Ep.44 - Beyond the First Listen: Unpacking Key Takeaways from Past Episodes

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers reflect on key themes from their previous episodes, focusing on productivity in leadership, the importance of building strong teams, fostering a positive company culture, managing difficult employees, and the significance of effective inventory control. They emphasize the need for leaders to empower their teams, adapt their management styles, and maintain a strong company culture to ensure success in their family business. In this conversation, the speakers delve into the critical aspects of inventory management, emphasizing the importance of treating inventory as cash and making strategic business decisions rather than emotional ones. They discuss effective marketing strategies for inventory turnover, the role of pricing in sales, and the necessity of clear communication with customers. The conversation also touches on navigating customer expectations and finding solutions in customer service, ultimately highlighting the importance of asking the right questions in business conversations.

Takeaways

Are you or is your team doing the most productive thing right now?

You're only as good as your team.

Creating powerful teams requires sharing a vision and empowering members.

Culture is crucial and should be developed intentionally.

Managing difficult employees requires a balance between performance and behavior.

You can't buy culture; it must be cultivated.

Inspect what you expect to maintain productivity.

Adapt your management style to different personalities.

Cut ties with underperforming inventory to move forward.

Empower your team to take ownership of their responsibilities. Inventory management is crucial for business success.

Treat inventory as cash to maximize returns.

Emotional decisions can hinder business operations.

Effective marketing can help turn over inventory.

Pricing strategies impact sales significantly.

Clear communication with customers is essential.

Understanding customer expectations is key to service.

Finding solutions is more important than simply saying no.

Asking the right questions can lead to better business practices.

Continuous improvement is necessary for business growth.

Sound Bites

"You're only as good as your team."

"You need to empower your team."

"If it is to be, it's up to me."

"Inspect what you expect."

"Culture, culture, culture."

"You can't buy culture."

"Cut ties and move on."

"Think of inventory as cash."

"Is it ready to sell?"

"The customer is not always right."

"The good will always outweigh the bad."

Chapters

00:00 The Importance of Productivity in Leadership

01:30 Reflecting on Past Episodes

05:44 Creating Powerful Teams in Business

11:20 Building a Strong Company Culture

19:04 Managing Difficult Employees

26:14 The S

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):
One of the things that I will ask from a leader
all the way down just directlyto an employee and this one is
kind of hitching the gutsometimes Are you or is your
team doing the most productivething right now that helps their
job?
Yeah, that's a tough one, right, and that's just like.
It's not like hey, dude, whatthe heck are you doing?
You're goofing off.
But sometimes it'll be aquestion like hey, man, I

(00:22):
completely understand.
Hey, real quick question Areyou doing the most productive
thing right now that you couldbe doing to help you reach your
goal?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with
the Lewis Brothers, where weaim to share real stories about
running a successful familybusiness while working through
adversity and pouring back intoour community that keeps our
doors open every single day.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real, relevant,local business advice, maybe

(00:52):
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe even
throw in a plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Welcome back to Crossroad Conversations with the
Lewis Brothers here locally.
Welcome back to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers.
Hey, episode 44 this morningand we're excited about this one
Not only got all the brothersback in the studio, but it's a
perfect time to reflect and kindof take a journey back on all
43 episodes.
We're not going to go over allof them, but we've handpicked a
few of them that were mostimpactful that we heard from you

(01:23):
, the listener of man.
I really handpicked a few ofthem that were most impactful
that we heard from you, thelistener of man.
I really liked that tip.
I really liked that episode.
It helped us in our businessand then maybe some stuff we've
learned through on the way eventake us deeper dives in some
area so that we can pour back inand help you be more successful
about running your business.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Absolutely, hey.
And if you missed out on lastweek episode 43, we talked about
the ethical compass, navigatingmoral dilemmas and leadership
and the things that we've gonethrough and how, like we weren't
just born into.
But it was like if you sayyou're going to do it, you do it
no matter what the result is,and no amount of money will ever

(02:03):
say it's okay to do this.
And so we spent a whole episodeon that and kind of broke that
down.
So make sure you check out atCrossroad Conversations, hey.
And if you haven't check out ourinventory at lewissuperstorecom
, you can find that on thewebsite.
You'll see a thousand plusvehicles, over 35 million
vehicles available.
And if you need your car oilchanged, you bet hey.

(02:24):
Just quick reminder noappointment needed, that's right
.
And also pricing.
A lot of times people will havethis preface that you can go to
the five minute oil change orthe Jiffy Lube or any of those
because they think it's lessmoney.
Well, mythbusters.
Here.
We shop that about every 90days to make sure we're on the

(02:44):
money, if not a little bit less,and we send out coupons to save
up to $50 off that.
So generally we're less Highercertified technicians, no
appointment needed and generallyit's a 45 minutes in and out
and done, so stop by and see uswith that.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
I think that's a great point.
Yeah, it's been big.
Hey, getting back in.
You know, this time of yearit's fun to be able some talk
about a convertible, but I needa little bit bigger vehicle.
So I'm talking about the Bronco, the Bronco Heritage, but even
more so, this is real OG.
It comes in a two-door.

(03:18):
People have been asking me whatis that crazy colored Bronco
that just came in.
Crazy colored Bronco?
Well, it is the retro backtribute to the Bronco that just
came in.
Crazy colored Bronco.
Well, it is the retro backtribute to the Bronco Strobe
Edition.
So it is orange, white, bluewith a matte black roof.
It is wild looking, Looks likeyou can go straight to the Baja

(03:39):
in it.
It's two-door, 2.7, front rearlocking axles, has every single
option on it.
But it pays back homage to the.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
OG, it really does.
It goes back to the 70s whenthey were racing off-road
vehicles straight to the Baja500 and 1000.
From the factory, from thefactory and Bill was a factory
racer for Ford.
So 71 to 75, they had theselimited production two-door
broncos.
They were the only bronco thatcame with the uncut fender

(04:07):
flares, the red, white, bluescheme, double shocks, high
horsepower motors.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Back then they only produced 650 of these ball I'm
gonna ask you I knew it was notmany 650 I'm gonna upgrade the
steering gearbox, the shocks itkind of went through and did the
whole and then they raced theentire Baja.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
So I love and you guys have heard me talk and
passionate about that thatedition coming out because it
does pay Heritage.
It is correct to that 71 to 75edition.
Yeah, so people have been soexcited.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's fun to be able to talk about, hey, going back
to that Heritage, so we have oneavailable on the ground that
you can own and take home today.
Come check it out.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
You bet.
Now, as we dive in this morningagain, we're reflecting back on
some of our earlier episodes.
Really, to recap it, we're notgoing to go all the way in depth
to each one of them, but we'llreference these episodes too.
So if you like what you heardabout it, you can go back and
reference those and rememberthose are on our website or
wherever you get your podcastson Spotify or Apple or wherever

(05:07):
else.
Hey, first I'm going to bringup this one and I'm going almost
way back, almost to thestarting, and who knows how we
sounded back then.
I promise you re-listen All theway back to Episode 3.
And the reason I picked Episode3 here is because, if you'll
remember or I'll help youremember here, the title of it
was Creating Powerful Teams inBusiness.

