Automotive Marketing with NIADA

You are currently viewing Automotive Marketing with NIADA

โ€œHaving this network and support is amazing and what is the biggest win for NIADA.โ€ -Mikael K Charity discusses automotive marketing with Dream Team Media Company’s founder and Operations Director, Kendra Brown, and National Independent Automobile Dealers Association – NIADA Marketing Directors, Troy Scheer, and Mikael Kourinian.

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โฐ Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

05:00 Secret Shop

15:00 Meet the Guests

26:00 Marketing Directors

35:00 What NIADA Brings

45:00 Next Five

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Transcript:

Transcript:

Charity

Hello everyone and welcome to the dealer talk podcast. My name is charity. I am your host for the day. Um, Herb is out. He’s actually at NADA right now. So was not, he was planning to be here, but then he got pulled into one of those. And NADA meetings that he could not get out of. So all good. Um, we’re going to start today with doing a secret

because we haven’t done one in a while and it’s my show. So let’s play the game shall we? Let’s pick a state. Wo whenever you look at these on online and you just, if you just Google like Kansas Ford, how many vehicles that they have in stock and like this first one on the list has 97 vehicles in stock.

Charity (04:06.655)

that’s rough.

Charity (04:09.390)

Um, okay. Shall we call them? Let’s call them.

Charity (04:21.970)

Thanks for calling Ford. This call may be recorded for quality assurance. For service, press 1. For sales, press 2. For parts, press 3.

Charity (04:38.172)

Your call may be recorded for quality purposes.

Charity (04:48.659)

Hi, I am looking for a vehicle.

Charity (04:54.350)

Is there one that you had on our website or something that you’re looking for? I’ve been looking for a truck for a while and I’m kind of interested in F-150s.

Charity (05:08.250)

I used to have one like forever ago, so.

Charity (05:13.770)

Yeah. So this is the one that you saw on our website or you open to kind of, I mean, cause we’ve got over a hundred at 150. So. Yeah. I’m, I’m, I’m open. I’m pretty open. Um, and like I said, it’s been a minute since I owned one. And so I don’t, I don’t know a lot about what the different trim, the different, the different levels are.

Charity (05:39.550)

for them anymore? Did you possibly want to come in and take a look at kind of what we have and see what options work best for you or? Eventually, yes, but I’m kind of in the research stage too. So can you tell me like price ranges?

Charity (05:59.770)

Yeah, I mean they’re gonna range. The cheapest one we have is 19,000 to 2014 XLT, so it’s gonna be pretty base. But they’re gonna go up to probably about 80,000.

Charity (06:12.450)

Okay, what was the sorry, well, how much was the the first one? The 19,000. 19,750. That’s a huge range.

Charity (06:25.270)

Yeah, yeah, but absolutely. That’s a 14. And then if you go all the way up to a 23, depending on the package, it can be anywhere 80, possibly 90 grand if you’re looking at a Raptor or a Platinum, just depending on what kind of options and everything you’re looking for. OK, well, I have, I need four doors. OK.

So like I don’t I just need it to be able to put a couch in or like a dresser or a You know nothing like math Yeah, not really No functional I’m looking for the functionality

Charity (07:16.090)

Yeah, absolutely. Is there like a payment that you’re targeting or anything?

Charity (07:22.930)

Um, the Ford be pretty simple. There’s there’s any more, there’s hardly any regular cabs or standard cab trucks. Most of them are going to be the super crew. Okay. Which is going to be your four door. Um, like my current car payments, like 600, obviously you don’t want to go above that because you know, that’s a lot.

Charity (07:48.830)

So we’re probably going to be looking closer to the $30,000 range, which will probably put us more around the XLT. We might be able, there might be a Larry possibly in there that’s mileage important to you or? Yeah. I mean, I’d like it to be as new as possible. I really, really love finding something that was just like that, you know, one of those ones that like the grandma drove, I guess the

drove that doesn’t have a lot of miles and is the newest possible. Unfortunately we don’t. Yeah we don’t. Yeah I’ll be honest we don’t see those quite as often anymore. Most of our inventory is going to be from some auctions because that’s the way we can keep our inventory as fresh as possible. Kind of in that payment range that you’re wanting to stay in the lowest mile attribute truck I would have would be 31,000 miles.

Charity (08:47.890)

What year is that one? It’s a 19 It’s an XLT four-wheel drive. It is the super crew It does have a smaller engine, but I can still tell Anywhere probably from six to five hundred to seventy five hundred pounds which is depend on that gear ratio It does have the sink it is gonna be a little bit more along the baseline, but it does have backup camera It has a few of those safety options

Charity (09:17.770)

I mean tonight’s truck it is clock that does have the bench seat in the middle doesn’t have the console Okay, and you guys are you open tomorrow

Charity (09:28.970)

No, we are closed on Sundays. Okay. Okay. Let me do some thinking and I’ll call you back on Monday then. Thank you. All right. Sounds good. Thanks so much. No problem. Bye. Okay. So first thing is that she never asked my name.

Charity (09:47.690)

So she has no way of contacting me back unless she took down my phone number and then she still doesn’t have a way to contact me back without it being awkward because she doesn’t know my name. Second of all, she.

Charity (10:02.670)

She put up a lot of her own objections in that. So when I have a customer that gets on the phone with me and they say something to the effect of, well, I’m just doing research right now. That’s amazing. That is an incredible opportunity. That means that they are calling you for help to do the research, which means that you could probably get them in the building.

because they don’t know what they’re talking about and they are looking for a professional. One of the things that I would say in an instance like that would be, well, you called the right place because this is what we do all day and we know the trucks in and out. I know that you said you were just starting the research, but we can cut that time in half by having you come into the building and I can have you with one of my sales associates that really knows the trucks and he can answer all of your questions.

and feel them, you drive some of them. And then moving forward, you will know what you’re looking for a lot better than just looking at the vehicles online. That’s a way to get them in the building. And you’ve created rapport, and you’ve created trust because you’re saying that you’re going to be able to help them. The other one is that I literally

Charity (11:33.550)

I told her my current car payment, and she did not ask me anything about my trade at all. And as I’ve said in the past, that is an incredible way to get somebody in the building. Because if she asked me what kind of monthly payment that I was looking to be at, she asked me what kind of price range I was going to be at, but then she didn’t ask me the pivotal question, do I owe money on my vehicle? What is my vehicle?

