February 17, 2025 • 53 mins
Revolutionize your customer growth strategy with AI and make your rent-to-own business stand out in a crowded market. Join me, Pete Shau, and special guest Daniel Hajduk from Vox-Pop-uli as we uncover how AI can transform traditional customer service approaches that often fall flat with repetitive patterns and high costs. We dive into the power of community-based activities and discuss how local events and industry trends can be leveraged for personalized campaigns. By engaging with local chambers of commerce and tapping into regional nuances like Atlanta’s booming movie industry, you can craft marketing efforts that are both relevant and remarkable.
We also explore the art of personalized birthday marketing and how to turn special occasions into meaningful customer engagement opportunities. Imagine crafting themed offers that align seamlessly with seasonal buying behaviors, making each interaction with your brand memorable. Daniel and I delve into the potential of integrating these special dates into a comprehensive marketing plan that is both creative and impactful. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer looking to innovate or just beginning your journey, this episode promises practical insights and strategies to elevate your marketing game and truly connect with your audience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Chow, andtoday we're doing part four of
our AI series on how it's goingto affect you in rent to own.
I've got my guest here, danielHajdu from Vox Populi, and
listen, guys, this is the funpart.
This is the part I want to getinto, because this is how to
grow your store with AImarketing and really, this is
kind of where you shine.
(00:28):
This is the part where Vox islike all about the sales, all
about the marketing, all aboutthe brand building.
Daniel, this is it.
This is the fun part of the AI.
We've gone into like how to getgoing and where to look at it
and what do you do and how doyou start off and what even AI
means.
And now we're getting to thegood stuff.
(00:53):
How do I utilize my so-calledsecretary office assistant to
really put me the edge ongetting something different, new
, vibrant and in the now?
How do we do?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
that Well, like we've talked about.
But everything else is a tool,right.
And what's the biggestcomplaints people have with
marketing?
It costs too much, they don'thave the time and it doesn't
work.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, brain fart, you know you try to come up with
something.
Well, because something thatI've noticed in Rent to Own too
is we have these ideas, and thennext year we're in the same
time frame, we're cyclingthrough the same time, and then
how many times during footballseason have you heard oh, we're
going to do a kind of like atouchdown sale.
Yeah, okay, you and everybodyelse that's doing it right now
(01:27):
is going to do some type oftailgating, some type of
touchdown, and sometimes it'sokay to be with the flow and
sometimes you want to bedifferent.
Right, we're going to use thattool to be completely different.
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, and it's just like everything else.
You can simplify it down to thesimplest thing.
So, like you mentioned, you'redoing the same thing over and
over and over again.
Well, have it personalized alittle more, and that makes it
so much easier.
You can personalize down eachstore with hey, let's do some
geographical based marketing forOctober.
Instead of doing football,let's do it around each store's
(02:01):
area, or at least each region,based on something that would be
more relatable to there,because you might have a
different theme with somethingwhere it's colder in october
versus down here in florida,right, so you might want to
theme it different.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You're not going to do hot chocolate, probably down
here in october, but you mightdo that up north I was thinking
too, like if I was going to dothis based on calendar base,
because you always do it basedon calendar.
But you know, season this, wehave football season season and
everybody's doing, like you know, march Madness and everything.
But you know, wouldn't it begreat to go to like a local
school or your local businessbureau and grab a calendar of
(02:32):
events and go, you know, insteadof doing it based on what
everybody else is doing, thisand what would be great, you
know what would be a great salespitch for these different
events and go okay, I can getbacking into this.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, you want to be relatable to the community.
First off, everyone should beinvolved with their chamber of
commerce.
There's so much going on there.
We have people tonight at anevent with our chamber of
commerce in our, in our County.
And, for example, one thingwe've really focused some of our
marketing stuff on in Atlantais the movie industry, because
it's so big and growingconstantly.
So there's so much going on, sowe've been able to focus things
(03:15):
just solely around there,because there's an opportunity.
So what's that?
It doesn't have to be the movieindustry.
There's only so many bigindustries, but what is that
industry that kind of has thathey, or what is that area that
you can look at and be like, hey, we can do something around
this and people are going to getinto that?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That is Tyler Perry.
He's got a big studio overthere.
He's one of them.
There's another actor that hasanother big area over there now,
isn't it?
Was it Cat Williams?
I think Somebody bought landover there for another.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There's something it's constantly growing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There's one about 10 minutes from Vox, where this big
old Ford GM site used to be,and it's growing like crazy
right now, and they have thiswhole planned development.
We had a luncheon with themlast month and they just
presented everything about itand it's just insane how much
impact it really has oneverything.
Now that I think about it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think Cat Williams bought an old military base.
It really has on everything Nowthat I think about it.
I think Cat Williams bought anold military base.
Probably.
I don't remember if that was inGeorgia or not, I don't
remember, but I think it wasgoing to convert that into some
type of Tyler Perry-esque typething, and Georgia has got a lot
of that going on, and dependingon where you were in the
country, it could be different.
I mean, the Northeast might bedifferent than the Southeast,
(04:22):
and the Southwest and theMidwest and everything like that
.
I mean, I know that this year,in 2025, we're going to have the
RT World 2025 in Oklahoma,right, and as you're doing that,
excuse me, omaha, omaha.
Nebraska I'm sorry I said that.
Omaha, nebraska.
You know that stakes and that'sone of those states that it's
very unique to what it is Rightand having a calendar of events
(04:46):
in that area would be so greatto start mimicking different
things that you do with thoseevents and tie it into the
community, because this I meancommunity-based is exactly what
this is about.
You know, we're not sellingacross country.
Nobody calls us up or nobodydoes an email to buy from, like
New York, from Florida.
They're doing it from a fewstreets over or they're doing it
from the county right next door.
(05:07):
And so when you, when you tiethat into your local situation
where you either, whether it bea football game, a basketball
game or you know whateveranybody's good at I mean
Georgia's peaches, you know youcan't you kind of integrate that
as well?
I mean those are the thoughtsthat you know every time I see,
yeah, you know.
Every time I see, yeah, youknow it's football season,
everybody's doing this, you know, and touchdown for the sale and
I'll come, that's played out.
(05:27):
You know the first year is good, the second year is like eh,
the third year is like I'mexpecting it, let's do something
new and we can put all thatinformation in AI and get a
great return.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Right, you don't have to know everything.
That's why you just have toknow what questions you want to
ask it.
So what are you looking for andwhat do you want to figure out
about your community?
Ask it what do you know aboutcity X?
What might stick out to theresidents of this kind of area
based off their demographics,what they do, what's involved in
a city Because, again, youmight have a college town by
that might be more prevalentthan other towns.
You might have other things.
(05:59):
You might have a differentindustry that's really big there
.
So theme it around somethingand make it personalized to the
people, because they're going tosee that.
What is someone going to stopwhen they're scrolling on their
phone or when they're gettingmail out of their mailbox and be
like, oh, this is really cool,versus just another touchdown
tailgate direct mail piece?
Well, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You said that that is what it was.
It's an awesome thing to say,because what does people?
I want to know what gets topeople to stop doom scrolling,
you know, to just zip, zip, zip,and then I actually input that
in AI and I don't quite rememberthe output, because I did see
something and I was like, wow,that was great, and then I
completely forgot what it was.
But you know, getting people tostop, and being different, not
(06:41):
the same and having thisenvironment where not only do I
want to capture attention, but Idon't want to be the same as
the last 10 things that youstopped on.
I want to be different.
I want to be integrated withthe community, I want to be
where you're going to be and Iwant to be present in what's
important to you and then backthat up to, but I also want you
to come and do business with me.
(07:01):
You know, and, and so localadvertising is immensely popular
and very, very important, butwhen you're talking about AI and
you're, and you're, let's say,you're building this sales
culture right, cause you want togrow it, ai is going to going
to put you on a map.
And how do you, how do you makeAI work for you.
As far as marketing, what weresome, what'd be some steps if I
wanted to just include AI andsay, okay, I want to come up
(07:24):
with this marketing plan, wheredo you start?
Let's say at Vox.
Or Daniel says, okay, if I'mputting a marketing campaign,
number one, where do I startStart?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
have an idea of what you want to accomplish.
Know what your parameters are.
Obviously, you might havecertain rules you have to follow
, no matter if you're doing thisat a store level basis or a
regional basis or a wholecompany wide basis.
Know what your parameters are.
Know what you can spend If youare going to spend, you don't
have to spend a market.
But know all those things andstart inputting that into it,
into a chatbot, and say, ok, Ineed to come up with a marketing
(07:57):
plan for Q1 and this is mybudget.
These are the platforms we use.
Help me personalize this totown.
Why?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Now, when you say that, is it like okay, I want to
move product versus I want toget new customers versus I want
a larger?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
down payment during this.
It can help you on the focus.
If you're just trying to getattention or you're trying to
drive sales.
It can help kind of gear an ador a basis of an ad to that.
Now it's like okay, whatever,whatever that is, that might
gear someone towards one or theother.
Or just if you're trying to geteyeballs or you're trying to
just trying to get a high valuesale, if it's the dollar value
(08:34):
versus the eyeballs, then dothat, look at that there and you
can.
You can personalize it down tothat.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's I mean it's, it seems so dialed in and every
time that, you know, sometimeswe sit down and we all try to
come up with the next idea andthen there's a stagnancy moment.
Everybody's like, yes, I wantto do this, I want to do this,
but I don't know how.
And to be able to pull up theAI, to be able to involve us
into this sales culture whereit's like, okay, this is what I
(08:58):
want to accomplish, what am Igoing to get out of it?
Boom, I'm going to get this outof it.
Is is is kind of weary.
It's kind of like, wow, it isthat easy.
But you know, sometimes we talkabout content creation.
That involves ads or, let's say, special day reminders,
birthdays, stuff like that.
We can.
How would you do that?
Would you print up a list oflike birthdays or do you say,
(09:19):
okay, for the birthdays of thismonth, this is what I want to
accomplish?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Are you more of just like hey, a plan of it doing
your repetitive thing, or, ifyou want to do something
different per month, is thatwhat you're looking for?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Well, more like you know what do I say.
