Transactional vs Relational with Scott Simons

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SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly, Scott Simons, Michael Cirillo

Michael Cirillo  00:00

Do we have any sponsors yet?

00:08

This is Auto Collabs

Paul Daly  00:11

The best way to start an episode I've we're keeping this episode. Yes, that's perfect because my we have not even talked about sponsorship the show ever.

Michael Cirillo  00:22

Does the Dealer Playbook have sponsorship? No.

Paul Daly  00:25

Did your wife just text you to ask me that?

Michael Cirillo  00:28

What do you getting for that trip to Philly?

Paul Daly  00:33

Fantastic. Well, on that note,

Michael Cirillo  00:36

well let's talk about building something from nothing because that's the first thought that comes into my mind when it when it pertains to our guest today, Scott Simons one of the most caring individuals in the auto industry and I, I hope listeners are and viewers are picking up on a theme here on the people that we're bringing on the show. That they they have common character traits. And and Scott Simons is no exception to that. But this whole idea of starting from nothing he thinks, I thought you were gonna say people of substance. There's an inside joke you'll have to watch stuff sell but but he he always impresses me because he is the American dream. Yeah, he really is right like started from nothing had a had a very impoverished upbringing, a very rough upbringing, puts himself through school gets a degree, his brother, I don't know if many know this, his brother, I think is a surgeon in Texas, put himself through like they came from nothing and prove that with determination, focus vision, like all the things you read about in the books, you can absolutely achieve the life of your dreams. And now seeing him like it's guys like him and the other individuals that we've had on the show that paint a very clear picture for me of what success actually looks like, man, it's not bling, bling, bling stuff stacks on stacks, it's once they achieve a level they desire nothing more than to have others join them out level

Kyle Mountsier  02:06

they do. I got to see it firsthand in this way that when he was around his people, there was this genuine like,

Paul Daly  02:17

I like responsibility. And yeah, it was

Kyle Mountsier  02:19

like a dad. It was like, No, you're under this wing. And you're under this wing. And you better come on in close. And then I could imagine like, if anybody tried to talk about one of his people, one of his stores, right? Um, see all the guns come out, right? You'd be like, so I got this rack, right.

Michael Cirillo  02:39

And it's in every facet of his life. It's not just business. It's not just school, he'll tell you his story. And I'm sure we'll hear a little bit about it. But like, he was like, I'm overweight and I'm out of shape. And this is disgusting. And he snapped himself into the gear. And the guys just he he exercises he takes care of himself and, and, and to me that always impresses me because those are the harder things

Paul Daly  02:59

and he'll say it to he'll be like, I'm not doing this so I can be on Instagram. He's like, I hate it. I hate eating healthy, right? I hate exercising. But I'm doing it because people depend on me and I need to be in good shape literally back to your point to take care of them.

Kyle Mountsier  03:12

Yeah, you know the other thing that strikes me about Scott and this is actually really tied in with ASOTU because many of you if you if you're listening know that he is an investor in ASOTU one of our dealer investors but you know, I think Scott knew both of us kind of from Clubhouse from a distance. But you got the opportunity to go on Glenn's Clubhouse show and just share what we were doing with Automotive State of the Union. And he he's uh, he also doesn't mince actions or words right so I heard something that he believed in took quick action on it connected and now you know it like this. He's consistently encouraging us and and feeding back Oh giving and there's there's no shortage of like intentionality around everything that he does.

Paul Daly  03:57

That's right. So we know you're gonna love him if you haven't met him already. We hope you enjoyed this interview with Scott Simons. Scott, thank you so much for spending some time with us. I've been looking forward to this one. Just because of your personality. I never know what's going to come out of you. Right, because you tell it like it is. Right. But also like the real world experience is always something that I know people bring a lot of value for. So thanks for being here with us today.

Scott Simons  04:28

Hey, guys, thanks for having me on. And you know, I need a black hat and a beard.

Paul Daly  04:35

Get you the hat. Yeah, I've got the hat. I

Scott Simons  04:37

should have wore it today. All right. Do you have a hat? Got this swag out there. I mean, no one can even compare

Paul Daly  04:45

I have one do you have?

