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#DC20 Interbrew Series Day 2 feat. Sandra and Mike Bruning

#DC20 Interbrew Series Day 2 feat. Sandra and Mike Bruning

Car Guy Coffee Sep 14, 2023 29 min
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About this episode

Dynamic duo Mike and Sandra Bruning share their unique experiences as a married couple working in competing dealerships in Pasadena. They discuss their journey in the automotive industry, the importance of effective communication with customers, and how technology like Drive Centric has transformed their sales processes. The episode highlights their collaborative approach to improving their businesses while supporting each other personally and professionally. Their engaging conversation is filled with insights on customer relations, the evolution of sales techniques, and the joy of working in a vibrant industry.

Topics: competing dealerships customer communication drive centric collaboration technology in sales personal growth automotive industry dynamics marriage in business
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Hello, and welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. This inner brew and
Drive Centrics DC twenty has been brought to you by our friends and partners at MXS Solutions, Fixed Ops, Digital and one Data and Analytics three two one, Ignissions, Shop, Smart Autos and bnque. If you want more brewised
or you want to find out how to partner with the Car Guy Coffee Podcast, go to Car Guy Coffee dot com. Let's brew. What's going on,
car Guys and car gals. It's lu Ramirez, the Car Guys and
his Fredlin Art's subprime Hero, and we are brewing solutions at the Drive Centric headquarters here in marvelous Saint Louis. And we got a cool power couple right
here for us to brew with. We have the one and the Only,
Mike and CenTra Browney. Yeah, yeah, welcome to the party. Oh
goodness, gracious. So every time we turn the corner, everyone's you have
to get on your shows. They're such a dynamic duo, right, They're
fun. For one, I saw you all, got to meet you.
I actually got to talk to you a lot last night. You were having
so much fun with your friends. I didn't have a chance to really get
I didn't want to interrupt, but we had a great conversation. But after
hearing how you spoke about her or, I just knew that this was gonna be amazing. Even how you guys met, how you went in and closed
them on getting a salesman license. That's a lot of stuff, because a
lot of stuff that we could talk about on that but some stories, but that's but it's amazing to see the connection and then to see the rise of the power couple that I see between the right in front of us right now and the energy. We had a great conversation before we went live that I
wish we were live on because we were dropping the life nuggets all over the place for people to grab and No, seriously, you two, thank you so much for your time on the show today. I know how busy this
is. There's a lot of information to get. Your time is valuable.
Appreciate it, Thank you, thank you. It is our pleasure beating being
that you're you are here to our audience that may not know you. Please
tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from, what dealerships you're at, because folks, this is quite an interesting anomally we have a husband and a wife that are competing dealerships two different stores. Interest.
Come on, now, this is very interesting, very cool, dynamic.
Can't wait to lean into this a little bit more. Some of you have
been waiting to hear this story. We can't wait to tell it to you.
But tell us a little b about who we are, where you're from before we get into the big crew story. Yeah, my name is my
brain. This is my wife, Sandra. I work at a Nissa store.
We're from Los Angeles. We Nick in the Pasadena area and my wife
works at she's a general sales manager for Toyota Pasadena. Have been the business
for a long time. I worked at Nissan thirty two years ago, worked
at we actually did work together at one time at a very large nis On store in Los Angeles for about eight years. We worked from Darylent to Mercedes,
Benz, Toyota and General Motors. So I've been around a few different
places. All the chairs and the dealer share every chair, GSM, GM,
all those things and bus has been awesome. And my wife word car
family. Yeah, it's very interesting in our house. I bet it is
no doubt about it. And I'm sad, drag and Bruning, a general
sales manager, as Mike as said, and to Pasadena. Very small town
but diversified, definitely Spanish community, Asian community. It's like our kind of
place, right, sound like the room right there where everybody comes to, huge melting pot. It's just grateful to be here. It's been exciting,
Yeah, very nice to meet. Its pleasure to meet you too, to
talk about working at all the different brands that you've been with and to get the position that you're at. Pasadena, she says, a small town,
but man, it's a beautiful town and it is very diversified there. That
whole region of the country is beautiful, right, and the people are there.