That's going to get people ontheir birthdays and wanting to
come in and something for thismonth right.
So this month is December.
Any December birthday months.
You know how would I go aboutthat.
What would you say?
Okay, december birthday month.
I want to do somethingdifferent.
How would you tackle that on,let's say, on a list of to-dos?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I would just include that in your overall plan.
If birthday marketing is inyour plan at all, but you're
looking to personalize it downto each month, so a summer
birthday is different from abirthday this month, then you
can do that because it'sprobably going to theme it
around something that peoplemight buy more around Christmas
time versus the middle of summer, right?
So personalize it down to thatand just have that in your plan.
(10:08):
So you know that.
I know from our knowledge thatyou always send birthday stuff
out at the beginning of themonth, because it's always
better to be earlier than lateat the beginning of the month,
in the first day or so, and youdo your birthday stuff, have the
plan out for on the second.
We send out, know, even directmessaging people if you have
that information, sending outthe mail piece, obviously, or
whatever you actually hit themwith.
(10:29):
Send them that, uh, that textor whatever you have from them,
but personalize it down to thatmonth and that's that's a great
idea, honestly, because againyou're going to send them
something for december.
They might trigger differentthan they do because they're
thinking about what's on theirchristmas list.
So why not?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
well, you know, and I'm also, you know, also think,
because we had mentioned in aprevious you know, you have the
ability with AI to not only comeup with the next quarter, the
next six months, you can come upwith the next calendar year,
right?
So something that you want toaccomplish in September, you
wouldn't do it in September, youwould do it in August, or you
would do it in the end of Julyand go, ok, I'm pre-planning for
these months, this is what Iwant to come up with and have
(11:03):
those strategies ready so thatbetween day one and day five,
that's being mailed out, or, youknow, let's say, day 25 to the
31st, you're mailing it outalready for the previous or for
the next month, coming up andgiving those ideas and I think
also it's going to be able tofind out okay, what months do?
(11:46):
No-transcript, different,tailored towards you know when,
your COD is this you can maybeadd on a gift or a free, you
know, stocking stuff or whateverthe case is, because I already
know that you're going toalready know that you're going
to want to put this down, butfor what you're normally going
to do, I will give you someextra and I think the idea of it
(12:10):
is just taking what you knowand your knowledge and your
experience and then finding thatpathway to make it so much
easier and so much better.
But I think the point that Ireally want to know is you have
birthdays, anniversaries, youhave your anniversary, as in
your work anniversary, your homeanniversary, maybe there's an
anniversary that means somethingto you.
Now, of course, you have to bea little bit more dialed in.
(12:31):
I don't know how you'd be ableto incorporate that unless you
have some personal knowledge.
So we'll just stick with workanniversaries.
But as that stuff comes around,when you're doing what you do
and Vox has these great bigplans and stuff like that how do
these sales tips help you geteverything out to the masses
faster and easier?
Does it really give you contentcreation ideas?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It gives you ideas Again you have to balance it
with what you know and whatworks.
But it can start somewhere likehey, I don't know what I want
to do on the 7th of this month,so just plug in something.
Or I want to do it around, likefor us, around engraving on
this day and print this day andapparel this day, but I don't
know how to make it differentthree times in a month.
(13:15):
So give me an idea how to do adifferent apparel post on
Facebook.
That's going to be relevant,and I'm not just posting a video
of the embroidery machine threetimes in a row and it's like,
okay, relevant.
I'm not just posting a video ofthe embroidery machine three
times in a row and it's likeokay what's cool about that?
How can I make it morepersonalized to someone to make,
oh, that's cool, or get themget eyeballs on it?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
which is what we're usually going for on social
media.
So when you, when you talk toit, I'm saying that, I'm saying
that kind of like in, when you,when you integrate yourself and
you're typing to the, to thechat bot, right, is there
different ways to go?
I want to make sure I say itright, because each individual
social media platform almost hasa different feel to it.
Obvious reasons, right, youknow, mcdonald's is one way,
(13:54):
wendy's is another, burger Kingis another.
It's all fast food, but it'snot the same.
You have Facebook, which is alittle bit different than
Instagram, even though they ownit.
You know there's a Snapchat thathas a completely different
situation and a different way togo at it than TikTok.
As you're doing, you'reintegrating with the AI and
you're talking about all thesesales, but, let's say, you have
an idea that you want to come upwith.
(14:15):
Does it?
Is it different for eachindividual social media platform
?
Is there that tweaking thathappens when you say, okay, I
want to do this ad, but I wantto.
I want to set up this ad forTikTok versus I want?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
to set up this ad for Facebook.
Yeah, it gets you down to thatagain, because you're not just
going to want to.
If you're on TikTok andInstagram and Facebook, you're
not going to want to post animage that you post on Facebook
on TikTok.
Probably it's not going to domuch on a video-based platform,
so, yeah, it'll give you that.
Okay, how can I incorporatethis picture of a couch that we
have into a video on TikTok?
Tiktok is all about havingsomething that makes people
(14:48):
watch the full video, becausethe attention spans are so short
.
Now, how can you keep you fromscrolling 37 seconds in?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I mean, I know one minute video.
How do I keep you at least pastthe one?
You know the 30 second mark andyou know it's.
It's translated to something sodifferent because nowadays
there's so many different waysto go by advertising and now
it's it's come down to how can Ikeep your attention for just
long enough?
If I have a YouTube video, howdo I keep you on there for the
first five seconds before thatskip button comes and I'm
(15:25):
jamming on it to just get pastwhatever you're trying to say?
And when you're talking aboutAI generation, does it take into
account those primary seconds?
Like you know, the first fiveseconds.
I've got to get your, I've gotto get you to understand what it
is you're going to look at forthe next 15 seconds, so that I
can sell you something.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, I mean you could fill up if you want to say
hey, I want all the focus to beon the first five seconds of a
video.
How can I make that mostimpactful for I'm spending the
most money getting the most outof it?
It'll do that Cause it's it'spulling from everything else
that's been put out there intothe world, so it's pulling from
what's worked and what hasn'tworked.
So it's again.
It's not going to just give youexactly.
It'll give you not exactly, butcloser to what you're looking
(16:03):
for, based on your goals.
If you're just looking for aninformative video, a tutorial
video, it'll give you that,versus a flash five second thing
where the first five secondswhere all the content is
everything else just fluff.
So if someone does stay on,it's just informative or
whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So what I've noticed is so we talk about this content
creation and how it comes aboutand how do we make that, how do
we utilize AI into that.
But then the other side of itis part of growing and part of
using AI in your marketing isbeing able to get very dialed
into who you want, right.
So you have the ability to andI would really hope at some
(16:43):
point that Rent-O-Win has theability to kind of like, have
that information integrationright To be able to go back and
say I'm looking for an ad rightTo incorporate to somebody who's
40 plus, somebody who is maybesingle or, you know, dating but
not married, lives in anapartment and probably makes
between $35,000, $50,000, right,lives in an apartment and
(17:05):
probably makes between $35,000,$50,000, right.
And then that ad utilization,that thought process will be
completely different than maybemy Saturday ad, where I'm
looking for more families.
I'm looking for anywhere,family between four and six
people that have a combinedincome of, let's say, $75,000,
$80,000 for five people.
(17:26):
And there's a different dynamicbetween the people who are
looking at the family versus thesingle guy who might be in a
relationship and what he'slooking for.
He might be looking for the85-inch TV where the family
would be looking for the washerand dryer or whatever the case
is, to sustain the family muchbetter.
And I might be only looking fora 55 because I got to put a 55
in this room.
I got to put a 55 in this roomversus the 185 that everybody
(17:49):
would have to watch andeverybody be beating on each
other because they don't likeeach other.
And those add the difference inads.
How dialed in do you get whenyou're creating those ads?
How dialed in do you really getto your customer If you?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
have a goal for.
If you're trying to get acertain type of person on a
product or something, you can.
So let's say you're selling thesame product to everyone.
You're selling a TV, but a25-year-old is probably going to
look for something differentand value something different
(18:22):
with the net TV versus theelderly couple, right?
So let's say the 25-year-old isprobably going to want to watch
sports or play video games onit, while the older couple is
probably not going to care aboutits video game capabilities.
What are they going to careabout the refresh rate?
Right, that the remote is nottoo complicated, or something
like that, so target that adwithin that.
And if you're doing it, whereyou're posting different things
on Facebook and you're putting,hey, I want this ad to go to
these demographics, it can planall that out within the same ad
(18:44):
so you can get very dialed inwithin the same ad the same
product, down to this person andthis person.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean, it's scary and the thought process is, if
we finally get AI integration tobe able to take years of data,
because a lot of this is adiscussion of how do you do it
right here and right now withthe thought process I have right
now and the experience that Ihave, but it would be great to
have AI to go, be able to goback for the last you know,
let's just say five years.
You know, three years, fiveyears, whatever you have the
(19:14):
capability of doing, because wehave some people that have
opened a store recently and somepeople that haven't.
You know, I've got hometownrentals that have opened their
stores within the last few yearsand that have opened their
stores within the last few years, and then I've got people who
have been open for 20 years,right, and so you're going to be
pulling for different data butlet's say, three years, whatever
, to be safe, to show thosecycles, to show who buys what
(19:35):
and when, is a great AI tool tobe able to say, okay, in this
particular month, yes, you'reprobably going to be seeing
purchase options or agreements.
All the way to about the 24th,maybe 23rd, you'll see a little
bit of activity.
The 24th, the 25th, of course,will close, and then the 26th
through the 30th, you're goingto see a complete drop-off of
80%.
Your returns are going to riseup, and this is what I'm going
(19:57):
to do.
Well then, how do I incorporatethat?
Well, let's take a look at thedata from the last three years
of who you actually sold to inthat last week and then create
an ad at the end of November sothat you're ready to launch that
on the 20th or the 21st for thepeople who probably will be
shopping the week after, and nowthey're more inclined to get it
.
That's where I think the AItool is so important and I think
we've really got to push forthat in the rental home industry
(20:19):
at some point some way.
Somehow, if you figure out away to create that, I can kind
of figure that out now.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
If hey, go sort through my data and tell me what
the fine tune, exactly whathappened in this week, so I can
get the most out of even thequiet times, or even the busy
times, of what I want toaccomplish during those times.
