Ep. 37 - Numbers Don't Lie - Using Data to supercharge your Business - Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you ask most business owners, hey, how do I
increase my profitability?
There's one of two ways to doit Increase revenue or reduce
expense.
Any of y'all could recite thatin your sleep, all right, but if
you look deeper into the KPIs,what you just went over is my
income producers, the onesgenerating the revenue.

(00:20):
There's two things they can dothey can increase their
frequency or their activity, orthey can increase their
conversion.
We'll call it hey, everyone.
Welcome to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers, where we aim to sharereal stories about running a
successful family business,working through adversity and
pouring back into the communitythat keeps our door open.

(00:42):
We're your hosts, matt Shelbyand Taylor, and we bring you
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Welcome to Crossroads Conversations, with the Lewis
Brothers coming on up there withthe intro, ready to be in the
middle of episode 37, and I lovewhat we have for you today.
Numbers don't lie.
Using data to supercharge yourbusiness oh, this is gonna be so
much fun diving into, butnumbers don't lie.

(01:16):
Somebody can tell you whateverthey want, but whenever it gets
down to the facts.
But is it written?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
on the box it's like come on time, always like okay,
well, let's turn to page 32.
Let's check here what do youhave to say about?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
yeah, what happened here, and not even emotionally
or anything else.
But we're gonna get so deepinto this, but before we do that
, matt what happened, I gottarecap even though I'm itching to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
You already fired us up to talk about this week.
I'm just telling you outlisteners, don't hit, seek or
change or whatever you do onyour device you want to hear
about.
Today.
We're not only going to talkabout numbers, but then how it
relates.
But oh yeah, you asked me totalk about last week.
Recap of last week.
Hey, if you didn't see lastweek episode 36, it was really

(02:03):
good in a different sense ofwe've talked about being
progressive before, but we doveinto the subject of AI Now.
Most people out there arefamiliar with AI.
They've heard about AI, they'veeven been intrigued by AI.
But it's hey, how do youautomate, do you elevate
anything within your business?
Or do you alienate, do youremove it?

(02:26):
And what does AI mean for yourbusiness in 2025 and then in
2026?
And how are you being adaptiveto it?
And don't just sit on thesidelines going, oh, that's
something that'll go away.
It's not going away.
It's proved itself.
We don't have it all figuredout, but we shared some stories
on how we're progressivelymoving our business forward,

(02:46):
even just in daily tasks there.
So please go give that a listenlast week.
Always subscribe to our podcast.
We really appreciate that.
Also, a shout out to all of ourlisteners out there.
I've gotten some feedback thispast week, whether I saw you in
person or you shot a text, and Iappreciate you guys bringing
feedback and subjects so we canprovide value.
That's our goal is to providevalue for you guys during this

(03:07):
podcast.
Hey, check us out atlewissuperstorecom, where you'll
find over 1,000 vehicles instock, whether they're new or
pre-owned.
We can help you get into yournext ride All right before we
fully unpack this thing.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Hey, mark your calendars.
Okay, got it.
This event on Saturday not thisSaturday but June 21st coming
up Ford vs Mopar 3rd Annual Fordvs Mopar.
We've got Modern Mopar Club ofthe Ozarks that's a whole
mouthful and NWA Pony Express,where it's a free car show

(03:40):
Donations will be accepted andit goes to Northwest Arkansas
Children's Shelter right here inNorthwest Arkansas, and so we
have contests, we give awaytrophies and prizes and it grows
and it grows and it grows.
We've got a whole row of foodtrucks, we've got giveaway items
.
It's from 9 am to 12 June 21stand we're still kind of on the

(04:03):
fence and we'll talk about thisand give a full.
If it's not a Ford or a Mopar,can I?
Where do I park?
What's going on?
But we invite all, just come on, like you want to have like an
outsider's division, like, yeah,ford vs Mopar, vs everybody,
right, okay, working on that,you know.
But mark that on your calendars.

(04:23):
Last year was a huge successsome crazy cars and we're up in
the ante a little bit.
And our prize is we're up inthe ante of the car and the
quality of cars.
There's no car too nice or nottoo nice.
So just make sure you get thaton your calendar, it'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It'll be a blast there.
So we're ready for that.
But hey, diving straight intothis week's topic of numbers
don't lie.
Well, what is data?
What?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
is data.
I'm first going to ask you toplease keep me on board.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
This is him for today .
Hey, just go ahead.
We're going to straight teethis baby off.
What is?

Speaker 1 (05:01):
data.
Well, I first needed to lookdown through our agenda to make
sure we stay on track on eachpiece.
That's good.
Let's talk about data at first.
Okay, and data is in any worldyou live in.
Yes, you know, whether that'sin the school system and you're
looking at grades, whether it'sin business and you're looking
at profitability, or you'relooking at inventory, turn or
employee turnover or grossprofit margin.

(05:24):
It's just the X and O, or evenin sports.
I mean, there's data everywherethat people look at and why
it's important to your business.
Because if you don't understandnon-emotionally, okay, just
facts.
Take out whether you think youkilled it or not, just facts.
Was it where you needed to be?
Was it trending, which is evenmore important to me was it

(05:48):
trending progressively forward?
Was it staying the same or isit going backwards?
That that's what the dataitself starts to provide when
you agree.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, absolutely no doubt it's.
It's all the key data pieces,yes, and some of them aren't key
, but they're just data.
And then they help you createkind of where it was going,
where it came from, how it gotthere.
But that's the data, is justthe information.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
That's true, and you'll hear us talk about KPI,
which let me go ahead and definethat, for some of y'all are
used to hearing that word, someof you are not on the acronym.
For some of y'all are used tohearing that word, some of you
are not on the acronym KPI iskey performance indicators.
So what you look for there isthe data that if you adjusted it

(06:35):
or enhanced it or improved it,would actually make a difference
in your business.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
So we sold X amount of vehicles.
Okay, so that's the end result.
Okay, and then how manyoutbound phone calls, how many
showroom ups, how much money wasspent on advertising, how much
inventory was available on stock, how many service customers?
The end result, but then allthe key performance indicators.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's right.
That's right.
What I think would be helpfulfor our audience and I want to
do this but not take too muchtime is, each of us take a
department and just real quick,like 30 to 45 seconds, give a
rundown of here's the results,but here's some of the KPIs we
look at to get to the results.
Okay, you know I can start offand then, taylor, we'll jump

(07:21):
over to you in the salesdepartment and then, shelby, we
can come back over to you, maybein service, and then we'll
finish up with parts.
I'm going to talk about overalldealership operations, some of
those things that are reallyimportant to us.
Obviously, everybody wants totalk about profitability.
Now, profitability is just theoutcome and the result, no
different than what Shelby wastalking about.

(07:42):
It's the score on thescoreboard, it's not necessarily
the KPI.
I'm looking at the KPIs, I wantto look at what drives that
number up or down.
That's what's important.
So, overall dealership-wise,we're going to look at hey, how
did we do on cash flow?
That's a KPI for us.

(08:03):
And when I look at cash flow, Iwant to look at our aging of our
accounts.
You know so from our rebatesthat are hanging out there from
the manufacturers, our warrantypayments, our contracts in
transit that have not been paidyet.
You know any of our otheradditional incentives, any of
that stuff.
Also our frozen capital whichis in our inventories and we'll

(08:25):
get into this but new inventory,used inventory, parts inventory
how many times that turns?
That's a KPI.
And then here's the biggest onein the room and this relates to
something we were talking aboutin a previous episode is
employee turnover, because thatis our largest expense in the
dealership is payroll.
If we can reduce employeeturnover, that's a huge KPI.

(08:47):
That can then lead to a higherbottom line profit.
Why don't you walk them throughsales?
Some of the KPIs we look at.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know, the biggest deal on sales is we always
start out whenever we'reforecasting for the month and
you say, hey, this is my number,so let's set it up of 100 new
and 120 used.
Well then you know, wheneveryou step back and look at it,
hey, how am I going to achievethis?
Well, you start, just likeMatt's talking about it, putting
your KPIs in there, thenbreaking down to look and seeing

(09:16):
how many managers do I have setout in the apartment?
Okay, how can they manage thesenumber of X effectively?
So, whether it would be eightof them could be managed by one
single manager.
Well then I break it all theway down to salespeople how many
I have in each department to beable to achieve that, because a
big number is not achieved byabsolutely just biting away at

(09:36):
the big number.
You really start to grabmomentum on it if you put in a
big snowball effect of startinghey, I need each individual
salesperson.
I have 20 salespeople that areon new and used of a Ford side
and to hit that goal of 220, Iknow I need would be quick on
there 10, 12 each person.