Charity (12:02.670)

a position where that’s going to increase my payment or not. And that gets you into the building as well. So I would say that those are three of the main factors with her that could easily have been overcome on the phone. And she didn’t ask for the appointment three times. And that’s a pretty big deal to me as well. So I’m just going to do the one today. We have a fun treat today. going to have a little bit of a round table with our NIADA partners, friends and associates. This is a new one for me. I’ve never done a round table so I’m kind of nervous. But let’s see what we can get up to.

Today on the show, we’ve got Kendra, Michael and Troy. Kendra is an owner operator of a dealership and she has a marketing company. Um, Michael is a marketing manager for NA ADA and Troy is the director of marketing and communication. Is that what you just told me? And I forgot already.

Charity (30:51.753)

And Troy’s at NADA right now.

Troy Scheer (30:57.675)

That is correct. That is correct.

Troy Scheer (31:05.996)

Yes, he went ahead and go find a place that was quasi quiet so I could get away from all the activity. It’s been wild down here the last couple of days.

Charity (31:06.550)

I always tell everybody that I, whenever an ADA comes along, I try to convince people to let me go for them. But something everybody wants to go. I’m like, so do I. Take a mean.

Mikael Kourinian (31:17.740)

Yeah.

Mikael Kourinian (31:26.347)

I’m sorry.

Kendra Brown (31:29.337)

Are you having fun, Troy?

Troy Scheer (31:31.555)

It’s really been good. I have run into a ton of people and old relationships and meeting new people. And I mean, they said, I believe they’ve taken up 40,000 hotel rooms here in the Dallas area. So it’s, and from what I’m hearing, people saying that this is probably one of the most well-attended that they’ve seen in a while. So I hope that kind of means to with things that are going on for just other things in the auto industry that it’s going to be picking up this year.

Mikael Kourinian (31:31.665)

you

Mikael Kourinian (31:45.424)

Wow.

Kendra Brown (31:45.726)

Wow, wow, that’s incredible.

Charity (31:51.990)

Yeah, for sure. So we usually start off with just like a introduction and tell us a little bit about yourselves. If you guys wanna just really quickly give us like a, you know, one minute, hi, this is who I am. Kendra, why don’t you start? 30 seconds.

Kendra Brown (32:01.766)

Yeah, that’s great.

Troy Scheer (32:07.715)

Kendra Brown (32:19.026)

30 seconds, 30 seconds. Hi, all right. So my name is Kendra Brown. I’m the owner operator of a buy here pay here dealership in Houston, Texas. We’ve been in operation since 2013. In about, I was doing the finance and the marketing management, pretty much the backend of our dealership. And then once we realized we had to start marketing

Mikael Kourinian (32:21.462)

you

Troy Scheer (32:32.715)

Troy Scheer (32:42.215)

Kendra Brown (32:49.106)

and have a website presence, I kind of jumped into that, found a passion in digital marketing and analytics, and then started to work in franchise dealerships, managing marketing strategy, building teams, improving processes, and working to make the connection between effective marketing to sales and growth of sales. So how do we make all of that work together?

Kendra Brown (33:19.747)

about this time last year that I started to consider opening my own company to do that for dealerships at scale and I launched officially in the summer of last year.

Charity (33:22.512)

Okay.

Charity (33:25.272)

And you like it.

Mikael Kourinian (33:31.224)

given to them, then they’re more engaged. And then once they’re engaged, then you can give them a little bit more. But really, it’s one of my past experiences outside of the automotive industry, working in financial services, dealing with brokers and wirehouses during normal market hours, they really don’t have time to listen to what you have to say. So I feel that kinda is also the case in the automotive industry, which is phenomenal.

Kendra Brown (33:33.526)

That’s it.

Kendra Brown (33:37.786)

Oh, I love it. I love both both. I love the automotive industry. And I really, you know, I’m glad I’m on this here with the NIAID guys because the associations have been tremendous in helping me grow a career in automotive. You know, when I started, it was a business. It was a family business. I was following in the footsteps of my dad, you know, and with the buy here, pay

Mikael Kourinian (33:48.055)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (34:00.326)

you

Mikael Kourinian (34:01.224)

skill sets where you can quickly present what you can present, get them to understand the point, and then move on to the next steps and building a better relationship and following through and making sure that they can get the meat on the bones, basically. So that’s kind of been my experience, and it’s great. It challenges you. You know, you have to be able to say everything in, you know, within 10, 15, 20 seconds, right words, strategic, concise, and you’re good.

Kendra Brown (34:07.646)

which I very much enjoy the car business. But it was in the education and learning and meeting other dealers that it became something that was more, something that I could learn and grow in. So getting into the marketing piece, it’s sort of like a never ending learning situation because you always have to stay ahead of the changes. And then using analytics was like,

Troy Scheer (34:23.204)

you

Troy Scheer (34:28.570)

you

Mikael Kourinian (34:30.040)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (34:37.404)

you

Mikael Kourinian (34:37.467)

Well, it takes a lot of trial and error, but…

Kendra Brown (34:39.247)

like, oh my God, I can measure everything. I can control outcomes. Like, yes, you know, I’m on board, let’s do this. And so it was just, it was a passion and being able to do both, you know, it’s always very daunting, like, oh, I can’t do the dealership and this, but I’ve just sort of let it grow, you know, just let it grow naturally where it goes. You know, of course I’m pushing it along. I’m a competitive person.

Mikael Kourinian (34:49.447)

you

Mikael Kourinian (34:56.962)

you

Mikael Kourinian (35:00.004)

I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me.

