hey there welcome to the very first episode of MC on the mic today I'm going to be sharing with you my experience building a dealership from the ground up stay tuned I want to thank this episode sponsor autoi autoi helps dealers like you sell smarter not harder online and now in your showroom dealerships with autoi cell cars faster with higher satisfaction and more profit go to auto.com dealer Playbook and start selling smarter today all right welcome to the first episode of MC on the mic I mean those of you that have joined the show uh recently probably don't know this but every now and again I'll do some solo episodes without a guest just where I share some insights while we decided that we would get more intentional with this idea and have at least once a month an episode of MC on the mic where I share with you some insights some things I'm experiencing what I'm seeing in the industry to benefit you in your day-to-day role within the dealership or the Auto industry so this is the first episode and I'm excited to share with you uh this new project of building a dealership from the ground up I'm going to tell you how it all came together and some of the things that I'm thinking about that I want you to pay attention to especially because when I get to it we're going to talk about how we are challenging the norm on pretty much everything we know about the Auto industry um but that's what this is going to be all about I'm excited to get into this with you um and tell you about this opportunity I have to do something that even I I would say a lot of people within our industry don't get the opportunity to do which is to build a brand new dealership from the ground up something that has never existed before turning it into a fully functional dealership and you might be thinking well no that's not true cillo a lot of people build dealerships from the ground up um otherwise how else did we get dealerships to begin with I get it okay but follow me contextually here um my good friend Glenn Lundy some of you may know but for those of you that don't know him uh he was the general manager of the highest volume Chevy store in America he grew that store as general manager by 800% in over five years selling thousands of vehicles per month out of this small store in a town of I think population 9,000 well when he left the dealership he actually started the 800% Elite Automotive Club where he now trains and teaches dealerships how they can grow their store and their operation by 800% uh he and I have known each other for quite some time and he uh he and I have worked on different projects we have mutual client Partners um you know I helped with his most recent best-selling book book uh in which he tells the story of how uh a dealership Grows by 800% over 5 years uh he's the author of that he had the largest I don't know if you remember Clubhouse one of the largest and fastest growing Clubhouse rooms like we we had like we would we would have like 20,000 people on at a time it was crazy um so he's very welln in the industry keynote speaker author trainer operator uh and he called me up about a month and a half ago at time of recording this and he said hey I think I have the opportunity to get into a dealership and build a dealership but I want it to be different if this happens I want it to be different I said well how so he says well you know how Chick-fil-A is a leadership training company that just so happens to sell chicken I said yes and everybody loves Chick-fil-A uh I've come to learn since moving to the US he said I want that same cont concept but for selling cars like I want to I want to be able to get into this dealership and Implement all of the training that we teach our dealers through 800% Elite Automotive Club and have this dealership really be a training facility a leadership training an operations training facility that will also happen to sell cars as a byproduct and I'm like o that sounds exciting a few days later he calls me back he says it's happening he's like I worked a deal I've got Partners we're going to be building this dealership do you want to be involved and I'm like uh are you kidding me of course I want to be involved the idea of getting to build a dealership from the ground up to challenge all of the Norms of what we've known in retail Automotive for so long to be able to test out all of my ideas and new ideas from a marketing perspective are you crazy of course I want to be involved in this so he's like awesome let's roll you're in so lots of late night conversations with Glenn Lundy lead to um me being involved in building this dealership from the ground up well I just recently returned from Lexington Kentucky where we are going to be opening 800% Elite Auto Sales uh getting to meet some of the team that we're hiring uh and break bread with them and have fun um pontificating and theorizing about how we can make this dealership a unique experience and of course being in this empty shell of a room with this this massive showroom and it's empty and the painters are in there and they're sealing the lot resealing the lot and and we're making signage and doing all of these sorts of things really got my brain moving on some of the ways in which we want this dealership to be unique so I want to share some of the things that we've come up with because right out of the gates what makes it unique is that it's going to be an open book it's a training facility that happens to sell cars also and so the idea that in an industry where we're all like closed off and don't want to share our secrets this is going to be the exact opposite we're going to share everything that we're doing win lose draw fail learn Triumph tears we're going to share everything well right out of the gates one of the things that's unique about this dealership is that our primary focus will not be selling cars our primary focus will be developing the people our primary focus will be the pay attention of the words guest experience we don't have customers we have guests we have community members but we don't have customers will we sell a ton of cars absolutely I'm more than confident in that but we're focused in on how we can change the narrative remove the negative stigma associated with the car industry and provide an experience for and foremost for the people that will work the store um because we know we know we we firmly believe and know that their experience is what matters most because they're the ones that will provide an exceptional experience for our guests we're thinking a lot about the hospitality industry and why why should we think like retail when we could be thinking about Hospitality think of the difference in experience you have