But but you get to sell toyotas in the area and that's a very hot product there. So tell people a little bit about what it's like using
a product like drive Centric there a town. Help you. It's really been
a huge transformation, I want to call it a facelift of how we're communicating with customers today. We're all really needing to connect to our customers the way
that our customers are communicating with their people. It's all through social media.
It's all engagement, it's real time, it's videos. It's the posts of
where you're at and who you're with, and drive Centric really brings it together in such a unique way in being able to communicate like you would with your family and friends, and it's all done in a central hub. You can
do it off of your phone, you could do it while you're out on the point. It's really just changed the way that the base used to be
able to communicate with customers. 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, advertised merchandise and manage those vehicles has made them one of the most sought after velad partners in the market. They
are one of one hundred percent ceg see improved and when you visit them at inc dot com, you'll see a whole hill of beans where the reasons why Team thank You, let's proved. I love that and being on point and
being able to communicate with customers all at the same time and be able to take care of your task. What's the excuse now? Right? You know
what I'm saying. You could literally be out there I'm catching up if I
see one. But in between, I'm gonna do this phone calls, I'm
gonna do this. I'm gonna send out mesag, I'm gonna send out my
gifts. I'm gonna send up with everything, and I'm gonna have fun.
I'm gonna knock it all out and be ready. And now I feel fresh.
You're good. I don't know alerts coming up, all the little like
dot things, no messages. I'm free. I did my job today.
And there's a great satisfying feeling you have when you can leave the day knowing I did all my task and I did everything I could today to be the best I could today. And when you know that, it's great. And
this tool does that for you. And I'm sure it's the same thing at
your store. Since you guys been using it's been doing similar We're sure.
We've been on dread Centric for many, many years and it's a great tool.
I'd love to see the development of all the tools. Last night we're
talking with a lot of the drive Centric people. They're very excited about all
the few things that are coming out the dawn of video age right, all the communicative tools, all the way that the salespeople can communicate right, and all the technology, so it's just a fabulous product. Amazing, amazing the
diffusion of the product there is always there's always contingent on being good people and itsfuses right. We're good people that are operating it and educated on what they
have in their hands, because there's a this is a lot of a magic bullet. There is a big magic bullet inside of Drive Centric and each of
you or gun slickers of those magic bullets here and then at the end of the night, is there ever a time you guys are like, hey, guess what I found out on drive And you're talking about a completly that situation at the store and like bringing it home with you and it's, oh, this is what I learned that our competing dealership. Everybody does that ever find
its way inside of the conversation at home? Oh, for sure, the
conversation really at the beginning of the day and events at home with the things that we've learned, things that we've picked up on. And one of the
things a CRM is really a CRM. There really isn't eating special. It
keeps track with your customers. When Mike shared with me, you know what,
you have to try this out. This is really going to change the
way that your salespeople are doing things. It really became the mission to try
to get your eccentric into our store, and it definitely has made a big difference in how we communicate, how we're reaching the people. The conversations were
starting the morning to become home at the end of the evening, He'll share with one of his salespersons, was able to achieve and I bring it in the next day. So we're constantly feeding off of each other as to how
we can improve and take it to the next level. Well, I love
that collaboration, even in two different organizations. And what I love about that
is that's because we want to perform for our clients in the market better the efficiency for all of us, right, And it's the same thing even when I look as a vendor. There's plenty of dealers for all of us.
We can all do well. If we all have good intentions, we should
all thrive. When I think that the better experience that each dealership gives,
the more likely the customers are gonna land and somewhere and buy instead of shopping around because they're like this place sucks, this place sucks, this play sucks.
Instead of being like, no, this place is great. Now they
start to build confidence, and over time, when confidence is built, all of a sudden, the sales process goes even easier for people. It's not
a process of their guard up anymore. They're like, no, everyone around
here has been so kind. They communicate with us at our level. They
do. So it's okay if everyone's using it, because that's gonna make customers
buy more. They're not going to be scared and shop another part of the
country. You have a ship to their house, they're gonna go walk into
your store and they're gonna be like, thank you. You guys are great
around here. So I'm cool with that. And that's how I've always been.
