S1E8: Automotive BDC Help: Vehicle Pricing, Appointments, And Process

In this episode, Vin Micciche details how effective BDCs optimize pricing strategies, appointment reliability, and process alignment. He explains how Strolid’s agents use dynamic scripting to qualify buyer budgets, match inventory to needs, and instantly hand off “hot” leads to sales teams. Vin also advocates for BDCs to bridge silos between sales and service, sharing metrics where lifecycle follow-ups boost service retention by 25%. Key takeaway: “A BDC’s greatest value isn’t just filling the funnel; it’s ensuring every customer moves smoothly through it.” Learn more about how Strolid helps dealerships Never Miss opportunities at https://www.strolid.com.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to BDC Optimization
01:23 - Pricing Strategy Essentials
11:03 - Colorado Case Study Analysis
20:24 - Appointment Reliability Tactics
31:15 - CRM Integration Challenges
42:00 - Service Retention Breakthrough
51:20 - Lifecycle Follow-Up Systems
58:30 - AI-Assisted Process Alignment
1:06:45 - Key Takeaways & Conclusion

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
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dealers of all types and sizes your time
is valuable so thanks for riding along
for this episode of
welcome back to dealer insights it's
Sean and Vinnie and uh how's it going
Benny good how are you Sean we're doing
well doing well excited for this episode
uh we always appreciate everybody tuning
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there as well as the entire episode so
today we're going to get into uh really
three specifics three things that you
could do at your dealership right now to
help your BDC and there's three core
areas that
um Vinnie that I really want to dig in
with you the first one is um on pricing
like I don't think enough people we we
get Way Beyond uh the 101 of what we're
supposed to be doing and we forget about
some things that are kind of key and
making sure vehicles are priced
accordingly tell tell me a little bit
about that like what happens when you do
it right and more maybe more importantly
what lessons should we be learning when
that's not consistent
yeah so um
I've been in the business a long time
you know um
one of the things I've always tried to
do and I think it's helped my success to
some degree
is um to look at business uh not from a
selfish point of view
but I try to look at it from my
employees point of view from my dealer's
point of view but
um really what I look at is I've always
looked at business style was either
running or in charge of from a customer
point of view and not the dealer
how would I observe
a dealership from the outside looking in
and I don't think we do that enough you
know but pricing is is definitely one
um you and I both had sons that made bad
purchases recently hopefully he doesn't
hear us
here is both of them here say that but
uh the challenging it's been a
challenging three year Sean for pricing
right first couple of months of the
pandemic there was no in uh no one
buying cars
at Strath we saw a ton of leads coming
in and
um we predicted successfully that there
was going to be a big
you know uh
demand uh pent up demand for cars and
the floodgates open that summer and
obviously the manufacturers slowed down
the chip shortage
um
you know
the during that time
um we were selling everything we had and
everyone was happy but well I think we
neglected to look at was
that the the inventory is drying up
so over the last year and a half it's
been really really a very strange time
for me as being a deal of 27 years the
one thing I I never thought I would ever
see was no inventory
this never happened you know don't get
me wrong there's certain vehicles that
come out like you know prius's gas
prices go up and and you can't get them
and so forth and so on or um you know
economical vehicles or now gas is two
bucks a gallon and the you know the big
rigs start selling again
but um
no new men more people looking for used
which increase the demand for use as
well and then you know when there's an
increase in demand and a low Supply
prices go up I mean if you've ever taken
um macroeconomics that's one of the
first things you learn right
so from the customer point of view I try
to look at it and I try to look at it
from my own point of view um if I was a
customer how would I so it's kind of
like the housing market right now Sean
uh if you have a house to sell you're
all right
but if you have no house to sell you you
know you're going to overpay that's how
I look at it yeah so what is the
customer's point of view I'm gonna shop
more
now here's the interesting part about
shopping
is
um
since by the way there's been no
decrease in leads or calls
but what we have seen is less engagement
at strolling
um so we'll you know you can kind of
figure it out right your car's price too
high
you're shopping CarGurus at cars.com or
auto trader you're comparing prices
you're comparing mileage you're
comparing colors
why would you engage with the place
that's price you know cars are
overpriced
it you know and and I I can tell you
there's a lot of pricing has a lot of
different uh effects on a BDC because
BDC is the first line of of defense for
your dealership and
um less engagement means less
appointments which means the dealers get
you know upset with their BDC I don't
think it's necessarily the bdc's fault
uh it's not the Dealer's fault it's just
it's just what's happening right like
that's how I look at data Sean I don't
look at data and say oh you're you suck
or you're good or you're bad or you're
you know inept or you're a green P or
you're a veteran or I look at it and say
what's wrong
what can we do
uh by analyzing this information to
maybe fix or adjust to the current
situation
um
and that's one thing we know you and I
did a podcast on AI
that's one thing that AI can't do
is use that experience to make that
decision based on you know a critical
thinking
right and so somebody within the
dealership has to have the experience to
be able to look at this data and say hmm
there's a lot of interesting things that
come out of inventory data you know
dealers one of the things though by the
way I empathize with dealers because
they have so many things to look at they
got web analytics they got vehicle
analytics they got
um website their own website analytics
and digital marketing all these vendors
sending reports and data and data and
data data data all coming at them
so you know one of the things I feel
like I did very well when I worked for
that big dealer group I used to work for
was to kind of look at simplifying it
what is the most important information
to look at
first
and then you can always drill in when
you get overloaded with these mountains
of reports and data it's like really
hard for a dealer to make sense of it
all you got CRM analytics to look at too
by the way that I didn't even mention I