Kendra Brown (35:07.526)

and very ambitious and so I and I have a heart for the automotive industry and for dealers like me, small independents who often do not get access to the same kind of tools and technology that larger dealerships get. So being able to to bring that in, enable them, empower

Troy Scheer (35:08.004)

Mikael Kourinian (35:30.004)

I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me.

Charity (35:32.910)

Yeah, there’s so much there. I want to keep talking about that. They told everybody they could introduce themselves. So Michael, tell us about you.

Troy Scheer (35:34.804)

you

Kendra Brown (35:37.546)

or even in execution, it’s my passion. It’s my mission, so.

Kendra Brown (35:47.446)

Hahaha!

Mikael Kourinian (35:53.814)

Absolutely. So my name is Michael Krenian. I’m a marketing manager at NIAID. I’m a marketing professional of over 20 years,

Troy Scheer (36:00.792)

you

Mikael Kourinian (36:02.080)

in traditional all the way to digital marketing, analytics, strategy. Basically I’ve operated my own business for several years and then when this opportunity came about took it because I saw the potential and obviously it’s been a fantastic opportunity working with the organization, with the association as well as all the independent dealers and helping be the voice of the independent dealers so it’s been fantastic.

Troy Scheer (36:18.224)

I am the, I guess the old guy here, but I’ve even got Michael out beat a little bit. No, I’ve been doing this for about 25 years now had my own agency for 20 of it. Got into the automotive as everybody says, I think you got into the automotive industry by accident where we had one of our clients was actually in automotive. And we did a great job for them and they’re like, Hey, we want you to come work for us. So that’s kind of where everything kind of happened there.

Charity (36:21.698)

And Troy, what about you?

Mikael Kourinian (36:36.640)

Hahaha

Mikael Kourinian (36:42.272)

Yeah, because that data manager is also basically an engineer. What you’re doing is you’re engineering data, mapping it out, making sure that you’re collecting the right information, and then they start plugging it in, and you get a bigger picture of what’s going on. But it really takes an engineer to understand,

Troy Scheer (36:47.704)

later now you spent a few years with that company and now I’m with NIADA and really enjoying you know and that was one of the reasons I was so excited to get Kendra on here too is just to be able to have people that are in the business and understand and she’s got a great grasp of both sides because a lot of times I think marketing we can get a little bit too theoretical and sometimes you know not understand the day-to-day of what a dealer is dealing with and so being able to kind of have that background and I’m

Mikael Kourinian (37:00.084)

for, how are you going to obtain that information, and what medium are we using basically to bring that in, to import that info, put it in that spreadsheet or whatever tool you’re using, but be able to bring it in and then interpret the data. So that’s what it comes down to.

Troy Scheer (37:17.884)

as much, you know, it’s interesting. You know, Kendra said just starting her business, but I’m learning just as much from folks like Kendra that are doing it, that may have only been in it a few years. We’ve all got to work together and that’s really been my approach and that’s one of the reasons I’m actually down here at NADA today. You know, it’s just again to develop those relationships for the automotive community and really understand, I know Kendra mentioned that, you know, a lot of the smaller dealerships, the independents, don’t have access to a lot of the

Troy Scheer (37:47.784)

And I know just talking down here, I think there’s a concerted effort for a lot of these companies that are in the marketing space to really work more with Smaller that they feel like, hey, you know, we’ve kind of let them, you know, almost forgotten about them a little bit. We need to start focusing on that. So that’s one of the reasons I’m even down here is just to get more of those folks, those brands, those partner solutions providers to be involved with us to help our dealers.

Mikael Kourinian (37:57.340)

I’m going to go to the bathroom. I’m going to go to the bathroom. I’m going to go to the bathroom.

Troy Scheer (38:17.904)

So it’s been an exciting, you know, an exciting time. There’s always something new to learn. Like Kendra said, I mean, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing this a year or 25 or 30, your things are changing so much now and an understanding of how data works and all of that and being able to have access to that for dealers is just critical. So it’s about getting everybody together and being, yep, being better together.

Charity (38:23.511)

Yeah, for sure.

Charity (38:42.531)

Oh yeah, for sure.

Charity (38:50.170)

Um, so I have worked most of my career on the franchise side, except for one, one and a half years, I went to this little independent dealer in town, sold like 30 cars a month max. And I learned so much in that year versus every year that like my, my, the owner operator was a huge advocate for training. He would send me to training all over the country.

Mikael Kourinian (38:53.007)

And never never ends the marketing that’s how it is

Kendra Brown (38:58.894)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (39:05.104)

you

Troy Scheer (39:09.104)

you

Troy Scheer (39:11.704)

Charity (39:22.912)

I was in charge of redoing the website. I learned so much because there was only a couple of people at the dealership. And so everybody had like five different roles that they were doing at the same time. But on top of that, the day to day…

Mikael Kourinian (39:25.704)

you

Troy Scheer (39:28.504)

you

Mikael Kourinian (39:32.648)

you

Troy Scheer (39:37.304)

I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to go ahead and start the recording.

Mikael Kourinian (39:39.904)

I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to start the recording. I’m going to start the recording. I’m going to start the recording.

Charity (39:43.870)

impact that one car sale had on everybody in that dealership was so much more significant than in those big franchise dealerships. They actually significantly valued every single one of those car deals every day. I learned so much about valuing a customer from that. It was a great experience for me, for sure. But the other thing that I learned is how

Mikael Kourinian (39:50.340)

and then we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide. So, we’ll go to the next slide.

Troy Scheer (39:50.604)

I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me.

Troy Scheer (40:00.804)

you

Troy Scheer (40:03.004)

and I’m going to be doing a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit

Charity (40:13.790)

much the independent dealers kind of they do they they miss out on a lot of the a lot of the technology and because they just kind of get overlooked oh that’s a that’s a buy here play here place so and that’s sad because most people for you know every one franchise dealer how many

Troy Scheer (40:20.904)

So, I think that’s a good way to start. I think that’s a good way to start. And I think that’s a good way to start. Thank you. Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (40:24.640)

I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m not sure if you can hear me.