(09:57):
So then you're able to sit downand then go through with your
manager and say, hey, john, roband Thomas, they're all going to
need 12.
You have to manage from hereand set forth.
So we've really figured outwith data.
I'm not managing the wholenumber, I'm more so managing
each individual person throughthe process and that really

(10:20):
breaks it down to make itmanageable.
Because majority of people,whenever you give them a big,
lofty goal, it daunts them andit makes them oh gosh, there's
no way I could ever hit that.
We went through that this pastmonth whenever we went through
ultimate challenge, but everysingle day grabbing it, knowing
this day had to stand by itself,we were able to achieve that

(10:42):
goal by getting all those KPIsin.
There would be daily phonecalls, daily texts, daily
appointment set.
That would achieve what ourdaily track, our daily goal was.
And that's how we were able togo through and really become
wildly successful in the monthof March by managing those
specific things.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
I think a key point there that Taylor just went over
.
If you heard it's like okay,here's the overall store sales
goal, Then when we divide it byX amount of salespeople, this is
the average per salesperson.
But that's still just thescoreboard, that's it.
And then, if you heard aboutthe last piece he talked about,
was their daily activities thatequal up to the results.

(11:22):
So those are the KPIs that thenwe tell the sales managers it's
not rah rah, rah, sell morecars today, it's rah, rah, rah,
go manage the KPIs and theactivities.
And you said those are phonecalls, those are texts, those
are emails, those areappointment sets, they're videos
that go out.
So those are the KPIs that willmove the scoreboard number up

(11:43):
there.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
And let me tell you the two thing about that as well
.
Because if you're just goingthrough saying, hey, let's sell,
let's sell, let's sell we wentthrough this in a sales meeting
yesterday.
Anyone that you walk up to inmanagement and you walk up and
say, hey, how can I help you,they're going to say, oh, no, no
, no, I'm good, I'm good,they're going to push you on.
But if you sit down and say,hey, let's make these five phone
calls together, hey, let's sendthese five emails out, you're

(12:07):
going to really get a quickattempt check on the situation
of how they're handling theprocess.
So make sure, obviously, ofyou're diving in.
You have a process to gothrough, not just, hey, how are
you, how can I help you?
That's great if you're walkingthrough somewhere, but not when
you're trying to be wildlysuccessful in the partner.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
So what about when we're over in a service
department, which is labor likea lot of people have out there
in business?
What does that look?

Speaker 3 (12:33):
like.
So we're managing, once again,time, the people and the time
right.
So there's tons of metrics.
So, from the front of the houseof our service advisors and our
helpers, assistant serviceadvisors to, most importantly,
process people.
So in that we're measuringtotal number of hours, hours
that are sold, number of ROs,hours per RO, dollars per RO,

(12:59):
total labor sales, csi, right.
So how does the consumer feelthat we did?
How is the experience?
We're looking at surveys, we'relooking at effective labor rate.
So of the dollars sold versushow much time was sold, what

(13:19):
does that end up being effectivelabor rate?
And then on the backside is theshop.
So we look at the shop and thetechnicians, we look at X amount
of bays in the shop, we look atX amount of techs, and so then
we get a proficiency and anefficiency score of each tech
and each bay and see, because alot of times like, yeah, he was

(13:39):
busy, yeah, she did a lot.
Or you know like, in the monthof March or April, busy, yeah,
she did a lot.
Or you know like in the monthof march or april, both of those
, we did over 1800 ro's and over, and I'm talking ford
specifically sold over 4 000hours of labor.
Wow, that's a lot, that's busy,but is it so?
Then we start looking and wehave all the data that breaks

(14:01):
that down and it's visual forthe service advisors to see it
and it's visual for thetechnicians to see, and then
it's a little bit gamified.
So it's me versus you versusyou right To keep it competitive
.
And it's visual in front ofthem.
So then we'll look and see of,say, the job pays two hours.
Let's say, call an alignment,alignment pays two hours.

(14:23):
Customer paid two hours.
How long did it take you to dothe job?
So, are you right on time or doyou have enough tenure?
You talked about your employeesand the value of that.
The more they've been around,the more trained that you've
trained them, the more efficientthey become.
And that's not.
So the customer can pay less,you get a better product and you

(14:47):
get some of your time back.
That's right, right.
So then if they can do that jobin 1.2 hours, 1.3 hours and
that's not a moment where yousay, hey, it only took 1.3 hours
cannot pay 1.3.
So you're paying for hisexperience as well and you get
your time back.
And so then that allows them to.
We look at a metrics of shopavailable hours versus total

(15:09):
shop hours sold.
So were we efficient orproficient within what we had
available, the people we hadavailable in the time that we
sold?

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Two things there, shelby, for the audience that
I'm gonna slow you down we talkabout it all the time but they
may not understand is two ofthose things are the employees
you have how are they doing ontheir efficiency, on what
they're producing?
Yep.
But then the building thebusiness we have, how did it do
overall at its capacity?

(15:40):
Yep.
And then that tells you of wecould actually hire some more
and expand here.
But those are two differentthings.
That a lot of times it getsmurky and they just look at the
technician side and not thecapacity of the business.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, and oftentimes so.
We set a goal for techniciansthey need to turn X amount of
hours per day per week, permonth, and you generally start
that metric at 40, 40 hours perweek, which would be an eight
hour clock day, and that wouldkind of set your standard and
based on how tenured thatemployer, how certified that

(16:14):
technician was, then you wouldadjust that scale Because some
of them get a crazy 90 plushours a week because they're
really efficient.
And so you measure eachindividual tech and help them
move that metric to be moreefficient, without being too
fast that you get a bad product,that you get comebacks.
But then, as you said, as amajor, the whole department, you

(16:36):
will look at capacity.
So you'll take 22 working month, this one Okay Store, yep, so
22 working days during the month.
Then you'll take the amount ofbays, so let's say 24 bays, so
you got 22 by 24.
And then you do that timeseight, because that's hours that
they could work and that stallcould produce eight hours.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
You're not looking at the person themselves, but the
facility itself.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
A person performed at 100% of the time and did
perfect clock time, not faster,not slower.
What would be the expectancy ofthat stall?
And then you times it by the 24stalls, or how many ever, and
that tells you your total shopcapacity hours.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Okay, that's good.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
So, like for reference, you would look at
that and total shop capacitybased on those three metrics
amount of days, amount of daysand amount of hours which is
eight.
That would give you that numberand then you get the actual Yep
.
So actually what they do, andthat might if you're hearing
this for the first time, thatmight confuse you but just the

(17:42):
basics of how much available.
Let's say that you're adelivery company and you've got
four delivery vans.
Yep, same thing.
You've got four delivery vans,taking the person out of it.
How many days a month do youwork and how many hours a day do
they work?
That's right.
And then you base that off ofactual time that they're doing
it.
Now it's a little bit different.

(18:03):
If they're just driving, theycan easily hit the eight hours.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yeah, but it could be somebody could be looking at
that and we'll even break down alittle bit more and then we'll
keep moving to the next subjectis let's say they just have four
drivers, but they look outthere on their yard and they've
got six trucks.
Yep, you know, those fourdrivers might be as efficient as
you want them to be, they mightjust be so busy, but you got
two trucks sitting idle.
They'll be cranking out pereach at eight hours additional

(18:28):
day.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
And then the other metric you have to look at is
your X amount of orders.
So the demand for labor, thedemand for labor.
If you call your business rightnow as a secret shopper and say
, hey, I need your service, whencan you get to me, and I don't
care what you do.
And if the person on the phonesays, hey, we can't get to you

(18:49):
for two weeks, you have a higherdomain.
You have to increase yourcapacity by adding another truck
, adding another person, orincrease efficiency, yep.
So those are some of the,without going fully into rabbit
hole, those are basic KPIswithin service that we look at
on the daily basis to look andsee and then see cost of labor,

(19:10):
cost of to get the serviceperformed does it stay approved?

Speaker 1 (19:15):
So let me jump on the part side too, just because
we're trying to give a 360degree view here from you know,
from up top, the wholeorganization in the sales
department, you know in service,which has to do with labor,
which is the same as a lot ofbusinesses out there.
Now I want to talk about parts,because that has to do with
inventory.
So in part, some of the KPIs welook at is obviously we look at

(19:35):
how much did we sell, so what'sour sales data look like?
And then under that what's ourgross, what's our gross
percentage?
And then we break that down.
Shelby was talking about theworking days.
We look at gross per day andthen we'll even look at okay, if
that department is responsiblefor $7,000 worth of gross per
day, how many people do I havegenerating that?

