Car Guy Coffee Podcast #5Liner Edition feat. Maggie Pugesek

Hello and welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. This inner brew at Drive

Centrics DC twenty has been brought to you by our friends and partners at and Excess Solutions, Fixed Ops, Digital and one Data and Analytics, three two to one Ignitions, Shop Smart Autos and Big Cube. If you want more

bruised or you want to find out how to partner with the Carguy Coffee Podcast, go to Carguy Cooffee dot com. Let's brew. Good morning, good

afternoon, good evening, whatever time it is, wherever it is that you are and you are hearing this, Hello and welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. I am Lou Ramirez, the car Guy, and I am Frelin

Arts, the Subprime Hero, and we are excited to be Brewined Solutions with you today. But we got a really important and fun person to speak with

today, So we got to get everybody involved, right, absolutely, we do. We need to make sure that we tag a car guy, tag

a car gal, and share share, share, share, share share, get this out there because we have a solutionary in the house, somebody out there who's coaching people on ways to be better inside their stores. And really

it's gonna help them be better inside their lives, because when you are doing great at work and you're feeling good, everything else starts to roll together.

Am I right? Lou oh man, you are so right, You are

so on point. You know what, I'm gonna have to give you what

she is for that she is. And welcome to the show. All of

you that are joining us on the live or those of you that are joining us on the replay, whatever situation it is that you are catching this show.

Thank you for being part of those that want to upshift and uplift those that are around you and this incredible industry. Wherever it is that you are,

thank you, Welcome to the show. Thank you for brewing with us.

We are so thankful for everybody that's taking the time to listen to share this around. ABS appreciate you all. The culture is shifting, things are

changing, People are truly trying to find ways to brew solutions consistently with a smile on their face, and you all are making all all the difference because of your interaction with us, and we're so grateful for it. I can't

wait to hear more about somebody who really takes seriously what it is that they have charge of the people that she gets to help and the impact that's able to be made by way of her yes to this industry. It isn't just

fun to say her name. It's fun to hear the stories. It's fun

to make sure that we do get out of her the best that there is when we're brewing. So please make sure that you make her welcome, because

we are pumped up to get this five line underwey it's going to be a great show. I just finish it up doing all my sharing right now.

I hope you're doing the same thing, my friend, and listen, we have some great, great content that's going to be come in your way.

This person has her own show. She's out there doing some amazing things,

interviewing some amazing people, and we were blessed enough to be able to come on our show and have a great conversation. I think she said it was

one of her longest ones. Doesn't surprise me and when we have both of

us on the show together. But we are excited to have her on the

show because I have a feeling this show is going to be one of the best ones we've ever put out there. Too. She brings a lot of

energy. She brings a lot of knowledge, inspiration and motivation on how to

be more inside the dealership. Particularly, I know she crushes on the phone.

She was part of a I'm telling you, she's part of the DNA that we come from when it comes to phone too. So it's really cool

to know that we speak very similar language when it comes to the way we speak on the phone. So I'm excited to put her on them on our

show today. I'm excited to bring her up on the screen and talk about

her some more. Lou You ready, bro oh Man, so ready.

So you will have to help us out, keep sharing this around, keep getting everybody out there. But we got to get some music, because every

good hero needs their theme music, that's right. And with that, the

solutionaries that come to brew with us do get the chance to have us welcome in them because they deserve to be celebrated on the stage and inside of the cafes. We're glad that you are joining us today as we brew solutions with

the One the Only Maggie. You guess it. Hell, you guys telling

you we did practic this that a few times. Everybody, Hopefully we get

it right again by the end. Of the show. But we are so

glad that you're here. Maggie, Maggie, you rock, Thank you,

Thank you for having me. Guys. Good shot on the last name,

good try. We're gonna keep getting better everybody, but what we learned to

say it, but beget that's it, just like that right there. Talent

up in order to get it right, get that accent going. But no,

listen, she's much more than the name. She's somebody that's out there

making a difference across the industry right now. And I love what's going on.

You're out there training, you're out there coaching, you're out there mentoring many people excited to talk to you, excited to hear your story. How

you got into all this kind of stuff. So welcome to the show.

This is car got coffee, and we got the one, the only, the Maggie and Pete all right, Yeah, we appreciate you so much.

Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Welcome. Yeah,

thank you guys. I'm excited to be here. I love your message.

I think you guys do a really great job of spreading the and the training.

And happy to be here. Oh wow, that means a lot.

That means a lot coming from you, because you know, I feel like we're cut from the same cloth when it comes to that. You're out there

trying to spread the message and then of course help dealers at the same time and people. At the end of the day, you're helping people and that

goes all the way to the clients that are purchasing vehicles and I love that.

So that being said, we always kick off every show there's Kendrick Brown is a dream team right there to media that make sure you them and you guys will see more about them on the show. We'll have Kendra back on

very soon too. But folks, we have so much talk about Before we

do. We always drop some F bombs in the house. It's got to

drop fain. These F bombs are not designed to offend the moms. These

are legit ones words. So we're going to make sure that we spread this

out because we want the whole world to understand that the best way to keep growing is to forgive, focus and fly. You gotta let go of that

way of unforgiveness, am I right? Louth? That's right? And as

we do that, the message that gets across to everybody is that the to be our absolute best is what's most important. And when we wipe off the

weight of unforgiveness, whether it's against others or ourselves, then we're free enough to be able to focus on what it is that we can truly put our powers to, and then we can stretch out and fly and make things happen.

