TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond

Building Teams, Trust and Workforce Mindsets with Todd Caputo

• CarNow • Season 2 • Episode 10

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Tim welcomes Todd Caputo, president of Todd Caputo Consulting, for another episode of TimTalks: Automotive Leadership and Beyond.

Formerly known as the “Used Car King,” Todd shares his journey from growing up in his father’s dealership, to building and selling multiple high-performing stores, and now consulting for dealerships around the country.

Tim and Todd discuss progressive leadership, recruitment, and marketing success. Todd explains how dealerships can thrive by approaching operations in new ways, adapting to market challenges, and motivating the industry’s changing workforce.

Whether your focus is new or pre-owned, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways to lead and grow your business.

Connect with Todd on LinkedIn.

[00:00 – 01:00] Introduction & Guest Background

Todd Caputo, known as the "Used Car King," discusses his experience in the automotive industry, having worked in every dealership role, including dealer principal.

[01:01 – 03:55] Early Career and Business Growth

Todd grew up in the business, starting at his father’s small dealership in Syracuse, NY, and attending Le Moyne College. He built used car superstores, selling 6,500 cars annually at peak, focusing heavily on leadership and team autonomy.

[03:56 – 05:32] Expansion and Sonic Automotive Acquisition

Todd's business was sold to Sonic Automotive during COVID-19. He reflects on the transition from being a dealer to working for a public company, describing it as his "MBA."

[05:33 – 09:00] Talent Recruitment Strategies

He recruited top talent through progressive branding, compensation, and marketing, drawing attention from employees across the industry. Auctions and industry events were also key recruitment grounds.

[09:01 – 12:06] Key Strategies for Used Car Success

Todd emphasizes the importance of inventory acquisition from auctions, trade-ins, and service drives.

[12:07 – 16:00] Adapting to Market Changes Post-COVID

With auctions becoming more challenging, acquiring trade-ins became essential to profitability. A detailed appraisal process ensures the dealership doesn’t miss valuable trades.

[16:01 – 22:00] Service Drive Acquisition Process

Todd shares how service drives can generate inventory: Use dedicated staff for appraising service vehicles; incorporate QR codes and personalized offers with repair orders; pay all employees bonuses for helping acquire cars.

[22:01 – 25:10] Creating a Culture of Acquisition

Todd promotes dealership-wide participation in car acquisition, with employees using QR-code business cards to connect with car sellers outside the dealership.

[25:11 – 27:10] Motivating and Managing Younger Employees

Todd explains how Millennial and Gen Z employees respond better to positive reinforcement than financial incentives alone. He argues that leaders need to adjust their management styles to support younger talent effectively.

[27:11 – 29:50] Preparing for Market Shifts

Todd advises dealerships to be ready for economic changes and seize unexpected opportunities.

[29:51 – 33:38] The Importance of Financial Discipline

Todd stresses saving money during good times to weather downturns, cautioning dealerships against overspending. He observes that many in the industry are now struggling after living beyond their means during profitable periods.

[33:39 – 34:22] Closing Thoughts

Tim reflects on giving back to the industry and mentoring the next generation and encourages listeners to focus on continuous improvement and to seek out small ways to make a difference every day.

00;00;00;26 - 00;00;04;13
Speaker 1
In over three decades, I've learned that truly great car dealerships are.

00;00;04;13 - 00;00;05;17
Speaker 2
Only great because.

00;00;05;17 - 00;00;12;03
Speaker 1
Of one thing leadership. So I'm sitting down with the great men and women. Inspiring Automotive on Tim Talks.

00;00;12;05 - 00;00;13;12
Speaker 2
Automotive Leadership.

00;00;13;14 - 00;00;41;03
Speaker 1
And beyond. So welcome to yet another episode of Tim Talks. We are extremely excited today. We know we say that every week. But listen, as usual, I've got my legal pad here ready to take copious notes. Fired up as we start yet another episode of Tim Talks Leadership and beyond my guest. A lot of you know him.

00;00;41;03 - 00;01;00;15
Speaker 1
If you don't, you're about to get to know him. He has sat in literally every chair in the automotive space. He's been a dealer, general manager, dealer principal, among a billion other things. But my guest today, we're so happy to have Todd Caputo. And Todd, welcome to Tim Talks, my friend.

00;01;00;18 - 00;01;02;19
Speaker 2
Hey, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. It's good to be here.

00;01;02;26 - 00;01;36;08
Speaker 1
Awesome, awesome. Well, listen, let's just dive right into it. You know, I think the most beautiful thing in life is, is we all have a pen, right? And and we're all writing our story. For those of you that don't know, maybe, maybe tell a little bit of background, of your story, you know, how you got an automotive obviously decades ago and, and and kind of walk through, you know, your leadership walk as you continue because every place, if you guys don't know and you'll find out here in just a few minutes, like, everything Todd touched, was successful.

