Ep.35 - Playing to Win: Leveraging Competitive Intelligence for Growth

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers delve into the importance of understanding competition in business. They discuss strategies for analyzing the competitive landscape, building relationships with competitors, and leveraging customer insights for growth. The conversation emphasizes the need for businesses to study their competition, learn from local market trends, and create strategic advantages through competitive intelligence. The episode also highlights the significance of customer experience and the importance of quantifying business promises to build trust and long-term relationships. In this episode, the speakers discuss the complexities of customer experience, innovative strategies for trade assistance, and the importance of ethical practices in business. They emphasize the need for strategic decision-making, building trust in relationships, and the long-term versus short-term strategies in competitive markets. The conversation also highlights the significance of understanding financing ethics and shares success stories that stem from ethical practices

Feel the dynamic energy of the Lewis Brothers as they deliver real stories and lessons that keep local businesses on their toes, and share how experiences in the community inspire them to keep on driving.

Check out all our great episodes at CrossroadConversationsPodcast.com!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
consumers are so inundated with offers and
promotions and reasons to buythat a lot of times it takes a
little bit of like no, no, hangon let's.
Let's walk through this whatthis really means to you to be
able to cut through the clutter,yes, you know to be able to
show them that advantage, andwe've spent tons of time
training on that.
Hey, everyone, welcome tocrossroad conversations with the

(00:24):
lew Brothers, where we aim toshare real stories about running
a successful family business,working through adversity and
pouring back into the community.
That keeps our door open.
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 Welcome

(00:47):
back.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Episode 35, crossroad Conversation with the Lewis
Brothers.
We're your hosts, larry, moeand Joe.
Yeah, or however I go.
Episode 35, fully diving in.
Today we want to talk aboutplaying to win, because nobody
likes to play to lose.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
No, they don't want to at all.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
You don't want to play on that.
Understanding your competitionand business, and we'll fully
break that down.
Understanding your competition,how to analyze it, how to
understand the advantage ofcompetition, the disadvantage of
competition, all the parts andpieces that we go through on a
daily basis of how to stayrelevant, how to stay hungry,
how to make sure that you win.
So we'll have fun diving intothat.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Hey, before we do that, let's jump into a recap of
last week.
That was episode 34, aboutmastering the operational side
of your business.
We had a fun time diving intothat and really a lot of
personal journey there thatwe're still on as well is.
You know how do we work on theoperational side of our business
, and I would just say I won'tgo into all of it, but I'll just

(01:47):
tell you it had a lot to dowith letting go and empowering
others and working on yourbusiness instead of inside of
your business.
So that's a really cool episode.
Make sure you go back, checkthat out and then, of course,
any of the others, as always.

(02:07):
Find all of our business stuffand all of our inventory on
lewissuperstorecom orcrossroadconversationscom and
get all that content.
Taylor, we've got something totalk about that we drove.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh, we've got something we've got to talk
about and I love this.
I love modern technology.
You know the old musclehead ofanybody.
They're like I've got to have abig motor and more power.
Sure, it's wrong.
Yes, you can have a biggermotor and more power.
What I really like is the newHurricane motor, and they put
that in the all-new 25 GrandWagoneer.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
In the Grand Wagoneer .
Now that Hurricane motor is,it's an inline six.
So some old school car guys,what do they talk about on the
306 Ford?
Break it down for us, the torquethe torque, the inline of the
torque, and then they put twinturbos on it.
So then you get the benefit ofa six-cylinder fuel mileage.
You get the inline instanttorque of that turbo lag.

(02:51):
It takes over, but then the twoturbos take over.
Now that hurricane motor it'sbeen in the vehicles for a
little over three years now, butnew for 25, and that's why
we're talking about it is youget the HO version in the green
wagon here.
That means it's 540 horsepower.
That's solid 540 horsepower.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
You remember back in the day when 500 was just a big
number, Like if you hit that,that was like sports car.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, no, that was GT500, Supercharged 544, mecca
500 horsepower.
Now you've got your familytruckster with 500 horsepower I
like that I did too, if you'rerunning behind or you just need
to get in the left lane andhammer down.
You can just go, yeah, I meanas fast as you can to the speed
limit.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
So a couple other things I want to point out with
that, and one of y'all can helpme out with what the horsepower
is on the new Escalade V.
Is it six, six something?
Well, I'm going gonna call it650, tell her, I'm gonna look it
up.
So on the v, we'll talk aboutthe horsepower there and there's
a reason I'm comparing the two.
So for 25, the grand wagon airthat we have in stock has the
540 horsepower which the homotor you find in the rho.

(03:56):
It gets massaging seats,heating, cooled seats, heated
second row seats, must I alreadysaid, massaging heads up the 22
inch wheels, air ride,suspension, try pain, moon roof,
and they drastically droppedthe msrp oh, they went down they
went up in horsepower, up incontent, and where a grand wagon

(04:17):
here used to start at 105 000,these started 89 000.
so 89 540 horsepower.
And people always talk about,well, the horsepower of the
Escalade V, which is 682.
Which is 682, but you're over$150,000.
$165,500.
$165,500.

(04:39):
That's a $76,000 difference inprice tag.
Good night, so that's all I'msaying is for all your
motorheads out there.
You could do a whole lot with$70,000.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
So we got more for less.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
We got more for less.
I just had to dissect that.
Thanks for letting me do that.
That's pretty solid value.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
That is solid.
Yes, absolutely, hey.
So diving straight into thefirst topic there, identifying
and analyzing your competitivelandscape.
So our local people that are inthe market here that do the
same business we do, kind ofidentifying everything they do
and we're going to go over, youknow, not only about the good
things that we necessarily haveworked together with, but

(05:17):
sometimes we've seen some thingsthat other people have done
that we didn't necessarily like.
So you go talking about ourmarket and everything else of
everybody that's in it.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
What are some of the things that you all have seen, I
think first off, before we evengo into the details we've got
to talk about this is if you'renot studying your competition,
if you're not looking at yourcompetition in your landscape,
you're not winning.
Yeah, if you think you justknow it all and you're the best

(05:48):
thing ever, there's other peopleout there that have great ideas
.
I can't tell you and I'll justgo ahead and tell you this and
the rest of our audience I can'ttell you how many email blasts
and how many preferred customerlists that I'm on of competitors
that you're not actually in themarket to buy from them.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'm not in the market to buy from them, but you're
going to go ahead and act likeyou're a shopper.
For sure.
That is how you understand orrip someone's business, or to
get a pulse on what's going on.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
You really do.
And I remember we were sittingat a Ford meeting two years ago
it was two years ago and the CEOwas up there talking about Of
course, it was when the electricboom was going on One of the
things that Ford did.
They had multiple people up intheir executive office go
through the process of buying aTesla to see how was that?
Where do they not have frictionpoints?

(06:36):
That we do.
You'll see all the time, whenmanufacturers do, they'll go out
and buy a Toyota or they'll buya Ram or they'll buy a Ford.
Or when they were coming outwith a Bronco, they bought
multiple Jeeps and just torethem completely down.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
It's funny.
So in college one of myroommates was a Ferrari dealer,
was also a Chevy dealer, and Iremember when they were coming
out with the new Z06, the C6,z06, n06.
And I remember him talkingabout the engineers at Chevrolet
had bought a couple Ferrarisbecause they were going after
that market.
Yes, to understand.