Kyle Mountsier  04:46

Do you have it? Paul, are we going to this is the first time that anyone has seen this Are you

Paul Daly  04:52

okay, so we always try to level up with swag and so this year for ASOTU CON the only way you can get one of these is by being there. It's legit

Scott Simons  05:00

sock. So legit, I love it. I love

Paul Daly  05:04

this. We got this, like this. Yeah. So you're the first one to see that. That is

Kyle Mountsier  05:10

if you're listening to the audio version of this, you gotta go find something on social or YouTube or LinkedIn and go find the way it looks because it's it's a real fun thing. So yes,

Paul Daly  05:20

thanks. All right, Scott. Thanks. So good. All right. So we've been asking this question to it to a lot of people and I think it's a very valid one, because you you understand more about the person what they're doing, if you understand where they came from. So how did you find your way into the automotive industry? How did that even happen?

Scott Simons  05:37

Yeah, so I'm originally from southern West Virginia, and my parents weren't in the auto industry. My dad was a pupil personnel specialist. He would, he would literally work for the county. And in southern West Virginia, if you didn't go to school, your parents could go to jail. So he was a truant officer. My mom worked in a, she was a lab supervisor. And we were very conservative kind of lower. There we were at was a, you know, lower income area. And I remember one day, I saw a guy with really nice clothes drive a really nice car, and I said, What's that guy did? And they're like, he sells cars. And I'm like, damn, I'd like to drive a nice car like that, or wear nice clothes like that. Okay, so then they're like, then I started finding out that the, you know, to enter the auto industry, you know, pretty much you anybody can enter, and anybody could go sell cars. So I said, Damn, it sounds like me. So anyway, I went to college, got my master's degree, said, I'd like to own a car dealership one day. And I said, Wait, so

Paul Daly  06:37

you went to college with the intention of owning a dealership there.

Scott Simons  06:40

I've always had a goal of at one point, maybe I had a dream of being a sports agent. And then I saw how much school that takes a law school was not me. You've been

Paul Daly  06:51

awesome. Sports would be a great sport.

06:55

So I think I went and got my master's degree was supposed to go to law school. I finished six years of school and four. So I got my undergrad and two and a half years, got my MBA in a year and a half. And then  I'm going to sell cars, and my dad said, Why did you go to school? After all? He's like, What is wrong with you? And, you know, actually said this is this is dumb. And I said, Well, Dad, if I'm ever gonna, you know, own a car dealership, I need to go sell cars. Like I don't get to go on a car dealership because I got a master's degree. So I started at Saturn of Richmond for a guy named Huddy Harmon and Johnny Cates and they kind of looked at me and they're like, you want to sell cars? Yeah, yeah. I got made fun of by some people I graduated with, they're like, you're gonna sell cars? Of course. Yeah. So John, I said so I'd like to own a car dealership one day in both the guys laughed at me. They literally laughed at me. They said, What is your parents on the car dealership? I'm like, No. Do you have any money? No. Boy, exactly what they said, Boy, we'll see what you got. That's when I started working for Saturn. You're like, I'll show you then. Yeah, so hey, give me an opportunity. So I was in sales, a short amount of time went into finance, finance, finance director to general manager was an ever sales manager, GSM general manager and a managing partner. So I was the general manager. So I've been here for 11 years. 20 years see 19 years ago 49v 28 29 was at GM.

Kyle Mountsier  08:21

Wow. That's I just love the story where you're like, we're gonna do this college thing, but it's really just a facade. I'm gonna go over here and own a dealership.

08:33

I was never a good test taker. Like, if you check my intelligence, I've never score high on any of those. I just got a lot of hustle and was blessed with a lot of common sense. But I didn't test well like even my SATs. I don't think I cracked 1000 You know, the LSAT, I didn't score well. The GMAT I didn't score well on and a lot of times to college even just memorize stuff. I just like literally through the MBA and memorize which I just wanted to prove that I could do it. And, you know, no one can ever take it away from you. There's a lot of life experiences you get in college that I needed. Definitely more. You know, my my roommate when I got my master's degree was from Sri Lanka, which is a little island off India. So I taught him how to shoot pool and drink beer. And he taught me he made spicy food. So it

Kyle Mountsier  09:25

sounds like a crazy night. Yeah.