00;01;36;08 - 00;01;44;19
Speaker 1
And I don't think that's luck. It's because of his leadership. So kind of take us through that journey several decades ago. And when you got into automotive.

00;01;44;21 - 00;02;03;21
Speaker 2
Sure. So, first of all, blessed to have good parents, number one. Right. My father, you know, my father was, was a dealer. And when I first learned the car business, it was soon as I could walk. I was given a wash mitt, and I was taught how to wash cars. When I was three years old, because my dad at the time just had a small used car lot.

00;02;03;21 - 00;02;23;07
Speaker 2
It was an old Airstream trailer, with just a desk in it. And he had a string of lights and about eight used cars. And he was on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse. That's how we started off in 19. In 1979, he bought, a failing Chevrolet dealership from a widow. The dealer, he passed away. My dad bought it from his wife.

00;02;23;07 - 00;02;43;00
Speaker 2
And it was in a in a in a location just outside of Syracuse town called Chenango. And, it was an old, kind of rundown store. And the late 70s, early 80s was really a bad time to be in the car business. If y'all think that interest rates are high now, just look at your history books of what rates were in the late 70s and early 80s.

00;02;43;00 - 00;03;02;09
Speaker 2
So he in a very older dealer market. So that's where, you know, my dad really learned the new car business. And from the top from the moment, like I said, I was born, I was in the car business. So I was at the old dealership and the kid working there, you know, as a kid growing up, I worked part time jobs at Wegmans and McDonald's and other places.

00;03;02;09 - 00;03;21;21
Speaker 2
But I always thought the dealership, like, always there, started selling cars when I was 15, 16 years old, worked as a service rider, ended up going to college at Lemoyne College, which is in the Syracuse area. Smaller school, got an HR degree, which my father recommended me to do, which been very helpful in the car business for sure.

00;03;21;24 - 00;03;55;23
Speaker 2
Right. No HR. Yeah. And, you know, while I went to class, I also went to the dealership and that's when I really started going to car auctions as well, started going to auctions. And I was like 18, 19 years old while I was in college. And I really got, you know, my education as far as, you know, starting to buy cars at auctions in the used car business, graduated from Lemoyne in 1994, went to the General Motors Dealer Academy in 1995, and started out with a Chevy store and then ended up, buying some real estate that were former Ford dealerships that were no longer had the franchise there.

00;03;55;23 - 00;04;19;17
Speaker 2
I bought some Ford land, and, I turned those into used car superstores. And how I did it, really, when I say I shouldn't say I met way because I was really able to secure some of the best talent in Central in Upstate New York in the car business, because I treated people really good and all paid people extremely well, and I let them really, really do what they were best at.

00;04;19;19 - 00;04;41;01
Speaker 2
And I just kind of let them go. I was able to get some great people and build a huge business, and then ended up opening a fourth location, which is a small satellite used car store. But that was right before Covid started. It was only opened a few months, but you know, when we peaked, that was retailing between three dealerships, a Chevy store and two used car stores, about 6500 cars a year.

00;04;41;03 - 00;05;10;17
Speaker 2
Between the three, about 5500 were used. And, the rest were new. The independent used car stores had fixed operations. They had service departments, parts departments. I had a body shop at my Chevy store had, a centralized BDC, 230 employees, a full corporate structure, COO, CFO, and great people. My focus was on inventory acquisition at auctions, either online or being physically at auctions.

00;05;10;20 - 00;05;31;28
Speaker 2
And marketing, like, those were the two things that I really focused on. And I had everybody else do kind of everything else that they were really, really good at. So, 2020, Covid hit business changed for sure. We, we, we survived. And I was either looking to grow during Covid because there were opportunities to grow or possibly be acquired.

00;05;32;01 - 00;05;53;17
Speaker 2
And, really, the good Lord wanted me to be acquired. So I was my dealerships were sold to Sonic Automotive. Sonic bought my used car businesses and turn them into Echo Parks. They bought my Chevy store and remained Sun Chevrolet. I worked for, for Sonic on the Echo Park side of the business as the, director of delivery center operations for almost two years.

00;05;53;19 - 00;06;11;20
Speaker 2
And, I would tell you, that's where I really got my MBA going from, entrepreneur owning car dealerships to working for a public with over 10,000 people for a really a great organization. Sonic is awesome. That was where I got my MBA, right? And then I left Sonic, went over two years ago now.

00;06;11;20 - 00;06;24;23
Speaker 2
Yes, a little over two years ago. And I started a small consulting business because I can't get away from car business. I love it, and I love helping people. And that's, that's the very short version of my 30 years in the car business.