(05:29):
And I think that's one of thosethemes that we've sprinkled in
throughout all the episodes isyou're only as good as your team
and you have to empower and youhave to embrace the teams in
your business, because there'sonly so much you can do and I
don't care how hard you work orthis or that, you'll hit a
ceiling and there won't be anymore that you can do without
having a team on your side.

(05:50):
So during that episode, when wetalked about powerful teams, we
talked about getting that teamtogether and leading that team
with vision and then what thegame plan was to help accomplish
that vision.
So if you all would take itfrom there and kind of talk

(06:10):
about, as we did, talk about theteams, the value of teams and
what we've seen success out ofempowering and getting the right
team together- you know, Ithink it was important, as we've
learned, as we've taught onesharing, like you said, the
vision.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
They have to understand what the game plan is
.
You're not giving them a task,you're giving them
responsibility.
So it was not saying, hey, dothis, this and this, and say,
hey, here's the vision, Ienvisioned this to be able to do
this and this.
What's your thoughts here?
And so they're like, oh yeah, Ikind of like that.
It's hey, is that something youcan help me pilot to help make
sure this gets done?
I get a little buy-in, which iscrucial to make sure that we

(06:48):
empower that and make sure thatit carries itself out and
inspect it.
But then it's a cool thing thatyou can give them that Remember
, we talked about the multiplierfactor.
If you take it from you andgive it to someone else, if they
can at least produce or producesomewhere around 60 to 70% of
your production and you can dothat multiple times it's okay,

(07:09):
because you now got to go workon the next thing.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
I think that's a key point, and if you're just
listening, or maybe you'redriving through traffic or
pouring your coffee, re-listento this point, because it took
me years to finally settle inand be okay with this, and I'm
going to tell you.
Before then, frustration wasthrough the roof and you heard
and I do not like this quote,but I'm going to say it, I don't

(07:32):
like it now that I understandhow demoralizing or how bad it
is for business.
But when you hear people say ifit is to me, it's up to me.
If you want to done it right,you'll do it yourself.
I've said a thousand times, Ihave too.
That takes empowering away fromothers and what happens is your
multiplication.
Think about this as an equation.
Okay, and you're just putting aone in there and one times one

(07:54):
is whatever the number is.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
And I guess that quote is okay in proper
reference, if it is to be.
It's up to me and what is up toyou in your state is you
casting the vision of what theteam should do.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
you're taking away the working in the business and
working on the business becauseyou still, you can still make
that work right, you just have,you're doing other things yeah,
that's a good point of reframingthat, of like not saying, if
that task that didn't do up toyour area of expectations
doesn't happen, you don't justsay, well, I got to take it over

(08:28):
myself.
No, it's up to you to thendevelop those people.
We talked about that 70%.
I'll do quick math for youagain, just so you understand.
Listen, all you can give is100%.
All right, if you have fivepeople on your team giving 70%,
that's 350%.
That's a three and a half timesmultiplication of what you

(08:50):
could have done.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yep, cast vision and manage that, just so you can all
balance in.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, and we've seen a whole lot.
Whenever you take someone thatyou really think, hey, I'm going
to keep feeding them, I'm goingto keep feeding them, I'm going
to keep feeding them andthey're going to step up,
they're going to rise up to theoccasion.
They don't If you don't step tothe side and be able to give
them all the opportunities andtools to be able to move up.
And then you see a lot of thosepeople that you think, hey,
there's nowhere else for them togo.

(09:17):
They rise to the occasionwhenever you step to the side.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
They do.
I do want to throw this nowinto you guys' court so we can
revisit this subject.
It's one thing to hire thepeople for the team.
It's one thing to identify whoyour playmakers are, who your
catalysts are, who your visionpeople are, but in order to get
that then machined to work on adaily basis and keep reproducing

(09:40):
the results you're looking for,there's a key ingredient there
You've got to have the people,but then you've got to have the
processes.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yep Processes are super important.
Kpis inspecting what you expectis very important.
Because one thing if you canjust throw some numbers of what
you're trying to measure, if youcan just make that visible,
then they're like whoops,they're still paying attention.
Oops, I better get back on that.
They're still paying attention.
Oops, I better get back on that.
They're still.
Oh, that number's trending down, oh, that number's trending up,
right.
So just clear communication andthen monitoring those.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
I'll give you an example.
That's happened recently to usand we know this because we look
at reports all the time butsometimes we forget the power of
just awareness and discussingis.
About a month ago, we starteddiscussing with our team more
the breakdown of activities at amanager level-wise than to push
down, and we were looking atthings like phone calls, emails,
text messages, appointment sets, so on and so forth.

(10:32):
When we first started and wewere looking at these reports on
a more day-to-day basis, we sawthat text messages were the
lowest of the activities, it wasphone calls, it was emails and
then text messages were thelowest of the activities.
It was phone calls, it wasemails and then text messages
were the least amount.
Well, as we got to discussingit, we said hey, everybody in
the room, how do you communicate?
Do you answer the phone, do youanswer an email or do you text?

(10:53):
The majority of the timethey're answering the text.
I'm like if that's how peopleare communicating today, then
why aren't we pushing for textmessages to be our highest?
Yeah, what are we doing?
It's not yet, but I'll tell youwithin 30 days, text messages
leapfrogged emails and almostdoubled it, and we're going to
keep going until that exceeds,you know, passes, phone calls.

(11:15):
But that was just fromawareness of leading the team in
processes.
Yeah, that's been huge there.
It really has.
So again on the creating thepowerful teams in business for
more on that, go back to episodethree and listen to the entire
episode.
Next up, I picked out episodefour.
This one's dear to all of us inhere, because it talks about

(11:36):
culture, culture, culture,culture.
And I was listening to anotherpodcast the other day and a guy
was talking about his cultureand he said you know what From
the outside we would hear peopletalk about it's a cult.
And hey, what cult's going onthere?