09:30

I still keep in contact with him. His name was Boodi Offadooda and I learned a lot about culture because from being from southern West Virginia, you know, I didn't get to experience a whole lot of culture so it was a good thing. Started working for Huddy great guy, you know still stay in contact with him went to work for guy named Steve Bayard as a finance director. Real good guy. Richmond left that market went to Harrisonburg, Virginia. For a guy named Nielsen Schwartz was there nine years then teamed up with Liza Borches and Carter 11 years ago, so they bought a Honda store, neighboring the Honda store I ran and they used to come and check out our store to see how we sold so many cars in a much smaller market. And I kept in contact with them. And when they bought the store, they made me a partner,

Paul Daly  10:14

Scott was like, I'm how I'm how they sell so many cars. Yeah.

Kyle Mountsier  10:19

Fast forward, because you said something about you that you kept in contact with your original employer at that dealership. And, you know, so we were out at your store and got to hang out, see your team and meet you. And there was this moment that I will literally never forget. We're all sitting around. And you're you're talking and we're talking a little bit about marketing a little bit about operations and, and then you're like, you know, what we really do is we ask our people to make sure they're contacting everybody in their phone every year. And we're like, Oh, that can't be that crazy difficult. Everyone's probably got a few 100 contacts in there, they go to a couple a day. And then you dropped how many contacts you have your phone

10:59

6000 365 into 6000. If I contact 16 people a day, just touch him with a text message. That means I'll contact everybody in my phone. And that's what we teach. Because that's your that's your network. That's your circle of influence. If anybody contacts you save your phone. And another trick is if I go to meeting with you all and I want and I connect with you, I'll say Hey, Paul, what's your cell phone? Kyle? What's your cell phone even for you think you just spit it out? And then I take my  my contact in with everything text it to you and say hey, just click that and save my contact and then I've got your cell phone. That's how I've gotten a lot of influencers cell phones and you know what's how like Grant Cardone did my Saturday Morning Sales Meeting. He texts me is like, Hey, man, you've been up to? Hey Grant we're doing great bro. I said, hey, would you talk to my team this morning? He did a 15 minute sales meeting to my team this last Saturday, this this past Saturday?

Paul Daly  11:56

You know, so Scott, we have there's so many conversations going on ad infinitum. In automotive right now, between processes and technology, specifically, technology and CRMs. And how everything's communicating. You seem like somebody who understands the value of doing that the fount, the fundamentals, and the principles like basic groundwork on the sales game. Am I getting that right?

12:22

Yeah, yeah, when everybody's going in automation. I agree. It's important. But I want to build a model to where my team, I teach them how to brand, teach them how to promote themselves, teach them how to build relationships, there's some dealerships that buy every lead that's out there, and they have a really good BDC. And they turn and burn. And there's nothing wrong with it. I want to build relationships to where when we first started tracking your relationships sales, relationships sales means, that Kyle brought Paul in and bought a vehicle, he brought in that lead. that We started tracking transactional versus relationship. And if you're transactional, we want to turn you into a relationship where you don't shop with anybody else. So we first started tracking that. And before we started training, we were 5%. Relational. Now we're 45%. So that means almost one out of every two cars we sale is generated through social media, by the sales rep, not by the dealer. My goal is to get it close to 100%. Not even how to advertise at all. That's my goal. Now, it's

Paul Daly  13:22

amazing. Yeah,

Scott Simons  13:23

I mean, it works. But you got to work, you know? Yeah. Right.

