Ep.55 - Innovation vs. Tradition: Finding the Balance

Summary

 In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers dive into the ongoing challenge of balancing innovation vs. tradition in business. From the rise of EVs and AI tools to maintaining customer trust through authentic connections, they explore how leaders can embrace change without losing the culture and values that built their success.

The conversation breaks down when to lean on tradition, when to push forward with innovation, and how leaders can guide their teams through both resistance and excitement. With real dealership examples, stories of micromanagement done right, and insights on customer expectations, this episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating growth in today’s fast-changing market.

Takeaways

• Innovation is necessary, but tradition builds trust.
  
  
  
• Change without leadership creates confusion.
  
  
  
• Micromanagement can serve a purpose when teaching or realigning.
  
  
  
• Customers crave authentic, face-to-face connections — even in a digital world.
  
  
  
• Team buy-in is critical when introducing new systems or tech.
  
  
  
• Leaders must decide when to call for tradition and when to push for innovation.
  
  
  
• Culture is the anchor that keeps innovation from drifting aimlessly.

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):
Within our organization we're able to take
let's take ad campaigns, forexample, and we can run one at
one store and one at a differentstore than to be able to see
how did they perform.
You know we've ran and wehaven't scaled this up, we've
talked about it.
You know we ran pickup anddelivery and mobile service just

(00:20):
at a single Ford store, not atboth the Ford stores.
Then to say, ok, hey, let's goall in here and let's pilot it
and then see if it's somethingwe do need to scale up and
duplicate at the other stores,you know we've got the ability
to do that.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
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

(00:53):
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe you can
throw on the plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally.
Welcome back to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers.
We're your hosts, the LewisBrothers.
Episode 55, fully breaking downinnovation versus tradition and

(01:14):
finding the balance.
So we'll talk through balancingthe old way versus the new way
in leadership, family legacyversus future changes.
We'll talk leading teamsthrough change, protecting
tradition and finding realinnovation.
We're really going all thethings here, all of them.
And then every businessstruggles with innovation versus

(01:37):
tradition, not just dealership.
So hear me now that this is notjust dealership talk here, this
is business talk.
Relevance of EVs or AI ordigital sales, handshake values
and customer trust, how to earnthose and how to lose that.
Leadership takeaways, how toavoid losing yourself or your
team throughout the entireprocess.

(01:59):
That's what we're going tobreak down.
That's got to be a good one.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
That's a lot hey, diving real quick into last week
Gut check, when to follow it,when to pull back on the reins
to know that it's okay to moveforward.
It was a really good episode ofdiving in and knowing that a
lot of people say, hey, I gowith my gut on it and there's
some data that you have tofollow with sometimes and be

(02:23):
able to follow that up.
It's always okay not to make adecision, a split decision, on
that exact second.
So great episode.
Go back, check it out and, asalways, check out our latest
specials on lewissuperstorecomand catch all the relevant
information that we go over oncrossroadsconversationpodcastcom

(02:43):
.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
That's so good.
Hey, it's back to our segmentabout what's in the garage.
This week, we're talking aboutthe iconic Jeep Grand Cherokee,
and when you talk about SUVs,the Grand Cherokee has to come
up in the list.
You know, it's the most awardedSUV out there, and today we've
got one on special that theycame out with some new

(03:04):
incentives, kind of as they lookinto their fourth quarter close
.
You know all the manufacturers.
They're looking at their marketshare.
Hey, what's it looking like?
What are the values of it?
And then they start hammeringdown on some of the incentives,
and the grand cherokee got thebenefits of all that this time.
So we're talking about the l,which is the third row.
It's the x row, it's the X.
So it's got the sunroof, it'sgot the leather suede seats,

(03:26):
it's full-wheel drive, it's gotall the off-road capabilities.
Here's what I love about thisthing, though, is you hear about
all the fancy stuff.
This thing right now we've gotit discounted where it's just
over $40,000.
$40,500 for a third row GrandCherokee, four-wheel drive,
leather, sunroof, big screen,and that's for a new one.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's for a brand new one and that's not like a
leftover.
That's not a leftover.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's not hail damaged , it's not two-wheel drive.
That's a crazy price point.
It is a crazy price point andyou know, I know we're talking
about the Grand Cherokee here,but I'll talk about the Explorer
for just a second too, and thiswas kind of a fun fact for you.
The Grand Cherokee, not theCherokee, because it goes back
far.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, the square one.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
But the Grand Cherokee came out in 93.
Okay, which is about the sametime that the Explorer came out.
Yep, the Explorer came out in91?
Yeah, or 93.
One of the two We'll have tolook it up.
But right around there we'vegot the top two SUVs over
decades, not just last year,whether it's the Explorer or the
Grand Cherokee.

(04:32):
Both of those always startedoff as a two-row but they found
that people loved them, but theyhad family and they needed a
third row.
So Explorer went third row.
Now Grand Cherokee with their Lhas gone third row.
So we have great solutions towhat you're looking for and a
very capable, a very robust SUV,whether it's the Grand Cherokee
or the Explorer.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I love about the Grand Cherokee and them and
Explorer have always done it.
The best Came out in 93 as thefirst the Grand Cherokee did
Explorer, I think was a coupleof years that, but great of you
go back of nameplates that theyput on there.
But Grand Cherokee debuted andit was the Orvis edition, was
the outdoor overlanding.

(05:13):
They knew that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
And that was to combat the Eddie Bauer.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
So the Eddie.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Bauer Explorer and the Orvis Grand Cherokee.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, so you know, just to confirm, to go back
there for all you fact checkersout there, Explorer was 91.
Okay, so a couple years beforethere and Jeep said hang on,
hang on we can take our Cherokeethat they already have, and
let's church it up a little bitand go Grand Cherokee Love that
Absolutely so.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
a lot of good that they've rolled into modern day
of being able to still have allthe fun outdoors but then carry
the whole family so diving in.
Today, leading teams throughchange.
This sometimes is verydifficult to be able to do and
be able to roll into.
But first segment of itresistance to change is natural.
Employees cling to what theyknow.

(05:57):
How can we help them adopt,adapt to a new form?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
So I'll tell you our fixed operations, parts and
service and collision.
They are very much naturally ornot naturally they become it of
a process driven.
They don't have near as muchvariable as sales does.
Right, Generally there's aworkflow.
This is how this goes, and soone of the times going through

(06:25):
the process of making a change,you realize you're really
disrupting their process and youhave to figure out if it needs
to be disrupted to grow or to gofrom a system that wasn't
working or an antiquated system.
You got to help them understandwhy that makes sense and one of
the times I remember the bookbeing handed out of who moved my

(06:48):
cheese right and for them tounderstand and read through that
of understanding.
It's okay for something tochange in depth, but you really
have to give them a whiff ofwhat's in it.
For me.
And I think that's one of thebiggest things.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
And it's funny you bring that up because I was
going to bring up that book Umhad hired a and I'll admit this,
we had hired an outsideconsultant to help me when I had
first gotten in the GM role of.
I knew fixed ops, I had workedin fixed ops but I wasn't as
well reversed in fixed ops as Iwas in variable.
So I was working with a newparts manager.

