Live from NAMAD 2025 in Vegas, the Car Guy Coffee Podcast features Michael Sims and Charlie Smith discussing the innovative Virtual F&I platform. They emphasize the importance of technology in enhancing customer experience and empowering dealers. With insights from their extensive automotive backgrounds, they explore how Virtual F&I simplifies the financing process, allowing customers to have more control over their decisions. The conversation highlights the shift towards a more customer-centric approach in the industry, making the car buying experience smoother and more efficient.
Topics:virtual f&icustomer experiencetechnology in automotivedealer empowermentinnovationomnichannel solutionsautomotive culture
Car Guy Coffee Podcast Live from NAMAD 2025: Vegas. Special Guests Michael Sims & Charlie Smith
Welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. Kickstart your day the right way and join us as we tap into the brightest minds and most passionate voices across the automotive world to bring you the education, motivation, and inspiration you need to thrive. From the showroom floor to the service lane, prepare to Upshift and Uplift your perspective.
In this next episode of our Mini Series “NAMAD 2025 Recap”, Lou Ramirez and Fred Leonard are excited to welcome Michael Sims & Charlie Smith from Peak Performance Team as we discuss the revolutionary impact of Virtual F&I solutions on the automotive industry.
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"...he wants to buy that GT3 really sold itself. You didn't have to sell it. But how's he going to get it? How are you going to talk to it?..."
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the 911 sports car that is built for speed and performance on the racetrack. It's known for being very fun to drive and has features that make it handle really well.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance variant of the iconic 911 sports car, known for its track-focused features and exceptional handling. It typically features a naturally aspirated engine and is designed for enthusiasts who prioritize driving dynamics.
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Let's brew! What's going on, Car Guys and Car Gals? Welcome back. We are at Namad and we got a
couple of other brothers that are here hanging out with us, having a great time and brewing some
solutions. We'd like to introduce you to the one, the only, Mike Sims and right next to him is the
one, the only, Car Gals. Let's go, let's go. Welcome to the party, guys. Excited that you're here.
Excited that you're here. Hope I'm over this way too. Let's go. Guys, guys, excited to be here.
So there's a lot that's brewing out here. We're having some great conversations with everybody
from owners, operators, the president of Namad, all the other people that are here for the first
time and people that have been coming here for decades. Why is it that you guys are actually
out here at Namad? Man, me personally, it's a part of my culture. It's a part of me. It's what I do each
year. I've been a member, been part of Namad for the last 10, 12 years and as a partner, right?
And this year, me being part of the performance team, we wanted to do something different and
partnering with Namad is bigger than just the convention, right? We know this is just not
a convention. I personally call it a family reunion, right? Because everything we do is about the
relationship, camaraderie and how this thing truly affects us and our industry. This year,
we wanted to bring something more innovative, technology. We know where it's going. We know
where it's at and we know what we're up against in the future of our industry, not just our particular
business. But one of the things PPT did, we partnered with Virtual F&I and we're going to
get a chance to talk about Virtual F&I. But the reason being is being able to bring something
to this culture to our dealers and reference to what's happening now and the future. We know
at the end of a car deal, there's no car deal without F&I. That's the glue that makes everything
stick. That's the end game to the car deal. But we know where technology is and we know
where people at right now. We know the experience that people have not only in test drive coming
to the dealership, but the true F&I process. Virtual F&I has taken it to light years ahead.
When we talk about imagine the future, they have the future in front of us now. Some of the things
that they've committed to, not only committed to, but done and doing and innovating is going to look,
us as being a partner with them, us as F&I solutions. My mom told me and I said it in the
speech, it's one thing to have a problem, but with any problem, make sure you, we, us, all of
here, the solution. We are the solution. And in saying that and really talking about it,
it's just so much I can say. And I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I want the
audience to know. I want the people to know Virtual F&I is a solution for every deal of needs.
And I say two words to that. If you're a dealer in this industry, global, worldwide, why not?
Why would you not have a virtual solution to F&I? And if you don't have one again, why not?
And when we look at this and we really talk about it, it's one of the most
innovative things that we possibly could have, could do and doing in the industry.
The sense of a customer and the confidence of submitting the deal, it's a tough process.
We all know how the customer's hands are folding, walking around in the office,
waiting for the guy to pull them in and sit them down. What if it was just a click away?
What if you clicked away and had that same personal interaction in front of you at your convenience?
Were you or at? And that's one of the things that this is bringing to the industry. And we
couldn't think of a better place than to offer it, talk about it, and present it to our Naemat
dealers. Naemat is a part of me. It's a culture. It's everything. The relationship that I have built
in these halls, walking up and down, it's my career there. It's a part of me. It's where my heart is
at. How long have you been coming to Naemat? 10, 12 years now, man. I've been to Chicago. I've been
everywhere. I've been, you name it, where Naemat was at. I was there as a partner. I always as a
partner, bringing solutions to the industry. And as we develop, as we grow, virtual F and I
is a part of, because it's the now of the future. I agree with you. 200%. I'm going to give it up
to you. I'm going to ask you a question. I think that's, I love it. It's a great lead into it.
