"Fair Doesn't Mean Equal": How Spitzer Autoworld Doubled in 5 Years (+ Tools They Used To Do It) | Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Autoworld
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
"Fair Doesn't Mean Equal": How Spitzer Autoworld Doubled in 5 Years (+ Tools They Used To Do It) | Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Autoworld
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Car
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is a historic car that was made by Ford. It was the first car that was built in large numbers, making it affordable for many people.
Brand
Chevy
Chevy is a popular car brand in the United States that makes many different types of vehicles, like trucks and cars.
Brand
Chrysler
Chrysler is a well-known American car company that makes different types of vehicles, including family cars and minivans.
Brand
Cadillac
Cadillac is a luxury car brand that makes high-end vehicles with lots of features and comfort.
Brand
Volkswagen
Volkswagen, or VW, is a car company from Germany that makes many types of cars, including the famous Beetle.
Brand
Kia
Kia is a car brand from South Korea that makes affordable cars that are known for being reliable.
Brand
Hyundai
Hyundai is another car brand from South Korea that makes many different types of cars, often at good prices.
Brand
Honda
Honda is a well-known car brand from Japan that makes reliable cars like the Civic and Accord.
Brand
Acura
Acura is a luxury car brand that is part of Honda, making higher-end vehicles with more features.
Brand
Lincoln
Lincoln is a luxury car brand that makes high-end vehicles, often with lots of comfort features.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is a well-known car brand from Japan that makes reliable and fuel-efficient cars, like the Camry and Corolla.
Company
Icon Technologies
Icon Technologies makes technology for cars, like GPS devices that help track where a vehicle is. They work with businesses to improve how they manage their vehicles.
Term
complimentary maintenance
Complimentary maintenance means that when you buy a car, the dealership will take care of some maintenance for free for a certain time. This helps keep the car in good shape without extra cost for the owner.
Term
first-year maintenance
First-year maintenance is when a car company pays for some maintenance costs during the first year you own the car. This can help you save money on things like oil changes and check-ups.
Term
0% finance plan
A 0% finance plan means you can buy a car and not pay any extra money in interest on the loan. It makes the car cheaper to pay for each month because you only pay the price of the car, not any extra fees.
Term
72 months
72 months means you have six years to pay off your car loan. It can make your monthly payments smaller, but you might end up paying more in total because of interest.
LIVE
I don't worry too much about the market because, you know, we always try to manage expenses
and get ROI of our tools and we check that quarterly.
And then ultimately, if things affect inventory, if it affects us, it's going to affect every
other dealer in the country.
So, you know, someone's going to win.
Why not us?
Today, I'm joined by Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Auto World.
New car sales profits are getting tighter and Spitzer shares how focusing on service
and a unique VIP loyalty program keeps his business strong in any economy.
He explains how his family business grew to 26 locations while keeping old school
standards like opening every door for guests and how AI is helping his team focus more
on people with radical hospitality.
A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible, Merchant Advocate,
Impel, and Nomad Content Studio.
And now let's get into the show.
Andrew Spitzer on the CDG podcast.
Andrew, welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Happy to be here.
Great to have you here, Ren.
Our first guest who is chatting through a Radan Metaclasses.
That's a UFO, right?
Claire?
Yeah, all hands-free, airpod-free.
I'm free of all devices other than the one on my face.
Unreal.
OK, so this will probably be a pretty technologically savvy conversation.
That's just my guess.
You were about to tell me, and I cut you off.
This was prior to press record because I wanted to hear the story, but you were starting
to touch on your showroom etiquette, airpods.
What's your tell us a little bit about that, how you operate your showroom and pods and
all that?
Well, I love hands-free technology, so I get it.
I have airpods, and I take phone calls and do meetings on my glasses all the time.
I used to do with my airpods, but going around to the stores, it drives me crazy when I see
some of our sales professionals with these pieces of plastic in their ears.
It just makes them totally unapproachable.
I think it's rude, one, for our customers.
Like, if we get an opportunity to talk to someone, take care of them.
I want to make sure we're approachable, and you can do that.
Like, same thing as a name tag, right?
And if it's back in the bullpen, that's cool.
I don't want people wearing different airpods when they're talking to customers.
Or potentially engaging with them.
I don't think it's crazy.
I don't think it's crazy either.
How strict is this rule?
You have 26 rooftops.
If I walk into any of these rooftops, will people be wearing airpods at any of them?
Like, end up open?
I'm sure you'll find them.
Usually it's a porter, and they're just going around doing their thing, but it's with anything.
I demonstrate the why, and I explain why, just like I did, and most people get it.
And honestly, they're not usually even thinking about it.
It's like, sometimes in the airport, I guess this is where I feel that if I go in an airport,
I just pop them in, I walk, because no one's going to mess with me, right?
So I use the same logic.
If someone's doing that, when they're at work, they probably don't want anyone to engage
with them, so sends the wrong message.
But I think you'll be pretty consistent.
You'll be surprised.
Yeah.
That's a great take, man.
And I'll give you a different angle in this one as well.
I read that, for multiple sources, by the way, that I don't think this is some conspiracy,
but that the AirPods are actually very bad for you from like a radiation perspective.
And again, I have no idea.
I'm not backing this up, but I did read it multiple times, so I dumped the AirPods,
and now look what I carry around.
Look at this.
I got these wired ones going back.
Back in time.
So if you're not watching the video right now, I have a bunch of wired earpods they
call them, which is, you know, the old school ones.
See, they need to see if what's going to get us first, if our brains are going to get
cooked by the AirPods, or if we're going to become plastic.