You can put that data in there,and so you know.
People are people are creaturesof habits, so why wouldn't you
target the same person again forsomething that they're going to
(20:45):
do multiple times?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well then, help me with that.
How would you put that in there?
So let's say I'm using achatbot.
It's not integrated in what Ido, but it is part of what I do.
How do I get that informationin there?
Would I print that out on sometype of spreadsheet and then
copy and paste a spreadsheet?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So I would.
Now, it has its limits with howmuch you can put in there.
I've had some big spreadsheetsthat have hundreds of lines this
way and that way, so it can bea lot of data.
But, yes, simply copy and pastesome data into there and have
it go through what you'resorting through.
So if you have a two-weekperiod of sales with whatever
customer information, productinformation, dates, times,
(21:23):
whatever you have in there, andif you're looking for what's
something you would want to lookfor in that, Probably the most
sellable item, like, let's say,the top five most sellable items
the week after Christmas, thedemographics of who is probably
returning at that point intimeframe, right?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So I would love to say that there's a type of
person probably.
I don't know.
In my experience I couldn't tellyou that there's one person or
the other but if I said, ok, youknow, let's take a look at the
demographics I have thesebirthdays.
Of these people who havereturned on this date, well,
more than likely you know I'mlooking for they'll probably be
under the age of 30.
That's going to have the mostreturns, ok, so if I'm going to
have the younger people, thenwhat do younger people want as
(22:02):
they're returning these things,that maybe I can turn them
around and resell or not lose acustomer, right If they come in,
if they only got one item andthey come in the week later and
they're like yeah, I don'treally like it.
What is an item that I could bepitching towards a young person
if they're going to be mostlikely to return than otherwise?
Or I might find out it's theother way around I got it from
my kids, but they already got it.
Or I got it for my kids andthey didn't like it.
So this is why I'm returning itand go okay.
(22:24):
Well, the class of person thatI'm realizing is returning now
is over 40 or over 50.
So, you know, is it time to go?
Okay, well, they're returningit because the person that got
it for it doesn't want it.
But what do they need?
How do I incorporate that?
And I think that's huge.
I didn't really realize thatyou can do that.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So, again, I would do more than just one year.
So don't just take, if you cantake, more years.
Don't just take 2023s, that twoweek or week period, and put it
in there, because that could.
There are going to be anomaliesand there are going to be
things that change year to year,depending on whatever's going
on in the world and what peopledo, what products are hot,
elections, right, so thatchanges everything, and there
(23:00):
might be a certain product thatcame out that was more, that had
a bigger impact on the marketone year than the other.
There might be a new phone ornew piece of technology that
comes out.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Generally, I would love to say five.
I mean, is that too long?
The more the better.
I mean, I said three, but Iwould love to say five.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I was going to say three because I would think
that's pretty more easy foreveryone to have.
The more the better, becausefrom different parts I mean,
with it being 2024 and we've hadfour normal winters now,
including this one since COVIDpeople look at things like
before COVID, after COVID.
So things are completelydifferent.
We live in a different worldsince then yeah, pre and post
(23:34):
right.
You can't really.
People have a tough timeincorporating 2020 with anything
in their data.
So with marketing, people areprobably buying a lot different
than they were now.
So again in this case, take thepast three years.
Have it.
Sort through what you'relooking for.
If you're looking for, what'sthat point?
That's grabbing people andgetting people in here and
getting people to buy something.
What has happened?
What is the overlap between thelast three years?
(23:55):
Build it around that.
Keep it simple.
You don't need to reinvent thewheel with what you're selling.
You don't have to come up withsome new offer.
If you find any kind of thingthat bit this year, what can you
do again next year?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
You know, I was thinking, if there is a non-paid
for version, right that you'reusing, you have this.
You have these limitations asfar as data input, right, cause
you can't, you can't put, youknow, you can't go online and
put five years of data in there,right?
So let's say you do athree-year span, you're coming
(24:30):
up with one month's worth ofdata on just sales or just
returns.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It'd probably be a lot easier in bite-sized chunks.
Right, you can do a decentamount of data Again, depending
on the server you're on orwhatever you're using.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Is it a better idea to have a paid for subscription?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
if I'm going to do that, I guess, because you're
going to be able to save yourstuff easier and just be able to
.
It's going to be more relevant,so it's going to be able to
take more like we said yesterdaymore recent information.
It can balance with what you'relooking for and it usually has
more storage capability.
So, yes, but you don't have to,Don't make that an excuse that
you don't want to pay for it tostart it.
But the bite-sized chunks doeshelp.
I was sorting through somethinga couple of days ago and I
(25:01):
can't remember what it was, butagain, it was a long spreadsheet
of things and I was only ableto go through it.
Kind of fires it almost if youdo 600 lines of data at once,
because it's just a lot to inputinto anything.
I mean, think about what yourcomputer can put in at once.
That's what it is.
So, yes, if you can take, well,let's just take a few days and
let's look at that.
(25:22):
Hey, this is 2021.
This is 2022.
Don't take all that at once.
Say, hey, I am uploading mypast three years, last week of
the year's sales data.
Tell me what I need.
Say, hey, I'm going to do this,I want to look for this.
I'm going to upload it chunksat a time, and it's usually
going to give you a betterresult because it's going to be
able to look at each thing andthen go back and combine it all.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So would a good idea be to say, okay, I'm going to
take this year's data, I'm goingto input it, I'm going to take
those answers, stick them to theside Do 22, do 23, do 21,?
Right, I take all that data, Istick it to the side and then,
when I have three differentpages for the three different
years that have already beensorted through, put the three of
them in there, and now I've gotthree dates that have already
been kind of pre-ran through.
(26:07):
Now put those in and get acondensed version of it.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And still and I think we've kind of talked about that
in the other episode is whereyou kind of take what you found
and compound it, and notnecessarily it's all one time
and one shot, but give itbite-sized chunks take that out,
take it back out and put itinto a spreadsheet and refeed it
right, right, and then you cantake it back.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's what I do.
Whether it's just yesterday,we're talking about looking at
it.
When you're typing out aprofessional email, take it back
, all right.
Well, I actually want to.
Don't just take what ai says,because you're going to sound
like ai not right now.
Put pete stuff into there andif you want to tweak it again
for this person, do it there.
Same thing with your data Takeit out, all right, put your
(26:47):
touch on it and then go back andforth, but it's going to save
you a lot of time, which is themost important thing when it
comes to your marketing.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's having the time to do it.
Data sorting is reallyextensively time driven.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
There is no need for it now yeah, there's really to
at least get started to havethat spreadsheet built out or
whatever it is.
There's no need for it to takean hour just to get started.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I mean, you know what's what's funny, you know,
talking about data andeverything that's driven and the
AIs I was thinking about acouple of months ago, Gerard
Norman, Gerard Norman Marketing.
He hit me up and he was like,hey, you know, I wanted to check
this, this chat bot, out, andand so he was sending me some
information.
And he's like you know, this isa trial beta series, you know,
(27:28):
so just try it out, Tell me whatyou think.
And he had been working with it, and so the idea was behind
this situation was to not soundso much like a bot, right, Right
, the P's and the Q's are all.
You are all highlighted andcross the T's and dot your I's
and it sounds like you'reliterally talking to an
algorithm.
But as I was going through, itwas making these recommendations
(27:52):
about a sofa that I had said Iwanted and the timeframe, and it
actually sounded very sincereBecause it was put together well
.
Right, Because he had sat thereand gone over.
What are the ideas that I wouldsay back?
Oh no, that sounds too robotic,that sounds too generic.
That sounds uninteresting and itdoesn't sound like you're very
(28:13):
interested in getting my sale.
It looks like you're justsitting there taking the
inputted information and so, outof the few interactions I had
with him, I was actually reallysurprised.
Now, of course, at that time itwas a beta level.
I think he's already gotsomething a little bit more in
use that's already being used atsome of the RTO locations.
But it was like you know, Isometimes forget your first
iteration or your seconditeration doesn't have to be
(28:33):
your final cut.
It's how you mold theinformation that you get back.
So if you're looking for aparticular person or you're
looking for a particulardemographic set in a geographic
location for a specific item,just keep on working with it.
I mean, how many times do youput back in information All the
time?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
All the time.
Take it.
I mean, keep as you learnsomething.
All right, like you said, okay,we did our November marketing
plan.
We laid it out with AI, wetimed it out, we got our dates,
we got our overall topics.
So now we can go with ourgraphic design team or whatever
team you use for all yourdifferent marketing, your
digital print, your stuff inhouse, whatever it is.
I did it all right.
(29:11):
This is what I mean.
You're not going to know exactlythe next month what worked and
what didn't work, becausemarketing takes time.
You're not going to.
You're not always marketing theperson to come in the next day.
You're doing it to have brandawareness, right.
So you're not going to alwaysknow.
But hey, what worked, what wascapable, what were you able to
actually take care of andactually do?
You don't want to do somethingyour team can't do.
Make a commitment to it, butdon't over commit to a point
(29:33):
where it's not something thatyou can sustain, something you
can't pay for, something youcan't have the time to do.
Do something you're actuallygoing to do.
Go back in there and tell itwhat worked and what didn't work
, what people got.
It's only going to get smarterwith you and help you out more
and become your right hand manwhen it comes to your planning.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
When we're talking about advertising.
Let's say I'm a new store and Iwant to do advertising.
What do you think is the bestway to go about that?
I don't have a huge marketingbudget because I don't have a
lot of revenue dollars coming in.
My cash flow is low because I'mjust starting out.
I'm using AI to kind of figureout what I need to do.
But, in your opinion, like,what is the best way to go about
getting the most bang for youradvertising dollar without you
(30:14):
know buying everything?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The best way to get the best bang for your buck is
to start marketing, where youcan just start posting stuff and
building the brand, especiallywith a new brand.
You have to have people fall inlove with brands, even if it's
not the best product, even ifit's not the best service, but
it's the brand.
Why do people like Yeti so much?
It's the same as a lot of otherthings.
(30:41):
It's made in the same factories.