My answer is going to be what he said. I know. Obviously, you're passionate about what you're
bringing to the table and you're bringing it to our community. That's a great thing and being
able to show them that, hey, the future's now, but the future's coming even faster than we think,
too. So be ready for it. Don't be sitting there hoping, wishing that we did this. Let's get good
at it now. And with virtual F and I, I agree. I'm an F and I guy by heart. I love it. I know how
important it is. I want to do things in-house. Don't get me wrong. I love being able to put stuff
in paper. But a huge part of our community, a huge part of our people on this whole planet,
they're starting to press buttons to do things. They're starting to have the convenience of just
doing it themselves, making their decisions. And maybe sometimes even spending more just because
they want to feel like they had control of it. They talked about it on stage. One of the biggest
things that customers want is they want control. And if we can give them full control on how they
have their experience, how they get to pick and what their financing looks like, even what their
back end products are going to be, they're just going to click and pick. And if you give them
options virtually, they tend to pick one. So I love that you guys are doing that. So tell everybody
a little bit more about how virtual F and I is actually working in stores. So let's go with the
geek speak. So here it is. So really what we did is we built a SaaS platform that takes all the
desegregated technologies and puts them in one level. And that gives you the ability to reach
out to the customer and meet some more they want to be. You're an F and I guy. I'm an F and I guy.
I've been in the auto industry for retail for 25 years. We took somebody that was really smart,
not me, with technology. And we said, okay, this is automotive. Let's marry those together.
There's a lot of great technologies that have come out and they almost made it. And the reality is
the technology was really good, but they had no retail experience. We know car deals aren't linear.
We know somebody's going to take a trade and you're going to try to do virtually. And by the way,
that trades in my mother's name. My mother's not here. Can I the car deal stops? Oh, yeah. So we
want to find solutions for that. What we're doing right now is when we're right here right now,
I'm we're three years, like we're looking at three years and three years, we're looking at 10 years
because you see some of the bigger names here today that have never been here before.
And they're trying to offer solutions. But we think that they're probably getting away in the
way of the dealer's normal business model. So we don't want to get in the way of the dealer's
business model. We don't want to dictate how they do business. We want to level the playing field.
We want to bring everybody to them and let them go to everybody. I love it. Like you're talking
about you want to be involved in the deals and F and I manager, I want you to be involved. So how
much how would I just build a platform that lets you go in front of Danny over there? And he's in
Colorado right now. And you're in California. And he wants to buy that GT three really sold
itself. You didn't have to sell it. But how's he going to get it? How are you going to talk to
it? How are you going to do all that stuff? Zoom calls, team calls, like we got used to that
through COVID. Sure. What about if it's all in the same place? What if it's built into the platform?
You don't have to take another technology and sign in and another technology. Let me show you
these deals over here on my menu. And that's another thing. No, it's all in the same place.
I love that. So that's what we're doing. That's what we've done. We've gotten significant feedback
from our dealers. We're, we're large enough to continue this forever and we're small enough
to listen to our dealers. So we're agile. You say, Hey, it doesn't do this thing. I go, Okay,
I'm going to try and make it do that thing. And as long as we get some of our vendor partners and
our partners to go, Yeah, we'll let you do that thing. We make it happen. So far, we've been
really successful. All I got to say is, Oh, I'm going to say whatever he said, whatever he said.
This guy just dropped some dimes for us. But when you just said there was some pretty awesome
stuff, and it's so true. And I love that how you're giving it all in one place. I like that
term kids, keep it simple, stupid, right? And if you can do that with actually very intelligent
technology, but be able to be simple and be able to use it and make it simple for our customers,
the better it's going to be. So I appreciate you talking about that. Yeah, that is a great idea.
I never thought about the video portion of that. How well is that going with your dealers?
It's actually going really well. We have a couple of different models that we like to talk about.
We've talked about decentralized centralized and on demand. So those address everything large
dealer groups is centralized. You have centralized accounting, you know that you have 25, 35,
55, 105 stores, you get centralized accounting. Why not centralized up an eye? Why not be handcuffed
to that 40 car store that you have somewhere in a bedroom community that you can't get the talent,
you can't keep good talent, have that person get delivered by the good talent that you have
somewhere else. So allow your managers to be more effective in other places like that. And it's
not about reducing, what do they call it? Workforce reduction? No, it's about workforce
improvement. Efficiency, efficiency, right? All the above, which you're saying here is pretty
damn profound. I got to say, as a guy who's gone to certain levels in automotive, I see the value
in that 100% so much. So yeah, you're talking some really good stuff. Yeah, some really good stuff.
There's something about this though that, and you brought a part of this up Fred, that
the customer wants control and we've been training in this industry forever.
We need to have control. We need to control that customer. And I never quite like that because
I'm not forcing anybody to buy a car. The only way that I make somebody buy a car is really
if I buy the car and I give it to them. If I have no power over them making the decision,
all that we're supposed to do is create an atmosphere that's conducive to them making a
decision best for themselves, which is the biggest hump they're trying to ever get to,
is getting over that hump of decision. Once they make it, it's easy breezy. In our culture,
it's always been they make a decision. Let's hurry up and get them out of here. Let's try to
ring around the Rosie, keep them in here, do our little song and dance, and then kick them out.