One of them is going to win, but it is so true.
Okay.
Well, I like that.
So here's how I read you so far, right?
Attention to detail, really care about the customer experience, technologically savvy.
So this will shape the conversation.
Tell me a little bit about your group is pretty remarkable.
Founded in 1904.
I mean, like we're talking about like, would cars even exist back then?
And I know they just came shortly after.
So tell us a little bit about the story about the Spitzer Auto Group and just kind
of the everything, the history of this group.
Sure.
I'm a fourth generation family business.
We're Spitzer Auto World.
Actually, I don't love Spitzer Auto Group because I, no, you're good.
I get a chance to explain it is, you know, I think it implies there's multiple owners,
but it's just us.
It's my family.
And, you know, I see my dad every day at work.
So, you know, we actually started as a hardware store in sleepy, sleepy little town
called Grafton, Ohio, still open today, actually, 122 years later, almost in March.
But, you know, what's noteworthy about Grafton, though, is it has a water tower.
So one day, a train going from Detroit to New York stopped to take on water.
And a young man by the name of Henry Ford got off the train to stretch his legs
and he's going around town trying to find people to sell his product, the Model T.
So Henry Ford's walking around Grafton, talking to people and everyone's saying,
go talk to George Spitzer, talk to George Spitzer, my great grandpa.
And that's how we kind of the car business.
So it, you know, and that was fine.
And, you know, we were always hardware store first and, you know,
carb is second or probably even third.
In fact, you know, back, Ford had reps back then in the early 1900s.
I didn't know that until my dad told me the story.
But we had a rep come by the hardware store and we were using the Model T
to sell potatoes, like had baskets full of them.
It's like George Spitzer, how are you going to sell potatoes out of a Model T?
And he looks and says, well, they're selling just fine.
And it wasn't until my grandpa, John, got back from World War Two that we kind
of hit a fork in the road.
You know, we, my great grandpa told my grandpa to liquidate the car business
because, you know, he didn't really want to deal with it anymore.
But, you know, once he told his son to do that and started becoming very profitable
and more important than that, you know, he looked at his kid and he knew
that there was a passion there.
So instead of taking a left at the fork in the road, becoming a big box
hardware store like a looser home depot today, we took a right.
And we went into the car business.
And, you know, I think it's the right decision at the end of the day.
And plus we still get the hardware store.
So we were able to take care of customers there as well.
What do you mean?
Do you still own a hardware store?
Oh, in an opera?
Yeah, we do.
It actually actually burned down to the ground and we rebuilt it decades ago.
That happened.
But we remodeled it like 15, 20 years ago.
It looks good and it's local local hardware shop.
And I can't imagine that moves the needle in the P&L.
It's just like a sentimental value.
It's just a brand.
It's rarely a profit generator, but we're not going to close it.
Oh, wow.
And we got good people there.
We do.
I mean, that's all we are.
We're, you know, that's what I love about the car business.
I'm not a car guy at all.
I like I like sports and that's about it.
I have a couple other hobbies here and there, but it's it's people.
And that's what makes us a good organization.
And what keeps the hardware store going?
I guess it's incredible.
You're like the OG car max story, right?
Like circuit city, electronic store to like a dealership, hardware store to a
dealership.
I mean, you're the you're the real OG.
Tell me about.
So you like sports, you're 26 rooftops.
You clearly have some scale.
Any, any nil action on the marketing side.
Is that interest you from like a branding and marketing perspective?
Nail and like college athletes and sponsorships and stuff like that.
Oh, NIL.
So we have some professional athlete partners.
So we're in the greater Cleveland area for a bunch of our stores.
We're in the Pittsburgh market for almost the other half.
And then we have one store a little south of Miami.
So in Cleveland market, we worked with Joel Batonio of the Cleveland Browns for years.
He's a great guy.
People think he might retire here, but hope to keep him a Spitzer athlete for a
long time.
We worked with Nick Chubb last year.
Most people know who Nick is and got to do a commercial with him.
Great guy in Pittsburgh market.
We partnered with Jack Sawyer.
He's a rookie linebacker out of the Ohio State University national champion there.
And he's a great guy as well.
So nothing on NIL, but we have some athletic partnerships.
So that's fun.
Does it do you do you think it moves the needle?
Or is it more of just general branding, brand awareness?
Like, how do you?
Well, how do you?
Everything, everything's everything's a funnel, right?
When we look at marketing and it's high funnel.
It's all about top of mind awareness.
And, you know, I think we get pretty good deals with these athletes to get what they want.
And that's, you know, some wheels and, you know, they get some nice cars to drive
during the season and, you know, we get some social media posts.
We get, you know, a visit at one of the stores from the athlete.
And that's great exposure.
And our customers love it too.
How, how active is your group with social media or, you know, very active?
That's, yeah, tell me about that.
Like, what do you do?
I actually just this morning, I participated in in a town hall with Sam and Ziggler auto,
where they were talking about, you know, social media.
And I'm just talking a little bit about the rise of video and how, you know, the odds,
the percentage, the percent retention of a message that is conveyed through video is
like nine times higher than just a generic text, which is not, shouldn't be shocking.
It's like, you know, it's a video.
It's your, your triggering more senses.
It's, you know, it's, it's just some more, it's a richer format of content.
But when you say very active, like, what do you guys do and how does that impact your
business?
So we totally reevaluated our approach to social media, probably, I don't know, 14,
15 months ago, something like that.