(07:22):
This parts individual hadworked for us for a little while
.
We had just lost our partsmanager, who was an old school
parts manager guy.
You know knew this stuff fromback in the 80s, back in the 90s
.
But we needed to evolve some,you know, and it just didn't
need to be this stuffy partsdepartment.
You know we needed to look forsolutions and this consultant

(07:45):
had us all go through the bookwho Moved my Cheese.
So as a department we readthrough that and each week we
would talk about another chapter.
You talk about getting someparts guys and the book club.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Hey, I want you to read a book and then we're going
to sit down a bunch of men andlet's break it down, right?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
So, but we did it.
We did it and you know ourparts manager Ryan, who's still
with us and does a fantastic job.
He's like okay, you know he wasnew into trying to get their
buy-in when we all workedthrough that and there was
hesitation the first couple ofweeks.
Then, after we got three orfour weeks in, then everybody
started thinking about okay.
Weeks in, then everybodystarted thinking about okay, how

(08:25):
could we do this different?
How could we answer the phone?
How could we be more servinginstead of just a checkout clerk
?
And the whole point of the bookis who moved my cheese?
Meaning here's how I normallydo something and you're asking
me to do something different.
That feels uncomfortable.
But it was a great example ofyou know what.
If you want to improve and youwant to get better, it's going
to feel uncomfortable for alittle bit.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's not going to be the normal every single day.
Put your pants on the same way,put your car, drive, and it's
just this groundhog day.
And I think about that movieall the time as, like you know,
it just keeps replaying itself,and that's not the business
we're in.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah, that's so important of just realizing that
you know there are certaintraditions that need to stay
Right, but innovation, of beingable to continue to grow with
the times, you know.
So a consumer sees hey, thisstill has the familyness that I
like, but they're also not likestill using the machine where

(09:23):
you scan the credit cards thatmade the carbon coffees.
Right, so it has enough of thathome yeah, that hometown feel
but is also adapting with thechanges and can be innovative,
and so it's so important thatyou show the team that there's
opportunity in there for growthfor them or to save them time,

(09:44):
and that sometimes is a wholelot harder to do than to say.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think it's important to remember when you
roll out something, somethingthat disrupts their normal
behavior.
I'm not talking about rollingout a new social media campaign
that, behind the scenes, isworking.
I'm talking about new software,new process, a new way of doing
business that is going tochange how your employees

(10:08):
conduct business on a day-to-daybasis.
You got to remember, as aleader, when you step into that
which you should you knowbusiness should evolve that you
need to be very patient and veryconsistent and you have to
micromanage it.
At first, Micromanaging gets abad rap and it shouldn't.
Now, if you micromanage forever, that's a bad deal.

(10:29):
But when you're installingsomething new, there's some
micro that's got to take placeand you got to remember you are
reinstilling new habits intothese individuals.
That's not normal, it's notcomfortable, and if you're not
there holding them accountableand talking about that, guess
what do we see if we try tointroduce something and then set
it and forget it?

Speaker 2 (10:50):
It gets set to the die, it just goes back.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
It just goes to knee jerk.
What happens is then the phonestarts ringing.
There's three people standingin front of them, they're
getting behind and they're likeI know I need to learn this new
process, but I can do the oldone so much faster.
They just go back to that.
Yep, they just go back to that.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
It's so important to learn exactly what y'all just
went over.
More times than not in business, we get so comfortable of, hey,
I just know these ways, I knowthis is going to produce, I know
this is going to happen.
If you want your business toevolve and be able to move
forward, you have to becomfortable with being
uncomfortable and moving forward.

(11:28):
So no, you have to be theleader of that and be involved
with your team.
So that's so great of y'allgoing over that.
How about any other stories ofgoing through?
So we kind of talked aboutparts wise, how, how you got
involved, matt of going throughthere.
But uh, training staff for,maybe, ev sales or digital sales
tools, how we've adapted andinvolved that.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, let's talk EV.
So Ford wanted to be.
The early adopter was Tesla.
Let's call that out.
They were there, the inventornot the inventor, but the modern
day inventor of that.
So Ford was one of the firstearly adapters adopters of that
and they went all in.
It's funny I was yesterday at areturn to council dealer meeting

(12:12):
with Ford and we were goingover some stuff and it talked
about EV and the changes withthe new bill that came out cafe
standards from the government.
What rolls down the hill say,hey, it's not as strenuous as it
has to be anymore.
So they went all in, and theywent all in so hard that they
redid some plants to be EVproduction only.

(12:33):
They built a battery plant,still building a battery plant,
and we're talking about millionsof square feet.
Oh yeah, I think it was overbillions of dollars spent.
They built another plant inKentucky to build specifically
and they said if we're going todo it, we're going to go all in,
and so then that came down toinfrastructure for us.

(12:54):
Well, it happened to be we werebuilding these all new
facilities, and so then we wentover the top Some of it's still
not done right, Waiting on leveltwo, level three chargers.
And we saw da, da, da da.
So we went way Some of it'sstill not done right, Waiting on
level two, level three chargers.
And we saw da, da, da da.
So we went way over the topInvestment was millions for us
because it got pushed all theway down to us.
So then we had to continue topush that down.
So it was relevant to thesalespeople because it was new

(13:15):
for them and they were like whyshould I sell this?
They're getting a lot ofpushback for customers and so it
was changing.
So we said no, go drive this.
No, go practice this, let'sfigure it out.
And so we came up with testdrive routes and we took our
salespeople on it and saidhere's how you get to the
charger, here's how you find itin the system, not on your phone
in the system and it shows youwhat charge is available and

(13:37):
precondition.
So we had to fully do that andwe kept having to push that and
kept having to push that.
And we kept having to push thatand kept having to push that.
But then slowly it's kind oflike hey, that is a side piece
of the business, but that's notthe mainstream of the business.
Some manufacturers said, well,no longer make gas, we're only
making electric, and it's likewhoa, that's pretty harsh.