(07:08):
So then you saw that car versuslike a 430 at the time and you
saw, wow, those brakes look awhole lot like that you bet.
Wow, the design and the look ofthat.
And then you see the C8 and itreally looks like a 458 or
something that style.
If you're not paying attentionto the competition, competition,
if you are just blind to that,you will be blindsided.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
So there's a time to wear each of those hats and as
an entrepreneur, you know thatif we're in a meeting with our
whole team, boom, the saleshat's on.
Nobody does it better.
Here's what we do, right?
But then also you got to takethat hat off, put the other one
on of, let me study, becausethere's other good people out
there in the world.
Let's see what they're doing,let's see what their website

(07:48):
looks like.
I'll tell you our managementteam.
Anytime we get done with the endof the month, and even if we
killed it and we were rankednumber one or number two, the
manufacturer always provides usa detail of who sold what.
So was it half tons?
Was it SUVs?
Was it cars?
And there's always segmentsthat we didn't win in.
So I said okay, and I'llhighlight those, give them to my

(08:09):
sales managers and say I wantyou to go look at their website.
What are they doing?
Is it trim level packages?
Is it color?
Is it pricing?
Is it merchandising?
Where they beat us here?
Even if you would have won,there's always opportunities
within the segment to identifythat, but you can't do it.
If you would have won, there'salways opportunities within the
segment to identify that.
But you can't do it if youdon't have the correct lens to
figure out.

(08:29):
What are they doing better thanus.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
So a couple things to break out there.
There's a right time to do that.
It's not during the salesmeetings, it's with the right
people that can switch inbetween, because otherwise they
have a hard time.
Then when they're talking to acustomer they'll say, well, we
got beat by so and so andescapes you, you know.
And they're like, well, why theheck am I here, right?
Yeah, you know.

(08:51):
So it's, it's the right placeand it's the right people.
Uh, the second thing is you haveto so understand of locality,
like we have, and locality meansour zone, yeah, like what our
manufacturer sets our zone, andwe want to sell all that we can.
But we realize we cannot eatthe whole elephant, correct, we
cannot, and that's why themanufacturers are a little over

(09:13):
3,000 for dealers and UnitedStates to be able not only to
sell into service and to beclose enough that it's not an
inconvenience.
So we look at our localcompetitors of our McCartys and
Superiors and we have arelationship with those dealers
and generally the conversationis there's enough people out

(09:34):
there that we can all get ourfair share.
Let's not undercut each other.
Let's all make sure that we'reoffering a fair offer to our
customers and cover yourbackyard.
That doesn't mean you don'tlearn from them.
You know what I mean.
You still see what's going on.
So you're not saying, hey,we're at this price, and they're
at this price.
And when you say, hey, I missedout on Escape or F-150 or

(09:57):
Bronco, or we were doingsomething good here, it's not to
say, hey, let's go try to stealsome of their customers.
No, we just need to make surethat are we doing a good
presentation.
When someone comes in for RAV4,we're showing them escape and
so there's opportunity there.
But it's not saying, hey, let'sgo market in their backyard.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
No, that's so important to know and you
started to hit the nail on thehead there At no point whenever
we were talking about.
Do you try to absolutely justsmash competition competitors in
your area, Be competitive.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
I want to be competitive and I want to
compete with them, but we'vebeen in business for over 79
years and we've done that bybuilding relationships, not
tearing other people down.
It's a long-term game.
We're still going to be becausethere's been plenty of dog and
pony shows that have comethrough and they want to be the
best and they run to the bottom.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
So like a new manager shows up at a store and they
say I want to be the crazylowest price.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
And guess, what they're not in the business
anymore.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
They're nowhere to be found.
It's not sustainable.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
No, it's not sustainable.
So we realize that we do goodbusiness because there's give
and take.
There's a lot of times we findourselves reaching out to them
to ask questions as well, and Ithink that's important.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I'm going to go into two segments here, but let me
first talk about what you weretalking about.
It's important to understandyour boundaries and to respect
those so you don't ruin arelationship.
And when we talk about that,you take the McLartys and the
Superiors and all of thosearound here, the auto parks, the

(11:31):
cranes.
We have relationship with them,but we also respect that and
we're not calling them saying,hey, how did you put 500 more in
that vehicle?
Or hey, how'd you price it atthis?
No, that's the competitive sideand we can be competitive there,
but what you don't want to dois mess up a relationship.
So then, when you have, whenyou're interviewing somebody

(11:54):
that's in an important role like, let's say, a CFO or somebody
that handles money and you knowthey work for one of your
competitors, you need to be ableto have the relationship to
call and get the real advicefrom somebody, because if they
were embezzling money or if theywere doing something that would
hurt your business, yeah, you'dwant to know that.
So I get those calls from thedifferent people and we respect

(12:18):
it and it goes two ways.
We're not talking about, hey,would you deal or trade this to
me?

Speaker 2 (12:22):
No, or what would you do here?
It's a larger decision.
It's not based off of onesimple transaction.
Yeah, you know, think about asports game, like when there's
two quarterbacks going againsteach other.
They both want to win, right Iknow.
But at the end they canunderstand the craft of the guy
that won and the guy that gavereally good effort with good
sportsmanship.

(12:42):
Yes, you know they're going toshake hands and say you know, I
appreciate your game, like thatwas solid, you guys did well, we
did a little bit better, youknow just some relationship in
that.
So understanding the competitivelandscape and we can all learn
from each other.
Yes, you said bronco and jeep.
Think about how long jeep wasin these in that segment by

(13:03):
themselves, broncocos showed up.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
What did that do to Jeep?
I know that made them elevateas well.
They didn't even have a backupcamera.
No backup camera, no power seat.
They didn't have to.
What about the mirrors?
I mean all of that.
No power seat.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
No backup camera.
The mirrors were attached tothe doors, which seems
irrelevant until you take thedoors off.
Exactly no power seat, whichseems irrelevant until you take
the doors off Exactly no powerseat, like a lot of things.
And then so you're like whatthe heck?
They're about to take over mysegment.
It's like, well, you betterlevel up, you better have a
better product, yes, and youbetter offer a better service,
yep, and then you get to win.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
And if somebody does level up past, you don't look
for ways to legally go afterthem or this or that.
No, no, no, no, no.
Okay.
Well then, how can I do itbetter?
They pushed me to be better,right.
So what I first started talkingabout there is people that are
in your industry, within yourlocality, which is what Taylor
was talking about.
Now, as an entrepreneur, yougot to know all this who to ask
the right questions to, becauseone thing I have found common

(14:01):
versus all industries withentrepreneurs is they love
talking to you about it.
Now you've got to gain theirrespect first, and the door's
got to be open.
Once the door's open, they lovenothing more than to help other
people be successfulentrepreneur-wise.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
There's certain questions that you can ask
people that aren't in yourcompetitive locality, that are
still in your part of business,in your segment another Ford
dealer, another landscapingbusiness that's not a direct
competitor but understands thetrials and tribulations of what
you're going through in currentbusiness, yes, the cost of wages
or the cost of product orwhatever it is, then you can

(14:43):
really get into the heart of it.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
And so let me give you an example here.
Let's talk about marketing.
Okay, okay, let's talk aboutmarketing.
Okay, let's talk aboutmarketing.
So your local people you knowthe Everts, the McCartys, the
Cranes we're not going to callthem up and say, hey, tell me
about that mail piece you justsent us Is that working.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's like genuine rules of like.
No, that doesn't make sense.
You don't do that.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
But some of our connections up in Missouri and
down in Texas and on the EastCoast, West Coast, we bounce
those ideas off of them all thetime.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Hey, have you used this vendor?
What kind of ROI did you get?

Speaker 1 (15:14):
And they openly give us that Because it's a two-way
street.
It's a two-way street Like hey,here's what I've found that
we've done in service and everyindustry has some type of
association, or I don't knowthat I've found an industry yet
that doesn't have a convention.
Out in Vegas once a year.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
All of them do.
Then you can connect withlike-minded people that are
rowing in the same boat.
They have the same strugglesand issues and that's how you'll
learn from your competitivelandscape if you get out of your
locality, and it'll help yougrow your business.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
What you said there is so important to know because
so many people that are smallbusiness owners getting in the
middle of it so important toknow because so many people that
are small business ownersgetting in the middle they get
closed-minded and say no oneelse's business is like mine.
They don't understand.
No, you may have a little bitof different, the culture may be
different, but the whole aspectand the people around the,
around the us you go to adifferent convention, they're

(16:09):
dealing with the same problems.
You are.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
Let's say you don't have time, you say I'm just
starting my business.
I can't go out to Vegas,whether financially it doesn't
work, or get with thoseassociations.
Just start with your localchamber.
I can't tell you the amount ofpeople that I sit on the board
on the chamber with that havedifferent businesses, from
jewelry to real estate tomedical.