(19:58):
Well, if I have three counterpeople or four counter people
I'm not counting people in thatdepartment that are not revenue
generating.
So if I have somebody that'sreceding in shipments and
stocking that and doingwarehouse, they're supporting
revenue generating.
So if I got three people thatare actually generating the

(20:18):
revenue and I take 7,000 and Idivide that by three, you know
each one of them is responsiblefor producing about $2,333 a day
in gross.
The other things we will lookat there, depending upon what
manufacturer programs we've gotgoing on, is hey, what's our
stock compliance?
You know how many of the partsare we selling?
Loyalty, that has to do withthe manufacturer.

(20:40):
Then we also look at fill rate.
You know fill rate's reallyimportant because Parts' largest
customer is the shop.
It is the higher our fill rateis, and fill rate for you guys
out there is when it's requestedby somebody I need brake pads.
Yeah, I need brake pads.
What percentage of the time canwe fill that order without
having to order it?

(21:01):
Yes, so the higher our fillrate is, the more productive our
technicians stay, which thenadds to that other equation.
And then we also track thingstoo, like lost sales.
So our computer system if yourequested the brake pads, I
didn't have them, I got to markthem in the computer that I
didn't have it, so then that's alost sales.
That then helps me to track ourorders on what we need to

(21:23):
increase stocking level wise toreduce our lost sales.
That then helps me to track ourorders on what we need to
increase stocking level wise toreduce our lost sales to up our
fill rate.
So those are just a fewexamples of all the things we
look at in the differentdepartments on KPIs that move
the needle.
That move the needle Before wego on to the next segment.

(21:43):
I just do want to point out hereand get y'all's thoughts on.
Data is a very slippery slopebecause there's a ton of it out
there.
You have to run it through thefilter of will it move the
needle, yeah, or am I justdigging into this and getting
wowed by the figures?
Because if it's not somethingthat you can quantify and that

(22:05):
you actually can share with yourteam which we're gonna talk
about action here in a minutethen what good is it?
Why don't spend a ton of timeinundating and drowning
everybody with data that doesn'thelp them move the mark in
their department?

Speaker 3 (22:16):
So basically, probably the easiest way to
recap that is if you got someonewho is highly educated like no
pun intended, but a nerd in thatand they started talking to you
and you say, whoa there, buddy,yeah, we put that into layman's
terms, for it like, how do youland the airplane?
What do I do with that?
And we'll talk about that inaction.
But realizing that that yourdata like don't get too far down

(22:38):
the rabbit hole, now you haveto look for it to know hey, is
there something like the, thefill rate?
Uh-huh, oftentimes they'lltrick that a little bit, but if
they can feel it the same day,then still 100 fill it.
It's like no, no, no, becausethen the customer had to wait or
the technician had to pull thecar out of the bay and put it
back in.
So you have to go deep enoughto really really know.

(22:59):
But then you don't have toregurgitate all of that that's
true that, that's absolutely.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Hey, we'll dive into it because we've absolutely
killed that first part of it.
We've got a little bitdifferent for fun fact quiz of
the week.
You're going to need to writethese down because I've got a
couple.
I'll let you get your thingthere before I absolutely start
blasting so we don't answer outloud.
So you've got multiplequestions that are coming at you
.
You're going to have five total.

(23:26):
I'm going to give you thequestion and the options, put
down your answer.
We'll follow back up at the endand we'll see who got it.
Okay, starting and kicking heroff there.
What is the name of the devicethat measures the distance a
vehicle has traveled?
A, I got it.
Tachometer, b Speedometer, cOdometer or D Fuel gauge.
Write it down and keep it toyourself.
Yeah, I'm going to come back toyou in a little bit.

(23:51):
Question two what Germanengineers wildly credit with
inventing the first practicalautomobile powered by an
internal combustion engine?
A Henry Ford, b FerdinandPorsche, c Carl Benz or D
Gautier Diener?
Yeah, I got that one, yeah,okay.
Question three, slightly morechallenging here what is the

(24:11):
acronym VIN stand for whenreferring to a vehicle?
A vehicle identification number, b vehicle insurance number, c
voluntary inspection notice or Dvehicle inventory number, kind
of really.
Yeah, oh sure, is this testover?
Not yet.
It's multiple choice, it'll befine.

(24:31):
Question four what is theprimary purpose of a car's
headlights?
Okay, go ahead.
A to signal turns, b toindicate braking, c to
illuminate the road ahead or Dto power the radio.
Got it?
Mm-hmm.
Spotlight the deer.
Yeah, spotlight the deer.
Hold that to yourself.
That's back roads.

(24:52):
Question five medium.
Which of these iconic Americanmuscle cars is known for its
shaker hood scoop?
Chevrolet Camaro, ford Mustang,plymouth, hemi, cuda or Dodge
Challenger?
Got it?
Got it?
Five questions.
I got it, you got it marked onthere.

(25:12):
We're going to come back intoit.
Okay, rolling into data,continuing and turning it into
action.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, so our next part here we want to talk about
data into action.
That first part was, again toreally discover the data and
then share it with your team.
Before we go into the actionhere, I do want to remind
everybody, like, once you figureout the data that you're using,
stay consistent.
I do want to say that becauseyour employees you're throwing a

(25:39):
lot at them and you're askingthem to run their departments
hit the CSI markers and you'reasking them to run their
departments hit the CSI markers,have quality work and if you
hit them with one set of data ona Monday and then on a
Wednesday, you think you foundsomething else and it's
completely different that youwant to send them down that way
and then Friday, somethingcompletely different.
They're going to give upbecause you're pulling them too
many different directions.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
It's kind of like a and I've been a key proponent of
that exact thing because whenyour mind switches to start
looking in, that you really getin it.
And then you can Google Sheetand start doing this and this
and color code it, and then it'sgreat right.
But your mind's in it and theirmind might not be in it when
they're in the middle of deskinga deal or helping a customer.

(26:21):
So think about a mock trial ora pre to anything, a pre-race
ritual mock trial, anythingbefore before you say, hey, look
at all this data and you canjust be like, hey, give me your
thoughts on this, but withoutgiving it to them with action,
you need to run that and justlike stewing, like our dad
taught us, you need to run it.

(26:42):
Then the next day, then thenext day and then the next day
and look at it and say, okay,did it change?
What changed it and how does ithelp my team?
I?

Speaker 1 (26:52):
think that's so good and it's.
You know, I chuckled over itbecause I was exactly what
you're saying I was gettingready to talk about, about, like
, thinking about it for a littlebit.
And we talk about that withcustomer resolution, how we
react to things.
The power of pause is so bigand unless the building's on
fire, you don't have to takeaction right this second.
And a lot of times, when youthink about it overnight and

(27:13):
you're on to something else,you're like okay, I know I was
really excited about what Ifound, but I need to reduce that
down to three things.
And is it consistent with whatI've been going over or do I
need to?
It's okay to change, you know,but you need to replace
something else.
Don't stack on it.
Yes, you know, don't stack ontop of that.
And then and I know you guys dotoo I've got one or two people

(27:35):
that I'll go bounce some of thatstuff off of.
Like, when I've color keyed areport, saying, hey, what does
this look like?
Is this helpful?
Is it not helpful, before youlaunch it to everybody?
That's such a good point.
I'm glad you brought that up.
It's like okay, we discover thedata.
Now we need to quantify.
Is it really going to make themark?
Is it consistent with whatwe've been going over, or are we

(27:57):
introducing something new thatwe need to replace, which is
okay?
Just be ready to be consistentwith it.
Be ready to be consistent.
Now let's talk about that data.
So, once the data comes in, theKPIs, you're hammering, you're
getting it in front of your team, you're providing it for them.
They must take action, becauseif no action is taken with the
data, it's no different thanhaving this high-horsepower car

(28:22):
it's in neutral and you'rerevving the motor Sounds good.
Having this high horsepower carit's in neutral and you're
revving the motor sounds good.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
You can talk about the specs all day long, but it's
not going anywhere.
Not going anywhere.
Hey, do keep in mind, uh.
Ford versus mopar, june 21st, 9to 12.
Put it on your calendar.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Something about revving your motor, that's a
good plug right there and driveand come, sit down, yep, yep.
So you see that people andTaylor, I know you see that as
well in the sales department isyou'll see guys role-playing Yep
.
Or you see them talking abouthow to overcome objections, or
how you should do this or youshould do that, but then they

