S1E7: Car Dealers, Turnover, Training, And Recruiting Automotive BDC

Vin Micciche addresses the persistent challenge of turnover in dealership BDCs. Vin shares Strolid’s retention strategies, including capped 40-hour workweeks, clear career pathways, and a “hire nice people, then train” philosophy. He critiques traditional sales-driven cultures that burn out staff and highlights how structured training and empathetic leadership reduce attrition. Valuable insight: “Turnover isn’t inevitable; it’s a symptom of misaligned priorities between dealer demands and employee wellbeing.” Learn more about how Strolid helps dealerships Never Miss opportunities at https://www.strolid.com.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to BDC Turnover  
01:23 - Core BDC Retention Principles  
06:20 - 40-Hour Workweek Strategy  
09:12 - "Hire Nice People" Philosophy  
13:35 - Structured Training Systems  
22:47 - Remote Work Revolution  
31:15 - Alabama Case Study  
42:00 - Career Pathway Success  
51:20 - Cost of Turnover Analysis  
58:30 - Future of BDC Staffing  
1:06:45 - Key Takeaways & Solutions  

Creators and Guests

Host

Michael Donovan

Michael Donovan is the Vice President of Marketing at Business Development Center (BDC) Strolid, Inc., where he leverages two decades of automotive industry expertise to drive growth through innovative digital marketing strategies and AI technology integration.

Guest

Vin Micciche

CEO Vin Micciche founded Business Development Center (BDC) Strolid, Inc. in 2014 after accumulating more than 25 years of industry experience, including leadership roles at Group 1 Automotive, where his team secured the #1 position in the Wards eDealer 100 rankings for 2011.

What is Dealer Insights Podcast?

Interviews with Strolid CEO and Founder Vin Micciche, BDC industry icon and veteran

good afternoon or good evening and
thanks for tuning in to the dealer
where we go under the hood Bumper to
Bumper in just about everywhere in
between discussing topics important to
dealers of all types and sizes your time
is valuable so thanks for riding along
for this episode of
welcome back to dealer insights with
Vinnie and Sean it's got a great episode
today
um you know we're always talking about
BDC and we're talking about the sales
process inside the dealership and we've
ventured into kind of cracking the seal
a little bit on AI recently we're going
to come back to that in some future
episodes but today for the audience uh
we are really kind of
we're we're really looking at the
importance of your employees and we're
going to talk a lot about turnover and
of course you think you know but there's
been some changes in the last few years
we've got some research points and
topics but I want to kind of frame this
episode for everybody tuning in like
think about the expectations of the car
buyer right the car buyer still has
expectations no matter what's happening
with our economy or inflation or fuel
costs if you're in the market to buy a
car you still have expectations and if
you're the dealer you have to to be
mindful of that right we live in a world
that's complete instant gratification
and there's a lot of other industries
that make it a challenge even for car
dealers to keep up with it imagine if
you need food or medicine last night our
daughter who is on her own
lives on her own over in Dallas she
needed like some medicine
um and we literally got on our app on
our phone at 11 30 at night and had a
couple of things delivered to her door
those are just that's a real life story
but an example of how the expectations
of consumers keep going up and if you
don't have
this reliable sales people if you're
also using a BDC as part of your sales
process you're gonna struggle and so
that's what I really was excited about
this episode is kind of getting into a
little bit about even just the basics
you know are you answering the phone how
are you answering the phone how are you
responding to all the different ways
that people communicate with you so uh
you know before I get into some of the
specific questions let me just get your
general you know kind of feelings about
that Vinnie is that's I mean because
it's still a problem
um in any any reason why you think or is
it multiple reasons and that's why we'll
get into it and uncover all of it in
this episode
yeah turnover is a core problem in the
industry and it hasn't been for a long
long time
um retail in general
to let the car dealers off the hook a
bit retail in general tends to have a
high turnover you know the restaurant
industry tends to have high turnover
um
and you know call centers
tend to
um one of the reasons I think
uh one of the biggest reasons is is
flexibility scheduling
uh when you're in the car industry
you've got to stay open till you know 12
hours a day
you know restaurants are open until late
at night they're you know they're busy
on weekends so if you want to work in
the restaurant industry all your friends
and family are off on the weekends and
you're working not too much different
than the car industry
um yeah turnover
um
is a core issue
uh and it's and it's difficult to to
solve because of the amount of hours
that you're opening a week I I believe a
car dealer is open 172 hours in a week
um
and and those hours need to be covered I
mean because a customer
is first right and so if you're not open
or you're open and you don't have anyone
to work yeah customer when they show up
um you know you you that's not a great
customer experience but to your point
about technology you know technology has
definitely helped uh I was actually at
NADA in Dallas and I ordered all kinds
of groceries for the suite we got and
they deliver them right to my door it
was pretty cool
um
I am that guy by the way I use
technology I hate going into stores I
hate going to the car dealership our
expectations right all the stuff we have
at our fingertips now
it kind of makes us
spoiled a little bit at least from you
and I are kind of old school we 100 you
know what it was like without all this
stuff
yeah we're old school you know what's
interesting about old school is that I
also knew back then what was wrong with
the turnover and it just hasn't changed
much although not the to our own horn it
changed at strollid and it changed when
I was with a big dealer group when I ran
a you know centralized BDC for the whole
East Coast
we um looked at it a little differently
than your average car dealership does
you know we looked at the we looked at
the flexibility of
uh people's time right
I mean when I started in the car
business it was my friend thought I was
crazy working 60 hours a week what are
you doing
but I was making more money than all of
you at the time
um so that was the trade-off but you
know get waking up as a 20 young 20
early 20 year old having to get up after
being out all night Friday night and
spend the whole day
uh you know talking to customers
you know it's hard and then you know
most Sundays or every other Sunday like
if you work Sundays in New England you
can be open on Sunday some states are
closed I think that's smart to force
companies to close on Sunday
uh but obviously you can't
you know those are laws that
you can't help it to want to be open if
a customer customers are off on Sunday
so obviously
you know it's just a tricky it's a
tricky business in that regard uh
however we we you know we started having
our BDC people work 40 hours a week yeah
a long time ago
like 15 20 years ago
um
you know I I think I told you the story
I hired a kid who used to work for me he
came back to work for me and he's like
complaining that he's not making as much
money as he was at the other dealership
and I was like okay
do you have a training team that trains
helps you train do you have a management
team that helps you you know helps you
with tough customers or to and Deals you
have you know
um a follow-up team that does long-term
follow-up for you
um
how many hours did you work there and he
was like well probably 50 55 hours a
week I'm like well if you do the math
you're making the same amount of money
for me but you're only working 40.