Troy Scheer (40:35.077)

Exactly.

Troy Scheer (40:38.104)

I was going to say you’re exactly correct. And I think sometimes that happens on both sides. I think sometimes the dealers feel like there aren’t opportunities out there for them and that communication. And I think that’s why it’s just so important that as an industry, we start communicating better from the side of the dealer, but also being able to help the solutions providers understand that yes, as a matter of fact, we’re just talking to somebody today and they were like, yeah.

Kendra Brown (40:49.911)

you

Mikael Kourinian (40:52.637)

Yeah, and also, once you figure out who your audience is, that’s number one. And then second of all, you need to find out where your audience is, right?

That’s why you have the different means, whether it’s digital or traditional marketing, mailers, or whatever it may be, for example. In today’s world, we’re looking at digital more, especially after COVID, a lot of things changed. So we’ve relied more on digital. And so we need to know where is our audience? What’s the medium we need to use to reach them? So that’s what it comes down to. That’s where the data engineer comes in, the person who understands the information and can interpret

Troy Scheer (41:08.124)

We just don’t feel like that the smaller independents reach out to us, but we feel like we can really add value. And I think one of the things that there is the misconception too, is that some of these things are so expensive that a smaller dealership maybe can’t afford it. But there are companies out there again, who really believe in the industry and the community and what we’re building that, again, talking today, there were several companies who were like, well, no, let’s figure out how we can work with them. Let’s make it work.

Mikael Kourinian (41:32.004)

How do we put this into implementation? How do we achieve what we’re looking for, which is to get to our audience, to make sure they receive the message and it’s done effectively.

Troy Scheer (41:38.344)

Because if we can add value there, we can continue to build. There’s ways to do these things. We just got to work together in it. And I think that’s the key for all of us is to find those the right people and bringing the right relationships together because the opportunities on the dealership side and on the vendor side are both there. We just got to be able to connect.

Kendra Brown (41:55.673)

Mm-hmm.

Charity (42:04.850)

Mm-hmm. For sure. So let’s talk about analytics a little bit, because I loved what you said, Kendra, about the power of numbers. One of the things that I see so frequently in the dealerships is.

Kendra Brown (42:15.130)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (42:18.008)

Yes.

Mikael Kourinian (42:19.440)

Thank you.

I’m going to go ahead and start the presentation. So, I’m going to start with the presentation of the first speaker, Dr. Kareem. So, I’m going to start with the presentation of the first speaker, Dr. Kareem. So, I’m going to start with the presentation of the first speaker, Dr. Kareem. So, I’m going to start with the presentation of the first speaker, Dr. Kareem. So, I’m going to start with the presentation of the

Charity (42:22.370)

There aren’t processes that are written down. There aren’t KPIs that are written down. And I say it over and over and over again, the amount of money you lose by not having it written down, by not knowing what your goals are, you’d be hemorrhaging money that way. And, but this just this, I don’t know if it’s an old school because I’ve only been doing this for 10 years, but so if that’s an old school mentality that, you know,

Troy Scheer (42:23.404)

you

Troy Scheer (42:28.304)

Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (42:34.069)

Thank you.

I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done.

Kendra Brown (42:36.426)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (42:40.846)

Thank you.

Kendra Brown (42:43.330)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (42:45.892)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (42:49.999)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (42:51.937)

you

Charity (42:52.470)

the older guys that didn’t have technology and they all wrote it down on paper if that’s something for them but the power of numbers is everything to me.

Mikael Kourinian (43:11.440)

Kendra Brown (43:12.727)

Yeah, that was the one thing when I would work in my dad’s dealership and I was like, there’s a better way to do this. It’s really not expensive. We can do it like this. He’s still leaving to this day is like viewing your spreadsheets. It’s weird because he understands the numbers. He understands, he knows his numbers. He knows his business very well.

Mikael Kourinian (43:20.180)

Yeah.

Mikael Kourinian (43:24.604)

I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question. I’m going to start with the first question.

Troy Scheer (43:26.008)

Thank you. Have a great week.

Kendra Brown (43:40.886)

successful. But I think it’s going back to what we were saying off camera before we started was like, the dealer is is a gambler. The dealer is a risk taker and likes the the thrill the competition. So they they there’s, you know, that spreadsheets just slow you down, you know, and and they you just really got to in and the hard part of you know, if you’re

Troy Scheer (43:48.551)

Thank you. Have a great day.

Troy Scheer (43:58.804)

Kendra Brown (44:10.886)

into this charity and of trying to improve processes is you have to go through so many iterations of your presentation of the process before you finally get it to the three bullet points that’ll make it so that they can understand what it is and what the value is. And that’s where I spend most of my time is cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Here’s why, here are all the numbers and this is how it works. I’m like, nope, three sentences and that’s it. That’s all they need.

Mikael Kourinian (44:11.066)

Thank you.

Kendra Brown (44:41.266)

That’s just it, because they’re wheeling, they’re dealing, they’ve got things, they’re gamblers. And I’m in that group too. I’m just saying, if you put me in my dealership, I have to be very disciplined to sit down and not get up and work that deal. Like someone, let the salesman go, work that up. I’m working on my numbers and my spreadsheet. I have to contain myself.

Mikael Kourinian (44:46.504)

Thank you.

Yes.

Mikael Kourinian (44:56.604)

you

Mikael Kourinian (45:01.389)

you

Mikael Kourinian (45:05.780)

You know, I have to say, you know, when you’re dealing with that type of personality of that type of business owner, really what you got to do is you bring it down Kendra and I agree with you. Three main points. Tell me within 30 seconds. Let me under

Troy Scheer (45:18.726)

you

Troy Scheer (45:21.604)

you

Mikael Kourinian (45:22.159)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (45:35.956)

Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (45:40.004)

you

Troy Scheer (45:45.504)

Thank you for watching.