And as we fly, we keep growing, We keep growing and going to new heights with each other. And the important part of what it is

that we get to do is find more and more incredible beings like you that can show us how it is that you grind it out and make something great for everybody to enjoy and get maybe just a little bit caffeinated and excited about life on. We're pumped up that you're here with us. But we're gonna

forget, focused, fly and keep growing. You ready, you ready,

ready, all right, let's get this rocking on. Three count it off,

one, two, three, forgive oh, focus, fly and keep grow it keep growing. There. That's right, we are ready to begin

happy lot of time. It is time for the five liner. And the

five liner is five questions that we love to ask our guests that come on the show because I really think it gives an idea of where people come from, where they're going, and how they got there right and why they doing it. We're going to start with the first question, the very first question

is where it all starts. It's your why, your drive, what gets

you going every single day to get up, help all these dealers, help your family, help yourself, do all those things that a lot of people wait till tomorrow to do. I feel like one of the biggest things is

obviously helping people, like that's what we do, that's what we're here for.

But a lot of times that message gets lost. If training isn't really

explained to the people that we're training properly, they have a really hard time with it, and they tend to see it as a negative instead of positive.

And that's a problem because the whole purpose of learning how to be better at something you already know how to do is to be better and to constantly grow and learn from your experiences and learn from your phone calls. And everybody

on my team and myself included, most of us have been doing this for over ten years, listening to phone call after phone collfter phone call, and we're just trying to help, and so sometimes that message gets lost. So

I like to get up and spread the message further and talk about it and talk about training and how we can help people and provide free tips and tricks to those who maybe don't work for somebody that believes in phone training, and just try to help everyone overall be better at what they do, because at the end of the day, if you're a salesperson or even a collector, most of the time your phone call is how you drive money into your pocket.

Hey Dealer's Car Guy, Coffee podcast and Certified Solutionaries are honored to be part of team Thank you. The solutions They've been ruined for you to acquire

more vehicles, advertise merchandise, and manage those vehicles has made them one of the most sought after FELA partners in the marketing. They are one hundred percent

cegce it proved and when you visit them at finc dot com you'll see a whole hill of beans worth of reason day. Thank you. Let's prow If

you're a commissioned salesperson, you need that phone. That phone is what drives

people into your store. And if you're not great at it, and you

can take the best salesperson the most energetic person on the lot, and usually their phone calls are a little bit not great because it's a different animal.

Being on the phone is so different than selling things in person. So I

really think helping people is obviously the most important thing, but also spreading the message that training is not bad amen to that it's actually a necessity. I've

been hearing this a lot, and Madam Marberger has been putting it in a lot of his speeches lately, his talks that he's been doing. Adam Marburger

is a good friend of ours, owner and operator of the Ascent Dealer Services.

They do F and I stuff, and he's talking about training isn't something that we did, it's something that we do. And that's not his quote,

but he's been saying that so much it's resonating through me. I'm like,

he's so right and s right up our alley, all of our alleies.

Because it's important that people understand that you get taught something once doesn't mean you retain. It's when you constantly practice it you get better and then you're

able to start coaching down and that's where the love becomes great. Like when

you're able to mentor help people, you end up getting better at it too, just naturally you can't help it, right, So it's a progress it's a way to be able to gauge your progress, and it's important. Training

is crucial. It's what we do now, always do, so important,

and it's so interesting to me. Just today I had a conversation with one

of my coaches where she was trying to train somebody and they were like, being on this phone call with you right now takes time off the floor, takes time away from me. And we talked about this when you guys were

on my podcast too, and it to me, that's just like soul crushing, because yeah, you might take away from one car that you might be selling, but how many more are you going to sell if you actually learn the information that she's trying to teach you, she's here to help. That

one just always gets me. It's come on, guys, this is an

investment, just period. It's an investment. Invest in yourself, and really

especially for salespeople because a lot of times they get referrals and they get like a following friends and family come back and buy from the same people. Don't

you want to build that? And that can happen if you do a really

good job on the phone. That's where everything starts. You got those first

five seconds to make that first impression, and you've got to make it count.

I agree with you so much. It's really it's very impactful. A

lot of our conversations most card you'll start on the phone, my friends.

I just want you all to know that's where it all begins. Maybe they

went to the website, but where they really make a connection with the dealership is on the phone. So how you do that and how you make that

happen in the first you said five seconds, it's really crucial. It's the

same thing we always think it's about when they show up, but no, it's the impression we leave with them on the phone that brings them in, makes them want to come in and actually show up to the appointment on time, if not early, with everything that they say they're going to bring.

So understand that it's a very big skill to have in something you need to practice all the time for sure, zeroing in on the abilities that you have inside of your store, whether it's with technology, with techniques, with word tracks, with the synchronization of timing of a deal. Anytime that you are

trying to master these things. You can't ignore the part where connection actually happens,

and whether it's by way of email, it's by way of text.

However the conversation gets started or starting to cultivate into being driven to the phone, the goal is still to hear the other person and let them hear you, right. That is where we are the absolute strongest in being able to

convey our message to somebody, and that needs to not just be constantly I would say sharpened. There's no time that it doesn't need to be sharpened.

