Dealers and GM’s; I love most of you guys, and I believe you are often being sold a bill of goods by lot leeches. It’s costing you time, money, and resources. It’s putting stress on your entire dealership and making you less efficient. As someone who has logged thousands of coaching hours on both the dealership and vendor side, I have become decent at crafting questions. In this article, I will share some must ask questions you should ask when interviewing these potential vendors. In addition, at the end a three step process for bringing in the right vendor partners. These powerful questions will help you determine if doing business with the potential vendor will lead to better results or brain damage. After reading this, you will be able identify the difference between a lot leech and a dealer vendor partner. This article is also designed to introduce you to some of the best, and brightest dealer vendor partners I have met in our industry! I’ll explain how each of these companies exemplifies the right answer to these questions.
I write this in the absolute sincerest way, when I tell you I am one lucky Irishman for having enjoyed almost two full decades on the showroom floor of a car dealership. The reason this history is important to this article, is because I have been both a tech loving front end user at the dealership level in every variable ops role, as well as a C-Suite executive of a seven-figure automotive technology company. As such, I came to understand both worlds in our amazing automotive industry. Now, as a coach that helps automotive dealers and vendors get a massive return on their technology investments with my unique approach to coaching, people and process development I call D.R.I.V.E.C3 ™ I’ve come to understand what makes vendors an asset instead of an expense to a dealership. I call these assets “vendor dealer partners”. Also, I know what makes a vendor an absolute waste of a dealer’s money. I’ve seen a quite a few end up as the expensive gym set in the basement collecting dust, a real expense. Simultaneously, the dealer has had little or no support and may even be locked into a long term contract on it. I call those vendors “lot leeches”! The questions below are going to help you separate the two and spend your money more wisely.
Dealers and General Managers, I believe you’re so fed up from dealing with lot leeches that you actually miss opportunities to learn from and partner with great vendor partners. The questions below should help you with this challenge by giving you a duplicatable process for teaming up with the right companies.
- Can you give me a solid example of when your company put its dealerships ahead of its own well-being?
A lot leech is always looking to feed off dealerships, it needs more dealers to latch onto. A lot leech will add dealers at all costs. Costs often being directly in relation to its current client satisfaction. A dealer vendor partner will look out for customer satisfaction, relationships and stability over adding new clients. DriveCentric is a shining example of this. After coaching my friends at DriveCentric for under a year and seeing some amazing results together, they asked me to be their Chief Business Development Officer. My job was simple, get the sales pipeline flowing again and maintain key accounts. Why? Because they had shut off the faucet, intentionally! When I asked the CEO David Fultz why they had purposefully stopped sales for almost six months, he told me… “When I noticed cracks in the foundation of our ability to provide the best customer service, I had to pause sales. Our loyal customers loving us, and being long-term partners, is more important than adding any new business and always will be.” A true dealer vendor partner will be able to cite examples of when they put their customers before themselves where a lot leech will look at you like a deer in the headlights when asked that question. Imagine the person who brought you into the dealership was conducting unsavory activities or was costing the dealership business or putting them at risk.
- Shedding light on it would most certainly get you fired, how would you handle it? Has anything like this happened to you in the past? May I call that dealer to hear more about it?
Once a lot leech has its hooks in you, they will do whatever it takes to remain low key and avoid rocking the boat. They believe attention is bad because the lower they fly under the radar, the less likely you are to notice that blip on your financial statement as an expense. On the contrary, a true dealer vendor partner will state the uncomfortable truth, even at the risk of you kicking them out. Why? Because they believe in candor, integrity, and that only by being honest with you about your shortcomings, can they help you grow and improve. Sean Welsh, the owner of Car Biz Done Better, one of the best examples of an extremely candid and direct dealer vendor partner I can cite, lives by this principle. When he consults with his dealers on their marketing spend, or other areas they invest, he takes this extremely direct approach. “Dealers don’t have time for B.S.,” he says, “They need to hear the truth, and sometimes it needs to smack them in the face so they can understand what their decisions are costing them. I’ve been fired for being honest, and I’m ok with that.” What a shining example of telling people how it is, and I agree with him. Dealers need candor, and smart ones want a vendor partner who will shed light on these blind spots and help prevent them from wasting money… or worse. Check out the Car Biz Done Better podcast to hear some of Sean’s amazing candor.