and we're pretty strict we don't like we
don't I never ever ever bother anybody
on their day off or time off and never
ask them to work more than 40 hours a
week now we we will put it out there
that we're giving away over time people
will volunteer for it if we if we uh run
into those situations but we never make
it mandatory I mean some of those are
medieval kind of thoughts yeah that
still go on right in the industry you
know
they just work them I mean in the
Northeast right car salesmen have to
come in when there's no when there's a
snowstorm yeah on their Dale that's
brutal
and clear cars and I've seen guys quit
over that and yeah
they're like no you're speaking of some
of your employees and then I got a
question I want to ask you um
I noticed just for the audience
um on Facebook one of you one of the
Australia Facebook posts I think it's
one of your uh video cuts on a
particular topic somebody that worked
for you in years past jumped on there
and she wrote this raving uh compliment
about your dedication to this part of
the industry and this part of retail and
how you have so many years of experience
that you know you're going to rule the
world one day kind of thing it's very
flattering
but she also spoke very highly of you
know her fellow astrologites if that's
what she called your your crew uh it was
a pretty cool post and it kind of speaks
to
um I think what a lot of them once they
realize the methodology and all the
things that are in place it helps the
dealer so much but it's also really good
for people that are are looking for a
job that has structure that does also
teach them and train them like there's a
whole bunch of kind of what you guys do
that a lot of people don't really know
but I want to kind of come back and and
position this question like when because
dealers out there that listen to this
type of content uh this this podcast
some of them might be thinking like well
okay so what have I done wrong and what
do I sh what should I be looking for
when I'm hiring
um BDC Personnel or maybe even sales
people because right there's some
crossover there there's some relation uh
in those roles so these days when those
people need to kind of be a little bit
or somewhat technical what are some of
the things that dealers should be
looking for to hire the right sales or
and or BDC person in today's environment
all right well Sean
um I've told you this before sometimes
my answers aren't very sexy
um
but you know
there's a fundamental to life
is a fundamental to work there's a
fundamental to management there's a
fundamental to running an operation
um
it's fundamentals I should say and um
traditionally why bdc's fail or struggle
or fall apart is due to poor management
um so what I would answer how I would
answer that is you know you really need
to define the role that you're looking
for what outcomes are you looking for
from this role
and and really Define the expectations
that you want to set for that employee
so like I told you
40 hours a week if that's an expectation
that I'm setting then I need to stick to
that or I'm going to create animosity
the employee is going to get upset if I
start asking them to work 45 50 hours a
week
uh I don't we don't put ourselves in
that position
when we started as a new company and
this is why I feel sorry for a lot of
the newer bdcs that are coming up
through the you know this they're
popping up here and there they're going
to go through a lot of what we've
already been through because once you
get to a certain size now you have a
little bit more structure around your
business so now we have a training team
right
we have a recruiter
we have an HR person who used to be the
trainer recruiter an HR person when we
first started you know
um we have uh directors on the BDC side
that oversee the operations then we have
Shauna who oversees
though all the operations but then we
have directors on the client success
side and you know early on our early to
early on our directors would handle both
the dealers and the the BDC people and
that was hard you know but again now
that we've grown we've got more
structure around what we do and we have
really really good people
so there's an answer there it is right
stroller has some very long tenured
people
why
why is that
um we're we're no different than what a
dealer is trying to do internally you
know people live in BDC whatever
we have people that stay stay with us
and so I think that's a question that
you're asking but
you know obviously
um
a leader needs to
care more about their people than they
do about themselves
it's like a father or a mother
you know like in a way I don't mean to
make it sound like all these people are
my kids but
um
like everything I do centers around
three objectives our business is built
around employee satisfaction and
retention
um dealer satisfaction and retention and
profit
and those are the three things I focus
on
every is every employee happy with us is
every dealer happy with us no
it's you know if you're looking for
Perfection that don't start a business
yeah they can promise you that
uh become a mathematician because math
is is what it is right there's no
subjectivity to math
um or be an engineer or something like
that but with running a business you're
dealing with different personalities
different people so we just try to be as
consistent as we possibly can with our
expectations that we've set for our
people we show them career paths we
promote the right people we don't
promote people just because
they're uh they've been with us a long
time for example no we promote people
that that do things based on what our
expectations are for that job and so we
said it we've said it very you know we
can go through our training but our
training is very thorough you know we
don't hire people and train them to be
nice we hire nice people
once you have that accomplished now you
can ask those nice people to do what
you're asking them to do as long as
you're not being unreasonable have you
found that uh
through covid and I don't know what
stage we're at I think I feel like we're
okay we're through covid I guess my
point is so we've all learned you've
learned a tremendous amount in the type
of service that you provide to dealers
in the last three years so here's my
question around that do you think that
the last three years has made any
significant change to whether or not a a
good candidate has
experience in the car business or is it
more important for them to have some
experience in just providing good
service to a customer almost regardless
of Industry because you and I have the
luxury of knowing that you guys do have
a very Stout training program and so you
can take somebody that's just hey
they got a smile and they've got a good
attitude and you can teach them what you
need them to know but through Cova do
you think that's changed a little bit or