Kyle Mountsier  13:27

Right. Yeah. Like you got to put everybody's got to be bought in period,

Paul Daly  13:31

or meeting for the long term. That doesn't happen in six months or 12 months, right? That happens over a long time. You know, I have this this mentality of, I call it brand conversion versus sales, conversion, and a sales conversion equals one sale ring the bell, everybody's excited. But when you make a brand conversion, it means people actually have integrated you in the way they think about things and you just become a part of their regular flow of life. It sounds like you're saying the same thing. When you have a relationship, like a real one, right? Everyone's like, No, I want a relationship. That's not a sale. It's like, I don't know, ask the customer if they feel like it's a relationship.

14:04

This is what we train. You know, if I if I'm on the sales floor I'm gonna get here at 715 I'm gonna make the customers coming in. I'm gonna find out what my customers are coming in that morning, because most people drop off at 730. And then any or any orphans, anybody that doesn't have anybody assigned to themsad, I wanna make sure I say hello to him. And then I'm just going to help service check him in, you know, just be there. Obviously, we're waiting areas. Oh, by the way, you know, Hey, Paul, I'm Scott. You know, I noticed that the sales rep that you had is no longer here. I would like to help you. If you contact me directly. If the service departments really busy I can, I can squeeze you in. I'll also Paul, nobody really likes to come to the car dealership. I'll go pick up your car for you bring you a loaner next time and I'll bring it for you'll do that for me? Of course I'll do that for you. And then you build your relationships there to build up your funnel. And then that customers will be loyal to me. I'm gonna touch them after they leave. I'm not gonna try to sell If anything, I'm not gonna try to give him a free appraisal that day, I'm just going to touch him. Next time they come in, I'm going to pick up their car, but give him a free appraisal. And then I'm gonna say, Hey, you don't contact them, text me, text me and I'll set your appointment for you. Right? Then I'm gonna go out at eight o'clock, and I'm gonna do a Facebook post of Hey, Scott Simons in front of a car, hey, I'm gonna check in Facebook every single day, and I'm gonna make a post every single day. And people say, Well, Scott, people know where you work. I know that, but I need to stay in front of them. If I got 5000 friends on Facebook, only 15% of people see that post. So I'm gonna do it every single day, I'm gonna be every single day, I will make that post at 10 o'clock, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna find out and unique used car, and I'm gonna post that used car. hey just trade it in, you know, please contact me, it's not gonna last long, it's gonna be something unique about I'm gonna tell a story. When I sell you a car, I'm gonna friend you. I'm gonna tag you in the post. And then if you got a trade, I'm gonna post your trade. I'm gonna say hey, and I'm also going to ask you Hey, Paul, do you know anybody that's wrote in your vehicle lately that would be interested in purchasing your car. They never said you if you ever sell this car to let them know.

Kyle Mountsier  16:02

So before hits the light, let's go.

Scott Simons  16:05

We're turning cars so fast. We're not going to get there posted. My team is posting and selling before they're even making the websites.

Kyle Mountsier  16:12

That's so because here's what's here's what most dealerships have a struggle with. They're like, Yeah, but I can't hire a marketing team. Because you know, I don't know what their ROI is. And are they gonna put out enough videos and we got to create a team, you're like, actually, actually, I have 223 employees across the seven dealerships. And so every single one of them every single day is making me seven pieces of content. And I am literally the mayor of the town as a group,

16:39

right. And they're there now. So now Paul is hurrying up a posting that car before I posted before you post it Kyle, because whoever posted first based on amount of customers the ability to sell that car first. We're competing to sell that trade before someone else sells. And then we also train if everybody posts that used car, and then everybody shares that post, then you don't have to go grab that car. You don't because everybody share it. Right? And you know, now you can just grab off here, but if you didn't

Kyle Mountsier  17:09

a spider web, it's a big old spider web man. Yeah. But so you said

17:14

to it takes time and we have daily worksheets, if we if I asked him to do and then if I don't go back and do it myself and lead by example. And if I don't make sure they're doing that process, every couple of days, they'll stop doing the good ones. You'll tell once and I know those are the will be our future leaders. They'll take what I suggest and they'll they'll do it 10x They'll make it creative. They'll instead of doing a picture, they'll do Facebook Live. That's when I know I've got somebody I've got somebody to pour into and the ones I have to remind I know they're there just to just to just to have a job. They're

Paul Daly  17:44

not they're trading time for money. That's it. Yeah. So yeah, we train on that. Got to put you on the spot for a second. Yes. You said Grant Cardone spoke to your sales team. Yep. On Saturday, obviously you and he had go back a little ways, about 20 years. Oh, I've just 20 years. That's it. He was he his life was a little different. 20 years ago.

