The Power of People & Partnerships with Tim Pohanka

Great leadership is the key to every successful dealership, and Tim Pohanka proves it. 

On the latest TimTalks episode, Tim, VP of Pohanka Nissan Hyundai, shares how he transformed struggling stores, built a powerhouse team, and created a leadership retreat that breaks down silos between sales, service, and vendor partners. 

Learn how process, accountability, and innovative thinking drive dealership success—and how rising stars like Roman are reshaping the industry. 

Connect with Tim Pohanka on LinkedIn. 

[00:00 – 01:15] Introduction 

Tim opens the episode by introducing Tim Pohanka, a leader who has driven remarkable transformations in his dealerships. 

[01:15 – 03:51] Pohanka Dealerships 

With over 100 years in business, Pohanka dealerships are built on trust and innovation. Tim P. shares how he respects the past while leading his stores into the future. 

[03:51 – 06:38] Overcoming Challenges 

Facing adversity from an OEM partner, Tim P. focused on the future rather than the past. His resilience and adaptability helped turn struggling stores into thriving businesses. 

[06:38 – 08:07] Adapting Strategies 

Tim P. describes how learning from setbacks allowed him to position his stores for long-term success. 

[08:07 – 10:34] Finding the Right Leaders 

Hiring the right people is key. Tim shares the story of Pam, a GM who transformed operations by enforcing strong processes and building trust. 

[10:34 – 15:02] Greenbrier Leadership Retreat 

Tim P. describes his team’s annual leadership retreat that brings key team members and vendor partners together. 

[15:02 – 17:24] Partners, Not Vendors 

Tim P. emphasizes the value of vendor partnerships. By involving partners in dealership strategy, he ensures they contribute to long-term success. 

[17:24 – 22:55] Breaking Down Silos 

Bridging the gap between sales and service is crucial. By fostering open communication, Pohanka dealerships create a unified culture that benefits employees and customers. 

[22:55 – 26:01] Process & Accountability 

Understanding financials is key to success. Tim P. ensures his team takes ownership by setting clear expectations and tracking performance. 

[26:01 – 29:51] Roman’s Rise to Leadership 

Roman, a top salesperson, mastered digital retailing and social media to drive sales. His success led to a leadership promotion, proving that strong processes create great leaders. 

[29:51 – 31:55] Final Advice 

Tim P. advises dealership leaders to focus on service, process, and accountability. A strong foundation in these areas drives long-term success. 

[31:55 – 32:08] Closing Thoughts 

Tim C. wraps up with a reminder: success comes from continuous learning and collaboration. Working together leads to better results for dealerships and their teams. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:15 Pohanka Dealerships
• 3:51 Overcoming Challenges
• 6:38 Adapting Strategies
• 8:07 Finding the Right Leaders
• 10:34 Greenbrier Leadership Retreat
• 15:02 Partners, Not Vendors
• 17:24 Breaking Down Silos
• 22:55 Process & Accountability
• 26:01 Roman’s Rise to Leadership
• 29:51 Final Advice
• 31:55 Closing Thoughts

Transcript

00;00;00;25 - 00;00;27;21
Speaker 1
In over three decades, I've learned that truly great car dealerships are only great because of one thing leadership. So I'm sitting down with the great men and women. Inspiring Automotive on Tim Talks automotive Leadership and beyond. So welcome everyone to yet another episode of Tim Talks Leadership and beyond. Wow, what an incredible kick off, to 2025.

00;00;27;21 - 00;00;50;00
Speaker 1
We've had a lot of people, wheels down, landing from, what was started to be snowy in a day. Really excited about my guest today. We say that a lot. And you hear sometimes big names, that are known throughout the space. And then you get to meet them, and then you get to meet the real them.

00;00;50;00 - 00;01;15;03
Speaker 1
So. So this person, has become, a close friend in a very short period of time. I, I had the privilege of spending some time, with not only, the people around him, but his entire team and his leadership and bringing his team together and and what he's doing, in his dealerships. The turnaround has been absolutely nothing short of phenomenal.

00;01;15;03 - 00;01;21;22
Speaker 1
So with that, welcome, Tim, to, Tim Talks. Thank you brother.