00;06;24;25 - 00;06;45;09
Speaker 1
It's an incredible story, but I want to go way back to when you you almost started. I mean, it's it's one thing. And we've talked about it here, to think, well, the first thing I want to touch on, and you said it. And look, you can listen to Maxwell and you can listen to other great, you know, leaders that teach leadership, you know, as hiring in the right people, paying them well, getting them out on their way.

00;06;45;09 - 00;07;26;22
Speaker 1
You know, I like, the, the, you know, the law of attraction, you know, something's going on here. And then the law of duplication, you know, duplicating a process. And we've had some incredible humans on here explaining that. But but that's obviously a lot easier to talk about. And settings like this versus doing it. So so how did you you know you know, Syracuse, New York, upstate New York, is not typically, you know, a Miami, Atlanta, LA, Baltimore, you know, that that that Mid-Atlantic area that is just to just say not sadly, a lots and lots and lots of dealership therefore draws a lot of people out of talent.

00;07;26;22 - 00;07;49;04
Speaker 1
So, so I think, you know, but but here's what really will, I think hit home with a lot of people listening is the average dealership is that smaller dealership, you know, mom and Pop USA, the average dealer in the country, is doing, you know, 100, 115 cars a month. Right? So so how? Because you obviously didn't start out selling 6500 cars a year.

00;07;49;08 - 00;08;02;26
Speaker 1
So. So how did you, in the beginning, find the right people? Because I think that's so key is finding the right people. You pay them. Well, you did it. But how did you get them in the first place? Like what drove them to you?

00;08;02;28 - 00;08;23;19
Speaker 2
A couple of things. Number one, we we spent a lot of money on branding and marketing and advertising, in that market. And, because of that, not only was able to sell a lot of cars, I also was able to recruit a lot of people. You know, when people see you on TV all the time, because we used to the 30 minute infomercials, I was on TV like 24, 73, 65.

00;08;23;25 - 00;08;42;03
Speaker 2
I was on the radio, I was on digital. We were everywhere. And I was very progressive. Like, I started building foldables 20 something years ago when no one even thought about them. But, you know, I was involved in digital retailing and and things like it, like usually I've been blessed, like the good Lord, for giving me the ability to kind of see things happen before others do.

00;08;42;10 - 00;09;03;28
Speaker 2
And I was very progressive, especially for that market. So people around me that were in the industry were kind of drawn to, were drawn to the fact that I was progressive, that I really wanted to change, that we sold a lot of cars. And, you know, people that came to work for me, too, you know, word gets around pretty quick that you pay well, people in the car business know it.

00;09;03;28 - 00;09;18;25
Speaker 2
So, again, that brings in the right kind of people with the similar values to myself. Right? The the good people in the business and also brings in some bad ones too, that we had to weed out. But at the end of the day, I would say that's really how I did it and what I got. Did people come work for me?

00;09;18;28 - 00;09;33;01
Speaker 2
Typically what they would do is they would tell their friends in the industry too, and they would bring them and they would come work for us to. And that's that's really how I did it. And a lot of times throughout the auctions, like I just recruited people, the auctions I ran into a lot of very talented people, especially in the used car business.

00;09;33;03 - 00;09;37;29
Speaker 2
That was an auction three, three, four days a week. I met people there, and that's how we recruited.

00;09;38;01 - 00;10;06;02
Speaker 1
You know, that that that's absolutely amazing. And that makes that that makes a ton of sense. And kudos because, you know, it's it's just amazing for people, you know, so many times people get in that chair, get in that position and, you know, because they were, you know, the old saying is hurt people hurt people, right? And the people that were beat up by their sales manager, beat up by their GM, you know, the, the, the, you know, I literally got a, proposal lit on fire and threw at me one time back in the days at Toyota.

00;10;06;02 - 00;10;38;11
Speaker 1
So, I mean, seeing that type of thing. But then, you know, completely doing it differently, it's huge. And that's why that's why people were drawn to you. I do want to talk about, you know, you were you were the, given, the name the Used Car King. So, so this, you know, this is, something very near and dear to my heart, in fact, that that the most fun I've ever had in the car business is, although I've sat in a lot of chairs, was when I was a preowned manager because there's something special about, you know, and back in the day, before auction, they're auction genius.

00;10;38;11 - 00;10;57;27
Speaker 1
And apps like that obviously now are ten, 12 years old. But before that, you know, you would get the, the list of cars at the sale and then, you know, I'd pull service report a service history, and I'd. And I pull Carfax and you pull all that, and you do, you know, then you get there, or maybe you go on a plane and you fly to Florida and you touch them and smell them because maybe it has a smoke.

00;10;57;29 - 00;11;19;10
Speaker 1
But what is the, you know, especially in today's world. And there's certain OEMs that are giving we don't need to go into that, but there's certain OEMs that are giving more support than others. But obviously, if you have a good used car business that can, not only sustain your business, but that can make your business extremely profitable.

