years, guys. It's been it's been amazing seeing the changes. Like I

Paul Daly: 7:47

think that there's always just such a wasted time slot in the beginning of anyone who's selling a tech product in automotive to be like, I grew up on the lot, right? Yeah, I grew up pushing the billy goat building go to dinner conversation was how many did you sell? And I already knew my dad's attitude. How many about that was

Ron Smith: 8:08

was a junior so like, I would always people would always come in and look for Ron at the dealership and my dad would give deals to like other people because they would send it to my dad and I was like, What the heck, but all the all the settings to call me Junebug at the dealership. So then I started going by Junebug and I never miss another deal again, from that standpoint, because you just had to get creative back. It was fun. I was also the internet manager because I knew how to change the printer ink at the time, which was

Kyle Mountsier: 8:37

good. Good news is nothing's changed.

Paul Daly: 8:40

Now you just know how to reset passwords

Kyle Mountsier: 8:48

Oh, no. Sideways.

Paul Daly: 8:51

Okay, get over the billing code. Let's know the billing, you're just thinking about that little thing. You push it and it just eats up everything in its sight. Right? Remember that? Remember the lots were littered with cigarette butts. Okay, so it dealers, industry partners, right? It's this age old, like, I need you. But when you get out of my office kind of mentality. So you as a dealer, you know, you've seen the sales pitch from both sides. As a vendor, you've seen the sales pitch from the like, Okay, how quickly can I get this out? How can I actually serve the dealer instead of just telling them what I have? You've experienced both sides. So from the dealer site, okay, I'm asked you to put your dealer hat back on. Alright. What is the most annoying thing that a vendor can do when they try to pitch you a product?

Ron Smith: 9:40

Oh, man. Talk

Paul Daly: 9:47

just actually nailed it. You just nailed it.

Ron Smith: 9:54

off a lot of times is listening to these people just go on and on and on. And never truly just ask me a question. about what I needed, right? Like, Hellenism salad. So that that is just the world that happens, like every day is still happening every day with people going into stores, they're just want to come in and tell you about your product. Right? Let's let's help them solve a problem, right? And I can tell you, the more you get your dealer to talk like I was, I always learned like the first one that talk loses, right? So let's just go ahead and let them just ask them the right questions, do a little bit of pre work before you go in, you'll be able to find your way into the right conversation. It's just a matter of just understand the listener a little bit more than just talking to people.

Michael Cirillo: 10:35

I always feel like controversial statement of the day. I always feel like too early

Paul Daly: 10:41

for that. It's five o'clock somewhere. Oh, yeah.

Michael Cirillo: 10:46

I feel like, you know, what lends its hand to that why they go in with that urgency to like pitch, right is because they're hard up for cash. But here's my statement. How dare you put yourself in a position where you're so hard up for cash? You know what I mean? Like, yeah, you know what I mean? Because like what you're saying, Ron resonates with, I think, safe to say all three of us here. And of course, those that are part of the asoto community, which is people over everything else, right, like love people more than you love the thing. And but I always feel like Ben, the only reason you feel urgency to earn the dough is because you put yourself in a position where you can where you didn't have the dough. And then and then that precludes you from being able to actually just build a relationship and like, like you said, listen, curious, your take. I want you're not just kidding, I'm not gonna ask for your controversial statement of the day. But what are your thoughts on

Kyle Mountsier: 11:41

that? Yeah, I mean, you think about though, just like dealing with dealing with a salesperson, like a car salesperson on the ninth of the month, and they haven't sold a car, you can see it in their eyes, like hunger, you know? And, and so that I think that there is this this element that when we get into sales, that when we get into product pitching that when we get into any of that, and we're prioritizing, like, like you said, telling isn't selling, we're just like shouting at people, instead of solving problems, that immediately I don't care who you are, put your defenses up, you know, you're you're questioning like, What's the motive? On the other side? Is the product really good? Anything like that? So how to run How do you combat that? Because obviously, in the sales environment, there's deadlines to meet, there's goals to there's goals to hit, there are margins, and there's there's growth metrics that have to happen, especially your your, your role in charge of enterprise sales accounts, like that's large accounts that have that have a lot of opportunity for any any sort of, you know, business, especially in the SAS world, how do you balance the like necessity to sell the thing that has to happen for the business to keep moving? And the human element of conversation and problem solving? How do you balance that on a day to day basis?

Ron Smith: 12:58

You know, I, for one, like pre work is is critical for us understanding the knowledge of the conversation before you're going into the store, right? You know, we are AI answers the phone. So doing some secret shop analyses of the stores is one way to easily combat that, of just of just preparation, referral business from people that have already sold, like you've already sold that clients to like nothing's more powerful than one of our current clients calling one of their buddies, or even a competitor that they've done to get that door just already open for you. So I'm really, really big on like, warm to hot opportunities, right, the cold calling is still very, very tough. And it's still a challenge. And if you're just strictly cold calling on clients in this atmosphere right here, you're gonna have a really tough time because look, the vendor world's been out for a very long time dealing with dealers, right, dealers have had some poor experiences, they've also had some really good experiences with with people too, but their guards are up before you even get in the door. So if there's a way that you can use your network, your LinkedIn network, or my networks, from my previous people, to help get me a soft introduction to somebody that's able to get me over the hump, that gets that helps us stay ahead of this. Now the enterprise side, it's like it's not like riding a jetski. And you can just pivot and turn and just close one rooftop, one rooftop, one rooftop, there's got to be a level of patience that I've had to learn. And I'm a very impatient person. So like, that level of patience that hey, like, you know, you're you're going to be able to like Rome wasn't built in one day as an example. Like, you just have to establish the process, establish the rules of engagement that you have with your team, and then just follow it through. So you do it. It's tried and true too much from my experience about 10 years or Cox, automotive. It's that is one company that is unbelievable with educating their people of how to how to just stay on top of their days, you know what I'm saying? Okay,