(11:56):
What's the cult at in Lewis?
Are you part of that cult?
And he said at first I tookoffense to it.
I'm like, don't worry, we don'thave a cult here, he said.
But then, when I startedunpacking it, cult is in the
word culture.
It's just a reflection of whatculture you have.
So I was like, heck, yeah, wegot a cult.
It is a really strong culturethat others want to be a part of

(12:20):
.
Oh, yeah, you know, and that'sfun.
Now, that takes a while todevelop a culture and you're
developing a culture that'spositive, that's uplifting, that
allows other, to others, tothrive, and then, when they're
on their way to to work, theyenjoy and they look forward to
what they're gonna do, andthat's something that doesn't
cost you a penny.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
It's just what you say, how you say and how you
address situations you know, ifyou, if you define cult like
four or five layers deep, firstone, system of religious
directed toward a particularfigure or an object, a relative
small group of people who havereligious beliefs, you can go
all the way down.
It says a misplaced thing iswhat they talk about, a cult of

(13:01):
personalities surrounding theleader and the team.
Okay, okay, talk about a cultof personalities surrounding the
leader and the team.
Okay, so, okay, so, uh, what welaughed about when people said
that I don't care what you say.
You know, just like my, myfeelings are back with the
discarding tires and thedumpster.
You know, just because itdoesn't allow you to make proper

(13:25):
decisions.
If your feelings are on yoursleeve, it's not because I don't
care.
But, as people said that, I waslike you know, dissecting that,
and I was like, hey, why arepeople saying that?
And it's like you know whatthey're hating on it because
they're not part of it.
You know, and they see like,and we saw that like our car
show.
Yeah, and we saw it at our carshow.

(13:46):
We welcome, all right, all thestore owners and managers and
salespeople throughout thisentire process of building this
new building.
We've invited because we canget in the right room with the
right people, right?
You never know where it's goingto go in relationships and said
yeah, come on, we've giventours to people just across the
spectrum.
They're like that's your directcompetition.
Why would you do that?
We invited a DA here with allthe dealers, to come to a

(14:09):
meeting here.
He kept saying why are youdoing this?
Because I want people to seeour culture throughout the
business and every time theyleave here, by the time they
make it to the third store, it'sgenerally right off the balcony
when they walk in.
They will always say thisjokingly are you guys hiring?
every time without cue of sayingwe are hiring right we've got

(14:32):
17 positions available right nowfor hire.
Uh, they will say that are youhiring because they can see the
culture that's going on and it'severybody, it's not the three
amigos here.
Now do we check up on it andmake sure that people know
everybody's names andeverybody's doing good and
having fun?
Yeah, but it's the experiencethat everyone gets to have every

(14:55):
day.
That's true.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Yeah, it's so much of as we continue to expand and we
hear it more and more from theemployees that have been with us
for a little bit longer.
It's continue to manage, be inthe middle of that and it's just
fine-tuning and alwayscritiquing, because even the
level that we're at with how ourculture is built, there's still
times where we're like, hey,don't do this, hey don't do that

(15:19):
Because you have to go backaround, and I always love
inspect what you expect of goingback around and looking at that
and it never changes and itnever will.
As long as we want that cultureto continue and be around, you
have to continue to go aroundand check it out.
Now it's easier and people knowthat's the culture and they

(15:40):
continue to grow into that.
But but for all of y'all thatare listening like, oh, y'all
don't ever have problems oranything else that never pops up
, we have our huge, fair shareof them.
At least I will share with you.
Yes, yeah, but it's so fun, asMatt talked about coming to work
and doing that.
You are part of this cultureand you get to bring other

(16:02):
people into it and then growonto them part of this culture
and you get to bring otherpeople into it and then grow
onto them.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah, and I think I'll say a couple of things on
culture.
Here is we've always beenreally proud of our culture.
I'm going to tell you, italways hasn't been perfect and I
can tell you even gaps between,like when dad was GM and
running the business, and thenhe had another GM step in kind
of like while we were stillgoing through college and
working our way through theprocess, another GM step in kind
of like while we were stillgoing through college and
working our way through theprocess, I can remember getting
back involved and one departmentwas great.
Other department didn't.
These two got along.

(16:31):
These two didn't get along, andI don't mean just like a tiff
every once in a while, like theydidn't communicate.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like didn't want to be in the same room.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Didn't want to be, and you know that takes time to
break those walls down.
And we identified, luckily,earlier on, because this could
have grown legs and just beenout of control.
You know, when we were acrosstown just about 18 months ago,
we had about 150, 160 employees.
Almost immediately when wemoved, we had 100 more employees

(17:00):
at one location.
See, if you hire one or twopeople, the rest of the culture,
you know, brings them up,trains them and they're just
ingrained into it.
You inject a hundred peopleinto a culture that can change
it overnight, you know.
So we knew that and the threeof us talked about it like, hey,
we got to make sure our thumbsare back on that, because we've
got an entire new wave that wethey've heard about us.

(17:22):
But we got to teach them how wetreat people, how we treat each
other, what we do, our morals,so on and so forth the entire
culture, how we talk all of it.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yes, that's pretty important that you say that.
Going back to episode three ofcreating powerful teams in
business, because there's a lotof things we've delegated.
There are some very specificthings that we have not fully
delegated yet and it's in someof our meetings Now.
We've given, throughout themeeting, some delegation.
But then the culture, and thenthe cake day culture and then

(17:55):
things that we do.
That's really important thatpeople hear it from the horse's
mouth.
Here's how it goes.
Here's what it looks like.
This is why it's fun, no matterwhat right it goes.
Here's what it looks like.
This is why it's fun, no matterwhat right.
Uh, those are not things thatare fully thrown out and
delegated for letting someoneelse then develop the culture
and it shouldn't be.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
It's um, you know, it's one of those situations
where they need to see you.
You know, as, whether you'rethe manager or the owner or the
gm, they need to see you, theyneed to hear from you.
And you know, for example, likeour Friday morning meetings,
we're still up there talking.
However, we give differentsegments to those managers to
embrace them.
Our Saturday morning salesmeeting, we're talking, but

(18:33):
we're also embracing andempowering others.
So they have to see that we'renot a silent business partner
here.
Okay, we're running thebusiness and you're in the
middle of it and you have to be,you have to be able to, to, to,
uh, protect that culture.
That's a big one, it doesn'tcost you anything.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
No, you just gotta be nice and you gotta stay
consistent.
And the thing is you can't buyit, right.
So you say it doesn't cost youanything.
But if you don't have it, youcan't just go out and buy it.
It'll cost you.
It will cost you, but youcannot buy it.
That's, that's right.
It's a tricky thing.
That really is.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
So if you need more on that one, go back to Episode
4 on Culture, culture, culture,hey.
Now Episode 6.
I'm going to go forward just alittle bit here.
Managing difficult employeesNever have to do that.
We heard that from multipledifferent business owners and a
lot of times when you're in thethick of it and you're in the
middle of the forest, you thinkyou're by yourself and you think

(19:27):
nobody else has to deal withthis.
Nobody else has employees likethis, or so on and so forth.
This is such a consistent topicamongst all trades, all fields,
all businesses, is managingdifficult employees.
And this is a tricky linebecause usually we're talking
about top performers.
We're not talking about the lowperformers.

