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Used inventory is up, sales are down, and the July-August lift never showed. So why are sales desks still passing on first offers? This week on LotTalk, Chris Keene, John Anderson, and Renaldo Leonard break down why the first deal is always the best deal, including a real dealer example where a 14-day-old unit drew an offer at 100% of market and the desk almost passed because "it's too new." The guys also share two referral horror stories from this week alone, including a delivered vehicle with four miles of gas in the tank, and what those failures cost a store far beyond one deal. Plus: the $55-a-day holding cost nobody talks about, why top operators sell 90% of inventory in the first 30 days, how to build a referral process that protects your reputation, and three must-read books for anyone in sales.
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What is LotTalk Podcast powered by Lotpop?
LotTalk powered by Lotpop, explores timely topics in the automotive industry with weekly updates and features guests from various sectors of the automotive world. Learn more at www.lottalkpodcast.com
Chris Keene (00:04)
Hey folks, we are back. You have tuned it back in. This is Lot Talk, powered by Lot Pop.
Renaldo Leonard (00:08)
Yeah.
Chris Keene (00:09)
I am Chris Keene, one of the co-hosts that missed the countdown again. And
Renaldo Leonard (00:13)
Yeah.
Chris Keene (00:13)
I am joined by the infamous, the all-famous, the all-knowing, Mr. Ronaldo Leonard and Mr. John Anderson. Gentlemen, good morning. How in the hell are we doing?
Renaldo Leonard (00:24)
man, doing fantastic.
John Anderson (00:25)
We're on, we're on, we're on.
Renaldo Leonard (00:31)
That throws me back, man.
Chris Keene (00:32)
Maybe that's just my way of keeping it light.
Renaldo Leonard (00:34)
Yeah, that throws me back to back in the day. when I was a young buck, I didn't know second from come here before I got an automotive. I was working for Fox Sports and I was working as a stage manager on the Bill Bates show. And it
Chris Keene (00:48)
Wow.
Renaldo Leonard (00:49)
was
Bill Bates, Dell Hansen. And we would go to this restaurant. Yeah, we'd go to this restaurant in gosh, what's that area called? Anyway, North Dallas. And so as a stage manager, I queue everybody in and out of segments. And so we would always start it out five, four, I think
We need to start doing that I guess 'cause man, you ain't paying attention to that counter.
Chris Keene (01:12)
Normally it's
right here in front of me and I didn't see the numbers. All right, that's my fault. That's my fault. All right. There we got John For
Renaldo Leonard (01:18)
You gotta get your specs on.
Chris Keene (01:20)
real. We got John laughing, so that's all that matters. We got the old curmudgeon laughing.
John Anderson (01:23)
Where's the hey
where's you need to put them where's those where's those Google rays at, man? You need to have them things on, brother. May Maybe you could maybe you could program with
Chris Keene (01:30)
Buddy, I'm telling you, it's normally right there.
Renaldo Leonard (01:32)
Yeah.
John Anderson (01:34)
that countdown clock right in the lenses, man. Five, four, three
Chris Keene (01:38)
I don't have that version,
Renaldo Leonard (01:39)
Right.
Chris Keene (01:40)
maybe, but it can talk to me. So my goodness.
Renaldo Leonard (01:43)
Maybe we need to string string him up with a buzzer.
Yeah. And and it just goes give you a little shock and then you're automatically in there. But to to your yeah. I was gonna say
Chris Keene (01:51)
Well let's let's do let's do this
instead. Let's go ahead.
Renaldo Leonard (01:55)
In you I in your defense, the conversation that we had right before going in. it it it turned up the level a little bit. Peppa.
Chris Keene (02:05)
it turned it up.
Renaldo Leonard (02:06)
Yeah, yeah. P Peppa is fired up, jacked up, and ready to rock and roll.
Chris Keene (02:12)
Well, let's get
fired up Jack Dev and let's
talk
John Anderson (02:14)
Here we go.
Chris Keene (02:14)
about it. Listeners, listeners and viewers, we told you last week we were gonna really start connecting the dots and talking about that first deal being the best deal. And what Pat Paul fired up about on that first deal being the best deal, man, we've had some folks drop the ball. And you know, one of the notes I wrote down, and this is really twofold, okay.
John Anderson (02:34)
You taking notes? You were taking
notes?
Renaldo Leonard (02:38)
yeah.
Chris Keene (02:37)
yeah, I can't
keep track of the counter, but I can take notes. Okay. So, but what one of the things I wrote down, okay? So, listeners and viewers, if you are a owner, dealer principal, part owner, executive, one of the things that's easy to do is we kind of lose that finger of the pulse.
What's the pulse? Well, the pulse is the economic engine of our business, which is sales. Okay. But equally the same, because I don't want to put it all on the ownership of a dealership. I don't want to put it all on the executives or the general manager. It works from the top down, but it also works from the bottom up. So
To the salespeople or BDC or sales managers or all points in between, entry level to ownership of a dealership, we should have our finger of the pulse from an ownership side, but we should also be overly communicative from the frontline troops that maybe some of the things that we're instituting.
From the top down, is it quite working? And maybe we should communicate that back up to the ownership as well. That's giving a finger on the pulse both sides to understand because when we get that opportunity at that first deal, which is always going to be your best deal, you can't drop the ball. Now, John, you've had two.
Very scary situations this week. Let's share with our viewers and listeners, pull the curtain back a little bit because it's in their wheelhouse to control.
Share with our viewers and listeners the unfortunate experiences that we unfortunately were in the middle of, or you were, as somebody referring business to a dealership. And John, if I remember correctly, aren't referrals supposed to be the best deals we get at a dealership?