And basically, because we were doing what I assume every other dealer does and like,
all right, tell your salespeople, go make social media posts.
And then that's kind of it.
Maybe you spiff them, but, you know, really, what is it getting for you?
Like, you know, what, what social circle is seeing that post?
It's probably just that, that salesperson and their friends is getting shared.
Is it getting other to other?
No, is there a strategy in this?
And something that I realized pretty quickly when I got to the management level is we
are really good at selling and servicing cars.
We are not good at social media.
And we wave the white flag, like we got to take this out of the hands of all these
salespeople and all these people at the store.
Cause ultimately this isn't what directly pays the bills.
And all they want to do is focus on their next car deal, which I love.
And that's why we partnered with, hey, there, H-A-Y there.
My sister is actually, you know, part of ownership in that.
So that's how it came to be.
And they have done an amazing job of one, creating a strategy, but two, really
implementing and letting it run.
We have generally more of a focus towards, you know, the female market with
social as opposed to a male consumer and, you know, ultimately that's the decision
maker, right?
And, you know, we often, we try to zig when others zag and, you know, that's
been really good for us.
And, you know, we have a different tone content because of that.
And, you know, we've seen not only good engagement within that initial circle,
but also outside of it.
We're seeing shares.
We're seeing DMs asking for more information.
And, you know, we've coupled that with partnerships with some influencers as well.
Because, you know, that's definitely not what we did when we opened the hardware
store in 1904.
But today you got to change your game in order to market with today's time.
So we've seen some good engagement with that.
And that's where it's been really cool to really, you know, tie that more to
community influence as well.
You know, part of the benefit of being spread out across three states is we
have a lot of different people we get to work with in our communities and an
influencer is based on that community.
It's not like we have one for all of Spitzer.
You know, we have one for each of the rooftops, or at least that's what we're
working towards.
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That's interesting because I've heard the stat of, you know, women influencing
the majority of car purchases.
I don't know how that was measured.
I don't know certain brands more than others, certain types of vehicles.
Um, and I also don't know how accurate it is.
We clear, I mean, we've all clearly have anyone that's, you know, married or,
you know, as, as, as sold any cars in their life, they've seen that
experience go down at the dealership.
Um, but I think it's interesting that you're actually, you know, really
putting your money where your mouth is here and specifically creating content
targeted towards women.
Um, because, you know, even if they do influence a disproportionate, you know,
amount of car sales, are they, you know, are they the right top of funnel to
necessarily market to, to get someone to the dealership?
Like is, is automotive content what they want to see?
Or is it better off, you know, marketing that towards men?
I don't know.
I mean, there's opportunities everywhere, right?
And, you know, and, and once again, you know, I think, you know, conventional
wisdom is, you know, you probably want to target more of the men, but you know,
that's so competitive and we're not even sure if that's the right call.
Then, you know, I just think it, one, you know, this approach has worked for us.
And, you know, we've had that kind of approach for some time.
Um, but, but two, it's not as competitive.
You know, I think we have more of a voice and more of a channel
actually have our message get heard.
Um, you know, that's what we've seen.
We, we've done, um, uh, marketing on Pinterest and we've seen awesome return
on that for that exact reason.
Wow.
That's great.
I like that.
Tell me a little bit about your acquisition spree.
From my mistake, you've roughly doubled your rooftops in the last four, five years.
Yeah.
Uh, COVID was an interesting time, uh, for a lot of places in the world.
And, you know, it wasn't the worst for us.
We've had an opportunity to grow our company.
Um, you know, back, back in like the 80s, we peaked at I think 33 rooftops.
And then, you know, slowly, you know, uh, unloaded some, the recession
happened in 08 and you know, a lot of people lost their dealerships.
We were fortunate to get a bunch back.
Um, my dad was actually pretty involved in that.
That's a separate podcast.
And that's a good story.
Um, he's actually got a book on it.
The bankruptcies with the manufacturers or what are you talking about?
My, my dad was a him, Jack Fitzgerald, uh, Tammy, Darvish.
Gosh, I think there might be one more name on there.
And my, my sister Allison, uh, they were instrumental in getting dealers,
their dealerships back and got a bill signed by Obama to, you know,
basically say what the, uh, the manufacturers did was unconscious,
the constitutional ones, you know, we help people get their business,
their lives back.
Um, that's a conversation for another day.
We keep it to do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you can, we'll see.
There's a book about it.
He probably told you to read the book.
If we can wrangle him, if we can wrangle that.
Yeah.
No, he's a tough, he's a tough one to crack down.
So back to the scale.
How have you sustained this explosive growth, roughly doubling the rooftops?
And so either five years.
Yep.
So going back, it's a one, it was really exciting, uh, cause like I said,
we used to be, you know, a lot bigger than we were.
And you know, 2019, 2020, we got down to like 13, 14 rooftops and we've added
a dozen, um, over the last five, six years.
Um, so it's presented some challenges, but it's been super fulfilling.
You know, one, we've added so many great people, uh, you know, talented people,
but great people to the organization, uh, you know, by adding the stores
that we did, you know, we've really, you know, gotten a good foothold in central
PA and the Du Bois, St. Mary's Market, which has been great.
Uh, but it's definitely opened our eyes to some, you know, opportunities to
standardize and streamline.
And we've had to really up our game at the management level, just cause,
you know, I don't know if complacency is the right word, but we definitely
got used to doing business a certain way with the amount of stores we had and
running an organization with, you know, 14 stores, a lot different than 26,
especially when a dozen of them don't know what you're about as an organization yet.