Troy Scheer (45:50.104)

Charity (46:02.814)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (46:07.370)

you

Mikael Kourinian (46:08.370)

Thank you.

Kendra Brown (46:13.226)

and I’ll see you next time. Bye.

Troy Scheer (46:13.616)

Yeah.

Mikael Kourinian (46:14.848)

you

Kendra Brown (46:17.331)

Mm-hmm.

Charity (46:18.853)

Which you make it sound like that’s so easy to do.

Kendra Brown (46:21.467)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (46:23.904)

Well, and I think the key you talk about with analytics there is, you know, if you’re not that person that you need, it’s always a good idea when you’re hiring somebody or bringing somebody else onto the team to think about, you know, what you need in terms of skill sets within your business. And I think that’s a critical place is being able somebody that can take data and understand it and really, you know, refine it down so that they can then get it to the decision maker and go, okay, here’s what you’ve got.

Kendra Brown (46:24.046)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Charity (46:26.850)

and

Mikael Kourinian (46:29.404)

Charity (46:30.750)

try anything.

Kendra Brown (46:34.892)

He’s gotten really good at being succinct.

Mikael Kourinian (46:45.328)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (46:53.944)

mindset to be able to do that. And that’s why it’s, it’s really critical. If you’re going to bring your, Hey, I’m going to bring one more person on. Well, who should that person be? It’s like, you really need somebody that can help you think in that way and really take information and make something actionable from it, because again, there’s so much noise and so many data points and so many things that are coming in now with all of the digital elements. And, you know, as we grow for, you know, on our phones here, there’s, there’s data coming in from there. There’s, I mean, there’s just so many.

Mikael Kourinian (47:21.244)

Excellent well for me and what I’ve understood and I believe this is applicable. It’s bringing that 75 plus years of experience being in the industry being the voice of independent dealers And I think throughout the years how many dealerships can say? 75 plus years now when the members come together and the association itself Altogether we’re talking about hundreds of years of experience now

Troy Scheer (47:23.904)

points that if you don’t have a way to pull it together and somebody that can take that information and all those numbers and go, okay, based upon this, here are the actions you should take. And if you don’t have that, that’s when you end up wasting money on your marketing spin, on your advertising and things like that, because you may be making a decision on information that you think is important. But when you as you start looking at the big picture, you’re going, oh, well, crap, that wasn’t as important as I thought it was.

Charity (47:41.211)

Oh yeah, for sure.

Mikael Kourinian (47:51.104)

It’s not just NIAIDA, it’s NIAIDA and the members together as a community, as one body, coming together and bringing that level of experience that you’re not going to get on your own. But I think that’s one of the things that I’ve learned that’s been mind blowing because can you imagine if this was applied to other areas of other industries, it would be phenomenal. I mean, having this much of a network and support, especially with what Kendra said with the 20 groups.

Troy Scheer (47:55.365)

So having that person I think is critical and I think that’s something that’s really happening in the, you know, where things are going from an education standpoint now to just talking to colleges as my children are going to school is that data analytics is going to be an important part of where people go. No matter what size if you’re, you know, two or three person shop or, you know, 20, 23, 25 rooftops, you know, you got to make sure that you’ve got that data and can manage with it.

Kendra Brown (48:11.746)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mikael Kourinian (48:21.264)

It’s amazing. That’s what I think is the biggest important item for me basically I would say.

Kendra Brown (48:27.889)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (48:48.804)

Troy Scheer (48:53.429)

you

Troy Scheer (48:56.392)

you

Kendra Brown (49:02.697)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (49:12.406)

And the next piece though that I bet is already, you’re probably seeing it there at NADA. I haven’t seen it happening with any vendors for the independence, but this is something that I hope to do quickly with Dream Team Media is let’s take it from data analytics and interpretation where all we can say about that, all we can do with the data we have is ask some questions. You know, this is the data, we see correlation. We do not have cause and effect yet.

Troy Scheer (49:22.204)

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this.

Mikael Kourinian (49:33.904)

you

Troy Scheer (49:36.404)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (49:39.915)

you

Kendra Brown (49:41.486)

models, regression models, to find what is actually of statistical significance. And so you can say, you know, so the marketer who comes and says, well, your impression share is X, Y, Z. Well, do we do have we put it into a model to know that my impression share is actually influencing the outcome? And it may be to a certain extent, but then we can allocate budget accordingly. So if I put all of my metrics in there and into a model and I say, let’s find the most

Troy Scheer (49:56.504)

I’m going to go ahead and start the recording. I’m going to start the recording. I’m going to start the recording. I’m going to start the recording.

Kendra Brown (50:11.606)

that I need to work on and have it in every evolving model so that I can constantly see what metrics are important towards the final outcome and that’s how I can allocate my budget accordingly. That’s the next, that’s what’s exciting, that’s my next frontier. I’m sure someone’s already done it but I’m going there for the buy here payers.

Mikael Kourinian (50:15.258)

Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (50:20.904)

Troy Scheer (50:24.887)

Well, you can always make it better. I mean, again, because no one person knows it all. That is, you know, a definite.

Charity (50:26.010)

Even if somebody’s already done it doesn’t mean that there isn’t more to learn and more to know.

Mikael Kourinian (50:26.104)

you

Mikael Kourinian (50:38.504)

you

Kendra Brown (50:40.415)

Exactly, exactly.

Charity (50:40.530)

It makes me think of a non-car analogy is when you go into the doctor and you’ve been taking all of these different medications and been prescribed all of these different things, your doctor is the one who knows that the reason that you are sick every morning is because these two medications don’t go well together. And it’s the same thing. As dealerships, we have a tendency to go, oh, look at the next shiny object.

Mikael Kourinian (50:45.904)

Kendra Brown (50:46.746)

That’s true.

Kendra Brown (50:49.510)

Yeah.