00;11;19;10 - 00;11;48;22
Speaker 1
But again, I had a dealer principal while I was sitting in that chair. Tell me that the pre-owned manager is one of the, if not the most important, position because you're you're buying and selling just like, stock. So. So what can you give someone, you know, that new or maybe pre-owned manager that GM with maybe a franchise that's struggling a little bit right now based on incentive help or interest rates or whatever's going on in the market, because, I mean, 80% of what you did was used cars.

00;11;48;22 - 00;12;06;02
Speaker 1
And that is absolutely incredible. Like, what advice, would you give them like, but you consistently did it over and over and over again. Yeah. There's got to be I know there's no magic wand but but your day to day, what did you I mean you had a, you had a system. Could you let us peek under the covers there.

00;12;06;05 - 00;12;06;20
Speaker 1
Oh I would.

00;12;06;24 - 00;12;25;00
Speaker 2
So you know, when I was, you know, very heavily in the business, you know, being able to buy cars at the auction was really, really important because when you have used car stores that are just independent use car stores, you're not typically taken in, a lot of trades that you can retail. They're typically older cars that are their wholesale pieces.

00;12;25;00 - 00;12;44;06
Speaker 2
Right. So we relied on buying cars at the auction and buying cars from the public because that's when you really have a choice. So yeah, we spent a lot of time at the auction. Now the business changed quite a bit. I would say the auction part of the business has changed a lot the last few years because of Covid, the used car business, there's been supply issues we all know about.

00;12;44;06 - 00;13;15;16
Speaker 2
We don't need to waste time going through Covid and supply issues and all that. But acquiring a car at the door is the most important thing that any dealer can do right now. And that's a trade in, right? You want to own every trade you can possibly own. I think that's number one. You have to have a detailed written appraisal process that has to be a real process for how you appraise a car, what you're going to take it in for, how much you think it's going to cost to recondition the car, photographs of the car, no trading damage like you have to be very you can't miss trades unless you have someone that is

00;13;15;16 - 00;13;30;23
Speaker 2
completely buried and upside down or unrealistic. You cannot miss a trade because if you don't, someone else are going to get it. I think that's number one. Don't miss trades. And you can pay a little bit more for trade obviously, than anywhere else because of the fact that you don't pay an auction fee, you don't have to transport the car.

00;13;30;25 - 00;13;48;18
Speaker 2
And it's a plate frame on the street. And it's an opportunity in your service department when the customer comes back and you have an opportunity to trade, which most people in the business know. Number two, there's the service drive, right? The service drive is a great place to acquire inventory. Everybody says, we tried it and it doesn't work.

00;13;48;18 - 00;14;11;16
Speaker 2
It works. But you have to have a person or people that do it. You have to have a process in place that's followed every time you have a you have to have a pay plan in place that pays for that role. And again, does it convert at 20%? No, but it probably converts at 5 to 10%. And I'd rather get 5 to 10% of my used cars out of the service drives that I really want at an auction right now, because the auction market stuff.

00;14;11;16 - 00;14;32;16
Speaker 2
And then there's your database, right? Dealers don't always utilize the database they have. Most dealers have been in business for a very long time. And equity mining is extremely important. There's a lot of different pieces of software out there that you can use. A lot of CRMs already had a built in, and you can equity mine in your database and find people to either trade up or sell their car.

00;14;32;19 - 00;14;48;10
Speaker 2
And and I'm not talking about cars that are 3 or 4 years old. You can even find people that have cars that are five years old, eight years old, ten years old, even older than that. Because, as you know, a lot of new car dealers are retail in cars. Now that 3 or 4 years ago, they would have never thought of retail and most dealers would have never.

00;14;48;12 - 00;15;05;20
Speaker 2
You wouldn't see at a Toyota store, 130,000 mile used car like you wouldn't see it. That car would go to the auction. But most store these days they don't have a choice. If the car is whole, it's got a frame, it's got a decent body, and it's mechanically safe and sound. A lot of dealers are going to retail that car.

00;15;05;22 - 00;15;29;17
Speaker 2
So your database is huge. And last but not least is, you know, just we buy cars from the public. CarMax is great at it. Carvana is great at it. Why can't new and used car dealers be really good at it too? A lot of it in my opinion is marketing and branding right. You have to let people know that you buy cars, you pay more for them than anybody else, and you can't just have a sign out front that says, we want to buy your car.