going to a luxury hotel versus a car dealership one feels like a dentist's office and smells like motor oil one is a very welcoming warm Ambiance lighting uh visuals welcoming hello Mr cerillo welcome in you know like that sort of a thing we're thinking a lot about the hospitality industry uh and we're thinking about doing things that are out of the norm for example Glenn has talked about how the dealership employees will have 7 weeks off per year there was something a while ago where he had this this thought rest upon Him of a Sabbath week in which they shut down the operation for a full week so every every six weeks they will have a Sabbath week and they're going to have seven weeks off per year there's not going to be any set hours for the team to work the the shifts and the hours are going to be completely different for everybody but what we ask is that everyone that works there works in the best interests of the company so a built-in accountability a peer-to-peer accountability mechanism seven weeks off no set schedules work in the best interest of the company um are things that we're thinking about that we're implementing that are going to be different and we believe that that measure of freedom and that shift of narrative from typical retail to hey you're a grownup work in the best interest of the company is going to set the tone for providing a unique guest experience um we're thinking about bdcs not like call centers but as guest experience coordinators being the first touch point that a guest will have with our organization how we can make it feel more like a cruise ship director and less like a you know chewing gum on the phone stale stagnant voice uh and Melissa who's going to be uh the director of that department is so awesome and and engaged and experienced and hospitable I got to meet her when I was in Kentucky this past week and uh experience her energy and her care and concern for the guests is is going to be phenomenal those are just a few things that we're thinking about shifting our mindset around the operation of a dealership hey I hope you're enjoying the this episode of the dealer Playbook and before we hop back in I want to thank today's sponsor autoi autoi helps dealers like you sell smarter not harder on your dealership website and now in your showroom too autoi solves the everyday problems dealers actually face like bottlenecks at the sales desk customer distrust and decision overload their all new showroom solution includes deal estimation desking lender routing and an fnii menu all in one powerful platform dealerships with autoi sell cars faster with higher satisfaction and more profit in fact dealers make an average of $641 higher backend PVR on autofi deals versus their non autofi deals go to autofi docomo and start selling smarter today all right let's hop back into this episode but when it comes to um marketing which is what I will largely uh have stewardship for I'm thinking about things that are out of the norm that we can leverage to build relationships of trust in the community so for those of you that have followed the show for quite some time know that I care deeply about the brt the acronym brt build relationships of trust you see most dealerships traditional dealerships are thinking about marketing and advertising in one way run ad get lead right we are thinking about well what can we do to Foster and deepen relationships of trust in the community so when you walk into the store the first thing that you will see right smack Center in the showroom is a podcast studio and I'll I'll get some photos and some videos of what we've put together that's what I was there doing this past week is building out the studio that's in the middle of the showroom well I'll get some photos over to Arnold our editor and he can splice the those into this episode so you can see what it looks like by the way if you're listening on Apple you need to head over to YouTube so you can actually see what it looks like or else you're just going to have to take my word for it that it's amazing and the reason we're thinking about doing a podcast is not in the sense of oh we want to be Joe Rogan too many people by the way side note want to get into podcasting because they think they're going to be the next Joe Rogan I mean mle Tav if it happens for you and I don't want to sound all pessimistic but the way I think about pod casting in terms of a dealership is that it can be a mechanism it can be a tool a resource that we can leverage to invite people from the community into our store to change the way they feel about the store to change the experience and the relationship they have with our store by coming into it in a different way not apprehensive but as a guest who is going to share their wisdom and expert with us um when you think of a podcast in that way that it is a business tool and not some like get famous tool there are so many possibilities with what you could do um leveraging podcasting so our idea for the podcast is just that we want to use it as a relationship tool we want to be able to bring business owners from the community of Lexington and the surrounding Market who are doing business in in a unique way or with a Twist into our store interview and feature them through our social channels we believe our thesis is that in return they will share that podcast episode and social posts with their following with their customer base with their friends and family which in turn will get all of those people thinking about 800% Elite Auto Sales which when the time comes those people will think of us first when it comes to purchasing a vehicle we're thinking about you know everyday people doing everyday jobs and featuring them on our podcast that tying into our slogan as a dealership which is everyday cars for everyday people I think most of us um most of us resonate with being Everyday People right most of us are not celebrities most of us are not doing you know crazy you know out of the norm stuff we're showing up we go to our work we come home we spend some time with family we binge watch some Netflix we go to bed so this idea of everyday cars for everyday people tying into a podcast that is everyday jobs featuring Everyday People builds up this network that we can leverage in a very organic way to deepen and build relationships of trust with the community oh man I could even see where you invite the guest to come on the podcast you set up 20 or 30 chairs and have them invite their family and friends also to come and watch the recording of the podcast live now guess what all of a sudden you've got 20 or 30 more people in your store having an experience and I'm also confident that they're going to walk