Every day inside of every call center, there's somebody that hears something that they haven't heard before, right every single day, and there isn't a word track for it, and it may happen again and it not be trained for because it never got even brought up, you know what I mean, It never really got tracked. And this is why it's so important that you do have

people that are able to look at that and say, hey, here's the tweak. And exactly like you said, this isn't a cost a real investment,

but it takes its dual investment. It's your time and it's your money,

right in that you have to go into this investment with the intention to get something out of it that can't come out of it unless your hand is involved in it. And that's why it's so important that you do have those

coaches that do grab them and say, hey, this is what to look at, this is what to actually say it until you really have it down and then continue to build on it, but never stop learning. God,

I love that. It's actually funny that you bring that up, because one

of the things that we do is we actually listen to real sales calls.

So when a dealership records their calls, we log in, we grab those calls, and we're actually physically coaching them, so it's like a personal training session for your sales call, and we interject our vocal comments in there.

And sometimes people accuse us of only picking the bad calls. Now, first

off, nobody has time for that. Nobody has time to go through the

hundred calls you've taken a day and find only the bad one. But I

think that what you point out here is that when you find bad one, don't you want to learn what you could have done differently so you don't put yourself in that position. Again, that's the whole purpose of coaching and training.

You don't go for a workout session with your personal trainer and have them correct you on squats and be like, no, I want to do it the wrong way. What doesn't work that way? You want to do things

the right way. And so even those calls that sometimes are bad, or

somebody who normally does really well on our program but then fails a call, it's not to hurt you. It's to help you so that this doesn't happen

again. Oh, you are speaking it right there, and that's it.

Like people, it's good matter of fact that you've got to make mistakes in order to grow, learn from those mistakes, like take chances, figure out what you did wrong. But what's beautiful about the coaching that she's providing is

that she can call you and then give you basically the science of how to do this the right way. This soll this next time you have a situation

even similar to that, at least you know the process of what to say and why you're saying it. And that is key. And that's why practice

really is what makes perfect here and when you get better at this, which I love what Kendra said. Kendra put a quote out here. She said

that phone skills are key and only get better with practice, and a lot of people are like, I don't want to practice. I don't want to

do that. But listen, inside dealerships, we have more time than ever

to do extra practice. Why not get on there and really work on this.

Why not instead of wing it, learn something and practice it and use it. Apply it? How about that? Apply? The difference between people

who do things and don't are the ones who apply, And that's the reason why they're successful. They're applying things that they're being shown, not just saying

hey, I get it, but never doing it. I love that.

Ye yeah, right. If you just start with saying the script, eventually

you'll get the tonality right. Eventually you'll get all this stuff. But you'll

find that those scripts are designed to make the customer think a certain way and ease them a little bit, drop their card down, just a greeting.

Like sometimes people end to the phone sales and then you're trying to let's say it's for service, right, even hey I'm here to service. They don't

even say hold for a second. They just put them on hold. I've

done that on the who. If it's not for them, they immediately without

no kind of nice greeting. It's all about, we're having a wonderful day

here at ABC Motors. How can I help you? S Sirmmel. That's

what That's the greeting you want to give them because you are having you want them to feel like, Ooh, I want to be having a wonderful day too. Yes, that is the greeting. That's so easy energy, How

easy is that? Every single time you can flip the switch soon as the

phone rings if you're gonna if you don't want to do it, don't pick up the phone. That's how I always say. If you don't want to

answer it with a warm greeting that's fun and exciting, that's telling people that we're having a good time, then don't answer the phones. You're wasting your

time, my client's time, in everyone's time. Someone else could have got

that and actually got them excited about coming in. Something I read just the

other day it was about the five seconds, because we know we have the five seconds to develop the first impression. The statistic is that if your first

five seconds are bad, it takes you eight additional interactions, positive ones with the same person in order for them to reverse their opinion of you. Wow,

So those first five seconds are super important, and then if you mess those up, then you're looking at eight. And let's talk about sales for

a second. If you screw something up the first time, are you gonna

have eight more chances with that customer? When is that? That's how important

the greeting is. It's those first five seconds those can say, well,

let's speak about maybe some of the first five seconds inside of a transition in your life where you found this incredible industry. We're always wanting to know about

the great people in the industry, which is why we have the show, and what is it that led them to our beloved automotive industry? So what

was it that brought miss Maggie to automotive? Hey, dealers, franchise and

independent, we have some great news for you and your number one sales pro your website. Partner with Team Mxcess. We have the ability to pull you

out of that cookie cutter merry go around and help your website and body what it means to do business with you, from the highest quality production to the most strategic optimization. We want to help you connect better to the ever changing

mort to you and your team to at least let us do a quick and free check up on your website. We can't wait to hear from you.

Go to the teams dot com. Back to the show. When I was

about eighteen years old, I actually started working for a chiropractor. And I

don't know if you guys know anything about chiropractors, but they are in it to win it. When it comes to training, they train their staff inside

and out, top to bottom, phone training, they take you to seminars.

They're really into training. And that's actually how I got started. We

had a phone coach and she would call up to the business and pretend to be a patient and you would have to you didn't know it was her, and she would mystery shop you essentially, and she would record it and then she played for your boss and if you failed, not good right. And

I actually happened to meet somebody that was working in this industry that was doing coaching for another company, and I worked for them for about five years and I left in twenty sixteen and started my own company. I started at the

very bottom. I started as what we call a coaching assistant, which is

the person who listens to the phone calls to try to find the calls for the coach, things that are viable sales calls, like new customers, things like that, and it worked my way up. I was the director of

operations there for several years prior to leaving in twenty sixteen to start my own company. And we are pretty unique because we specialize in like customizing things to

really match every store. Yes, of course there's going to be cookie cutter

items to it, because psychology is psychology and it doesn't change no matter where your store is. Brains are the brains. Rains are brains. That's how

we got here. And I really wanted to work in this specific space because,

let's be honest, it doesn't get a lot of attention, specifically from big vendors because we're small. You can have stores with two people, and

some people don't see that as effective, Whereas I feel like everybody deserves help.