mean I'm not mentioning a lot of data
that these dealers now have
um have to look at so I think as a
company we do a really good job at look
at helping the dealer look at a lot of
this stuff and bring it to their
attention
um
but my advice is to keep it simple at
least at the start you know with most
you know merchandising and looking at
demand is really important the BDC is
the first to know when a dealer priced a
car too low for example
why because the leads go up on that
particular car the calls go up on that
particular car
you know
um a BDC is the first uh our data
actually is showing
and we're seeing vehicles at a price
right positioned right are moving
extremely fast
if you if you're right out of the gate
you know uh merchandising your car
properly
um a lot of indications right now
Wholesales back up because it was coming
down now it's back up
um
March was a a you know lead bonds are
significantly up in March but what's
down what's down is
um the engagement
people don't need to come into your
dealership
they can shop online
they are filling out leads they are
asking pricing questions how are you
answering those questions is really
really important you know um in within
straw we have like we have sheets of
info for every dealer
and it's getting out of control to be
honest with you every dealer well this
card tell them they have to come in to
get a price and this car you know keep
them at sticker and I'm sure a lot of
dealers are doing that don't you know
don't tell them that we won't go over
sticker and all this other weird stuff
it's like
the problem I have with it is how I
started the conversation Sean
I'm looking at it from the consumer
standpoint not I get you know I had a
professor at NADA used to say I
understand why we do what we do I just
don't understand why we do what we do
like one of my conversations with one of
my dealers recently when he he was
telling me he wants us to get them in
don't talk price I was like
what are you going to tell them when
they come into the showroom
why can't we tell them
yeah that's that's an old game too right
oh sure it sure is I mean but what can
you do that's what we're here for right
you know first look at vehicle demand do
we have a report a vehicle demand report
we give our dealers every month it shows
the the volume of leads
that come in on all your new and used
cars now most good new uh gsms and and
sales managers could probably tell
what's on that lead list for new because
they order cars all the time so they
know it's in demand they know it's hot
but here's a little example back in 2009
um when gas prices shot way up to like
almost five dollars a gallon guess what
was in demand
economical Vehicles Priuses it was like
a year wait selling five grand over
sticker for a Prius and stuff like that
um in certain markets and um
when you looked at the lead report guess
what you saw a lot of Prius leads
so I used to tell my general managers
like you're paying for these leads from
some of these third-party companies
do you need to pay for a Priestly
yeah we do no but again I'm not trying
to make them look stupid I'm saying
here's the data this is what's actually
happening
you know I wanted I was in a used car
um uh I'm sorry a Mercedes store that we
have and the GM was basically saying
we're doing a terrible job on used leads
and I said okay can you explain
what you mean by that and he said
um well we got 120
used car leads last month but we only
you know you guys only set
um
you know like something like 20
appointments
and you know 10 of them showed and I
think six of them bought which isn't bad
show ratio and purchase ratio right
so I pull up my lead demand report
56 of those leads were on a on a
Colorado he's a Mercedes dealership on a
Chevy Colorado
and I go what happened with this
Colorado
we got a lot of leads on it he goes oh
my God why are you asking about that
vehicle and I said because we got 56
leads on it he goes
oh my God I kept dropping the price on
that thing uh because it smells like
smoke we couldn't get the smell out no
one wanted to buy it so we sent it to
auction
so now you take the 130 leads you're
minus 60 or so now you're down to 70
leads and our numbers look good
right yeah
which no one takes the time to do that
because they don't have the time because
they got so much data so my first my
first indication the first thing you
should look at is how much demand are
you getting on the vehicles you're
selling and our report does that and I
think you know
frankly you could probably get your CRM
company to give you the same report so
you know how many used car leads you got
on each car you know and here's the
problem Sean what about the vehicles
that aren't getting leads
why aren't they
yeah clearly if a Chevy Colorado got 56
leads
there was something about that there's
going to be a record of some kind yeah
there was something about that vehicle
that got that much traffic
and what did he say it could drop in the
price
hmm yep
yeah I mean that speaks very much to uh
I mean you gave several different
examples here but pricing Vehicles right
I mean he clearly if he was slower in
the price uh steadily and continuously
you're gonna get a lot of people's
attention because that's one of the
things that sticks out as an anomaly
when the consumer is doing a search on
hey I'm looking for a Chevy Colorado and
you see one around this same year that
you're looking for if you're searching
by mileage whatever your criteria is
the low price leader is going to show up
a lot of people set their filters to be
like okay let's go lowest to highest and
see what we find that anomaly sticks out
of course you're going to get a ton of
them sure you know and I'm sure if you
know if we get some good used car people
and good car guys and girls out there
listening is they're probably getting
frustrated saying oh yeah you don't
understand how hard it is but no I do
um but understanding today's consumer
um is what I do best and today's
consumer is shopping
um V Auto just came out with us uh the
statistics at 70 70 of people are
looking at cars online only
meaning you know they used to go to look
at online and then go to two or three
places to look at different Vehicles
stuff like that they're not even doing
that anymore I mean very very few of
them
all of them are looking online I'm
saying 70 are only looking online yeah
they're not looking anywhere else
um you know there's another study came
out recently showing you know
advertising spent I mean TV radio print
is getting virtually nothing nowadays
so I remember the days Sean do you
remember when we couldn't get 20 of
their budget
I do it's just old I do remember
thinking well maybe you could get just
like you know 10 to 20 of the budget to
explore in this digital area I'm like I
doubt it we might be able to get 500
bucks man like okay yeah and how much
you just died on the weekend newspaper
ad
shopping for a car isn't like shopping