(16:32):
We talk about the same stuffall the time.
Now that's why we're not in thesame competitive landscape, but
we're both in business.
We both deal with employees, weboth deal with benefits, we
both deal with inventory turnand we've had some people from
those industries that have cometo our sales meeting Because we
said, hey, come.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Let us help pour into you, because then we know, when
we get ready to ask, we'vealready made those deposits.
Yeah, hopefully so.
And you have to keep in mind,like people that are disrupting
in your current business and bydisrupting I mean they're
shaking it up enough that it'smaking a difference, and so it's
funny.
We were talking about somethingat the gym this morning.
I was like man, man, this issuch a simple.
You know, it was a recoverytool.
It was just a piece of plastic.

(17:16):
It had some different bumps onit and I was like, man,
somebody's making a living offof this right here.
Sure, I was like but this thingis easy to knock off.
And so the guy I was talking to, he's like well, I mean, they
knock off everything.

(17:39):
I was.
If you export it, someone seesit, they remake it and they sell
it.
He's like how do you win that?
I said you don't have to changethe product and you don't have
to lower your price.
You just have to be in front ofmore people, do what you say
you're gonna do and justcontinue to stand behind that
and guerrilla market the thing.
So it's like someone else isgoing to come along and offer,
you know a cheaper oil change ora cheaper car, and you just
stay steady on your course, stayrelative, stay within the
pricing.
But we've all heard the phrasethe cheapest and the cheapest.
For a reason, sure, and I'vebought.

(18:00):
I'll be the first one to saybought plenty of cheap things.
I'm like you fool just theirritation yeah like
no, you know, just like, if it'sreally cheap, it's really cheap
for a reason.
It doesn't have the supportbehind it.
You know you don't have a phonenumber you can get a hold of
somewhere, or you know they'llroll up the carpet next week
when you go back and you needsome help.
I'm not talking about rollingout the carpet, I'm saying

(18:22):
rolling up the carpet, take thesign off the building, and
they're nowhere to be found.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Let's go back and talk about that In local market.
You talked about oil changes.
Okay, so we know big oilchanges that's always a hot
topic.
You see all these quick oilchanges on every corner because
that's what means something ofgoing through.
What's something locally we'veseen from a business room like
Everett that's been local, thatran an oil change special.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Yeah, so the idea of oil changes happens three times
a year.
The idea is to make it simple,to make it easy and to make it
cost effective, and so we sawpeople that were new to the
market new to our market, notnew to the automotive industry
trying to get more people intheir door, and so the cost of
our oil change generally isroughly $80 to pay for the labor

(19:08):
and to pay for the product, andour key-to-key time is roughly
about 34 minutes labor and topay for the product, and our key
to key time is roughly about 34minutes.
And if someone says they can doit faster, just arguably, I
don't think that the fluid candrain that fast because we have
multiple teams that do it.
But we saw people come in andsay we will do an oil change for
$9.99.
And it got so below thethreshold of that.
The idea is to have a verycompetitive, low price oil

(19:32):
change, get them in the door andthen you get to wow them with
the customer service.
Our car wash just a goodexperience, create relationships
when they have a bigger issueor want to upgrade.
But we saw that crazy lowthreshold.
There was no loyalty whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
It was a diminishing value.
I think that's important.
So we studied that.
We identified it.
One of our competitors wasdoing it.
They're no longer doing it.
So if you're listening, lookingfor the 999 oil change, it's
not there anymore and it's aretention tool.
It's no different than Best Buy.
Their margin on TVs is very,very slim, but their margin on
the mounting, their margins onthe cables that's high, so the

(20:10):
oil change is no different.
When we looked at 999, we'relike, okay, we're going to lose
70 something dollars per oilchange.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
That's over a thousand occurrences per month.
Per occurrence.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
And then we looked at like, okay, who will they give
the 999 oil change to?
Well, they were giving it toeverybody.
Okay, every make, every model.
And if you're listening you'relike, well, that sounds great.
Well, hang on, you've got toconnect this.
If the goal is to get somebodyin the door to build a
relationship with them, they'remore likely to come back to you

(20:40):
if they own the brand you'reselling, because you can help
them If there's a PCM program inthis.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
You own a Chevrolet.
We have super smart individuals, but they're not in tune with
that.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
So if've created that relationship you're like, hey,
you need to go to the auto partthen then you're good to go.
So then when we looked at thatnight, we're like they're now
clogging their whole system.
Their ro count shot through theroof, but over half of the vins
that are going through therearen't even their core make.
No, so it looks initially likegreat ro count, low profit, and
you can have the argument of I'mgoing for the long game here to

(21:15):
build our units in operation,which you guys have heard us
talk about before.
But it wasn't reality becausethose people weren't coming back
.
No, and we saw it.
We had some people that hadother brands, makes and models
that went there I'd like to sayloyal customers but they went
there and got their old changeas soon as they shut the faucet

(21:39):
off at the $999, they were rightback with us.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
There was no extra added benefit.
Because there were so manypeople, it was flooded.
Their service advisors couldn'thandle it.
We see that in companiesgrowing all the time that they
can't handle it, they didn't.
We see that in companiesgrowing all the time that they
can't handle to properly givethe the, the customers, you know
the time that they need thegood experience that they expect
, and I don't know how much youcan expect with a 999 oil change

(22:04):
, but they, they didn't lowertheir expectations.
So we saw some google reviewsstart to plummet and so, instead
of just chasing that number, wesaid hang on, let's learn from
you, I'm sure let's learn fromthat.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
And so then, one of the things let's go off of that
for a second, one of the thingswe're doing from pay.
We want to be competitive.
We don't mind losing a littlebit of money, not making any
money on oil changes.
It's a retention tool we get tobuild a relationship with the
customer.
As we started looking and wewent really simple on this when,
when we were doing our servicemicro meetings, we said let's
identify okay, here's the amountwe're doing in the quick loop,

(22:38):
but now let's break it down.
When are those people coming?
So now our guys have a simpletally sheet.
They turn into the manager oftwo, I think, a two hour time
segment, two or three hour timesegments.
So then we can identify ifwe're going to run a special.
It needs to be on the day ofthe week that we have the lowest
amount of traffic or thetimetable that has the lowest.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Okay, so let's break that down.
If we're going to pop the hoodand show them the internals,
like yes, it has nitrous, let meshow you how it works.
We identified on Wednesdays itwas our least amount of traffic.
So if you're going to I've saidthis many times if you're going
to give something, you need toget something in return.
You're right, we were payingfor all of our technicians to be

(23:21):
here, and Wednesday there was alot of downtime.
I don't know why it wasWednesday, but we did this for
about three months of a trialperiod, of just tally marks.
So I said, hey, let's do a $50off promotion, which is still
going on.
Come by and see us.
$50 off an oil change.
It helps us fill that shop andit helps us fill it and you get

(23:45):
to save some money.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
But you can't do that unless you won.
That came out of studying ourcompetitive landscape but then
adjusting for what made sense tous.
Yeah, not make an all skate.
Identify where can we actuallyhandle it.
Yeah, so I mean, that tookmonths behind the scenes and
I'll tell you studying acrossthe industry.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, we said you know it's sonic.
You know this.
From two o'clock to fouro'clock you can get half price
drinks, and we learned this whenwe look at our timing, our two
to four o'clock you can gethalf-priced drinks, and we
learned this when we look at ourtiming.
Our two to four o'clock is ourslowest time in our all change,
and I think it's simply becausepeople have to go pick up their
kids from school or it's duringthe meat of the afternoon, and

(24:25):
so we're like it was that moment.
We were like Sonic is a genius.
They said, hey, let's drivemore people right before they go
to pick up their kids, or rightafter they pick up their kids
we'll do half-priced drinks withthe hope that they get some
tater tots and a hot dog.
You know, oh, yeah, all thisstuff.
It's like huh, okay, we learnedfrom sonic, we'll take that,

(24:45):
you know.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
you know a second level.
We haven't done this yet, but asecond level that we learned
from sonic is they built thehappy hour from two to four,
removed all friction points.
Yeah, that was rocking androlling.
I'm sure it was a loser forthem, whatever.
Yeah.
But then they saw we got togrow up, not grow up, we've got
to grow our audience and ourusage on the app.