(19:50):
We've gotten rid of them andwe've moved on.
We're talking about topperformers that maybe hold sales
records or they turn the mosthours, or they're the best at
CSI, whatever it may be.
They're difficult, yeah, andyou've got to walk that line and
go.
Are they difficult just tomanage, or are they being a sour

(20:11):
apple that's bringing everybodyelse down?
And sometimes those difficultemployees, even if they're high
performers, you've got to cutthem loose, yeah, and the rest
of the time will raise up.
Other times it's just hey,that's a high-performing
employee.
You know, that's just a littlehigh strung, no different than
the thoroughbred at the KentuckyDerby.

(20:32):
It's probably not the one thatwins is not the nicest horse in
the stables, you know what Imean.
So you've got to walk that lineon.
How do I manage difficultemployees?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
You definitely have to keep that in check.
You know, if you use it like asports analogy like the, the
team manager, the gm, the coach,the position manager, you know
they're all deal with them at adifferent level and they get a
different version of that.
Uh athlete, but think the coachis not coaching the center the

(21:03):
same way he's coaching the, thehighstrung running back who
averages 12 yards per carry.
The same way that he's managingthe kicker.
The same way he's managing thehigh-strung defensive tackle
who's like jumps off sides everyonce in a while but, dang, he
makes a lot of sacks, right.
And so then the tricky thing.

(21:23):
I remember cutting episode fourup and we've had employees that
have had a hard time.
You guys will remember this.
It's like well, no, if we saythat we have to do it like this,
we have to do it like this foreveryone, it's like that depends
right, like who are you dealingwith?
And they're like well, whyshould it be different?
We're like well just because itis.
And they were like well, no, Ineed more definition.

(21:46):
And so it was like well becausethis, like the input versus the
output, here's what this persondoes and you're not going to
let them get away with somethinglike get away with murder, but
you're going to say this, thisand this.
And Taylor, we were talking justthis week.
One of the high performers waslike man, we have such a hard
time wrangling this person, andwhere are they at?

(22:07):
What's going on?
And as long as production staysup?
Now, if they used to run for 12yards a carry but that was in
02, then we've got to recheckthem.
It's like, hey, you're stillriding on the coattail.
You've got to get your numbersback up and then we can get back
to the flexibility things here.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
And that's the tricky thing Like flexibility things
here and that's that's thetricky thing.
Like it's a constant movementof.
That's tricky if you're notmanaging it.
And a lot of times whenever youhave somebody that don't call
it a, set it and forget it.
But they're rolling, they're oncruise control and you're just,
hey, let me talk the gas off,your tires need to be checked,
let me keep you going.

(22:46):
And, as a manager, whenever youhave a lot of hard knocks,
hiccups, you're just pattingthat guy on the back, like until
the wheels start to come off.
You don't spend as much time asyou need to there.
So where the hard part comes,you're not consistently managing
them.
So whenever they do gocompletely a back direction,

(23:07):
they're not working as much,their numbers aren't as high
because they're not working asmuch, and you're like, hey,
you've got to be here working,you haven't managed them through
the process, so then they justexplode and then you have a
whole situation you have to goback through.
So make sure, obviously, ofmanaging those different
employees.
Even if you don't have to givethem as much attention, you're

(23:29):
still slowing down to make sureyou're touching base and you're
actually checking the temp on itand not just saying, oh, he
looks good, he's gone becauseit'll end up biting you.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
You know, it's a telltale for me when I'm looking
at managers and I see whatdifferentiates an average
manager to a high performer arethose who they can adapt and
those that don't.
Try to just manage and get themost out of everybody the same
way.
No different than you'retalking about the different
positions in football or you'retalking about when do I push,
when do I not.

(24:00):
If I want to see the highperformers, I want to see them
to be able to adapt.
A Zen business says it this way.
They talk about their adaptingleadership style.
Effective managers are able toadjust their leadership approach
to cater to the needs ofdifferent personalities.
And when you think about ourbusiness, we have a melting pot

(24:21):
of different personalities.
And why is that?
Because we sell to differentpersonalities.
And why is that?
Because we sell to differentpersonalities.
You know so, when we're tryingto match people up in
transactions and no differentthan I can promise you the
personalities of a serviceadvisor versus a service
technician, two totallydifferent personalities.
But the manager has to be ableto manage both of them and meet

(24:43):
them where they are and howthey'll respond to get the most
out of them.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, that's one of the many reasons or definitions
of wearing many hats.
You know, you got to just like,hey, back house, front of house
, hey this person, hey thatperson.
You got to swap hats, like,change your personalities, like,
hey, how do we dress this?
This one needs some more pushand some straightforward in your
face, because that's the onlyway they respond.
And this person is very softand subtle and you can't do that

(25:10):
if you don't really know yourpeople.
Right, you've got to know yourpeople, your team's got to know
your people.
But managing difficultemployees, don't let them run
over you, right, like you're incharge, right, and the rules are
the rules are the rules.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
But then you know, have a little bit of Elasticity
and you hit the nail on the headthere of obviously you don't
have your emotions in there, butit's so important.
Just rules are the rules.
You have to stick in there andgo through that and be able to
manage them correctly, holdingthem accountable.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
That's good, very much so.
So if you need more on thatthat was episode six on managing
difficult employees I encourageyou to go back, listen to that
entire episode, so hopefullyit'll help you run your business
.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Oh yeah.
So diving into the fun factquiz of the week, which of these
events took place in the monthof July?
Throughout history, carl Benzunveils his invention to the
world.
All right, first printed caradvertisement appears Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
First Ford car Model A was sold First car exceeds 100
miles an hour, which one ofthose took place in the month of
July.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
throughout history, the answer will come here soon.
At 100 miles an hour, probablyan older car, that sucker was
probably rambling.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
I know which one I'm voting for.
I don't know if it's right ornot, but I'm going with
confidence.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
Okay, and I am very hesitant to bring this one.
Why?
Because you will spend multipleepisodes on this stand up no,
no, but this is so so soimportant I just got back from
another meeting.
I'm talking about keeping theinventory moving of Episode 7,