So how do you, you know, not only teach them your culture, but also learn
from theirs cause, you know, for every store we acquired, there were probably
three or four that we said no to cause it wasn't a right culture fit.
Culture has always been the number one thing in our organization.
And, you know, why we're still in business today and we weren't willing
to jeopardize it, you know, if a store and the people didn't seem to align.
Um, so, you know, standardizing and, you know, learning the tools that, uh, some
of the acquisition stores use to learn more about them, but really, you know,
it built confidence in our practices and our partners.
And, you know, we, we got managed expenses.
Things can be very expensive when you add stores, especially if, uh, you know,
you have multiple vendors handling, you know, the same tool.
So, you know, we, uh, work with the auto at all of our stores and we're able
to, you know, get preferred pricing because of the size of our group.
Um, you know, Impel is a big partner of ours, um, and they've helped us become
way more efficient by, you know, letting our team do their job better, uh, with
the help of AI, not by replacing them.
Um, so we've seen really good value there as well.
So I want to break that down piece by piece.
First of all, when you say standardized across your rooftops, what does that
actually mean to you?
Like are we talking single vendor?
You know, I've spoken with some dealers recently that have two DMSs across their
group, um, for redundancy and I just used that as a one, one off example.
But what do you have standardized mean to you?
Yeah, it's, uh, I guess, you know, how we manage is, uh, you know, there's a line
in the sand, it's spitzer management.
We're support for our stores.
That's who we are.
Our stars run the store and, you know, they are there in the front lines and, you know,
pretty decentralized, you would say.
Uh, no, I wouldn't say that, uh, at all.
Um, so what do you mean by stars run to show and you're in the back?
So our GMs run the stores, but there's some non-negotiables.
You know, there are some things like, um, you know, we have a managed floor.
Uh, we have a point system.
It's not wild, wild West.
Uh, I think if you have that, you have chaos and if you have chaos, how can you manage
a team and you know, how can you be productive?
So we have a managed floor and you know, I expect every store you walk in, you don't
touch a door handle at point one.
We open doors.
I don't care if it's a vendor.
I don't care if it's a fellow employee and I definitely care if it's a guest.
Um, but you know, that's something I expect to see at every store.
All of our stores have CDK as a DMS.
All of our stores use Vin solution as a CRM.
Um, but you know, like third party inventory sites, like that's up to the GM.
You know, there's a line in the sand where there's some things we have to handle at the
management level to make sure that we are leveraging our scale and ultimately, you know,
steering the organization in the right direction.
But with that, you know, there are some tools that you're never going to see full ROI out
of unless you have the buy-in from the dealership and the team.
Because you know, it just doesn't work.
They're not passionate about it.
They don't want it to work as much.
They're almost, you know, some people even tank it just to prove that they're right
so they can get what they want.
Oh yeah.
So with it, you know, why have the games?
I'd rather have someone pick their tool that they're going to get more return out of
because ultimately if they win, I win.
That's a great point.
And I agree.
The baseline tools that where there's maybe not less variability, but like the structural
tools you said, inventory management, store management, those are consistent.
And when it comes to more marketing, things that performance may vary market by market,
brand by brand, that's a bit more discretionary, understood.
Tell me about, I want to, before we talk about how you're, you mentioned you're leveraging
technology and AI.
And I think that's an important topic because that's also all over the place right now amongst
dealers.
Tell me more about these like cultural touches.
Where did these all like spawn from?
You mentioned the no air pods that I don't want anyone touching the door handle.
I want that open before they get there.
We actually just had someone on Daily Dealer Live talk about how many times does your store
let the phone ring before you pick up?
And they were saying, should it be under two rings, under three, under one?
I would have to imagine you're an under one store type of guy, but like what are other
cultural touches that you've implemented in your store that have been successful for you?
Well, it all just comes from, you know, we got to do right by the customer.
We're not perfect, right?
And this is always why I learned from my dad and he learned from his is, look, we're not
perfect.
We're going to mess up.
And, you know, your true colors are always going to show when you do mess up.
What do you do?
And we always want to make it right.
And everything that we do, it's all about trying to differentiate ourselves from the
competition because nowadays especially, you know, the cars are pretty much all the same.
On the new side, they're definitely all the same.
And like everyone's seen the different memes of like a compact SUV from the side.
And now they all look the damn same regardless of the label in the front.
Yes.
You know, used cars are used cars.
They're still, you know, unique.
But more and more, your people and your culture are the difference maker.
And, you know, everything we do, especially, you know, in the showroom or anywhere else,
customer facing, it should be reflective of that.
So, you know, I remember in the lobby, I learned when I sold cars, when I sold cars,
I was told, all right, point one, you open the door because it's something our competition
won't do and you're going to make people feel special.
And guess what, you know, probably once a week, I had someone walking in and they're
saying, wow, hey, I feel special.
Like, you know, a woman comes in, I feel like the queen of this place.
And just those little moments add up, you know, because we got to remember, you know,
for some people, we're the big bad car dealer.
And I don't think that's fair because, you know, I've always been looked at a certain way
just because of the name I wear and because I'm a dealer kid.
You know, dealer kids were the worst.
We really are.
And I've seen some pretty terrible ones.
It is what it is.
But, you know, it makes me motivated to be better too.
And, you know, I think our team takes confidence in knowing that they work for a good family.
You know, I'm confident in saying that we're good people.
And we give back to our community.
We take care of our folks.
And I think if you take care of your employees, your customers will see the benefits of that
too.
And they'll be taken care of.