John Anderson (04:31)
I mean I I I can only speak for myself when I was selling. I would I worked hard I worked hard to get right? 'Cause they were I mean,
Chris Keene (04:38)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (04:39)
right, that word of that word of mouth is I mean really if you I think it's even maybe I'm wrong, but I I don't I mean I just because we talked about it before we got on before we came on air, right? We talked about
Have times changed that much. I think with the avenues that are available nowadays with social media and everything, I think word of mouth is even more important than it was back when we were selling. I could be wrong. I mean it was it was extremely it's always been extremely important, but I think the avenues now that are available to broadcast greater, right? I think
negatively and positively i it's it it it's it's changed dramatically in in the time in that time, twenty years, last twenty years, right? So so yeah, you know, and and just I was thinking about what you're talking about, first deal is best deal, right? I was just thinking about this scenario, right? On these on these on one vehicle specifically, right? Because I know that it happened to be somewhat aged, right? It w
it'd be interesting to see where their deals passed up on prior to, right? That w that we refute that we thought we could squeeze more gross out of, so we passed up on deals only to get a customer and then this is what happens to the customer, right? So yeah, just you know, I I I always try to I always try to refer and and I still Chris and Ronaldo, I know you guys do too, right? When w
As long as we've been on the dealership side, right? I I have family and friends, they know what I do. And then my previous customers will reach out to me occasionally and and you know, say, Hey, I'm looking at a vehicle, and they'll ask me a question, right? they know I'm not selling anymore, but they'll ask Hey, what do you think I can buy this thing for?
Chris Keene (06:17)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (06:18)
you know, what you know would you
would you offer your trade I mean, would you offer your trade up front? They're just asking me. They read things online, obviously. They're reading and then when they reach out to me, they're saying, Hey, what would you do in this scenario? And I had I had two of those happen
Two of those come into a kind of a storm this week. and they were referrals to our dealer partners. and both of
Chris Keene (06:39)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (06:40)
were most both of them were mishandled terribly. And so it just got me thinking, if I was an owner, right, and not knowing that this stuff was going on at my store, I would be I'd be extremely disheartened and disappointed.
And trust me, guys, it has nothing to do with me. It's just, you know, these were two very good friends of mine. one of the gentlemen helps me out all the time on my property here in in Oklahoma. He's just he's just a he's just a phenomenal individual, gracious man. and he's always helping me. So when he reached out to me, it was my opportunity to go, man, I c here, I can finally I can help this guy out. He's
Chris Keene (07:14)
Yeah, well it comes a bag. Yeah.
John Anderson (07:15)
yeah, 'cause he's
You know, he helps me work my property and he's got all the tools. I don't, right? I I've I've got a chainsaw, but I mean he's got the he's you know so but he's got the
Chris Keene (07:25)
Scared.
John Anderson (07:26)
he's yeah, exactly. He's got the Kubota.
Renaldo Leonard (07:28)
Yeah.
John Anderson (07:28)
And so, you know, if I need a if I need to cut a tree and get it pushed down the right direction and stuff, I mean he's always Johnny on the spot. you know, we got a long we got about a quarter mile or more drive into our property and and
We had Grav and he's out there spreading. I mean, he's just out there always working and just helping all the time. And
Chris Keene (07:47)
Mm.
John Anderson (07:47)
so this was an opportunity for me to finally, you know, 'cause I'm always trying to do stuff for him and he won't let me. And so it's t opportunity for me to do that. And I tried and just didn't get any response back from from a dealer partner. To me or the or to Don. And it was just it was just disheartening. Just disheartening. And so in the other situation, you know
We got a c we got a vehicle sold. but it just after the sale, it was just so mishandled from the from the manager that it it just I was astounded by now, I read you guys some text this morning, you know, just just the stance that was taken towards you know, th this friend of mine that
has a huge family. He's a doctor. He's got a huge family and he needed a transportation and he traded in a he traded in a vehicle and he bought several states away and and had to get it transported in and, you know, he's used to doing business with a with a dealer in in DFW that rolls out the red carpet for him and he buys a lot of vehicles. And so, you know, i the the tone was set by the dealer he's done business with and now he's getting it compared to this dealer and
It was just bots.
Chris Keene (08:52)
Yeah.
John Anderson (08:53)
It was just bots so much that, you know, he was astounded. He was astounded by the treatment, right? And so, I and I just one anecdote. you know, he's he has seven children and and and and his wife and the kids were there to pick up the transport and when it showed up it had four miles left on it in the tank with he wasn't there, it was his wife and all their children.
So they left four miles of gas in the tank when she met the the driver to take delivery of the vehicle. So just
Chris Keene (09:24)
not to
mention, John, it's a hundred and eighty five thousand degrees outside.
John Anderson (09:28)
Right.
Right.
Chris Keene (09:29)
And regardless if it was the the wife and kids or the husband or anybody.
John Anderson (09:37)
Or an old guy like me.
Chris Keene (09:38)
Or an old cat like you. And was the guy expecting a full tank? Probably not, but he was damn sure expecting
John Anderson (09:44)
No.
Chris Keene (09:46)
at least enough to drive off
Renaldo Leonard (09:46)
No, wait, wait a minute. Why wait a minute.
Chris Keene (09:49)
in it.
Renaldo Leonard (09:49)
Yeah, he should expect a full tank again.
John Anderson (09:50)
I think well, in this case I think he was based
on who he'd done business with prior. So I think he was, yeah. Yeah.
Renaldo Leonard (09:55)
Right. You know,
Chris Keene (09:56)
Sure.
Renaldo Leonard (09:57)
and then you know, just kind of thinking back to my days when I was cutting my teeth in the business. We had a team of retired guys and they did all of our, you know, out of city deliveries. Anything that we had to truck, you know, actually, boy, well one of my old coaches was one of the guys, Dean Slayton. A and he had he had a one ton pickup truck that he owned and he would
He would truck vehicles down to the Metropolis Force all the time. But he here was the program. He'd load it up. And if it didn't have gas and he was in a hurry and he had to get on the road, when he got wherever he was going, he'd stop, pull it down, wash it, fill it with gas, and then make the delivery. So they they may have even gotten a better experience.
Than if they had bought from the dealership.
Chris Keene (10:43)
Ha ha ha.
Renaldo Leonard (10:44)
You know, because one, that was the standard. Two, with Coach Slayton, everything that he did was gonna be 110%. Or he wasn't gonna do it.
Chris Keene (10:53)
Sure.
Renaldo Leonard (10:54)
If I if I can't do it right, I'm not gonna do it. Right. And, you know, he he was defensive line coach, you know, meaner than yeah, you can imagine. But every person that he came in contact with when he was delivering a vehicle,
They just raved. Just raved about him. Yeah, he was nice. He was on time. It was actually 10 minutes early. The vehicle was spotless.
Chris Keene (11:12)
Which means he was on time.
Renaldo Leonard (11:14)
Yeah. And you know, my question earlier to you, John, was have times changed that much that every
John Anderson (11:19)
Yeah. Yeah.