for you guys specifically you know is it
a doable thing it takes somebody that
doesn't have a lot of or maybe any uh
sales experience inside of a car
dealership but turn them into somebody
who's really effective
yeah the car dealership experience is a
double-edged sword right
it can help you and it can hurt you
um we definitely like to see some
experience
car experience is a plus however they
have to be able to empty the glass when
they come to work for us
so we can fill it with our information
is it just because they know you know
the ins and outs of the car business
doesn't really doesn't mean they really
understand how we might have been taught
bad habits you know it goes back to
expectations we're very clear when we
hire somebody here's what we're going to
be expecting you to do you're going to
go through I know you have experience
but you're going to go through a
two-week training program
I know you're going to
um have some different thoughts on how
things should be done
This Is How We Do It
and we expect you to follow
is that okay with you
I don't you know it's just like talking
to a dealer that wants to sign up with
us
if they start asking us to do like
ridiculous things and they're very they
seem they just don't seem like a good
fit for us we'll tell them I don't think
you're a good fit for us
and we tell an employee we don't think
you're a good fit for us here's the key
to that though Sean
when it comes to an employee
setting expectations early
this is what you can expect from working
for us
here's some people here's some
opportunities here's where the job can
go now we have I.T opportunities we have
Dev opportunities we have marketing
opportunities we have
um you know training opportunities we
have client success opportunities sales
opportunities BDC management
opportunities whereas when we first
started it was all BDC right now again
that's kind of where the structure comes
in when we talk about a career path for
our people
but we're not when they come in as long
as they're uh conscientious and
compliant and they follow along to the
best of their ability
they'll get ahead with us
um it's like my old Mentor used to say
prisons are filled with people who did
things their own way
I love that saying because like it's
true and I tell my people all the time
if you do it my way
and it doesn't work you can blame me
yeah
very very true
if you do it your own way and it doesn't
work then I'm going to blame you do you
think there are some common
um attributes of people that you've
brought in
to work on your team that are among your
most successful or the ones that reach
higher levels that you promote faster
that you see in people really quickly
are there certain characteristics of
those people
um
yeah there are we do thanks to you we
have a nice little
personality profile that we can hone in
on when we do our part of our hiring is
for people to take the personality
profiling and it's the otter right
um
well you define the author you'd
probably Define it better but otters are
yeah that person tends
that that person tends to work out
better for us right
um
I am more of a lion you know I've said
this before
um
it would be hard it was always hard for
me to do a job like a BBC agent I'm not
ashamed to admit that
I just um I'm like a caged animal like I
can't just sit there and process like I
can't some people love doing that
you know the the challenge is Sean like
when you ask did you want BDC experience
or Automotive experience or do you want
customer service experience my answer
really is yes
we want both
uh getting both is hard right sometimes
they have you know
better Tendencies to be better customer
service wise but they struggle with
asking for the appointment of the sale
right some people get too aggressively
over aggressive they skip all the
important steps of building a
relationship and they want to go right
for the sale so uh you know
um we do a really good job of of
training uh you know we talked about
scripting on one of our last episodes I
think it was two episodes ago and how
people were oh you know turning on the
script and oh it sounds canned [ __ ]
yeah I guess I could but [ __ ] it
it's a fundamental it's like a it's a
structure it's a process you start with
a meet and greet
then you need to listen to the customer
active listening and you want to repeat
things back that they said to make sure
you're on the same page and that helps
build rapport
you really need to give the you know
here's something we can talk about or
even though like
cut some dealers are still over sticker
on cars and I've been having a little
argument with Josh about it like we need
to talk to them because they're telling
us oh these cars don't quote a price
just get them in
yeah
we can do that I've been seeing that
myself however if you're going to tell
them in the showroom what's the
difference of telling them in the
showroom or if I tell them when they
call me
well we don't want a competition to drop
you know 500 and we'll lose a deal okay
then drop it 500. like this is a market
this is competitive let's shop your
competition let's figure out what the
heck's going on out there right now
before we start playing games like we're
back in the 80s and 90s just because
inventory is still scarce in some cases
no like we got to treat customers and
employees like and it's funny I always
turn it on turn it around to a dealer
especially when they're good friends of
mine how would you handle the customer
if they asked you for a price
good question
you're the GM you know it's a great
question what would you say I mean
I think
but I battle like that my people see me
battle with my dealers over stuff like
that
um because they know I care about them
and when I see them having it tough I
can empathize with that you know that's
what a good leader should do in my
opinion is like don't just say oh it is
what it is do do what you're told yeah
like it's ridiculous if it's really
painful for them to handle that you're
going to lose people if you continue to
put them through that you're you're
you're like talking for even
understanding these Dynamic well because
you do understand the Dynamics of people
you know you reference the otter and the
you know the kind of that's just the
fastest way I've ever
um figured out how to understand the
types of people but what you're talking
about is those interpersonal
um communication skills of just knowing
like you're not going to push people to
the Limit kind of know what you're
dealing with that's why when you say
you're more lion and for people that
have not ever heard of the that uh a
personality test that identity flies
through these animals is there's a lion
there's an otter there's a Golden
Retriever and there's a beaver
in each of those animals have these
different
um traits and you basically go through
the questionnaire and you are honest
with yourself about understanding well