00;01;21;25 - 00;01;37;20
Speaker 2
I really, really appreciate the introduction. And thank you for having me. I will say definitely hanging out with you over the last few weeks, as definitely, brought us together and I don't know, was just the name, but I definitely think it's been great.

00;01;37;23 - 00;02;01;12
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, 100%. And it, you know, what we're talking about had the privilege, obviously, you know, hopefully by now, if you've listened to any episode, you know, in the beginning when we started this, I was like, well, maybe, you know, obviously I'm one of the founders of Car now doing something. Everybody thought that I was just selling something or promoting like hopefully, you know by now that I'm truly trying to give back.

00;02;01;12 - 00;02;23;06
Speaker 1
We are truly trying to give back to the automotive community that's been so good to us. And and there's no doubt that as I travel the country, I like to see, or it's amazing to see transformations in dealerships. But that there's one thing and that is leadership. And that was, what I saw with Tim.

00;02;23;06 - 00;02;35;17
Speaker 1
So, Tim, jump into right into your story. Obviously Ponca is a is a pretty well known, extremely well known name. In fact, I think Jeff isn't Jeff the vice chair of nada, or did I get that wrong?

00;02;35;25 - 00;02;38;12
Speaker 2
He's the recent past chairman of, chairman?

00;02;38;19 - 00;02;58;22
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. Of nada. So very well-respected name, but but just dive in. There's a few key points that that I saw that I want to get to, that I want to share with people. Hopefully dealers can we can help some dealers that are listening. But but tell a little bit about of, of your story on how you got to the addition of owning the multiple dealerships that you do now.

00;02;58;25 - 00;03;27;18
Speaker 2
Well, one thing is, you know, we're part of a dealer group that's over 100 years old, and that's something we're incredibly proud of. And it's a, it's something that all of us who are in the industry, we don't take lightly that you always respect the people that came before you. You respect what efforts were done to get you to where you are, and then you hold that as a very important, level of trust that you now have to continue on with what others have built.

00;03;27;21 - 00;03;51;12
Speaker 2
And I think that that's a real important part to make a point to make is that we do feel like, you know, we're we're not entitled to something. We're given the ability to to take something forward. So and it's a big difference between, a lot what a lot of people think. But personally, for me, my, my journey, owning and operating our dealerships, happened, the day the cash for clunkers came out.

00;03;51;15 - 00;03;52;01
Speaker 2


00;03;52;04 - 00;03;53;09
Speaker 1
Was that 2008?

00;03;53;11 - 00;04;16;07
Speaker 2
Yeah. And that was, it was crazy. Moved down. I came from Fredericksburg. We lived in the Fredericksburg area for a long period of time, but I moved up to run some of our Honda, run one of our Honda stores, in the group. And an opportunity came up to come back to Fredericksburg, and, and own and operate, two stores at the time.

00;04;16;09 - 00;04;38;08
Speaker 2
And that was a Nissan store, a Hyundai store, both a very interesting time for Nissan and Hyundai and another Nissan store and since then, I've kind of, you know, I've had the ability to work with my dad and, and my cousin and, really push our dealership, stores, forward and, and we're very proud of, of what we've done.

00;04;38;08 - 00;04;56;03
Speaker 2
And it wouldn't be there without the team that I have. And I can't say enough about all the people back at the dealership who make everything possible. But I will tell you, Tim, it's funny you mentioned about give back and one of the guiding principles that our group has always had is you've got to give back more to your community than you ever take out.

00;04;56;03 - 00;05;12;12
Speaker 2
You've got to give more to the industry than you ever take out. And and I think that's kind of why we get along. I think we're aligned in that, that's been an overriding theme of our dealerships. And it's, it's, I think it's it shows the type of people we have around us, like yourself. What you're doing.

00;05;12;15 - 00;05;40;03
Speaker 1
Yeah. It was it was pretty evident, you know, what you're doing. In fact, I don't know if you can tell the story. Obviously. Don't mention any names, but when you got to the store, I think it's. You know, I love bringing the transformation leaders to the dealers. It's. And I don't want to say it's easy because it's not, you know, you know, when something is cranking and firing on all cylinders and you have the biggest, you know, market share and your PMA and all that other stuff, and then someone hands you the keys.