Renaldo Leonard (11:22)
you know interaction, every interaction that
John Anderson (11:22)
I don't know. I don't know.
Renaldo Leonard (11:24)
you make has got to be, you know, it's a reflection of the entire organization, right?
John Anderson (11:30)
It it really is.
Renaldo Leonard (11:30)
A and it
John Anderson (11:31)
It really is. And hear me out.
Renaldo Leonard (11:32)
yeah and
John Anderson (11:33)
I don't want this to sound like John's wine. I it's not. It's I here. Th guys, majority of what we do with our dealer partners, right, is not this stuff, right? We're we're talking about throughput on inventory, right? We're looking at are there
Chris Keene (11:46)
Yeah.
John Anderson (11:47)
leads on inventory, how's the inventory moving compared to where do you know where you're selling vehicles compared to where you've got a priced at?
It's all that type of stuff, right? Helping them uncover that stuff. We don't talk we this is not something we get into with our dealer partners, but my goodness, is it connected? One hundred percent. And I and I and I'm just sitting here thinking, you know, what's your best chance to make a a final impression? Is your first impression, right? And so because that stays with somebody, right? While we've been on this call, I got three more texts from Joey. While we've been on this call, right?
I'm afraid I'm afraid to look at my phone, right? I and so
Renaldo Leonard (12:23)
Yeah.
John Anderson (12:24)
and and and and no offense towards Joey, right? But I don't blame him. I'm his connection. Right? I'm his connection. I connected him to
Chris Keene (12:31)
Yeah.
John Anderson (12:32)
right. I connected him to this dealer. And so it look, it I think this bears heavy weight because we can do everything right and it can be undone in in five minutes.
on this based on this kind of stuff right here.
Chris Keene (12:46)
Nine percent.
John Anderson (12:48)
Right?
Renaldo Leonard (12:47)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (12:48)
you know, up until the point that he was waiting on delivery of the vehicle, he was thrilled. I was getting those texts. Man, it was easy. I appreciate you getting involved. Right. I I was hesitant about buying a vehicle this far away. All those kinds of things were coming across. And then that all changed. and so
You know, the point of this is, because I don't want to ramble on that. I just the point to it is is guys, you you don't detach yourself as a I'm speaking mainly to owners and GMs. Man, you gotta inspect what you expect. You just have to. I get a trust
Chris Keene (13:22)
Yeah.
John Anderson (13:23)
level. I get it, right? and you gotta make sure that the processes you've laid out are locked tight, right? You you do you just have to.
That because the you can't it can't be deviated from one time. What is the old saying, right? somebody that's happy with their purchase will tell how many people? And then the person,
Chris Keene (13:39)
Well they'll tell five people.
John Anderson (13:40)
and the person that's unhappy with her will tell how many people? 500? Right.
Chris Keene (13:44)
Five hundred people.
Renaldo Leonard (13:44)
Everybody.
John Anderson (13:46)
Right. And I'm thinking about these two gentlemen right here, right? I'm thinking about these two gentlemen right.
Chris Keene (13:50)
And and John,
John, that was the old saying. If you look at it today, I mean, I'm looking at one of my social media channels right now, and if you take the general person at one of my social media channels alone, I don't know, it's got a total of shoot.
1900 friends and I don't know how many followers. I don't know how to look at that on the followers part of it, but just call it 2000 people that I could have influence on.
John Anderson (14:20)
Yeah, so
Chris Keene (14:20)
If I have
one bad experience, cut the number in half. That's a thousand people I could go let know.
John Anderson (14:26)
So let me give you a little let
Chris Keene (14:26)
Bad experience.
John Anderson (14:27)
me give you a little background on the one gentleman that the dealer never contacted me, Don, retired engineer, and what he does for me, he does for everybody. Everybody that I've met that knows him says the guy does everything in the world for me. Right? a lot of the people that they were employed under him and he trained them and they were loyal
Chris Keene (14:47)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (14:48)
to him for years because of the type of individual he was, right?
And so how many people do you think that guy knows? And I'm just gonna read you,
Chris Keene (14:54)
Good Jillian.
John Anderson (14:55)
I'm gonna read you one part of a text. this should be a good case study for your future training classes. You could label it dumb things dealers do that cost them sales. Thanks again for giving me guidance and confidence to seek the per seek out the purchase. So that's just part of his text, but think about how many people in the state that he's in.
are gonna hear about this particular dealer.
You know, e and so what was it worth it not to was it worth it not to reach out and at least acknowledge and say, Here, we're gonna try to help you any way we can, instead of just not well, they did reach out, they made a promise that they would they would make a call by nine o'clock the next morning and by one thirty the afternoon the following day he d he had still hadn't heard from right? So
Chris Keene (15:40)
Gold.
John Anderson (15:41)
And he bought the car, he bought the car elsewhere. It was just a he was ready to buy the car. He just wanted he wanted to know that he was getting a good deal. Just like we talk about this on this call all the time. What does a customer want? Why, why in the world so we coach on making attempted contacts every three days on in stock leads, right? Why are we coaching on that? Because what what we're what we're wanting the people, the team, either BDC or salespeople, to do for the customer.
Is to it reinforce and encourage them that they're making a good decision. That's why you're reaching out to them, right? They're they're look, they're doing all this research for 19 hours, right? How confusing can that be? And so our job is to reinforce them. Hey, you're you've chosen a great vehicle and here's why. And you're making a good decision, and here's why, right? That's why, that's why we're asking them to do that. And so
when that when that fails and and here let me add this in there does the automotive industry have a great reputation overall no now
Renaldo Leonard (16:41)
No.
John Anderson (16:42)
individual dealerships we have some clients of ours that are have phenomenal reputations but they've worked extremely hard at it and their processes are a lot tight and I can promise you that
The general manager owner know exactly what's going on at those stores. You know why I can promise that, fellas? Because they show up to our calls every week. They're invested in everything that's happening at that store.
Renaldo Leonard (17:04)
And engaged 'cause they
John Anderson (17:05)
Right.
Renaldo Leonard (17:06)
they get it.
