Todd Caputo, President, Todd Caputo Consulting

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is in the dirt with ASOTU.Paul Daly: 0:04

All right, we're here at Digital dealer. You know who he is? Todd Captuo Caputo on Cars, boys. Hey, we're gonna. We're gonna watch out because Kyle's really hungry right now. I'm angry. calories so far today you're like, where's

Kyle Mountsier: 0:19

my conference to?

Paul Daly: 0:20

Better watch? How long has it been since you've been to a digital dealer?

Todd Caputo: 0:25

Three, four years? Yeah, three or four years? Yeah. The, you know, it's always great to see people in the business from all parts of it get together. Yeah. And these conferences, I love them. I mean, obviously, I can't get away from it. Right. I'm here.

Paul Daly: 0:41

You came down to your visit your 102 year old Grandma.

Todd Caputo: 0:43

Yes is 102 Next week, and I'm like, well, she's going to be 102 and digital dealers going on. I gotta get I gotta get in the car. So I drove nine hours yesterday.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:52

Did you really manage to write your drive, you'd love to drive.

Todd Caputo: 0:56

Airports are kind of a pain. So they are.

Paul Daly: 1:00

Well, listen, last time you were here. You were here as a dealer? Yes, you're not here. As a dealer. This actually

Todd Caputo: 1:05

happens. I'm not gonna get hassled when I walked through the

Kyle Mountsier: 1:08

right. Yes. All the way through. You're like exact get through that quick.

Paul Daly: 1:12

So that being said, though, coming now on the industry partner consultant side. Yeah. What are some of the things that you think people need to be paying attention to at this digital dealer conference? Or at any conference for that matter?

Todd Caputo: 1:23

You know, quote, unquote, AI? Like everybody's talking about AI? I don't think I've heard about that quite AI yet. But I think it's going to be getting there. I think that's important.

Paul Daly: 1:37

Have you seen AI? Like around the show floor yet? I know, you just got here at Todd. I still

Kyle Mountsier: 1:42

wonder like, what the efficacy of something like that is to the business outcomes of a dealership. So

Todd Caputo: 1:48

my my litmus test and you know me for a long time is di SC? does it sell cars? At the end of the day, when I go to all these shows? Or I sift through conferences, or I sit through speakers? At the end of the day? does it sell cars? Does it help in the service drive? Does it help serve a customer? And you know, I think I talked about this before, there's so many products to help deliver a lead a phone call, and up somebody in the service drive. But how do people get handled? And how do people get taken care of right when they call on the phone or they fill out a form or they schedule an appointment online. Because at the end of the day, like that's really all that matters, dealers spend so much money I used to spend a lot right like right, drive traffic to the site, people filling out lead forms people calling on the phone. But if they're not handled properly, and you don't know how they're being handled, then you're just wasting your time with a lot of these products. All these products you see for a reason. Street buys, right? We got to buy cars off the street. Yeah. But who really has a process and their store and does it and does it right? And really chases people like for an extended period of time that want to sell their car? It can be months, right? In some cases, you're

Paul Daly: 2:58

sitting them? Well, yeah.

Todd Caputo: 3:01

They fill out a form, they want to know what their car's worth, you don't know, why don't they want to sell it? You don't know thinking about trading it, you don't even know if they have a car that they want to maybe trade it in for? And or maybe they just owe a lot of money? Or maybe they're just not sure but you know, I mystery shop dealers all the time, because that's what I do. Now. It's consultant. And one of the things that the first things that mister shop is that forum for the instant cash offer on the car, or the range or the trade informed something, because I like to see the kind of follow up that goes on after the fact. And usually what I see is effort for like 24 to 48 hours. And if you respond, they'll respond back. But if you just go cold for a reason, which is what I do, yeah, there is no real follow up at all. And there's so much money spent on the software, so much money spent in advertising to drive traffic to websites. And when there's not proper follow up, you just wasted your money as a dealer, I don't

Paul Daly: 3:53

know, it's reminiscent of a lot of the conversations we were having around na da when talking about getting back to basics, talking about those things. And I think that is the allure of most shows is that there's a lot of shiny lights and flashy things, right. And a lot of motivated salespeople, they're going to tell you like position like they showed salespeople as best their product can do for you. But the allure is to go home and start switching things out. And it's almost like if you're in the fixed ops department, you know, repair by replacement, right? Like, oh, well, let's replace that. And let's replace that. And the car still has the problem sometimes if it's not diagnosed, I

Todd Caputo: 4:25

totally agree. And you know, another thing too, that's important in our industry. We've had a lot of people come into the industry in the last few years, in the last few years have not really been reality in this business. And anybody that's been in the business a long time, understand what I'm talking about this is we're still not in the reality of the business. I don't care what anybody says. So it's COVID babies on the vendor side, and it's COVID babies on the dealer side too. It's both out yet. So like, that's where like I try to educate people about like, what it's really like at a car dealership, when you really got to grind for a sale. Okay? And you really got to really work hard, and I think it's important for us founders to truly understand to what their culture is like in a car dealership and what businesses really like, pre COVID. Because it will get back to that I can guarantee it. It's just a matter of time, no more every day a little bit more every day. We're seeing it now. And when it when it comes, it's going to be a lot more challenging for people. People don't have to really get scrappy on the vendor side, on the dealer side and get back to basics.

Paul Daly: 5:20

Well, Todd, as usual, it's great to have you on the show floor speaking. It's been tough truth.

Todd Caputo: 5:26

Tonight, I am very excited. Yeah, I will show you the show. Yeah, I've been trying to get a sneak peek and I wasn't allowed to get one. Like, I can't wait till 630 to 630 tonight. I'm sorry. I mean, I just drove nine hours to be down here. So that's amazing. I'm excited.

Paul Daly: 5:42

Every dealer I've told about the show have been like you've seen the light turn on like, yes, we need that in the industry. So it'll be fun to actually like, show people a little bit of what kind of we've been dreaming. The industry needs.

Todd Caputo: 5:53

Absolutely. Good to see you guys. Thank you so much. Awesome. Let's

Paul Daly: 5:56

go get some chicken. Absolutely.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:58

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 tu.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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