Troy Scheer (50:55.857)

Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (51:03.004)

you

Troy Scheer (51:10.204)

you

Charity (51:10.630)

Herb calls it FOMO. The fear of missing out, right? What’s, ooh, I want to try this one, ooh, I want to try this one. And you don’t realize from a leadership level the impact that that’s having on your customer base when they get 15 emails from five different vendors. And if you don’t have somebody in place to see that, then that’s your problem right there. Yeah.

Mikael Kourinian (51:20.519)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (51:27.004)

you

Mikael Kourinian (51:29.104)

Troy Scheer (51:34.224)

And there are a lot of things, Charity, coming from that, with what you just talked about, about how important that data and information is to really create that single kind of golden customer profile so that you know who your customer is, especially if you’ve got multiple, you know, if you’re a dealership with multiple root shops or different things that you’re doing, or the way that somebody might, you know, they might create a Kendra Brown account and then someplace else they got Kay Brown, or you’re like being able to pull

Charity (51:40.576)

Um.

Mikael Kourinian (52:01.284)

Yeah, that’s why we say, for our slogan, for our 20 groups, it’s more than just the 20 group. We’re not there to sell you anything. We’re here to help you. And we’re also the voice of independent dealers with our advocacy direction. And how many can say that? Right? How many 20 groups can say that if we’re talking about looking at other 20 groups? And even though they can bring some of that education, but we can bring more.

Troy Scheer (52:04.144)

to the same, you know, multiple times to the same person. While that may not be an advertising or a, if you want to call it, in my mind, it’s still a marketing element because it’s really creating that relationship with your customer. And that’s really what all this data is about is how do we take all of the technology that’s out there, all of the artificial intelligence, things that are going on, and give us a way to better humanize our relationships with our customers.

Kendra Brown (52:23.926)

Mm-hmm.

Mikael Kourinian (52:31.104)

and that’s the key with the benefit of being at NIAIDA.

Kendra Brown (52:31.850)

marketing.

Kendra Brown (52:34.926)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (52:38.026)

Charity (52:38.750)

Kendra Brown (52:48.826)

I think that’s key, Troy.

Kendra Brown (52:54.933)

Mm-hmm.

Mikael Kourinian (52:58.692)

You

Mikael Kourinian (53:07.668)

Yep.

Mikael Kourinian (53:16.189)

Yeah

Troy Scheer (53:21.004)

Kendra Brown (53:30.871)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (53:39.466)

And a key, an important thing internally that needs, you know, on this is where, you know, marketing has, it has a touch in all areas in the operations, in the sales, in, you know, the follow up, because if you’re not collecting that information on your customer, if you’re not, if you’re just ignoring, well, it doesn’t matter if I put up their male or female, well, you know, it could matter if we see that your, your, your buyer’s queues female, that’s going

Troy Scheer (53:47.804)

you

Mikael Kourinian (53:50.626)

Yeah. Yeah.

Mikael Kourinian (54:02.085)

You know, I would, Charity, I would say for me, it’s making sure we keep that human touch and experience, even though we’re running at a hundred miles an hour, racing through to get to the technology aspect of things and try to keep up or to be ahead, but let’s not forget the human element of the human touch and make sure we understand it’s all about relationships. It’s not just going on your computer, typing in a few things,

Kendra Brown (54:09.446)

marketing, you know, and or if it skews young or old, you know, there’s so many different things that we can kind of build a profile to understand the value that your customer is seeking and even survey data. Like, let’s put that in there. Let’s find out what they say is valuable so that you can continue to not just continue to target that, but build the loyalty. Like,

Troy Scheer (54:09.704)

you

Mikael Kourinian (54:30.284)

and then having your car shipped over to you. But what happens to that experience? Because if you don’t understand cars, you know, what do you do? You bought something which you haven’t really, you haven’t popped the hood, you haven’t taken a look at it, you haven’t talked to that person, built a relationship. Know you can go somewhere, bring that car in, have a conversation, maybe have whatever needs to be fixed, but have that relationship established. So that’s one thing that I’d like to see happen

Kendra Brown (54:39.426)

loyalty loop at your dealership so that you keep that’s cheaper. I mean you’re saving money there that’s cost efficient marketing if you’re going to build a loyal base and have a referral base coming back too. So

Charity (54:43.030)

Oh, yeah, I completely agree. OK, so moving things along a little. Kendra, one of the things that you had said is that the NIADA had given you this power to build your dealership beyond what you knew. And I want to explore that a little bit, because I think that that’s huge. The dealership that I worked at was not associated with NIADA.

Troy Scheer (54:52.804)

you

Mikael Kourinian (55:00.485)

but how do we then maintain that relationship aspect of things?

Troy Scheer (55:03.804)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (55:07.225)

See you.

Troy Scheer (55:09.629)

you

Charity (55:13.731)

He struggled all the time to just make ends meet. And I’m interested to see what the impact of NIAID is on your.

Kendra Brown (55:17.826)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (55:22.804)

you

Troy Scheer (55:26.032)

you

Kendra Brown (55:35.006)

Yeah, well the first thing, like, my husband and I got to a point where we were like, we’re missing something. Like, we have knowledge gaps. And so we actually first, our first conference, we went to TIADA, our Texas Association, and that was, we met so many people and we didn’t even go to the expo hall. Like, we weren’t in a position to be spending more money, you know. So we were there

Troy Scheer (56:04.296)

Thank you.

Kendra Brown (56:04.926)

like a Facebook expert, a Google expert. And I like, I just learned so much. And that was it. I was like, oh my gosh, there’s so much more we could be doing on for so many. And there’s so much data to support it because they all come in with like metrics and data to support it. Like, you know, you know, now we know like 99% of people are looking at

Troy Scheer (56:07.904)

you

Mikael Kourinian (56:10.606)

Thank you.

Mikael Kourinian (56:13.804)

I’m going to go to sleep. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to sleep.