00;05;40;04 - 00;05;58;17
Speaker 1
There's still a lot to do, right? You got to keep all the plates spinning. But when you jumped into that store, there was some turmoil even with, you know, where it was, what was going on, maybe explained a little bit about that and what you had to like. What was the first few things you did to roll up your sleeves to make a big difference in that store?

00;05;58;18 - 00;05;59;17
Speaker 1
Those stores?

00;05;59;20 - 00;06;38;21
Speaker 2
Well, I you know, when I first got in the stores, we had an OEM partner that was, very adversarial, own relationship that was adversarial, so much that, one of the, field representatives came in and kept explaining to me how we shouldn't be a dealer anymore. And, and I understood you. I took it with a grain of salt about what he said and politely, maybe not so politely, asked him to leave and told him to come back when he had something positive to say, and, but what I decided to do at that point was let the past be in the past and really work on the future.

00;06;38;23 - 00;07;04;29
Speaker 2
And, you know, I rolled my sleeves up and told them that, hey, you know, I don't want you to judge me on where you think we were in the past. We're going to judge on the future. And, luckily, ran into some people at that manufacturer that, started to buy into that process. They came and got, you know, they knew my dad and they knew me, and they knew that we had the ability to do things different there together.

00;07;04;29 - 00;07;21;06
Speaker 2
I mean, this was the first time my dad, myself and my cousin agreed to partner and work together. And, that was really a beautiful thing. Yeah. You really get to do that when you work with your dad and and your cousin. You really have that extra added benefit that you want, not let them down. Yeah, yeah.

00;07;21;06 - 00;07;42;14
Speaker 2
The biggest things that we did is we started to look at look at our business holistically. And when you start to look at the things, you know, versus the thing you don't know, you really got to start with the things that you don't know. And at the time, I wasn't that good at service. And it took a lot to start to really learn how to move our service departments.

00;07;42;17 - 00;08;07;11
Speaker 2
And, if anyone remembers what happened around cash for clunkers, that's also at the same time, we had the, OEMs, going into business or bankruptcy, and we had a Cadillac franchise at the time. And Cadillac, wanted that franchise to go to another dealer. And we didn't realize how much of a hurting it would be to lose that Cadillac business from our service and parks department.

00;08;07;13 - 00;08;34;17
Speaker 2
And it was like a hurricane that just came in and wiped everything out. We really had to rebuild from there and a lot of trial and error. But I luckily in that not to plug, 20 years, but ran into some amazing people at my 20 at a 20 group and, got a lot of lessons and, and really started to take those lessons and make changes and move the dealership forward.

00;08;34;20 - 00;08;51;27
Speaker 1
Now it's amazing. And one of the reasons and how for how long you have, one general manager that you I think you recruited her and and she's over all three. Correct me. But she has just done a phenomenal job as well. I think part of this is finding the right people and just letting them do what they do.

00;08;52;00 - 00;08;56;26
Speaker 1
Maybe explain. That's kind of a cool story. On how that happened.

00;08;56;29 - 00;09;20;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, it is about finding the right people, but it's also about finding the right people who will activate on the right processes. Right. And, I met Pam, through, actually, I, an interview where she. I'm sorry, not interview. I'll an employee recommendation and, we hit it off talking on the telephone when she was calling about another, potential hire for the store she was at.

00;09;20;12 - 00;09;43;11
Speaker 2
And by the end of the conversation, we swapped numbers and agree to chit chat. And a couple weeks later, she called back and said, hey, listen, I had a great time talking with you. I'd like to, you know, if you ever have an opportunity, let me know in the future. And I just so happens that I had one and, we came, we talked, and, it's been an absolute, game changer.

00;09;43;11 - 00;10;15;22
Speaker 2
Pam, is very good. Processes, enforcing processes, holding people accountable. And, I think between the two of us, we've really been able to, to concentrate in different areas and really push the store forward. But again, it goes back to process. Yeah, yeah. You know, the three piece, you know, obviously two of them being process and people and without those, you know, I don't think any, any, business will have success if you can't get those two right.