(13:58):
Yeah, Right.
And so then we've had to adapt,to figure out and help the team
adapt that it might be theright thing for this person.
So it's kind of a needsassessment what's relevant, how
far do you drive, how do younormally commute?
And just because we've seen alot of fails in that, Some
people throw their hands up.
It's a high cost of entry forus to invest in that and we've

(14:20):
had so much pushback from everylevel, from customers to
salespeople to technicians.
There was extra tools that wereneeded what do you do when the
battery's done and all thesethings.
So there was a lot of moneyinvested, but even more time
invested to get the entire teamto drink that Kool-Aid.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, I agree and I think what's really important
and EVs is an easy one to talkabout here, because everybody
listening on the other end.
You don't have to be in ourbusiness to have an opinion
about EVs Almost anybody.
You bring up the word EV andthey'll quickly give you their
opinion on it.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
It's going to be one Whether you ask or not, it's.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
You know it's not like a lot of other subjects.
They'll be like I love it.
I think it's stupid, you know.
I mean like pretty much thatwhat we had to remind our staff
and I'm going to go into this onchanges is that we don't need
our staff's opinion.
No, and it's not that I'm notbeing nice here, you talk, we
talk about culture and buy-inall the time, but the buy-in is

(15:20):
the consumer's point of view.
Yes, we're in the business tosell what the consumer demand is
there for.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
And if that's a pink EV three-door car, that's what
we're doing.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's where most people fail at and, just in pure
honesty, if you're leaving itup to your front force to sell
that across, more often than not, the natural tendency is to go
to what you know and that's youropinion, which will get you in
trouble because it's youropinion.
It is not the person who istransacting or giving money for

(15:55):
that.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
I think I listen to people in all different
industries all the time, andthey don't we talk about it all
the time in here.
They don't slow down enough tolisten.
They don't.
We talk about it all the timein here.
They don't slow down enough tolisten.
So then they're given theirpitch, and their pitch is solely
based upon what they think whatthey would do, and then what
they buy.
But the customer is different.
Yeah, and who's buying it?

(16:16):
The person selling it or theconsumer on the other end?
Well, the consumer is.
So you need to listen up,because here's what I know too
is naturally, humans do not wantto be confrontational.
So if you just come out andtalk about how this is, tires
are easy to talk about.
I only buy Michelin tires andonly buy this and that, and if
you you go with anybody else,you're just wasting money, blah,

(16:38):
blah, blah, blah, blah.
Meanwhile, you're a big Nittofan and instead of saying Matt,
I think you're wrong, you're abig Nitto fan, and instead of
saying Matt, I think you'rewrong, I really like Nittos
You'll say hey, let me do someresearch and I'll let you know.
What you're really saying isyou didn't listen to my wants
and needs and you're going tothe place down the road and
buying the Nitto tires.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
That's where most sales are lost.
I'm going to be a thousandpercent honest with you.
That's where you're like man, Idon't know, like the numbers
weren't right, like the numberswere fine.
You just never slowed down andyou might completely have run
over the thoughts or opinions orfeelings of that customer.
And then the next person, theywalk into the pool store, they
walk into the golf store andthey're like, hey, I want nike.

(17:16):
I don't know golf clubs, but Iwant a nike driver and a whole
wood set, and I want this, thisand this.
And the guy's like I, man, doyou want a bag too?
And he's like, yep, give me abag.
And he's like you got balls.
He's like I got it.
And he's like dude, that was soeasy.
Now, someone else had justreally messed up and so they
weren't going to allow that tohappen again.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, you walk into somewhere else and they were
Callaway Nike's junk and blah,blah, blah, blah blah.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Well, this guy might have a relative that worked for
Nike forever and he's wanting tosupport their business.
Or you're at the pool, or hottub store and they're allergic
to chlorine and they wanted tohave the other type of bromine
or whatever you know, and younever slow down to say, hey,
have you ever been in a hot tub?
Do you have a preference orwould you like my opinion on it?

Speaker 1 (18:02):
And I know if you're listening right now you're like
you guys kind of just got offcourse there.
Well, let me bring it back.
Here's why I wanted to go onthat little bit of a tangent and
thank you guys for jumping inon it is that it's about the
consumer and change is necessary.
When the world's changingaround you, you must adapt, even
if it's uncomfortable, becausethe consumer is the one paying

(18:25):
the bills.
The consumer is the one doingit.
You're just a bank transferringthe money.
So a lot of times we'll go intoa new system.
Let's talk about onlinescheduling, like appointment
scheduling online, and our guy'slike, oh no, I just prefer
doing it the old way because Ican look in the computer and I
can do this and that Meanwhiledown the road, your competitor
has got an app and it's easy toschedule.

(18:46):
People like convenience Again,it's not about the price.
People like convenience.
And if down the road, and thenyour second competitor and your
third competitor and your fourthcompetitor all have
confrontation-free, easyscheduling for appointments and
you're still doing it becauseyour staff has told you what to

(19:07):
do, hey, no, we've always doneit this way and you know it
never crashes and blah, blah,blah, blah, blah and you're
letting them pour into you thetail's wagging the dog it is.
Like there is time when we getinput from our employees, but
this time when we, it's our jobto see what's going on and say
no, here's what we're doing,here's how we're going to stay
relevant.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And I.
So we say you need to findinnovation and find change to
continue to grow.
I might take that another stepback and say you need to do it
just to sustain what you'recurrently doing, for sure To not
erode.
So if you're saying, hey, no,this is the course, I know we're
going to do this, this works.
Meanwhile, down the road, theyhave an online scheduler,
they're texting all this stuffand you're like, nope, I'll just

(19:48):
keep this, this will allow meto make $5,000 a month.
That works for me, that worksfor the family.
And no, it will start erodingaway.
So you're like, no, I can justdo my thing and I can cover
myself.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
It will erode away, you'll never stay the same.
We've all heard that quotethere.
You know you either get betteror you get worse every single
day, and some people it doesn'tred shock.
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
I get worse.
Well, if you're not innovating,everybody else around you is,
and your market share, yourbusiness, is slowly eroding.
You're not going to wake uptomorrow and lose 50% of your
business.
You might lose 1% and then halfa percent the next month and

(20:30):
then so.
But then, five years down theroad, you're like why are we
down 40%?
Yeah, that's why it slowlyeroded, because again, the tail
was wagging the dog and your jobas a leader is at that point in
time.
You say it's time for change.
I know we've been in businessin our case 79 years or a
hundred years or whatever butour grandfather, our great
grandfather, they evolved as thetimes and so should we.
We should keep our core valuesthe same, but we should adapt.

(20:51):
With the way you buy a car,yeah, you know.
And, and another great examplethis is an easy one here, but
hey, go back to when dad anduncle were selling cars in the
seventies and eighties andnineties.
They didn't have deliveryspecialists, you know, there
wasn't a phone to sync up, therewas no Apple CarPlay.
Can I tell you, the mostdifficult thing that they went

(21:13):
through was how to adjust thetime on your radio during time
change and your presets on yourradio.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
People don't even know how to do that now I care
that you had to get in and click.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
That was it, and then when we got really high tech in
the 90s, it was programmingyour garage door opener.
So if you could do garage dooropener, change the time on your
radio and presets on your radioand maybe if you had an eddie
bauer you had a memory save seat.
If you could do those fourthings, you were an expert at
delivery.