00;15;29;17 - 00;16;00;10
Speaker 2
You got to be different. You got to be creative when it comes to getting that lead and getting that person in your door. Then once you either get that lead or get the person in the door, you have to be very efficient in the process of getting them an offer for their car. And the offer has to be all the money in the world, because most customers are smart enough now to know that they can copy and paste their Vin number and information on their car, and they can shotgun it out to CarMax, Carvana and eight other new car dealers in the market and some used car dealers too, and get all different kinds of

00;16;00;10 - 00;16;17;08
Speaker 2
values. And what I always challenge dealers to do. Dealers, they hire me to consult. I challenge them, not just a mystery shop on how they sell cars to people, but also how they buy cars to people. Like, what's the follow up cadence? What are you sending out of the CRM? What kind of text messages you gathering are you giving?

00;16;17;08 - 00;16;36;03
Speaker 2
Most importantly, what kind of offer are you giving? Are you giving them a really strong offer by your brand? I'll give you an example. My, my son's got a Toyota Four Runner, and, I said, you know, he thought about maybe get rid of it because it was bleeding them dry on gas. I said, my son understands the business because he was in it with me.

00;16;36;10 - 00;16;59;15
Speaker 2
I said, Anthony, shotgun your vent around. See what you get is shotgun this then around Charlotte to about nine different dealers. He got the lowest offer on his forerunner from Toyota dealership Toyota dealership. I think about that for a minute, right. It makes no sense to me because a lot of dealers just don't pay attention to the values that they're that they're spitting out and giving the giving to the public.

00;16;59;15 - 00;17;17;10
Speaker 2
So and then last but not least, is auctions, right? Auctions definitely still have a place. And you can be really, really good at buying cars at the auction. But if you think that you can just sit in front of a computer all day long and buy cars, you're wrong. you have to you have to play. And I call it The Sandlot, right?

00;17;17;10 - 00;17;34;08
Speaker 2
You're going to play in the sand lot on the physical auction, in the sand lot of the digital auction. And if you're going to be at the physical auction, you have to have either yourself or someone that's there that's walking every single car. And you were pre-owned manager, you know exactly what I'm talking about. What do you do before you go to a sale?

00;17;34;14 - 00;17;53;12
Speaker 2
You walk the cars. You don't walk cars a half hour an hour before you go, a day before or two days before you walk. Every single car that you're interested in buying, what you put a bid list together again and Obd2, bring a paint meter, make sure everything works because all the arbitration rules have changed now. And do it just like CarMax does it.

00;17;53;12 - 00;18;08;19
Speaker 2
CarMax has physical buyers at every auction and they just don't show up on sale day. They show up their days before and they drive and look at every single one of those cars. That's why CarMax is who they are, as good as who they are. So you have to be really, really good at it because you can't out trust condition reports.

00;18;08;19 - 00;18;31;13
Speaker 2
They just sign for a lot of reasons. We can get into it, but we don't have enough time. Yeah. You know that said that again. And last but not least, being in charge of used cars, any in any position you're in, whether you're a used car manager, use car director, a sales manager, a floor manager, if you're putting a number on a car, no matter what your job is, you have to be very detail oriented.

00;18;31;13 - 00;18;40;26
Speaker 2
It's an extremely detail oriented job, when it comes to put a number on a car and the reconditioning is a whole separate conversation, that's that's kind of where it starts, is, is acquisition.

00;18;40;28 - 00;18;59;11
Speaker 1
So, so can you, can you go back to you had a look. You hit the nail in the head in a lot of dealerships. What I've seen, no matter whether it's a new piece of software or it's, you know, buying, buying trades out of the service drive, you know, you'll have leadership in that dealership, no pun intended.

00;18;59;13 - 00;19;16;00
Speaker 1
That will try something. And they know that they're not going to stick to it, therefore, that, you know, that's why these things fizzle out. Right. They they'll try that out. But you had a process in your service drive. Can you let us know. Like was it as you were talking I'm thinking, well was it the service advisors?

00;19;16;00 - 00;19;28;04
Speaker 1
Was it separate people that were in the service drive? Can you just walk the listeners through, you know, what, your process in your service because obviously your successful your process and your service drive. What did that look like?

00;19;28;06 - 00;19;48;21
Speaker 2
So, you know, I'll tell you what I recommend really the dealer clients that I work with now because the software has changed a lot, since I, you know, since I owned my stores. But number one, it's not as a service advisor. It's not having, you know, salesperson a show up there on a Monday at 730 and a salesperson be there on a Tuesday.

00;19;48;21 - 00;20;09;16
Speaker 2
Right. It's it's a dedicated person or people. And their whole job is to make an offer to every single customer that comes in, for service in the dealership, period. Every single car, unless they bought it two days ago. Like they should be getting an offer, on the on their party to trade it in or sell it to you like that's number one.

00;20;09;16 - 00;20;27;18
Speaker 2
It's first you get our software to identify. And it's not that hard. You can tack on bolt ons to see who's an equity, what the car might be worth, which is not that difficult to do. You can always copy and paste the Vin and put it in the auto if you want, or put a link you, but then you have to have a process.