(25:06):
Yep, so people would come tolove the half price drinks and
now they said, in order to dothat, you got to order it on the
app.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
So it was phased right, so it was phased.
Let's get them hooked on this,yes, and offer a great deal,
yeah.
And then, hey, we need themmore in the app.
So let's do a bonus points,rewards points, sure.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
We see them everywhere, right?
So when they're thinking aboutI need something quick or no?

Speaker 2 (25:32):
so more than sonic says, hey, we need some more
traffic, and then say, oh, wehave this whole app full of
users.
Hey guys, we got an offer.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
We're extending half an hour to five o'clock or six
o'clock so anytime you canconnect that and you brought up
the point and that's kind of whyI jumped on that is hey, if we
give something, we should getsomething in return, right sonic
was doing?
Now it was a couple steps downthe road.
Yep, it's not alwaysnecessarily that first step.
No, you got to build it, buildthe trust, build the want, the
urgency, and then you can startasking for it.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yep, yep, the value exceeded the price.
Right, it did.
It's like hey, this makes sense.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
It did, so I, we got to move.
That's been a good one is hey,you've got to connect locally.
You got to know your boundarieson what you can ask local
competitors versus what you canask people outside locality.
Um, and you got to get aroundthat competitive nature.
And then you got to know who totalk to.

(26:26):
You know within yourorganization about it versus not
about it, and then when to goforward and when not to
absolutely.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
You just got to see that and be able to study it and
realize Don't beat downanything that you see, Never
discredit or devalue anythingthat you see in your area, but
be willing to put in a littlebit of time and say, hey, maybe
that won't work for me, but this, altering it to fit your
business, your lifestyle willwork better here.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Absolutely.
How about our fun fact?

Speaker 2 (26:56):
of the week, this one's automotive, you know it is
.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
Hey, what type of engine is the most common in
passenger cars today?
Passenger cars.
Now, I hope that our media teamdidn't put this together as a
trick question, because bypassenger cars if they mean
sedans, it's going to change myanswer.
But if it's overall, it's justlike cars, okay.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
I was going too deep there.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
All right, so here's your options.
The rotary engine You've got tolove a good rotary engine.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
The electric Internal combustion or steam Locomotive
I know it's like we're at thelocomotive, I know Well, I mean
it's passenger cars, it could bepassenger trains Could be Okay,
all right.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
We'll come back to it .
What is most commonly thepassenger car?

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Electric internal combustion or steam We'll come
back.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
All right, on the same subject, we want to take
you to a deeper dive off of someleveraging.
Okay, we want to talk aboutleveraging off a competitive
intelligence for a strategicadvantage.
Those are a bunch of fancywords, but when we start pulling
back the layers there, we startidentifying where is our

(28:08):
competitive advantage?
And then, strategically,competitive intelligence.
And then strategically, how dowe use that for our advantage?
I'll start this off.
Okay, yeah, so I'm start thisoff.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
Okay, yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
I'm going to start with our Lewis guarantee.
Break it down for me Our Lewisguarantee.
And then I'm going to give youa manufacturer example.
I had in my office last weekOur Lewis guarantee.
We looked for where could wehave an advantage over all the
competition with our guaranteeversus somebody else, because
plenty of people out there haveguarantees with our guarantee
versus somebody else, becauseplenty of people out there have

(28:34):
guarantees.
One of the things we did is andyou guys have heard us talk
about this, it's a quantifiablenumber whether it's on a new and
it's a 10-year, 120, if it's ona pre-owned and a 5-year, 60.
The next one is where we reallygained.
We said we can really win here.
When we looked at our pre-ownedvehicles that were between 50

(28:55):
and 100,000 miles and we saidlet's put a three-year
36,000-mile powertrain.
It positioned us where aconsumer could buy a car for a
lower monthly budget but stillhave some peace of mind in case
something went on.
So when we looked at the CPOprograms from all the
manufacturers and we looked atall of our competitive landscape
from all the manufacturers andwe looked at all of our

(29:15):
competitive landscape, nobodyoffered a true term, true
mileage, three-year 36 on a80,000-mile vehicle.
They just didn't.
And when you stop and you thinkabout that.
That's a huge advantage that wecan strategically use.
There are salespeople that havethat verbiage.
Last week I was meeting with amanufacturer and they happened
to pitch the CPO program.
You know how that goes.
And they're like, no, no, no,just listen to me, don't kick me

(29:37):
out of your office.
Yet I was like, okay, go ahead.
They're like we got some reallygood stuff and we revamped it
and we had the best CPO programout there in America.
And I'm like, okay, go throughit.
And for a CPO program at amanufacturer level it was.
They had done a lot of goodadjustments and I listened to

(29:59):
the whole thing.
Most, almost 99% of all CPOprograms from the manufacturer
retro back to day one or mileone of ownership Okay, where
ours starts at day one of thenew, of the new owner.
So he got done.
And I said what do you do on80,000 mile vehicles?
He's like, no, we really lookedat that too.
It's got a six-month 6,000-milepowertrain.
And I said that's cute.
I said, do you remember theLewis Guarantee that we talked

(30:21):
about?
He's like, yeah, I've heard youtalk about that.
I said do you realize, all theway up to 100,000 miles, you get
a three-year 36,000-mile trainat no charge.
And he's like, yeah, but thatretro is back to day one.
I said no, no, it starts now.
True term, true mileage, hegoes, I'm done, he goes.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
My pitch is over yeah he's like I can't win with you
guys but that the reason thatthat that ours is so much better
is because we analyzed all ofthose and it.
So it's like everyone offersthis right.
Yes, yes, he's like okay, let'sput it up on the wall.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Let's not match it.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Let's not match it, let's not get in the same space.
We're in the same space, butlet's find, and it was like
whoop, there it is, there it is.
It's like our dealer, omg.
People say, hey, let's go aninch wide and a mile deep.
There's our opportunity.
Let let's go all in.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Go all in.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
No one can know.
You know the fact that it's got80,000 miles, 90,000 miles.
The manufacturer said at 36,000miles, you're done Like you
were on your own.
They built the car.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
They got billions in it.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
And we said which We've learned right, we've had
some high claim rates and wehave to do a more thorough
inspection.
But we said there, it is right,there we're going to take care
of it, when the manufacturersaid they won't and no one else
will.
But I will tell you to err withcaution before you just put the
thermometer in the stake to say, hey, is this really good?