I know people think I'm weird. It could be literally next door to
me. I'll tell them everything, because, for one, when you could
take all you could lead a horse to water, doesn't mean they're gonna drink anything. The number one, but at least I've brought them the water right,
right, it is agree. People can get information quickly today, right,
and you can get in touch with the right person. You can get
the right information that you want and realistically, just being able to, like you said, to serve the client, be able to give them what they're looking for, to give it to them efficiently. It's really also makes our
job as much easier as well. It breaks down a lot of that uncertainty
and makes it a lot going when you can educate and answer questions and help communicate in a way that's efficient, fast, and it's as easy as picking up your phone shooting a video. You can get a text, you can
get information. It really makes the process so much quicker that it's even more
efficient on the business side of it because you don't have to you don't have to spend as much time dealing with a lot of formalities per se. That
what it does as well, so it makes it in the efficiency. Whenever
you're efficient in a business, you're gonna be able to make it. You're
gonna make a more profitable business. But eventually in the end you're really going
to be a certain plant, listen and move on. And that's all on
the money because taking all of that technology, it is alone. It's always
the service of the client. If we're not serving the client, we don't
have a business, right there's no exchange of anything that doesn't happen, but moving the conversation into a point of familiarity where it's not even a question for their customer to say yes to the options presented to them if it suits them.
Using our technology and our communication right, you've seen it in a way where our videos helpless understand who we're looking at, what are they act like?
What are they dressed like? Where am I going to go? How
am I going to part? Right? All of the things that we're consuming
as a people in information. Hey, dealers, franchise and independent, we
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team ms dot com back to the show connecting to them with the same tools that we have. Now that we are participating with sales people. You're participating
with them all the time, right, You're they're they're watching videos, because we all watch a lot of videos, but us taking that time to say here, here's the familiarity of me. Here, so that you're not apprehensive,
you're ready to keep moving to the next level, because now a customer can, for the most part, see behind the veil of anything they want to know about and just about anything else there is out there. YouTube has
opened the curtain for a lot of people to see behind. Everybody's a doctor
now, right, everybody's that's what you're right, heyn Can you fix the doorbell? You're nutricians? Just YouTube? That's right, I got it right.
In a bit, you'll think about where we started back in the late nineties. When I got into the car business. We used to carry a
portfolio that has no work injured, and we cread the nifty fifty miss right right down your friends names and phone numbers and reach out to them. And
you carried that little boulder with you everywhere you went. And who am I
trying to get a holder? Now? Really, the technology is exactly where
we're at. Right. You think that you have a big problem how do
we fix that doorbell? How do we get a hold of that customer?
Everything is all done early, app So no matter where you're at, who you're with, I'm out in stl and guess what I've been lugging in though my phone, looking at the tasks. What's going on? What's not being
handled? You can still right now answering the customer literally what's going on with
this? And then boom boom boom, Hey we're good. It's powerful and
using these tools and being educated and with education at the way it is, let's use it. Let's be smart. Complicated, it's it's we're the only
thing complicating it is it's stubbornness. It's stubbornness is what's complicating. It is
that saying hey, I don't need that. No, it's not that you
need it, is that it helps you. Why not allow yourself to free
yourself up of all this clutter? Like you said, I love you talking
about the portfolio. I used to have highlighters for people that were still hot
leads or cold leads that were dead leads. I had all that stuff,
sold all those things, and you would have to go through and all the next thing, you know, you have to shift everything over now. It's
all big. It could be alerted. You can if you have if your
earbudget, I'll tell you it's crazy like what you can do, and you can communicate right there, literally be an STL and still be able to call and make sure your leads are being handled period. You could be a sales
pro on vacation, which I don't recommend take the time off, but I know how I was too. I still want to I leave. I'm still
looking at all my stuff right I couldn't help it. I'm just checking real
quickly. Even even even on vacation, you can sit there and send the
quick message to all of your people and just saying, hey, I'm thinking about all of my fans that have purchased cars from You can send them that message of you enjoying the beach because you're still a person and you want them to cheer you are right, you can still share that right there. I'll
be back on this to make sure your selves by But until then we'll see lou will be where you show get crazy with the videos. Yet, engagement,
and that's the primary thing that that we're always looking for, right It's not so much that we're just throwing messages to the wall. The car business
has been a lot of let's stick it and see what stick. Let's just
throw Let's just see what gets up there and stays. And then we saw,
okay, there's more ways to refine us. Oh wait, we can
get like funs whoa, we can get what information do we have access?