John Anderson (17:07)
Right. And that's what it takes. And that's what it takes. So, you know, I love this conversation day. I didn't want I don't want to be this on this tangent and that, but to your point, Chris, on this first deal, best deal, right? All these things have to come into play when we're talking about that kind of stuff. There's
Renaldo Leonard (17:24)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (17:25)
too there's too many here, I just real quick, real quick, because I pulled it up. No, we we didn't
We didn't do it today because obvious reasons we got a lot that we want to get to, but inventory's up, sales this is used car. Inventories up, sales are down. The math every used car manager needs to know this month, right? The fact of the matter is there's a ton of inventory out there and more coming with the off lease inventory. And we didn't get the lift that we typically see in July and August. and so we're facing some headwinds.
And again, I'm not trying to be Mr. Negative. I'm trying to be Mr. Realistic. We're facing some headwinds going into the the this last quarter of the year where things are typically a little bit tougher because you don't have the amount of cut you don't have the breadth of customers in the market like you do in January, February, March, and June, July, August, right? And so these are some things that we're talking about that can make a huge difference for you going into these headwinds.
Because customers the customers that are in market are still shopping and they're shopping multiple dealers, not just you. If you think a customer's just coming in and they're going to one place, yeah. That's a that that might happen, but it's a one percent or two percenter, right? So
Chris Keene (18:31)
So both both you guys talked about some things as I hear that you know we really need to bring back to surface. And again, tying this all back to our first deal being the best deal. Well, with what you just talked about right there, John. You know, I was just writing this down. I added it to another note I had written down based upon something that, you know, Ronaldo, you were talking about and John. If our first deal is the best deal.
Which means the first opportunity we get is also the best deal.
And if customers are hard to come by, and if inventory is up but sales are down, which also means that shopper index is down.
We really need to revisit. And this should be something that salespeople, BDC people, sales managers, used car managers, new car managers, GSMs, GMs, executives, owners. We should review our processes on a very frequent basis. Hell, I here at Lop Pop.
We just had our C-suite meetings last week and we were revisiting one of our processes. And I missed something. John made a suggestion. We implemented it.
Because those things can happen, especially when we're in the middle of the forest and we can't see the trees for the forest.
And you got somebody 30,000 feet above you, like this podcast right here, shining down, going, Hey, you're in the middle of that fire right there. Don't go left, go right. Smoke's going that way, go the other way. So, this is where I would tell you, listeners and viewers: number one, go revisit your processes. How are we handling?
The first opportunity we get. And to be quite frank with you, when you talk about referrals against a natural lead or opportunity that comes into your dealership, that process should be handled differently. Go back and look at your referral process. How are you handling that? Because at the end of the day,
And this is something I've probably in the last week said more than I've said in a long time. Regardless of what vertical of sales you're in, whether it's automotive, real estate, medical sales, it doesn't matter. Our jobs in sales is to provide all the necessary information that the consumer needs to make an educated and logical buying decision.
Our jobs in sales is to provide all the necessary information needed to make an educated and logical buying decision. Regardless of what vertical you're in, it doesn't matter. That's the job in sales. But do you want to be a transactional salesperson?
Or do you want to be a salesperson that has a relationship to make a transaction a lifetime customer? There's two different ways to sell there. And I think we should revisit that very quickly because you're going to miss that opportunity on that first deal that is your best deal. Any thoughts on that, Ronaldo?
Renaldo Leonard (21:30)
Where to begin? Well, I mean, no. y you hit the nail right on the head and
The thing about it, and John, you mentioned earlier, these aren't the types of conversations that we really focus on when we have meetings with dealers. Because we make the assumption that, you know, this is one of those basics. This is foundational, fundamental ABC's one, two, threes.
Chris Keene (21:55)
Mm-hmm.
Renaldo Leonard (21:57)
But
We need instances like this to remind us how tight we have to be in the processes to avoid situations like this coming about. And so unfortunately, for those organizations that don't have those processes in place, maybe they don't have the right people in place, whatever the case may be, it's a reminder.
that we have to if we if we want to avoid having those weekly conversations where somebody is saying we just need to sell more we treat we treat every opportunity as if we're dealing with a family member or a a a loved one i
Well, maybe no, let me let me let me throw that away. Forget I said that 'cause some people pe treat their families like dirt. But I'm
Chris Keene (22:42)
Ha ha ha.
Renaldo Leonard (22:47)
yeah, going back to to going back to an old phrase, we want to treat everybody as if they're an honored guest in our home. We roll out the red carpet,
Chris Keene (22:56)
Yes.
Renaldo Leonard (22:57)
offer a drink, make sure they're comfortable. Everything we could possibly do to make sure that
It's an enjoyable experience for them. This is the same way. And it it you you mentioned that it doesn't matter what vertical you're in. Doesn't
Chris Keene (23:11)
Mm-hmm.
Renaldo Leonard (23:12)
care. I mean, it doesn't matter if you're selling firewood or vehicles or homes, right? We're not in the we're not in the car business. We're not a realtor. We're in the people business.
Chris Keene (23:22)
Thank you.
Renaldo Leonard (23:23)
And and we have to start treating each other.
You know, the way we'd want to be treated. And I promise you that if that sales manager, any of those sales managers, would have sat there and thought, how would I want to be on the other end of this experience? What would I like to hear? How would I like to have that experience or that process executed? And then proceed from there.
Chris Keene (23:44)
Mm-hmm.
Renaldo Leonard (23:44)
So just yeah, I mean, sometimes you gotta you gotta take two steps back before you can take a step
John Anderson (23:48)
Yeah, you've got to take two steps back.
Renaldo Leonard (23:50)
forward. That will make sure or that would put everybody in a position that they can take advantage of properly setting up that first opportunity and and then executing on it. It's it's just that simple. It it it it's just that people will always forget what you say.
But they'll never forget how you make feel.
Chris Keene (24:10)
Million percent.
Renaldo Leonard (24:12)
Yeah. And it all ties into, you know, just that experience. What what do we want to represent ourselves as? How do we want to represent our business? And that in turn will lead to more business. Those shining reviews and those shining referrals should say yeah, that was one of the second things that somebody told me when I got in the business. If you want to grow your business, first you gotta learn how to present a lease.
And the second, and this is how you're gonna build your business.
Build on referrals. Everybody that you sell, you get five referrals. And if you can convert two of those five, you'll grow year after year, incrementally.
Chris Keene (24:49)
Yes.
Renaldo Leonard (24:50)
And it will it will keep coming. And we've forgotten that somewhere along the way.