which are the and then once you know
this is who I am then you learn what the
other animals traits are as well and
then you also learn all these
communication skills and what you're
talking about right there I think is
such a critical piece of not just who
should we be looking for to hire what
seats are they in with on the team and
you know what role do they play but then
also how do you communicate get the best
out of people and yeah that's I mean
everything you're sharing there I think
is really important I think people for
this particular episode need to hear
that because
I think there's a lot of people that ask
the question one they start with well
what type of people do I need to find
but then beyond that they don't really
know where to go
well you know Sean I want to just jump
in here real quick because some of the
CEO of the company right
so I can't focus on the the little
details that Shawna and Derek and
Anthony focus on every day or that Josh
and Dustin Edwin and Kayla and we'll
focus on every day or even now Rob
focusing on sales right like
but
that's why we we brought in the okr
system from Intel right objectives and
key results is what it stands for
when we set the objective this is one
thing you can always count on me for
Sean
once you tell me this is the plan I'm
going to figure out how to how to get it
so my my plan was Employee satisfaction
I know everybody says that
dealer satisfaction and profit those are
the three things I need to focus on as a
CEO at a high level
when I start looking at why are we not
performing well at this store at a high
level and then I can't get the answers I
go to my people and ask them
and they tell me
and then you're like hmm like we have a
Cadillac dealer I won't name the name of
my dealer but
um they there's so much pressure on
their mystery shops it's it their their
mystery shops are outrageous that I
found out recently this week that
everybody in that group's afraid to take
a call for that story oh no that's not
good
yeah
no it's not that's not good you know and
so when you know if you're not really
honest with your people or you're not
letting them give you real feedback some
people might blow it off and say oh
that's not important to them it is
and as long as they okay I may not solve
their problem but as long as they know I
give a [ __ ] and I'm listening and then
I'm going to put an effort into fixing
whatever it is to make their life easier
here at the company
then they want to stay
they give them career paths I give them
you know opportunities to work from home
now which is a huge one
um I have a lot of people tell me oh
that won't last well
I think they're dead wrong
you know we can talk about that if you
want Sean but the work from home thing
is very interesting because I'm old
school like you when covet hit we send
people home
and and it scared I thought we were
going out of business yeah I remember
that you weren't the only one and I yeah
I think this is a good uh way to segue
into uh let's talk about this a little
bit and as it relates to your recruiting
process because you mentioned this a few
minutes back where you've got a
recruiter but you didn't always have a
recruiter right and
um I know that this is one of those
places where dealers I think even
companies to compete with you they
struggle with okay where are we gonna
find the people and they're all trying
to work you know indeed or whatever
um but I think it's pretty significant
that you at some point in time decided
this is how we need to completely
rebuild our recruiting process which
included
putting a position like that in place
but I think it's smart as hell so
um talk a little bit about that
recruiting process and then also how it
related to uh this new covid
um kind of
you know consideration of being able to
hire people train people and then have
effective people that are remote as well
because those are big those are big
items for people to figure out yeah
so we built the cxm six years ago cxm
stands for customer experience
management system so all the leads from
all of our dealers come to our system as
well as well as the Sierra so we're able
to answer call
um rapidly which is a key to our
business
um so that was a big piece to be able to
let people work from remotely to make
sure that the leads are getting answered
quickly and responsive responded to
appropriately we put in a new phone
system in January that year thank God we
did because that phone system gave us
the ability to monitor our people we've
since built on top of that phone system
for even better reporting like we have a
um
a dashboard that shows agent
productivity we have a dashboard that
shows um
basically a call log in and outbound
calls that they took if they missed any
calls
um which you know we're down to under
five percent Miss which is
when I was a when I was at that big deal
group running the call center we
couldn't get it under 10 missed calls
um because sometimes a missed call is
just a customer hanging up because they
got another caller they hit a bad cell
squad or something sitting there and
ringing it's not always times right yeah
exactly exactly and then we have this
flash dashboard that we that we built um
that basically allows us to look at
q and say everybody's on the call so if
I'm a manager I pick up the phone if a
call comes in
um or if a calls ringing to somebody and
they're not answering it
you know we we can slack them right
there we got we're all on slack and we
can so we're you know we can pick up the
call or reroute it but like why aren't
you coming up the call you know what I'm
saying uh so we have like um I mean
wouldn't everyone who's in the office
they could be over in the corner not
doing anything and you would never know
yeah you know what I mean so now we have
like dashboards for phone in and
outbound we have lead dashboards we uh
we're actually with some of the tech
we're building as we talked about on the
last episode we're going to be able to
transcribe these calls push them in push
the summarization of the call
the after it's been transcribed into the
CRM which is going to save my people
time from typing stuff like that like
the tech side we're getting really
really really uh involved
so but when we when we first started
sending people home I was scared you
know and I was like what what's gonna
happen next
uh well
as
uh throughout history as humans prove
they step up when things get tough and
our people stepped up and you know the
dealers were a mess for the first month
as well so as we're getting our [ __ ]
together
um trying to figure it all out they were
all up in arms none of them no one was
in the showrooms anyway but we were
still answering leads and they were
grateful
um
but what I found within the first 60
days is
while this is working
not only is it working but people were
happier
a lot of my people we'd have lots of