18:03

Yeah. Yeah, I knew he was going to be you know, you meet people. When I met y'all too. there's something special about people in real recognizes that I knew some there's gonna be some special about Grant. Actually, I got a funny story. I snuck him into an NADA Honda reception. He's like, Hey, man, all the Honda dealers are going to be at the Super Bowl party in Vegas. This was years ago. years,

Paul Daly  18:25

you're gonna say like, Grant you're like, Hey, man. Hey, the dealers are gonna be there I need to be you

18:32

gotta get to you so and I wanted him to meet with Liza back then. So I actually put him on as a an employee on our roster. So everybody in Yeah, Honda was like, Don't ever do that again. Because I got I got talked to after that because obviously they knew that he didn't work for me and I snuck

Kyle Mountsier  18:51

in a backroom in a Vegas in Vegas casino with a light on him.

18:56

Everybody's like, Grant Cardone not like the

Paul Daly  19:01

says he works for.

Scott Simons  19:04

So I got a little bit of trouble over that one. But it was fun.

Paul Daly  19:08

Talking about it for a while. That's a great story. So he spoke to your team on Saturday. What do you remember what he told your team about building relationships?

Scott Simons  19:16

Which is perfect. You know, I learned it from him a long time ago. Learn from Grant about build relationships and branding yourself. I mean, remember back when sales rep started and we didn't even want them to put their cell phone on their business card. Yeah. Don't you dare be bigger than the store? Or go and brand yourself?

Paul Daly  19:34

Yeah, I mean, I hear that today too. Especially, you know, we were at your stores and we seen like, hey, people who is it? Lucy? Yeah, Lucy. So banner ad that's amazing. Like there's a whole like pull up banner in her little office in the souvenir store. And I think there is definitely this hesitancy to say like, Hey, if I'm going to let my salespeople build their brand, that makes the dealer vulnerable. What's your position? I mean, obviously you encourage your people But to do that, but why do you think that's the winning formula?

20:02

It's, it's what's two ways they can they're both are successful, right? The ones that build a big buy, every lead that's out there, and they get a ton of leads and have a hammer BDC. And then, and then they have a delivery coordinator delivers them. I told my team, listen, if you don't brand yourself, and if you don't build relationships, you're going to become extinct, you're gonna become extinct. So you have to brand yourself, or I'll go to the model where I'll buy every lead, I'll have a rockstar BDC and I was hired people, hourly people to go over the tech, the technology. Y'all don't want that. I don't want that. I want to see y'all make really good money.

Paul Daly  20:41

You don't build relationships that way. So

20:42

what plus plus no one's bigger than our team, not me, not them. Together, we make value we make CMA what it is. And that's all true right there. That's on all time. CMA will be here at Valley. We'll be here long after Scott Simons is gone. But my legacy is going to be the people that I train and coach and the impact they make long after I'm gone. And I just truly believe it's the right way to go plus, guess what, if I am selling half the cars through them, and I train them, and it takes their time, at maybe can spend a little bit less in advertising or maybe reallocae it to, we call all the local high schools and gave them all money. And they were like, what, like,

Kyle Mountsier  21:24

what we have to call you down and get through it.

21:29

You call it every high school in our county, and said what program needs money? So we took some of the advertising budget that we saved and donated to local schools. It was the weirdest phone call ever my assistant's, it's like, Laura, my assistand, she's like, Scott, the they're like, What do you want from them? I'm like it, we bought cheerleaders, cheerleaders needed new outfits, right? So instead of giving them a check, if we do that, we want them to come here. So out in front of the Honda, we built like a pyramid shot of them with the cheerleaders. No, because if you're going to give that check and make an impact, we want them to come by and see our stores. We want them to come and see us. And then you know, a little bit of PR out of that isn't a bad thing. Is crazy guys out there doing it a cheer, you know, so

Paul Daly  22:16

well it goes around, right? Because the bottom line is, the more successful you are if your mindset is how do I sow into the community? Right, the more the community supports you, it just it's it's very cyclical, and they feed each other.