Everybody deserves the training, and especially with challenge credit customers, those people need us and they need us to help them to get back and forth to work and to get out of tough situations. And I feel like this industry

deserves me and my team. Hey, I love that, and thank you,

and we do welcome. We welcome to the industry. We need more

amazing people like you coming over here, bringing in skills and different perspectives into our industry that we are needed in our industry. The training, like you

said, we are so far behind on that alone. If we would make

it more, I think that even though we think most employees would be like us, too much training, I think that you would retain the best ones.

The ones that stay are the ones that you want because they're going to constantly get better. There's going to be more opportunities, and they see it.

It's like it's the way that we need to make it. They do

it in service departments a lot. They do a great job of giving them

opportunities to get their licenses, to get up to the next level, master mechanics, go on so forth. But yet all we do is ask them

in a new car store, We'll ask them to learn product knowledge and let them get signed up on that, and then they have to sell so many to get this. But that's just sell so many. Cool. That's great

and all, but at the end of the day, what are they really learning. What are they doing that's helping the customer besides just selling them?

So we got to teach them and let them know that we see where they're going and allow them to grow up that way, right, and give them, hey, structure in that. Why not, let's give them that consistent

structure of growth. I would sign up for that all day long, knowing

that I'm going to be making income while getting better and getting educated and growing and having opportunities for more. Yeah, all day long. And people like

you coming into this industry are bringing that with and showing that it's a great thing to do. I love it. I think that you're doing a great

job of what you do, bringing in that training and showing that, hey, look if you do that, because listen, who doesn't have a doctor's office that you send appointment with that doesn't make sure that you have a call before your appointment. They always make sure that you're gonna show up. If

you don't, man, they wear you out. It's all those above,

But we all take that like it's normal. We should do that same thing

there. When you make it that urgent, people show up more. Yeah,

you make it feel like that your time is that value, then it is that valuable to them. Right, So it's important that we learn to

script people and teach them the science of why you have to get them to a certain appointment and let them only pick between a couple of times. There's

the ways to do that, and it's really good to do, but you have to do it and make sure that your clients understand that there's urgency in this, and that's where you really get good. It's not just a nonchalant

Hey, let's do an appointment. Maybe you'll show up tomorrow too. Now

it's confirmed, like really good ones, and then great follow up afterwards, constant change. I started a new car and did that for five or six

years before I came over here to the used car industry. And one of

the things I love about the used car industry is the fact that I get to work with the people who own the business. You know how rare that

is. A new car, most of the time you're dealing with a general

manager and their sales manager and it's but when you get to work with the owner and a lot of times we actually train the owners too, And I love that because that is how invoke this culture of we all are in this together. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and we

all need to work together to sound just sound better on the phone, even if you're just learning a basic, simple couple of key phrases. It is

literally better than answering the phone. Sales sells. Yeah, right, in

the industry, it's been really fun to actually work directly with the people, with the people who actually invest their time, their love, and their energy into their businesses. Maggie, I couldn't agree more. We're very passionate with

independent dealers ourselves, and that is a great benefit that we enjoy that it's not just the decision maker, it's the person who really has the heartbeat for the entire business that from there the drum gets beat right from that heart goes out what it is that everybody's trying to say, because it's so hard to not know the heart of who it is that you're speaking on behalf of.

I believe that people that believe in the mission of their dealership they answer that phone with that passion, that joy, that conviction of enjoying the opportunity to take care of that person on the other end, not because it's just something that they heard, but it's something that they feel from their leadership. Right.

It stays consistent all the way through their entire flow. And that's something

that takes training. In the military, everybody trained on training day, whatever

rank you were, we were all training. We were all doing some of

the same training together, which helped sear us to each other, help us keep a spirit decor right to where we are really wanting the same mission, even when we're going over the fundamentals of what it means to do what we do, which is the most importance are fundamentals, right, That's why we constant and constant refresher on fundamentals. And then you have different levels and that's

great, and that's the way it's supposed to be, they say, and making great points Lou that the fish rots from the head down, and when you have a great leader, and when you're able to work with one and that's and you're so right, Maggie. Working with independent dealers, being able

to work with the owners straight, one on one with them and they get involved in knowing what the process really is. That causes that fish to be

very fresh because their heads are super fresh. So everything else below that or

part of that, I should say, it's going to flow really good, it's going to be strong, it's going to have all the nutrition it needs and it's going to because naturally what we do is we follow the leader.

And when the owner is the leader and he's doing right things, we're doing right things. And when he's educating, we're educating. When he's when he's

holding people accountable, everybody's holding each other accountable. It's when we when the

fish, when the head stops doing that is when it starts to fall apart.

So speaking of leadership and speaking of people that we follow and people that really help us grow, we have mentors in life, right, And I know that you've had some mentors and you get to be a mentor to many right now, right, But you mentioned coming in and finding through going through a chiropractor office, seeing how their process was, learning about their training.