(26:52):
inventory Control.
I just got back from anothermeeting and so many people will
die up on a mountain instead ofjust swallowing their pride and
saying, hey, this wasn't a goodinvestment, hey, I didn't stock
the right thing, hey, I need tomove this, instead of
liquidating, moving on andgetting your asset invested into

(27:13):
something else Because they gottheir feelings involved.
Because they got their feelingsinvolved, I had people that had
vehicles that were over 600days old.
Listen, Melissa, let somebodyelse manage your inventory 600
days old and they're like oh,I've marked and no, at that
point you need to cut ties andmove on.
So deep we can dive into thisepisode, but keep it surface

(27:34):
level, right, just surface level.
We have to pull him backbecause he loves episode 7,
there's at least an hour reallygreen just of inventory, but
keeping the inventory moving,why?
Why was it so important?
Y'all are welcome.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
I'm that passionate about it.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Okay let me wrap it all the way up for you.
Okay, you ready, and then I'llgive the details.
Let me wrap it up first.
It's this simple Are youoperating a business or is this
your hobby?
I can tell you how.
Show me how long you've hadstuff in inventory, because if
it is more than the nationalaverage and even within our

(28:15):
departments we have differentKPIs for every single department
but if it's more than thenational average, you have a
hobby.
It means your emotions areinvolved.
You made emotional decisionswhen you bought that part, you
bought that house, you boughtthat car, you bought whatever it
was the lumber.
Make business decisions, dohobbies on your own time, but

(28:38):
run the business as a business.
And let me just I'm going to saythis and don't give me the
one-offs out there.
This and don't give me theone-offs out there when you buy
an asset, 99 times out of 100,it is a depreciating asset.

(29:02):
That means tomorrow it'll beworth less than it is today.
That means it is to yourbenefit, even at a lower gross
profit percentage, that you turnthat inventory.
You must think of inventory ascash.
The only reason you investedthat cash into an asset instead
of into the market is so itwould earn you a greater return.

(29:22):
The only way it can earn you agreater return is if you move it
.
If it sits on this shelf,something newer and better is
coming out, and then you'regoing to have to discount it
more and you should have justleft your money in the market.
Yeah, how'd that?

Speaker 1 (29:38):
do.
It was pretty good.
It was really good.
Yeah, that was solid.
So when we dissect that andtalk about it, that was your
political speech about it, Iknow.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
Which was good.
I would teach you up prettyhard on it.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yeah, I threw some ice on you.
See, you just have to know yourinventory.
In episode seven we break thatdown.
But all the effects that itdoes, and in your industry there
will be somewhere that someonehas come up with a guide of what
your turn should be.
But just think about thatwithout getting hung up at this

(30:12):
one time, like Matt said.
But there's a turn to it becauseyour employees are walking past
the same item, the same thing,sitting on the shelf, the dust
is on it, your customers walkpast it a couple of times.
They start thinking something'swrong with it.
You've got the point that it'seating cash and capital and that

(30:33):
something newer and greater iscoming out.
But the emotional feelings ofsomeone having to sell that they
are going to non-verbally intheir mind, say so.
That's not the one for thatperson.
That's not the hat for thatperson.
That's not the hot tub for thatperson.
That's not the lawn for thatperson.
That's not the hat for thatperson.
That's not the hot tub for thatperson.
That's not the lawnmower forthat person, because it's been
sitting when there's no reason.
We just didn't have a battery into start it, sure, or it's been

(30:56):
stacked behind a couple thingsor we didn't reface our
inventory every morning torotate it around, and so it's
all kind of in your marketingand marketing is such a broad
description but in yourmarketing, how you display that
and the spin that you put on it.
One of the things we talk aboutis when you go to a restaurant,

(31:16):
the manager special yeah, iswhat they need to get rid of.
Right, is what they need to getrid of.
And it might be that they'rereally dialed in on lobster,
yeah, but they made a big buy onlobster because it was at a
really good deal and it was astrict.
It's like sam's club.
What's the?
The brisket?

Speaker 4 (31:35):
that was snake farm snake farm, snake rivers, snake
river uh wagyu brisket.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I was like, oh, that sounds expensive.
Yeah, matt's on his way down.
Not at all, taylor, our meatconnoisseur definitely.
So here's the deal.
Sam's Club is selling thatbecause they got a buy from
Snake River right Now.
They're good marketers, theyunderstand it.
So they say, hey, make sure thelabel shows this, this and this
.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Snake.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
River Wagyu just at market price or below market
price, and so that's becausethey have a surplus, and they
have a surplus for a thousanddifferent reasons.
But the manager special orwhat's on sale or what's on the
end cap is because they'retrying to turn their inventory.
Don't get hung up on like heywell, this Wagyu yields $48 a

(32:23):
pound.
Not if someone doesn't pay forit, Guess what It'll expire.
It'll yield you $0 per pound.
And if someone doesn't pay forit, Guess what It'll expire,
It'll yield you $0 per pound.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
I don't have my whiteboard in here, but I'll try
to paint the picture rapidlyfor you.
I do this when I get to talk atthe U of A to entrepreneur
students I say give me a lesserdollar car.
Maybe it's not as sexy, maybeit's not an F-250 with 37s on it
, king ranch, all painted up itwas seventy thousand dollars

(32:52):
we're talking oh, seven taurus.
I'm talking oh, seven taurus,that's ten grand.
Okay, if I can take that tenthousand dollars and make a
thousand dollars.
Okay, make a thousand dollars,but I can turn it 12 times in a
year so it sells every 30 daysevery 30 days.
That thousand dollars times 12is 12 000.
Okay, you hold on to that, okay, okay.

(33:13):
So then I've got Taylor's F250with 37s on it.
That's 90 90 thousand dollars.
Okay, it tied up nine times theamount of cash.
Yep, and he's gonna turn it,but boss, it'll make two
thousand dollars.
He's going to turn it, but boss, it'll make $2,000.
He's going to turn it threetimes a year.
That's $6,000.
That my $90,000 investment madeversus Shelby's over here, the

(33:38):
07 Taurus that Taylor's laughingat because he's got an 07
Taurus but he only invested 10grand and made 12 grand.
Made 12 grand here on 10 grand.
Okay, made six grand over hereon 90 grand.
One, emotions are involved.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
The other one is strictly business that's where
people get so hung up andthey're like that's where their
hobby tries to become a businessand like, no, I want my lot, I
want store, I want my businessto look like this and that's
okay.
Sure, I can put some hubcaps ona Taurus and find a buck for
that seat, right, and then I'llhave something that's maybe 15
grand or 18 grand or average.