00;20;27;18 - 00;20;45;14
Speaker 2
You really have to, you know, how do you meet the customer that's in the waiting area, introduce yourself to them. And and you know, without being pushy, make an offer on their car. Or most people drop their car off right for service. They don't sit at the dealership. Wait. They drop it off. So how do you get that offer in front of them?

00;20;45;16 - 00;20;59;27
Speaker 2
Do you attach do you attach an offer to every single repair order? Do you put a hang tag in the window with a QR code on it, with an offer on it? Do you leave an envelope on the front seat? I mean, there's a lot of different ways you can do it, but at the end of the day, you have to create a way to do it that works for your store.

00;21;00;02 - 00;21;19;09
Speaker 2
And typically what I'll do is give dealers different options, to do that. But you have to have somebody who's or who's responsible to be very persistent, right. Who can handle rejection. Okay. Because of a lot of people that just don't want they don't want to trade the car, they don't want to sell it. They have no desire to, but there's no reason why you still can't ask them.

00;21;19;09 - 00;21;44;08
Speaker 2
So you have to be very, very persistent because it's, you know, it's not low hanging fruit. It isn't. But, it can be done. And then you have to pay them accordingly, right. Pay them to, acquire cars. I believe every person in a car dealership, whether it's a, a salesperson, a service manager, a title clerk, a parts counterman, whoever everybody in the dealership should be, should be paid to acquire a car.

00;21;44;08 - 00;22;00;26
Speaker 2
Everybody, everybody in the dealership should get a business card on it, whether that with a QR code in the back. So if they're driving home from work and they see a car for sale on the side of the street, they're not afraid to stop and take a picture of it and see who owns the car. Leave their card on the windshield with a QR code so the customer could scan it.

00;22;00;26 - 00;22;06;26
Speaker 2
Get an offer on the car. Every person in the dealership should get paid, and that's what I promote when I work with dealers.

00;22;06;29 - 00;22;26;06
Speaker 1
That's incredible. And I love, love, love the idea. I I've even picked up, several things here. I love the idea of the business card. You know, our obviously our company is big on QR codes and trade ins and and ladies and gentlemen, you know, a few weeks ago we had Patrick Abad and success leaves clues. It just does.

00;22;26;08 - 00;22;51;04
Speaker 1
You know, Patrick sells 400 pre-owned a month, 200, new a month. But he does exactly what Todd said. Every single person, every single person that is doing a some sort of service in the service drive, whether they want to or not, are going to get a number. They're absolutely going to get a number. So so here you're talking to we're listening to the Used Car King.

00;22;51;10 - 00;23;13;08
Speaker 1
Several weeks ago we had Patrick, who does the exact same thing. And he's selling month in month out no matter the climate, no matter the frickin interest rate, no matter what he had to pay. He's selling 400 plus cars a month. Todd saying the same thing. Listen, people. Hello, McFly. Listen. I mean, why would we not do that?

00;23;13;08 - 00;23;34;12
Speaker 1
Especially. And quite frankly, me and I. Look, you are light years ahead of me. As far as a pre-owned guy, we all know the numbers. I mean, there is a considerable difference in your PBR. You know, a lot of times cars bought at the auction versus cars bought off off the street or off, off your service drive.

00;23;34;12 - 00;23;47;26
Speaker 1
So I think that is, again, success leaves clues. That happens. It's just, I just it plug me in the punch me in the head that we had almost this exact same conversation a few a few weeks ago. So if you.

00;23;47;26 - 00;24;02;17
Speaker 2
Patrick's that Patrick's son, I believe Patrick's son is responsible for it at a store. Yeah, I met him. Yeah, he's responsible for for vehicle acquisitions market in Patrick's and. Great. He's a great operator. And that's a great store.

00;24;02;19 - 00;24;03;09
Speaker 1
It's a great he's a.

00;24;03;14 - 00;24;05;04
Speaker 2
He's a he's a he's a really good person.

00;24;05;06 - 00;24;27;15
Speaker 1
He's a great human. I like to surround me with great humans. In fact, I, you know, I have I'm working a car deal with him right now for my brother, who, by the way, lives in Kentucky, is coming down to to buy a car directly from from Patrick. Listen, gosh, I just can't imagine what my my career behind the desk would look like if I had mentors like you.

00;24;27;15 - 00;24;42;25
Speaker 1
If I had people that I could listen to. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to make it easier. I can remember being in the store. And there comes especially when you're somewhat successful, especially, you know, we when I was at my store, we sold more CPO than anybody in like 3 or 4 states.