00;10;15;24 - 00;10;34;20
Speaker 1
100%. And I could, you know, after meeting her, I just met her a couple of weeks ago for the first time. Obviously extremely dynamic. You get to and you're going to tell that your people respect her, but they also admire her. And they listen to her and they care about her. So I think that's that's key. There's that special sauce as a leader.

00;10;35;11 - 00;10;51;11
Speaker 1
You know, it's one thing to, you know, you know, hug you and, you know, we, you know, sing Kumbaya, but it's a it's another thing, I think you achieve that level of leadership when people, when they don't because sometimes, you know, you might not hit that person might not hit their number. Right? They might not, they might.

00;10;51;13 - 00;11;12;24
Speaker 1
And they go to that leader and say, you know, I apologize that I let you down. You know, it's it's it's funny that we think, you know, sometimes that we can throw, spin offs and bonuses and all that stuff's good, but it's, it's it's crazy to think the at call after call and podcast after podcast admiration. Right.

00;11;12;24 - 00;11;33;10
Speaker 1
It's the that you know, it's about relationships. But the the love languages right. The one of them's admiration. And some people just want acknowledgment and loved on and it's just a it's it was just really cool to see. Which brings me I actually have the Greenbrier sweatshirt on. Tim does something unique, out of the, you know, many, many, many dealers that we have.

00;11;33;15 - 00;11;54;28
Speaker 1
This is in fact, it happened. The only other time it happened was this this year, as a matter of fact, a little done, a little bit different, in fact, a lot different. But I thought it was extremely, unique. It was very powerful. So, what Tim did is he brought in his key people from all of his dealerships.

00;11;55;00 - 00;12;20;12
Speaker 1
And then not only did he bring in the key people, and it was at the Greenbrier, which I had never had the pleasure to go to. And I am a raving fan. We could we could do five hours on why I love the Greenbrier. But, Tim invested in his people, invested in his closest vendors, and brought them all to the Greenbrier and nothing was off the table.

00;12;20;14 - 00;12;49;08
Speaker 1
Discussed everything. Each each, general manager, GSM, each service manager. They were held accountable. They, they showed where they were, where they were going and then the uniqueness of that. And we talked a little bit after. And if I have the privilege to go, next year, I think there may be a segment, but, you know, us as vendors, so, so, so let me take the podcast hat off and, and let me speak to vendors out there.

00;12;49;08 - 00;12;54;23
Speaker 2
I am look real quick. I vendors is not the right name partners.

00;12;54;23 - 00;12;55;06
Speaker 1
That's right.

00;12;55;10 - 00;12;59;14
Speaker 2
Your partners. Let's be really clear. You know, if anyone like the people.

00;12;59;14 - 00;13;01;29
Speaker 1
You had in the room that room was partners. Absolutely.

00;13;01;29 - 00;13;15;15
Speaker 2
Yeah. If you if you only have if you have vendors and you have the wrong relationship, you have to have vendor partners. Because if they're not your partner, you know, we both have to be after each other's success, not just one on the other.

00;13;15;18 - 00;13;40;21
Speaker 1
And that was evident. That was clear when I, when I saw that, because there was an obviously don't have time to break down one or even all but issues that they were trying to get better at, obviously as partners, that supply either SAS or some type of service to the dealer group, there's, there's things that could help each other.

00;13;40;23 - 00;14;05;04
Speaker 1
For example. I think it's a great idea. Listen, dealer, principal, listen, general manager, to have these, partner meetings with your provider leaders that help your your websites go and Dr. to and chat tools go and SEO and CRM go and social media go. Great folks there at Blue Gorilla and others. But but when you get into a room and say, hey, this is the problem, they're trying to help.

00;14;05;04 - 00;14;23;15
Speaker 1
Hey, I can spin up a cue card. Hey, blue gorilla, can you put it on social? Hey, can you, like, get together and work? I think that's huge. Because so often we're just trying to fight for attribution. We're trying to look good, so there's no churn. But it is amazing what happens. I quote this all the time.