(21:43):
Yeah, it's changed a little bit.
It it has you know.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Absolutely, hey, going over that.
what I loved hearing as wetalked about that you as the
leader, you have to be able toabsorb any frustration from your
team and be able to handle thatand model the change, model the
adaptability and show themwhich course to go.
And then don't forget tocelebrate small wins.
Make sure you're with the team,and no matter how small it is,

(22:10):
because some people don't need apat on the back at all and some
need a pat.
Every single way, yeah, everysingle way.
So make sure that you do thatto help your team be successful
that's super important.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, automotive fun fact quiz of the week this
week who made the first electriccar?
It's funny, we were talkingelectric car.
Who made the first electric carthat you could drive?
See, they made some electriccars.
Okay, you know, I don't knowwhat they were doing, but they
weren't drivable, right?
So, uh, in the 1830s, robertAnderson.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Great Nice guy.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
B Thomas Parker you didn't know that guy, but 1884.
C Henry Ford, 1908.
Okay, or D Nikola Tesla in the1890s.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
I get that with the Tesla every time.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
These are going to throw you off.
Now let me throw you thosedates again 1830s, 1884, 1908,
or 1890?
.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
I mean, obviously I want to go Henry Ford, because
he was an innovator in 1908, butI'm probably wrong.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
The correct answer is Robert Anderson in the 1830s.
Okay, I don't know what thatmeans Today our range is pretty
dang good, right, Because itprobably wasn't far back then.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Probably not A lot of people get thrown off by that
because they think the majorityof people that get in there
think Henry Ford created thevehicle that drives down the
road.
No, he just created the systemthat produces it.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
The assembly line.
He did not create the vehicle.
He created and modeled theassembly line.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Which made affordability for the mass
majority of people to be able toown a car, so 1830 is a long
time ago.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
That is pretty good.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
So you know, as we talk about change and evolving,
there's the point we've got topause and talk about.
This is tradition in business.
So I'll throw this to you guysto answer.
But you must not lose sight ofyour core values.
Those don't change and I'll getyour thoughts on that.
But as you change and evolvethe way you do business, the way

(24:15):
you hire employees, thepositions, how you position
yourself in the market, whattraditions are worth holding on
to?

Speaker 2 (24:21):
I'll tell you, the first one that comes to mind is
having that personalrelationship between a customer
and an employee, and by that Imean when they walk in, it's
familiar, that they're greeted,that this is not awkward, that
this is not unknown, that youcould have all the systems of
the AI and the text messagesimple and simple and easy,

(24:46):
simple and simple and easy.
But when it comes down to, Iwant to go to a place where
they're warm and friendly and ohyes, I know that person and
they're going to take care of me, they're going to give me their
unsolicited professional advice, and I think that tradition is
super important to have thatface-to-face.
I know this place, I know thisperson and I can trust them.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
You know, I think, when you talk about the subject
I'm going to unpack that forjust a minute, because in all
industries that's not a hundredpercent right.
Like, if you take commoditythings like toothpaste, okay,
milk, anything you might buythat's a $25 item, $50 item
where that relationship isn'treally that necessary because if

(25:29):
it doesn't work, it doesn'twork and it was $25.
Yeah, but when you take ourindustry, which is the second
largest purchase you make, youtake a house, which is the first
largest purchase, or you takeanything that is a reoccurring
service industry serviceindustry so HVAC, plumbing, yard

(25:55):
maintenance, roofers, doctor,anything like that where you
have an ongoing service toprolong whatever it may be,
whether it's your body or yourcar or your HVAC that tradition
of building that relationship isso key because in the
consumer's eyes they're like,okay, everything's great now,
but I do know that this issomething that I'm not just
going to throw out and buyanother one if it breaks down.

(26:16):
How are they going to be afterthe sale helping me?

Speaker 2 (26:21):
And you got to remember that.
So let me tell you this,because you started saying that
and it was like, how do I breakthat down?
And so I looked and said, hey,what's the purchase price that
triggers that a person wantsface-to-face communication.
Ai overview says there's nosingle purchase price point that
triggers universal desire forface-to-face.
But customers often seekface-to-face interaction when

(26:43):
they perceive a high degree ofrisk.
Okay, right, so should I takethis medicine?
They probably want face-to-faceinteraction when they perceive
a high degree of risk.
Okay, right, so should.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
I take this medicine.
They probably want face-to-face.
Yeah, right, am I going to wakeup tomorrow?
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, or when they purchase involves significant
financial or personalimplications.
So is this going to put me overthe edge if it doesn't work
Right?
So when you get to that level,human interaction helps build
trust, resolve complex issuesand provides empathy that
automated systems cannot do.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
And I think you brought that up and I talked
about these pieces and therewere some predictors out there,
you know, as internet reallystarted cranking up, that some
of us were going to go away yeah, Realtors, dealerships, some of
those services that it wouldnow be a click of a button like

(27:37):
everything else on the internet.
However, we found out thatthat's not true, which matches
up exactly with what you weretalking about, and I'll even
throw another case on top ofthere.
If it were ever going to work,where you could buy a car online
without any interaction, anyinteraction it would have shown
its face during COVID.

(27:58):
Yeah, when everybody was attheir house, all these digital
retailing tools and we signed upfor them.
All you know where you couldbuy, you could finance, you
could praise your vehicle, youcould get instant pricing, we
dropped it at your door, so onand so forth.
What we found is consumers likedthe digital retailing, but they
all got to a certain point andstopped when they had more

(28:19):
questions, no different thanpeople like looking at houses
online, you know.
But how many people just calland say I'll pay that for it?
I don't even want to look at it.
Is there a one-off out thereProbably, but is it the normal?

Speaker 2 (28:31):
No, there is and I'll give you statistics.
So Carvana is where you can goonline.
They copied our tower or maybewe copied theirs.
You know that's up for debate.
There's the last month I sawthis stat In our region
Northwest Arkansas region,600,000 people.
There were 235 cars.

(28:52):
We don't have a car fundlocally here but, 235 cars were
purchased from Carvana.
I clicked the button, theydelivered it to me.
That's 0.5% of the market share.
Okay.
So the remaining 99.5% wantedface-to-face interaction and
here's some other things thatthere's six main points of why

(29:14):
people want human interaction,okay.
So one is complexity, or highstakes I talked about that.
Two, the need for expertise oradvice.
Yeah, they just want expertiseor advice.
Third is building trust.
That's exactly where I startedBuilding trust within a person
or advice.
They just want expertise oradvice.
Third is building trust.
That's exactly where I startedBuilding trust within a personal
relationship.
Fourth is personalization.
Do you like Nike?

(29:35):
Do you like Callaway's?
Do you have a preference?
And then you kind of hey,welcome to our restaurant, have
you ever been here?
Do you have something?
And then I want something beefPerfect.
Let me tell you right, peoplelove that emotional connection.
These are emotional purchases.
When you get to that highticket item, right, and then
desire for an out, even whenusing AI, customers feel more at

(29:59):
ease.
Knowing that the option tospeak to a human is available,
it's a situation becomesfrustrating or confusing.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
You know, I got to talk about a couple of those key
things and just some stories.
Here is one emotionalconnection and, and this weekend
we were at an event Uh, thethree of us went to an event in
Georgia.
Okay, and I'm not going to getinto the whole event, but they
had food trucks, they hadvendors, everything else there.
One of the vendors was an icecream food truck from

(30:27):
Bentonville, yeah, and you'dcome over and told us that, yeah
, hey, they're from Bentonville.
I didn't need to go eat any icecream.
I like ice cream but I didn'tneed to eat it and I very rarely
eat it.
I went over there, had aconversation, bought ice cream
from them and then tried tonetwork with them to get them to
come to the dealership.
Because, emotionally, I wantedsomebody from our area.