I when we we
Chris Keene (24:54)
More
Renaldo Leonard (24:55)
used to we we used to actually pay for a bird dog. So if you referred somebody that came in and bought a vehicle, we'd cut a check.
Right.
But you had to earn the right to get that referral. You know?
Chris Keene (25:04)
That that's
the key though, Naldo. I mean, and that's the biggest key, is you've you've gotta you've gotta earn the right. I mean,
Renaldo Leonard (25:11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Keene (25:12)
you you've got to earn the right to it. And then when you get that actual referral, I mean it's you can't drop the ball. Because think about this for a minute. Think about with these two situations that that John shared with us. Not only did you lose, not only did you lose that.
person that was referred to you. How about the refer er?
Renaldo Leonard (25:32)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Chris Keene (25:34)
Now you've lost
them.
Renaldo Leonard (25:35)
Yeah. Because John John
Chris Keene (25:36)
And
Renaldo Leonard (25:36)
has put his he put his neck out there on the line. It's it's not only that dealership, it's John Anderson and such and such motors, right?
Chris Keene (25:46)
Yes.
Renaldo Leonard (25:47)
And you said his name the gentleman that lives there close on the property with you, right? Is he I don't know, it just depends on how you treat him on a daily basis. He may next time around ask you, you know what you think, right?
But how how eager are you gonna be next time around to to jump in and say, Hey yeah, I'll I'll be more than glad to to hook you up like a tow truck with a dealer partner of mine? You don't think twice about it, right?
John Anderson (26:12)
Yeah, I yeah, I think you know, to your point to your point, Ronaldo, I think that is some of the damage, right? Is that some of the damage is the fact that, you know,
Man, you go back to my early days, mm I I was not I was
Chris Keene (26:25)
That was a while back, John.
John Anderson (26:27)
My n I know, and my name and and you know, my name had a lot of other things attached to it that I'm not that proud of, right? And so, you know, as I found my faith and and I've tried to change that, I worked very hard at that, right? Some people that have no still know me, they still attach that to me, but you know, but I've worked very hard and so yeah, you know
when you insert yourself into a situation trying to help and this is what happens, yeah, it it's it's painful because
you think of, well crap, now I'm in the middle of this. Do I even want to do this again? Right. I cause I w I listen, there's a book out there called Hundred and Fifty Thousand of Your Closest Friends, right? And it what it's what it's about is being a connector, right? The more you
Chris Keene (27:11)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (27:12)
the more you're willing to pour yourself out there, it kind of you know, it's not a biblical book, but it's kind of biblical, right? The the more you're willing to
Be the Bible says be strong and courageous. So the more you're willing to be strong and courageous and put yourself out there, and and and you connect people, then you know, you create this you create this connection, this amazing connection, right?
Chris Keene (27:34)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (27:35)
I had some outbody reach out to me this week about you know, because of my previous time with a certain NFL franchise, one of their friends is try the the job
posting popped up for that franchise and so this gentleman reached out to me, hey you can you you know anybody that you can get this resume in front of, you know, so it that type of stuff, right? It's it's those connections, right? And so
Chris Keene (27:58)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (27:59)
and so you know relating it back to what we're talking about, and what you guys were talking about, right? You know, s if there's any salespeople or or that are that are watching or listen to this man, don't don't
Don't think for a second that you're not, you know, you're you're in a you're in the most amazing position in the world because you're operating a business within a business and you don't have to spend the money that typical
Chris Keene (28:23)
No.
John Anderson (28:24)
typical small business owners have to spend, right? You don't have to put that you don't have to put that neck out there on the line. You're just managing the resources that you're allowed to manage. And if you operate that like a small business, my goodness.
the the the the opportunities that can flow out of that. And I'm not just talking about opportunities within the car business, right? Who knows? That's the night that's the great thing about walking forward in life. Who know and putting yourself out there. Who knows who you're going to come in contact with? I didn't start out in the car business, but because I put myself out there, I was offered an opportunity because I was doing something else and they they were so happy with what I was doing. They're like, hey man,
You need to come check this out, right? You just never know. You just never know what's around the next corner. And so it's so important for you to understand that you're you're operating a business within a business, and you have to make sure that you're operating that business like an owner. You know, if if
Chris Keene (29:22)
Yes, yes.
Renaldo Leonard (29:22)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (29:26)
if if if if me is if if I'm a salesperson and I've
I feel like something's not happening copacetic with what's going on with the vehicle for my customer. instead of sitting back and just allowing that to happen, I got to step up and go, hey, wait a minute, time out. Right?
Renaldo Leonard (29:42)
Yeah.
John Anderson (29:42)
That's not how we take care of customers, right? I gotta be that, I gotta be strong enough to step in there. I I can't tell you how many times I had my head based in by my service manager at my first dealership because I'd step in there and he got so furious with me.
we almost come to blows a few times. He's like, who are you coming at? I go it's my customer. That's who I am. It's my customer.
Chris Keene (30:00)
Ha ha ha.
Renaldo Leonard (30:01)
Right. Yeah.
John Anderson (30:03)
Right. And so, you know, this is this is important stuff, man. And and it and it and it all relates to it all relates back to what we're all looking for is to look, the great Zig Ziggler.
Right? If you help
Renaldo Leonard (30:17)
Yeah, sure.
John Anderson (30:18)
enough people get what they want, you'll absolutely get what you want. Right?
And so,
Chris Keene (30:22)
The year.
John Anderson (30:23)
right. And so, yes, this is a deviation from what we typically do with our company, but it c it is directly connected. It's directly connected. Right. How many times have we set on a call and we look at a unit that's aging in inventory? It's getting blown up online VDP wise.
And you hear the dealer, you hear the manager make a statement like this Man, I don't understand this vehicle's still in stock.
Well,
Renaldo Leonard (30:48)
Every day.
John Anderson (30:49)
Chris, back back to the point of this call. Your first deal is your best deal. How many deals do we pass up on in this vehicle? How many opportunities that we have that we mishandled on this vehicle? And and now you're sitting here asking, I don't understand why this thing's still in stock. Right?
Chris Keene (31:03)
Well, into that point, John. So, I mean, let's look at some let's look at some practicality. You know, some things that we overlook in our business a lot. And I I'll tell you, there's been some pretty healthy disconnect, and I've unpacked a lot of this in some of the calls and consulting that I've done with dealers. over the probably last two weeks, I've seen this, and this is why this has been really heavy on my mind.