00;14;23;15 - 00;14;46;20
Speaker 1
I quoted it when you gave. You gave me the privilege to speak and and hopefully encourage your team. But it's, Woodrow Wilson, I believe, said. And I've quoted here a bunch of times, but it's amazing what happens and what you can get done when no one cares who gets the credit. So I think that was extremely unique to find people in the same room, that did not work for Panca, but truly wanted.

00;14;46;20 - 00;15;02;08
Speaker 1
And we're invested in your success of your dealerships. And then the sidebar conversations that we had to try to say, okay, I can do this, I can do this. Well, that, you know, those types of things. I think it was the first time I've ever seen that. So kudos to you for at least creating that environment.

00;15;02;11 - 00;15;36;03
Speaker 2
Yeah, those are the reason why that I feel that meeting is always successful is as a partner, you need to know where our team is and what they're thinking. You know, what's the best Docker tool. So when your team likes to use, you know and and but but more importantly, if they don't understand the full functionality or if you've got a process that can help them achieve a goal, whether it's a finance department, a service department, a parks department, you know there's always something in there that our partners can do to help take everything to the next level.

00;15;36;06 - 00;16;00;21
Speaker 2
And in today's business, you know, it's all about marginal gain. How do you get 1% better? And if each department gets 1% better, guess what? You know, now you're five. You know you're 4 or 5% better. And then if they get better in their individual, processes again, that that adds to that collective, you know, improvement and adds to everybody else.

00;16;00;23 - 00;16;17;14
Speaker 2
And I think that's what's really key about getting everyone together. I mean, and to, to touch on what you'd said to have we bring our cert, we bring our, our, master service, master, master technicians. So, you know, we want to get we want to hear what they have to say. But what's going in the shop.

00;16;17;17 - 00;16;38;00
Speaker 2
We don't want to hear from the managers. We want to hear from the boots on the ground, the people who are really engaged and doing things. And when they're all together and they're all talking and you're hearing how service interacts with the used car department or the used car department interacts with the detail department, and the parks department interacts with the new part of Monmouth or on accessories.

00;16;38;07 - 00;17;04;08
Speaker 2
When they're all talking in the same room, it eliminates all that noise, all the things that she said, she said. They said what whoever said. And if you start to really get down back to the main point, is improvement. You know, taking care of the customer, taking care of the team member, taking care of the dealership. And when you can start to get that energy in a room and, and everyone really talking about that, beautiful things happen.

00;17;05;06 - 00;17;24;16
Speaker 2
Every year that we've been we've been doing this for five years. I guarantee it. Every year we've done it, we've regrouped our investment for the entire event within the first 90 days. And, and that's a beautiful thing because that means that the rest of the year, those improvements are just pure profit.

00;17;24;18 - 00;17;40;06
Speaker 1
You know, if you spent five minutes inside a dealership, you know, historically historic CLE obviously not in this dealership, probably not in any of the the guests that we've had on. But historically, there is always that rub between sales and service.

00;17;40;08 - 00;17;41;00
Speaker 2
Right.

00;17;41;03 - 00;18;02;09
Speaker 1
Well, so, you know, they they did anything to roll the roll the car across the curb and promise something. Then they go to service and, you know, they're blown off because and any time we can break those walls down, any time we can create that because not only, you know, I think, you know, there were some significant others at that meeting.

00;18;02;09 - 00;18;27;05
Speaker 1
There were some kids at that meeting. And when you hang out with people's kids and significant others and and they are invested, you become the closer you become. And it sets the tone at work. It's just not, you know, somebody with a name tag that you see nine, ten hours a day. It's somebody that you know their kids, you know their wife, you know, you know the struggles and praises and happy times like, like that changes the game.

00;18;27;05 - 00;18;52;06
Speaker 1
So so kudos to you and and ladies and gentlemen, you know, there is a pattern here. You know, whether it's Kevin Doyle at Butler Lexus who meets with the entire staff and has variable meaning. What everybody's in so parts knows with service team Priyanka just said the same thing or Patrick like there is patterns here. Success leaves clues.

00;18;52;06 - 00;19;14;27
Speaker 1
So if anything else, I would encourage you, to, to, to, to operate that way because, you know, the, I mean temper the financial statement and so service understood. Parts and parts understood. Service and service understood sales. I mean, it was it was it was actually a pretty, pretty cool. What gave you the idea, to do that?