(34:16):
Right now, cost of a used caris $27,000.
I just looked at it thismorning and we have some stuff
that's 90 grand, yep, and we'vegot a lot of stuff that's $5,000
.
But just to know that, if youcan take $1 and make $10, it's a
whole lot better than taking$10 and making $12.
It's so much better Because youalso get to in that factor, in

(34:39):
that $90,000 and going over ayear.
You can do that nine times eachtime.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Oh yeah, and without getting you in the
multiplication and the division.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
I try to keep it simple.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Sell what sells right and know this that it's worth
the most.
If I can pound anything else inyour head besides the first
thing of is this a business oris this a hobby?
Number two you have to realizethat it's worth the most day one
, day one.
You have to realize that it'sworth the most day one, day one.
When you look at our pricing.
The older it gets, the lowerour margin and we continue to
move it down.
Because there's only tworeasons.

(35:14):
Any product, not just carbusiness and you guys know this
because it's been pounded in ourhead there's only two reasons
that a car will not sell.
Y'all know what it is it's notpriced right, it's not ready to
sell.
So think about that.
Any product you have out there,there's two reasons and before
you slash the price, make sureit's ready to sell.

(35:34):
Order of importance Can theyfind it on the inventory shelf?
Is it gone, is it missing, isit front and center?
And that's why we move the lotaround.
We look what do the pictureslook like online?
Is it marketable, is it readyto sell?
And then, is it priced right?
If those two things are yes,it'll move It'll move.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
You know I love going back and talking about that and
always reminded of this.
But you can always go back tothe simple facts, because a used
manager will come and say, hey,I've done everything, I've went
through and they should knowbetter.
They should know better.
But they get too busy and soit's so simple sometimes just to
take your employee and say, hey, let's go take a walk and then

(36:15):
have a walking meeting.
You can first sometimes go walkit yourself.
There's no even growing up oflike into this business.
I could always tell whenever I'dmiss something, because it was
never getting whacked over thehead but it was like, hey, do
you check on this or what'sgoing on with this?
I'm like dadgummit.

(36:35):
Okay so, but walking out thereyou can go check two or three of
the vehicles and then wheneveryou see that it's not, it
doesn't have the mark on it, itdoesn't have the manager,
special Everything, because wehave great policies.
You have great policies, butthey don't get implemented.
They don't get implemented.
So then you grab your managerand you walk outside and say,
hey, show me this truck that'son special.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
That's so important and that's how we've been
coached and taught, from kidsall the way to managers.
Sure, that's the same way thatwe do it.
Instead of saying hey, I cantell why this hasn't sold,
because it doesn't even havematching wheels on it.
The windows are down.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
It smells like the running boards are out.
The back and Gertrude.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
So you inspect it and you do it nicely.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Sure, you do.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
But then you take reports and then you see what's
oldest, what's moved the mostfrom what we own it for.
Versus market Like whoa,there's an $8,000 gap.
Let's go look at those and thenyou walk the lot.
And you should start withwalking the lot.
So then, when you see the list,you're like man, why aren't the
Maquis selling?
And so then you go out and lookat them, like, well, they're

(37:43):
over here with fleet, none ofthem are unlocked Yep, and the
battery's dead on six of themYep.
And then you look like, well,it hadn't been on a major
special, so it's not on one ofour display pads.
Sure, it's out of sight, out ofmind.
There's 1,000 vehicles on thiscar.
There's 1,700 cars, customercars.
Things get lost quickly, butit's so important that you, when

(38:08):
you inspect that, is it readyto go, that it's really ready to
go, and not taking somebody'sword for it not that they're
gonna lie to you, but theyprobably just had an action
check so there is that part, uh,that you know we just unpacked
of.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Is the vehicle ready to go?
Where is it?
Isn't on display.
Does everybody know about it?
You know y'all have heard ustalk about before.
Get in it.
In our case, get in and driveit yourself.
So then everybody's payingattention to it.
But then there's the part twoof managing.
And when a sales manager has tobring us any deals, even if
they're ridiculous deals, okay.
And before we'll say yes to adeal, it's hey, did you check to

(38:38):
see if we have anything instock that's older?
I noticed you're bringing methis deal that's losing $2,500,
but the unit's seven days old.
You're like, yeah, but the bankcut it back, they don't have
the down payment.
Okay, if we're going to say yesto this deal, let's make it to
our benefit and move an olderasset.
Yeah.
So same thing in your businessis sell that older stuff first

(39:00):
to keep that money flow.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
So you know you sell a customer something, you're
selling some lawnmowers and theysay, hey, you got any hats or
shirts you can throw in?
Yep, you're going to.
You're not saying, yeah, justgo pick one, right?
You know, when they say, hey,do you have a chef special?
It's like, absolutely, we havethis item right here, right, you
get the power of choice andthen you give direction and
everyone feels like they won.

(39:22):
I'm going to go find the JohnDeere hat that I can't get off
my shelf and say, absolutely,that's the one, this is the one
that you're going to love, right, yeah.
And if they want something else, say, yeah, absolutely, let me
get you my cost on these items,right.
But that's kind of the power ofchoice, to be able to move that
item.
And they're like, well, theydon't want that one.
I was like, well, can they?
Okay with this?
Mm-hmm, what about a cosine?
Mm-mm?
Okay, well, here's what we canpresent to them Exactly, and

(39:50):
this is a win-win that allows usto reduce and make sense and
helps us get this off the lot.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Mm-hmm, that's good, absolutely All right, so a super
solid feeling diving throughthe inventory.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
All right, so our question, on the Matter of Fun
Fact Quiz of the Week, which oneof these events took place in
the month of july?
Throughout history, so from thebeginning of time through today
, questions carl ben's unveilshis invention to the world.
First printed car advertisementappears.
First car uh, ford car model awas sold.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Or first car exceeds 100 miles an hour I was going
for the 100 mile an hour linejust because of white speed.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Yeah yeah, I mean, uh , model a, I just think july
month that's probably good.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, it's all of them oh, okay, that's all of
them.
You're all winners today, soall those things in there all
right.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
So neca episode that we want to bring back to service
, episode 10 is the customeralways right?
We talked about difficultemployees.
Now flip it to the other side.
Is the customer always right?
Okay, and I love talking aboutthis one, episode 10, we fully
break that thing down.
But the answer is, the shortanswer is no, no, no.