- Who developed your software, systems, processes and what was their track record for success on the showroom floor? Do you have any data, OEM or dealer reports which back that up?
It’s maddening to me to see tools, software or processes designed by people that haven’t lived out life on the showroom floor. NASA doesn’t hire blacksmiths to make space shuttle parts, do they? Lot leeches are often outsiders who pray on the auto space. They come into our world with the mentality that, the car business is broken, and they are going to fix it with their cool new toy that works in a completely different vertical. Therefore, I have the utmost respect for a company like iReconCars and its creator Mike Boyd. iReconCars is a software suite created by a used car guru, for other used car gurus. His software takes into account and addresses the back-end reconditioning and logistical nightmare that is getting your used cars retail ready. They speed up the pace which significantly lowers used car inventory holding costs. With great sales tools and a Carfax partnership; iReconCars, simultaneously helps your sales, BDC team, and website, build value in the reconditioning investment that you’ve made on the vehicle. These keen insights are only possible because Mike Boyd created the software for his used car lot, saw massive results, and took his creation to market. A true vendor dealer partner has the experience, credentials, and track record to back up that their tools work. They lived it out personally!
- Can you show us any real world examples where you go the extra mile for your dealers?
A lot leech is hard to reach, not because they are busy working, but because they are taking time off, enjoying those bankers’ hours! One of the things I respect and appreciate most about the great people on the showroom floor in the auto industry is our dedication to the business. Most everyone from the dealer principal down to the sales desk will come in early for meetings, stay late for customers, and forgo time off to help someone on their team reach a bonus at month end. A dealer vendor partner is no different! Two of my favorite people and companies when it comes to working every bit as hard as their dealers are Frank J Lopes #GetMoreFrank Automotive Marketing Rockstar and Jonathan Dawson of Sellchology Sales Training. What do these two fellas have in common? You can find them both working after hours, weekends, and on the last day of the month to do one thing. Bring value to their dealers! Frank J Lopes does this in his free sales Facebook live videos with phenomenal content. Jonathan Dawson does this by selling cars on the showroom floor at month end and in his Facebook Group. Working hard for their dealers, a sign of a true dealer vendor partner.
- When and where did you have an opportunity to close a deal, but chose to walk away instead because it wouldn’t have been a good fit for the dealership?
Lot leeches don’t care about a good fit. Lot leeches don’t care if you will use their tool or service after you pay for it. Lot leeches only aim to close the deal and collect a check. This is where I would be wrong if I didn’t mention my own company. While we at Car Motivators try to live by all the principals I have outlined in this article, this is one of our greatest strengths. I attribute this to a great deal of our company’s success. I learned early in my coaching career that you only take on clients that are a good fit for you and for them. I would rather do no business than bad business! This year, our closing ratio is at 71%. I am proud to say we walk away from over 20% of the “closed” deals before they even start. That’s right, we TURN DOWN BUSINESS! This is absolutely unheard of in the automotive vendor world. The reason is that if expectations cannot be met on both sides, working together will not be profitable or enjoyable for either party. The return on the investment from the dealership won’t make sense for them. Our reputation is the most important tool we have. This rule is the reason any of our dealers, sales managers, and employees we coach and develop will sing our praises! This is because we are selective about who we will work with, and we don’t go into a sales engagement with the objective of closing the deal. We go into the interaction with the goal of determining if we are a good fit for them or not. This is why almost ALL of our dealers will refer us to their friends, and why we have even beeen referred to dealers from projects we walked away from! A true vendor dealer partner will have clear expectations of their dealers, find out what yours are, and look for a good fit over a sale. They will voice concerns in advance and ask for yours. If those can’t be addressed they are willing to walk away from a sale. Check out https://carmotivators.com to learn more about our company.
- What is the real value, you bring to your users? How does that value bring value to the users’ customers?