Troy Scheer (56:32.168)

you

Kendra Brown (56:34.926)

metrics like, you know, actually nobody cares that your dealership is family owned. Like that is the least important thing to a buyer when they make a decision of what dealership they want to go to. And that was pretty eye opening. But you know, those kinds, so that’s it. And then when NIA ADA came to, another thing at those associations was we had lots of dealer

Troy Scheer (56:40.632)

you

Mikael Kourinian (56:55.204)

I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done. I’m going to take a few minutes to get this done.

Kendra Brown (57:05.426)

who had already gone through your pain points. And so I had heard then about 20 groups and I heard them talk about it. And so when NIADA was in San Antonio after COVID, we opted to, you know, that would be our conference for the year. We went to that one instead. And I, they were doing a lot with 20 groups. And I told my husband, I was like, we’re doing this. We’re getting in a 20 group. And it was really important for us

Troy Scheer (57:23.992)

you

Mikael Kourinian (57:25.204)

I’m going to go to the bathroom. I’m going to go to the bathroom. I’m going to go to the bathroom.

Troy Scheer (57:33.304)

Kendra Brown (57:35.566)

especially like he was doing the operations, I had a lot of knowledge, but it’s really hard to tell your husband, I mean, telling him to put the dishes in the sink, like that’s marital stuff, but to go and now we’re in business and your husband’s telling you to do this, like we love our marriage, you know? So the 20 group is a great way to, I saw like for him to like, let’s meet,

with some other dealers, you know, and thankfully we got in a group where it’s a lot of married couples who are hands-on in their operations. So it’s like we are just well matched with colleagues. I have a peer network now because I couldn’t do that very well in my local area because we’re competitors, you know, and there’s this sense of scarcity, you know, in competition

Troy Scheer (58:16.604)

Troy Scheer (58:29.448)

you

Kendra Brown (58:34.966)

to give too much to somebody, you’re going to be very selective of how you share information. But the 20 groups really, really gave us a network of continual knowledge through the 20 groups and just the educational events they do as well. So yeah, any association, just go find people, find friends in the industry and, you know, build.

Troy Scheer (58:36.904)

you

Troy Scheer (58:48.024)

Thank you.

Charity (58:51.850)

support group. Michael and Troy what do you think is the what would you say the one the best thing that NIADA brings to dealerships? Each of you.

Troy Scheer (58:58.567)

I’ll let you go first, Michael.

Mikael Kourinian (59:16.204)

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do this.

Mikael Kourinian (59:41.723)

Yep.

Mikael Kourinian (01:00:04.228)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (01:00:09.024)

Yeah, and I concur. I mean, it’s what I see here from that education standpoint. Um, that’s, that’s what we all need. I mean, the, the, the thing that we can get the most of is, is education and experience because we don’t know it all. We don’t know what’s going on. And one person can’t get it. We’re like, you know, Kendra was talking about, you’ve got the 20 groups where you’ve got now 20 different, uh, dealerships, dealership groups, people who are being able to bring best practices together and go, Oh, gosh, I didn’t even think about that. And now you’ve got this group of people who are.

Charity (01:00:14.550)

Troy.

Mikael Kourinian (01:00:24.213)

Hahaha!

Mikael Kourinian (01:00:34.950)

Thank you so much. Thanks.

Troy Scheer (01:00:39.264)

are sharing and really truly invested in each other. And I think that’s the key and the thing that I’ve seen that I was, you know, pleasantly surprised about because like Michael said, a lot of industries don’t do this, but you can tell obviously, you know, even the guy across the street, you want him to do well. Now, you’re not going to necessarily give him all your secret sauce and tell him everything. But I think it’s the fact that what I’ve seen is that we’re trying to, you know, the NIADA is an association, but then the members, the board members, all the people that are involved,

Even the vendors and solutions providers and things like that, it’s everybody is really, really focused and really genuinely focused on educating the dealers to help them because they realize too, with that, without a strong dealership community, they don’t have the business. So it’s, it’s like, it’s, it’s just one of those situations where the more that we can help that dealer and that’s why we’re just so dealer focused and making sure that we bring those people together. That, you know, and then also, you know, it’s kind of

when it pops off to your top of your head, but we’ve got an advocacy group up in Washington, D.C. to help with all of the political and the things going on there, the rules and regulations that there’s a lot of stuff that’s happening that if you don’t have somebody there, you don’t know about it and it impacts your business. So it’s really that conduit of all this knowledge, bringing it together in a way that focuses on the dealer. And again, it’s one of those things, you hear it.

we’re concerned about the dealer and you kind of, sometimes I think just, especially after you’ve been in the industry for a while, just in business in general, you’re like, yeah, that’s a nice saying, but I see the action. I don’t just see it as, oh, that’s a great talking point or a great slogan or something that we wanna use to make us all feel good, but I truly see that mentality in action.

Charity (01:02:12.833)

Yeah.

Kendra Brown (01:02:22.368)

Mm-hmm.

Charity (01:02:41.450)

Mm-hmm. Well, no, go ahead.

Kendra Brown (01:02:53.326)

Yeah, and I think I’m sorry, Adrian. Good. I was just going to add to the whole when you brought up the advocacy. And I think, you know, there’s a sense of also, you know, once you get into the associations and you you you take, then there’s a sense of like wanting to give back and like continue to go. So that and so, you know, I’ve always gone and learned and learned and learned. And this will be my first year. I’m going to go

Kendra Brown (01:03:24.126)

day at the Capitol and be a dealer voice. They give me the topping points, I don’t know what we’re talking about, but they need dealers there to represent. So I was like, well, I’ll take time. I’m giving back, you know, but that’s great. Like it’s great for the industry to build credibility and to have, you know, relationships to just bring the industry to accomplish what it’s intended to do, which is empower people with automobiles.

Troy Scheer (01:03:43.204)

Charity (01:03:46.891)

Well.

Kendra Brown (01:03:53.588)

you know, and so.