(40:58):
You have to be able to properlysay no to the consumer.
No, we're not going to pay forthat.
No, we're not responsible forthat.
No, that's not what you askedfor.
But the way that I just saidall those things is not the
proper way.
No should generally not be inthat response anywhere.
Right, and getting people tounderstand that you know, when a

(41:23):
phone call makes it to us or aview makes it through us, then
you check the facts.
We talked about that a coupleweeks before.
You just fully react to it.
And so then you're going tolook at that and say, okay, did
this customer buy from us?
When did they buy from us?
Have they serviced with uspreviously?
Yep, and what's going on?
What's the facts here?
Okay, what have we done?
How have we communicated?

(41:44):
And then, where was the shortcircuit Right?
And then, what went on fromthere.
So then we'll kind of ask thecustomer this, this, this, this
and this and this.
And then, like there was, forinstance, we had a customer a
while back that we had done arepair on a car that was 12
years old and had like like 160000 miles.
You know, manufacturers stoppedsupporting that car after three

(42:06):
years and 36 000 miles.
It was a good get around car.
Well, we put a timing chain setin it to get the car back going
.
Uh, when we put it backtogether, then we road test it
in the shop to make sure thateverything performs as it should
.
Uh, a few months later, four orfive months later, it then has,
uh, an engine failure.
Um, I say okay, why did theengine fail?

(42:28):
And so then they start takingthe motor apart I had a crack in
the cylinder head.
And so then we look and youknow, the customer was like, hey
, you guys worked on this.
It's like when a customer comesin for an oil change, like my
taillight's broken, it's like,hang on, let's check the facts.
And so, is there any way thatwe would have seen that had to
crack cylinder?
It's like, did we take cylinderhead off?
No, we didn't have to.
Don't we take the intake off?

(42:49):
No, we didn't have to.
Did we take the header off?
No, we didn't have to.
Okay, we wouldn't have seen thecylinder head anywhere around.
Okay, did we test drive it?
I know we say we test drive,but did we test drive it?
Yep, we test drove it here.
Here's the mileage in.
Here's the mileage out.
How long ago was it?
And then it was like everythingpasses right Now remember, it's

(43:10):
12 years old and 160,000 miles.
Like it's going to happenSooner or later.
It's going to happen.
Manufacturers stop supportingit.
So then, without saying, ma'am,you're on your own, like we did
what you paid us to do and weinspected it, of saying, hey,
here's some options we came upwith.
Right, here's a reduced costfor this.
We'll give you your money backon the repairs to go against the

(43:33):
next repair, which was aboveand beyond.
We'll let you trade in thevehicle and give you value like
it was still running.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
You know, and then we'll eat the repair to get it
back running, sure?
And those are all ways to sayno without saying no.
You're in the wrong, your carblew up, you're on your own.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
I think the important part that we need to unpack and
we did in that episode, but I'mgonna re go over here is most
of the time your team is gonnasay, yeah, we did all that, okay
, but what happens in thecommunication with a customer is
they go over A and then theyjump to G and the B, c, d, e, f.

(44:16):
Which happened behind thescenes of did we touch the head,
did we remove the intake, wewatched the cameras?
We talked to the tech, all thisstuff.
We didn't explain and take thecustomer through the journey of
that.
You know, too quick.
Everybody thinks they want tobe efficient and they're like
nope, we didn't touch you.
That at all.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
You're on your own.
There's no feeling ofcompassion or care.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
So you have to take the time before you just get
ready to let go of that customer.
You have to have done your duediligence and I can promise you
I think you could put us againstany industry out there, because
we're one of the onlyindustries that sells used
products okay, and and not onlydoubles but triples how long a
manufacturer of the productwould stand behind it, you know.
But then there is times thatwe've walked through all that.

(45:06):
We have the documentation, wehave the recordings and the
customer is just unreasonable.
Yeah, hey, it was 12 years oldand 160,000 miles and we've
offered you solution a, b and c.
We don't have handouts here andwe're not just writing checks.
We'll be more than fair.
We understand the value of acustomer, but at some point in

(45:26):
time you've just got to say, hey, it's time for us to part ways.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
And I think more times than not, in most
situations, people don'tunderstand this, but you have to
slow down a little bit of likehey, just because we're saying
no doesn't mean that we don'tcare, sure.
It's obviously we're in abusiness.
I had a customer the other daythat you know.
Paperwork got messed up and Iwas at the end of the office and

(45:56):
tried to let managers handle itthemselves.
It was listening, it wasescalating, escalating, and I
could feel it just coming closerand closer and so I finally
said, hey, stop.
And I separated the situationand told the customer.
I said, hey, just give me justa minute, I'm going to go over
this, I'm going to dive into itand I'll get you faxed or
everything.
Then I grabbed the, because atthat point the customer, the

(46:21):
salesperson and the manager wereall going around about chasing
each other's tails and so I hadto slow it down and say I needed
to one, pull my manager andsalesperson aside, get ahold of
my manager and say I want you togo do this, so walk through the
whole situation there.
But it ended up at the very endof it had to look at an outlook.

(46:41):
That I didn't want to do.
But once I stepped back andlooked at it, it made more sense
, more business sense,everything else going down the
road.
The manager then could see that.
Because the manager was hard,no sure, I'm tearing up
paperwork, so good luck to you.
Uh, you figure out your ownfinancing deal which is

(47:03):
following policy is goingthrough.
The customer was getting mad athim, so there was emotion
getting involved.
So once we stepped away andstepped back, everybody had
learned something from it fromthe end.
From the beginning, obviouslygoing through there.
But a lot of times people justthink, when you just say, no,
hey, I'm in a business, or youjust need to do it because you

(47:25):
said that, or an accident wouldhappen, no, you don't have to do
that, but there's ways tohandle it and give solutions
that make sense.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
I think, at the end of the day too, no matter what
industry you're in, if you putyourself in the customer's shoes
, they have to be able to answerthe question did they put the
effort to try to find a solution?
Do I feel like that?
They put the energy and theytried to help, or then they just
boom.
This is policy, this is no.
You know, and I think that'swhat we hear amongst all three

(47:54):
of us is walking the customerthrough that, isolating it,
coming up with a solution.
It might not be the exactsolution the customer wanted,
but the efforts there, there wewalked them through.
Hey, we looked at the cameras.
We followed your vehicle whenit came in to do the oil change.
There's nothing that ever gotclose to the taillight.
Would you like to look at thatvideo with me?
So again, we take the emotionsout and the finger pointing out,

(48:17):
but again, sometimes thecustomer just they don't want to
have it.
Either they're having a bad dayand they're taking it out on
you or whatever, and you'velooked at all the solutions and
then it's okay.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
It is, and you have to.
You know we were talking to abusiness the other day that in
today's world, everyone thinksthey're right.
Yeah, right, everyone thinksthey're right, everyone thinks
their idea is the best.
And in today's world, world,everything is so vocal via the
internet, sure, keyboardwarriors galore, and so one of
the tricky things is yourbusiness to promote.