(30:50):
I didn't know these people fromAdam, no, but I wanted somebody
from this area to be successful.
They had made the trip overthere.
It didn't matter what the Idon't even remember how much it
cost, but I wanted to help thembe successful.
Emotionally, I wanted to seethem succeed yeah and people are
like that.
So so the other day a new bikerepair place opened in town,

(31:11):
okay, over there by thesmokehouse sorry, I don't know
the name of it, but uh, dad hadgone in there, okay, and you're
gonna know where the story goes.
But dad went in there just tokind of check it out.
He wanted to check it outbefore he was hiking up mount
kessler and then came back downand he kind of needed some
tune-up and stuff on his bikesand he goes.
I'm going to take it to him andhe doesn't know him from Adam,

(31:34):
but he had gone in there.
They were a startup businessand emotionally he was connected
that he wanted to try to helpsomebody else succeed.
So he's taken multiple bikes tothem just to try to help them
out to succeed.
So that just nails the point on.
You're talking about emotionsthere.
You know people want a good anda fair deal, but emotionally

(31:55):
they want to be connected thereand one of the things we talk
about is not only that we'regoing to be here for you during
the sale but after the sale andI know, yeah, by the way, more
than likely we're alreadysupporting your local school or
your kids' events or everythingelse in the area.
That's where our money goes.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
And I love that because you see more and more of
an entrepreneur that will goout and I appreciate that and
that's why we talk aboutsalesmen.
Love being sold, love going in,love supporting.
But that's the customer that weall just yearn for.
I, I don't want the 0.05percent of the pie, not to say

(32:34):
I'm not going to put it whereit's available.
We're going to offer it toeveryone.
But I'm not going to put all myeggs in the basket because I
don't have to say that I want itall.
I want the good majority thatdoes good business, that allows
me to be able to pour back intothe community.
It allows me to be able tosupport X, y or Z, allows me,
allows our dad, to be able to gointo a different place and say,

(32:56):
hey, I want to see you besuccessful, because the true
root of an entrepreneur, youwant to be successful, but you
love seeing other peoplesuccessful.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
100, yeah, yeah that small portion is the
transactional business, not theemotional.
The transactional, that small0.5.
Those people are hard to pleaseat the beginning and completely
throughout the entire process.
And you, you and we've allchased, oh, we have, we have all
chased them.
We have, we have all chasedthem, tried to get the whole pie
and it's like okay, well, I hadto be ridiculously cheap, like

(33:30):
losing lots of money, to earntheir business.
I thought maybe once I earnedtheir business that I'd have a
customer for life.
Well, what you realize and youcan see vehicle records in the
system that they had been hereat this service department, this
service department, and if it'sa warranty, you get the whole
story and you can see theycomplained over here, they
complained over here and you'relike we've talked about before,

(33:53):
you need to fire that customerbecause they are just a
transactional style customer.
And if they're simple and basictransactional, like no, I need
a new Maverick every two years,give me the best price.
There's still a little bit ofemotion there, like you took
care of me.
You made it simple and easy Inever bought a car via text but
you did it but just the puretransactional.
They're looking for the bottom,the bottom, the bottom, the
bottom bottom, and you know theynever had kids.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
They don't go to any events.
They're not out, they don'tlike people.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
They don't care if you saved anybody yeah, that's
where, but it's that one sticksin people's mind because your
emotions get involved and wewent through this with a manager
the other day.
We said they brought up an issue.
We said how many times doesthat happen?
Right, and as a business leader, we're getting off track.
But this is good.
As a business leader, you mustverify the concern and how

(34:42):
frequent is it?
No different than when we stockvehicles.
We don't stock every singlecolor and option they have under
the sun.
We couldn't.
We would need a hundred acredealership.
Yeah, we would need a hundred.
We stock the majority, whatturns the fastest, and then
we'll go get the rest of it ifwe need to.

(35:03):
Yeah, but don't make businessdecisions based upon one-offs.
No, make business decisionsbased upon frequency and what
you do the most of.
I think that's really important.
Any other takeaways ortraditions that you think can
differentiate you with yourcompetitors over automation?

Speaker 2 (35:22):
No, I think you just have to make sure you stay
relevant and you don't have tobe the flashiest, but you have
to have one of those core thingsor the values that say, hey,
this is more of an emotionalpurchase, and here's why this
makes more sense than just theflashy right, Because someone's
always going to chase that.
Really good website, reallygood website.

(35:43):
What we've learned?
you know, there's a lot of shipthrough companies that aren't
even an actual physical buildingor a business but, they've done
a good job building a flashywebsite until you have a problem
with your product and you tryto call them or try to go to
them and they don't exist andyou're like this guy's in
somebody's basement doing thiswhole thing, so basement doing

(36:12):
this whole thing.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
So realize there's a good mixture of that staying
relevant with the tradition inbusiness, but also being
relevant enough that they're notgoing back to the fifties.
Yeah, and I think you just haveto make sure, yes, change,
evolve your business, but don'tlose your core values.
So we go back to 1948, 1972 and1988, and to 1948, 1972, and
1988, and 2003,.
We still had a great culture.

(36:32):
Okay, we took care of ouremployees first and we donated
and we supported the communitythat made us what we are.
So, however, the car businesshas evolved through all that,
whether it's EV or gas, or twovehicles or a thousand vehicles.
We haven't lost sight in allthat, and nor should you, as
running a business no, that'sgood.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Hey, time for myth buster segment.
Okay, all right what do you?
New technology always makesbusiness better.
I'm gonna say I'll go ahead andgrab this one Within spec or
realm.
It makes it more efficient insome ways.
Yeah, that's probably thepositive side I can take of it.

(37:16):
I love technology.
Technology is great, butwhenever you mix with people
that aren't good with technologythey can't complete everything
every single time it becomes anightmare.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
And if the technology is not fully vetted or properly
ready or able to handle whatwas currently doing it.
We see this from manufacturersall the time.
I have an Excel spreadsheetthat gives me all my links of my
sites that I need to visit andthe manufacturer brings
something new, and I'm like,okay, does that supersede?
And they're like, no, you stillkind of need this, but you have
this.
And so when we look at newtechnology, we say, hey, walk us

(37:50):
through the entire flow.
And how many windows do I haveto open?
That's where I would saytechnology is not always better,
bezos, because you've justcircled the wagon six times just
to get around it once.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, just technology is great.
It's one of those and I'mprobably too slow in some of
those areas and I really do.
I like technology, I likeclicktronics, I like technology.
But we've really taken a pageand we're not a Honda or Toyota
dealer, but we study thecompetition.
We've taken some pages out oftheir book.