I guarantee there are some mentors there, but as mentors before mentors currently, who are some of your greatest mentors? For me, I'm a big fan

of reading, so most of mine probably be authors, not actually people that I personally know, but also too totally that the first chiropractor that I worked for really believed in me. I was just fresh out of high school and

he took the opportunity to take a chance on me and hire me to work in his front desk, and it was I really learned a lot. And

I feel like when you find somebody like that and then invests in you, it is really important. But I personally like a lot of little things.

My team is definitely they're every single day they mentor me, They make me better, they make me a better boss, they make me a better owner, and help me write better scripts and just make us what we are.

So I would have to say definitely my team. I know it's not a

super in depth answer, but no, you're right though, Like you mentioned authors, I always tell people mentors aren't people that sometimes they are. It's

an author at the book, it's a great speaker that you love to hear speak or you've seen speak, or that's mentorship, learn something from it and it applied it to your life. That is where you get that. I

draw inspiration from so many people that I didn't meet and now I've had the opportunity to meet, which is really cool. Right like after you had these

people that you've maybe read their book, you've seen with their shows or you've seen their podcast or whatever it is, and you finally get to meet them and then you see that they are those people and that's what or even better, they're even more than that, right, You're like, whoah, this is dynamite. Right, We never know till you meet them sometimes, but

it is. It's great that you have that. And I don't think that

you made it. I think it was great. Talk about your own Helien

Michael's fan, which is nerdy, but I love her and she came to Green Bay and I got to meet her. She did like a whole backstage

thing, and she has some amazing stuff in her books. And it's not

just about fitness too, like she talks about mental health and how that ties into obviously fitness, but also how you feel about yourself. We know you

were doing the show so far. We just wanted to quickly remind you about

our partners at Fixedops digit and how they are Automotives premier service marketing and technology company not only crowd sponsors of the Car Guy Coffee podcast, but they also served as You're dedicated to point of contact for all your online service marketing related needs servicing dealerships throughout the US and Canada. The mission is to create a

better online experience for your service customers while using data intelligence to drive more fixed Operations revenue. If you want to take your service marketing efforts to the next

level, go to fixed ops digital dot com. Back to the show,

Let's go, And I feel like she has a lot of positive messages for people and trying to teach people about nutrition and what you put in is definitely how you're going to feel, and a lot of stuff like that. So

that was I started by reading her book and I loved her. She's two

or three books out. And then I got to meet her and I felt

like such a nerd when she's all of four feet tall, so that was even weirder because she's super short, and like in the picture, I'm all like awkward because I'm a big nerd because I met her. And you know

how it is when you meet somebody that you yeah for that, Oh yeah, it's always like that for me too. I've met a few people that

have nerded out because yeah, we get a little starstruck, but you know, that just is that we usually have. It is fun and it is

great and cool. Cool. I'm a cool guy. You go up totally

not cool when I'm talking to him, Hey, you know what you're I felt when I met Michelle Rhodes. But oddly enough, we were in the

ladies room, which made it even funnier because I had known who she was and watched their podcast all the time, and of course they're by here pay Your Nation TV. And then we bumped into each other in the bathroom and

it was the first time we met, and I felt like such a nerd because I was kind of falling on her. Yeah, you here, do

you want to? She was super cool about it, but it was like,

Oh, that's that is awesome. Michelle is awesome too. Yeah,

I can't wait. We have them on the show of My Friends next Thursday

on March second. We had a reschedule, but it's going to be a

good reschedule. Everything is fine, So we can't wait to have them on

the shows. And due time, things happen for a reason, and I

think it's just going to be that much better because we did so excited to have them on, but no, super excited to have you on. And

thank you for sharing those These first three questions are they dig into your like knowing more about who you are what gets you going? And I love that

I could tell that it's because of the people around you, is what gets you going one hundred percent because you talked about that in your mentorship too.

You talked about the people who work with you and your company those are mentors to you. And I agree with that so much. People that I mentor

become my mentors. That's how I look at it. They hold me accountable

to in a lot of ways. So it's a two way street there.

I love that you talked about that, so I can see that you're all You're about community, You're about growth, You're about putting work together, but showing people that, hey, by putting work together, great things happen, right, and you can be as much as you want to be in that So I love that. Yeah, honoring your mentors and taking a piece of

their mind from their books and applying it to your life. And where you

have a thank you for somebody that has no idea what it is a deposit in your life, right, you can see that person and say thank you, like genuinely, say thank you, why for what? If you only

knew? But the time that I went in to reading that part of that

book, it fixed this part inside of me or in my business or in my relationships and whatever. Right you have this appreciation and honor and value for

them, especially because you run into different situations in life where you're like clinging even to some of the words that they're saying and some of the experiences that they spell out. And with that, there's the piece that helps you to

say, Okay, in this particular part of my life, I have to learn this. I have to get this lesson inside of your life. Though

many people are going to get the chance to read the book on Maggie, and when they get to the chance to say that or see that, they'll hear or they'll get the chance to reference to Carguy Coffee podcast and here you say, what was your hardest lesson getting till now? I think a lot

of it is like drowning out the noise a little bit, especially from trainees like you can have, especially for some of the coaches who have large stores.

You can have a really rough day and I've done every job there is to do in my own company. I believe that's super important. Knowing what

everyone does, knowing their roles, making sure that everyone is compensated fairly, and that they have the tools they need to be the best they can.