But all the little culture setters, it's all about taking care of our customers and
trying to make them customers for life.
Who would you say mentored you?
Any peer groups?
Or are you in any peer groups?
Or do you have like a learning circle?
Or I'm just curious.
I just, no, really, we have our own like 20 group internally.
We call it our elite eight.
So our top eight performing GMs from the prior year, that's kind of like our consulting group.
So, you know, when we come up with ideas, especially ones that are going to impact the
group at a group level, you know, there is there can be a disconnect from, you know,
the ground to ground level to management.
So, you know, that our elite eight is a is that bridge to make sure that something we
think is a slam dunk at our level might actually might not make any sense at all at the store.
So, but that's all internal, not so much with an outside group.
Tell me about that elite eight, though.
What about the other, you know, what is it, 18?
Guy, I guess, yeah, 18 other operators or that are out there that are not in the elite eight?
Are they not to benefit, you know, benefit from the learnings or potential education?
So does that work?
Each of the elite eight GMs has a pot of three or four GMs.
So that's kind of like their group.
So we have a monthly call with our elite eight and maybe one or two meetings.
We try not to add too much because of what we do is already so time consuming.
These people have families, like, but, you know, everyone's voice is heard,
even though it's only coming through the mouths of eight selected people.
So everyone's, you know, opinion gets to be stated.
But ultimately, you know, these are also our best operators.
So, you know, one of my big managing philosophies is fair doesn't mean equal.
You know, if you want to be in this group, step your, you know,
you got to step up your game and earn your spot.
That's it.
Neurotocracy, get your ass on the line, go sell a car, baby.
That's how we all, that's how we all.
Well, and the beautiful thing is, you know, like we, we organize it off of profit and,
you know, one of our most rural stores is, you know, one of the top stores in the organization
and it's just really a testament to their buy-in and what we do and their confidence
and their team and how they develop and just have the right culture.
So there's no excuse of I'm at this store there at that store.
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When you say top store, are we talking about profitability or what are we talking about?
Yes.
Yeah, it elitates our profitability.
All profitability.
All right.
That's what we do at the end of the day.
So that's what it's all about, right?
I want to talk about gross and profitability, but before we do that,
you mentioned earlier you have Impel across the group.
Yeah.
I like asking this question.
There's a lot of differing opinion nowadays on the best way to leverage different tools and AI
and communication with customer.
You seem like someone who is very, you're not just talking the talk when it comes to culture.
You're walking the walk based on the specific examples you gave me.
You know, some people say like, oh, we care about culture.
I'm like, okay, why do you care?
I like prove it.
And then they don't have anything to say.
And they're like, do you really care or do you just say that you care?
I mean, it seems like you really, you put attention to detail here.
How are you taking advantage of AI with customer communications,
you know, your relationship with Impel?
What are you really doing there?
So it's all just, it's a tool to wrap around your people.
And I'm trying to get rid of the tedious tasks and just have them focus on the low hanging fruit.
And before we even got started up with Impel everywhere, you know, I had to do a lot of
politics with our BDC teams because, and I was going out to stores and talking with these individuals
just because I wanted them to know like, we're not trying to replace you.
That was the first thing because AI is scary to a lot of people.
And it's scary how good, how many good things it can do, but it can also do a lot of bad things too.
So just number one, just trying to really tell my people and really coach them up on
how this is going to make their lives better, how they're not, they're not going to go backwards.
They're actually going to go forwards because we're going to go forward as an organization.
And it's really trying to use this tool to build around them.
Because we have a small handful of, you know, Internet BDC folk that do a really great job,
but we don't have 20 some of them, right?
So, you know, what I love about the AI is, you know, we can build the tedious tasks and have it go
through Impel and we can feed our workhorses.
And we've been able to layer in stores with turnovers so that they get more opportunities
than that bats. And, you know, instead of trying to figure out 26 different Internet people,
now I'm just focused on like seven or eight.
And that's a lot easier for me to understand and the managing folks to understand as well.
And that's because of AI.
Yeah. So you're saying fewer people, arguably better quality people because you need fewer.
And I assume, I mean, have you quantified like a measurable return on your investment,
a measurable impact here?
I don't have that at the top of my head.
I definitely didn't expect you to give me like some number to like this.
I'm just saying in general, like, have you tested this?
I mean, is this implemented across the entire group?
Like, where are we at?
Yeah, every source.
So we have our A stores and our B stores.
Because, you know, over time, you know, I believe in, you know, consolidation and having a centralized
BDC because, you know, if I'm the only person in my store doing my job, how on earth am I supposed
to get better? You know, what am I comparing myself to? What, you know, iron sharpens iron,
right? And above all else, like, that's why I like a centralized BDC.
Because at least you have a culture there of, you know, task generation and trying to set an
appointment. And then I lost where I was.
So first of all, you crack the bell, but you're like, I don't have that number.
I didn't expect you to have that number.
All good. All good.
I love, I love how dealerships are like the last bastion of like, you know,
meritocracy that really, really exists.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's like, you get out what you put in, there's no BS.
Just like, start the month, you're fresh.
That's a beautiful thing.
And I tell people this all the time, like, you get out of it, what you put in,
you're going to have some great months, you're going to have some bad ones,
but it's an averaging business and whatever you put into it, you will get out.
And I think like in this life, what do you get with that, with that deal, right?
I just, I think it's a beautiful thing.
And the people that leverage it really do great things for their family and some people,
generations of family.
It is actually, it's really great.
And one of the things that this is a personal thing I'm going to tell you right now, but
one of the things that bothers me most about my job today, right?