(38:22):
If you look at Honda, you lookat Toyota.
They're not the first to marketwith things.
Their screens aren't thefanciest.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Their technology's not the fanciest.
They weren't first to.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
EV.
Some of them still aren't intoEV, you know.
So how much does that save them?
So when you look at that andwhen something new comes out,
you got to remember you might beextremely savvy with technology
and you can figure out thequirks and the firmware and this
and that technology.
And you can figure out thequirks and the firmware and this
and that.
But does your whole team.
Yeah, no, it's not for you.
You know.
You, you got to pause, maybewait for version two to come out

(38:52):
.
And as we talk about softwareand technology you guys have
heard me talk about this,especially the dms unless it is
a massive improvement, massiveimprovement, we're not changing
because we got to drag througheverybody through those changes.
Now, if it's something behindthe scenes that it's a plug and
play that nobody ever is goingto see, that's a different

(39:13):
conversation.
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
I'm going to go ahead and finish, so I don't have to
bust it.
Okay, myth busted New tech.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Technology does not always make business better.
All right, segment threeinnovation that sticks.
Okay, innovation that stickswhen innovating test small and,
if it works, scale it up.
We've talked about that indoing a test pilot, or maybe in
one department or one person inyour department.
What's your guys' thoughts onthat?

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, I would say you know, a lot of times when you
have there's a couple of acouple different areas here, let
me first talk about with ourorganization what we're able to
do, and then I'll talk about ifyou've got a smaller
organization within ourorganization we're able to take.
Let's take ad campaigns, forexample, and we can run one at
one store and one at a differentstore than to be able to see

(40:04):
how did they perform.
You know, uh, we've We've ranand we haven't scaled this up,
but we've talked about it.
We ran pickup and delivery andmobile service just at a single
Ford store, not at both the Fordstores.
Then to say, okay, hey, let'sgo all in here and let's pilot
it, and then let's see if it'ssomething we do need to scale up
and duplicate at the otherstores.
We've got the ability to dothat.

(40:25):
We've ran pay plans that way,you know, amongst salespeople of
let's leave them on atraditional one, let's try to
hire new people over here at amore flexible pay plan and
schedule, so on and so forth.
Let's say you have a businessthat you don't have.
You're like oh Matt, thatsounds great, that's easy for
you to do with.
You know five differentrooftops and you can change this
and change.
That sounds great, that's easyfor you to do with.

(40:46):
You know five differentrooftops and you can change this
and change that.
I've got a single one.
You can run an A-B test, youknow, to figure out which one's
your bigger click-through rateif you put advertising out there
, to see how that works.
You know you can run one weekof scheduling this way and the
next week of scheduling anotherway to see what works better,
what flowed better there.
So you don't have to be hugewhen you're testing that than to

(41:07):
see which way works to scale.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Yeah, I think it's just definitely getting and
actually testing it.
A lot of times I see that notnecessarily that we, but that
you see from other areas thatpeople will say they tested
something and they put parts andpieces of it out there with the
team and didn't fully get, evenif it's that single person or
single department fully givethem what they need to really

(41:30):
run it and they're opinionatedit before they even start like
oh yeah, this is going to work,and they go ahead and test it at
a minor level, like oh yeah,this is great, and then throw it
all in and then it blows up.
So make sure you test it, testit thoroughly in that small
space, this is great, and thenthrow it all in and then it
blows up.
So make sure you test it, testit thoroughly in that small
space, uh, department, and then,if it works, obviously step it

(41:53):
up to the next level.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
We've learned that in a bunch of different
departments of kind of figuringthat out, and I think when you
something to note there, nomatter what size your business
is, you can always test whetherit's if you just have one person
, one employee, try somethingone day versus another day.
I would say more than a day, soit's not just one customer
versus the next.
But then you need tohyper-study that change Like you

(42:18):
need to have all the data andall the results.
So it's not emotional, becauseif you're wanting to change,
then your results somehow aregoing to come back you know you
need to change, right uh, or ifyou're not wanting if you're not
wanting to change your resultswill come back and say I knew it
wouldn't do good, right?
so you probably need to at leasthave the idea and give it to

(42:39):
someone else who's non-biasedand say, hey, either get this
demo or hey, let's try this.
And this is a pilot.
I'm not saying I'm changingyour pay plan permanently and
I'm not saying I'm changing theprocess permanently, but let's
try it.
And here's the data markersthat we want to track.
You know we're doing a used carstudy and we're saying, hey, for
60 days we're going to trackevery single thing.

(42:59):
Where did we acquire that usedcar from?
How much did it cost in theshop?
How much was farmed out?
Sure, windshields, paint orexternal repairs we couldn't
handle.
What was the PVR on thatvehicle?
Did it have a trade-in?
What do we do with thattrade-in?
And so we'll have 60 days worthof data and then we can really

(43:23):
get a hyper-focused non-emotionsbased off of the data what
works and what doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
Joe Bad could talk about that, but I love going
into that specific study becauseit's so fresh.
So we've implemented it.
We started that this past month, 1st of September, but I was
pretty clear of how I wanted itto be.
I went over with the otherdepartment manager head that was
helping me with the other, andI said, hey, it needs to be

(43:52):
filled out this way.
We're going to do this rightfrom the get-go.
I want you to do it everysingle day so that we can get
all the details, because it isreally all the details.
You put them in there.
The more details, the better.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
It gives you a 70-page compas and gives you
what about this?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
So I said that twice, said it here, they were doing
it.
Well, I had told my othermanager hey, let's really do
this and dive into it.
And he said yeah, yeah, yeah,we're doing it.
Well, I went back to inspect,because you inspect whenever you
put something in there.
It wasn't in there Because it'snew or different.
Yes, it's new or different.
So it wasn't in there and Isaid, hey, no, these two
sections we have to do.
And he's like, oh yeah, I'll goback.

(44:30):
No, those are already gone.
That's why I have to do it fromday one.
So we went back in there and Ihad to circle back another time
because it're putting into itand I'll tell you why Taylor's
so thorough on that?