Kendra Brown (01:04:04.431)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (01:04:07.736)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (01:04:16.748)

you

Charity (01:04:22.350)

Well, this has been amazing, you guys. We have one question that we ask everyone that comes on the show. Well, Herb asks it differently than I do. But where do you see, how can we improve the automotive industry in the next five years?

Troy Scheer (01:04:23.004)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (01:04:38.324)

I’ll let Kendra go first because she’s living it so that we’ll get it right from somebody living it day to day and then we can give our thoughts.

Charity (01:04:42.851)

to go.

Charity (01:04:59.250)

There’s so many things, this is how he’s just…

Kendra Brown (01:05:04.547)

I don’t, I mean that’s a, there’s so many things.

Kendra Brown (01:05:12.266)

Well, I think I would like to see some major improvements in

Kendra Brown (01:05:22.446)

Technology in terms of its openness and its capabilities. So rather than keeping it all industry centric, I want to see more flexibility in how retailers can use whatever platform they want to organize their dealership. I think that would be an improvement. Then you would have access to the best technology no matter what it was.

Charity (01:05:35.990)

Interesting. Yeah.

Charity (01:05:40.790)

That’s a new one for me. That’s a good one. I like that one. How about you guys?

Kendra Brown (01:05:46.726)

Does that make sense? Ha ha ha.

Kendra Brown (01:05:52.786)

Yeah!

Troy Scheer (01:05:56.011)

you

Troy Scheer (01:06:04.564)

I think that’s a good point.

Troy Scheer (01:06:08.604)

Troy Scheer (01:06:20.870)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (01:06:37.104)

Thank you.

Troy Scheer (01:06:42.548)

you

Troy Scheer (01:06:48.284)

And I would say exactly what both of, you know, Kendra and Michael said. I see things and then, you know, a lot of what I’m seeing here at NADA and just what’s going on from that data perspective, that there’s going to be a lot of open source things and a lot of really great things happening on the data front that will allow dealers, again, we go back to talking about data and analytics to really be able to access a lot more information, but in a

Charity (01:06:49.870)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree. Try.

Kendra Brown (01:06:59.967)

Hmm.

Troy Scheer (01:07:18.744)

where you don’t have all this disparate data on individual customers out there. So you’re really able to pull it all together to create what some people I’ve talked to call that the golden customer record, where it really has it all together there. So you know who they are on a human level. And that then ties back into what Michael says. You’ve got to be able to take that information, the data and the technology. And man, it’s great because it’s giving us all this information and it’s coming. And I think that’s something dealerships are going to have to be aware of

Charity (01:07:40.750)

Troy Scheer (01:07:48.424)

that they’ve got to start thinking a few years, not being as reactive, being more proactive and thinking about where are we going to be two, three, four years down the road to at least try not to be behind the eight ball and always trying to play catch up. So that data is coming and those opportunities are there and there’s a lot of things there, but you’ve got to be able to take that now and go, okay, how do I utilize all this information I have to be more human with my customers, to be able to reach out

Kendra Brown (01:07:51.167)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (01:08:13.709)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (01:08:18.424)

that relationship because ultimately we’re buying no matter what it is you’re really if it’s a human to human interaction and somebody is giving you money because you were doing something to make their life better you know whether it’s selling them a car or providing them a service or a software or food whatever it is you’re taking and exchanging somebody’s they’re giving you money to make for you to make their lives better so you’ve got to come back

Troy Scheer (01:08:48.224)

And as no matter what industry you’re in, whether you have car dealerships or retail places, or lawyers or anything, you’ve got to create that human interaction. Like Kendra said, when you develop that relationship, now you’ve got an ongoing customer. Those people talk. And let’s face it, we do business with people we like. And if you can create that, utilize data and all those things to make some of the statistical

Kendra Brown (01:08:52.068)

Mm-hmm.

Kendra Brown (01:09:04.347)

Mm-hmm.

Charity (01:09:14.834)

Mm-hmm.

Troy Scheer (01:09:18.204)

standpoint or inventory gathering standpoint, but that all ties back to what do my customers want? And then how do I know, okay, if I’m a dealership that’s, you know, I’ve got 50 of maybe two or three models of car on my lot and that’s not what my customers want, well, I need to understand that and make sure I’m not going to be able to sell them something they don’t want. So I need to know who they are and to talk to them and create that communication. And it can’t be a one-way thing where you’re just throwing stuff out to them.

Kendra Brown (01:09:41.226)

Mm.

Charity (01:09:45.650)

Troy Scheer (01:09:48.384)

that data that they give that says, okay, I see how charity likes to do certain things or what’s important to her so that I can make sure that I now can provide an excellent experience once you interact with me, whether it is digitally or in person where I’m, you know, signing something, writing something, whatever, shaking hands. It has to be that. We have to utilize all this to make it better, just create better relationships.

Charity (01:10:19.950)

Yeah, I totally agree. I just did. I did a secret shop at the beginning. Whenever I do the episodes by myself, I always secret shop people. And the customer, the conversation that I had with the agent was exactly what you’re talking about. There wasn’t any attempt to figure out what was going on in my situation to create a relationship. They just data dumped on me.

Charity (01:10:51.651)

And that’s so hard to articulate to people that are on the ground. You’re like, you can’t just give them information. You’ve got to create a relationship with them. And yeah, that feels like it takes a little bit more time, and it feels like it takes a lot more effort. But you’ll come away feeling better about your career, and you gain yourself a loyal customer who will come back to you over and over and over again.

Troy Scheer (01:11:19.215)

Investing in your future.

Charity (01:11:20.191)

is how the automotive industry can improve for sure too. Thank you guys!

Kendra Brown (01:11:22.031)

Mm-hmm.

Charity (01:11:27.610)

Yes, yes. Thank you for being on the show. Really appreciate it. And then if you guys have any questions as listeners, you can visit niada.com.

Kendra Brown (01:11:33.326)

I think that’s a great point.

Troy Scheer (01:11:35.045)

That is correct.

Charity (01:11:42.790)

OK, go on over there. And then, as always, thank you guys for listening. And we will talk later