Like the world I live in, which is a very remote world, offices, studios, traveling,
it's that I, like I grew up on the Carla and that taught me so much from, you know,
like we would just say, but you get out what you put in, I want that for my kids.
You know, I'm like, I'm going to make it happen.
That's for sure.
But I think it's, it's such a good fricking student teacher for life.
It is.
It's, like you said, the last bastion of true meritocracy.
And where you, I do this, but just this morning in this, in this town hall, I mentioned you,
there's a guy that sold last month in December, 116 cars, 116 cars in one month.
This is no BS.
So right away, I asked the question, like, is this an influencer?
Like there has to be some trick.
What's the deal?
Come to find out that he just has monopolized a local, like a niche community.
And like, he is their go-to guy.
So which, by the way, like kudos to that guy.
Amazing.
Right.
But everyone has a car guy or gal.
Like, what are you doing?
Is that first?
It's good for him.
It's incredible.
116 fricking cars.
I mean, what?
Anyway, so incredible.
Okay.
So it's really cool to see that you, and then one last question on the tech side before
we move on to just more market related.
But you mentioned you have AI and Impel integrated in 26 stores.
What are you taking advantage of today?
Is it just voice AI when people call in?
Is it outdowns and fax?
Like what are you doing in your end?
We started with the sales AI.
So, you know, when customers are, so when customer submits a lead, you know, who's
talking to them and instead of it being a person getting the first crack at it, you know,
they're talking to an AI bot.
You know, I use, I compare it to a fishing boat and what Impel does for us is when we
get these leads, they're tossing lines out in the water and, you know, the fish will nibble.
Heck, they'll even bite and it'll start to reel that fish in for you.
And sometimes the fish will get in the boat.
It'll send an appointment and you're good to go.
Never even had to talk to anyone.
Sometimes the fish tugs back and that's where we'll tap one of our BD agents on
the shoulder and say, hey, hop in here, you know, reel in that fish.
And that's how, you know, we can scale around.
And that's the example for how we're building around, you know, these agents.
From there, we went to the service AI and that's been, we talked about ROI.
I mean, that's the one.
And, you know, that's doing the service has been astronomical for many dealers.
And by the way, not just with communication, like video MPIs through the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
I know Michael Beagle from Lyoto implemented that.
And he has been, you know, he was raving about it.
He shared that with me.
So do you currently do video MPIs and service with Ray-Ban glasses or not doing that?
No, but I'm going to have to get on this.
Almost everyone's got them now.
It works.
Yeah. You know, a big thing for people that aren't totally familiar is, you know,
this doesn't replace the phone calls, right?
We, you know, we still need people to do that without phone calls.
This just eliminates the text and emails.
So and with that, like our service advisors, it's the hardest job in the dealership.
You know, it's, I've worn a few hats and I've always been too scared to put on that one.
They can see it's too tough.
But, you know, if they're, they have a hard enough job, but of just, you know,
breathing, let alone, you know, sending out texts and emails.
And, you know, not everyone has a service scheduler.
So, you know, if you think they're going to proactively find business, you're crazy,
like they're not.
So that's why, you know, the Impel service has been so good for us.
They do our chat tool now.
We moved on from another big vendor and we moved to them just because it sounded more real, you know.
And, yeah.
No, it's excellent.
So tell me, well, I wanted to ask you about, can you tell us about your brand mix?
Like what does your current brand mix look like?
So we have all the Domestics.
Chevy is our biggest domestic brand.
We have three Chrysler's, four Ford's, a couple of BGs and a Cadillac.
We got a VW.
We have a couple of Kia's.
We have a Hyundai.
We have a couple of Hondas.
We have an Acura.
We have Lincoln.
We have Toyota.
We're pretty well diversified.
Many mainstream brands.
Any luxury?
Sprinkled in?
Cadillac, Lincoln, Acura.
Those three.
Nothing exotic.
Something luxury as well.
How do you feel about like, how was 2025?
How was December?
How do you feel about overall just, you know, state of the market right now?
The exciting thing from 25.
Overall, you know, we grew over 24 and we were excited about that.
But any last ties to the COVID bubble were gone.
You know, some people were still grasping on in 24.
But anyone that was late to the party to wake up, that were back to the grind,
finally woke up in 25.
And that was exciting.
And, you know, with that, some of the COVID BS we're dealing with is in the rear view mirror now.
You know, we're not so much worrying about inventory, you know, stuff of that nature.
So we're just back to normal, you know, really focusing on expense structure.
You know, we weren't as focused on that in the early 20s and that became more real.
And, you know, that went hand in hand with some of the Impel stuff that we just talked about.
So really, it's just how do we leverage our triangle?
The triangle, that's our core strategy.
You got your inventory, you got your marketing, and you got your staff.
So right now our staff, that's our smallest corner of the triangle.
You can always increase the advertising and kind of at the mercy of the manufacturer on the inventory.
But we need more people.
So we've been talking about training a lot.
We actually have a Spitzer University.
It's a web-based app that people can role play on.
It can be reviewed by managers.
So just try and create some structure with training.
And see, as every dealer, it's like, you know, once again, go train.
That's it. What do we do?
How do you inspect it?
You have like a coaching log, but by the second month, you do a coaching log.
It's like, all right, they're just filling it out to fill it out.
What are you doing?
So that's been good.
And just really, that's investing in our people.
Every theme you just touched on is totally aligned with everything I've heard from
every other dealer, right?
Working on expense structure, reducing costs across the board.