And I feel like that's one of the things. That's hard is drowning out

the noise because when I first started coaching salespeople in the new car world, you would get people screaming at you and sending you emails and I'm not going to get my bonus now, and this is all your fault, and that is really hard to not take personally. And I can tell my girls don't

Actually, I've got guys too. I can tell my team don't take it

personally. They don't mean it at you. This is more of a reflection

of them and their own inability to honestly read words on paper, which might sound harsh, but that's literally what it is. If we dumb this down,

and you have to drown that out, and you have to remember that there are people that you're helping. And then on those days when you get

those emails from somebody who was selling five cars a month and now they're selling and they were able to buy their kid a bike because they made their bonus this month. That's what it is all about. So it is really hard

to drownd out the noise from the negative people that don't want to grow themselves, even though you're trying really hard to help them grow and then from there, making sure that you remember the positive and the people that you are really trying to help, and remember that it's not all about the negative, that there are people out there that do listen and they do care. And I'm

sure you guys see it all the time too, when you go somewhere there's one person in the class sitting in the back with their arms crossed. They

don't want to participate. That happens all the time, and everywhere I go

there's always one in my class and they usually don't stick around because training is just too much for them. And really what it is about them not wanting

to grow outside their own bubble. So I love that, and you're you

know what, You're one hundred percent right, Maggie on that that is a big lesson to learn, because I love that you say you got to pay attention to the good that you're doing, because there is there's a lot success, and this is why you are successful. Success is going from failure to

failure without loss of enthusiasm. And that's what you have to do, is

understand that those aren't failures. I know what that's like to look in the

corner of a room and you can see that person not one of feet kicked up looking at you guys, it has we love trying to get them.

That's like our favorite one. That's what you get. Zoom in on them,

like you back there with the foot up Louis. I love lou because

of his New York. Right, he's got that New York and him still

and he'll tell you on your shoulders, you're the ones. Everybody don't listen,

wait on, you don't beat a weird one. Let's go. So

you're right, but that person and most of the time they just they want to be loved to, They need love to. But every once in a

while time we got to do our best pour into them. Michelle Rhodes popped

in and she says, love meeting you, Maggie, totally not awkward.

I was like, oh my, that's Maggie p I totally want to introduce myself, so you see what I'm saying. It's always a two way street

there and your reputation itself always and we've heard nothing but amazing things about you, Maggie, and that's why it was so exciting to be on your show.

I was totally honored and so excited to have you on our show because it's a blessing to our audience and to us to have people like you coming on and talking about all these things that we're talking about, lessons learned, talking about our mentors and ideas that we have in processes that we believe in.

You believe and you understand first five seconds. That is so crucial,

that first impression. It's never more important than it is on a sales call,

and when you have that beer than that too. But people don't always

think about it, but it's kind of nerdy. But if you think about

kind of like what's happening even right now, Yeah, you guys are listening to me, but there's stuff going on behind your camera that you can't see.

And your brain is only recording what's happening right in front of you, but everything happening around it's storing away later for memory. So your subconscious is

actually more important than your actual consciousness. So when you call somewhere, it's

not just about those first five seconds and how they answer the phone, but what's going on in that person's environment around them, And then every time they think about your store, those are the things that they're going to remember.

And it's not just about the first experience, but everything happening around them.

So the first phone call is super important, but what happens when they come in You have to think about the subconscious, what's going on around them at the same time, and the environment that they're in, how clean is your store. All of that gets compacted and that's where their impression and your reputation

is going to come from. And so I feel like sometimes people don't dive

deep enough into understanding what we really do, because it's not just about teaching you what to say or what not to say, but also reminding you there's a whole lot going on in people's brains, and our job is to try to help you focus them in on what your goal is, what your goal of your phone call is, trying to help them collection sales, whatever the goal service. And remember that there's other stuff happening too that you can't control.

So you have to take advantag of the things you can't control, like controlling the conversation, obtaining contact information, inviting them in, and then when they come and make sure it's a good environment, a warm, inviting environment.

Quick question, do you know what smart pixel two point zero, Location IQ and audience IQ? Have in common, you know I do. They

are solutions that our friends and proud sponsors and one Data and Analytics are brewing for automotive ayond once again, you're right, my friend, and we want to invite all of our audience to go to m one hyphen Data dot com to see how they can help propel your business forward with the right data insight.

Go check them out at m one hip Data dot com. Let's brew.

Come on now back to the show. Oh my gosh, you are

like, hello people, listen, hope you're taking a rounds. I'm just

saying it's the science. I love what you're saying. It's the the way

your brain works is so right, It's exactly right. You can't just say

one thing and then when they show up, give them something completely opposite, right, It all has to align to where they're like almost the picture that you painted or that they painted their heads when they're on the phone. When

they show up, that it's very similar to that. Even if it's not

visual, the feeling is similar to that. They want that. So you've

got to greet them, be excited, just like you were on the phone.

You got to make sure that your office space is clean. You can

definitely have control over that. That's something I love what you said. The

uncontrollables is the weather. You can't the interest rates today, the prices of

vehicles. Those are things you have no control over. What you do have

control over is your energy that you give them the experience that they have.

How clean your showroom is lock absolutely experience that's comfortable to where they feel like that that they're there somewhere that they're going to be able to conduct business without feeling weird about it. Like when you don't want to even put your hands

on something. There's a problem. Okay, I don't want to touch this

stuff here. I'm not doing that. So something to put in your cup

or your solutionaries out there that have a showroom, that have people that are responsible for common areas that your customers get to see. Do that us taking

dealership staff for a little walk. All right, everybody, we're gonna jump

out of the classroom real quick and we go boom to boom to each and everybody's little area and say, what do you see what can be improved, what needs to be cleaned? Bro? For real, you know what I

mean? It's an opportunity of awkward for everybody to go through together. Everybody

can find that speca dust. Okay, we've done KP duty before. We

understand how to look for the spots and the crumbs here and there, and it's gotta be ready for a white glove to come through. But not everywhere,

not everywhere ever, has that leader that takes them for that walk.