All of the tumblers we buy in agrave, they're all made in the
same place.
One costs twice as much as theother one.
That's not us marking up theprice.
That's the brand.
Right, because they know peoplewill buy it, because people
want the Yeti brand.
I have clients who won't sendtumblers or buy tumblers from us
and send them to clients orcustomers because they want the
Yeti brand.
So, building the brand, startthere.
(31:01):
Figure out what your brand is,why you're different, what makes
you special.
But start posting for free andthere's no reason not to do it.
And again, if you're strugglingwith, I don't have ideas, I
didn't go to school formarketing or I don't do this, so
did a lot of other people notJust start Lay it out?
All right, I need an organicFacebook plan.
I just want to post somestories and some Facebook Lives
(31:21):
and start trying to getconnections on my Facebook so
people start seeing what we'redoing inside my store.
Just start there, you don'thave to pay for anything.
You won't need to pay foranything, in my opinion.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, I mean because you know, I'm just trying to
think of the different ways thatit comes, and every time that I
sit down and think about it, mymind goes crazy with all the
things that I see.
You know, especially for a newstore or a store that maybe has
been around, or a store that youknow, as time goes on, your
showroom changes.
It's a living deal, right?
Sometimes you might be heavy onone thing and then heavy on
another.
I know that there are times ofthe years where we sell, like
(31:53):
Thanksgiving for instance.
You're going to sell a lot ofranges, you're going to sell a
lot of tables, you're going tosell a lot of.
When I say this, bedrooms isnot necessarily what it sells,
but either the bedroom or a bed,usually because they do any
extra bed or the extra bedroom,right, and you got the ranges
and the tables.
Obviously, you got stand-upfreezers or deep freezers, and
then change some situations andnow this time of the year it's
(32:15):
more sofas and it's more driven.
So your showroom changes and itchanges in the sense that you
always want to have what'savailable to the market that
they want, right?
So it's like I know that I'm inthis timeframe I'm going to
sell more of the living rooms.
I'm going to sell more of thecoffee and tables, lamps, you
know decorative items.
Let me have that.
Oh, you know what in thisseason I'm going to do that and
(32:35):
to be able to see those cyclescome in and do it through AI.
But then there's also the otherway.
I'm a new company.
I don't have everything.
I don't have everything that Idon't know the cycles yet I
don't have everything, but letme find out how to sell what I
do have.
Okay, well, let me put thatinto the AI and go after the
people who are might be mostinterested in a sofa love group,
(32:56):
cause I have 10 of those thatlanded in my bedroom sets
Haven't gotten here yet.
I don't have my bedding in yet.
So, you know what?
Let me focus on this particularproduct and be able to go to AI
and go okay, what type ofpeople in this timeframe are
looking for or are usuallypurchasing, compared to cycles
of the same time last year oranything, whether it be Forbes
or anything that's just tellingyou okay, this is what happened,
(33:19):
this is what's being sold, andso to be able to pull that
market down and say, okay,usually at this time.
This is the type of people thatyou would be looking for that's
interested in buying sofa loves.
All right, you know, oh, youknow what.
Now we're in the later in theyear.
These are the people that youmight be going to be dialed into
for your bedroom sets, becauseyou sold all your sofa loves and
now you got you know, nowthey're on their way and you're
able to go.
Okay, I can really dial in mymarketing because I know what I
(33:42):
have versus what I don't have,and I'm not trying to pull
somebody in to sell somethingthat I don't have.
Let me just really dialed in towhat I do have to sell that,
and I think it just makes usmore effective and more
efficient.
I guess, in essence, that'swhat AI is for to make us faster
, to make things easier and moreefficient, like.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I said yesterday, it's the x-ray machine to your
eyes, right, right, it's thex-ray machine to your eyes,
Right right, it's the x-raymachine to make it that much
more efficient.
Otherwise, figuring out if yourarm's broken or not it's a lot
harder.
Figuring out how to mark it isa lot easier when you can have
someone help you with it.
But you said somethinginteresting there.
With the whole not knowing Ifyou have an idea, even if you
(34:21):
don't know how to fully supportit yet, come up with a plan and
start doing it.
If you think you have a goodidea, market it.
Figure out what's special aboutit.
You might not have all theproduct information and knowing
you're going to have all theinventory, but start marketing
it Because whether it hits ornot, it might take a while, but
you have it out there.
But then it's going to be righttiming.
Just start putting it out there.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
It just starts somewhere.
Now, in these situations, let'ssay, I come up with something
and I think that it's a goodidea.
What would be the advantage ofusing Vox to help me with that
marketing?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
We've seen things all at a different approach, from
all different types of companiesBig, small business to business
, business to customer.
And, as we say, we like to bebold.
So the most important thing,especially when you're starting,
you have to be bold, you haveto stand out, otherwise people
are not going to know who youare.
You have to do it and you haveto do it right.
That's what we can deliver.
How long has Vox been workingwith rent-owned companies?
(35:14):
Since pretty much day one.
We were with Aaron's, I believe, even well before even I was
around involved in anything atall Aaron's way back in the day,
but it's been for quite a while.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Ken butler, errands yeah, yeah, that's that's.
That's, that's a lot.
And you guys are working withquite a few rental companies.
Right now we work with everyone, almost across the board in
some shape or form.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
With all kinds of different things, especially
with all the different things wedo.
We have needs we can fulfill tocertain types of companies with
within their internal spacebetter than others.
So there's some things we do alot of with.
There's some things we do onecertain thing with that we don't
even really do with otherpeople.
So it's all kinds of things andwe can help make it right and
we use our tools available to usto make sure we're delivering
the best product to ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Well, I mean, it's so different because I don't have
that marketing background.
The only marketing I've everdone is for the stores,
literally at an operationallevel, when I'm trying to grow a
store or a region.
And how important now hassocial media become?
Because I know social media wasgreat and it was big and then
it almost became a pay for playkind of thing, whoever is
(36:20):
spending the most money to getthe first scroll, first area,
first look.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, I mean you have to do it.
You have to do it just as muchas you do everything else that
Vox provides directly.
You have to do it all.
And that's the hard thing aboutnowadays.
We talked about attention spansearlier.
That's why you have to do it.
That's why you can't just do amail piece, because you're going
to miss so many people thatnever care to look at their
mailbox.
That's why you can't just do asocial media post, because
(36:44):
probably majority of yourcustomers probably will never
look at your Facebook.
You can't do anything aboutthat.
No matter how much youincentivize certain people,
they're just not going to docertain things.
People are creatures of habit,like I said.
That's why you have to do it.
That's why you have to go wrapyour trucks so people can see
that truck and then when theyget home and they're scrolling
on Facebook, they see your adthere.
You got to balance it all out.
It's about being omnipresent,it's about being bold and it's
(37:06):
about doing it.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
That's it, and I think this has really opened my
eyes to a lot of differentthings that I don't know if I
would have really triedbeforehand.
And now after this, it's, likeyou know, really thinking about
a different way to incorporatewhat I haven't been doing.
And you know, I think I thinkthe thing with rent to own is
that we always talk about how doyou, what's the next best thing
(37:28):
?
Right, you always want to findthe next best thing.
I want to be the first guy torent the next best thing because
I want to be on that trainfirst.
Not necessarily that the nextbest thing isn't already out
there.
It's just, you know, we dotrail behind a little bit.
You know, I mean, it's onething to say that, uh, it's one
thing to say that.
You know, when OLEDs first cameout, we probably carried a
couple, but nobody was buyingthem the same way, because rent
to own doesn't work to likeretail, right, yeah?
(37:50):
And after a while it came onand QLEDs, and and and LEDs and
I think it's an LED.
I forgot what it was.
I mean, lg has a version andSamsung has a version and Sony
has a version.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
You know, they're all some type of chatbots.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
They're all different chatbots.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, and so there's all these different versions.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
But you know, now you almost like you're almost
seeing that the QLED version orwhatever it is, the OLED version
, is now a big part of the salesaspect versus.
It used to be like the TV, thatwas top line, and now it's
almost like well, we havedifferent versions of those.
(38:29):
Now you have a great I thinkthere's a nanotech, lg, and they
have the QLEDs, and now theyhave these quantum mini LEDs
which, like in the safe space ofa normal LED, now there's four
and you have all these differentlevels, and so we're always
trying to think, okay, well, howdo I get to there first?
How do I figure that out first?
And I think the introduction ofAI is how do I get to that
marking piece first?
How do I get to your doorstepfirst?
(38:50):
How do I get you to look at mefirst?
How do I get my one RTO storeto stand out more than
everything else?
And I think the AI piece isreally, really important to get
there, and I think it's superimportant for everybody to
understand that it's not goingto solve all your problems.
Nope, it is a tool to helputilize to get to the next step,
and I'm really looking forwardto how this year is going to be
(39:11):
affected by the AI, because Ithink it's coming everywhere.
Ces is coming up that's going tobe AI driven.
I cannot believe that itwouldn't be To see that, and
they always do it at thebeginning of the year, right?
So, as the beginning of theyear, as the beginning of the
year, you're going to see a lotof things that might or might
not already be in production,because they're doing now and in
the future, not necessarilywhat was six months ago, and I
(39:31):
have a great big feeling thatCES is going to be loaded with a
lot of AI tech, including whatI believe is going to be maybe
meta and the meta glasses thatthey have.
There's going to be a lot ofintegration there as well, and I
would love to see somebody beable to shop to those things.
You know, go to the local RTOdealer and, just, you know, kind
of get a better look at thatsofa, almost like a 3D.
(39:51):
You know, look in the metaglasses or whatever you want to
call it, the Oculus or whateverit is.
I think that's a step that Ican't wait to come in.
I don't think we talked aboutthat before yesterday, but I
love the idea that it's comingand I want to be the first
person to get there.
So I think all we have to do isreally utilize what's right
next to us and, now that we havea way to integrate that
(40:15):
information and put it there,pull it out and recycle it to
get really dialed in.
I think there's no excuses whyyou can't make sales.
So you're going to use AI togrow your marketing and that's
how you want to do it.
Please reach out to the show ifyou guys have any questions.