(28:59):
don't put it in place.
They may even do great onMonday in our training meetings
on Monday, and then you'resitting in an office next to
them when they're going overstuff with a customer.
You see them out on the lot andnothing's changed.
So they didn't put any of thatinto place.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
No, and unfortunately I see it more times than not.
Some of our best people meetingpeople that know all of the
different processes, are theworst people with customers.
Yeah, they're the worst peoplewith customers because they
completely freeze.
They only do the other toappease a manager that is

(29:37):
telling them hey, they got to dothis and they don't really.
As we call it, they're notreally battle tested.
And being battle tested isknowing what you're doing and
really knowing what you're doing.
So when you're under pressure,it's still second nature and
you're rolling what you're doing.
So when you're under pressure,it's still second nature and
you're rolling.
So they do it to check theboxes off, go through your

(29:57):
surface level KPIs hey, I'mdoing this Whenever you're like
no, I'm doing this to help you,we're not doing this so you can
come to work and check it offand go home.
No, that's not going to makeyou successful.
So when you circle back aroundwith them and you really start
to put pressure on them of, hey,I'm going to help you through
this circumstance of rapidfiring different circumstances

(30:19):
to them and walking them through, that's when you really start
to see them shine.
And then, guess what, wheneverthey're doing all of those
things, your results nodifferent than we talked about
before, of worrying what you'redoing or anything else.
If you help them achievegreatness in that area as far as
their daily practicing, theirdaily pdr and with any of their

(30:43):
accountability partners, itproduces the results that you're
looking for on this whole otherside, over here you know that's
.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
That's so funny because we I just talked about
the yesterday in our salesmeeting and we've gone off the
data so we can back into if youneed to sell 12 cars based on
your information in the systemyou need to make.
And it's funny because itranges so far.
And I remember pulling this acouple of years ago and giving

(31:09):
the guys the game plan butgetting below that surface level
.
But I said, hey, look, there'stwo things that we need to do
today to be super successful andone is to be much better at
what we're doing.
Like, be better at it.
And the example I gave was yousay you make your phone calls to

(31:30):
your customers.
We're not spamming you, notcalling you to sell you more
insurance, we're just calling tocheck on you and see if there's
something relevant we can helpwith.
So a bad phone call, but a phonecall completed would say hey,
this is Shelby at Lewis Ford.
Hey, do you need help withanything with your vehicle?
And the answer would be no, I'mgood, I'm good.
And say, hey, would youpossibly, possibly and shouldn't
, come down for a free car wash?

(31:50):
The answer would be like no,I'm good.
And then most of them say, okay, I made the phone call, I'm
good.
But they're like no, I'madvanced.
And so they go for the thirdone.
Like hey, would you beinterested in possibly selling
your vehicle?
They say no, I'm great, I lovemy vehicle.
Like okay, perfect.
Well, on fridays we have foodtrucks.
Friday, would you be interestedin coming down getting your car
wash, getting some coffee andjust coming and hanging out?

(32:12):
Like hey, you know if I'm inthe area, but that means no,
right, they're not going to.
So they maybe would ask four orfive questions, they would
complete that phone call and sayI'm good.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
And then it's like, can you be a little more laser,
precise and actually feel likeyou're human and ask that
question and just be relatableand real, like, hey, it's me,
remember, I'm the guy that tookcare of you here.
Hey, how's your vehicle?
Hey, when's the last time youcame by our store?
And so I talked about the39-cent cup of coffee you can

(32:42):
get at a gas station versus whenyou get it at a high-end store
and they put all the cream andall the sugar and the like.
It love it, gotta have it, andit's $15 to $18.
Yep, it's the same coffee beangenerally, nope.
And so it's the same phone callcompleted, but it's a whole
different experience.
And so then we said, based onthe metrics, so it's funny.

(33:04):
We looked at the total metricsand we're like, well, larry
makes 1,200 phone calls a month,uh-huh, and on the surface
level that KPI is like he'skilling it.
But then, if you go all the wayto the far right, he only sold
nine cars.
Well, jerry down here only made400 phone calls, but he sold 28
.
And so if you back into themetrics, he needs to make 300

(33:26):
phone calls to sell one car andthis guy only has to make 12.
So two things I tell him ofaction items, of the data is be
better at your activity and domore activity.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
That's so good.
I'm going to walk the audiencerapidly through our salespeople
that we put in place on helpingthem with their individual KPIs.
What we did find out with KPIsis, you know we have the
association of NADA, you know weeven have ADA, and then we even
have our group that we can takethe average as our group on how
many phone calls, texts, so onand so forth it takes.

(34:03):
But what we saw from ourindividuals when we went over a
group data like that, oraverages, they're like, yeah,
but I'm better at that, that'snot me.
So what we do now is take theprevious month's activities to
get how many of each of the KPIsit takes for them to do to sell
a car.
We put it in a mathematicalequation and then we say, hey,

(34:23):
how many do you want to sellthis month?
And it spits out if you want tosell 15 cars this next month,
here's what you have to bewilling to do activity wise.
Are you committed to doing that?
The question is not are youcommitted to selling 15 cars?
It's, are you committed to theactivities?

Speaker 3 (34:40):
And the cool thing of this?
Because almost majority, alarge amount of our people that
work here, their income isdirectly tied to their
performance.
Right, you know, it's like thatmeme you say.
They say you raise based onperformance, which is the cool
thing.
So if you work super hard andtake good care of customers,
you're not charging them anymore, you're just serving more

(35:02):
people at a higher level.
Then they get to make more.
So you get to help them back inthe beginning of the month
saying how much money do youneed to take your family on
vacation, to buy new things, andthen you get to go through this
debt you sure do so.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
This, this uh salesperson, for example, all
based upon april stats, it saidyou know they made a hundred and
they sent out 112 text messages.
When we divided by how manythey sold, it took 16 text
messages per sold.
They sent out 59 emails.
It took eight emails per sold.
They sent out 59 emails.
It took eight emails per sold.

(35:34):
Of phone calls, they made 159phone calls.
So their conversion ratio therewas 23 phone calls.
They had 16 appointments thatwere set.
So if you take the 16appointments divided by the
phone calls, they had a 10%conversion there.
On the appointment show, fiveof their appointments show.
So they only had a 31%conversion ratio on appointments

(35:55):
that showed.
I'm not saying all these numbersare great, this is their data.
This is their data.
They had a total of additionalnine visits, so they had 14
visits to the dealership.
Their visits to sold was two toone.
And what we're trying to dothere is say, hey, this is a
mathematical equation andinstead of thinking, hey, I've
got to sell this customer andthen be let down because of a

(36:16):
credit score or situation orfinancially, whatever it is,
it's just a mathematicalequation.
No, they told me, I got to do16 techs based upon my
performance to get my next sold.
But then what you were talkingabout, it also shows.
Hey, I set 16 appointments lastmonth.
Only five of them sold.
You know the industry averages.

(36:36):
I should be at about a 50%conversion ratio If I could get
to there.
That would increase that toeight appointments that showed
instead of five.
So let me work on my skillseton the phone to set a better
appointment that shows.
So then we take that data.
This person wanted to sell 15this next month.
We said, based upon your data,if you want to sell 15, we not

(36:58):
only look at the month total butthen we break it down to the
days they're here so that everyday somebody has a game plan of
what they need to do.
A manager can manage theiractivities based upon them.
So this person to sell 15, theyneed total visits per day to do
that 1.3,.
Appointments needed per day1.5,.
Calls they need to do today14.8,.
Emails sent out 5.5, and textsat 10.4.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
Now I know garbage in , garbage out, yep.
So it has to be proper data itdoes Kind of goes back to a
little bit of AI or just systems.
That's right Like the more youcan automate, less chance for
maybe a little error, somefudgering, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
But once you get the good data in there, then that's
a bite-sized piece and as amanager, you just have to check
this off.
That's all I do and as amanager I can better manage.
I can say this person thathelped them sell 15 cars, it's
not rah, rah, rah, drink a RedBull, let's go.
What do you got going on?
It's better questions.
It's hey to stay on track.
Remember we did this off.

(37:57):
You need 1.3 visits today, 1.5appointments, 14.8 phone calls,
5.5 emails and 10.4 text.
I'm not saying that thosenumbers are good, bad or ugly,
but what I'm saying is those arethe facts.
Facts.
What we have found and we'renot there yet, but our data is
getting better is once we reviewthis and it becomes a regular

(38:19):
we talk about with our employees.
They're now committed togetting better data in there.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Yeah, yeah, because it's going on the screen in
front of every member of thegamify and they're like, oh,
that looks awful.
One I didn't do as much.
So think about this in layman'sterms of that data and how to
help them.
It's no different than abatting average or a shooting
average in sports, two thingsthat you should do.
You know that you're batting600.