(48:49):
Is your google page right?
And google controls so much ofthat, and then they do it as
fair as possible.
But people and we ask forpositive reviews.
We don't ask for negativereviews, we ask.
We ask if a customer had anegative experience to come to
us and allow us to make it apositive experience.
Sure, right, because somehow wedrop the ball, or this, that
the other, but oftentimes itwill go backwards, the car

(49:12):
before the horse is.
We'll just get hammered with aone-star review, and and that's
the first thing we do is we say,hey, let's get all the data
right on our side.
Yep, let's work on like, hey,what's going on, what happened?
And?
And so you know a friend ofours, his Google just got
hammered with, and it wasn'teven real, somebody was against
him, just, you know, maybe acompetitor, and just got

(49:34):
hammered with all these one-starreviews.
So no reason, this, that andthe other.
And more often than not, if acustomer didn't get their way,
they think if I'm just nodifferent than a kid that has
not properly been, in my eyes,disciplined, if they throw a
tantrum they'll get what theywant.
I mean, no one wants to see akid throwing a tantrum on the

(49:58):
floor of the grocery store.
I'm not going to leave thestore with them, but I'm going
to go to another aisle.
I know quickly as I see thatI've've left that aisle and
think, oh shoot, I'm just layingon the floor feeling like an
idiot.
Right, I should probably get upand go find my parents.
I'm not leaving them there, I'mjust going to the other aisle
and I'm going to watch throughthe cabinet.
Get up, you fool.
And so then they quicklyrealize to throw a tantrum was

(50:18):
no good.
Like if an angry customer comesin and can't have a level head,
we try to calm the situation,say let's look at the facts,
let's watch the video together.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Let's see what happens.
But if they just hammer withyour view and they won't let you
do this and this and this, youdon't have to just throw the
kitchen sink out, you don't haveto give them a new motor, you
don't have to give them theirmoney back if you've done
everything properly correct andif you've walked through the

(50:49):
entire process of showing themthey care.
The customer is not alwaysright and that's tough because
like well, no, I want a goodgoogle store, I don't want all
these bad reviews.
It's like the good will alwaysoutweigh the bad.
It will, always will.
But that that's tough.
In that situation it is.
Oh crap, it is.
Should we have to pay thatcustomer sales tax?
Like no, yeah, but you know thesqueaky wheel will ask
constantly.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
It will ask constantly.
Yeah, that was big, you know,going back through.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
So is the customer always right?
Episode 10, make sure.
If you want some more depth inthat, you might not.
We got this one over here andthat one.
So just making sure if thecustomer is always right, that
you vet that right and make sureis that customer.
Have they been heard?
Have you fully walked throughthe process and all the things?

(51:33):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Makes sense there.
Well, diving into theirfrequently asked question, Matt,
you're kind of in the dark, butit's okay.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
I can still hear you there.

Speaker 4 (51:43):
But hey, this is flipping it a little bit and
I'll go to both of y'all.
But frequently asked questionyou'd like to ask another dealer
, and we do a pretty good job oftalking to them, but if it was
just open something you wouldlike to ask them, what would
that be?

Speaker 3 (51:56):
I like, when I'm talking to another dealer, that
we start talking about sourcesof revenue and I like to talk to
them.
Start talking about sources ofrevenue and I like to talk to
them.
What have you discovered?
There are other built-insources of revenue within your
business, and the more sourcesof revenue you have coming in
will help protect your businessthrough downturns in the economy

(52:17):
, shortage in supply, so on andso forth.
So that's one of those thingswe like to talk about.
Matt, what are you talkingabout?
Going and buying otherbusinesses?
Not necessarily, but what workcould you self-perform that
you're writing checks for rightnow?
So I love talking to them aboutthat, yeah, and that's.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
That's not always a cash grab.
You know sure you're not justsaying, hey, I need more, I need
more.
It's creating sustainability,you know it's stuff that you
already know you're you know'redetailing cars why can't you
detail your own cars?
You're fixing other makes andmodels why can't you fix other
makes and models?
So that's really good.
I love that.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
You know another thing.
We had a friend I'll just sayone of them that's at another
dealer.
He's up in Missouri and he hada great idea of you know.
He got a grant for solar panelsand then just self-performed
getting all the electricity forhis dealerships, so he was able
to leverage off this andleverage off that.
He was paying the electricalbill every month anyways.

(53:10):
So I just love hearing aboutcreative ideas like that.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
That's terrific Shelby.
What about you?

Speaker 1 (53:16):
So when it flips to asking leaders like what's a
question that I like to askleaders, one of the things that
I will ask from a leader all theway down just directly to an
employee, and this one is kindof hitching the gut sometimes
Are you or is your team doingthe most productive thing right
now that helps their job?

(53:36):
Yeah, that's a tough one, right, and that's just like.
It's not like, hey, dude, whatthe heck are you doing?
You're goofing off.
But sometimes it'll be aquestion like hey, man, I
completely understand.
Hey, real quick question areyou doing the most productive
thing right now that you couldbe doing to help you reach your
goal?
yeah, right, and it's like, ohcrap, no I'm not like right, and

(53:58):
that's very rarely that aperson can say yep, you know,
sometimes I'll hit you with asoft serve.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm killingit.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
It's like oh, really dive into that.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Pill another layer.
Tell me some more about that,right, and it's not just to pick
on somebody, it's just to helpthem be a better version of what
they're currently doing.
So that question are you doingthe most productive thing
currently that you couldpossibly do?

Speaker 4 (54:18):
That's good.
It's a nice way to stand peopleup and be able to really hold
them accountable there, hey.
But as always, it was funrecapping.
All of you know the topepisodes that y'all have reached
out to us and said hey lovedhearing about this, would like
to dive into it.
We'll continue to do that.
So if you have any questions,have any concerns about previous
episodes that you'd like us togo back over, please put it

(54:41):
online, let us know.
Always check us out, lewissuperstorecom, but then always
hit that like and subscribe andsee us on
crosswordconversationpodcastcom.
See you soon you.