Great? But when we start to figure out how to piney tune our salesmanship,
then we start to really save ourselves time, which helpsselves customers time, which helps everybody save money. Right, But inside of that, it also
saves the friction that saves the headed. Right. We're not drudging doing the
job for people, and people aren't drudging going through the process with us because it's genuinely fun and you will obviously have a fun dynamic of Monty Wall, and you've been lighting up the area since you've been here, and it's really fun to some special you know. The funny thing is what you just said
right about people looking behind the bill, Right, we look behind the curtains.
He's trying to see the wizard, like, where's the wizard? Where's
the living Really there's not much behind the bill, right, It's not really much what it is where we talk a lot about like just removing the indecision or removing the us when you're removing certainty, whether you're removing the uncertainty from the client or you're removing uncertainty for the people that your teammates are and things like that. People just say, hey, that it is is just pretty
logical. It's just pretty really straightforward. So it's really recall it just like
get out of the way exactly what its like. The customer wants to buy
a car and then we're standing in the way with all this other stuff and all this a certainty and there's no wizard back there. You know, it's
just whatever. Just you remove the uncertainty. We like to have a really
good time with it. We like that fun. So we just bring it
home a lot. Yeah, we bring it home in a lot of the
craziest sales meetings are in the bedroom, right out of control, all like that. But the good things is that we understand each other a lot of
major decisions and what to have that and have the trust of knowing that the other person will give you advice that's nothing but to help you, right, and then she has different perspective than you do. Because where she's at and
then she'll see something and she can We know you're doing the show so far.
We just wanted to quickly remind you about our partners at Big Stops Digital and how they are automotives premier service marketing and technology company not only the crowd sponsors of the Car Guy Copy podcast, but they also serve as your dedicated 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 debt of intelligence to drive more fixed operations revenue. If
you want to take your service marketing efforts to the next level, go to fix Ops Digital dot com. Back to the show, Let's go. I
love that you shared drip centric with her and she was able to implement that in her store and be able to create better environment for everybody in vice person.
I'm shure there's more than just drive creagers. So it's all kinds of
cream, just giving you things that you've taken back and you've done, and that's why it's important that we do that. But I love the automotive industry
so much because it does it breeds people like you all like solutionaries out there really making a change and doing with grace and with an energy. Like I
said, that is just so contagious. Everybody wants to be around it.
So it's amazing, you know. The great things is that it's just everything
is evolving, right, especially when you talk about technology. What was yesterday
is not today, and tomorrow there's going to be something different already. See
what's going on a lot today, we're talking about AI, all the exciting things that can go on, all all the different the people. So the
great things is that you never arrive right right, The journey is just because there's there's no end. You're just going to keep going and doing the things
for us. For me, as I can say, and I'm pretty sure
for her as well, she'll let you know real quickly, is that it's just the journey just gets better and better. The new things that just keep
coming. It just becomes more fulfilling, the relationships that you have become more
satisfying, and all those things that, like you said, it just comes from the love that comes from all those groups. So that and realistically for
us, for me, it's seeing everybody else man when you see other people winning that. We were talking last night at the game, right, like
how you guys met your story, how you got into the business, and all of the things the commonality, and you talk a lot about the emotion and the love and the excitement of the game last night, all the people that are there, all those things. You look at all all those common
emotions and all of those things, and really there is not an amount of money that you're going to get from that sad faction, you know, and all those things. It's all the relationships and all the love that then you
have in those things. So the evolution of that and seeing I want everybody
to we're talking last night. I was telling you you're walking back is amazing.