Paul Daly: 14:49

I have one more question. This is probably the last one we get to today. So we just asked you that from the dealer side. What's the most annoying thing that a vendor can do? You said talk and then we went into the conversation. What's the most annoying thing that a dealer can do to a vendor because the hope is here that through growing a little empathy between the dealers and industry partners, we help the conversations connect faster, because that makes innovation go faster. So what do dealers do? That if they didn't do would actually help the process go a little bit easier for everybody? Oh, trouble let's get in trouble with this

Ron Smith: 15:29

like I want I just want like yeses or nose right, the gray area makes it really tough. Right to not understand the the path or the move that we're getting out of responsiveness, right? Because in sometimes your world, you feel like you've got a great conversation moving along, and along and along. And then and then it just drops off and goes dark right now you got to figure out how to revive that or whatnot. I love just like, there's the people that I meet with, like these alpha personalities that are just like, nope, not moving forward. Yes. Moving forward. Like I just I don't like the gray area in regards to the conversation piece with with dealers, right? I just want to know, hey, either you're there in if you're not in, tell me why you're not in so that at least if it's something that I can address, I can address that there. But that gray area of the responsiveness like I'm one that wants to respond fast, right? Like I want to if I'm texting with somebody, I want to text him back quickly, email email quickly. And I don't expect for people to email me fast or whenever I do just like timely responses at some point in time, just just to just you just want to know this. Let's go.

Michael Cirillo: 16:35

Paul thought he was gonna stump you, but you are clearly an enterprise sales professional, you maneuvered your words with grace and dignity. And answered it so well.

Ron Smith: 16:49

Man in the plane, while we're building it over here, you know,

Michael Cirillo: 16:54

that seems to be a theme of this, this generation. So we're all for it. Man. Ron, thank you so much for joining us here on auto Collabs. How can those listening get in touch with you?

Ron Smith: 17:05

So we have a fantastic website meetstella.ai That's where you can go and do all kinds of resource. We have testimonials on here. You can certainly just call my cell phone 904-738-4011 I will answer it I will respond. He was a year Rondout Smith, Estelle automotive.com. But our website is loaded with content.

Michael Cirillo: 17:31

I love it. Ron Junebug Smith. Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

Paul Daly: 17:42

We thought we were gonna get him on some controversial question that I think that is our uncommunicative word coming for him.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:48

I'm telling you what communicated strategy

Paul Daly: 17:50

from now on. If you're a vendor, and you're on this show, we're gonna ask you hard questions because that's actually what's going to make everyone listen to your episode. So be ready. His welfare amazing. His answers answers are amazing. Amazing.

Kyle Mountsier: 18:04

The fact that he that he's been on the dealership side families in the dealer has been tons of years on the vendor side and still had some of the clarity that was that, like he can kind of see both sides. That's important to me. And I think that our industry as a whole, just, the more we can look across the aisle and go, I see you, I understand where you're at why you're doing what you're doing what you need, you know, like, he just said, Hey, I don't if you say no, that's fine. There's 17,000 dealers out there that my team has to work with. Right? Just tell me just tell me what's up. And if it's something I can handle great. And if not, then we'll move on down. laughs I wish I can't be friends.

Michael Cirillo: 18:42

Yeah, you know, my mind does move to a skit. I maybe I approach life through skits like SNL. But I love how concisely he answered the first question that Paul asked, which was like, What's the biggest mistake that veterans do? He goes talk, talk. And then on the flip side of it when you ask him, well, what's the what's the biggest mistake? And to your point, Kyle, he's he shares this diatribe about well, like just give me an answer, like, make it a yes. Make it a No, don't go to me don't whatever. But then he asked, you know, like, why are you not in like explained to me why you are not in and in this skit, I picture the dealer just going because you talk talk. You talked

Kyle Mountsier: 19:22

over and over.

Paul Daly: 19:23

I think I love the fact that we just found out he was in the business. And I will say this again. Because if I was an industry partner, and I had sold cars and grew up in the business, it would be my profile picture. It would be my constant narrative. It would be the first line out of my mouth because everyone wants to know that you understand their side. And if you're an industry partner, like the dealers in the middle of it every single day, the GM or the marketing manager, they're in the middle of it every single day, and why shouldn't they start with like, how do you understand what I'm going through? You're right now. Well, I grew up in the car business selling cars and this and that. That's how I should understand why I was just

Michael Cirillo: 20:05

Junebug costume.

Paul Daly: 20:10

He's got to actually know what a Junebug looks like me. I know that Jim Carrey smalls was going by the Big Dumb and Dumber.

Kyle Mountsier: 20:18

Oh, that got him well, if that wasn't a great way to end up thinking about Jim Carrey solid Junebug. That's that for you. Thank you so much. On behalf of Paul J. Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself, Kyle Mountsier. Thanks for joining us on Auto Collabs.

Unknown: 20:34

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