00;24;42;25 - 00;25;10;27
Speaker 1
And you start reading your old press clippings and you start, you know, thinking that you've got everything figured out. Right? And I didn't I wasn't even close. I wasn't even close. So. So hopefully these are just giving you little nuggets, little pebbles in your shoe that you can't think about. That can make your dealership successful. Todd, as we, as we land the plane, as I like to say, what would your advice obviously you have seen, I have seen especially you have seen.

00;25;10;27 - 00;25;37;22
Speaker 1
I've never been a dealer principal before, but the ebbs and flows of this business, what would be the advice that you would give? I like to say, with a brand new, But. But any, any, whether it's a GM or a pre-owned manager, like, what advice would you get on leadership as far as the people we talked earlier about the right people, the law of attraction, and then the law of duplication of of getting the right people and paying a right.

00;25;37;22 - 00;25;47;08
Speaker 1
But what what would your advice, to our listeners be out there to that person, sit behind the desk that might be struggling a little bit right now based on market conditions?

00;25;47;10 - 00;26;03;04
Speaker 2
You know, a couple things when it comes to leadership. I just was at one of my clients last week in Michigan at a Chevy store, and one of the, managers I was working with there. He struggled a little bit because of the fact that he's having a difficult time motivating some of the younger people that he's hired.

00;26;03;04 - 00;26;22;29
Speaker 2
Millennials, they call it what they call millennials, right? How do you motivate millennials? Right. They don't necessarily care about money. They don't care about the same kind of things that I care about. You know, I think that it's really important to get in the mindset of the people, that of the workforce, right? In the workforce is younger people.

00;26;22;29 - 00;26;41;03
Speaker 2
That's who they're now. They they were raised and grew up differently than someone like me. I know how old you are. 52 years old, right? It's 52. They're different. Yeah. So they they, they like to feel like they've achieved something. Like they want to make a difference in the world, which I respect all that. I do.

00;26;41;05 - 00;26;58;14
Speaker 2
So it's not always about money. It's not always about a spiff. It's not always about a commission. To them, I think it's just being told that they did a good job. You know, when I was raised, a good job was. What's your paycheck at the end of the week, right. That's really how I kind of graded myself.

00;26;58;17 - 00;27;26;18
Speaker 2
I graded myself based on what my financial statement said at the end of the month for my stores. But, it's not that way for for these folks. And I think that, positive reinforcement, it's celebrating small successes is really, really important for motivating, these people, I'm really important, you know, and teaching them in a positive way how they need to be aggressive, especially when it comes to sales, because you have to be aggressive, but you can do it in a polite way.

00;27;26;20 - 00;27;49;07
Speaker 2
And also being able to handle rejection. I feel like people that are younger, they don't handle rejection nearly as well. So you have to teach them how to if they get rejected, not to take it necessarily personally. And to explain to them that they are, you know, when you're trying to sell somebody a car, for example, it's a it's a very large purchase.

00;27;49;07 - 00;28;09;14
Speaker 2
It's a big ticket item. And people are very, very financially challenged these days. There's a lot of things going on in the world. People are very uneasy with things. So, you know, if they get told a no, you have to kind of like teach them how to overcome feeling bad about it and more importantly, how to kind of overcome objections.

00;28;09;14 - 00;28;27;05
Speaker 2
Right. And, that's not easy to do. And it takes time and a lot of the people that we all kind of call, quote unquote, car dogs in the industry, you know, they don't have the patience for that. And they need to because they have to learn how to motivate people that are younger. I think it's really, really important that they learn how to do that.

00;28;27;11 - 00;28;48;10
Speaker 2
They almost have to retrain themselves, to be able to do that. I think that's number one. And number two, you know, I'd be ready for anything, if I'm in the car business right now, I've seen it all. I've seen 9/11. I've seen, '08 or '09. I've seen cash for clunkers. I've seen the first time we had $4 gas.

00;28;48;12 - 00;29;07;15
Speaker 2
You name it, I've seen most of it over the last 30 years. And I will tell you that whether you're a dealer or you're someone who works at a dealership, be ready for anything. And there may be a time when an opportunity can come along. We take advantage of it. And I'll give you an example. Right.

00;29;07;17 - 00;29;28;01
Speaker 2
For dollar gas the first time for dollar gas, it nobody wanted big SUV. You remember this kid? Probably in the business is a huge car manager. Remember? You couldn't give away a big truck. You could not give away, a navigator, a suburban, an export excursion of big things. Nobody wanted them, right. Well, there were people out there, including myself, that bought those things.

00;29;28;01 - 00;29;50;08
Speaker 2
Yeah, right. And made a lot of money with them. When the herd goes one way, you can go the other, but you gotta have you gotta have cash to do it. Right. And I think what's happened, unfortunately, to a lot of people in the industry the last few years, especially people that worked in car dealerships, they've made a lot of money, the last few years really.