00;19;14;27 - 00;19;42;08
Speaker 1
I mean, it was five years, but did you say. I mean, did you say, hey, let's do something special, like take me five years back? You know, what made you decide to do that? Because it is kind of out of the box, you know, to go. I can understand a meeting, you know, one day at a hotel, but you had a couple days to where there was, you know, obviously the snow in West Virginia, there was ice skating and nice dinners and, you know, tours of the bunker at the green by all these things, you mixed in with work.

00;19;42;08 - 00;19;48;28
Speaker 1
And it was freaking phenomenal. So what was the brainchild five years ago that made you, decide to do that?

00;19;49;00 - 00;20;10;03
Speaker 2
I just I just looked at, you know, what? We do our group meetings, you know? Okay. And when you go to a 20 group meeting, and you actually, I'll take you back further. You know, when you go to 20 group meetings and you come back to the story and that you've spent all this time looking at numbers and you're trying to hold your team accountable, and they've never seen they don't know what you're looking at.

00;20;10;05 - 00;20;29;18
Speaker 2
You're going to come back with all sorts of ideas and numbers and and I started to really think about it going, I need to get my team to understand the health of their department to the granular level that that I see. So they can make decisions in their, in, in their department. And, and that really kind of got to me.

00;20;29;18 - 00;20;49;28
Speaker 2
And I remember some leadership books that I read in the past, that talked about, you know, that talk about accountability. If you don't measure it, you can't hold many people to it. And that kind of got me thinking. Let's get everybody engaged. Let's look them looking at these financials. Let's look at these reports. I mean, why are people scared?

00;20;50;00 - 00;21;17;04
Speaker 2
You know, when I look at what we compensate our team, you know, I know our compensation is is well in line with what people pay, so I shouldn't be afraid about that. And by the way, if our compensation was higher, I shouldn't be afraid about that either. When you look at productivity, when you look at all the individual granular things, if you want your people to run their their department like a business, like they, they own it, they should know it.

00;21;17;07 - 00;21;29;22
Speaker 2
And that that's what really got me thinking that. And then we did a few that were just had a that were local. And then I thought, you know what, I want to get him off site because then I want them talking because that's conversation.

00;21;29;27 - 00;21;31;00
Speaker 1
What happened? Yeah.

00;21;31;02 - 00;21;59;05
Speaker 2
The best conversations are always in the meeting. They're going to be by the pool or by at the restaurant. They're going to be walking around. We're brain we're Brant. You just were absolute ideas populate. And that really became the crux of let's get them out. Let's get them moving. I'll let. And to your point about the spouses, you know, if you don't want to thank the people who let your their family members work with you most of their day, and that's a mistake.

00;21;59;05 - 00;22;15;16
Speaker 2
We need to be grateful for the fact that there are families that they have. And so you want to celebrate that. So it really just started just as let them run the numbers and then slowly we just started to say, look, we want we need to make it better. We need to be better. How do we get better.

00;22;15;18 - 00;22;34;02
Speaker 2
And that again, it goes back to the numbers. If you don't look at your numbers, you don't understand your numbers. You understand where your numbers are taking you. It doesn't matter. You're just taking a you're just you're swatting at it with a, with a, with a fly swatter, hoping you're going to hit something and you should you need to have that strategic.

00;22;34;04 - 00;22;55;19
Speaker 2
These are the things we're going to look at. And that's really where it came from. And to my team they have just taken to it like a duck to water. You know, we ask about their Swot analysis. They actually think about their strengths, their weaknesses, their opportunities and threats. And that gets them thinking. And that part is is important.

00;22;55;23 - 00;23;14;08
Speaker 2
And then we asked this year for moonshot ideas. And you know, a lot of people give up some really big moonshot ideas. And that's them thinking about their future. And when you want to grow your business, you want people to be thinking about their future. And most of the most people I would help would want to keep their team with them.