Pete, at the RTO Show Podcast,we definitely want to hear from
you, especially on thisparticular subject, because I
want to know how you do it andwhat do you think is capable of
(40:35):
us doing, and we can try thattogether.
If you have any questions, I'lllet Daniel know and we can
reach out to you.
You can reach us on Facebookand Instagram and LinkedIn.
Now on YouTube, don't forget tosubscribe and I will tell you
guys.
As always, keep yourcollections low to get your
sales high.
Thank you.
Hey, welcome to the RTO Show.
I'm your host, pete Chow, andtoday we're doing part four of
our AI series on how it's goingto affect you in rent to own.
I've got my guest here, danielHajdu from Vox Populi, and
listen, guys, this is the funpart.
This is the part I want to getinto, because this is how to
grow your store with AImarketing and really, this is
kind of where you shine.
(00:28):
This is the part where Vox islike all about the sales, all
about the marketing, all aboutthe brand building.
Daniel, this is it.
This is the fun part of the AI.
We've gone into like how to getgoing and where to look at it
and what do you do and how doyou start off and what even AI
means.
And now we're getting to thegood stuff.
(00:53):
How do I utilize my so-calledsecretary office assistant to
really put me the edge ongetting something different, new
, vibrant and in the now?
How do we do?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
that Well, like we've talked about.
But everything else is a tool,right.
And what's the biggestcomplaints people have with
marketing?
It costs too much, they don'thave the time and it doesn't
work.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Well, brain fart, you know you try to come up with
something.
Well, because something thatI've noticed in Rent to Own too
is we have these ideas, and thennext year we're in the same
time frame, we're cyclingthrough the same time, and then
how many times during footballseason have you heard oh, we're
going to do a kind of like atouchdown sale.
Yeah, okay, you and everybodyelse that's doing it right now
(01:27):
is going to do some type oftailgating, some type of
touchdown, and sometimes it'sokay to be with the flow and
sometimes you want to bedifferent.
Right, we're going to use thattool to be completely different.
I love that idea.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, and it's just like everything else.
You can simplify it down to thesimplest thing.
So, like you mentioned, you'redoing the same thing over and
over and over again.
Well, have it personalized alittle more, and that makes it
so much easier.
You can personalize down eachstore with hey, let's do some
geographical based marketing forOctober.
Instead of doing football,let's do it around each store's
(02:01):
area, or at least each region,based on something that would be
more relatable to there,because you might have a
different theme with somethingwhere it's colder in october
versus down here in florida,right, so you might want to
theme it different.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You're not going to do hot chocolate, probably down
here in october, but you mightdo that up north I was thinking
too, like if I was going to dothis based on calendar base,
because you always do it basedon calendar.
But you know, season this, wehave football season season and
everybody's doing, like you know, march Madness and everything.
But you know, wouldn't it begreat to go to like a local
school or your local businessbureau and grab a calendar of
(02:32):
events and go, you know, insteadof doing it based on what
everybody else is doing, thisand what would be great, you
know what would be a great salespitch for these different
events and go okay, I can getbacking into this.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, you want to be relatable to the community.
First off, everyone should beinvolved with their chamber of
commerce.
There's so much going on there.
We have people tonight at anevent with our chamber of
commerce in our, in our County.
And, for example, one thingwe've really focused some of our
marketing stuff on in Atlantais the movie industry, because
it's so big and growingconstantly.
So there's so much going on, sowe've been able to focus things
(03:15):
just solely around there,because there's an opportunity.
So what's that?
It doesn't have to be the movieindustry.
There's only so many bigindustries, but what is that
industry that kind of has thathey, or what is that area that
you can look at and be like, hey, we can do something around
this and people are going to getinto that?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That is Tyler Perry.
He's got a big studio overthere.
He's one of them.
There's another actor that hasanother big area over there now,
isn't it?
Was it Cat Williams?
I think Somebody bought landover there for another.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
There's something it's constantly growing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
There's one about 10 minutes from Vox, where this big
old Ford GM site used to be,and it's growing like crazy
right now, and they have thiswhole planned development.
We had a luncheon with themlast month and they just
presented everything about itand it's just insane how much
impact it really has oneverything.
Now that I think about it.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I think Cat Williams bought an old military base.
It really has on everything Nowthat I think about it.
I think Cat Williams bought anold military base.
Probably.
I don't remember if that was inGeorgia or not, I don't
remember, but I think it wasgoing to convert that into some
type of Tyler Perry-esque typething, and Georgia has got a lot
of that going on, and dependingon where you were in the
country, it could be different.
I mean, the Northeast might bedifferent than the Southeast,
(04:22):
and the Southwest and theMidwest and everything like that
.
I mean, I know that this year,in 2025, we're going to have the
RT World 2025 in Oklahoma,right, and as you're doing that,
excuse me, omaha, omaha.
Nebraska I'm sorry I said that.
Omaha, nebraska.
You know that stakes and that'sone of those states that it's
very unique to what it is Rightand having a calendar of events
(04:46):
in that area would be so greatto start mimicking different
things that you do with thoseevents and tie it into the
community, because this I meancommunity-based is exactly what
this is about.
You know, we're not sellingacross country.
Nobody calls us up or nobodydoes an email to buy from, like
New York, from Florida.
They're doing it from a fewstreets over or they're doing it
from the county right next door.
(05:07):
And so when you, when you tiethat into your local situation
where you either, whether it bea football game, a basketball
game or you know whateveranybody's good at I mean
Georgia's peaches, you know youcan't you kind of integrate that
as well?
I mean those are the thoughtsthat you know every time I see,
yeah, you know.
Every time I see, yeah, youknow it's football season,
everybody's doing this, you know, and touchdown for the sale and
I'll come, that's played out.
(05:27):
You know the first year is good, the second year is like eh,
the third year is like I'mexpecting it, let's do something
new and we can put all thatinformation in AI and get a
great return.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Right, you don't have to know everything.
That's why you just have toknow what questions you want to
ask it.
So what are you looking for andwhat do you want to figure out
about your community?
Ask it what do you know aboutcity X?
What might stick out to theresidents of this kind of area
based off their demographics,what they do, what's involved in
a city Because, again, youmight have a college town by
that might be more prevalentthan other towns.
You might have other things.
(05:59):
You might have a differentindustry that's really big there
.
So theme it around somethingand make it personalized to the
people, because they're going tosee that.
What is someone going to stopwhen they're scrolling on their
phone or when they're gettingmail out of their mailbox and be
like, oh, this is really cool,versus just another touchdown
tailgate direct mail piece?
Well, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
You said that that is what it was.
It's an awesome thing to say,because what does people?
I want to know what gets topeople to stop doom scrolling,
you know, to just zip, zip, zip,and then I actually input that
in AI and I don't quite rememberthe output, because I did see
something and I was like, wow,that was great, and then I
completely forgot what it was.
But you know, getting people tostop, and being different, not
(06:41):
the same and having thisenvironment where not only do I
want to capture attention, but Idon't want to be the same as
the last 10 things that youstopped on.
I want to be different.
I want to be integrated withthe community, I want to be
where you're going to be and Iwant to be present in what's
important to you and then backthat up to, but I also want you
to come and do business with me.
(07:01):
You know, and, and so localadvertising is immensely popular
and very, very important, butwhen you're talking about AI and
you're, and you're, let's say,you're building this sales
culture right, cause you want togrow it, ai is going to going
to put you on a map.
And how do you, how do you makeAI work for you.
As far as marketing, what weresome, what'd be some steps if I
wanted to just include AI andsay, okay, I want to come up
(07:24):
with this marketing plan, wheredo you start?
Let's say at Vox.
Or Daniel says, okay, if I'mputting a marketing campaign,
number one, where do I startStart?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
have an idea of what you want to accomplish.
Know what your parameters are.
Obviously, you might havecertain rules you have to follow
, no matter if you're doing thisat a store level basis or a
regional basis or a wholecompany wide basis.
Know what your parameters are.
Know what you can spend If youare going to spend, you don't
have to spend a market.
But know all those things andstart inputting that into it,
into a chatbot, and say, ok, Ineed to come up with a marketing
(07:57):
plan for Q1 and this is mybudget.
These are the platforms we use.
Help me personalize this totown.
Why?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Now, when you say that, is it like okay, I want to
move product versus I want toget new customers versus I want
a larger?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
down payment during this.
It can help you on the focus.
If you're just trying to getattention or you're trying to
drive sales.
It can help kind of gear an ador a basis of an ad to that.
Now it's like okay, whatever,whatever that is, that might
gear someone towards one or theother.
Or just if you're trying to geteyeballs or you're trying to
just trying to get a high valuesale, if it's the dollar value
(08:34):
versus the eyeballs, then dothat, look at that there and you
can.
You can personalize it down tothat.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
It's I mean it's, it seems so dialed in and every
time that, you know, sometimeswe sit down and we all try to
come up with the next idea andthen there's a stagnancy moment.
Everybody's like, yes, I wantto do this, I want to do this,
but I don't know how.
And to be able to pull up theAI, to be able to involve us
into this sales culture whereit's like, okay, this is what I
(08:58):
want to accomplish, what am Igoing to get out of it?
Boom, I'm going to get this outof it.
Is is is kind of weary.
It's kind of like, wow, it isthat easy.
But you know, sometimes we talkabout content creation.
That involves ads or, let's say, special day reminders,
birthdays, stuff like that.
We can.
How would you do that?
Would you print up a list oflike birthdays or do you say,
(09:19):
okay, for the birthdays of thismonth, this is what I want to
accomplish?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Are you more of just like hey, a plan of it doing
your repetitive thing, or, ifyou want to do something
different per month, is thatwhat you're looking for?
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Well, more like you know what do I say.
That's going to get people ontheir birthdays and wanting to
come in and something for thismonth right.
So this month is December.
Any December birthday months.
You know how would I go aboutthat.
What would you say?
Okay, december birthday month.
I want to do somethingdifferent.
How would you tackle that on,let's say, on a list of to-dos?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I would just include that in your overall plan.
If birthday marketing is inyour plan at all, but you're
looking to personalize it downto each month, so a summer
birthday is different from abirthday this month, then you
can do that because it'sprobably going to theme it
around something that peoplemight buy more around Christmas
time versus the middle of summer, right?