00;29;50;10 - 00;30;13;15
Speaker 2
You know, they didn't really do it because they're that great. They just did it because of supply and demand at the end of the day. And I'm not saying that people in the car business don't work hard and long hours because they do. And I understand that better than most, just like you do. But I will tell you that nobody did anything special other than the fact that, you know, we were able to charge what we wanted to charge for cars, but there sticker better people, you know, bought finance products and bought these things just because they want to have the car.

00;30;13;22 - 00;30;36;24
Speaker 2
So 4500 a copy wasn't all that great, a five grand a copy. It's because it was what it was. Well, now it's 1800 or 2 grand. You know what your paycheck look like. Your paycheck doesn't look like it did a year ago or two years ago. How were you living? Did you save your money? Like, it's super important that when times do come that they're good, that you're wise, that you save your money whether you're a dealer or you're somebody that works at a car dealership.

00;30;37;01 - 00;30;54;16
Speaker 2
A finding now, especially people that work, dealerships, they've lived out of their means a little bit and now they're struggling. I do recruiting and I work with some large dealer groups and some small ones, and they're running these ads for different positions, and I and I, and I read the resumes and I'm like, wow, I can't believe all these people are looking for jobs right now.

00;30;54;21 - 00;31;21;01
Speaker 2
You probably see with your business too, right? When you're recruiting, people are looking, because they don't feel secure and because they need to make more money. You got to be ready for opportunities that come. We got a lot going on in the world right now. We got things going on overseas in Israel, and Iran. We've got two major hurricanes that are really messed up, the used car market and the new car in the new car market.

00;31;21;04 - 00;31;39;13
Speaker 2
A lot of people have been, you know, displaced. I live in North Carolina. I saw it firsthand this week. Like I went with with a couple friends of mine, and we we brought supplies to people. I saw devastation like I've never seen. And people mentally aren't there. They're not just consumers. They're going to buy cars with people that work in car dealerships, too.

00;31;39;16 - 00;32;02;06
Speaker 2
There's an election coming up we all know about. You know, I want to get a political conversations, but it's it's coming. And I've, I've seen these big elections before and it affects consumers. There's just a lot going on right now. I would be ready for anything. But you have to be very sensitive to that customer that walks in your dealership to buy a car or comes into the service drive to get their car fixed because they are paying attention to what's going on right now.

00;32;02;06 - 00;32;07;20
Speaker 2
And I think a lot of people are nervous. You have to pay very close attention, take good, good care of people.

00;32;07;23 - 00;32;29;17
Speaker 1
Well, that is incredible advice, Todd. Thank you so much. As you were saying, I was a pre-owned manager at the time. And in fact, we're going to have Adam Merlin on, coming up. But Adam, Merlin was a, dear friend of mine running a store, and he went out and bought all that big SUV I possibly could, and I didn't think he was crazy, but I was like, I was like, put my foot in on these.

00;32;29;21 - 00;32;53;02
Speaker 1
And, boy, he looked like a rock star. But he did the exact same thing. You know, I like, you know, I hear, I was talking to to Heather at that at Fletcher Jones, obviously a, unbelievable organization out and, out on the West Coast and and she was talking about, you know, during Covid and other things, you know, she literally tripled our marketing spend.

00;32;53;02 - 00;33;02;18
Speaker 1
And then they got more, you know, market share in their PMA. So, guys, incredible conversation with Todd. Thank you so very much for taking I know you're.

00;33;02;20 - 00;33;03;22
Speaker 2
Appreciate you having me.

00;33;03;28 - 00;33;20;21
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thank you so much for your time. Ladies and gentlemen, hopefully this has helped you today. That's what we want to try to do, because at the end of the day, you know, I always say it, you know, no one's smarter than everyone, right? Let's just continue to get better together. And there's people that wake up that are victims, and the whole world's against them.

00;33;20;21 - 00;33;38;15
Speaker 1
And they look, based on what Todd said, there's all these. There's election and hurricanes and floods and, you know, all this stuff going on. But there's also people that wake up and say, how can I get better today? And more importantly, quite frankly, me, Todd and I are both 52. How can I make a difference today? Because we're on the back nine, man.

00;33;38;17 - 00;34;04;17
Speaker 1
I want to make a difference in this industry that's been so good to me. I want to make a difference in people's lives. And and hopefully we can just get a little better along the way. Todd, thank you again. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in. I continue to get more texts and and and people, Sean Niff just sent me a, screenshot of his, car play as he was listening to last week's episode with with Matt at West Herr.

00;34;04;21 - 00;34;14;16
Speaker 1
Thank you. As this continues to grow and, hopefully we made you a little better today. Hopefully we can get better together. We will see you next week.

00;34;14;18 - 00;34;19;19
Unknown
And I be.

00;34;19;21 - 00;34;22;00
Unknown
In new.