Because there's been some disconnect between ownership and leadership, you know, upper management within the dealership, and then the guys on the front line that are responsible and have the power to say yes or no on a deal. Okay.
And this is why we talk about first deals, the best deal. Now, for the viewers and listeners, or excuse me, for the listeners, please go to our YouTube page and you can see the video of this. But for those that are viewing right now, and even on Apple now, I mean you you can watch the video of it. But
John Anderson (32:02)
That's awesome.
Chris Keene (32:03)
yeah, thank you, Brett, for that. That was fantastic. he did a lot of work to make that happen for us.
But the thing that I've seen a big disconnect on. So, general managers, make sure we've got the right message in place for the guys that we've got responsible for saying yes or no on some of these deals. And I'm gonna share my screen. This is the reason why I was telling you listeners, you know, flip the video. You know, go watch the video of this.
Because you'll be able to see what I'm showing. And let me share my screen here. But for the guys listening or watching right now, you'll be able to see this crystal clear. Okay.
I want to share my screen right there. Okay. So here's what I'm sharing. Now, this is a dealership that is doing a really good job.
This dealer has 76% of their inventory sold over the last two weeks. I mean, they're obviously gonna sell twenty-six, I mean, twenty-six percent more of their inventory every two weeks. The they're doing they're having a hard time stocking inventory. Okay.
And if you just glanced at this and you looked at their overall business, you would think, okay, yeah, make a couple little cleanup places here. And you really could start turning on the juice even more. But if a couple things, if you back up 10, 15 minutes in this call, not even 10, 15 minutes, but John was just sharing with us some data about the market, you know, the inventory levels being high.
But the sale's not coming. And we've been talking about the shopper index is down. Does that mean it's the end of the world? No. That means we just have to be more methodical in the way that we work. And when volume is down, organically we turn right into gross profit.
So with this dealer here, and the reason why we're talking about that first deal being the best deal, take this a step further. If we know all of these other roadblocks are out there, when we get opportunities, when we get opportunities on inventory.
One of the easiest things to do, and what I'm showing here is this dealer's inventory that is zero to fifteen days old inventory.
And from a sales manager's vantage point, we may be looking at a 14-day old rig.
And they've got this thing advertised for thirty four grand.
And maybe a customer comes in and says, man, I ain't gonna give you 34, but I'll give you 33. We pass it more times than not because we're chasing a PRU number and we look at it and go, this vehicle's only 14 days old.
Pass. Ain't gonna do that.
But wait a minute. If you look deeper into your business and you can identify that you have somebody raising their hand on this vehicle at a hundred and three percent of the market.
And traditionally, you've been selling in forty seven days at ninety six percent.
And you got somebody raising their hand showing interest while it's at 103, but maybe they're offering you 100%.
At thirty three grand. Does the fourteen days really matter now?
No, it doesn't.
This is why we are talking about that first deal being the best deal. If you aren't selling there
Then why are you trying to get something that doesn't exist? Why are you passing on deals because it's 14 days old? It needs to draw more money. Okay, on what pretense?
What justification?
John Rinaldo, feedback?
Renaldo Leonard (37:11)
I think what drives that is two things. First of all, they're chasing that fictitious gross, right? I'm gonna get and as long as I sell it before w yeah, the the predictor number
Chris Keene (37:23)
Or or
or our sixty-day hard turn as long as I sell it before sixty days.
Renaldo Leonard (37:28)
Right, right. But that predictor number is how they've historically done it. And so if what was it, thirty-four days, forty-three days?
Chris Keene (37:36)
But forty two days.
Renaldo Leonard (37:37)
forty-two days is what we've historically done with that particular unit, then you know, I'm pretty sure that but in the next thirty days, I'm gonna get a better offer. Right?
Chris Keene (37:48)
Yeah.
Renaldo Leonard (37:49)
It yeah, I mean it
Chris Keene (37:51)
But but we're not allowed to how are you gonna get a better offer when shopper index is down?
Renaldo Leonard (37:56)
I get it, dude. I get I get it. Don't don't come preaching in me.
Chris Keene (37:59)
Yeah.
Renaldo Leonard (38:00)
I'm singing I'm singing from the same emo you are. But
Chris Keene (38:03)
No, but you know, just kind of role play it here. I mean, that you
know, that's that's what we have to think about.
Renaldo Leonard (38:08)
Right. Well it but it it you know it's almost like okay so I was a lot of stories that I tell are meant to accentuate the point. But I was I was playing golf with Miles the other day and he says if you're gonna execute on this your next shot there's two different boxes you gotta operate out of.
You got the think box, and then you got the play box. So everything that you want to think about, how you're going to execute this shot, when you step into the play box, you forget about all of that. Right? So you set your course, you got your strategy in place, clear your mind, take a deep breath, and then you go and execute. So to correlate that to what we're looking at.
You're gonna put that vehicle out there and bring it to the market, right? You got one lead on it. You only need one lead on a vehicle to sell it, right? And if
Chris Keene (38:55)
Uh-huh.
Renaldo Leonard (38:56)
somebody makes you an offer on a vehicle that you have brought to the market above the rim, and this is why we we may bring it to the market above the rim, we've got a s a strategy on how to get that vehicle to price-to-market objective where you historically where you're selling at.
If some and that first offer is still above where you sell, right? They make that offer, you're still selling it at a hundred percent, where ninety-seven percent, if I remember correctly, is where you sell
Chris Keene (39:23)
Yeah, it was ninety seven.
Renaldo Leonard (39:25)
it.
Like you said, the number of days it's been in inventory is irrelevant.
The going back to the the basic fundamentals, or at least when I started in the business, you were supposed to buy low, sell high, and if somebody makes an offer on a vehicle.
Hell, if I was looking at it correct, they got five of them, six of them. Why wouldn't you show that vehicle at that point? Take the deal, move on.
And
and I think we forget the big picture, right? The other revenue streams inside of the dealership that that vehicle has also generated profit on. And we forget about the expense of keeping the cost of doing business day to day. Was it fifty-five dollars a day? That
Chris Keene (40:02)
Yes.
Renaldo Leonard (40:02)
number that number is never, never really front of mind. But I yeah, I wouldn't I I would be right there by their side.