(38:47):
So I think in layman's termsthat means, for 1,000 times that
you bat, you hit 600 times.
Is that about right?
No, okay.
So then the shooting average.
You know if you're shooting 75%, if you shoot 100 shots, 75 go
in, whatever that may be.
So there's two things to doyeah.
One, keep shooting.
Yeah, for ease of frequency.

(39:07):
Yeah, and two, get better atshooting.
That's right.
So you just keep doing it.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
And then get better at doing it.
Don't you think?
Batters like they know?
Hey, put me in, because I'm an80% chance to hit the ball, to
get on base, to then get home toscoring points and John Madden
to win the game.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
And then the second is hey, in the off time I need
to get better at my craft so Ican get my average up.
So my store visits go down to1.2 or 1.1 to sold.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I think what you hit on there I'm going to say
something that most businessowners and entrepreneurs out
there they'll resonate with whatI'm going to say.
But then I want them to take itto heart, to what you said,
because it's the same thing butpushing it down at a different
level.
If you ask most business owners, hey, how do I increase my
profitability?
There's one of two ways to doit Increase revenue or reduce

(39:56):
expense.
Any of y'all could recite thatin your sleep, all right.
But if you look deeper into theKPIs, what you just went over
is my income producers, the onesgenerating the revenue.
There's two things they can do.
They can increase theirfrequency or their activity, or
they can increase theirconversion.
We'll call it on how good theyare converting the opportunities

(40:20):
they have.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
So let's go to service, just for another
example.
So if we look at that KPI andwe say the baseline should be 40
hours of performed work,customer paid us for 40 hours.
That was X amount of hours perperson per week.
And we look at that and wealways are after the high
performance be more efficient,get more done.

(40:43):
If they can get two hours worthof work done in one hour, one
and a half hours, let's keeppushing that down while keeping
quality, and that keeps it moreefficient.
They get paid more.
You get to get more peoplethrough the shop, but then also
your underperformers are likehey, you're at 25 or 30.
You want to talk about reducingexpenses.
They're increasing yourexpenses because you're having

(41:04):
to pay for them to be there andthey're slowing down the time
that a customer can get in tosee you because the job only
paid one hour and it's takingthem 1.5 or 1.75 or two hours to
get the job done.
They are costing you money andso they need more.
In that formula of do more andtrain more, they need to train

(41:25):
more than do more first.
Yes, so they are more efficient.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's really important, and I think a lot of
people would make that mistakeis they're like, hey, they just
need to do more, they need to domore, they need to do more.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
You just put them up to bat.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
They're not any better at batting.
And if you're looking at sportsstats like that, it's like quit
putting that person up to bat,yeah, quit handing the ball off
to that running back.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
He's not going anywhere, you know what I mean
and in the end, your fans aremad because you're losing their
customers, are mad because youpromised them it in two days and
it's taken four.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
So that's the employee side of it.
Let's go.
We've got to keep going here.
Let's go to the inventory sideof it.
It's the same thing on theinventory side of it.
Let's remove the people out ofit for a second, because a lot
of y'all have inventory ifyou're not dealing with labor.
So on the inventory side we'regoing to talk parts and then
we'll talk vehicles and I'llcome to you with vehicles is on
parts.
The more we can turn ourinventory okay, the more we can

(42:21):
turn our inventory, the moremoney we'll make.
Now, if you don't know all thedetails there, go back to our
episode where we talked aboutinventory turn.
But it's not all about thegross percentage.
It's about how many times canyou turn your dollar, reinvest
it, make again.
So in parts, for example, wewant a 45 or less day supply.

(42:44):
That means that we have on handenough inventory for a month
and a half worth of sales.
Now we've got some of our partsdepartments that are way under
that, that are top performers atlike half a month or 20 days,
and then we got some that areover that.
But you also want tosimultaneously look at that as
how's their fill rate?

Speaker 3 (43:04):
It's a tricky equation because it costs money,
yes, and obsolescent parts andcost to carry the parts.
So you say I want my fill ratioas close to 100% as possible,
so when someone asks for it, wehave it right.
That's right.
And that would be a tirewarehouse the size of Walmart.
That's right, right.
So that if someone asks forwhatever brand, whatever size,

(43:25):
we've got it right.
So that would be an amazingfill rate.
But then the inventory turn.
Your dollars are just frozen.
Like nobody want the wanley 37,12, 50 by 22, by 18, wide, by
ounce.
I tread no insight like, and soyou have to find that.
And that's a metric weconstantly chase, of having the

(43:46):
right amount of inventory.
So you know I miss.
So when someone shows updriving through town and says,
hey, I need this tire you know Ineed oil change on this.
Do you have this filter?
I need these wipers that youcan fill.
Majority there you go.
The key word is majority, notone-off situations.
Majority, and that's by dataand metrics, without having a

(44:08):
huge depth of input, that that'ssuch a I mean, you can get
yourself in such a deep holethere.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
You must concentrate on data and majority when
stocking inventory.
Emotionless, emotional-less,yeah Okay, no emotion, no
emotion, no emotion at all.
I'm just telling you, if youlook at turn versus gross profit
, think about this If you had athousand dollars, okay, if you

(44:36):
had a thousand dollars that youinvested, think about that in a
part and think about that ininvestments, whether it's a
mutual fund or stocks orwhatever.
If that thing went six monthsand earned zero return, would
you be happy with that?
No, not at all.
You wouldn't say well, I thinkin the fourth quarter it might
actually go up.
However, some of you areholding on to a piece of

(44:58):
inventory because you got to getit to hit a certain percentage.
Somebody will come buy it forthat.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Meanwhile, you could have turned it twice.
Yes, you could have.
So think about if you sell cupsor if you sell shirts.
No, don't order from the teenytiny just because they offer it.
Nope, they offer it becausethey hadn't made it yet.
That's right.
But they offer the 1T up to the7XL.
Don't order all of those.
Look at your data that says,hey, I sell this coffee cup and

(45:28):
this coffee cup 70% of the time.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
And put your money in those.
You can offer it on yourwebsite and say I'll order this
cup for you and it'll be five toseven days, otherwise you're
going to order a bunch of these.
You're going to order a bunchof these and this is having a
heck of a time selling and wenever have sold one of these.
And you'd be like, no, I'mholding on to it.
I've had this hot tub forever.

(45:52):
I'm going to sell it.
I got to make 1200 bucks on it,right?
No, sir, like it's taking upspace, your people are walking
around it really getting intothe inventory analysis, but it's
so important, even if you gotto lose a little bit of money.
You create a customer.
Yep, and the data says youdon't sell many of these.
Don't stock, and if you do,accidentally stock it, ford

(46:12):
accidentally stocks us withrandom vehicles all the time.
Find a customer.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
We turn it into cash as fast as possible and reorder
Reinvest in the.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, y'all pretty much covered it there.
But going on to inventory, it'sso important to Matt, hit the
nail on the head, recognize itfrom the get-go and get it
moving, because if not, it'sgoing to sit there and get old
and it's going to cost you.
Do people do that?
Do people hold this stuff mygosh?
And let me tell you the samelet's call it sixty thousand
dollars of average.

(46:43):
There does not cost you sixtythousand in six months or twelve
months.
There's a daily carrying coston top of it all.
Going back to our other episode,so in six months if you made
five grand, you still lost moneybecause you lost the
opportunity to turn that dollarfaster.
You can create more with havingthat dollar back and then also

(47:04):
you've lost because of the dailycarrying cost of whatever piece
of inventory you have.
So make sure you look at thedata, make sure you dive into it
and see, hey, this is what now?
It's not going to be perfect.
We have over a thousandvehicles in stock, over $31
million in vehicles, and still,every single day, I have
somebody walk in and they'relike, hey, I'm looking for it,

(47:25):
but it's one percentage of allof the other people that come in
here so that one percentage youset it to the side.
You work it however you need to.
I might be able to possiblyspecial order for this Six
months down the road.
You'll get your vehicle, buteveryone else that's walking
through your door looking foranything.
Work off of the majority,because if not, it is a monster.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
So I'm going to walk our audience and I know we've
hit this.
But you need to understand in aperfect world, we always order
the perfect pieces and they turnand this perfect business plan.
It just plays out, but that'snot the real world.
So when you do have somethingthat's not perfect or doesn't
hit your metrics because we area franchise business, and let's

(48:09):
say, for example I'm going towalk you through a scenario's
say that ford dumps in an orderand we're not talking about that
.
This is a bad vehicle, it'sjust not the majority of what we
sell.
Let's say, ford dumps in anorder, we can't change it, and
all of a sudden you get a brown.
Okay, f-150, two-wheel drive,six-cylinder, non-eco, boost,

(48:33):
extended cab, eight-foot bed Yep, when that comes in, is that
something you sell all the time?