So personalize it down to thatand just have that in your plan.
(10:08):
So you know that.
I know from our knowledge thatyou always send birthday stuff
out at the beginning of themonth, because it's always
better to be earlier than lateat the beginning of the month,
in the first day or so, and youdo your birthday stuff, have the
plan out for on the second.
We send out, know, even directmessaging people if you have
that information, sending outthe mail piece, obviously, or
whatever you actually hit themwith.
(10:29):
Send them that, uh, that textor whatever you have from them,
but personalize it down to thatmonth and that's that's a great
idea, honestly, because againyou're going to send them
something for december.
They might trigger differentthan they do because they're
thinking about what's on theirchristmas list.
So why not?
Speaker 1 (10:42):
well, you know, and I'm also, you know, also think,
because we had mentioned in aprevious you know, you have the
ability with AI to not only comeup with the next quarter, the
next six months, you can come upwith the next calendar year,
right?
So something that you want toaccomplish in September, you
wouldn't do it in September, youwould do it in August, or you
would do it in the end of Julyand go, ok, I'm pre-planning for
these months, this is what Iwant to come up with and have
(11:03):
those strategies ready so thatbetween day one and day five,
that's being mailed out, or, youknow, let's say, day 25 to the
31st, you're mailing it outalready for the previous or for
the next month, coming up andgiving those ideas and I think
also it's going to be able tofind out okay, what months do?
(11:46):
No-transcript, different,tailored towards you know when,
your COD is this you can maybeadd on a gift or a free, you
know, stocking stuff or whateverthe case is, because I already
know that you're going toalready know that you're going
to want to put this down, butfor what you're normally going
to do, I will give you someextra and I think the idea of it
(12:10):
is just taking what you knowand your knowledge and your
experience and then finding thatpathway to make it so much
easier and so much better.
But I think the point that Ireally want to know is you have
birthdays, anniversaries, youhave your anniversary, as in
your work anniversary, your homeanniversary, maybe there's an
anniversary that means somethingto you.
Now, of course, you have to bea little bit more dialed in.
(12:31):
I don't know how you'd be ableto incorporate that unless you
have some personal knowledge.
So we'll just stick with workanniversaries.
But as that stuff comes around,when you're doing what you do
and Vox has these great bigplans and stuff like that how do
these sales tips help you geteverything out to the masses
faster and easier?
Does it really give you contentcreation ideas?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It gives you ideas Again you have to balance it
with what you know and whatworks.
But it can start somewhere likehey, I don't know what I want
to do on the 7th of this month,so just plug in something.
Or I want to do it around, likefor us, around engraving on
this day and print this day andapparel this day, but I don't
know how to make it differentthree times in a month.
(13:15):
So give me an idea how to do adifferent apparel post on
Facebook.
That's going to be relevant,and I'm not just posting a video
of the embroidery machine threetimes in a row and it's like,
okay, relevant.
I'm not just posting a video ofthe embroidery machine three
times in a row and it's likeokay what's cool about that?
How can I make it morepersonalized to someone to make,
oh, that's cool, or get themget eyeballs on it?
Speaker 1 (13:34):
which is what we're usually going for on social
media.
So when you, when you talk toit, I'm saying that, I'm saying
that kind of like in, when you,when you integrate yourself and
you're typing to the, to thechat bot, right, is there
different ways to go?
I want to make sure I say itright, because each individual
social media platform almost hasa different feel to it.
Obvious reasons, right, youknow, mcdonald's is one way,
(13:54):
wendy's is another, burger Kingis another.
It's all fast food, but it'snot the same.
You have Facebook, which is alittle bit different than
Instagram, even though they ownit.
You know there's a Snapchat thathas a completely different
situation and a different way togo at it than TikTok.
As you're doing, you'reintegrating with the AI and
you're talking about all thesesales, but, let's say, you have
an idea that you want to come upwith.
(14:15):
Does it?
Is it different for eachindividual social media platform
?
Is there that tweaking thathappens when you say, okay, I
want to do this ad, but I wantto.
I want to set up this ad forTikTok versus I want?
Speaker 2 (14:27):
to set up this ad for Facebook.
Yeah, it gets you down to thatagain, because you're not just
going to want to.
If you're on TikTok andInstagram and Facebook, you're
not going to want to post animage that you post on Facebook
on TikTok.
Probably it's not going to domuch on a video-based platform,
so, yeah, it'll give you that.
Okay, how can I incorporatethis picture of a couch that we
have into a video on TikTok?
Tiktok is all about havingsomething that makes people
(14:48):
watch the full video, becausethe attention spans are so short
.
Now, how can you keep you fromscrolling 37 seconds in?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I mean, I know one minute video.
How do I keep you at least pastthe one?
You know the 30 second mark andyou know it's.
It's translated to something sodifferent because nowadays
there's so many different waysto go by advertising and now
it's it's come down to how can Ikeep your attention for just
long enough?
If I have a YouTube video, howdo I keep you on there for the
first five seconds before thatskip button comes and I'm
(15:25):
jamming on it to just get pastwhatever you're trying to say?
And when you're talking aboutAI generation, does it take into
account those primary seconds?
Like you know, the first fiveseconds.
I've got to get your, I've gotto get you to understand what it
is you're going to look at forthe next 15 seconds, so that I
can sell you something.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, I mean you could fill up if you want to say
hey, I want all the focus to beon the first five seconds of a
video.
How can I make that mostimpactful for I'm spending the
most money getting the most outof it?
It'll do that Cause it's it'spulling from everything else
that's been put out there intothe world, so it's pulling from
what's worked and what hasn'tworked.
So it's again.
It's not going to just give youexactly.
It'll give you not exactly, butcloser to what you're looking
(16:03):
for, based on your goals.
If you're just looking for aninformative video, a tutorial
video, it'll give you that,versus a flash five second thing
where the first five secondswhere all the content is
everything else just fluff.
So if someone does stay on,it's just informative or
whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So what I've noticed is so we talk about this content
creation and how it comes aboutand how do we make that, how do
we utilize AI into that.
But then the other side of itis part of growing and part of
using AI in your marketing isbeing able to get very dialed
into who you want, right.
So you have the ability to andI would really hope at some
(16:43):
point that Rent-O-Win has theability to kind of like, have
that information integrationright To be able to go back and
say I'm looking for an ad rightTo incorporate to somebody who's
40 plus, somebody who is maybesingle or, you know, dating but
not married, lives in anapartment and probably makes
between $35,000, $50,000, right,lives in an apartment and
(17:05):
probably makes between $35,000,$50,000, right.
And then that ad utilization,that thought process will be
completely different than maybemy Saturday ad, where I'm
looking for more families.
I'm looking for anywhere,family between four and six
people that have a combinedincome of, let's say, $75,000,
$80,000 for five people.
(17:26):
And there's a different dynamicbetween the people who are
looking at the family versus thesingle guy who might be in a
relationship and what he'slooking for.
He might be looking for the85-inch TV where the family
would be looking for the washerand dryer or whatever the case
is, to sustain the family muchbetter.
And I might be only looking fora 55 because I got to put a 55
in this room.
I got to put a 55 in this roomversus the 185 that everybody
(17:49):
would have to watch andeverybody be beating on each
other because they don't likeeach other.
And those add the difference inads.
How dialed in do you get whenyou're creating those ads?
How dialed in do you really getto your customer If you?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
have a goal for.
If you're trying to get acertain type of person on a
product or something, you can.
So let's say you're selling thesame product to everyone.
You're selling a TV, but a25-year-old is probably going to
look for something differentand value something different
(18:22):
with the net TV versus theelderly couple, right?
So let's say the 25-year-old isprobably going to want to watch
sports or play video games onit, while the older couple is
probably not going to care aboutits video game capabilities.
What are they going to careabout the refresh rate?
Right, that the remote is nottoo complicated, or something
like that, so target that adwithin that.
And if you're doing it, whereyou're posting different things
on Facebook and you're putting,hey, I want this ad to go to
these demographics, it can planall that out within the same ad
(18:44):
so you can get very dialed inwithin the same ad the same
product, down to this person andthis person.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean, it's scary and the thought process is, if
we finally get AI integration tobe able to take years of data,
because a lot of this is adiscussion of how do you do it
right here and right now withthe thought process I have right
now and the experience that Ihave, but it would be great to
have AI to go, be able to goback for the last you know,
let's just say five years.
You know, three years, fiveyears, whatever you have the
(19:14):
capability of doing, because wehave some people that have
opened a store recently and somepeople that haven't.
You know, I've got hometownrentals that have opened their
stores within the last few yearsand that have opened their
stores within the last few years, and then I've got people who
have been open for 20 years,right, and so you're going to be
pulling for different data butlet's say, three years, whatever
, to be safe, to show thosecycles, to show who buys what
(19:35):
and when, is a great AI tool tobe able to say, okay, in this
particular month, yes, you'reprobably going to be seeing
purchase options or agreements.
All the way to about the 24th,maybe 23rd, you'll see a little
bit of activity.
The 24th, the 25th, of course,will close, and then the 26th
through the 30th, you're goingto see a complete drop-off of
80%.
Your returns are going to riseup, and this is what I'm going
(19:57):
to do.
Well then, how do I incorporatethat?
Well, let's take a look at thedata from the last three years
of who you actually sold to inthat last week and then create
an ad at the end of November sothat you're ready to launch that
on the 20th or the 21st for thepeople who probably will be
shopping the week after, and nowthey're more inclined to get it
.
That's where I think the AItool is so important and I think
we've really got to push forthat in the rental home industry
(20:19):
at some point some way.
Somehow, if you figure out away to create that, I can kind
of figure that out now.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
If hey, go sort through my data and tell me what
the fine tune, exactly whathappened in this week, so I can
get the most out of even thequiet times, or even the busy
times, of what I want toaccomplish during those times.
You can put that data in there,and so you know.
People are people are creaturesof habits, so why wouldn't you
target the same person again forsomething that they're going to
(20:45):
do multiple times?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well then, help me with that.
How would you put that in there?
So let's say I'm using achatbot.
It's not integrated in what Ido, but it is part of what I do.
How do I get that informationin there?