So we challenge you all leaders out there. Check out your shop today.

Check out where it is that you are, your service department, You're where your customers are gonna sit. What the display inside of your vending machines look

like? Is it clean? Is it dirty? Just take a little walk

around and take your people around, and then say what would you want if you came in here. I agree to do business, to spend your money

right, go for those walks. We encourage you all do that today,

just as much as you would scrutinize the car and the speck that's on the rim here and there, take a look at where your customer is spending.

Actually, most of their physical time is inside of your common areas. And

just because you don't recognize it at the moment doesn't mean that they don't spot it right away. That's all, they know. You don't smell it anymore.

You've been there long enough, you know what I mean. True,

they need to know you want to check that out. And the one step

that is if you're going to pay attention to anything at your staff. And

I think that Maggie made a great points at first five seconds, listen to how your staff's answering the phones. Even if they're not great at setting appointments,

it's probably because of the way that they're answering the phones is the way that the customer's feeling. So if you can get them to be better at

one thing today, and it'll probably make a massive difference, I think, and I know I think Maggie would agree. Is one call Maggie and she'll

teach you how to do it. But number two is to have the first

five seconds of the meet and greet on the phone extremely very just good, high energy, bringing the volume up a little bit, making sure that they're excited, maybe even standing up, walk and a round when they answer phone.

Don't let them sit down on its slouched. They're going to answer it

like they're slouched. People here smiles through phones. People here, my friend,

Oh my goodness, so true. Get excited because you should be excited

because phone phone calls are the best calls. There's those are my always.

We used to fight for them in our line. I used to throw I

would a dude to get to the phone. If the phone was like if

they had a sales call, literally like hockey, it was bad. It's

funny you say that, because I don't know if you guys have ever heard of call drip. It's a company where basically a customer puts in a lead

and then your cell phone rings immediately. And what happened is I had a

store where they would ring to all ten salespeople simultaneously, but those people that were on the Verizon network their phones would ring first. Oh wow, everyone

would switch to Verizon so they could all get the phone calls at the same time, because otherwise the people with Verizon had a leg up because it just rang first for whatever reason. And that's what solutionaries do. They adapt goodness.

We want to find a way to adjust ourselves to be able to maximize the potential. That's why training on how to operate in those first five seconds

is critical. The first five seconds inside of an emergency room are critical for

many people that find their way in there, and we are an industry that needs to train on it and need to focus on the effectiveness of the rest of the transaction based off of that first little moment that time right there, and you're you zeroing in on that helps everybody to set the stage across the board, and like you're saying, it should be setting the stage all the way through the process when you're on the phone with Disney for some reason, even though while you're on hold, you're still dreaming about a big, magical wonder, right and in that stage should be set inside of the full flow

of the transaction that's happening on the phone. You don't even sound excited to

be there, sir. Why should I get excited? You know what I

mean? That whole excitement of an atmosphere that's set has to actually be what's

there. And that's why we try to make it so that people like you

do say, actually be that. It's way easier to sound like it if

you're actually being that, if that's what's really going on, then it's way easier to act like it. Right. We don't want a facade, we

don't want to fake it. Let's make an incredible atmosphere that translates onto that

first five seconds that makes people say, I gotta be there. That's the

spot to be at. Love it, man. We could talk on this

all day. This is some good bruin. I'm almost at the end of

the cup. Yeah it. So we do have a fifth question, of

course, and this and because we're seriously, Maggie, this is a great subject. And I think that we can have a whole show just about that

subject. I really know that we could go for hours because this is right.

We believe phone skills are so important. We preach that in our stores

too. We know what that's like. We train that in our stores.

That's just what we did when we were there. We were taught that,

and we understood how valuable that skill was and why when Lou and I work selling at it while, we were able to set ourselves apart, right, And that's and that was because of our phone skills. It wasn't just our

lots skills. Everybody had good lot skills. It was everybody's great and excited

when they have somebody in front of them. But how excited can you be

when you're on the phe with somebody and they're different, right? Being that

you guys have done it. You would agree with me that it's so different

when they're standing in front of your versus over the fist. And it's a

great skill. And if you can be well rounded in this industry, you

can be really you could be dangerous, very dangerous. This incredible solution,

ay right here. Even Apicella, who is a genius of genius. I

love Stevens, and he's exactly correct highlighting that it's not just esthetics, it's how people are treated. They're going to remember how you made them feel.

It's not just the way the look is. How do they feel? That's

subconscious, right, that's it? And how did they feel around you?