Speaker 2 (48:40):
No.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Okay.
So what do you do to attack asituation?
You know that is not perfect?

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Absolutely, that's going to be my special of the
day and it parks right in frontof the building.
So everyone walking by is goingto be my special of the day and
it parks right in front of thebuilding, so everyone walking by
is going to see it.
Then you have to bringimportance of it to say, hey,
this is my go-to vehicle, thisis my special of the day, no
different than you walking intoa restaurant, hey, this is your
special of the day.
And newsflash, if there's aspecial of the day at a
restaurant, it's not the mostsought after item, it's an item

(49:09):
they need to sell, that theyhave surplus of, that they
ordered too much for the weekendand they didn't sell.
So putting importance on it ofevery single day and it has to
be specific to that unit.
It can't be, hey, all thesevehicles out here, no, it's that
special the day, because thenit becomes generic and not near

(49:32):
as intentional as being on thatunit.
So, making sure it's up front,it's ready to go, it's clean, it
is my go-to.
Hey, mr and Mrs customer, Ijust met you.
Hey, I know you're looking fora car, but I got to show you
that truck because, if you'renot interested.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
You may know someone that is so on that truck that
came in that's your special day,that's parked up front in front
of the building day one, willyou take less margin on that
vehicle?

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Absolutely why.
Why?
Because I know if not it sitsthere and my inventory, my money
is tied up there and I know theopportunity of it's only going
to get worse down the road.
The best chance of selling itis from day one.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
So if you cash that vehicle, okay, and I just got to
drive this home one more timeIf you cash that vehicle, that's
the undesirable vehicle.
Meaning we don't doesn't meanit's a bad vehicle.
We just don't sell a ton ofthem.
And if you had your choice,what kind of F-150 would you
reinvest that money into?

Speaker 2 (50:33):
I mean I would take that and turn it right back
around into an XLT that's afour-wheel drive, that's an
EcoBoost and doesn't have allthe frills into it.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
So, if you get what Taylor said right there and he
answered exactly where I wasleading him to go, and that's
your management team being onthe same page is that you take
what you have there as capital,reliquify it as fast as you can
and reinvest it where you knowyou have a higher turn rate.
Second part, on inventory and Iknow this is long, but we got
to go through here, besides theF-150, on the Ford side,

(51:04):
especially recently, what's beenour most sold vehicle, that's
our go-to, that we're selling aton of?
It's an Escape.
It's an Escape.
Yep, escape's a great car.
But personally, yourself, ifyou're in the market to buy a
vehicle, are you buying anEscape for yourself?
No, what are you buying F-150.
He's buying an F-150.

(51:25):
However, do we have Escapes onthe lot?
Absolutely, that proves thepoint of don't stock based upon
your emotions and what you wouldbuy.
Absolutely, you need to stockbased upon what the data says,
which is what we're talkingabout here.
Yeah, one last piece here wegot to go through and then we'll
go through it.
And, shelby, you brought this upin the last episode.
Now I hear you talk to yourmanagers about it all the time,

(51:47):
but it's so good, because wehave to remember I'll introduce
the first part and then we'regoing to get in.
You've talked about both ofthese pieces.
Actually is you're eitherworking in your business or on
your business.
What we're talking about righthere is working on your business
, because you've gotten yourdata and you're showing people
how to move the needle.

(52:07):
It is very, very, very difficult, if not even impossible, to
simultaneously work in yourbusiness and on your business at
the same time.
I mean, it's like I don't knowhardly anybody that can do that.
You got to remember yourmanagers you're pushing this
data down to.
They're working in yourbusiness.
It's your job to work on thebusiness.
So not only the data, theaction plan, so then they can

(52:30):
take it and put in place in yourbusiness.
And then you, as the leader,you got to do the threes during
the day the check in, the checkup and the check out right, so
walk them through that.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Yeah, so the check in .
So you're going off the KPIsthat we talked about, the KPIs
that we've ran through thefilters, given some days to make
sure they're right, that we caneasily find the data, that the
data is real.
So we're going to check inFirst thing.
Hey, is my team member here,ready to go?
Yep, do they have the rightstate of mind?
Do they look good?
Are they sharp?
Did they fall in a mud puddle?

(53:03):
Do we need to dust them off?
Do we need to help them get astate change?
Here's the game plan for today.
Hey, here's your orders thatyou have to fill today.
Hey, here's the 10 cars youhave coming in.
Hey, here's the 12 people youhave to reach out to.
Here's the appointments.
So that's our check-in, okay,and so I'm checking in with the
managers.
The managers are checking inwith their team members, whether
it's service people, whetherit's sales, whether it's parts,

(53:27):
all the people, they know theirmetrics.
And then, halfway through theday, it's the same thing I say
is you don't?
Just if you're a pilot, youdon't get on an airplane and say
I'm going from arkansas tocalifornia, very specifically,
an airport, yep, forgetautopilot.
You don't hop on the airplane,shoot it in the air and wait

(53:48):
till you get to california andsay, hey, am I in the right area
?
Because it's a littleadjustment.
Think about this From Arkansasto California, there's a little
adjustment.
You'd end up in Mexico, you'dbe up in Canada, right?
So that comes with the check-in.
Okay, maybe, like right afterlunch.

(54:08):
Right after lunch, all right,hey, let's.
And it's not.
Hey, how you doing, how waslunch?
How's your mama doing?
No, it's.
Hey, let's look at the inforeal quick and see how it's
going.
Yep, show me how it's going.
And that's going to be in theirspace, that's going to be at
the technician's work area,that's going to be at the
service advisor's desk.

(54:29):
And I'm going to say, hey, showme how's the day going so far,
how are your appointmentsshowing up?
Hey, who have you been able tomake sure that we get their
vehicle service?
Hey, who have you been able tooffer this, this, this and this?
So that's your midday check-in,check-up, and then at the end
of the day, we're going to do acheck-out.
Hey, let's recap the day.
How did it go?
And this does so many metrics.

(54:50):
It tells them you are payingattention, it's important, and
then they push that down to thecustomer.
Hey, this is important.
Yes, you hold your schedule,that we take care of you, that
we're mindful.
The technicians know, hey, it'simportant that I don't say I'll
get to that tomorrow becausesomeone's counting on it today.
And for the sales people, it'simportant to know that today I
greeted these people and servethem at the highest level, and

(55:12):
that there are eyes watching.
So the check-in, check-up,check-out is so important.
You would definitely check tosee is the boat going in the
right direction, is the airplanegoing in the right direction?
Why don't you do that in yourbusiness?

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Thanks for reviewing that, because that's so
important.
On top of that, you've got tomake sure, when you're doing
those three, that it'sconsistent.
It's the data you alreadytalked about, it's the game plan
on the kpis to move it, andthen it's just repeat that
you're talking about throughoutthe day and I that's so
important.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
You say consistent and repeat, because, like when
I'm designing yesterday I wasfine tuning my training for
monday and I try to always bringsomething of relevance.
Sure, uh, I try to make it allrelevant, but something that's
trending of relevant.
And so I was talking social,like how do we sell via social?
And I took screen grabs and Istarted typing stuff and I

(56:07):
looked up and I had like 18things and I was like dial back,
you just need to hit these twoareas and then maybe that's
sequel to sequel to sequel tosequel down the road.
You have to spoon feed some ofthis stuff.
But you also have to come in atthe same idea, at the same time
, and say, and I always willintroduce an idea, and then the

(56:29):
next week I will go back overlast week we introduced it and
then start inspect week.
I will go back over here lastweek we introduced it and then
start inspecting.
I'll say, hey, you tell me howdo we handle this.
You tell me how we handle this.
And then the third week and say, hey, this is the third week of
doing this without me goingover.
You guys teach it to me, you'llagree.
And so then it's, it's veryconsistent and they know what
you're coming at them with, orat least the idea.

(56:50):
But then don't overload, likelook at all this data, because
it'll just go for their head.
Yeah, it'll be a waste of paper, a waste of your time.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
It will be, that's good absolutely rolling back
into our questions really quick.
I know you all have youranswers written down for the
speed round.
So what is the name of thedevice that measures the
distance of a vehicle hastraveled?
It was pedometer odometer,odometer.
Oh, I had wrote that one downwrong or shelby's up one.
Okay.
Question two what germanengineer is wildly credited to

(57:20):
inventing the first practicalautomobile powered internal
combustion engine?