into the store and they're going to see this podcast Booth which is set up almost like the ESP n news desk um and right out of the gates it's going to feel like a different experience to them and that's all going to be top of mind um so that's how we're thinking about Marketing in a very simple way we learned that there's a big haunted house that happens in the same uh area as the dealership and the previous people that were running a dealership out of this location hated the fact that it drove 10,000 people to this area and really saturated this area and we're like what did you just say 10,000 people come to this area uh on the week of Halloween to do the haunted house we're already thinking like hey we should call up gravedigger that big monster truck and park him in front of the store and have people come and take pictures in front of gravedigger in front of the store and we could hand out you know goodie bags that have 800% on them so all the kids are going to be holding treat bags in front of Gravedigger in front of the store with our sign and now all of a sudden there's going to be a potential of I don't know 7 to 8,000 or 9,000 pictures going out on social media with all the people that got to take pictures in front of gravedigger but really we're taking pictures in front of 800% Elite Auto Sales we're excited to try these sorts of things in our store but guess what this isn't stuff that's reserved for brand new stores this this is stuff you could do for those of you that have followed me for a while and have listened to the show you know I am a big proponent of innovation and that we have had talks before we have talked to each other before about how Innovation is leveraging tools and resources that already exist in a fresh new way to create a new concept an example is Uber right we've talked about Uber a lot before on past EPS of the show especially when it comes to Innovation uh did Uber create ride sharing no did they create cars no did they create mobile apps no did they create were they the inventors of all these things no did they invent Payment Processing no um what they did is they took all of these pre-existing Concepts and assembled them in a fresh and Innovative way and now all of a sudden you have a multi-billion dollar company you could be in a small town a large town a franchise with 400 Days supply of invent and I'm not going to say the four letters but they have a c and a D and A J and an R with lots of day supply you could be an existing dealership I I'm I guess I'm sharing all of this and I'm excited to share these insights of how I'm thinking about marketing this store to impress upon you that there are things you could do in your community with your existing store to build and deepen relationships with trust for us that is the thing that matters most is building relationships of trust and coming up with all these innovative ideas um here's something else that we're thinking about um the types of vehicles that we're selling you can get any color vehicle you want from 800% Elite Auto Sales as long as it's black white and silver and you might be thinking why black white and silver I challenge you to go stand outside your store or your house or wherever go to a busy Street in your community right now and pay attention to how many black white and silver vehicles you see in contrast to other colored vehicles are you still going to see a red car are you still going to see a blue one yes but in relation to the number of black white and silver cars that you see I want you to just pay attention maybe maybe make a tally well what we've learned is that most people want black white or silver so what are we going to carry black white and silver something else that we're focused on is dialing into this everyday cars for everyday people demographic and so every vehicle is going to be less than 880,000 Miles every vehicle is going to come with a lifetime powertrain warranty every vehicle is going to be between 15 and $35,000 um and so we want to be able to provide a great selection of everyday cars for everyday people reliable cars we're going to have we've got our own service shop as well where we're going to be able to service vehicles and and uh uh um you know add the protections to them and all those sorts of things so we've got that all set up as well but those are some things that we believe are unique not the servicing of vehicles but the way that we are approaching our Target demographic with specifically the vehicles they want how many vehicles do you have on your lot that have just been sitting there and you're wondering why aren't they moving we're starting out looking specifically at the most popular types of vehicles the colors the mileage uh and the age because we believe those are best position to sell for our target audience and really from a marketing perspective I think that's what marketing is all about it is identifying an audience and pro providing a product or a service to them that is compelling and enticing so that they can make the most informed decision for themselves so that's something else that we're doing that we're super excited about so as you can tell I'm really focused on an exceptional inore guest experience and there's a reason for that years ago a good friend of mine Michelle denene offered this Sage wisdom and and I think about it often she said there is nothing worse in marketing than making a promise online that can't be delivered upon in person and so you can see that I'm thinking about the in store experience first I'm thinking about the guest experience first as the Baseline why because I don't want to do what I see so many of us do in this industry which is put all the fancy bells and whistles on our website and make big claims online that then don't translate to a positive experience in person so we're starting there first and I want you to pay attention to that because I think it's so critical by the way it's not too late if you've done it the other way around I'm just saying we're starting with in store experience and guest experience and then we want to be able to translate that into the digital world that's why I'm super excited that Flex dealer my agent gets to be partnered in on this as well providing the website and the digital uh marketing from SEO and sem and everything in between um and you know getting to try out all of our crazy ideas but also excited to be partnered with autoi I mean some of you that have been listening to the show for a while now now know that autoi has partnered with me on the dealer Playbook and we brought some episodes to you through them which I'm excited about that partnership but maybe this is that put your money where your