for a pair of sneakers or you know or or
some golf equipment or or whatever or
Christmas gift online like you can go on
Amazon but think about the Amazon
experience for a second you're looking
at different products which one do you
end up buying on Amazon you look at
reviews you look at price
if it's the same product in one place
has it for less than another and they
have good reviews and they could deliver
it in a day or two yeah buy it it's just
really quick you know you're making that
really quick assessment of the situation
um this is a car
so merchandising is really what
um we need to talk about here
um you know what can you do first
um
look at the first look at the vehicle
demand report
it should tell you a lot and probably
tell you things you don't want to know
or would rather not know but certain
Vehicles aren't getting much attention
why is that what could you do
to get it more attention it's not always
about dropping the price because
dropping the price you might have a real
special vehicle that nobody else has you
need to explain that
why it's special you know you know this
is old school stuff like the point I'm
trying to make is like pricing is what
um drives on new this is unused on new
um
just be transparent that's what
customers want if you're selling the car
three grand over MSRP tell them you're
selling the car three grand over MSRP
yeah um
but understand that it is a market
so if you're selling a three grand over
MSRP hopefully your competitors are
doing the same
or
you're going to lose customers
why is that important
your customer who you spend all this
money in advertising to get is now
defecting somewhere else because they're
not at three grand over on MSRP you know
yeah sticker price I'm not saying that
dealers have to I'm just saying know
your Market uh and there's lots of data
and I mean really the best way to do
that is to shop your competition
um
I think that's a big big piece of like
uh the the pricing Vehicles is just you
just said it just know your competition
know your Market really well how it's
not that difficult for you know
for dealers who are Pros they've been in
it a long time you know survey your
Market you probably already know more
than half the dealers and how they price
their stuff that's a really critical
piece though just so you don't end up
you know adopting a strategy or more
executing on a strategy that's
completely absent of the knowledge of
what's what your competitors are doing
locally once you know that I like your
idea which is just tell them how you're
pricing I think that's the biggest and
has been the biggest frustration for
consumers for many years it's like well
just be transparent even if you know
even if you have this I don't want to
lose a deal for a thousand dollars like
you know um but one of my competitors
I'm like yeah you're losing it
anyways what not only are you losing it
anyway but your your bdc's taking a
pounding by trying to convince you know
we used to run an ad back in the late
early 2000s uh in the Boston Globe on a
Toyota Camry that was probably MSRP
around 20 grand and we used to advertise
it for 13 with one stock number you know
how many customers got upset about that
but everybody was doing it back then so
again if everybody's doing it and you
don't advertise your vehicle for 13
Grand they're going somewhere else was
the thought process
yeah so you really need to understand
your Market I mean the used car market
there's so many tools to understand
whether your car is priced good bad or
fair I was on CarGurus the other day
looking for my son for a truck just to
see what was out there you wouldn't
believe how many cars are priced that
bad or Fair
I was just sitting there wondering like
did the dealers even know this why are
you spending money with CarGurus and
your cars are showing up as bad deal
yeah that's not why would you want to do
that
oh the again the the the demand is high
the supply is low so they don't really
care what CarGurus has to say because
they know they're going to sell it okay
great then why are you spending money
yeah
they're not helping you you know
uh and there's all kinds of ways of
manipulating the system in the in the
industries riddled with that uh but at
the end of the day
you know to end on pricing Sean because
I know we want to talk about three
topics to talk about yeah the problem is
people do not need to come to your
showroom and see your vehicle anymore
yeah
your BDC needs to be able to
handle that situation without
basically saying come on down we'll take
care of you when you're here kind of
thing you know what I mean it's just it
doesn't work really anymore come on down
we've been saying that for a long time
right but come on down well uh next
thing I want to get into and because I
think all that's good is a lot of great
info on pricing and Merchandising and
um all helpful there's another a couple
of things that I want to get in to your
thoughts about one of the next one is
really on
um the confirmation of appointments
um again I think sometimes the things
that are on the more simple side we've
talked about it for years hey act as if
you're a Professional Organization uh
just like you know a doctor appointment
is confirmed
um
it's probably the simplest way to frame
it there are all kinds of businesses
that part of their process is confirming
the appointment that you have with their
business
um yeah this is this is a bigger uh more
critical uh
piece then I think people give a credit
for they hear the word confirming
appointments yeah yeah I got to confirm
appointments I see it much differently
than most
and I'd love to share that that's I
think what we're here for it's like
really important part of
uh any business is confirmation
um
you know first you got to get spend the
money then you get to get the phones to
ring and the leads to come in and the
customers can walk in
um
that's valuable that customer coming
into your showroom is extremely valuable
today
it's always been valuable but when I
started selling cars people just came in
they didn't have the internet I know
that's hard for people to believe but uh
now today you know you're fighting for
these customers and if you go up against
a competitor that has a straw in process
in place
uh saw strong and solid
um you You're Gonna Lose you're going to
lose all the time no
it you know it is something funny about
sales Sean
no one sells 100 of uh the opportunities
they get nobody Tony Robbins doesn't
Grant Cardone doesn't you know none of
them do
but you're trying to increase the
probability of selling
by doing things the right way
you're increasing your business because
you do things the right way they're
going to tell other people that you were
treated well there
uh you you start messing with customers
today it's hurting your business for
tomorrow and unfortunately we live in a
month-to-month business so people aren't
necessarily thinking about tomorrow
but I do like I said I try to look at my