But it's so cool how they got together. They're pursuing your passion and
the things that they love. It's just an amazing thing. There's no mon
money that can be spent that can make that in the journey the people that you meet and your journey along the way, and that's even for us.
That's what's fulfilling. The common meet people stories here, their stories and all
that. It's just it's an awesome because that's the value that's the rich.
That's the real value of meeting people. Feeling their stories and your stories is
awesome. We love hearing how piecing it together with the car guys, car
gus, this is automotive. There's a lot of great opportunity here and nobody
is strapped to what it is that they're doing. And when you get that
focus of what it is that you want to do, even if anything, as we teach everybody forget focused online so that you can keep growing, so you can't keep going to what it is you want to aim at. And
I know that you will probably walk out of the door sometimes getting ready and go into your store with this angst of oh my goodness, I saw the I saw the Island tiger in End. Today, we need everybody get on
the phone because because they're gonna be heated up over there. Something's gonna go
down. They're gonna be you leave there, Oh man, they're gonna have
a day. We better get working. Everybody's listening. This is our game
plan because I've seen her and she is fired up. They're about to be
selling a calling all your customers. But I can see that competition, that
level of raising it up because you see the fire in each other and that's just awesome as the car guys to be able to see that and see the dynamic we've never I can't think of any time that we've had the chance to have competing spouses on the floor and then alone at all. The only ones
that we've ever known, they were the same. They were either the same
story but bolt leadership positions in some cases, but but never two we were in the same store. Mat I don't it's easier when we're not see that's
from that widow. That was okay on I think that was pretty good.
But then let's try something else that's great that you all know that it's amazing.
But at the end of the day, we all want to be part of that winning. Its feeling, part of that growing and learning. And
when we speak of the experiences the wind with St. Louis and the extra
innings. Quick question, do you know what smart pixel two point zero,
Location i Q and audience i Q haven't coming? You know? I do?
They are solutions that our friends and proud sponsors and one Data and analytics are brewing for automotive And once again you're right, my friend, and we want to invite all of our audience to go to m one hip 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 data dot com. Let's brue.
Come on now back to the show. That's really what the car business
is all about, is going the extra miles, putting it together, piecing that story and sending it out there, feeling the vibration that makes you go.
The customer the life wants to feel the excitement that you're experiencing and that they will experience with their salves first or with the vehicle that they're going to be getting it too, and being able to piece it together and housing it all in. What we've all become addicted to is our having devices has really
done a deal for us. Yeah, drop Centric, let's go home across
that stage and tell how it is. You both are exquisite speakers, and
you guys, really, you guys are able to emote very well with your words. I appreciate you all show to emote the way you have in the
way that you guys sharing your energy with people. And that's why you guys
are you're literally you see everyone just get drawn to you and it's something special and I'm glad that you're at stores and bringing that energy in those stories.
It's important to ourselves, staff, the future generations of our people, ad buyers get to see that leadership inside those stores are bringing that type of love.
Second horror, isn't it? Yes, it's like an art. The
guys you can probably remember your first days when you were there and all all like the good stuff, the bad stuff, the crazy stuff, whatever they do, but it forms who you are, right, Their forms who you are. You get a bunch of car guys together telling stories for hours and
hours, right, and you remember all those things, but you really remember all the great things that it does when you're talking about a career. Personally,
I chose the career. I said, this is what I want to
do. This is what I want to do when an older, when I
want to do things on my own terms. And it's great. Business.