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Because I've been to that meeting before, we've all
been to that meeting where wewere the one that inputted that
data or the one is now studyingthe data.
And so then I'll text Taylorand I'm like, hey, where did we
get our recon figure from?
And he's like, oh, it was fromthe statement of this and this.
I'm like, hey, where did we geta recon figure from?
And he's like, oh, it was fromthe statement of thisness.
I'm like, well, that's notright, because I'm on page 20 to

(45:11):
27, they're all based on recon.
And I'm like, well, I might aswell tune out, because this is
not relevant at all.
I'm like, what about our subletstuff?
Where did that come from?
And he's like, this isn't this.
So, he, you know that stuff wasjust wasted it was just wasted
and so then it was learned.
It's like, okay, well, let'slearn from that now moving

(45:32):
forward, and don't wait 60 daysand then go try to compile one,
because it's a and that's 500cars to do between the two
stores, uh, and you're not goingto have proper data, but just
understanding that testing thatsmall and getting the proper
data allows you to really make adecision.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
And I'll say another thing on there too, is feedback
feedback internally, but youneed to be careful about who
collects the feedback, becauseif you're in charge, you have
very, very few employees thatare going to be a hundred
percent honest with you.
Why?
Fear of their job.
You know what I mean.
Like let me just call it outfear of their job.
So if you have somebody else inthe company, like if you've got

(46:11):
an HR or if you've got a COO orif you've got somebody else
that can go do kind of aninterview with some of your
employees to get that, they canget you some relevant
information.
Now let me help some of the restof y'all out there that have
you're on a six-man crew andyou're like okay, but how do I
do all this?
I'm in the middle of doing allof it myself.
I want you to look at what yourtop competitors are in your

(46:34):
area.
All right, let's say you're inthe HVAC business.
If you're in the HVAC businessand you're like why can't I get
more people scheduled?
Here's what I want you to do.
I want you to take the top twoor top three HVAC businesses out
there and I want you to somekey employees.
You pay for it for them andhave them go through the
scheduling process and tosomebody to come out to their

(46:56):
house and do an inspection oftheir HVAC.
You pay for it all.
All they have to do is give youa report on how they schedule,
what they look like when theyshowed up, what they present you
with and what the whole processlooked like, and then they just
got to present it back toeverybody.
You can do that in any industryand we do that with oil changes
and quick services all the time.
Yeah, to figure out not onlywhat are their prices but what's

(47:19):
their process.
How easy is it to schedule soyou can get feedback that way,
to look at innovation fromsomebody else that's already
been doing it.
It's like a shortcut and you'relike well, I don't want to pay
$150 and $200.
That's cheap.
If you have three employees andyou pay a $200 service and it's
$600 and you just cut what tooksomebody else five years to get

(47:42):
the cliff notes of everybody,that's cheap.
That's very.
It really is.
You can invest in it that wayand it's definitely much easier.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
No doubt about that.
So innovation should alwayssolve a real problem.
Right, understanding that thatyour innovation, your technology
should always solve a problem.
It should not just look good,okay, right.
So think about that like a newsystem that you put into place
that gives you reports Like ifit just gives you fancy, this,

(48:11):
this, this but it doesn't allowyou to click down, to be
granular, to say, okay, how do Isolve a problem?
Or how do I see if a metric ismoving, just because it's shiny
and it sends you an email, orit's on a board, if you can't do
anything with it, it's nowbecome a larger expense for you.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
And the easiest way to identify that is by looking
at the data and the facts andnot the emotion.
You know, and we're all thisway when we have bought
something and we want to show itoff, like internally alignment
machine, tv screens, whatever itis, we're proud of of it, we're
showing people this and that,so like, oh yeah, it's working.

(48:49):
Look at that.
You really got to look at thedata and the facts to go is it
fixing the problem now?
Is it just shiny and new and itlooks good?

Speaker 2 (48:56):
well, so put that into place.
If you're not dealership newiphone releases okay, right,
they've released lots of them,probably 20 by now.
Um, and you look at what youcurrently have and what they
just released new, and shinysays, yep, go get it.
Yep, right, yep, go get it, youneed it.
It's just $38 extra per month.

(49:17):
Whatever, it is right.
But if you stop and say, doesit help me?
Like, did I gain anything?
And of all the things it'ssaying that I gained over the
last year's model, do you useany of those things?
Are they really relevant to you?
Or are you just getting caughtup in the innovation or the new
technology, like saying, hey, Iwant the metaglass, it's like

(49:38):
one.
Do you wear glasses?

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (49:41):
necessary.
And two, you have four camerason your phone right now.
What do you do with them?
Right?
So if you get caught up and wesee people and I've been there
before I love gadgets, sure,yeah, but at there's some point
when you're the one paying forthem, and then you're the one
seeing them piled up and you nowhave a wife or a husband and

(50:04):
they're like what is all thisstuff right?
And you're like you have to beaccountable to someone's like.
Why do you keep to beaccountable to someone who's
like, why do you keep signing upfor this technology?
There's a guy in our 20 group.
He brings the general manageroften and the last meeting he
didn't come.
The owner didn't, but thegeneral manager came and he was
like hey, do any of you guys usethis X company?

(50:24):
What is it?
He's like it's it's for vehicleacquisition.
He said his dealer.
The last meeting someone wastalking about it and he's kind
of that if someone's talkingabout it, he doesn't want to
miss out.
So he had signed up for it andhe took it back and he said hey,
here, this is make it work,he's like.

(50:46):
So here I am.
I really don't know much aboutit, but I I've got an extra
$3,200 a month in expense andI'm trying to make it work to
cover my expense.
So like, don't just buy itbecause it's shiny.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
I think, and I got to go back to Dad here and I'm
sure he just ingrained this inall of us and I like new things,
just like anybody does, but Inever buy the first version of
it.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
I just don't, unless it's a new Ford or Chrysler
Dodge.
Yeah, graham, those are good togo.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, they are, but like just just generally, it's
like okay, let's think aboutthis, let's look at it.
And a great telltale on that isI want you to look to your
mentors.
I want you to look to the fiveclosest people around you that
are at a level that you'retrying to get to.
Did they go, do that?

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
Did they invest in that?
Yeah, man, you know and I'm nottrying to talk us out of any
sales here, but I'm just saying,look at somebody that is where
you want to go to.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
And what did they do?

Speaker 2 (51:47):
You know what Dave Ramsey says you should buy a
Ford.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Raptor.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
That's right.
Yeah, I love that, you know.
Going back, you say, daveRamsey, I love this and I talk
about this all the time and Ilove that as you grow older you
grow wiser and luckily this ishow it works.
Majority of the time I thinkback and I'm like gosh.
I'm glad I didn't have anymoney whenever I was 20 or

(52:11):
anything else, because I'd havebeen a yahoo and a favorite
quote and I think no, matt toldme this several times we've
going through Dave Ramsey of ifyou can't manage ten dollars,
you can't manage a milliondollars.
So don't think innovating yourbusiness, don't think adding
this extra doing isautomatically going to take you

(52:33):
to the next level, because theonly thing that happens, if you
can't control the smaller amount, it gets bigger and it turns
into a wildfire I'm just goingto add on to there, just so
everybody knows is is that Ihave yet to find anything.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Any, any software, any ad campaign, any, this, any,
that that's a light switch.
Yep, all of it still takesinput new habits, controlling
the processes and makingadjustments.
There is nothing that is alight switch out there.
Now there's a lot of goodsalespeople and I've gotten

(53:10):
wrapped up in it before.
They're like boom, this is allyou got, no.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
And it's not to say don't do it right.
We started out saying you needto innovate, but just be careful
.
Yeah, just be careful, Likejust be mindful and say like,
hey, is this really what I need?
And if it is, you've got togive it opportunity to grow legs
.
Yep, you can't just throw someseed on the ground without
watering it, without covering itwith soil, without doing all
the things to give it an optionto then reap all the benefits.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I think that's a great point because, like we've
kind of gone both ways there.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Yeah, like don't do it or do it, what to do?