business whether it was working for a
group or working on you know for my own
company I look at it from the customer's
point of view because that's really all
that matters to me my dealers are my
customers I get passionate with my
dealers because I care about them and I
want I want them to do well and
sometimes I have to like kind of really
push them
you know and um it's only and they I
think they appreciate that
um confirming appointments so I can sum
it up very easily as a dealer you want
to deliver an exceptional experience to
your customer
or you don't
you know
the dealer wants the appointment the
customer wants to make sure that when
they go to the dealership it's not
painful
yeah
the dealer wants a showroom filled with
customers the dealer wants to make sure
when they come in that they don't you're
not wasting their time
who installed books an appointment part
of our process to alert the management
team uh
you know uh to call a part of our
process we we alert them immediately as
we schedule an appointment they're
they're part of the process because when
we sit when we when we when we explain
and take on new dealerships we explain
like the only way this works is if we
work together as a team we're not
necessarily
removing you from the process
you're a critical part of the process at
the dealership we're doing a lot of the
heavy lifting for you to get that
customer to that point and it is a lot
of work and it's hard work if it wasn't
hard we wouldn't have a business if it
wasn't hard dealers wouldn't have
trouble turning over BDC people all the
time and all this other stuff it's hard
and you got to get everybody on board to
think like a customer
so we say hey Mr customer
um
you know we have dealers that do a
little bit differently but we do ask our
dealers management team to confirm the
appointments as soon as they get the
appointment so we schedule an
appointment today for Friday
yes we want to call it right away and
confirm it it's fresh in their mind but
there's more to it when we close on an
appointment we we let that we tell the
customer that it's our job to make sure
that their visit is quick and efficient
when they get to the dealership and they
won't need to repeat themselves
when you get to the showroom you're
going to ask for Joe the manager and how
that will benefit you is you won't need
to repeat yourself Joe will have all the
information you need when you arrive how
does that sound
they love it Oh you mean I'm coming in
and I don't have to like
break that ice with the awkwardness with
the sales guy and try to like you know
him figure out who I am and I figure out
who they are and are they trying to rip
me off I don't know we're not going to
waste your time this is quick and
efficient that's how we sell the
appointment
now Joe the manager gets the alert
show the manager call Sean and says hey
Sean I see you got an appointment with
us on Friday I'm really looking forward
to meeting you uh when you come in make
sure you ask for me if there's anything
I can do for you here's when we have a
script for that we go over with our
minute with our
all right when we do our onboarding
how does that make you feel Sean as a
customer
taking care of cared for like you're
considering my time you're considering
my experience
like the I'm now I think you take it
seriously that my time is
is valuable so you're gonna you're gonna
take care of it absolutely and if Joe
the manager calls and confirms
it's like a Ritz-Carlton type approach
in my opinion
you know approach to your business and
to your customers
you're differentiating yourself from
every other dealership out there
and it goes a long way now
your customer shows up what are your
chances if you have that car pulled up
what are your chances of selling that
versus
yeah just come on in and ask for me and
then you're not there and someone else
comes up and says hey how are you doing
can I help you and they uh I'm supposed
to meet Joe the manager uh he's busy
right now
uh yeah help me take care of you it's
just you just ruined it yeah and I would
I would even say
um the last few years have made it too
easy for the dealers to become a little
I don't want to say lazy actually I do
want to say a little lazy in their
thinking and being on top of that
because it's been yeah we only have a
green one that's it so get in line I got
10 other people that want it like supply
and demand has been so affected over the
last few years that and it's not um this
is something beating up on dealers it
just gets really easy to become so
relaxed in some of those areas that
you're not thinking about it as much and
then what ends up happening is you
forget that the customer still expects
you to take care of their time and you
know be considerate of you know the
experience you're going to provide to
them and all of that to say it doesn't
matter really if you have supply chain
issues and you have a lot of inventory
or a little bit of inventory the
experience
confirming that employment telling me
what to expect when I get to your
dealership is always critically
important it's there's never there's
like no days off you always do that I'm
glad you use the word expectation
because that's like one of my
key words in everything that I do I want
to know when I sign up the dealer what
are their expectations for me I want my
make sure that my team knows what my
expectations are for them I want to make
sure our employees know what their
expectations are from us and when I tell
Josh all the time internally if we're
doing everything that we said we were
going to do and the dealer is upset
you deal with that man like figure it
out go tell them like let me show you
all the things that we're doing the way
we said we're going to do it just
because they're not getting the results
that they expected from us doesn't
necessarily mean we're doing anything
wrong right and so that's not the only
reason though by the way that you
confirm appointment Sean this is why I
wanted to talk on this subject because
there's lots of reasons why you confirm
unemployment you know the other reason
you confirm unemployment Believe It or
Not sometimes the customers change their
mind
maybe two other dealers called after we
booked the appointment and someone else
booked an appointment with them at
another dealership how many of those are
going to have a manager call in and say
hi how are you
I'm really looking forward to you coming
in yeah maybe they do have a good
process at these other dealerships and
that's what makes it competitive right
and you want to have an you want to
differentiate yourself from your
business so do some things that other
businesses are not doing or do it better
than they're doing that's how you win
business that's how you win anything is
you outperform the competition sometimes
they say yes to an appointment but you
know maybe you sold the vehicle
yeah you know that happens but it does
happen yeah I had a way back in the 90s