(31:45):
It took some time, A lot oftime.
The customer won't just say youknow what you offer more, I'll
pay you more.
No, they still want to pay less.
They do and get what you'reoffering.
It's like hey, you can't haveyour cake and eat it too, you
know like, so you have to keepthat in mind.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
I think you know, in the US especially, consumers are
so inundated with offers andpromotions and reasons to buy
that a lot of times it takes alittle bit of like no, no, hang
on, let's walk through this whatthis really means to you to be
able to cut through the clutteryes, you know to be able to show

(32:24):
them that advantage, and we'vespent tons of time training on
that.
Two things when we found thatoption was a bingo there it is,
is we looked at it from acompetitive.
But then two and y'all canremember this we still didn't
launch it we looked at it from acustomer's eyes.
Yeah, if I'm the customer, howdo I truly get what I'm being
told?

(32:44):
How frictionless is it?
Because that's how you build along-term business.
And that's one of the things wesaw when everybody else said
engines for life or lifetimewarranty.
When we got our legal team,that's how deep we got.
We got our legal teams involved.
They said, hang on, legally, inan insurance contract, they got
to make you define down in thedetails what lifetime means.

(33:07):
You have to quantify it.
So, even though they could saylifetime, they had to put down
there what it actually was.
And then another big one thatwe eliminated and at first it
sounds like you should do thisbecause it creates retention.
Most other ones out there.
You have to come back for anannual inspection and you have

(33:27):
to do what they said needs to bedone to keep the warranty valid
.
So all recommended maintenance,all recommended maintenance.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
It has to be done.
It's like they had you by thetail.
They did.
You have to do what we tell youto do, and we can tell you to
do whatever we want.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
So when we looked at it through the scope of business
, that sounds great.
Yeah, Because they're in yourshop more.
Yeah, Through the scope ofbusiness, that sounds great
because they're in your shopmore.
But through the scope of thecustomer who's buying and
trusting in you, they're like ohman, here it is again One of
these snake old hills.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
What if I'm traveling ?
Or what if I'm here?
What if I have to move?
Yeah, what if I move?
They said you had to do everysingle oil change there, some of
them.
I was like oh gosh, like everyservice interval, every single
one, it had to be by the book.
I was like that's not a goodcustomer experience.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Again from a business point of view.
On paper, do you want that?
Absolutely Sign me up.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
But then when you look at it from the customer,
who is the one that actuallywill be coming, it's like whoa,
hang on, I wouldn't like that Ina world of trying to have a
good business and have good CSI,where CSI is such a hard thing,
because in today's world moreand more people want to share
experiences and you generallydon't get the whole story that

(34:39):
was like that's a nightmare.
Do not do that right, you'rejust going to get fried.
At every friction point is anopportunity.
That customer has a badexperience and they're gonna
tell all the friends, tell thewhole world.
It's like we don't need helpwith that I'll throw you another
one.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I shall have more to comment on that one.
I'll tell you where we saw andy'all resonate with this we saw
an opportunity that the customercould win and then, deeper
layered, we could win byoffering up this.
Additional savings is on thesales side.
We know that our best pre-ownedvehicles come from new car

(35:18):
trades.
We know that we get to see it.
They sell faster, they have astory, they're worth more.
And then we know, if we getthat and, shelby, you were just
going over this in a meetingwith the managers is how much
that really means to ourbusiness.
From part sales, service sales,the next one to sell, the next
one they trade the whole thing.
We said why don't we offer upan additional, what we'll call

(35:43):
as an internal rebate for tradeassistance?
So, customers that are lookingat new vehicles, if you've got a
trade-in, we'll offer you anadditional discount or rebate
above and beyond allmanufacturers because you have a
trade-in.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
And we learned that from the manufacturer because
once in a while they'd come outwith the trade assistance and
saw some pretty good traction toit.
Yes, why can't we do that onour own?
Like, let's offer another$1,000.
In the last couple months we'vehad even more money than that
to say, hey, here's how we'remore competitive because we need
the trade-ins.
We'd rather give you more moneythan go to the auction and pay
for the cars, so let's just doan internal trade assistance.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
You bet.
So that was an opportunitywhere we got what we needed.
They got more for it andoverall it really put us in a
position to be able tostrategically beat the
competition.
Customer wins and we win.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Absolutely.
I mean, it's been big of goingthrough both of those, whether
it be trade assistance or be thelowest guarantee of really
knowing.
And once you get into the finedetails, you can confidently
then teach your team to be ableto go out there and it's the day
and age where you have to sellthe whole process of it, so then
they can go out there andreally be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
And then some of those things took years.
Like, you see, the opportunityand in an age of sometimes you
have to move very fast, and someof the things we move very fast
in, but in a tidal wave whereit continues to ripple, that
took a lot of time of like, okay, what if Okay, what if Okay,
what else, who else is doingthat?
And just peeling the layersback.

(37:20):
Don't give up on it.
Like, have the endurance to seethrough it, but then just to
make sure that you've edited allthe things, so like, okay, this
is a good experience, just likeSonic, when they open the app
it shows here how did they getit?
How did they claim it?
They don't have to talk to amanager, they don't need a
coupon code, and so those thingsthat took time.
And so you have to make surethat you're pointing it the
right direction.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
You do, and I think you run that in business If you
just have enough filters inplace where you say great idea,
what are we really trying toaccomplish today and what are we
trying to accomplish in thefuture?
Yeah Well, what does it?
Does it feel those?
Do we have any heat from it?
Are there going to be anyfriction points?
And we have things that havesome friction to it.

(38:01):
But overall, the good outweighsthe bad and we just got to do a
better job training than to beable to get through that.
Absolutely, you know for surethat's some good stuff, but that
always comes out by studyingcreatively, getting in the room
with the right people you knowthat who's on your creative team
and go how could we win here?

(38:26):
What's been successful?
What hadn't been successful?
What's the customer looking for?
What's our spitball on thoseideas?
And then let's sleep on thatand see how it is.
And, like you said, there arethings where we need to react
fast, because then the windowmoves and we have those.
But we also have long-termplays.
You know, lewis Guarantylong-term play, you know, and
that took a lot of strategicthought.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
And it probably brings some more merit and
weight to the situation becausethen our internal employee, not
only customers on the outside,they can see whenever things
lever needs to be pulled and youmove quick.
But whenever something bigcomes, I know we've taken the
time to vet it and really makesure that it makes sense not
only for the customers but toalso be able to help any

(39:06):
internally as well.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Yeah, and I think some of that we learned from a
really, really young age.
I mean, I can remember our dad,the amount of times that he
would make us think about adecision, and now I find myself
saying that to my son and I'mlike it's coming 360 degrees.
I made him wait overnight.
Unless it's something that hasto be and this is a great lesson

(39:30):
unless it has to be made rightnow and it's not just an impulse
Like you set your amount onwhatever it is and think about
it overnight, and if you stillfeel the same in the morning,
then okay, you know it allowsthe different part of your brain
to work there and that's helpedus strategically.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
There's no doubt, just like, and as you age, as
you mature, I should say youmight mature faster than you age
, or vice versa.
Uh, you might never mature andjust age, but that starts to
make more sense of like okay,that's what my dad was talking
about.
All right, you know, you have toknow, and I've missed a lot of

(40:09):
opportunities to purchase thingsor to be a part of things by
slow playing something you know.
Think of a house in today's dayand age.
Like if you tried to slow playit and let them stew, you just
get a ping from zillow's.
Like a house just went undercontact you You're like son of a
gun.
I was going to offer them $250.

(40:31):
He's like no.
So you kind of got tounderstand the landscape that
you're in?

Speaker 1 (40:36):
You do, but that comes back to other episodes.
We've talked about getting theright people around you, because
then you can bounce it off ofthose people, hey what do you
think?