I don't know why this vehicle is still in inventory. I don't know why it's still here. And and then I'd also say, I don't know why you didn't sell it when you could have.
Chris Keene (40:17)
Ha ha ha
Renaldo Leonard (40:18)
You know.
Chris Keene (40:19)
John, what's your thought? Are you sat the desk like all of us?
John Anderson (40:21)
I'm probably the
wrong guy to ask 'cause I I'm you know, I kinda take the mic we got one of our best operators, in our in our entire dealer group, if you look at the way they operate.
Chris Keene (40:31)
they work out the first fifteen days.
John Anderson (40:33)
They take their
sh they take their shot in the first fifteen days, but brother, when it hits day sixteen, they ain't play they don't play any games, man. And if they get a de if they get a deal, they're taking deals, right? And that's why they're stocking you know, that's why they're that's why they're selling ninety percent of their inventory out of the first first thirty, right? And they really their best shot to make money is in the first fifteen days 'cause they don't play any games. And that and and, you know I I
I always felt like that's kinda how I operated, right? When I was at a dealership. Right. I I you know, I remember, you know, when I was GM I a lot of times on the weekend I would I would go out and park my butt right next to the sales desk, man. You know, I'd walk out there and pull the chair out and make a big clap and like, All right, man, we're doing business and and you know, the salespeople got deals during the day, they were
they were lining they a lot of the lineup would be in front of me and sales managers were like what and and I you
Renaldo Leonard (41:27)
Yeah.
John Anderson (41:27)
know I it was just look, it was the confidence that
Chris Keene (41:30)
You go make meals.
John Anderson (41:31)
it was confidence that I was gonna make a deal, right? Now now, did did I step off in it quite a bit 'cause I was the GM? Yeah, I did. I you know, I I've I'm I'm there to put deals together, right? So, you know, but I think y it's like I used to tell my sales managers, right,
When you get a salesperson and I've stood in dealerships and y you know, I've been a I've been a customer at a dealership and while I'm waiting on service, I'm walking around and and I've stood in dealerships when when I've gone in train and I'm listening, right? And when you get a salesperson approaching the desk and you say anything other than, Hey, what you got? Let's go, man, you're doing yourself a huge disservice, right? 'Cause you think about it, guys.
If you're in Texas, man, that salesperson may have been on that lot with that customer for an hour and a half in a thousand degree heat, right? Or if you're in Indiana, it may be at the it may be in January and you just out there in negative 30 degree and two feet of freaking snow. And then you walk up the you you
Chris Keene (42:28)
Yeah, trudge it through.
John Anderson (42:30)
get all fired up as a salesperson. You're walking up to the desk and the first thing you hear is you ain't got nothing. Well, okay. Well, man, that makes me excited to come back the next time, right? And so
Renaldo Leonard (42:40)
Yeah.
John Anderson (42:42)
Right. So you know, Chris to your point, right? I'm I'm unless it's just ridiculous and then I'm gonna insert myself in there as a manager, I ain't passing on any deal, man. What tell me one tell me a vehicle tell me a vehicle right now that you can't go out and find a replacement of.
Renaldo Leonard (42:57)
Yeah.
Chris Keene (42:58)
John, you've heard me say that a million times. I could replace a car all day long, but I cannot replace a car.
John Anderson (43:03)
Can't replace a customer,
can ya?
Chris Keene (43:05)
And let me
Renaldo Leonard (43:05)
Mm.
Chris Keene (43:05)
tell you, I don't care if it's a 10-year-old vehicle with 5,000 miles per year on it. No matter what, it is still a depreciating asset. A customer is retained value over and over and
John Anderson (43:18)
One hundred percent.
Chris Keene (43:19)
over.
John Anderson (43:21)
And let's circle back
to how this conversation started. A customer treated properly is huge retrain valu retain value because they're gonna be loyal. They're gonna be loyal. Right. I and I'm let me let me say this.
Chris Keene (43:32)
Yep. The to your service department.
John Anderson (43:34)
The one example that I brought up earlier where the gentleman the gentleman was in Texas buying a vehicle in Florida. Don't think for a second he didn't have some influence in Florida.
'Cause I know some things and so there's there's some so just because, you know, I know it's easy to say, well, that we're not gonna get we're not gonna hear anything back, that that thing went to Texas. That's not you don't ever think that. Don't ever think that in the back of your mind, right? There's influence there, right? Especially in today's environment with social media and all those things and how look, how connected are we as a as a society now? I mean, we're connected, man, and so
So yeah, this stuff is just you know, I'm I'm
Chris Keene (44:13)
Well, how
about this one, John? How about the guy from Texas that buys a car in New York or Georgia or Florida or from a million miles away? And he puts a review out there that says, I live in fricking Kansas and bought a vehicle in Alabama, and they did a wonderful job taking care of me remote. They delivered it to me. They did everything right. Everything was great. And they put that review out there. Now think about the people in Alabama.
That are sitting there going, holy shit, if they took care of this guy all the way in freaking Nebraska,
John Anderson (44:45)
Right. Right.
Chris Keene (44:48)
how are they gonna take care of me here? Right? You know? So that they have
Renaldo Leonard (44:48)
Yankee Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
John Anderson (44:51)
Impactful. Extremely impactful.
Chris Keene (44:56)
you're right. That guy's not gonna come back to your service department, but John, he's gonna have influence at your dealership
John Anderson (45:02)
One hundred percent.
Chris Keene (45:03)
if you do everything right.
He is going to give you raving reviews, especially if you send him a link and say, hey, do me a favor.
Everything you shared about how how wonderful this transaction was, will you click this link and just give me a great review? And when you got somebody that's that happy with you, what do you think they're gonna do? They're gonna give you a great review.
Renaldo Leonard (45:25)
I think we'll do
John Anderson (45:25)
One hundred percent.
Chris Keene (45:26)
And when the when the local people see that, there's his influence.
John Anderson (45:31)
You know what the first thing is I go to when I'm looking at potentially doing business with somebody?
Renaldo Leonard (45:35)
Reviews.
Chris Keene (45:36)
Reviews.
Renaldo Leonard (45:36)
I picked that up from you. It was something I never did. The only
John Anderson (45:39)
I read
I read t I read too. I wanna make sure that they're legit. You know, I'm reading You know, I'm looking
Renaldo Leonard (45:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Keene (45:45)
You know which ones
I like to read? I like to read the negative reviews and see how the
John Anderson (45:49)
I do too.