Speaker 1 (53:43):
So let's wrap it up like this what is the biggest
innovation that each of you guyshave seen that has stuck in the
dealership and made adifference?
What's something that we havedone, inputted whether it's
technology or software or aprocess that is still relevant
today.
Maybe it's evolved, but it'sstill relevant today and has

(54:03):
paid off.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
So I'll talk about, and we talked about this in the
main point and we said that it'snot the end-all be-all, but the
online digital experience.
And we saw a heavy push inCOVID because there was stay
away from me you know, juju bad.
So what it allowed us and weknew this data, this status so

(54:29):
old that 90% of customers didtheir information and spent over
16 hours online researching it.
It built that way because forthe longest time, in order to
get information about your car,you had to go dealership to
dealership, dealership long timeago.
Then you would look at thenewspaper that gave you a little
more data, but then theinternet came out, and so then
people were more infatuated withwhat, if, what, if, what, if.

(54:51):
Well, then COVID came out, andso it allowed us to have to
adapt and being able to do that.
So what that has allowed us todo is a hybrid sales process, to
be a more omni-channelexperience and not start the
customer with hello, my name isTom, would you like to buy a car
?
And then start from ground zero?

(55:13):
Sure, and by omni-channel Imean the way that a lead
generation or now it's not somuch a lead generation, it's a
deal generation to say, hey, Ifollow your podcast and maybe
they communicate via YouTube ina comment to say, hey, what
colors Grand Cherokees do youhave you talked about?
That's the omni-channel and thedeal generator.

(55:36):
Or the Instagram of the ad thatyou're running to buy three,
get one free tires.
And they're like, hey, I needsome new tires.
So that forced us and I'm goingto say that's one of the big
things that has stuck around isinnovation of not just online
presence but online call toaction and then an omni-channel
to understand where a customeris at and that building that

(55:58):
customer relationship.
That event that we just went to,there was only a few people
that we had ever met before,Right, but there was tons of
people that we walked aroundlike, oh, that's that guy, yeah,
that's that lady.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Right and even after we left it's like man.
I thought I knew that and thatwas from online or digital
footprint in a relationshipbuilding that you have.
And so our online presence wecontinue to push and continue to
grow because it builds thatemotional level and connection
so that we can figure out how toproperly transact that business
at their space.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
So that was really how we've evolved in digital
retailing they call it and howthat stuck around.

Speaker 3 (56:37):
Yes, taylor, what was yours?
This one has been around for 12years, y'all.
This is more of an internaltool that we use, but I love it
for the platform Slack, yep.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Of going through and we probably started using it.
It was about, I think it was,2016.
I was at a 20 group and I wasbored out of my mind.
But I and I'll tell you, I wasbored because someone was having
a conversation about the costof turning your used vehicles
versus and I was like we've toldthis lady 18 times, she ain't
listening, melissa ain'tlistening, she's gonna hold on
to it and it's gonna bring allthe money.

(57:15):
And I was.
And so I was thinking in mymind hey, what is a way that we
could tell our entire team, surethat we just traded for a car,
and give them all the detailsand then a photo that they need?
And so I just started googlinghey, what's this, what's this,
what's this?
And then insert slack that theyneed.
And so I just started.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Googling hey, what's this, what's this, what's this?
And then insert Slack Yep.
So 12 years old, we adapted in16.
So almost 10 years we've beenrunning it and it is evolved
into a monster that we love.
It helps our inner departmentsbe able to talk.
It helps our sales teamprobably most efficiently be
able to access promotionalguidelines, be able to access
fresh trades, be able to accessanything that we want to think

(57:57):
of them as a chat, a group chator text or anything else.
So I've loved that how that'sdefinitely evolved and it's been
innovative for our whole salesforce and the rest of the team
building there.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
And I think you know to go to back there if you
haven't heard of it before.
That's Slack.
That's not an automotive.
More non-automotive people useit than automotive.
It's free 99, unless you wantto do the whiz bang deal.
I got two for you and theyalways haven't stayed the same
company, but the technology hasstayed the same Back in 2009,.
So we're going back quite a bithere, 2009,.

(58:32):
We put a CRM in place, which isa customer relationship
management that went on top ofour DMS and it was a way to
better stay connected, know ourcustomer's history, be able to
find them solutions, be able tostay in contact with them and
then present figures too.
That's one of thosetechnologies that we put in
place and it's stayed there.

(58:52):
We've changed companies, butit's really streamlined and it's
made a better experience.
We're able to track thingsbetter.
And then the second is anappraisal tool.
You know an appraisal tool andwe've had a couple of different
companies on that.
What that allows us to do is,as soon as we scan the VIN of a
vehicle, that we're putting avalue on whether they're trading
it in or we're purchasing it.

(59:13):
It allows us to get the mostup-to-date, accurate information
on values for what they'rebringing at the auction, what
they're on sale for otherdealers, lots at how long
they've been there.
We get to look at historyreports.
We get to look at everythingrapidly to make a well-informed
decision, to make sure we'regiving the customer the most

(59:34):
amount of money for theirvehicle and we're also not
trading for something that couldbe a problem child.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Yeah, that Larry didn't scan at the other store
or on my day off, Cause when westarted, every week I would get
a new black book and that I meanthat's coming to yellow and
blue.
It was a book and you know you'dhey, you could put it on here,
you could put it on here.
And so then I had a drawer fullof them because Wayne was like,
hey, you need to make sure tosee where the market was moving.

(01:00:05):
There was a big to call upfront and say, especially before
the CRM, and so there was norecord of, hey, what did we
offer them on the trade.
And customers were like youoffered me 10 grand.
I was like can you prove?
that to me, Because it lookslike it's worth eight grand
right.
So that is a very powerful toolit really is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
You know that, no matter where you are.
So those are just a coupleexamples of some of the systems
we've used within ourorganization that have stuck
around.
They've evolved, but have stuckaround and have been a benefit
to our customers and to ouremployees.
Hey, as always, make sure to goonline at lewissuperstorecom.
That's where you'll find thelowest prices and freshest

(01:00:44):
inventory, and thenacrossroadconversationpodcastcom
is where you'll find thisepisode and 54 more like it.
As always, hey, if you'll do usa favor, leave us a comment if
you want us to cover anothersubject, or reach out to us
directly, and we'll throw it onhere.
Give us a like and a share sowe can get this business advice
out to many others.

(01:01:04):
As always, thanks for joining.
Hey, thanks for joining ustoday, and we hope you enjoyed
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Make sure to give it a like,share it with your friends and
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