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Here's a soft fraternity, here's what it is,
and they're like oh, that'sunheard of Go.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
You just make sure whoever you're asking about that
is at a level where you want togo to.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
That is really important.
It's funny you say that becauseyou don't need to be getting
your advice from you know theguy at the gas station pump that
you don't know and you weretalking about you know vetting
things earlier in this episodetalking about hey, I understand,
got to kind of be careful whoyou share the current struggles
with.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Oh, for sure.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
You know like, hey, here's our current, what the
competition's doing, and thenthey might know the competition.
And you didn't talk bad aboutthem.
You just say, hey, I've got tofind a way to find an upper leg
so my local people stay with meinstead of going to the 999 oil
change.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
They might sit there like hunger just hearing
everything you say and then theyrun straight over the
competition like hey, lewis iscoming after you it's no
different than I'm going down adifferent segment here, but I'll
just say this it's no differentthan if you're married and you
know as a husband, you and yourwife have had a fight or a
disagreement or this or that.
Don't go to work and findanother female to sit down and

(41:54):
have the conversation to hearyour dirty laundry.
Don't have a work, wife Ross.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Like it's just not going to work out well.
So same thing you're saying isyou don't air out.
Here's what we found about ourcompetitors.
We need to figure out a way todo it or we're not going to do
that.
You've got to make sure whoyou're sharing that with.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Yeah.
So that's when you say it takestime to gain some trust because
they've probably been burnedbefore and if you haven't been
burned, you will be burned.
So you want to get in thosecircles and you can be mad at
that person.
I mean you should be, but it'sa waste of energy too to be mad
at them.
So you're just like, eh, youknow, that's my fault for not
vetting the person I was talkingto and you just have different
levels of relationships and youknow that.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
You know you have people that you know you still
like and you hang out withSurface level but you're not
discussing your finances withthem.
No, you know what I mean.
No, and as the farther you goup in the importance of
decisions, that circle getsreally small.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
It's pretty small.
It's pretty small Because whatwill happen and we've had it in
our business is one person wascomplaining about something with
their pay and what they didn'trealize is the person they were
complaining to actually didn'thave it as good as they had it.
Oh yeah, and they werecomplaining, we had that happen
and it have it as good as theyhad it.
Oh yeah, and they were, we hadto happen and it was like so
then he came away from it.

(43:13):
He or she came away from.
It was like they werecomplaining about that.
But all I heard him was say xpercentage and I was thinking I
don't even get that percentageI'll tell you another.
I'll tell you another story Iwas like you get paid to work
here so that's a great example.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
I'll give you one more, because our listeners need
stories.
I'm not going to say names herebecause this one gets a little
bit deep.
Go ahead, tell me financial.
So we had an employee givingothers investment advice what
Okay, charles Schwab?
On what they should do withtheir money and how they could
make this money and this andthat.
And they had a group of peoplethat he was really pouring into

(43:50):
and they were all fired up aboutit.
Well, passes, two to four weeks.
Fortunately they hadn't madeany of those moves yet.
Two to four weeks and thatperson given the advice out,
goes and tries to buy a vehicle.
They can't get approved becausethey've not handled their own
finances.
And it was an awakening,because you know how word

(44:11):
travels.
It was an awakening to thosethat he'd been talking to about
how to handle and invest theirmoney.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
So check below the surface that's all I've got to
say Just pop the checkunderneath there.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Yeah, I probably did say right there no, that was
good, you know understandingthat.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Just making sure, look at the competition and then
see where your information iscoming from.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
And we got pretty deep there on talking about
relationships and then you'll goon with your fun fact.
But I think the point is and wetook a detour, but it was a
good detour was because youalways have to have the right
people around you.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
You can't do it by yourself.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
You can't and it's not a one-size-fits-all group
like we've talked about before.
We've got idea people, we'vegot doers, we've got financial
people, we have people that arein the industry locally.
We have people in the industrythat are non-locally, and each
of those we can ask differentadvice from and a lot of it's
virtual.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Sometimes it's just one way it is.
You're getting a lot of yourstuff from you know people.
We've talked about this beforeof how you get your content to
level up.
Yep, I'm not talking about yourcontent, how you feed your
brain.
So you're seeing what thecompetitor is doing.
You know, you follow yourindustry or business and then
you're seeing this and you getthat all the information.
So then when you have aconversation, you're able to go

(45:25):
through that and dive throughthat.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Because if you never get that, this cup right here
that you try to take for yourteam and you try to motivate and
fill them up, if you haven'ttaken the time to fill this up,
what's in it for everybody else?
Nothing, nothing, nothing,absolutely nothing.
Nothing's in there.
You need that suckeroverflowing, but the only way
you can do that is prioritizingyourself and being around those

(45:47):
people.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Filled up, hey, and shout out to our cups.
Local company Paisley Co Gotthese cups Dang.
So we've got our swag crossoverconversations All right.
What type of engine is mostcommon in passenger cars today?
We've got rotary engine,electric internal combustion and
steam engine.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
It's got to be steam, it's not.
It's got to be steam, it's not,it's got to be internal
combustion.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
It's internal combustion, okay.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yep Electric is gaining ground, but just in the
landscape of understanding thiselectric.
I don't know the exact, sodon't call an ADA on me, but
it's less than 5% of currentvehicles on the road are
electric vehicles.
So, internal combustion peopleare burning petrol.
It's tried and true.
It's tried and true, all right.
So internal combustion peopleare burning petrol.
It's tried and true.
It's tried and true, all right.
Ethical competitive practices1.4%, sorry Was that Arkansas

(46:34):
it's 1.4% Arkansas is playinghalf percent.
Yes, arkansas is right in thesecond least On the road in the
US there.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
It's a natural state, though Now it is ticking up.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Your 8.7 of new cars sold last year was electric.
Okay, that's units in operation.
Units in operation is 1.4% onthe road.
Uil units in operation 1.4%.
Last year we saw a big growthof 8%.
A lot of that came from plug-inhybrid, but still EV was the
trend.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
When you say 1% is very small.
That's still over 4 millionvehicles because units in
operation is 292 millionvehicles on the road in the US.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
And that's why we run a good deal on oil changes,
because there's 290 millionvehicles, so still over 4
million.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
We're in it, but that's not the majority right
now.
Okay, wow, all right.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
So you know it's the internal combustion engine.
Ethical competitive practicesand maintaining your own edge
keyword your own edge and thenalso the ethical part of that
mm-hmm.
Long term, 79 years in thebusiness, our father, his dad
and his dad's dad forgenerations.
Long term, right.

(47:45):
If it's not right, don't do it.
If you can make a quick buck,not worth it like, do treat
others the way you want to betreated.
It's not right.
Don't do it.
If you can make a quick buck,don't do it.
Treat others the way you wantto be treated.
It's so simple and easy, sodistinguishing the difference
between healthy competition andunethical practices.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
I think how you started that out right there.
If we needed to sum up thiswhole subject, the way you
separate whether it was ethicalor not, was is it short term or
long term?
Yes, there are plenty of peopleout there and unfortunately
this happens in in everyindustry is that people?
They call it gray, they call itbending the lines a little bit.

(48:23):
It's not ethical.
Okay, they're not holding up totheir bar into the bargain.
They make buck.
Okay, they drive a lot oftraffic in.
And there's a couple ofsubjects we'll talk about here.
We can first talk about just onthe advertising side of it to
draw people in, that they'll putstuff out there, that then and
we have them too that you haveto qualify for, but they put

(48:45):
unrealistic stuff out there.
So then when the customer getsthere, that they hope that they
can just talk them through it.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
That's the idea.
They go to classic old schoolcar sales or whatever you're
selling, and then it's notobtainable and they're like we
advertised them, we got themthere and then we're just going
to throw their keys on the roofand we're going to just wear
them out, confuse them in thenumbers and we're going to wear
them out.
Then they're going to be likehey, if we can split the
difference can we make a deal.
You've already spent eighthours here today.
That's not a like.

(49:11):
Yeah, you know, in the rankingswe'll see sometimes this person
just spike.
It's like what the heck?
And so we go to their websiteand check it out and we do
secret shop a little bit.
We're like what is this?
And so we're like what's goingon here?
It's like well, did you knowthat car has 5,000 miles?