Speaker 1 (57:25):
it is I had to just swing at this one.
Was it A Ford?

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Was it B Porsche, was it D Benz or was it C Benz?
I went Porsche.
Porsche is the correct answer.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Oh, we're tied.
I'm going to tell you, fairenough.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
What does the acronym VIN stand for referring to a
vehicle?
Is it A vehicle identification,vehicle identification number,
b, vehicle insurance number, cvoluntary inspection notice or d
vehicle inventory number?
It's a vehicle in ding ding,ding, tied up two there.
Question four what is theprimary purpose of a car's

(58:07):
headlights?
The signal turns to indicatebraking, to illuminate the road
ahead or to power the radio.
Illuminate the road ahead, seeilluminate the road ahead.
Three on three.
One is the which of theseiconic american muscle cars was
known for the shaker hood.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Oh that you know, it could be a couple options I know
I really think I have mine, butI gotta read this two different
ones.
It has, it has, so I guess Idon't know.
The years go through, gothrough one more time.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
So we are chevrolet camaro.
Okay, it's not that.
B ford mustang, that's one.
Okay, that's in the plymouthhemi kuda or d dodge challenger
it.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
I don't know what year the kuda had the shaker,
but I know for sure the mustangdid.
But the mustang I don't thinkcame until like 68, maybe in a
mock.
Uh, callie, we need dad on thisone.
You know that that's kind ofbefore our generation.
I gotta stick with the mustangthere, because I know for sure.

(59:10):
I just don't know the year ofwhen mopar had theirs yeah, I'll
just go for controversy.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
I'm gonna go with the um the kuda.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Okay, it is mustang, that's the iconic one that was
known for it.
I think you got years of that.
No, I don't have that.
We'll get back to our producer.
We'll get back into there.
So follows off.
Their fun fact questions of theday Roll into it.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Okay, data versus your business.
Gut, now we've talked data, forI don't know how long it's been
a few minutes.
It's good Because it's relevant.
It is good.
It's not overly sexy and peoplearen't always talking about it,
no, but it's real.
It's how the thing works.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Hey, we still got five or six people engaged out
there in the podcast world.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Thank you, so data versus your business gut.
So understanding all the data.
But then we say it all the timeDo the manufacturers ever try
to buy a car?
Have they ever actually gonethrough the process?
You're like they have no cluehow it works.
Right, it drives us nuts on theconstant.
Now that it's in a closed door,or in a car with the doors

(01:00:17):
closed, because then you putyour hat back on, you're like
this is amazing, this isoutstanding, let's go get them.
But understanding the dataversus your gut.
So the gut comes with time andit comes with failing a lot, a
whole lot, but then bouncing offof people.
Hey, what do you think Arethese?

(01:00:40):
Lot, yeah, a whole lot, butthen bouncing off of people.
Hey, what do you think?
Are these colors good?
Is this data good?
Is this too much?
Is this not enough?
And then you start to know,okay, data, is this, guts this?
How do we come up with?
So what's your metric of howyou do?
Gut versus data?

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
so I always look at the data I allow it to simmer
like we're talking about, sothen I can bring back in.
I mean, my memory doesn't comeback like that of like going
through stuff I'm.
I got two examples, one reallyrelevant, but that I mean as far
as recent, and one that's beenaround for a while we deal with.
Both manufacturers will push usdown what's the quickest turn

(01:01:10):
or what you've been selling themost of, based upon their data.
But if it was all that theycould produce, you got to use
your gut to say, hey, I see thedata, but actually what we want
is this, and the reason theirdata is that way is because
that's all they had available.
Yeah, so you have to be able touse your gut there.
Um and I talk about footballhere is you have your head coach

(01:01:32):
and then you also have youroffensive coordinator and they
both have laid out the plays torun.
When to run, they even call theplays to go into the huddle,
yet you still rely on yourquarterback when they come to
the line to read the defense andthe formations, to use their
gut to, if they need play, call.

(01:01:53):
If they got to call an audibleto shift in the middle of it, no
matter what the data said.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
So you got to trust in that, that's really good, and
I'll let Taylor cut this up alittle bit and give his
perspective.
But if we give the manager andsaid hey, you need to sell X
amount, you need to sell atleast 120 new cars this month,
and here's the specials, andhere's where you need to be pvr,
you need to be xpvr, and thatmeans you need some that are

(01:02:20):
above that and some that arewell below that, and so that's
high level, here's where we needto be.
So then it comes to taylor, andthen taylor gets with his team
and says, hey, here's where weneed to be, but sometimes
there'll be deals that areoutside of that right, uh,
generally outside and well belowcustomers.
You know we're trying to sellfor 52 and they offer 28 for

(01:02:42):
whatever reason.
Uh, so then talk through yourgut.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
you know of how you say yes or no and that's
something we've definitely hadto adapt and evolve to realizing
we're we're turning the needleup and we're moving more pieces
of inventory out, but in it, andrelating back to the last
couple of months, we just wentin the month of march.
We were take every single deal.

(01:03:06):
There's not a deal walking outand we look at those metrics and
I said there's a couple ofthose deals we probably could
have said no to.
That would have moved thismetric off.
Okay, but great news, we hadthe whole process moving there.
Then we went to the next monthand this will happen a lot of
times.
I was like no, no, I don't, Idon't want to do that deal.

(01:03:29):
So it was in within myguidelines of whatever I said
that my managers are okay ofdoing and they, more so, wanted
to make more money.
So they were saying no to dealsthat were well below cost, sure
, but then I look up at the endof the month that we didn't do
enough.
Numbers hadn't accomplishedwhat you needed.
No, so it's a constant battle ofbeing able to hey, let's push

(01:03:50):
on the gas a little bit but pullback.
But in a lot of times, majorityof people you get in this
business, they're okay with it,but it's never a step on the gas
.
You're going to sit on thecruise control all the way to
the end of the month.
It's hammer the gas.
We're good now.
Okay, pull back on the rates.
Hammer the gas.
Pull back on the rates.
Hammer the gas.
Pull back on the rates, causewhenever you hit into hey, I've
got a special at themanufacturer just released, or

(01:04:13):
you've got a bigger crowd and soyou're trying to catch more
fish and put them in the boat,you have to be able to stop,
turn, go at a moment's notice,because if not, you're going to
miss it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
And you have to know KPIs data versus your gut.
There's questions that we askwhen we're looking at a customer
saying, hey, you should pay forthis, why it's something in
service, or hey, they're wantingto buy this truck, and so
there's questions that we ask dothey live here?
Yep, are they in your area?

(01:04:45):
And that's relevant because ifyou have the power of influence
to take and carry them,hopefully they'll come back to
you.
True, so then do they live here?
Have they done business with usbefore?
Are they trading something?
Do they have a trade-in thatcould be a good piece of
inventory?
Are they financing with us?
Another power of leverage forour total portfolio that allows

(01:05:09):
us to bring more to the banks tohelp it make sense.
So, within those questions,that is a gut decision, outside
of those parameters that allowus to take data but then go gut
but then have some structure tohelp them make that decision.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
That's great, diving in there.
Now here's another one and thisis everybody's talking about.
We don't talk about it thatmuch because we can't control it
, and you've heard us talk abouton this podcast.
If we can't control it, itwe're not giving a whole lot of
energy to it.
But a lot of people and they'veprobably asked y'all as well
they're like hey, are youstocking up?
Because of the tariffs?
The data shows that the tariffs, with the tariffs it's going to

(01:05:49):
increase on inventory usersgoing to skyrocket because news
going to skyrocket this.
That's what the data shows.
But our gut comes into play.
We went through covid.
We've gone through cash forclunkers.
We've gone through this.
We've gone through that.
It says hang on, pause.
The media may be making thisout to a big deal.
We're not seeing the needlereally move a ton on this.

(01:06:12):
So our guts telling us slow,play this before you just go out
and bury yourself up right,you've got a one.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
you look at your source.
Is this a reputable source thatreally is helping you with
business, or is this just awilly-nilly you heard on the
radio or so on tv not that it'snot right, wrong, real and but
is it mainstream to you?
Having said it from the horse'smouth, we are not going to be
able to give you vehicles foreight months.
That's right, because of thecost.