Chris Keene (45:49)
business how the business owner either rectified the situation or buried their head in the sand.
John Anderson (45:54)
You know what I
look for? Are they responding to all of Are they are they responding to those negative reviews, right? Did they are they just blowing it off or they responded? Yeah, I do the same thing. I do and here, I I tr I travel
Chris Keene (46:03)
That's that's exactly what I'm I'm looking for.
John Anderson (46:05)
a lot. So I look at hotels and I look at the reviews on hotels and it's a lot of times the negative reviews I would I'll look at and they're it's like, Okay, that's not gonna keep me from they didn't that they didn't serve bacon at breakfast, right? I I don't that's not gonna keep me
Renaldo Leonard (46:18)
Yeah.
John Anderson (46:19)
from staying at that hotel, right? So you're right,
Renaldo Leonard (46:21)
Right. Yep.
John Anderson (46:22)
exactly. So
Renaldo Leonard (46:23)
Yeah.
John Anderson (46:23)
You're
Renaldo Leonard (46:24)
Yeah. And I like to I like to read those negative reviews and you know, a lot of times you can identify those people that didn't attend that AP class, AP common sense. And so you're like, Well, okay, you know, that's that's on the person that's writing a review as opposed to the product or the person that they're reviewed, you know. And yeah, I mean I started doing that about a year ago. And there's some
There's some things that I bought I I'll bypass just from reading the reviews. And it was something that I never did because I always assumed up until that point, it was when I was selling cars, I would dangle that carrot and I'd say, if you do me a favor, I need two things from you. If you'll give me all tens on the survey, and then if you'll also go to our website and leave a Google review.
Come and see me, I'll take care of your first oil change.
So I'm assuming everybody else is out there, you know, she's kind of buttering the toast really nice to make sure you get some nice words said about you. But I mean, now because I've I've followed your example and dialed into it and started reading those reviews. And yeah, I mean it it will tell you who somebody is. Used to be,
Chris Keene (47:32)
Yep.
Renaldo Leonard (47:32)
yeah, go good going back on a on a biblical note.
If you go to somebody's checkbook, it'll tell you who they are. Right?
John Anderson (47:38)
One hundred percent.
Renaldo Leonard (47:40)
But I've lear I've come to learn that yeah, if you read those reviews, it'll it'll tell you. It'll tell you who they are and what they do. So
John Anderson (47:47)
Hey, I I I know we're coming up on it, Chris. So I wanna I wanna make sure I get this in. because we've talked
Chris Keene (47:52)
Throw it out there.
John Anderson (47:53)
we've talked about this today, right? I wanna recommend some books because I think there's some been some books
Chris Keene (47:59)
Yeah.
John Anderson (47:59)
that have been fantastic in my career. and so the the first one would be The Go Giver, that I would recommend strongly. It's an easy read. It's not that big of a book.
The next one would be Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Gadera. And then the third one would be Raving Fans. Those three books. If you want to if you want to improve in an area that we've been kind of hitting on today, those are three instrumental books that that can help you tremendously. let me put it this way.
if you'll take the time to read them, you're gonna you're gonna improve. I can confidently say you're gonna improve. Just like I tell dealers if you'll if you'll listen to our coaching and you and you'll put you'll implement the strategies that we coach on, I I I can promise you that you'll improve because I see it happen. So, you know, again, just to reiterate, man, you guys are operating your own book of business.
And all these things we've talked about are are a a way to grow that book. And for dealer operators, please, please, please inspect what you expect. Inspect what you expect.
Chris Keene (49:03)
Mm-hmm.
John Anderson (49:04)
And I would hope that the two experiences that I had this week that those dealer those those dealers inspect mu expect much more than what what was delivered.
Chris Keene (49:14)
There you have it. So as a quick recap.
We're talking about the first deal being the best deal. Stop looking at the age of the inventory. Stop looking at your PRU because your gross was already dictated at the acquisition.
So look deeper into how do we transact?
Not what the market day supply is, not what your ranking or placement is against the rest of the market. Because to let you guys know you're measuring that against an imperfect market, that competitive set, I'm telling you, is an imperfect set.
Get back in and go revisit your processes. Top down, bottom up. Those that are deemed to execute the process, if it's not seamless, if it has no fluidity to it, you need to open your mouth back to the ownership, but
Ownership, general managers, executives, upper management, y'all need to have thick enough skin to listen. Because if these guys are out there expected to execute a process.
And they're the ones doing it every day. And they're explaining to you that there are too many bumps in it. Your job is to remove the obstacles to take the bumps away. You gotta listen to them.
And then lastly, second to last, let's not forget what our job is. It is to provide that necessary information to our consumer public so they can make an educated and logical buying decision. Stop being so transactional.
Start listening to understand. Don't listen to respond. And the last thing, I want to echo it because, John, that is just some great advice. The three books John just spoke about: Go Giver, Unreasonable Hospitality, and Raving Fans. Yeah. I would highly recommend the same thing.
Take that first deal. Know it is your best deal. Obviously, there's an asterisk. You get some dum-dum offering you five grand back of what you owned it for. You ain't that far off the mark. Okay. So take your most reasonable best first deal, but don't make that decision on the deal because you think it should do more. Make that decision based upon the facts.
Work your facts.
Do it based upon the factual data.
On behalf of Mr. Anderson, Mr. Leonard, our entire Lot Pop family, we invite you to come join us. We invite you to push back on us. We invite you to be inquisitive with us. Go to Lotttalk Podcast.com and that invite, when you go to that website, makes it easy to connect with us.
But until then, we thank you for tuning in. We look forward to catching up with you again next week. And as always, we wish you nothing but success. that's right. That's right. We may have a special guest.
John Anderson (51:58)
We might have a visitor next week. We might have a visitor next week. We might have a special guest. We might have. We might have. I but yeah, we might have a special guest. So definitely tune definitely tune in. Yeah.
Chris Keene (52:10)
Hmm. That's right. I forgot about that. So make sure you tune in. But until then, as we always, always
From the depths of our hearts. We wish you nothing but the most success possible. Thank
John Anderson (52:21)
Massive.
Chris Keene (52:22)
you for tuning in. We'll catch you next week. We out.