Would I print that out on sometype of spreadsheet and then
copy and paste a spreadsheet?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
So I would.
Now, it has its limits with howmuch you can put in there.
I've had some big spreadsheetsthat have hundreds of lines this
way and that way, so it can bea lot of data.
But, yes, simply copy and pastesome data into there and have
it go through what you'resorting through.
So if you have a two-weekperiod of sales with whatever
customer information, productinformation, dates, times,
(21:23):
whatever you have in there, andif you're looking for what's
something you would want to lookfor in that, Probably the most
sellable item, like, let's say,the top five most sellable items
the week after Christmas, thedemographics of who is probably
returning at that point intimeframe, right?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So I would love to say that there's a type of
person probably.
I don't know.
In my experience I couldn't tellyou that there's one person or
the other but if I said, ok, youknow, let's take a look at the
demographics I have thesebirthdays.
Of these people who havereturned on this date, well,
more than likely you know I'mlooking for they'll probably be
under the age of 30.
That's going to have the mostreturns, ok, so if I'm going to
have the younger people, thenwhat do younger people want as
(22:02):
they're returning these things,that maybe I can turn them
around and resell or not lose acustomer, right If they come in,
if they only got one item andthey come in the week later and
they're like yeah, I don'treally like it.
What is an item that I could bepitching towards a young person
if they're going to be mostlikely to return than otherwise?
Or I might find out it's theother way around I got it from
my kids, but they already got it.
Or I got it for my kids andthey didn't like it.
So this is why I'm returning itand go okay.
(22:24):
Well, the class of person thatI'm realizing is returning now
is over 40 or over 50.
So, you know, is it time to go?
Okay, well, they're returningit because the person that got
it for it doesn't want it.
But what do they need?
How do I incorporate that?
And I think that's huge.
I didn't really realize thatyou can do that.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So, again, I would do more than just one year.
So don't just take, if you cantake, more years.
Don't just take 2023s, that twoweek or week period, and put it
in there, because that could.
There are going to be anomaliesand there are going to be
things that change year to year,depending on whatever's going
on in the world and what peopledo, what products are hot,
elections, right, so thatchanges everything, and there
(23:00):
might be a certain product thatcame out that was more, that had
a bigger impact on the marketone year than the other.
There might be a new phone ornew piece of technology that
comes out.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Generally, I would love to say five.
I mean, is that too long?
The more the better.
I mean, I said three, but Iwould love to say five.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I was going to say three because I would think
that's pretty more easy foreveryone to have.
The more the better, becausefrom different parts I mean,
with it being 2024 and we've hadfour normal winters now,
including this one since COVIDpeople look at things like
before COVID, after COVID.
So things are completelydifferent.
We live in a different worldsince then yeah, pre and post
(23:34):
right.
You can't really.
People have a tough timeincorporating 2020 with anything
in their data.
So with marketing, people areprobably buying a lot different
than they were now.
So again in this case, take thepast three years.
Have it.
Sort through what you'relooking for.
If you're looking for, what'sthat point?
That's grabbing people andgetting people in here and
getting people to buy something.
What has happened?
What is the overlap between thelast three years?
(23:55):
Build it around that.
Keep it simple.
You don't need to reinvent thewheel with what you're selling.
You don't have to come up withsome new offer.
If you find any kind of thingthat bit this year, what can you
do again next year?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
You know, I was thinking, if there is a non-paid
for version, right that you'reusing, you have this.
You have these limitations asfar as data input, right, cause
you can't, you can't put, youknow, you can't go online and
put five years of data in there,right?
So let's say you do athree-year span, you're coming
(24:30):
up with one month's worth ofdata on just sales or just
returns.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It'd probably be a lot easier in bite-sized chunks.
Right, you can do a decentamount of data Again, depending
on the server you're on orwhatever you're using.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Is it a better idea to have a paid for subscription?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
if I'm going to do that, I guess, because you're
going to be able to save yourstuff easier and just be able to
.
It's going to be more relevant,so it's going to be able to
take more like we said yesterdaymore recent information.
It can balance with what you'relooking for and it usually has
more storage capability.
So, yes, but you don't have to,Don't make that an excuse that
you don't want to pay for it tostart it.
But the bite-sized chunks doeshelp.
I was sorting through somethinga couple of days ago and I
(25:01):
can't remember what it was, butagain, it was a long spreadsheet
of things and I was only ableto go through it.
Kind of fires it almost if youdo 600 lines of data at once,
because it's just a lot to inputinto anything.
I mean, think about what yourcomputer can put in at once.
That's what it is.
So, yes, if you can take, well,let's just take a few days and
let's look at that.
(25:22):
Hey, this is 2021.
This is 2022.
Don't take all that at once.
Say, hey, I am uploading mypast three years, last week of
the year's sales data.
Tell me what I need.
Say, hey, I'm going to do this,I want to look for this.
I'm going to upload it chunksat a time, and it's usually
going to give you a betterresult because it's going to be
able to look at each thing andthen go back and combine it all.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
So would a good idea be to say, okay, I'm going to
take this year's data, I'm goingto input it, I'm going to take
those answers, stick them to theside Do 22, do 23, do 21,?
Right, I take all that data, Istick it to the side and then,
when I have three differentpages for the three different
years that have already beensorted through, put the three of
them in there, and now I've gotthree dates that have already
been kind of pre-ran through.
(26:07):
Now put those in and get acondensed version of it.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And still and I think we've kind of talked about that
in the other episode is whereyou kind of take what you found
and compound it, and notnecessarily it's all one time
and one shot, but give itbite-sized chunks take that out,
take it back out and put itinto a spreadsheet and refeed it
right, right, and then you cantake it back.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's what I do.
Whether it's just yesterday,we're talking about looking at
it.
When you're typing out aprofessional email, take it back
, all right.
Well, I actually want to.
Don't just take what ai says,because you're going to sound
like ai not right now.
Put pete stuff into there andif you want to tweak it again
for this person, do it there.
Same thing with your data Takeit out, all right, put your
(26:47):
touch on it and then go back andforth, but it's going to save
you a lot of time, which is themost important thing when it
comes to your marketing.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's having the time to do it.
Data sorting is reallyextensively time driven.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
There is no need for it now yeah, there's really to
at least get started to havethat spreadsheet built out or
whatever it is.
There's no need for it to takean hour just to get started.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I mean, you know what's what's funny, you know,
talking about data andeverything that's driven and the
AIs I was thinking about acouple of months ago, Gerard
Norman, Gerard Norman Marketing.
He hit me up and he was like,hey, you know, I wanted to check
this, this chat bot, out, andand so he was sending me some
information.
And he's like you know, this isa trial beta series, you know,
(27:28):
so just try it out, Tell me whatyou think.
And he had been working with it, and so the idea was behind
this situation was to not soundso much like a bot, right, Right
, the P's and the Q's are all.
You are all highlighted andcross the T's and dot your I's
and it sounds like you'reliterally talking to an
algorithm.
But as I was going through, itwas making these recommendations
(27:52):
about a sofa that I had said Iwanted and the timeframe, and it
actually sounded very sincereBecause it was put together well
.
Right, Because he had sat thereand gone over.
What are the ideas that I wouldsay back?
Oh no, that sounds too robotic,that sounds too generic.
That sounds uninteresting and itdoesn't sound like you're very
(28:13):
interested in getting my sale.
It looks like you're justsitting there taking the
inputted information and so, outof the few interactions I had
with him, I was actually reallysurprised.
Now, of course, at that time itwas a beta level.
I think he's already gotsomething a little bit more in
use that's already being used atsome of the RTO locations.
But it was like you know, Isometimes forget your first
iteration or your seconditeration doesn't have to be
(28:33):
your final cut.
It's how you mold theinformation that you get back.
So if you're looking for aparticular person or you're
looking for a particulardemographic set in a geographic
location for a specific item,just keep on working with it.
I mean, how many times do youput back in information All the
time?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
All the time.
Take it.
I mean, keep as you learnsomething.
All right, like you said, okay,we did our November marketing
plan.
We laid it out with AI, wetimed it out, we got our dates,
we got our overall topics.
So now we can go with ourgraphic design team or whatever
team you use for all yourdifferent marketing, your
digital print, your stuff inhouse, whatever it is.
I did it all right.
(29:11):
This is what I mean.
You're not going to know exactlythe next month what worked and
what didn't work, becausemarketing takes time.
You're not going to.
You're not always marketing theperson to come in the next day.
You're doing it to have brandawareness, right.
So you're not going to alwaysknow.
But hey, what worked, what wascapable, what were you able to
actually take care of andactually do?
You don't want to do somethingyour team can't do.
Make a commitment to it, butdon't over commit to a point
(29:33):
where it's not something thatyou can sustain, something you
can't pay for, something youcan't have the time to do.
Do something you're actuallygoing to do.
Go back in there and tell itwhat worked and what didn't work
, what people got.
It's only going to get smarterwith you and help you out more
and become your right hand manwhen it comes to your planning.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
When we're talking about advertising.
Let's say I'm a new store and Iwant to do advertising.
What do you think is the bestway to go about that?
I don't have a huge marketingbudget because I don't have a
lot of revenue dollars coming in.
My cash flow is low because I'mjust starting out.
I'm using AI to kind of figureout what I need to do.
But, in your opinion, like,what is the best way to go about
getting the most bang for youradvertising dollar without you
(30:14):
know buying everything?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The best way to get the best bang for your buck is
to start marketing, where youcan just start posting stuff and
building the brand, especiallywith a new brand.
You have to have people fall inlove with brands, even if it's
not the best product, even ifit's not the best service, but
it's the brand.
Why do people like Yeti so much?
It's the same as a lot of otherthings.
(30:41):
It's made in the same factories.
All of the tumblers we buy in agrave, they're all made in the
same place.
One costs twice as much as theother one.
That's not us marking up theprice.
That's the brand.
Right, because they know peoplewill buy it, because people
want the Yeti brand.
I have clients who won't sendtumblers or buy tumblers from us
and send them to clients orcustomers because they want the
Yeti brand.
So, building the brand, startthere.
(31:01):
Figure out what your brand is,why you're different, what makes
you special.