conversations and they didn't want to
come back in the office
um so my my Mantra was as long as we
continue to produce really good results
you don't have to come back in the
office well funny thing happened that's
this is probably June July where I
started realizing hey this is actually
not so bad
um and it's a benefit to us 2020 June
July uh as long as I can get the
outcomes and the X what I expect as long
as I can get that and I get the outcomes
that I want I don't care where they do
it from and that was June uh or June
yeah
yeah
and then we we still had this old school
mentality that we had to bring people in
to train them
um when we hired people
so one day I hired we had a hot new
higher class of about five people and I
walked by the training class and they
were all sitting in there and I heard
Michael's voice and I'm like
Michael's not here so I walk in the room
and Michael is doing a web meeting at
Google meet
from home while they were all sitting in
the room
training and I just I remember laughing
to myself going well if he doesn't have
to be here why do they have to be here
that was July
August we had this Epiphany like hmm
let's try and hire people Nationwide
so I put an ad out
remote BDC you know Automotive BDC Plus
customer service experience a must
um
we got 650 applications in a matter of
like five or six hours
it was amazing I had to shut the ad off
and I'm like what did I just tap into
and then then we sat around like how are
we gonna manage all of this
so we sat in the room we talked about it
and we put this email together
we sent an email to all 650 basically
asking five questions
um
now maybe 250 300 of those 650 respond
to those questions
now we send them a phone number
and a script and we say call this phone
number and leave a voicemail
and ask a couple more questions have
them takes screenshots of their computer
we can see
uh how much power the computer has uh
their internet blah blah blah we do a
whole bunch of different steps now uh
but now we got it down to 50 people
of that 50 people now these are all very
compliant people at this point
they just went through two or three
steps with us
we hire 10 of the best
you know I had a dealer in Alabama ask
me like well you know we had a customer
complain about the accent
how would you like it if um I hired
someone from Alabama for you
I feel like you would do that I'm like
sure why not
Nick get an ad out in Alabama
we hired two people from Alabama they
were complaining about the Bostonian
accent
I don't know I mean you know what's
funny is like we we
um we we have dealers in Miami or in La
they want Spanish-speaking folks
but then when those Spanish-speaking
folks talking to people in Alabama
little I know it's not just I kind of
cared about it because like guys like
you and I live in an industry for a long
time I mean we're not spring chickens
I have heard this kind of thing come out
before but like I just it's the accent
but you know what
um
uh if you say if you say that
um around like the wrong people you call
all kinds of nasty names but it has
nothing to do with having nasty names it
literally is just a thing like there are
people in the South definitely in
Alabama who they probably are like man
unless you sound like you're from
Alabama maybe Mississippi you know or
parts of Louisiana
you know I think the deal is wrong by
the way because
the CEO of the big deal group I work for
once asked me he's like how do the
people down south deal with your
Bostonian accents and I said to him I
said you know
they actually prefer talking to people
down south and he's like really why is
that and I said because they're nice
yeah I uh
the people in New York and Boston it
freaking can be rude right they're Lions
you know some of them even the ones even
the ones
even in the people down south the people
down south that even when they're mad
bless your heart
it's a different culture yeah it it's
interesting
um I don't get hung up on any of that
you know at the end of the day I want to
make sure I have good person working
there I don't give I don't crap yeah
good crap what their um accents like or
where they're from
um yeah
well you touched on something here just
in the last few minutes that I don't
know because I think we could literally
do a whole podcast about it although I
don't know that I want to you know teach
the entire industry exactly
um astrology training methodology but I
know you can speak to a little bit about
it and maybe give us you know somewhat
of a concise version of like so how do
you train them I mean you stumbled upon
this you know you've got a trainer who's
phoning into a room of people that are
having to sit there and then you're like
ah you know hey light bulb comes on
everybody can be remote but speaking of
accents
speaking of accents Lulu who's not only
my head trainer but she's also she's
also like family to me and she's also a
Founder really because it was her and
Shauna that I pulled aside one day and
said hey I want to start a business and
they both quit their jobs and come work
with me but Lou is from the Dominican
Republic and
she's very very English is very broken
but let me tell you something you don't
want anyone on your team ahead of her
because she works her butt off and she's
she's just a different breed she works
hard she cares yeah she's very genuine
she tells you she she fits in with us
because she just like to know these
people and you know you reference them
like Lulu is she's amazing and uh
clearly has a Dominican accent but I
also uh I I I've talked to her a bunch
of times I don't have any
I don't know what you said 19 years uh
for example somebody that has an accent
whether you have kind of Italian uh
maybe it's just a region of the country
I've talked to so many people and know
so many people have so many friends with
all these different backgrounds that it
never phases me I just I did I'm not
thrown by it at all
um but
yeah there there definitely are some
people that feel I guess more
comfortable when it sounds but Lulu is
she's amazing I mean she's
she's incredible and
um
she's very passionate she's very
passionate very passionate about yeah
about the training
you know
um
and she's real good at it everyone loves
her but that's it
yeah it's hard to find somebody that
doesn't like a little as a matter of
fact when she was a she worked for me at
that big deal group and she was manager
for me and I still have I have customers
today that still talk about Lulu and
that was like 30. she's doing training
stuff for you back in those days I'm
sorry I worked for you back in those
days
you'll choose a BDC manager so even
better I mean she
she went in the Southeast her and Sean
around the southeast and that's why
there's a couple of ass kickers now for
you I mean they know what they're doing
they know what to look for they know
yeah oh yeah
Anthony and Sean have been will be 21.