(49:32):
It did.
And did you know you have toqualify for X, y, z, t, r A O
and you must have been born onJanuary 1st.
Yeah, he's like that.
And they're like well, no, Italked to him on the phone.
Phone, that's what they saidthey would do is like well, no,
no, they're into the trickerythat.
Why would they tell you?
Why would they give it up onthe phone?

(49:52):
no they're going to get you inthe store, yes, and then you're
going to be like, dang it, Iknew it.
It's like, no, here we are,here's what we offer.
It's fair, it's competitive andyou get this for no cost and
you get this, no, for cost.
And we've been doing this forso long and that shouldn't mean
anything.
But it means everything to saythat we will still be here, and

(50:14):
sometimes they forget that untilthen, they have an issue and
they're like, hey, it's meremember.
And it's like, yeah, we'restill here and we'll still take
care of you, and like what?
This and this and this and thisand this and this and this?
Was like, well, remember, whenyou just kicked me in the teeth
here, here and here, and thisand this and this and this and
this?
I was like, well, remember,when you just kicked me in the
teeth here, here and here andhere and here, why should I help
you?

Speaker 3 (50:31):
Exactly, I was going to, but no, and there's a whole
lot of confidence in doingbusiness that way because you
have a wall to stand backagainst.
That you can be.
Hey, no, I'm confidentlyknowing this is what we're doing
.
If you're doing the otherbusiness practices, your eyes
are in the back of your head,constantly looking over your
shoulder.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I think the slippery slope there is when you've got a
customer and they spend eighthours and they're wore out and
it's the only so-and-so red oneyou know in the region the
customer ends up going forwardwith it.
They're not pleased about it.
They're not happy about it, butthey get the sale and then the
salesperson, the sales manager,are like see, that worked.
We got to walk them throughthat, but that worked.

(51:12):
What they don't realize is yeah, even though they left in that
brand new red vehicle, as soonas they talk to everybody about
it, they talk about how bad theexperience was and they're never
coming back.
So that's the short versus thelong.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
The battle versus the war.
You won the battle, but youdidn't win the war right the
long battle versus the war.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
You won the battle, but you didn't win the war right
and unfortunately, especiallyas a leader and entrepreneur out
there, you have thatresponsibility when you're
leading people and growingpeople that are naive.
You take somebody that's intheir young 20s, just learning
and trying to absorb it all,you're teaching them bad habits.
They don't know any better.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Yeah, you know they have no clue.
All right, the guy's been doingit a long time.
You a new person here andthey're just eager to learn
everything and you're creating aproblem.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
You really are.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
The culture is slowly eroding.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
So I'm going to flip to another side of it here and
then I know you all will takethis and run with.
It is on the finance side of it.
So and I got to give a briefoverview of what we do for
everybody listening is when youcome and purchase a vehicle from
us, we're connected aspreferred lenders with multiple
different financing sources alittle over 26.

(52:18):
Credit unions, local banks,national banks, which we've gone
through a vetting process wherewe can sign all the paperwork.
We submit the information overto them so you don't have to go
through the bank.
The same process happens likeif you would have gone in the
bank.
We're just very efficient at itand we can get somebody
approved and signed faster thanyou can walk into any bank.
Saves time, saves time, Yep.

(52:39):
But we've gone through thevetting process.
They trust us to be accuratewith what's going over, yep.
Here's what we'll find.
Customer went to another store.
There's two different scenariosthat happen.
Customer went to another store,they couldn't get approved and
salesperson, sales manager,finance manager, whoever says
well, just put it in yourbuddy's name, just put it in

(52:59):
your grandparent's name and usetheir credit.
That's called a straw purchasein our business, trying to make
a quick deal.
Trying to make a quick deal.
Fly it to the bank.
It shows in our bank contractsthat we will do the vetting and
we will not represent to thempeople that are not the true
driver of the vehicle.
It says that whoever we submitwill be a driver, and I'm not

(53:22):
talking about co-signing, I'mtalking about the primary person
we put in somebody else's name.
So there's one for you all totalk about.
The second one and one of,y'all can take each one of these
.
The second one is where afinance manager will change
either time on job or the amountof money they make monthly
because they know they have acredit score high enough that

(53:44):
they can run them through theprocess.
But during an audit, again,ethically we didn't represent
correctly.
They can then pull thatrelation Again.
That's a short-term game.
So each of those subjects wherey'all can take each one of them
.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
So the tricky part of constantly hiring new
salespeople as we grow and thepeople find that sales isn't
their forte, you know.
So we're building that personthrough their two-way tricky One
.
They've heard someone elsesomewhere down the road say, hey
, they need to make $2,600 orwhatever it is.
And so they're like I don'tknow exactly what my income is.

(54:19):
He's like would you say it's$2,600?
They lead them into that.
Yeah, as a salesperson, what'sthe most it's ever been, what's
the most it's ever been, right?
Um, and so then they lead theminto that.
And so they put incorrectinformation.
Or, on the flip side, thecustomer comes in who's shopping

(54:39):
multiple different places andthey got taught or kind of
coached into an approval.
So then now the sales person isagainst you as a manager,
saying no, they're approved atArvest.
Why can't we be approved atArvest?
And he's like well, let'sdissect this.
And I was like well, I can see,on the approval they submitted
over, that shows he makes $2,800.
Right, here, it shows $2,200.

(54:59):
So what's right?
And he's like well, I dividedit by this times it by that.
He's like we can't help.
And so they get upset becausethey're going to miss a deal
because you can't get approvedon that.
But you have to know we're along term game and that that's
tough as a manager to hold yourground of true and real and also
keep your salesperson on boardbecause they might be down the

(55:22):
road.
I'm not saying anybody does,but they do.
I think, fluffing the numbers tomake quick business?
Yep, you know, to make a quickbuck.
And so a salesperson.
If they don't have the backbone, and the backbone doesn't go to
the manager and then all theway up to the very top, if they
don't preach, hey, here's whatwe're going to do, I don't care
how many deals we make or miss,yeah, here's how we'll do

(55:44):
business, and this is the onlyway we'll do business.
So when the auditor does comebecause they will they'll say
here's all of our.
Look at it all.
It's all here, here's what wehave, here's pay stubs, here's
the stuff.
And then you can sleep good atnight, but that you get tested
every day in that.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
You do.
And then there's a lot ofemotions involved, especially in
a competitive market, becausethey may go down the road and
actually purchase and you missthe deal.
Yep, and you just got to.
You got to walk everybodyemotionally through it.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
It's a long-term game and it'll come back around and
sometimes the bank will call youif they leave.
Oh yeah, they'll call you andthey'll say, hey, such and such
is down the road, but thisdoesn't look right.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
So that gets on the income side, on the job time.
What about what I was referringto about the?
About the straw purchase?
Yeah, straw purchasing.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Gosh, this business is so emotional and even us as
brothers have all been in thesituation that your emotions get
in there and you see a deal andyou see something.
So of a cosigner they'll get acosigner, and more times than
not, if it's a grandparent, theyjust always wants to help out
the kids and so they'll get agrandparent.
They've got great credit.