But start posting for free andthere's no reason not to do it.
And again, if you're strugglingwith, I don't have ideas, I
didn't go to school formarketing or I don't do this, so
did a lot of other people notJust start Lay it out?
All right, I need an organicFacebook plan.
I just want to post somestories and some Facebook Lives
(31:21):
and start trying to getconnections on my Facebook so
people start seeing what we'redoing inside my store.
Just start there, you don'thave to pay for anything.
You won't need to pay foranything, in my opinion.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, I mean because you know, I'm just trying to
think of the different ways thatit comes, and every time that I
sit down and think about it, mymind goes crazy with all the
things that I see.
You know, especially for a newstore or a store that maybe has
been around, or a store that youknow, as time goes on, your
showroom changes.
It's a living deal, right?
Sometimes you might be heavy onone thing and then heavy on
another.
I know that there are times ofthe years where we sell, like
(31:53):
Thanksgiving for instance.
You're going to sell a lot ofranges, you're going to sell a
lot of tables, you're going tosell a lot of.
When I say this, bedrooms isnot necessarily what it sells,
but either the bedroom or a bed,usually because they do any
extra bed or the extra bedroom,right, and you got the ranges
and the tables.
Obviously, you got stand-upfreezers or deep freezers, and
then change some situations andnow this time of the year it's
(32:15):
more sofas and it's more driven.
So your showroom changes and itchanges in the sense that you
always want to have what'savailable to the market that
they want, right?
So it's like I know that I'm inthis timeframe I'm going to
sell more of the living rooms.
I'm going to sell more of thecoffee and tables, lamps, you
know decorative items.
Let me have that.
Oh, you know what in thisseason I'm going to do that and
(32:35):
to be able to see those cyclescome in and do it through AI.
But then there's also the otherway.
I'm a new company.
I don't have everything.
I don't have everything that Idon't know the cycles yet I
don't have everything, but letme find out how to sell what I
do have.
Okay, well, let me put thatinto the AI and go after the
people who are might be mostinterested in a sofa love group,
(32:56):
cause I have 10 of those thatlanded in my bedroom sets
Haven't gotten here yet.
I don't have my bedding in yet.
So, you know what?
Let me focus on this particularproduct and be able to go to AI
and go okay, what type ofpeople in this timeframe are
looking for or are usuallypurchasing, compared to cycles
of the same time last year oranything, whether it be Forbes
or anything that's just tellingyou okay, this is what happened,
(33:19):
this is what's being sold, andso to be able to pull that
market down and say, okay,usually at this time.
This is the type of people thatyou would be looking for that's
interested in buying sofa loves.
All right, you know, oh, youknow what.
Now we're in the later in theyear.
These are the people that youmight be going to be dialed into
for your bedroom sets, becauseyou sold all your sofa loves and
now you got you know, nowthey're on their way and you're
able to go.
Okay, I can really dial in mymarketing because I know what I
(33:42):
have versus what I don't have,and I'm not trying to pull
somebody in to sell somethingthat I don't have.
Let me just really dialed in towhat I do have to sell that,
and I think it just makes usmore effective and more
efficient.
I guess, in essence, that'swhat AI is for to make us faster
, to make things easier and moreefficient, like.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I said yesterday, it's the x-ray machine to your
eyes, right, right, it's thex-ray machine to your eyes,
Right right, it's the x-raymachine to make it that much
more efficient.
Otherwise, figuring out if yourarm's broken or not it's a lot
harder.
Figuring out how to mark it isa lot easier when you can have
someone help you with it.
But you said somethinginteresting there.
With the whole not knowing Ifyou have an idea, even if you
(34:21):
don't know how to fully supportit yet, come up with a plan and
start doing it.
If you think you have a goodidea, market it.
Figure out what's special aboutit.
You might not have all theproduct information and knowing
you're going to have all theinventory, but start marketing
it Because whether it hits ornot, it might take a while, but
you have it out there.
But then it's going to be righttiming.
Just start putting it out there.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
It just starts somewhere.
Now, in these situations, let'ssay, I come up with something
and I think that it's a goodidea.
What would be the advantage ofusing Vox to help me with that
marketing?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
We've seen things all at a different approach, from
all different types of companiesBig, small business to business
, business to customer.
And, as we say, we like to bebold.
So the most important thing,especially when you're starting,
you have to be bold, you haveto stand out, otherwise people
are not going to know who youare.
You have to do it and you haveto do it right.
That's what we can deliver.
How long has Vox been workingwith rent-owned companies?
(35:14):
Since pretty much day one.
We were with Aaron's, I believe, even well before even I was
around involved in anything atall Aaron's way back in the day,
but it's been for quite a while.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Ken butler, errands yeah, yeah, that's that's.
That's, that's a lot.
And you guys are working withquite a few rental companies.
Right now we work with everyone, almost across the board in
some shape or form.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
With all kinds of different things, especially
with all the different things wedo.
We have needs we can fulfill tocertain types of companies with
within their internal spacebetter than others.
So there's some things we do alot of with.
There's some things we do onecertain thing with that we don't
even really do with otherpeople.
So it's all kinds of things andwe can help make it right and
we use our tools available to usto make sure we're delivering
the best product to ourcustomers.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Well, I mean, it's so different because I don't have
that marketing background.
The only marketing I've everdone is for the stores,
literally at an operationallevel, when I'm trying to grow a
store or a region.
And how important now hassocial media become?
Because I know social media wasgreat and it was big and then
it almost became a pay for playkind of thing, whoever is
(36:20):
spending the most money to getthe first scroll, first area,
first look.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Yeah, I mean you have to do it.
You have to do it just as muchas you do everything else that
Vox provides directly.
You have to do it all.
And that's the hard thing aboutnowadays.
We talked about attention spansearlier.
That's why you have to do it.
That's why you can't just do amail piece, because you're going
to miss so many people thatnever care to look at their
mailbox.
That's why you can't just do asocial media post, because
(36:44):
probably majority of yourcustomers probably will never
look at your Facebook.
You can't do anything aboutthat.
No matter how much youincentivize certain people,
they're just not going to docertain things.
People are creatures of habit,like I said.
That's why you have to do it.
That's why you have to go wrapyour trucks so people can see
that truck and then when theyget home and they're scrolling
on Facebook, they see your adthere.
You got to balance it all out.
It's about being omnipresent,it's about being bold and it's
(37:06):
about doing it.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
That's it, and I think this has really opened my
eyes to a lot of differentthings that I don't know if I
would have really triedbeforehand.
And now after this, it's, likeyou know, really thinking about
a different way to incorporatewhat I haven't been doing.
And you know, I think I thinkthe thing with rent to own is
that we always talk about how doyou, what's the next best thing
(37:28):
?
Right, you always want to findthe next best thing.
I want to be the first guy torent the next best thing because
I want to be on that trainfirst.
Not necessarily that the nextbest thing isn't already out
there.
It's just, you know, we dotrail behind a little bit.
You know, I mean, it's onething to say that, uh, it's one
thing to say that.
You know, when OLEDs first cameout, we probably carried a
couple, but nobody was buyingthem the same way, because rent
to own doesn't work to likeretail, right, yeah?
(37:50):
And after a while it came onand QLEDs, and and and LEDs and
I think it's an LED.
I forgot what it was.
I mean, lg has a version andSamsung has a version and Sony
has a version.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
You know, they're all some type of chatbots.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
They're all different chatbots.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, and so there's all these different versions.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
But you know, now you almost like you're almost
seeing that the QLED version orwhatever it is, the OLED version
, is now a big part of the salesaspect versus.
It used to be like the TV, thatwas top line, and now it's
almost like well, we havedifferent versions of those.
(38:29):
Now you have a great I thinkthere's a nanotech, lg, and they
have the QLEDs, and now theyhave these quantum mini LEDs
which, like in the safe space ofa normal LED, now there's four
and you have all these differentlevels, and so we're always
trying to think, okay, well, howdo I get to there first?
How do I figure that out first?
And I think the introduction ofAI is how do I get to that
marking piece first?
How do I get to your doorstepfirst?
(38:50):
How do I get you to look at mefirst?
How do I get my one RTO storeto stand out more than
everything else?
And I think the AI piece isreally, really important to get
there, and I think it's superimportant for everybody to
understand that it's not goingto solve all your problems.
Nope, it is a tool to helputilize to get to the next step,
and I'm really looking forwardto how this year is going to be
(39:11):
affected by the AI, because Ithink it's coming everywhere.
Ces is coming up that's going tobe AI driven.
I cannot believe that itwouldn't be To see that, and
they always do it at thebeginning of the year, right?
So, as the beginning of theyear, as the beginning of the
year, you're going to see a lotof things that might or might
not already be in production,because they're doing now and in
the future, not necessarilywhat was six months ago, and I
(39:31):
have a great big feeling thatCES is going to be loaded with a
lot of AI tech, including whatI believe is going to be maybe
meta and the meta glasses thatthey have.
There's going to be a lot ofintegration there as well, and I
would love to see somebody beable to shop to those things.
You know, go to the local RTOdealer and, just, you know, kind
of get a better look at thatsofa, almost like a 3D.
(39:51):
You know, look in the metaglasses or whatever you want to
call it, the Oculus or whateverit is.
I think that's a step that Ican't wait to come in.
I don't think we talked aboutthat before yesterday, but I
love the idea that it's comingand I want to be the first
person to get there.
So I think all we have to do isreally utilize what's right
next to us and, now that we havea way to integrate that
(40:15):
information and put it there,pull it out and recycle it to
get really dialed in.
I think there's no excuses whyyou can't make sales.
So you're going to use AI togrow your marketing and that's
how you want to do it.
Please reach out to the show ifyou guys have any questions.
Pete, at the RTO Show Podcast,we definitely want to hear from
you, especially on thisparticular subject, because I
want to know how you do it andwhat do you think is capable of
(40:35):
us doing, and we can try thattogether.
If you have any questions, I'lllet Daniel know and we can
reach out to you.
You can reach us on Facebookand Instagram and LinkedIn.
Now on YouTube, don't forget tosubscribe and I will tell you
guys.
As always, keep yourcollections low to get your
sales high.
Thank you.
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