Anthony's another rock star you know
yeah
we're kind of putting people through I
told you we're going to start promoting
yeah when you guys are putting people
through the your training program to get
them ready is there a period of time
that you is on average that somebody's
in train do do any people come out
faster because they move quicker or do
you put everybody through the same
they've got to know this is the
structure and
okay
yeah that was something I learned from
my old boss
um David oh it was
he when he hired a general manager
he made them go through sales training
smart get everybody on the same page and
if they didn't like it oh by the way he
would say and by the way this is the BDC
that you're going to be working with
there's no that's non-negotiable and the
sales training is non-negotiable
you know that was my my life that was my
background
um and everybody that works with me that
was working with me back then that
currently still works I mean we still
have a dozen or more people that work
here that work yeah that's the one with
us that's amazing so how long what's the
average time period that somebody goes
through training before they're ready
before you say okay they're good
so it's a full week of it's a full week
of sales training we're really focusing
on all of our scripts uh how we like you
know it's funny like
we train a meet and greet introduction
and and um if you don't train it
they're not going to use it right
you know and we break that down
um we go over
I mean there's so many objections
objection handling how to overcome
objections how to address an objection
you know one of the funny things about
selling Sean again this could be a whole
Topic in itself but I've I feel as if
I've mastered
sales training and and it's because
it's all about relationship and if you
start off with a bad introduction you're
starting off the relationship bad
and then if you sound helpful I always
tell my sales people's corny cells tough
guy doesn't sell
you know giving me that tough guy
salesperson I want to just run away from
them when they come at me hardcore
and they think that there's big closer
and all those other things referred to
those people as the one so that they
want to sell you something and I don't I
don't want to be sold anything I want
you to help me buy something because I
like buying [ __ ] but I hate it when
you're like hardcore selling me on it
especially if I'm I have to go into
yours
we train on
um you know the laws of persuasion we
train on
um the five yeses a lot of the stuff I
got from the guru Lee D marindo back in
the day
um but the five yeses
um I do it like a comedy routine I'll
sit in front of a training class and
I'll get them to agree with me five
times
and as long as they're agreeing with me
I'm building a rapport
the second a customer stops agreeing
with me or objects
now it's my job to overcome that
objection
uh and there is a technique to it and
and it's sad that people don't give it
the credit that it deserves to be a good
salesperson and oh AI is going to take
over and and you know people are going
to buy stuff online without a
salesperson uh yeah I mean yeah they can
and that will happen uh however there is
still going to be a need for someone to
talk interact with a customer during
that process at some point Don
um
without upsetting them you know I think
I I think a large majority Sean of
dealers do a good job and try hard to do
all this stuff I don't want to make it
sound like they're not their challenges
turn on as we started so just to State a
couple of stats right
last year in the year year before uh
turnover at a dealership is a historical
low 35 and that's overall that's tax
that's management that's office help
sales people everybody so 35 turnover
means that you hire 100 people at the
end of
um the year you lost 35 of them
so they don't have any numbers on sales
uh people specifically on nada I was
looking it up at least I haven't found
any
but their their estimation was that you
know sales retention was was just as
high it helped drive that number down to
35 percent
uh but in in the past that number
was up around 46 48 in the dealership
that means every year you're turning
over half your staff yeah and I think
even years passed from that it's been uh
even worse right I mean it's
well with sales people
it's more like 70 percent
and with BDC it's 80 plus percent okay
so what's that cost of business yeah
so an hourly employee it costs a
business about fifteen thousand dollars
to replace that person annually
which is a little over a thousand
dollars a month
that's recruiting training and hiring if
you're doing it right
if you're not doing it right you're
turning people over faster so
so it's causing you even more money uh
but a sea level Tech
high level management position can cost
a company 50 plus thousand dollars this
is stats that I can you know share some
links with you on that that I've been
researching but
um it costs money to turn over people
and if if retail is high turnover and
call center specifically
um can be high turnover then why is
strollers average turnover rate under 40
we're like 35 percent
um and we have been
and so part of my thought process is
why would a dealer want to continue
I mean listen I know they say
that they're family owned and operated
and they they care about their employees
and I know they do
why would you continue to to go to churn
through people like that and I'm not
saying everybody that that 70 turnover
in sales people that takes the good and
the bad I mean there might be some that
are you know have long-term tenured
sales people have been there a long time
but then there might be some that are
100 turnover every year you know or more
so I think it's it screams that you need
a company like stroller
to to to
I mean so
because like you said Sean we don't quit
we don't call and say yeah which is uh
nowadays you know the quiet quitting
thing I mean I've seen headlines about
that for months now people are quietly
quitting I'm like what does that even
mean it means like you just don't even
tell your employer you just stop showing
up is that what quiet quitting is
like it's you do that to
um a dealership who you know is
painstakingly trying to put together a
staff that provides this great
experience for the customers to come and
buy really expensive things for them
with steering wheels and tires and all
that stuff and you don't think through
like the consequence of well what if you
have the kind of people who are just
gonna like quit not show up not call not
it's it's one thing if you stop going to
McDonald's and because you hate working
there and you're tired of people
throwing fries out here whatever but
and and maybe this is a key for for
dealer search
by the way is it good you brought up
McDonald's McDonald's for every hundred
people they hire
they replace 120 annually so they're 120
percent
so there is uh turnover
so there are businesses worse than the
car I don't know if that makes me feel
better
I'm sure a lot of business
a lot of restaurants and businesses in
the restaurant industry oh yeah I think
Food Service probably does churn I think
I don't know my guess would be is that
if you're a a really really great you
know skilled talented waiter uh waitress
make big tips working in the right part
of the country kind of thing you know I
I there are restaurants that I've been
to over the last several years where you
like I know that person like you go
there because they're so amazing but I
think in a lot of other Food Service
um there's a lot of heavy turnover but
in a car business situation when that
starts happening
um that's eroding your ability to be
able to say well we really care about