00;23;14;11 - 00;23;35;07
Speaker 2
And we're very lucky. We've got a lot of people that have been with us for a long period of time, and that's because they've bought into what we're doing. You mentioned earlier about Pam and the respect that they have for her. And I think the key part is she has respect for them, and she remembers that it's about them.

00;23;35;09 - 00;23;53;11
Speaker 2
You know, if if all of your team hits their goals, you'll hit your goal. And that's what this type of meeting does. It really gets the team together. They're making their goals. They're they're they're buying into what they're doing. And then you just sit back and do whatever you need to do to help them achieve that goal.

00;23;53;13 - 00;24;17;07
Speaker 1
No. It was fascinating to watch. So ladies and gentlemen, what an incredible idea. I would encourage all of you, to think outside the box to think about how you could. And I know there's different aspects. But what an incredible time, Tim. I always ask, you know, because, again, you you went and because I see, you know, obviously we're partner together with our tool.

00;24;17;07 - 00;24;39;15
Speaker 1
I see, you know, our national average of conversion, is about the same, you know, and we're not going to get into our tool, but your close rates, are higher than the rest. So. So I know and I see even in our numbers that you're when you talk about process, when you talk about what's happening with the leads, I understand that you, you you dive in, let's talk about.

00;24;39;15 - 00;25;03;21
Speaker 1
And his name escapes me. But the superstar salesperson at Hyundai that you just promoted, the fact that you would do that with someone that may or may not have, you know, GSM or GM experience, and it's just taken off, tell a little bit of that story because you took a shot right. And he's just I mean, I heard and I saw, you know, what an incredible job, that he's done, I believe, at your Hyundai store.

00;25;03;21 - 00;25;10;24
Speaker 1
Maybe tell a little bit of that story. Just giving him room to just you know, get out of his way and allow him to do what he does is pretty incredible story.

00;25;10;26 - 00;25;40;25
Speaker 2
Well, you know, with this, the thought that you can't find a younger generation that wants to work, it's like it's always it's always interesting. But we were blessed with we've been blessed with quite a few. But Roman is really been it's been an added. He's taken it to another level. Roman at a very young age. When he started us, when he was he was only 20 when he started with us, just like any salesperson, you know, didn't want to, you know, wanted to sell the most cars he could with the least amount of time.

00;25;40;28 - 00;26;01;18
Speaker 2
And he got very good at, a few things. Number one, he got very good at making sure everyone put his name in at Google, working everybody. And then he got very good about doing social media, where everyone he sold a car to talked about their their experience. Well enough people were reading the Google reviews for the store.

00;26;01;19 - 00;26;28;13
Speaker 2
Enough people were seeing his social media posts. They just kept coming in and asking for. Yeah. So he went from selling 15 cars to 20 cars to 25 cars to 40 cars a month. And then, lo and behold, we we before Covid happened, we started really working with Dr. Tools and we bought into into that. And Roman took to that like a duck to water also.

00;26;28;16 - 00;26;52;15
Speaker 2
And he started getting his customers to do it over the, over the internet. So they would come in their car, purchased. Everything done and just come in and take delivery. Well, how much more time did that save him? How many? How many more customers could you talk to when he's not spending 2 or 3 or four hours at the store?

00;26;52;18 - 00;27;10;00
Speaker 2
And, you know, then we then they said, hey, look, let's make him a sales manager. And we did. And we had a we had a small problem and we needed help in a, in a GSM ish level. And we, we, we brought him in. We said, look, we know you're not ready for it, but we're just going to go ahead and go for it.

00;27;10;02 - 00;27;34;07
Speaker 2
And he's been able to take his dedication and his processes, and helping his team do that and and sharing that knowledge. Success leaves clues. You know, obviously teaching those clues helps. And he's developing a team around him that that believe in that same approach. Hey, we're going to get our good Google reviews. We're going to have them mention you by name.

00;27;34;10 - 00;27;54;14
Speaker 2
You've got people coming in, they're looking for you, you've got those posts. And then more importantly, making it easy for a customer to do business. And that's really where it comes to the point is he's got processes that say, hey, look, we're not afraid to tell you your trading. We're not afraid to tell you your interest rate. We're not afraid to say the price of the car.