Man is a great business. You know, you meet so many cool people
all but she's amazing with their clients. She's at clients follow her for years
and years. Yeah, and they don't know they all they know is this
is the number that I call. I need to bring any issue who I
talk to right here periods. This is who I talk to, and that's
important. That's something that is a It's it's so hard to find that people
naturally. It can be taught, but when you have it inside you naturally,
and then you can also be taught other things. You're dangerous, just
like she is. And that's something that is I shouldn't say dangerous, but
yes, dangerous because it's a good thing. And I mean that in the
most amazing way. Is that that's powerful and when you can see that and
there's a reason why you were attracted to each other, right, and there's a reason why you're married, and you can you call each other mister and missus, right, and and that's something that I think that we need more otherness industry. I die. I swear my wife would be a phenomenal I
say this all time. And if you are the best epical and truth out
of people. She can really read between mines extremely well. And she's just
so analytical when it comes to things and when she when because of the whis she is, I just know she would be phenomenal. But at the same
time, she's happy. She does what she loves. Right now, we've
got plenty of black pass and that's what tell But everybody's a salesperson, right, so everybody, It really doesn't absolutely there's some sort of business in any anything that you do, right, doesn't really matter what you do. There's
a business side of everything, whether you're at home, whether you're a painter, or there's a there's a business side of everything. Right. If you
don't, if you have too many minuses and not enough pluses, your business is not going to move that well. Right, it doesn't write what at
all. It carries us. It carries into all other parts of our lives
as well, right, and to our children and things like that. So
it's just a great lesson of life. Right. So every day that you
go to work or I don't even really look at us going to work, you really have that. You just go and you're like, man, you
don't know who you're going to run into today or what's gonna happen, or and I hope I get something something like a little bit of bolder just because you want something right like who you're going to run into that it's gonna be right. So you put all those things in your experience, boks about the
way that you are. But everybody you see, when we met, I
was in the business. She was in the business. I couldn't keep her
out of the business, right, I try to keep her out of the business. But she saw the excitement, she saw everything that was going on.
And it is a sighting business. It's great and it's a lot of
great people that you work with, and she was drawn to it, and she's been crazily successful doing the things that she wants to do. With both
of us, it makes us both stronger together. I understand what she's going
through. She understands what I'm going through. We can support each other professionally,
and you have the ability to say, hey, I understand what you're going through. I know what you're going through. This is only a temporary
stage right now. Your emotion might be up here right now, but it's
gonna come here and then it's gonna be there, and we talk it out and she talks to me through things, and it's almost like a level of sharing that's like a little bit more developed because of the understanding, right and it's a give and take and all of those things that we all understand.
So it's a lot of a lot of a lot of life lessons here in all the years as well life lessons as as many as I'm sure there are.
One thing that I'm very sure is there's probably a lot of people that look into your life until you guys are like mister and missus Smith because trained assassins in this industry, you know what I mean, And and and bringing that home and at the same time flourishing something and showing one that it can be done. So one we celebrate successful marriages in this industry because we need
to see more of that. We need to lead the way that we need
to show that our families don't need to be sacrificed on the altar of our careers. You know what I mean that that we we keep each other together.
But with that that we can do it fun, we can do it competitive as all get out and and actually do it really successful and get those life lessons. And speaking of life lessons, and especially with the married couple,
there's always the opportunities to drop at bodles, whether they're in the room the better or they're on the lot. Right, trying to make sure to
do is to not drop the f bombs that offend the mombs. Okay,
so we do we make sure to teach how to forgive, to focus, and to fly so we can keep growing. Now it does have those moves
just like that, so we're gonna sound off with that. Okay, we're
gonna aim over at the camera. We should hands on the shoulders. One,
two, three, Forget focus, focus, slide, keep growing, keep growing. That's right, everybody. Those are the life lessons we want
to make sure they get out to all of you solutionaries. If you have
enjoyed your time listening, whether this is live or on the replay, please make sure that you blow them up, check them out. And they're taking
the message of forget focused, fly all the way to Cali, everybody.
So we are going coast to coast over and drive centric in Saint Louis.
We are having some fun with the one only Mike and you everybody. I'm
the premiere as the Car Guy and I'm prolling our Subparker and you can exclution of the Car Guy quality podcast. We will see you on the next episode.
Everybody will say goodbye to pres

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