I had a minute you said customers would
say I'll come back I got to think on it
they come back the next day the car sold
and they get mad and he'd be like hey
it's not a museum
yeah
you can't talk to customers like that
anymore but he used to use that word it
was actually really funny
um
I actually had trouble not laughing but
you can avoid a heat case right if I'm
having a customer Drive In on a car that
might be sold I mean understand this too
Sean the car industry is really
interesting we want to schedule
appointments but we want to make sure we
don't get any heat well back in the old
days if you couldn't handle heat you
weren't going to survive in the car
business so today they want they don't
want the heat uh well they get out of
the kitchen is that to say yeah well the
the fact of the matter is I could book
an appointment with Sean right now
you're coming down in three hours but
someone might be working a deal on that
car right now as we speak
yeah
so it happens
you know
we've gotten to kind of
want everything you know served up on a
silver platter and that's not how I was
brought up in the business and uh but we
will again if the customer dealer is
expecting us to do it a certain way
we're going to do it the way they ask us
to do it even if we don't agree we're
going to tell them we don't agree
we're going to push back when they're
pushing on us for more appointments
however
you know that's where this can be some
friction right between us and the dealer
but most of our dealers respect what we
do and thank God we got a great team
here and we got great dealers so I'm
really really happy
um with where we're at um but you know
maybe we could prepare the vehicle ahead
of time for him Sean
would that wow you if you if if you
showed up and Joe the manager met you
and the car was pulled up I know dealers
do that not all of them
uh the key to selling is building
rapport
if you want to build a report truly
build rapport you need to show your
customer value you need to solve their
problems one of their problems is they
don't want to come in and waste time
they don't want to come in and be
harassed they don't want to so when we
schedule an appointment we take all that
away we as strong you know make them
feel like they're going to get an
exceptional experience and listen we
don't we're not perfect here
we make mistakes the dealers make
mistakes maybe you're not doing it 100
of the time but maybe if you can set up
goal to to confirm 80 of your
appointments
you know because you're busy you got
tied up or there's all kinds of stuff
that happens during the day I mean again
it's hard for a deal to argue with me
because I was in the business for 17
years I ran a dealership I was a general
manager of a store so like I get it how
busy they are and one of the reasons why
I started strolling is because I
understand how busy they are and I want
to help them yeah you know
your example of having somebody pull up
a vehicle like not only confirming an
appointment but hey you know the vehicle
is ready that's another thing that we've
talked about for so long in the industry
and I know that there are a lot of
dealers that do that I also know that
that's another area where you get a
little relaxed and you're staying on
your A game but every time
um
a dealership has done that with me on a
vehicle my first Tundra that I bought my
first hundred was a 2 800. it was
pre-owned out of two or three years old
when I bought it
and you you mentioned two things that
happened in that experience one the
Rapport I'll never forget the Rapport
building with uh Mike I won't say his
last name I'm sure he's out there still
selling uh I will tell you that uh it
was at Bill Utter Ford in Denton Texas
um
and uh I love just loved that truck
everything about it but the Rapport
building before I got there was great
and they did set a mic set expectations
oh what time are you getting here
I got there around the time I said I was
going to get there that Tundra was
already sitting up front right it was
sitting right out in front of the
dealership and I was like Aha and I walk
in and I'm like hey I'm looking for Mike
Ortiz and there weren't I don't know if
there were any people in the show
what's that you just said his last name
oh crap sorry Mike it's all shout out
Mike Ortiz he was awesome I don't know
if he's still there but
uh so I asked for him and
I have to wait a couple minutes because
I'm like well where they don't know
where he's at let me page him you know
so he wasn't right there but the truck
was there
when I started to get nervous it wasn't
quite five minutes but within maybe
three minutes all of a sudden he walks
in he's like you know hey Sean are you
ready to go let's get a copy of that
driver's license just immediately into
what fulfilling the expectations he set
with me before I got to the dealership
and it was just literally check box
check box check box check box and before
you knew it I was all in driving home in
my new to me Tundra and it was that was
a very great I I wrote a review
on both the dealers
um at the time Google my business page
as well as cars.com where I had found
the tundra originally I wrote a review
for the dealer in both places because I
was so impressed and I don't write a lot
of reviews
yes and you know Sean we we have these
conversations a lot and I definitely do
not want this to sound like
um
all dealers are terrible and none of
them are trying any of this stuff right
yeah yeah that's why you know I think
the last segment we're going to talk
about is process right
yeah getting kind of back to the basics
that's kind of the third thing I wanted
to pick your brain a little bit about is
and we've hinted a little bit about it
today already it's just I think
sometimes we get a little bit too far
away from what brought us to the party
in the first place like what customers
are expecting in the first place and
oftentimes what dealers know works and
then we get spun up into things that are
really nothing but a waste of time and
they kind of take us away from the core
of really what makes selling cars still
a people business and the magic of all
that stuff we just get too far I think
we start chasing things that are
promoted by other people we get
distracted so yeah that's why I wanted
to like do you think that's happening
and do you think there are a lot of
things like I just call it getting back
to basics maybe there's a better way to
frame it but it feels like it's been a
lot of people talking about getting back
to basics now training's starting to
pick up because dealers I think you know
are very very smart
the great businessman they in women they
own businesses in local communities they
take care of the communities they're
usually very very
um involved in their communities and
they they care about you know it's funny
I've had some great dealers I have some
great dealers I've I've worked with some
great dealers
um and I've had some bad dealers and um