our customers and we're really going to
take care of the customer and the
customer experience is the number one
thing for us
uh the number one thing should be uh to
make sure that you find the right people
and you figure out how to retain people
um you know as you're like looking
around has it changed much over the
years in terms of the reasons why
turnover remains really high on the
dealership side
um you know like why people are like you
know what screw this I'm not gonna do
this
well you just said you just said it um
if you look at like a high line
dealership they got some long-term sales
people why they're making money
um see on the Ford Chevy's Toyotas
Hondas
when business gets back to normal Sean
um their groceries are gonna drop
which affects how you pay a salesperson
uh and you know how much how many people
want to work 40 or 50 hours plus a week
uh you know have to sell 20 plus hours
to make a good living
when when Grocers are really bad so that
doesn't really come back completely yet
I mean for the sales people and the and
the owners and GMS of the dealerships I
hope it doesn't come back like it was
because it was really bad I mean many
deals 100 bucks
so you sell 20 cars you made two grand
maybe they give you an extra two grand
bonus because yeah 20 cars or something
but yeah
that's and you're working 50 hours a
week delivering cars taking a pounding
day in day out like if you're making
money yeah you'll deal working weekends
you know yeah
yeah
I mean back when I started selling car
show we made a lot of money but I mean
it wasn't very customer friendly yeah
you know invoices run on invoices
weren't all everywhere you couldn't tell
what a deal were in the car for and
dealers weren't as as as crazy
discounting cars I mean I talked to a
buddyman runs a Nissan store in Atlanta
the other just yesterday and um he was
talking to a friend of his that runs a
Nissan store up in South Carolina and
he's saying I still haven't started
discounting new cars and he's like well
make sure your customers on shop in
Atlanta because everybody's already 1500
off of MSRP to Grand off already again
adjacent issue with the way that dealers
usually typically hire and I when I say
typically I mean over the last you know
a couple decades that the way that
they've always done that and they
haven't fundamentally changed that
enough that the adjacent issue is we're
still hiring dealers are still hiring
too many people that hate accountability
and they hate like the the words like
you got to be reliable you I need to be
able to rely on you you will show up you
won't quit you'll follow our training
you'll do you know you'll use use the
tools that we invest in to make your job
more efficient and do you think that
that unfortunately dealers still attract
too many people that I don't want to be
labeled as I have to be reliable I have
to be accountable I have to be you know
responsible and so when those things
start to come down on hey you got to do
these things to do this and then it you
got these people who are like no way I
don't and then they just I'm gonna move
on to the next dealership who doesn't
even really uh care what I do
right
yeah so that's why process is so
important John
um and it has to make sense you don't
want to just put
a customer or your employee through a
process just because it sounds like a
good idea like you know
um
like we used to talk about it all all
years ago if a customer comes in they
only got 15 minutes do you really need
to do a walk around presentation and
take them on a test drive uh maybe they
don't maybe they have more than 15
minutes and that's just their way of
getting
um you know the information they want
you know it's funny I just told you
um
dealers are not discounting cars
or over MSRP and then they don't want to
tell the customer until they get to the
showroom
well when are you going to tell them
when they get to the showroom so now you
want them hitting the sailing when they
get into the showroom like what are we
hiding
you have to give to get that's one of
the laws of of persuasion it's
reciprocity
and if a customer asks for a price we
need to give them a price even if it is
two grand over sticker
let them react to that
you know great sales people like they're
looking for the reaction
they're not looking to like pull the
wool over someone's eyes the reaction
tells you everything
yeah I love the reaction
because now I can sell you yeah
potentially
I can justify the price Maybe
or maybe we can save you 500 more or
whatever or have you shopped around have
I shopped around if I'm a dealer today
if I'm going two three five thousand
over MSRP
I am definitely shopping my competitors
to see if they're doing the same thing
if you're allowing a general manager or
a general sales manager for that matter
to price your costs five grand over just
because they want to pad their paycheck
yeah you're gonna lose customers yeah
and they may never come back yeah you
know as we kind of there's a lot of
really great points
um in this in this episode one of the
things on on the turnover topic that I
just keep spinning back through my mind
is
um and I thought this about
um about your business many times
but a dealership today doesn't have to
have the same number of sales people
standing around waiting for the next up
right especially when companies like
yours exist I mean straw it is like you
want to cut down on your turnover hire
us to do all these heavy lift
communication it will make your customer
happy by making sure that they're not
like hey nobody picked up the phone
responded through text or whatever and
have your best people who can take that
deal and bring it to completion like
totally making the customer happy with
hey I know you talked to our uh you know
our sales team and I'm the person you're
going to work with and then they finish
the deal but
what a great way to prevent High
turnover is you know what all of those
people that are just going to quietly
quit on you or call in sick or whatever
or really it's a stretch for them to
have a job that they have to come in
because they can't afford the child care
whatever all the things that you've been
accommodating over the last now several
years
um positions your business to be the
perfect way to actually help extend the
cut down of turnover even to dealers by
saying well this is one of the ways
we're a really reliable service and it's
still even for a dealer who would say
yeah but I'm bringing in a new cost to
use that yeah but the trade-off is
probably you're saving more in the long
run because of things you just talked
about the ongoing cost of turnover month
over month year over year especially if
your percentage is high
take that plus the sales people that you
don't need standing around that don't
really do much anyway
and you have more than enough in your
budget to actually completely rebuild
the way you service your customers to
include using straw lid I mean isn't
that one of the things that you in the
last probably two or three years of like
the light is so clearly like
if you were a dealer again would you say
oh yeah I need to have astral it in
place and I need to have my my very best
soldiers on the front line of
customer sales experience that whole
deal isn't that the best way to do it
yeah what I would do if I was back in
the dealership I actually thought about
this recently is I would look at how
much time does a salesperson actually
spend in the 12 hours that they're in a
dealership actually working
um which always made it always made me
laugh and cut that down to maybe you
know seven eight hours a day and
actually make them work for seven or
eight hours
um but let them go home after eight
hours instead of making them work 12.