22:27

Absolutely. But just givin a check, anybody can just give a check and absolutely make a difference. And we want to capture that and tell our story. I mean, you got to we got to admit, you know, on the trust scale, there were I think we're climbing you know, good dealers, but we're still pretty attorneys are down there. Maybe ambulance chasers? I

Paul Daly  22:46

don't politicians. It's not it's not the stellar group we'd all want to affiliate with openly. So yeah, no doubt there.

Kyle Mountsier  22:54

Yeah, I think a few years ago, I think it was Acura or Lexus that did a study in a perfect seat stranger ranked 57 or something on a trust scale. And then dealer, salesperson was nine. So perfect stranger.

23:09

You know what our industry did a tire sale, right? No bad credit, no credit forced forward toe all the smoke and mirrors and all the things that we don't do the pirate sales we used to make. When we first came here, we kind of doubt it back. We used to make fun of traditional car dealers. Because you know, we're a retailer, we're a partner. We don't consider ourselves a car dealership. And we made fun of them. So we actually made fun of the power of sales into scratchers. You never won. And lost it said, Scott, you kind of got to tone it down a little bit to make fun of our industry. But I said, No, but it's pretty it's pretty fun. No,

Kyle Mountsier  23:47

it's really hard at that run.

23:49

You know, we did one where you know, you had to key that and start the car. Yeah. And we gave a skeleton key, you know, like the big old school skeleton key, right? Yeah. So they came in, like, we think we want the car and we're like, this won't fit a car like Yes. You gotta kind of tone down the rhetoric.

Paul Daly  24:08

A lot of a lot of phone calls, I'm

Michael Cirillo  24:09

sure. Oh, yeah.

Paul Daly  24:11

Title diplomat real quick.

Kyle Mountsier  24:12

I want to get a little bit personal as we kind of wrap this up. Because I know that you have a little bit of a story on a personal level that I think would be impactful. And you You talk a lot about, you know, just what you've done. And I know that like you are, you're this guy that on Instagram and Facebook, a lot of your content is around is around car sales and what you're doing at the dealership, but I see photos every single day, or almost every single day. Have you playing racquetball? Yeah, yes. I just met one of your buddies that also plays racquetball with you. I want to know like, how did you get into playing racquetball and it like, was that like part of a transformation or have you always played racquetball? Where does that where does that come from in in Scott Simons life. Yeah. So

25:01

when I worked at a gym, I would go work the front desk in high school. And if a people had what they would show up and say their their partner wouldn't show up, they would say, Hey, young man complaint with as well I was on the clock getting paid to play racquetball sounds awesome. I'm like the member asked, and so I've got my butt kicked for a lot of years. I just enjoy it. There's a lot of chess, it's kind of. It's a fast paced game, also, through CrossFit hurt my left shoulder, so I'm right handed, so I could play racquetball and it doesn't affect my left shoulder. But at one point. I'm not that way. Now I'm about 190 pounds, but at one point, I was 265 pounds, terrible health. I was winning in business before I came to work at CMA. I just wasn't a good dude. You know, I just wasn't, I wasn't a good husband. I lost. I lost who I was. And I remember he got so point so bad that I shaved in the dark, because I didn't even like what I look like. And my wife talked to me I was on all this blood pressure medication, I almost had a heart attack or stroke. I think they said I had one or the other at the dealership I worked in before. And the reason why I lost myself because I was I was so hell bent on being a car dealer that I was going to do whatever it took to be a dealer to be a dealer and part of the dealership that it engulfed my life. And I wasn't a good husband wasn't good day. It wasn't a good friend wasn't a good leader. And it took me almost having a heart attack and died and shaving in the dark and my wife looking at me and saying, hey, you know, if you don't change and you die, whic you're going to you know, when I want you to think about something I want you think about another man and he's going to be much younger than you is going to walk your daughter down the aisle when your dead and I said, Oh my god, okay. me off. And after once I you know, when you're when you put on a bunch of weight, and you have people telling you that you need to make changes. I was, hey, I was such a bad person. I would get off work, I'd 15 minute ride home, I would drink a 40 ounce before I was home. Wow. In 15 minutes, 40 ounce. And my wife was like, what's going on? Like, you've been at a bar and I might not actually have been at work. I'm like, I drink this between here and there. Because I just wasn't a happy but wasn't a happy person. I lost who I was. And I started working out did 75 Part A play racquetball twice a day in the morning in the evening? And if I can't do that, I'll go to the gym get the heavy bag. But I'll work out probably twice on Monday, twice on Tuesday, twice on Wednesday, twice on Thursday, once on Friday, once a Saturday once a Sunday. Wow, whatever that works out to be a see for a lot 11 11 times a week. Yeah. But it helps me with my I'm aggressive person person. It helps me you know get up at four o'clock every day put a post out there