I asked a friend of mine one time like
you know which who should I focus on and
he said it's real simple event Focus I
believe in what you do focus on the
dealers that care about the name on the
building
and I immediately knew what he meant
because I worked for a guy like that for
a long time
and his son uh at IRA and um he used to
have a saying David Rosenberg himself is
saying when I was a general manager
there if it gets to me it's free
meaning to carry your customers because
if they get all the way to me I'm giving
them whatever it is that they want and
he did it used to aggravate me sometimes
because some of the customers were just
totally out of line but he didn't care
he cared more about the name on the
building than he did about the little
bit of money he was losing
on the deal that make the customer happy
a very successful organization so I was
blessed to be around a lot of successful
people
um during my days in retail and um they
all had that in common you know and
process
so when you talk about Basics what we've
been discussing today is process shop so
what is process well you've been saying
it and you I don't know if you've
noticed but you've said it a few times
today but it's expectations
I don't ask my people to do things that
I wouldn't do myself
but when I think something's going to
work uh or works I'm going to expect
them to do it
um we talked about scripting in the past
oh how you know it's canned and all this
other stuff I can use the scripts we
train and not sound canned or scripted
um
I can follow a process if it makes sense
and and one of the things we allow our
people to do with installed is if they
don't like something they can raise
their hand and call [ __ ] I learned
that from my buddy Jack
years ago
and if you know a better way we'll look
at it and if it works we'll change our
process
but until then
we expect you expect expectations we
expect you to follow the process
there's too many businesses I see that
do not have or do not follow any
specific process
and it's amazing to me how you can let a
bunch of employees just kind of wing it
you know Grant Cardone used to have a
saying you know professionals have a
plan amateurs wing it
I don't think dealers are stupid they
know this but why is it that we have so
many employees at dealerships that wing
it
who's who's in control of that and I can
tell you when we hire somebody here we
hire people we hire happy people we
don't hire people and train them to be
happy right we hire nice people we don't
train them to be nice that's first
criteria and second criteria is we we
put them through a you know a bunch of
different steps to get hired here and if
they follow along that means they're
compliant right they're conscientious
they're doing what they're being asked
to do which is really really important
characteristic uh when you have
employees because you know like
Chick-fil-A you can't go and work there
and and and not treat them the way they
ask you to treat them
you know yeah you know my boss used to
say how do you what what temperature you
know what temperature do you cook
um french fries at McDonald's
that was one of those questions you know
the answer
do I no yeah
there is no it doesn't matter you just
press a button and the french fries cook
you know I mean like it's a process you
don't go in and like try to reinvent how
to cook french fries in McDonald's right
like it it is millions of examples of
process out there that if you follow it
and it makes sense and it saves time and
it's more efficient and and and and and
it makes the customer happy why would
you change it
but but I would I
one of the takeaways here Sean is I
would challenge some dealers like what
is your process
yeah do you have a well-defined process
so we just explained how we schedule an
appointment we let them know that the
manager is going to meet them we let
them know that they're going to confirm
that appointment well we don't let them
know that we part of the process is to
have the manager confirm the appointment
meet the customer and the rest is
increase uh
you know uh employee satisfaction
customer satisfaction more sales more
money
that that that that that's the reason
you follow a process right
um within the dealership process
do you have a standard meet and greet
that you train your sales people what do
they say can I help you
and and as an owner of a dealership
would you want
your employees to say can I help you
I'll guarantee you 999 out of a thousand
will say no
but what then why does that happen
why does it happen that you know would
you want as a consumer in your reaching
out to your own business to call ask for
a price of a car and be told you have to
come into the showroom to get the price
today
because that still happens
so like what is the process what are
what are the outcomes you're looking for
what are the expectations that you have
for your employees on how to handle
these situations
that's critical right now
um
you know and then we could talk on and
on about Basics basic fundamentals on
you know meet and greet needs analysis
uh walk around presentation go to the
service department and show them service
bring them back hopefully by that time
the desk has a pencil ready for you
um and with the trade figured into the
numbers and you can present the customer
with numbers that's how I grew up in the
car business That's How Strong the
process was uh how strong the process
was when I when I used to sell cars I
walked in the dealerships
and I'm like oh my God like
these three people these two this couple
has been with this sales person for like
three hours I've never I've never even
seen them you know writing anything down
or you know it like what are they doing
you know what have they been doing for
three hours or they stand out in the lot
and they just walk around and then they
leave and you know as the sales manager
doesn't even say hey who was that guy
you were just with outside
oh I don't know he didn't want to give
me his information like
there's ways to get that customer's
information you know what I mean yeah
there's so many processes and Basics
that we could talk about but from a BDC
standpoint Sean really
um basic fundamental process is to make
sure that leads answered properly
professionally
and quickly
um quickness is is key key to
um to uh BDC process but also
professionally you want to answer the
questions you don't want to just send
out something just to stop the clock
um you want to call it the lead as
quickly as possible
you want to make sure that you're
answering any incoming phone calls
that's your first priority I should have
said that first this is how we have our
our day-to-day worked out
priority follow-up is next meaning any
customer that we scheduled an
appointment or that we've been engaged
with or we said we would get back to
those are the first follow-ups that you
do then you go to all the unengaged
follow-up and you and you ring try to