(56:50):
They don't necessarily have theincome, so that's another part
of it, but then they'll be like,no, it's just for them, no,
it's just for them.
And that's where you have tohave taught the principals to
say no, it's not for them, it'sfor little Johnny, and he has to
be on there.
Now, they can co-sign, now,they can co-sign Now.
Every time I offer a solution,absolutely we'll take that

(57:11):
credit.
They have to be on there withthem.
No different than I had one fromone of our other lots the other
day.
It bought a GT500.
Manager called me and said, hey, it's sold, and I said, well,
this is everything on the car.
We weren't going to do this,but okay, let's move forward.
He's like, well, I talked tothe guy and, uh, he's gonna race

(57:33):
it this weekend and I said holdon, said this doesn't sound
right.
Well, no there.
And I could hear thesalesperson in the background
said, no, they're married.
And I said I don't thinkthey're married.
Lo and behold, they get here.
They're not married.
I don't let him buy the carwithout him going on there.
And he kept saying no, we'remarried, no, we're married, no,
we're married.
His credit was not good.
They didn't get approved withboth of him being on there as

(57:56):
well, and unfortunately,sometimes you have to make that
tough decision because we're init for the long haul.
I don't care about the singledeal right now, and a lot of
times you have trouble dealingwith that because some employees
are not in it for long haul.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
They can care less.
They want money right now.
No, no, no, no, no.
I'm talking about rolling upthe carpet.
They want it right now, don'troll up and be gone and you'll
be stuck with all the stuff.
It's you, it's you right.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
It's you, but you know, not only being let's talk
aboutigner Absolutely not.
So if we take somebody that'sgot bad credit and they're
trying to do a straw purchase inthe other, you actually do them
a better service if you talkthem into both people going on
there, even if it's a higherinterest rate, because not only
do you sell something, you helpthe person with the bad credit
reestablish their credit, sothen they're not in the same

(58:47):
boat three years down the road.

Speaker 3 (58:49):
Yeah, absolutely.
You're setting them up with awhole path to be able to, yes,
fix everything what they'recursed at.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
That's a really good point.
And so some of the points Ihave here on this of ethical and
maintaining your own edge, andit all circles back to building
relationships.
So in that situation of helpingthem understand, hey, here's
how we're going to do this to beable to help you Is that the
goal?
It's correct, it's proper.
You've got to sell the manageron that, sell the salesperson on

(59:16):
that and then ultimately thecustomer in the end, and that's
what sets you apart fromcompetitors.
It does.
You know, like son, you're notgoing to be able to eat this
peep right now but if you waittill tomorrow, it'll be 12 peeps
, and here's why that's morebeneficial.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
That's so good, that's right and the customers
that will listen and we walkthrough that.
There's huge success stories.
I can remember you got that uhsuccess story about the csc
customer that ends up buying thenew raptor yes, come in looking
for a raptor, super duty.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
We started out I don't remember the first car,
but it was a fiesta fusion highinterest rate.
High interest rate, 24 interestrate.
Uh, we put them on a short termto be able, so it wasn't really
strung out, but they needed arelationship yes, my
relationship.
They needed a transportation,yeah, so their credit, uh, and
we said hey, and so if you givethat to a salesperson who's not

(01:00:07):
really good at it, they're likeno way.
They came here for a raptor oran f-350 and we're, I'm gonna
show them a fiesta.
It's like you're offering thema solution, right?
sure you know it's like, hey,this is a good car, it comes
with the lewis guarantee.
And then let's work on this.
And so the understanding islike, hey, right now you're
buying a car for transportation,plus you're paying to rebuild
your credit.

(01:00:27):
We're going to report to thebureaus.
And so in less than four yearswent from a fiesta refusion and
then to came in to buy an f-150and were able to go standard
financing, then was able to doan f-350 like ninety thousand
dollars through ford credit, gotsavine rate, yeah, of like a
5.9 from 24 percent and then inthe end ended up getting a

(01:00:51):
Raptor at a prime rate Becausewe long-term gained Raving fan
now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's 79 years worth ofbusinesses having tough
conversations but providing asolution.
And so customers we havecustomers that say, hey, I come
here because of this, I comehere because of this, I come

(01:01:11):
here because of that it's sodifferent than your point you
talked to on that earlier, whichis understanding that sometimes
you get a pause.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
You got a pause and it's not fun.
It's not fun to be able to makethe call, but if you're gonna
be the leader of your business,you gotta be willing to do that
to know that you're gonna set upfor better success down the
road.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
I know we need to wrap this thing up, but when you
were talking earlier and thenwe got on a sidebar conversation
but talking about competitivefrom dealership to dealership or
business to business, it's alsoon your employees, that's true.
So, on the employee side, whensomeone says, hey, I'm offering
this, this and this and this andit was unobtainable, when
someone says, hey, I'm offeringthis, this and this and this and

(01:01:52):
it was unobtainable, we seethat on the employee side,
whether it's a salesperson,technician, highest turn rate,
and they say, hey, technician,toolboxes, iron wheels Of
companies no different than theysay, hey, it's $28,000 off a
new Jeep, come and get it.
We know it's not real thetechnician.
So have your back button.
Know what you're offering isgood because you've done the
research, because we'll seepeople guarantee hours and we'll

(01:02:14):
pay $85 an hour and we'll giveyou an apprentice and the hours
don't matter, that you actuallywork and what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Then they leave.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Then they leave.
Right, they leave that placeand they come back and they're
like it wasn't real.
That's right.
So do your competitive researchto know that you're relative,
but then stand your ground andsay, no, I offer this, this and
this and this, and I know it'scompetitive and I know it's good
.
Be confident.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Absolutely.
Hey, rolling into one thing, Igot a question for both y'all
and you can see.
But if you could change onething about your day-to-day in
business, what would it be?

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Change one thing about your day-to-day business.
As an optimist, it's hard toknow that, because generally
golly Craig, you're throwing usdeep here as an optimist,
generally there's no badsituation, there's no bad
scenario.
I mean there is.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
I would say something more so that's reoccurring
day-to-day like this eitherfaults you or slows you down or
anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Well, there's plenty of things that fault me or slow
me down, and most of them are myfault, but I would say that,
dealing with an issue, withsomewhere in the process of, I
wish that people, before theyburned us in a manufacturer
survey or a Google reviewBecause we respond to every
single one With my phone number,with your phone number, with

(01:03:34):
your phone number and email andsay, hey, we'd love to talk to
you If they gave us anopportunity to hear this
scenario, and then we said, hey,can we explain why this was?
We do apologize, it's our fault.
We didn't transparently tellyou why, because the problem is
no one's messing up on purposeand no one's not tightening
something on purpose.
So I wish that people wouldreach out, uh, and allow us to

(01:03:57):
help them walk through thatprocess before they just fried
everything with hopes of gainand nothing to gain yeah, I
think that's.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
That's a great point of yours and and I'll kind of
come from that from a differentangle is if I could change
something, it would be a betterunderstanding for our customers
to understand.
We're not the manufacturer.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
You don't build the car.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
We don't build the car.
We understand that we're therelationship and the channel to
get to the manufacturer, butthat's all we are.
We're willing to work togetherwith you.
A lot of times when we try tofix a car and maybe it doesn't
fix it immediately, then that'scoming from advice from the
manufacturer.
They tell you how to fix it,they tell us how to fix it, they

(01:04:37):
tell you what part to put onand we know the customer's
frustrated.
But if we could change it, theyunderstand we're in this
relationship together to try toequal Because we don't get paid
if the vehicle doesn't get fixedRight, you to try to equal
because we don't get paid if thevehicle doesn't get fixed Right
.
You know, but so many times,especially in this industry,
with the amount these vehiclesare, the customers assume that

(01:04:58):
we've got these unlimited fundsand we've got a direct
connection to Detroit.
And we don't.
No, we don't.
So if there was a frustratingpart of the business, that would
be that I don't mind problemsolving, but it's very hard to
problem solve stuff that youdon't have control over.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Yeah, Absolutely Well .
Great episode today Really doveinto all the different sets of
going over in business, ofethical practices and being
really in the long-term game ofknowing that sometimes you've
got to hold and be able to workthrough that.
But always check us out onlewissuperstorecom and on
Crossroads Conversations podcast.
Hit that like and subscribebutton and we'll see you next

(01:05:35):
time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Hey, thanks for joining us today and we hope you
enjoyed this episode.
Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
family.
Visit our website and send ussome questions.
We want to know what you'd liketo hear, who you'd like to hear
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