What kind of atmosphere did you set? And was it rewarding enough for their

time and their money? And speaking of rewards, we go through a lot

of things. We've talked about your why, We've talked about what brought you

in this industry, and we're so thankful that you're in this industry and I know that I know this isn't then for you. There's so much coming from

all this. I know it, and it's beautiful. And then of course

we talked about mentorship and mentors being a mentor and being mentored, and then we talked about lessons learned. But the last question I have for you is

what's been your greatest reward so far for all the work you've put into this so far. Obviously, starting my own company was pretty amazing. Working for

someone else training new car stores, it was great, it was fun, and I loved it, and I learned so much from working there. But

starting my own company was really important to me. And then I would also

have to add really my people. I have the absolute best team, and

even as we grow and we bring new people on, we get great new people too, and they come from referrals from within my own team. And

that's I feel like the best part, the most rewarding part of owning a company is when you have really great people behind you. And I've got some

of the best coaches and coaching assistants that they're just simply are with tons of dealership experience and knowledge, and they really do the best that they can to help everyone. And that is such a huge reward for me, especially being

in this industry where it is not always easy. When the pandemic hit.

And we talked about this a little bit. When you guys were on my

podcast. But when the pandemic hit, we went from hundreds of clients down

to two. We think we only had two stores that stayed open, and

almost every client came back once the economy opened back up. And I feel

like that speaks to itself too and tells you how some of our most dedicated clients really believe in what we do and in the training. And when they

came back, it was obviously a relief because I thought, Oh, no, what's going to happen to people like me where we're just trying to help and there's no dealerships open, there's no calls to coach. It was no

fault of anybody's and so for me, it's very rewarding to work with such amazing clients who not only spread the love about us, but come and see me speak. And my team really just standing behind me one hundred person of

the way, no matter what's going on. They're always there to help.

They're always volunteer to pick up the pieces if I need help with things.

And I could not be more blessed with the people I have. Love it,

love it, love it, love it it is. And again,

of course it went back to the people. I'm nerdy, No you're not.

That is exactly where the heart should be. When it's when you put

people over profits, you're always going to do better. The profits will come.

Yeah, it's about the people. The people is the true currency,

right, And I love that what you're talking about. That's why to me

it all makes sense. I love that you went rounded it back out with

people again, because if it's not about the people, you will not make the profits that you think. You may make some money, but eventually it

will fall apart because people will see through that. And I've never lost that

employee. I've never never now be what is it twenty six years coming up

on seven? Wow? Never congratulations culture, Culture, Culture. That's a

big vic That is a big victory. You know what kind of victory that

is. That's a kind of victory that make sure that we tell the entire

world that Maggie Hookasius is approved. That's right, everybody. You all need

to know that there is so much value inside of everything that you've poured out during this episode, And we encourage you all if you're just now jumping in, go back listen to it, share it around, show her how much you've appreciated. But Maggie, you have been dropping some incredible knowledge that salespeople,

owners, all those need to be able to digest, need to be able to process, need to be able to take a moment to focus on in order to say, hey, how good are we really at this?

And what is the value of us being our best at this? You're not

trying to be anybody, so you're trying to be your very best at this.

And once you become aware of what there is to fix, that's when you should start taking action. And if you've heard this show, take a

look, go for the walk, listen to the phone call, ask somebody to say, hey, how can we get better at this? And with

that it'll help you be as strong as you all could be. Remember when

we're grinding out some coffee beans, we don't want a bad bean in a bunch. If we see it, let's pull it out. If you know

that they're in there, sift them out. And if you want to make

your business be everything it is that you're investing your heart, your resources, and your time into, take the time to have somebody coach you where it is that you need some coaching, it's okay, and encourage others around you to continue to push, continue to forgive, focus, fly, and keep growing. Maggie, you have dropped some incredible knowledge. We're so thankful for

you to do and we can't wait to speak some more. Got so many

ideas rolling around and ruin in the background to be able to help out other solutionaries out there, because what you're saying has to be heard, and sometimes it come so much better from somebody that has dialed in on this as their primary focus. And we love, we love, we love, we love

to have you share this with many solutionaries out there that are listening today and on the replay. We appreciate you all for being here. But how do

people get a hold of you going forward? Our website is pretty simple,

It's just cnmcoaching dot com. You have to type out the and because the

guy who owns CM coaching wouldn't sell it to me, no, cnmcoaching dot Com is really the easiest way. We have a contact desk form everything thing

comes straight to me. We're also on Facebook under CNM Coaching as well.

Our phone numbers eight seven seven nine hundred nine four six one. Come on

well reach out to her and get you some of that coaching solutionaries. But

you all have been incredibly coached today. Man, have we been enhanced by

some telling you sudd If you all just take a couple of these things and just apply it today and just work on it and just tay assist it and hold people accountable, your dealership will take off just that by itself. Folks,

get those phone skills up that first five seconds, get that meet and greet going my friends, make sure that they answer that phone with enthusiasm and a smile. They'll change it all. They'll change it all. Thank you

guys so much for having me. It was great and I love spreading the

message. So I appreciate you allowing me to chat on your platform. Wow,

we appreciate you. Yeah. So with that, in getting that message

out there, everybody, you know what we got to do as we get ready to send off another solutionary, we got to make sure to forgive focus and fly and keep growing. If you want more of the bruise or you

want to sponsor this show, you can go to carguy coffee dot com, reach out to us, or listen to these incredible solutionaries that are brewed solutions to make the industry better. Let's forgive Focus Fly and keep growing. Everybody

on three one two three, forgive Focus Lie and keep growing, Keep growing go. I am Lou Ramirez, the car Guy, and I'm frellon Arts,

the Subprime Hero, and we've been brewing solutions with the One the Only Maggie. You put us out. We love you all, we appreciate you

all. Hopefully we got close to NOL and that we're out.

Car Guy Coffee Podcast #5Liner Edition feat. Maggie Pugesek

About this episode

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

More from Car Guy Coffee