Typically, it's just people and vendors.
And not by changing comp plans.
But rather, it's everyone contributing and necessary truly.
I don't know if you've seen anything different.
We'd love to hear your take on that.
But that's at least what I've heard from the industry from expense structure.
It makes sense.
It's some of the biggest line items on the P&L.
That's been your biggest focus.
When you think about 2026, you think about affordability.
You think about new car gross is dropping, units on ground is rising.
So we're going to see more margin pressure.
How are you preparing?
Or I mean, it seems like you're not slowing down on buying stores.
So much of our focus is on service retention.
Because service absorption is a big metric that we've been focusing on.
That's the health of your business.
My dad would not be happy by me saying this.
But more and more, it's like we're in the service business, right?
It's like you got to pump them into the showroom,
and then you got to take care of them and retain them through the service drive.
So last April, we launched our Spitzer VIP program.
So it's a retention program.
And we've always held our head on value.
We have a few Y buys that back up the value.
And I firmly believe if you can have value and have convenience, you can be lethal.
And now we're working on our convenience proposition.
So with VIP, you get rewards.
So that's the carrot to dangle and how you get people engaged with it.
There is an app.
And we never wanted to do the app thing.
I think everyone's reluctant.
You got a million of them on your phone anyways.
Why do I need one more?
The nice thing, you can earn rewards without the app,
but you can't get the full benefit of the program.
But we have another, we partner with icon technologies.
They have a GPS device.
So we have those on all of our units.
We sell a five-year plan with that.
But every customer gets a one-year benefit free of charge.
So they can manage that in their Spitzer VIP app.
We do complimentary maintenance on retail deals.
They can manage that in the app.
If they, you know, like VW includes first-year maintenance.
So our VW customers can actually keep the manufacturer one
in gifts to Spitzer plan to friends and family.
You know, that way we can expand our net
and our customer gets an extra value
that they, you know, wouldn't have had otherwise.
You know, we have 24-7 chat with real people.
So if you pull in late night, 3 a.m.,
and your dashboard's lit up like a Christmas tree,
we have someone to talk to.
And, you know, hopefully troubleshoot if we can.
So that's our partner, Prokarma.
They're the app developer and they have the people
and they are awesome.
You know, huge shout out to Cosme and his team.
You know, that's been, that's been my biggest baby
for the past year is really getting that up the ground.
Because for years and years,
and everyone always talks about how do we conquest
through the sales arena.
And that's great and we can and, you know,
but that's going to be death by a thousand cuts.
You know, maybe by the time I'm 60,
we'll be caught up there in some bar backyards.
But every day, you know, we get not only traffic,
but traffic with a competitive branding on the car
in our service drive.
So how do we create value and not only do business
with us today in our service drive, but tomorrow as well.
And that's why, you know, having the idea of brand equity
and building it with our VIP program plus,
you know, trying to train our customers
to do business differently than our competitors
by having these, you know, unique convenience features
within the app.
That way, not only do they want to do business with us,
you know, they're not going to have the same easy experience
at another place.
So they don't really want to do it elsewhere,
you know, on top of that.
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So a couple questions on that.
What inspired you to launch the VIP program?
Did you see that somewhere first?
Were you exposed to it?
Like, where did that idea come from initially?
You know, it's like, I like sports.
So in the NBA, you know, everyone is focused
on feeding big men until Steph Curry stretched the floor
and then everyone starts copying.
And now you see all these three pointers
chucked up every night.
So, you know, some competitors in our markets
had a rewards program.
I'm like, damn, okay, you know,
that actually makes a lot of sense.
And you know what, if you can't beat them, it makes sense.
And, you know, as you know, like I'm all about
anything that has the customer win.
And, you know, between that and our Spitzer Shield,
which is our, you know, value add,
we have a lifetime nationwide powertrain warranty
on new vehicles and we have our own CPO program.
So I just think no one offers more value than us.
And, you know, with the convenience
and additional value of VIP,
I just think we have everything you need
from a Y buy perspective.
And that's good for recruiting too,
because it's really exciting when you're interviewing someone,
you tell them about all these bullets in the chamber
that they have with us
that they wouldn't have with another dealer.
It makes it a lot more attractive.
And then, by the way, I did remember
what I wanted to ask you there.
And it was two completely separate thoughts,
which is why my brain just completely went kaboos.
I was going to ask you about your university,
which is, again, so it's efficiencies and it's training.
Efficiencies are training.
Everyone is trying to get more from what they have
and to, you know, just make things more efficient.
It's not that complicated.
And it's not that complicated in theory.
But what is your structure for the university?
How did you go about setting that up?
Definitely.
It's challenging because, you know, once again,
we sell on service vehicles.
We don't really create training videos.
I didn't have a nice app like I have for this podcast.
So, one, we have a good partner with that, Verisana,
and they've worked with us and helped add in,
build the courses.
Because, like, a lot of this stuff is just word tracks.
And honestly, like, you know, I'm on these videos
just because I did it as a salesperson.
And, you know, I had all these great things
that I learned from my bosses or other salespeople.
So, it was a chance to get everything in my brain out
because I don't work as much with the stores I'd like anymore
because I'm doing what I need to do at management.
So, that was a work in progress,
just getting all that out there.
But then leveling it up to, you know, I can't edit stuff.
So, it's nice having a partner that's willing to go in,
listen to the content, come up with questions that they had
as a, you know, completely green pee, you know,
into our business and just, you know, help create the content.
So, content creation is the toughest thing.
And then, you know, once again, how do you have a strategy?