The word value is thrown around like rice at a 90’s wedding, especially by lot leeches. While they will say the word, they won’t be able to explain it clearly. One thing I see a ton of value in is video marketing. This is one of the reasons I fell in love with DriveCentric CRM, it has integrated video. Maybe your dealership is in a long CRM contract with one of those lot leech DMS companies! Perhaps they won’t change CRM’s, or maybe your a lone salesperson that wants to add value to your customers’ buying experience with personalized video. If that’s the case, then Co-Video is for you. These guys have the most amazing video software that works for entire businesses, or individual users. The list of awesome features and value these guys bring is ridiculously large, but to name a few: Videos decoded to send in very high quality through any device at lightning fast speeds. They customize the background for your company and brand. They give you customizable links within the video to drive traffic to your website, digital calendar or anything else you want. They give you a screen recording and personal webcam tool to record yourself walking through proposals. The user gets to see where the viewer watches the video, how much of it they watch and what links they click…etc. Bottom line is the value? Make your customers easier to sell through extreme familiarity and give yourself a massive competitive advantage by Interacting with them virtually through video, prior to even meeting them with Co-Video. It’s a game changer and due to their extreme value and excellent customer service, they are the ideal dealer vendor partnership. (or individual partnership!)
- Are you in the car business or the people business? Why do you say that?
My biggest concern about selling cars as a green pea car salesperson was that I didn’t know much about cars… When I shared this with my sales manager he said, “We are not in the car business, we are in the people business.” For me, this was a huge relief! After rigorous training in psychology, marketing and influencing people in PSYOP for the military, this got me excited. A lot leech is trying to take people out of the equation altogether. A true automotive vendor partner is all about the people working at the dealership. T4 Marketing and EZ Referral Network is a shining example of a company that is all about the people. In fact, Paul Sansone Jr is not only a dealer principal who is setting records at Nissan with sales in his mawhat each other dorket, but he also is setting records regarding extremely low employee turnover. Paul invests in his people with coaching and training, and beyond that, has built an ingenious marketing platform that helps salespeople build a brand and market themselves on social media. Also, Paul gives his people an integrated app that puts salespeople’s customers on payroll where they are consistently paid for sending referrals to the salesperson at the dealership. Paul’s salespeople don’t often feel the ups and downs of the market, because he has developed them and given them tools that ensure sales stability regardless of anything else. His team is extremely motivated and knows they have a forever career at their dealership. If you want to check out one of his people’s websites, here is the website of Gavin Gatta, a 35+ car phenom’s who is under the T4 marketing umbrella. www.Gattagetacar.com you can also check out the Facebook page of Mark The Pie Guy by searching for “Mark The Pie Guy” on Facebook. Finding him is as easy as apple pie, just like buying a car from him is! To learn more about T4 Marketing and EZ Referral, you can reach out to Paul Sansone Jr, or his right-hand man Christian Serbes “The Pope of Positivity” Here on Linkedin.
- There are no perfect tools or systems, so what are three small complaints your customers often have, or have had in the past and what have you done to fix the issues? What is the fine print?
A lot leech doesn’t read you the fine print! You will find out about all the nuances, missed expectations, and downsides after the financial transaction has taken place with a lot leech. Recently Car Motivators connected with an amazing individual named Sodi Hundal from Canada. Sodi reached out because he believed that Car Motivators content, training, and coaching around dealership reward and recognition programs goes perfectly with his product, and we could add value to what each other do. Sodi’s company Odenza offers truly remarkable vacations as sales rewards for dealers. Instead of taking a huge hit on your fair online asking price, throw in a 7 day trip to Mexico, or a 5-day cruise at a much lower expense than taking hundreds off your price. Makes perfect sense right? Before I connected Sodi to one of my dealers he wanted to make sure I understand what each trip did and didn’t come with. He clarified which ones were all inclusive, included travel, or needed a $100 security deposit. This was a sign of a true vendor dealer partner! Someone who is willing to read you the fine print, before you kick off the financial relationship. Thank you Sodi and Odenza for selling with integrity!
- What was the last big innovation you made, how did it come about, and what did you aim to accomplish for your dealers in building it?