00;27;54;16 - 00;28;11;20
Speaker 2
And because we're not afraid to tell you this, we're not afraid to ask you to buy the car. And he does that whether it's in front of him, whether it's at home or, you know, wherever they are and is ready to give them the tools necessary to do that now. And that's really what the business needs. You need to focus on this.

00;28;11;27 - 00;28;42;17
Speaker 1
Guys, guys, I'm telling you, I, I saw him, I saw the energy. But but listen, I'm going to hone in. And whether you use again this has nothing to do with a pitch. But here's this here's a statistic that is a fact, not a feeling. In 2018, 4% of the dealerships in the United States had a driver tool, and 2025 90% of the dealerships have a dealer tool, but the majority of dealers are using it like the Field of Dreams.

00;28;42;17 - 00;29;04;09
Speaker 1
If you build it, let me just flip it on my website and they become Roman is a beautiful example. No matter what you're using, this is no pitch. You know. By the way, you know how much time we've saved. I can't remember 118 minutes, but we've saved since 2018 to 2020 or to 2025, 15 minutes in the buying process, 15 minutes.

00;29;04;13 - 00;29;25;19
Speaker 1
The reason that Roman is dominating and doing what he's doing it because he is. Here's something that someone said on this podcast, and we'll land the plane. He's selling cars. The way people want to buy them, not the way we want to sell them. Success leaves clues. I've seen it happen. It happens time and time and time again.

00;29;26;02 - 00;29;51;11
Speaker 1
Tim, I love you, brother. Thank you so much for for giving us a few minutes. Just give a few thoughts. I mean, look, you in, you're an incredible operator. We've become buddies. Not just because we're partners and we we do business together because I think you're genuinely a great human. But to to that new GSM GM, you know, because you didn't take over a store that was netting $20 million, you know, and here's the, here's the keys, the Ferrari.

00;29;51;11 - 00;30;03;25
Speaker 1
You had to build your process. You had to, you know, what's 1 or 2 things, that you could pour into that younger or new to the chair, man or woman that's trying to make a difference in their dealership?

00;30;03;27 - 00;30;26;01
Speaker 2
Well, I mean, at any dealership, the first thing I would say is that you really need to get good at service. Service is what brings people back in. It's what keeps people there. When you look at, what it cost to get a new customer, versus retaining customer, it's a huge difference. Really? Get in with service, get to know your service numbers, get to know how those work.

00;30;26;11 - 00;30;49;04
Speaker 2
But then, you know, it goes back to process, process, process accountability. You know, have your processes, have them laid out. But then but you have to end it with accountability and accountability. I think a lot of people get scared on that word. They think that means you're the police officer. But you're not. You're just saying these are our non-negotiables.

00;30;49;10 - 00;31;07;07
Speaker 2
This is what we do and that's how we do it. And if you look at any in the sense the rules coming up, if you look at any good sports team, that's a championship level, they're going to tell you it's about the attitude and the accountability. Do your job. This is what we do. This is how we do it.

00;31;08;08 - 00;31;36;01
Speaker 2
I, we talked about this in our meeting. You know, there's a guy who left the Patriots after winning the MVP went to another team, and two months later, he wanted out because he's like, no one here has that championship thought process. No one's there. They're just here to do they're they're just here to collect a check. Well, that's because they're allowed to, you know, have that accountability, hold people accountable to it, put the good process is in and and let your team let your team win.

00;31;36;03 - 00;31;41;21
Speaker 2
Those would be my two bits of advice learned service, accountability and process.

00;31;41;23 - 00;31;55;29
Speaker 1
I love it brother. Thank you so much for taking. I know you're you're covered up as you were just coming back for nada to trying to keep our head above water. Cannot thank you enough, my dear friend. Temple Hank. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for stopping by. We say it, we said at the beginning of the show.

00;31;55;29 - 00;32;08;26
Speaker 1
We'll say it. Now, listen, problems come when you. We think we're the smartest cat in the room. Listen, I always say no one is smarter than everyone. Let's just continue to get better together. We'll see you next time.

00;32;09;13 - 00;32;16;10
Unknown
And I.

00;32;16;12 - 00;32;16;26
Unknown
You.