that's archaic it's it's barbaric it
needs to change if it's I'm sure a lot
of viewers have already changed that now
they have to I would imagine who the
heck like when I was a kid I was selling
12 cars a month but I was making a lot
of money like average in eight to a
thousand dollars per car so figuring out
the math they don't make that kind of
money anymore they did over the last
year that's going away
I mean unless you work for BMW
Mercedes-Benz whatever you know they
they don't need to Discount their cars
they got you know Ferrari whatever but I
mean
you get my point it's like there's all
kinds of different dealers out there
I've been exposed to all of them I've
been exposed to different markets
different regions different general
managers how how people do it
um there really is no
um
what's the word I'm looking for there's
really no standardization of how to run
a dealership
you know there's no there's no outline
um or as a matter of fact actually there
is one but it hasn't changed since like
the 40s yeah you know the guys who try
to change it
um one of the problems guys that that
try to change uh their business in the
car businesses
their seasoned uh veteran car guys quit
they're like I'm gonna go down the
street where they actually you know
handle things the way I'm I've been
brought up it's like so part of the
challenge there is what we talked about
earlier do you want the experience the
car the the car background or do you
want somebody that's just really good at
customer service and I think if I was to
go back to a dealership I would go
towards the customer service side and
train them my way
um make them work eight hours a day
pay him a good a good amount of money
give them growth opportunities to do
more I always tell managers like you
want to be a manager just expect now I'm
going to put more pressure on you as
you know the CEO of Australian or you
know when I worked at the dealer group
um the far higher up you go you get paid
more yes because there's more pressure
and there's more responsibility
uh for you to perform for your people
yeah
so there's a reason you get paid more
you know and uh some people think oh I
made it I'm a GSM now making you know a
couple hundred grand a year and now I
don't have to do any work [ __ ] your
job just got harder if you're actually
any good
you know my old boss was like I would
walk at the car dealerships and I'll be
like so how's this how are you guys
underperforming so poorly and the GSM
would say uh
of the worst people they're so weak
and and I I didn't even giggle I would
look them straight in the eye be like
listen do we do yourself a favor and if
David ever asked you that question
do not blame your people
because he's gonna look you right in the
eye and say
that's your fault
yeah just hold up a mirror
you know yeah it's
now but think about how powerful that is
that's your fault
why do I take so much
pride in the in in the people that I've
had here so long
because that's my fault it's your
responsibility
no but they're here yeah for a reason
not just me they love each other too but
they're here
because we're doing something's right
yeah I would imagine yeah
I don't think they're just zombies right
just following along not even thinking
about it oh man you know we could go
yeah
I know this is more of a this was a
different conversation they thought it
was going to be I thought it was going
to be more on um like real structure and
stuff but I'm glad we're talking about
it at this level because I think real
car guys and dealers will really get it
so I will like I'll say it like this
Sean um running any business car
business Charlotte isn't easy but uh and
it's a cliche people say it's all about
your people
um it is but I think it's also about you
as a leader setting clear expectations
for your people
and as long as they're accomplished like
if I ask somebody to do something Sean
and they do it exactly the way I wanted
to and they just happen to be having a
bad month and not selling anything
I can't blame them they're doing
everything that we asked you know I tell
Josh this when we get a complaint from a
dealer I'm like Josh are we doing are we
answering the calls are we answering the
leads we send them the text are we doing
the follow-up if the answer to all that
is yes
there's other variables
like maybe the five grand over MSRP
isn't the right way to go or maybe the
fact that you're you know you're you're
getting
um 10 000 visits to your website and 8
000 were paid and there's like a 90
bounce rate on the paid search you know
like it could be a whole bunch of things
a lot of variables
all of your control all I can control
the expectations of what I ask from from
Charlotte that that's being done
yeah yeah sure yeah I I this episode for
me was kind of like this is a had a
little bit more of an organic there's
some you know
there's definitely some points in this
that I think that we just don't talk
about them enough we can start to take
them for granted a little bit but
there's I think we'll come back around
this this is the podcast that's set up
for people who are trying to figure out
how do we get better in sales process
how do we understand the finer points of
you know what makes a BDC work for
trying to put it inside of our
dealership but more importantly like
take it out of your dealership and
figure out how that actually helps in
all of this so when we have these
episodes that kind of go in directions
where it's like oh we're kind of in this
place and then we all of a sudden find
this other layer like we did today
around turnover and how that affects the
cost at your dealership
those are things that I think are way
too easy to take for granted like of
course I know it's going to cost me
money when I have a high turnover rate
but do you really do you really pay
attention to it do you take that into
meetings with your management team with
your leadership team and do you
challenge yourself to oh how do we get
better you can't just settle for well
it's been this way forever because the
car business doesn't really have a good
excuse for why it hasn't
uh done better at trimming that turnover
rate down over decades the only reason
why that it flipped in the last three
years is because of covid that's the
reason why those percentages are so off
in the last couple of years so I think
it's great to talk about these things
because I think the people who are truly
interested in this type of uh
information uh there's no where else are
you going to have a place a resource
like this from people especially like
yourself that have Decades of experience
doing these very things so I think it's
it's I think it's awesome
yeah you know one last thing I'll say is
um
one thing that drives me is when someone
tells me it is the way it is
I don't know what it is inside me but
when I hear that I just want to change
it and prove more yeah that's good
though you know
yeah because you will hear that you will
the guy say oh you don't understand you
don't understand the cover it's like
have you ever really taken a look at
your business have you talked to your
customers have you talked to your
employees like really talk to them and
really listen to what they're saying
sure I would say when you ask for
feedback expect a lot of it to be
excuses and complaints but you have to
be able to sift through all those
excuses and see if there's any real
problems there
that you can you know try and make their
life better uh make their life easier
and I have
I'm blessed I have I think that place
runs itself now well doesn't win itself
it runs without me
um which is a huge relief for me it
allows you to improve that business and
build dealers on a level that previously
you couldn't do because it had to be so
involved and I think that's I think that
says a lot about how business starts
from one place and five six seven years
later you finally get to these places
where you can now open it up and be even
a greater service to you know the
customer that is your Target and I think
that's huge so and it I think it's a
great place I think we found another
place to park an episode
um
so to the audience safe yeah like we
always say regarding this episode and
really all of our episodes if you like
it if you love it or none of the above
we still love to hear from you dealer
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