Technical stagnation, false promises, and development delays! If you’ve ever used automotive technology tools, its safe to say you’ve experienced situations where the software wasn’t upgraded for years. Been through times when the stuff just stops working altogether. Even worst, been promised something would be changed or fixed for you and it didn’t happen at all. Lot leeches work on their tool, processes, or systems until they are good enough to sell, then they stop. Why? Because any development is extremely freaking expensive. Through LinkedIn, I was fortunate enough to meet David Lemmon and his team over at AutoSweet digital marketing. Since I coach a couple dealer groups in their hometown, David and myself agreed to have Car Motivators put on a workshop for their team. Since spending a day with them, learning about their people and products just a few short months ago they have made many innovations to their tools. In fact, it’s clear the profit they turn they reinvest back into their tool. This makes what they do even better for their dealers. Their “sweet” of digital products geared around used car listings on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist has recently integrated with a video tool and made really cool upgrades to their dashboard. Another mention for Owen Moon of Fixed Ops Digital, who is consistently taking digital marketing to service drives with really cool unique innovations like apple wallet service coupons and dynamic search service websites and more! Keep up the innovations my friends. You are also what I would consider true vendor dealer partner!
- What hard data or case study do you have backed by a dealership where you have helped their bottom line, or impacted their results?
Many dealers I speak with complain about SEO marketing when it comes to lot leech frustration! Mostly because of the often vague and seldom concrete tangible evidence that their marketing even works on SEO even works when it comes to digital marketing efforts. Also, because of the lack of effort on the part of the marketing company to help their dealers measure success! To spend so much money and have no clue if its even working or not certainly is a frustration for any business. Enter Reunion Marketing, who takes all the mumbo-jumbo and jargon out of digital marketing, simplifies it, and turns it into metrics and data that dealers can leverage to create actionable changes in their marketing spend. In addition to that, for you to see what is actually improving based on marketing spend decisions is a valuable tool that is exclusive to their company. Self-assessing is often scary because you find out where your flaws are. However, they give you a team of people who work together to constantly improve your marketing and over time, with measurable improvements, you can actually see what your dollars are getting you. Keep up the amazing work and industry leading transparency for a marketing company Reunion Marketing. You guys are absolutely amazing! Also, please let Matthew know, (whom I was lucky enough to be booth neighbors with at DD25), that I hope his beard is growing back well!
- Do you practice what you preach? Show me!
Maybe it is my two+ years of combat leadership experience from the Army speaking here, but I believe in the principle that a leader should always lead by example. Lot leeches talk a big game but don’t execute on what it is they say you should do. On the flip side, a dealer vendor partner practices what they preach! They don’t ask you to do something they won’t do themselves. The Next Sale app by Jason Gerasomovic is an ingenious accountability tool, unlike anything I have seen. It helps businesses who aim to market their success and ensure client satisfaction is a top priority increase brand awareness. It gives you processes around all the little things that your employees can do that make a big difference in their results. At the end of the day, Jason applies these same techniques to how he markets his business and his personal brand. This has caused him to add a massive number of dealerships in a short amount of time. In addition to that, his comfort zone is the size of his home state of Florida! He’s been known to put on his purple Captain Next Sale superhero outfit to show his dealers and their employees what being different can do for your business. If you are interested in Next Sale, feel free to reach out to me and I can set you up with a demo at Sean@CarMotivators.com since we are a Next Sale app partner and President of Missouri.
The importance of partnering with the right companies is critical. As such, here is a three step process to doing just that! First, carve out regular time to meet with vendors. If you only do it when one smooth talking enough to get through to you approaches you… you will miss out on the less silver tongued but higher value dealer vendor partners! Second, in addition to a demo, interview them with the questions above. Treat them like you are hiring an employee that you would give access to all your assets to. Finally, conduct a deep reference background check of the vendor before signing on the dotted line. Adding tools, software, marketing or processes can be stressful for your team and disrupt business. You save yourself massive heartache if you ask the questions above, prior to moving forward! Sean Kelley #thecarbizcoach is CEO of Car Motivators https//carmotivators.com and exclusive Vlogger and Blogger for www.dealershipnews.com If you are interested in achieving great results through your people and you want your dealerships to receive a massive return on their technology investment you can contact Sean at Sean@CarMotivators.com