And then hopefully they get followed up with. But now you're seeing car guys and car guys
break the mold of what it is that they've been taught, what it is that they've inherited.
And most of us got so many of these habits. Honestly, it's just what was taught to us
and shown to us. What are you seeing or how are those aha moments showing up inside of the store
when you present this technology that actually simplifies what we've been saying we're controlling,
but we're not actually controlling. I'm going to sum it up in one word and I'll give it to Charlie.
It's the experience, right? Yeah. That's the only thing that matters to the consumer,
to the customer and the dealer. The experience is what brings us back. Again, if you go to a great
restaurant, you're coming back because of the what? Experience. Any time you have a great
experience in doing something, that's what leads the, I want to say, the continued success of
the rapport. That's what brings you back. And what this is giving us is an experience of a lifetime
for the customer. We all know how it feels to be in the box. We all know how it feels waiting
to get the last ink dried sign to drive off in the car. But what is that experience truly like,
right? We know what we're trying to get across and we know what the customer wants to drive off
with and go across. But now we have something that provides an experience like no other in
this industry. And when I say no other, because it gives them, as you stated, the control and
everybody want to be in control of their decision. It's the one thing I always say, I will never
sell something. I will tell you something. I will give you enough information to make a
responsible decision. And in doing, that's the same thing we're giving now with the virtual F&I
experience to the customer. They're in control. They're driving the decision and the deal
needed by expertise, technology, and information where they can't make a mistake.
That's what we do. I love it. But I'd be geeking out about this technology too,
especially if I had 25 years of retail experience. Lou and I, we both over two decades of peace inside
stores. So I can tell not only is he a technology geek, he's a courgette. As you said, I can tell
you spoke on people and you know how to get people to not do something to regret, but make a decision
faster and not have to worry about stress and actually building trust with them very quickly.
So I'm glad that you do that. And you said with this technology, I think that by showing them
this, it takes away the wall of a person that's going to be the gatekeeper of, hey, you're going
to have to pay this much. Here's our discount, whatever the way that F&I managers did it. Now
they feel like, again, the controls there, but more importantly, the trust is there. They see it,
it's right there in front of them. They can click what they need and they know that it's what it's
going to be. So that's pretty awesome. So there's three words that I've learned over the last, I
don't know, 25 years. And I don't think they have the right definition. Omnichannel, that means
something, right? We've redefined what that means in the car business because really it means
Omnichannel for the channel that I can provide you, not Omnichannel. And then we have this word
transparency. Like I stay away from that word because transparency means something different
to every dealer, to every OEM, what's really transparent here. And then the one that I love
the most, and I think it was just coined probably 10 years ago, customer-centric, right? We want to
be customer-centric. What does that mean? Your customer-centric operation is as long as they go
one, two, three, four, the way you define it. That's not customer-centric. So we're giving
people, we're giving them true Omnichannel, in-store, out-of-store, hybrid, they do both,
only at home. What do you want to do? And imagine being open 24-7, 365, you have the platform,
you wake up in the morning, you go, a customer said, I made a decision to buy this course
that I wanted. By the way, I added these four products so they make sense to me,
and I already paid for it and I'm closed up online. Simple. Can you have it delivered?
Simple. Oh, by the way, we have that in the box. I had a feeling because you said Omnichannel,
so you said it and you didn't like it the other way. That's it. So I believe that.
That's the thing. Let's stop redefining words that fit our industry and go with the definitions
and provide that experience. Excellent experience. We teach something we call the three E's of
an excellent experience and it is critical. One of those three E's is empower. Being able to empower
the customer only makes our job easier and makes them feel less sold, makes them feel less worked,
makes them feel more like they're actually being helped and assisted. And as professionals,
that's what we're supposed to do. Professionally, we're supposed to be able to help make these big
decisions easier, make it simpler for them, and let them be aware the entire time. Guys,
I love what it is that you guys are brewing. You're definitely brewing some solutions for
the industry. We're cheering you on. I tell you this, I'm down with PPT. You know me.
One thing I want to say about people on this team, contact us, follow us, look at what we're
truly doing for the industry. We're a product solution for your dealership. Contact us,
www.peepperformanceteam.com, look at us, look us up, give us a call, email us. How much does the
demo cost? Three. Let's get it done. Thank you guys, man. Thank you so much. Thank you. Car guys,
car guys, you know what we got to do. We got to drop some F-bombs. So to see what these F-bombs look
like, we forgive, we wipe off the weight of unforgiveness, get that off of our shoulders,
we get focused, see Fred doing the moves, we get focused on where we're going,
who we're going to help, what we're going to do today right now. Then we stretch out and we fly
so we can keep growing all the time. So help us with the moves, everybody. Scream it out,
loud and proud. Let's get focused. Hands on the shoulders, right at that camera. All three, one,
two, three, forgive, focus, fly, and keep going. Thank you so much for tuning in, car guys,
we've been growing solutions with the virtual F&I people, the one, the only, Mike Sims,
and the one, the only, Charlie Smith. Let's go, everybody. We will see you soon. Get to name that.
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