read you try to engage with the ones
that haven't engaged with you
meanwhile when you do engage with a
customer if you can get an appointment
great if you cannot
um
we to that to the dealership if we
believe there might be something the
dealership can do to get that
appointment
um because they're asking questions that
maybe we can't answer like what is my
trade Worth or you know have bad credit
or or whatever you know we have
objective objection handling for all of
those like I understand about your
credit
um you know a lot of our customers are
in the same situation as you we work
with many different banks you know blah
blah blah and or you know the price
objection we could say I understand
about the price but if the car turned
out to be exactly the way you wanted it
Sean would you at least consider it for
that price no I wouldn't okay well
um
you know what are you comparing it to
they say oh you know I'm I'm I looked at
another place and I only saw it at MSRP
not two grand over whatever the
situation might be yeah to the dealer
and say hey look at this is what the guy
said
what do you want to do
um you know and then when we get the
appointment we do
we follow through with that benefit to
you is we're going to save you time make
your visit with with us more efficient
and enjoyable all the notes going
through the CRM you know all the CRM
tasks are completed on a daily basis all
this process
um is stuff we've been doing for a long
long time here at Charlotte
um to make sure
like I mentioned before if a dealer is
upset
I asked I'll tell Josh are we doing
everything that we're supposed to be
doing for them
you know it's fascinating that you know
you can just take kind of three elements
at the top level of being able to just
improve your BDC efforts your sales
process efforts maybe you're inside of a
dealership that doesn't use a
traditional DDC model but you're still
executing uh or needing to be executing
on all of these
um process points and we take just these
three areas
and you know I listen to your voice of
experience and I'm like
almost
um
overly surprised more surprised that I
want to be that there are these
fundamentals I mean it's like you and I
both love baseball and I coached my son
baseball for years you were a football
coach for years there are fundamentals
in football there are fundamentals in
baseball you know
um just you'll work in the middle
infield you know and where you your your
head should be down on a ball and how
you're looking it into a glove and be
light with your hands and there's all
these for every single position there
are and inside of a dealership there's
some of that as well you can break down
by roll
but once you get to the process of what
a dealership is doing we sell in service
Vehicles that's our primary purpose
that
all of the things that really Define the
most successful dealers I am
going to step out on a limb and say that
your most astrolog's most successful
dealers
check these boxes or most of these boxes
and the ones that don't still have to
get these pieces right before they see
okay we just improved our sales process
our BDC that that has to happen and
um I take that as an encouragement
because I think for dealers sometimes we
get so far down the rabbit hole of
what's happening with electric vehicles
or what's happening with you know supply
and demand and some brands are
rebounding faster than others but we get
so AI or digital retailing yeah we right
we get so pigeonholed into something
that we forget that man
um
confirming the appointment and actually
having scripts and things parts of our
process that we break down to make sure
that the appointment confirmation is
something that we slam dunk every time
because we know that the customer
has expectations set then and all the
things we were talking through that
that's just one element that I think
some people can be really dismissive of
because it's like yeah I've heard this
for 20 years okay well then why is it
still a problem yeah all these years
later because it is a lot of the most
psychological problem that we could
discuss for hours but it comes down to
one thing like if you want to win if you
want to beat your competition do you
want to out you know uh differentiate
yourself do you want your customers to
brag about you do you want your
customers to say great things about you
do you want customers for life like a
lot of dealers use that slogan and uh
you know again I understand why we do
what we do I just don't understand why
we do what we do and it's not the
owner's fault of the dealership these
owners and general managers they want
everything that I'm saying
um you know yeah Sean we should do a
topic on turnover because that is where
I see the biggest problems with dealers
that struggle
yeah the good dealers have good teams
you know that have been together a while
should they lose a player here and there
but they replace them and know how to
train them and how to get them ready
well I got some good feedback on that
last week because we we touched on it a
little bit in a recent episode and
actually had some uh folks that I know
it seems like does anybody listen like I
said most people are seeing the chopped
up versions of our content more than the
full episode but from a full episode
person that listens actually to all of
them uh they reached out to me
personally and said uh how much they
wish we would actually go in a little
deeper on the turnover uh side of the
house so
um so I think you're honest but you know
what the funny thing is
you could summarize everything that
we're saying as a dealer and say am I
doing some of these steps could that be
a reason for for some turnover I think
Can employees want to understand what is
expected of them
yeah no one of the problems in selling
is you get thrown in you either succeed
or you fail and some people can deal
with that but very few I think it comes
down to like 18 but anyway I I think
we're coming to the end here I just
wanted to you know review
hopefully you know everybody got a lot
out of the the pricing piece
um because I think it's all these things
are important
confirmation call that's a critical part
of the process if you want to increase
your show ratio make your customers you
know Stand Out be exceptional
and then last but not least
um
you know process each one of these we
could spend just probably one podcast on
because for sure but I I like that and
you know for for the audience that we'll
we'll kind of
um take opportunities more often than
not now to maybe break down two or three
components
um shorten the episodes a little bit but
make them a little more concise in this
particular one uh for all of you
listening pricing Vehicles is extremely
important you know if he if he didn't
get that at the top of the episodes
we're going through that just remember
if price transparency is still important
to your customers knowing your Market is
critically important if you don't spend