(01:06:42):
And then like, okay, yeah, weneed to bulk buy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Yep.
But otherwise use your gutversus what the data or
mainstream says and then kind ofmake some adjustments and even
if the manufacturer tells usthat, we still we trust but
verify, so we still look at it.
I was telling somebody elsethis the other day.
They said well, the tariffs arecoming.
I said you need to understandin our business that even if the

(01:07:06):
tariffs actually hit tomorrow,okay, everybody's got to sell
through their current inventory,the current shipments order,
the new ones.
The new ones get here on thelot before they would start
adjusting anything on the otherend.
So even if the tariffs hittomorrow, we're talking about a

(01:07:26):
nine to ten month somewhere inthere, depending upon especially
if they're coming from overseaswhere a tariff would exist,
maybe even a year before thatstuff would start doing.
So others that don't use theirgut there, they rush out and
they buy a ton of vehicles for adelayed reaction of 12 months.
We're in depreciating items.
It's going to sit there anddepreciate for 12 months.

(01:07:49):
Just on a hunch that you didn'tverify the data.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Okay, this might not be right.
That looks good, probably right.
So think about this.
If you played in the what ifgame Game, hey, because riddle
me this real quickly.
If the price of toilet papergoes up, are you still going to
buy it?
I'm still going to buy it, okay.
The price of underwear goes up,are you still going to buy it
if you need it?
No, okay.

(01:08:19):
And the price of food goes up,are you still going to buy it if
you need it?
No, okay.
And the price of food goes up,are you still going to buy it if
you need it?
Yes, okay.
So we realize that, right.
So the price is all going to,generally equally levelized, go
up.
If you bulk buy for the 10months roughly 300 days at a
thousand vehicles is what wecurrently have in stock.
Our average carrying cost tosupport $31 to $33 million is
$75 per day in interest.

(01:08:39):
So if we bought it today'sprice versus 10 months from now
price, so if you take $75 perday In our holding cost Times,
300 days Yep To when you wouldsell out Yep by a thousand
vehicles, by 1,000 vehicles,$22.5 million, million dollars,

(01:09:01):
$22.5 million would be the costto borrow the money on those
1,000 vehicles of currently $32million.

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
So when you look at that, what Shelby's talking
about, we talk about holdingcosts on our vehicles.
So it takes in considerationthe interest for the vehicle,
the expense of running thatdepartment.
We do a depreciation there.
So, just on, if you don'tverify, you could be gambling
over $22 million right there.
That's where the gut comes in,that's where they say whoa.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
So you're just like hang on, just hang on, hang on
real quick.
And I do need to say that youcan be too slow, like in all
these decisions we talked about.
Hey, you need to let it run itscourse, but do not be too slow.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
and and I'll say you know, when you talk about the
two different positions workingin your business versus on your
business there's plenty ofconversations that we have that
are simmering in the background.
Back here we say, hey, if wesee that this keeps trending
this way, or if this happens,let's be ready to put the game
plan in place, so we don't startplanning for it.
Then Correct, but we might havea dozen game plans behind us in

(01:10:05):
the closet Go, and 11 of themwe may never pull out.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
Yep just waiting for you to pull 11.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
But we didn't share that with our team until the
time's necessary.

Speaker 3 (01:10:13):
The working on has the plan and the working in is
in the current.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
It's instilling the plan.
You know what I mean.
So that's the head coach, thehead coach in the press box.
They're seeing what's going on.
They're talking in each other'sears, not the rest of the team.
If we keep seeing this out ofthe defense, we're going to
shift.

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Right, right that you know that's good, All right.
So that's business gut versusdata.
We've kind of broke the datadown Frequently asked questions.
People love the frequentlyasked questions.
Hopefully you guys come up withsomething.
What's something off the wallor random that people ask you
guys.
You know we've talked aboutwhat's the tower?
What's your favorite vehicle todrive?

(01:10:51):
What's a question you don'tlike getting asked?
What's something you don't like?
What's something that you love?
Yeah, Hopefully that spurredsomething.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
I'm going to tell you this because I got this last
week and y'all I'm sure havegotten this same question, so I
don't mean to steal it from you,but I'm going to.
Is we get asked from abrother's standpoint and a
family standpoint?
Do y'all really get along, youknow, or is it just a face y'all
put on what people see inpublic, on your commercials, on

(01:11:22):
your podcast?
Yeah, and I'm going to say yes,confidently.
Oh yeah, is it easy?
No, it's not easy, but what wehave is a mutual respect for
each other, not only asindividuals, but also our
passions, and it doesn't matterthe position we're in, the way
we make that balance work is.

(01:11:43):
We realize that each of us aregoing to have differences and
when one of us is reallypassionate about an area, we
pretty well back up and supportthat person.
We pretty well back up andsupport that person, because
then the next time somebody elsewill have that.
You know, unless we need todiscuss it, we discuss it.
But we all realize that eventhough we're raised the same,

(01:12:04):
we're going to have differencein opinions and a different way
to get there, and as long as itlines up with our values, it
doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
You know no different than parenting and everything
else is, and when you understandthat it allows you to not get
in confrontation and you do geta wild war that that is a really
good question, really goodpoint, and I think to even break
it down even further becausewe've seen it from stories from
long ago, the other way, sure sojust of understanding and
somehow just like school of hardknocks, we figured this out and

(01:12:34):
we just understand if yousomehow just like the school of
hard knocks.
We figured this out and we justunderstand if you get in the
tough battle of we're not allthree carbon copies.
We're all born on the same day.
We're not all in the same stageof life.
We're all on the same journeyof life.
Sure, you know, by choice, butwe're not all in the same role.
We're not all trying to handlethe same problem and we're not

(01:12:54):
all in the same role.
We're not all trying to handlethe same problem and we're not
all paid the same, because we'reall in different metrics and
we're all in different thingsand we're all moving different
needles.
Yet we all can look past the pay, the role, the responsibility,
the title and still understandwe're working on this together
because somewhere far down theline we share and we're all in

(01:13:16):
the same metric together.
So, if I can tell you anythingand we've had these
conversations often and we'renot sitting around comparing
paychecks and we're not sittingaround and saying, hey, you get
here at this time and you takethis lunch, which is none of us.
Or you do this or you get thatwe're saying, hey, thank you for
handling this, it allowed me tohandle that.

(01:13:36):
And hey, could you do this?
And then I'll work on that.
In the end, we know sometimeswe just sit back like can you
really believe we're doing thisright now?
You know what I mean.
So don't sit around and compare, because we hear it all the
time like that's bad.
Well, how much vacation do theyget?

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
we have the, we have family members of everyone else
and the relationship that wehave and how we have respect for
each other.
No one understands it besidesourselves, and which is great
because we're who who work witheach other.
I think mine, you know,definitely goes off of that.
But, uh, somebody asked me theother day.
It was like well, did you haveto, did you have to go into this

(01:14:17):
?
Said no, y'all didn't have to.
I said, which probably why Ienjoyed doing it.
If you're, if you're, everforced to go into anything that,
uh, that does so, but I lovethat.
Yeah, that's probably one ofthe best things of going that no
one really understands outsideof it.
That's how we're able to bewildly successful.
But then we are, uh, you know,just have that um, respect for

(01:14:39):
each other.
That helps push each otheralong yeah, no doubt about that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Working together and think, think about a football
team.
Like is the quarterback in thecenter and the field goal kicker
all paid the same?
Do they have the same time onfield?
Did they have the same?
You know, it's like, just knowyour ebb and flow to work
together, and then can we have agentleman's agreement that
we're all going to work togetherin the same direction?

(01:15:02):
Sure.
We'll have disagreements andwe'll talk about it, and chances
are it was just feelings oremotions that someone put in
your head that was never realand then, just like you've got
to have people in your course,you've got to have people in
your course.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
It's too big of a monster.
You want to be successful.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
Yeah, no matter how big your business is.
On the other side of the cameraon the headphones, like, you've
got to have people that havecommon ground and you've got to
be careful who you share thatwith, because your competitor or
the person that wants you tofail the most probably give you
the most love of like oh man,you're doing good.
Tell me what else is goingwrong.
And they're stealing your ideasand they're about to crush you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
You got to have that circle, but that circle's very
small, tiny, you know what Imean.
So that's like two things there.
Like you got to have the circlenot on an island by yourself,
but it better not be too big,you know.
So you got to have both of us.
Hey, that was a greatdiscussion today.
I hope you guys enjoyed it asmuch as we did about sharing
with you guys how to use thedata, but then how to translate

(01:16:01):
that into actual actionableitems that move the needle.
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Ep. 37 - Numbers Don't Lie - Using Data to supercharge your Business

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 37 - Numbers Don't Lie - Using Data to supercharge your Business