Paul Daly  27:58

and if I don't show up Rogan does the same thing. He says when he works out that's when it's that really helps him be so like dialed in and focused. Because he has all that energy. He has all that focus and as all that drive. So there you're among here among some some other greats have turned

28:14

50 This year, you now turned 50 in December, and I've worked really hard to get to where I'm at and why would, I'm gonna throw all that away, knock it down, the more you know, any of us good. We're not none of us upon us tomorrow, right? Like, I want to try to be the best version of me in all aspects of life. No one I'm nowhere close. And I mean, when I looked in the mirror were saved in the dark, man. I looked like Jabba the Hutt. I'm like, bro, like, I gotta do something, you know? Like it, I was fat, like people say, you know, I still could lose some weight. But they're like, you know, I was fat. So Kyle I had and make some changes. And that has happened enjoy racquetball. And it's, you know, it's a competitive sport. And it's hard, you know, have velocity. So that's reason why I play.

Kyle Mountsier  28:55

I love it. I absolutely love that story. And I think that what I love so much about it is that you you figured out how to be even more successful, spending more time taking care of yourself, right, that those actually, it actually sped up your success and you're able to pass that on to others and pass that on to the work ethic of your people and, and like a lot of people might hear this kind of regimen of like, get in at seven and do these things. And make sure you post this and it sounds probably exhausting to a lot of people but you've set yourself up and probably your team up outside of their work day so that they are ready to go and dialed in and can execute on these things. Because of how you care for yourself. And you probably pass that on to to your people so that they're caring for themselves.

29:42

Oh, we've got people here they work together in groups and they hold each other accountable. And I mentor my team and this comes up and mentorships about hey, what's your you know one thing and y'all have heard this and you know, we ask each associate which your three personal three professional goals, and then we review those with them. And Liza liked it so much she incorporated them at CMA. So, you know, well would be I need to lose weight. Now, how much weight do you want to lose? The goal is, I want to, you know, make more money, how much do you want to make your goal may be, I want to pay for my kids college, you know, or I want to buy my first house, okay? Specifically, what, you know how much money you're gonna buy, you know what your credit score is. So in this mentorships, we, we tell them, Hey, everybody, write down your credit score, the next week, everybody print out free credit report, go print it, bring it in, we're gonna give 50 or $100 to whoever's closest, one person was two points away, one person was 250. away. So this person looks at he has a new who he thought he was a 600. He was a 602, which used to be a 450. One guy thought he was a 500. He's a 750. Because his parents put him as authorized user on account. Wow. Those are things that we do here. I don't mean to like real life stuff. Yeah. Because we're trying to help them in all aspects of life. But let me ask you, how much loyalty Do you think we have?

Paul Daly  30:57

Absolutely. Well, you're back to your right back to relational versus transactional. Like, you're right back to that, right. You're building relationship and not just an employment transaction, right. And employment, but it's relationship. So it's just the consistent thread through everything you do? Yeah, yeah. It's automatic to you at this point? Absolutely.