mouth is sort of a deal so you know that I just don't partner with anybody I'm really focused on the right people the right Innovative tools and so where we've started on uh offline with a great customer experience I'm excited that we're partnering with autofi at the dealership as well to place their Innovative tools on the website to be able to provide a streamlined um shopping experience um it's really important to us to have that tool on our website especially this day and age when we want to be able to speed things up you know their whole Mantra is sell smarter not harder because selling a car shouldn't be so hard and we agree with that we are thinking deeply about that and we know uh myself having experience purchasing a car using the autoi tool that it was one of the most seamless car buying experiences I've ever had and so I want to give a big shout out to them excited to be partnered with them in a deeper more meaningful way at the dealership level but the gist of it is this if I could Point our attention in any One Direction going back to what Michelle has said nothing worse in marketing than making a promise online that can't be fulfilled in person that is why at 800% Elite Auto we are focused on the in-person experience as the foundation and then mapping what we want that experience to be online and into our other properties building relationships of trust having Flex dealer for our website and digital marketing to have that Innovative Forward Thinking approach and then deepening that connection with an amazing online car buying experience with the tools uh and and partnership that autofi is going to bring us all of this to say I'm excited to bring you on this journey of of getting to participate in building a dealership from the ground up I'm excited that uh my team at Flex can be involved they're going to be doing a lot of the marketing stuff running ads doing SEO building the website um uh I'm EXC exced to be able to um partner in that way but I'm also excited to have the inner look at building this dealership so the last thing that I want to uh impress upon you that's come to my mind that I really really really want to get across and hopefully I do this in the right way is the idea of ambassadorship so I started with the team that we have complete juggernauts I want to end off with the team and I want you to think about you yourself your mode of ation in your team and how it pertains to this concept of ambassadorship I witnessed just this last week at a July 4th party somebody uh uh James who's our service director get the 800% logo tattooed on his arm and at first I was like that's commitment holy crap like he got the logo like it is on on his arm for the rest of his life that was the first thing the second thing I thought of is this man believes so deeply in the mission of what we are building that he is willing to be an ambassador for it everywhere he goes there will not be a time or a place that people won't be able to see on his arm 800% and you know people are going to ask him about it and got me thinking whether it's tattooed physically or figuratively How Deeply we are bought into and are proud to be an ambassador for what we do not just in the dealership world I mean how proud am I of you know my team at a sodu oh it's over here or at Flex dealer at 800% Elite Auto Sales to be an ambassador for it everywhere I go to think wait just because it's 5: doesn't mean I've stopped being an ambassador in the same way that the Ambassador for the United States to elsewhere in the world can never put on the Shelf the fact that they are the Ambassador right and I can't help but think what would happen if we shifted our psychology if we changed our mindset to not being just a salesperson but to being an ambassador for the dealership that we work at or the business that we work at and what the implications of that ambassadorship would be if we wore it so proudly On Our Sleeve either physically or figuratively speaking and what kind of conversations would come up and what that would mean for our relationships in the community what that would mean for our involvement in the community and what that would mean for our income and our ability to produce for our friends and our loved ones I know that something that really excites me about the team that's coming to work at 800% Elite Auto Sales is their desire and willingness to fly the flag everywhere they go to be an ambassador to be proud and dignified and and have Poise and decorum in representing that brand everywhere that they go because it means something to them and I think on that note that's the thought that I want to leave with you is the best Marketing in the world is not about just saying the right words and convincing someone to buy it's not transactional it's relational and in order for relational to work there has to be a deep level of belief and desire around it as we move into this next phase of Automotive with the miscellany of challenges that we face I really encourage you my beloved dpb gang that the best thing that we can do is be proud of and be ambassadors for what we do and to move with an intent move with intention to understand the meaning behind what we're doing and to focus our time energy and talents on what we then believe matters most well I hope you got value out of this episode I'm excited to bring you guys along for the journey this is the first episode of MC on the mic sharing with you the thoughts that are going through my mind as we start building this dealership from the ground up uh I hope you stay tuned hey if you're listening on audio head over to the YouTube channel uh where you'll be able to see some of the the visuals that I shared with Arnold for him to be able to share out in this episode so you can see what the progress of the dealership is looking at you could also follow our new YouTube channel which is 800 % Elite Auto Sales over there you'll get to meet Glenn Lundy who is doing a very raw like cell phone docu series but he is bringing you into all of the ins and outs No Holds Barred of what it looks like to build this dealership right down to how do we access money and what do we do when the banks don't know who we are and don't want to be a partner with us and all sorts of things that you probably wouldn't even think of um uh so I encourage you to go check that out until next time thanks so much for tuning in keep The Playbook open and dominate hey thanks for listening to the dealer Playbook podcast if you enjoyed tuning in Please Subscribe share and hit that like button you can also join us and the dpv community on social media check back next week for a new dealer Playbook episode thanks so much for joining [Music]