time like in the old school days I'm
sure you had and I only did the retail
sales thing for a couple years on the
weekend Vinnie so I don't have your
experience with it but I certainly know
being in those sales meetings when the
GSM is holding up the big newspaper ad
and talking through what everybody else
is doing they're they're still the
modern version of knowing what's going
on digitally with your with your
customers you gave a couple of really
strong examples with the Colorado that
the dealership continued to lower the
price on and then wondering whoa why are
we getting like more than half of this
whole lead mix for the month on this one
vehicle you give the Prius example of
what happened with Prius pricing during
you know supply and demand of if this
has happened a couple of times with
fuel efficient or Hybrid models where
something's going on the economy gas
prices you know you gave the examples on
pricings of people that are selling over
MSRP there's been a lot of that in the
last two years it's not the first time
that's ever been the case there's been a
lot of times where people have dealer
add-on fees whatever you call them this
the last few years isn't the first time
we've seen that either but communicating
that and making sure that everybody on
your team knows that you have a pricing
strategy that you've reviewed it
recently that you talk about it and
everyone knows what's going on so that
your BDC your sales people all of that
that's getting executed the right way
that's I would say on that point as we
closed out each of these segments for a
dealership if you have not reviewed your
pricing strategy and methodology
recently you absolutely need to and then
it needs to become part of something
that you talk about all the time that
you're always on the right page
confirming appointments you you
mentioned it it's critical to the
customer experience if there's nothing
else that you would take away from
uh why do we want to confirm
appointments right or okay come on the
customer's expectation gets set pretty
much at that point what you just said
yeah and you're letting the teal Wag the
Dog as they say yeah
I mean I listen I'm not trying to sound
like a hard hard ass here Sean but
if you work for me and I ask you to do
something I expect it to get done if you
ask me to do something I'm gonna do it
yeah it's that simple
you have to work together and and
expectations is what I keep harping on
that you you kept bringing up
um expectations might be the key to the
answer to all these questions what are
your expectations for your cut for your
people what do you expect your customers
to would their experience to be like
and is is that happening
yeah
yeah yeah when he when you're and on the
appointments I would tell dealers that's
another thing to ask yourself do you
know
your process do you know what
expectations you're setting in your
appointment confirmation process because
essentially you're giving yourself the
opportunity to tell the customer hey
this is how we're going to treat you
this is what to expect when you get here
ask for these people you're basically
shaping their uh the impression of
what's going to happen once they get to
the dealership and then it's just a
matter of okay well you did that and you
consistently do with every customer now
hit a home run when they show up because
if you immediately start you know
hitting home runs based on how you set
the thing up in the first place
if that doesn't have a dramatic
Improvement on your closing ratio and
how many customers are happy but also
about you online and like the referrals
you get that means
yes the whole deal really looking to
build a business or you're looking to
just close out a month strong with high
gross you know what I mean and don't get
me wrong I love money so I'm guessing
gross is a bad thing
I'm just saying they can't be the only
thing that you focus on that's all it
can and the last thing I'll say I'm not
getting back to basics in the process
piece you and I have talked about this
for years on podcast episodes in our
personal conversations when we talk
about marketing
oftentimes people are chasing after the
next new marketing thing that's going to
deliver a bucket load of leads that they
didn't have previously and so they're
going to sell more because they found
more leads and it's always about leads
leads leads leads leads and it's never
about well what process exists first
before you go and find this new pot of
gold it's great if you can find the new
pot of gold it's great if you can find
the new oh this lead source is the king
of all lead sources okay great but if
you didn't have the process to make sure
that all that stuff was going to be
handled in the first place you're
probably going to blame rice the wrong
party for why things didn't work right
so I would say
uh what is your sales process
I what's your sales process at the
dealership and when's the last time that
you personally as a general manager or a
general sales manager or maybe you're
even a very active dealer principal when
is the last time that you sat down with
your team and that you understood that
as if you were playing yourself as a
customer right yeah and if you have to
blend if you have to blend the sales
process with the BDC process why not go
with a company like oh or is it already
has a well-defined process that you
don't have to train or teach or yes like
that's why I started sprawling is
because I know how hard it is to run a
dealership Sean I know how hard dealers
work to do all the things we're saying
and I'm trying to save them
you just worry about the people in the
showroom and the in your sales people
and the managers let us worry about the
process to that point
um and I know we do it well so
yeah yep that's that's the beauty of
what you do and what you offer is that
you help dealers understand the critical
importance of all these things and
there's going to be a a pretty decent
number of them that say once they
understand that like gosh we need help
with that yeah okay where are you going
to find that help well you're gonna find
that with Charlotte right so well this
is a good place to land the plane so hey
regarding the episode if you like it you
love it none of the above we still want
to hear from you dealer insights podcast
gets better with your comments and
questions and feedback like last week I
had somebody literally hit me on a text
and then call me and say hey I love this
episode uh we love it that you're
consuming the content we do chop it up
in a lot of places to make it easy for
you to get to but we love it when you
give us some comments and thoughts and
we've definitely seen some of those
especially in the YouTube channel so we
appreciate it if you would prefer to
send us a comment you can do that at
info strollwood
s-t-r-o-l-i-d.com until that time well
stay strong and solid you'll never miss
thanks
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