31:16

Yeah. I've been really fortunate. You know, I have, you know, get you know, Liza. Carter. Liza has been so good to me, she helped me realize a dream and it's paying it back. You know, it's given back to others, because it's been given to me, and I'm a flawed individual guys. I'm not perfect by any stretch of imagination. But I'm much better than I was. I know that. So Well,

Kyle Mountsier  31:36

Scott, I'm grateful you're a friend, and a partner in this in this thing that we're doing with ASOTU, I can't wait to hang out with you at ASOTU CON and just hear some of these thoughts and others that you have. And, man, I think our industry is well served just to have you in it and amongst it, and I can't wait for more people to to hear about what you're doing through the years. So thanks for joining us here on Auto Collabs. And, and yeah, I can't wait to see you soon.

32:03

Hey, grab your tickets to that event, that's going to be a fun event, we're gonna get to go to see a great dealer, a very progressive dealership, it's in a great city, it's in a great venue, you're going to have these two awesome gentlemen there, their whole team, you're gonna have a bunch of superstars in the auto industry. And somehow they let me in there, and I'm gonna be speaking a little bit. So I'll be I'll be the year pouring in. So if you have not got those tickets, I would love to see you there and come up and shake my hand while you're there. So I'm terribly excited about that event, where a lot of

Scott Simons  32:34

awesome sounds can't wait to talk to you soon. Thank you, gentlemen.

Michael Cirillo  32:42

All right, that was our conversation with the man Scott Simons. I mean, the guy never lets down. He's clearly so passionate about everything that he does. And in particular, the thing that stands out to me about him is he does not from a leadership perspective does not ask or require his team to do anything that he is not willing to demonstrate, teach, do with them, and then set them free and let them do on their own. And certainly, that's a huge takeaway for me. You know,

Kyle Mountsier  33:14

actually before it was either right before or after the interview, he said, You know, I've got this office in because he's a managing partner of or five Valley stores at CMA. He's like, I got this office at the one store. And that's where he did the the interview. He was like, I don't really have an office, I just kind of find where I'm at, because I'm not really good at sitting down. I just like to be among the people and do things all day. And I can see that in the way he communicates the way he's a part of his team. Even the way he asks he, he's around social media, he's pressing into his community. And then you go to his store, and you're like, everybody else is that way, too. I think I saw like three people sitting down when we went there. You know, all the general managers are up there, you know, they're looking around, they're trying to find exactly what's going on. And that's, that's a testament to that type of leadership. And I think, you know, he's not he's not an armchair analyst of how to run his dealerships. He gets in the dirt with its people. It's pretty amazing

Paul Daly  34:14

how he said he wanted to be a car dealer from kind of early on, I don't know what he was when he, I mean, when he started that story, it was probably like in his late teens, I'm guessing late teens, early 20s When he realized like, I want to be a car dealer. And it was be you know, the, it's a funny story, but at the same time, he said he wanted to go to college as well. So he went to college with the intention to become a car dealer and said I wasn't really good at the education thing. So he basically outworked everybody by memorizing so much, right? You can, you can if you don't understand the concepts and principles you get really far by memorizing, especially in like a formalized education scenario. And I felt like that just carried through in his auto dealer. Career like he just knows, he can outwork everybody. And he just knows if he trains his people that it's worth putting in the work and watching the reward on the other side, like he does have that critical mass now, you know that they've gone from that 5% referral sales to 40% referral sales on their way to 100% referral sales, so he doesn't have to worry about leads ever again. You know,

Kyle Mountsier  35:26

what I would encourage people is to go if you're like, I don't know how that works, literally, follow Scott and then follow all of the 25 people in his in his stores that are all doing the exact same thing on a daily basis and you can watch it in motion. And so when you think about the thought leaders and the people that are that are communicating within automotive, look for the practitioners and Scott Simons is definitely a practitioner. Well, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Auto Collabs. For Paul J Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself Kyle Mountsier. We'll see you next time.

36:04

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