So, starting this year, everyone has to get retrained
and recertified on each of our core word tracks
to make sure everyone stays sharp.
Because what happened was everyone was starting to get trained,
which was great.
But then they were like, okay, great.
We're done with training because they're done in Spitzer U.
It's like, you got to continue after that.
But then every month, you know, there's fresh content
that comes in, you know, monthly specials.
Our spots get loaded.
And that way, if customers are talking,
hey, I saw this new commercial.
Our salespeople aren't sitting there and be like,
huh, what are you talking about?
And I just think that sounds and looks terrible.
You know, we have this functionality called FastTrack.
So, you know, say there's a promotional change
with the manufacturer.
You can send a video to your sales team out really quick,
like, hey, you know, this, let's say there's a new
last minute 0% finance plan.
So, you can walk through that and then you can request a video
back from your sales team to regurgitate the information.
You can approve it or you can disapprove it and say,
hey, you missed this part about the 72 months.
Spit it back to me.
Let me know.
You can hear it.
Here's what you say.
So, that's some of the stuff we're doing in Spitzer U.
Super cool, man.
You're definitely rolling in the right direction.
Tell me, change it up a little bit here,
but what is just something fun that we don't know about you?
Just some unknown fact that the
majority of the world doesn't know about you.
Like, what do you like,
know how to solve the Rubik's cube or something?
Like, how's something cool?
No, actually, I tried that and I lost the attention span.
I can't stop doing things.
I have a couple hobbies.
I collect trading cards.
I'm a 90s kid, so I got Pokemon cards and basketball.
Let's go, giddy up.
You know, it's actually,
finally like I'm here in my basement office,
actually, I got some football cards here.
And I ripped in some packs last night.
So, anyways, yeah, get cards.
I collect, I'm a sneaker guy.
I wear my shoes, but I actually counted up.
I figured I thought I might come up.
I got 30 pairs of Jordan ones.
That's my silhouette.
That's the one.
But I got a lot of Kyrie's and LeBron's
because, you know, I'm a Cleveland guy and go calves.
We're partners with the calves as well,
so back that up on a business level.
But outside of that, I don't know,
just work and family.
That's all there is, right?
How's my boy, Yolgowskis?
Whatever.
Big Z?
I have an autographed trading card of his, actually.
Really?
They don't put respect on his name.
Is he like in Europe now, or is he retired?
Like, what's the deal with Yolgowskis?
I'm sure he still lives in West Milwaukee.
No, he's like 10 minutes from where I am now.
He's stayed here.
He's local.
Big Z, he's a Northeast Ohio lifer.
We love him.
And plus, I mean, I wish he was in today's MBA
because of how babes can stretch the floor.
He would have cleaned up in today's MBA.
Wow, wow, wow, wow.
So, yeah, I have thoughts on that.
That's cool, man.
I love that.
So, Andrew, as we're wrapping up here,
you know, what's your prediction for 26?
It can be contrarian about like the market.
Like, where's the market headed?
You know, what are dealers leaning into,
leaning out of?
Like, just tell us, kind of, give us a little summary
of your prediction for 2026.
Contrarian or not, I'm just curious what you think.
Hi, man.
Well, some people think the AI bubble is going to pop.
I don't think that's going to happen this year for us.
I think there's a lot of actually really good stuff
that, you know, those companies can do for us,
especially, you know, some of our people
don't have the best work habits.
So, I would assume that's a popular one.
I just, more and more, it's about the customer experience
and how do you take care of folks.
More human connection.
Lean local human connection.
It's, I believe in that.
That's especially with the rise of AI,
you need that even more, right?
I didn't even talk.
What about capacity?
Well, I didn't even talk about, you know,
to complement our VIP program.
We have VIP personnel at the store.
And their job is to, one, make sure you're having
a great experience.
But two, that's our angle to work service as well.
You know, we want to be different than our competition.
We try to educate our customers on where they're at
in their turn automotive situation.
Compliment your automotive review.
We'll give you rewards points for going through it.
Sound good, Mr. and Mrs. Customer?
All right.
Incredible.
I don't know.
It could go a lot of ways this year.
You know, I don't worry too much about the market
because, you know, we always try to manage expenses
and get ROI of our tools and we check that quarterly.
And then ultimately, if things affect inventory,
if it affects us, it's going to affect every other dealer
in the country.
So, you know, someone's going to win.
Why not us?
100% as long as you outperform the market.
Yeah.
And, you know, last couple of years,
we've been good from that standpoint.
So it tells us some of these things are working
and we just kind of keep, you know, committed and focused.
I remember my finance professor and undergrad,
probably like, I don't know, freshman or software,
he's like, if the market fell 20% and you only fell 10,
you're a superstar.
And I always thought about that because it's just so true,
right? It's all relative.
My daughter the other day, I was reading her a book and she said,
she's looking at, you know, two guys in the book,
it's like a castle or something.
And she's like, who's the bad guy?
I'm like, well, I was like, it's kind of relative.
I said, if you're that guy, you think that's the bad guy.
If you're that guy, that's the bad guy.
She's like, no, no, who's the bad guy?
I'm like, man, how do you explain this right out to a kid?
Wow. Incredible.
Andrew Spitzer.
Andrew, thank you so much for coming on.
This was super fun, man.
Thank you for having me.
Really appreciate it.
Keep crushing it, dude.
All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode.
Please give the podcast a rating.
Consider subscribing to the show
and check the show notes for links to what we talked about.
Thanks for tuning in.
I'll see you guys next time.
About this episode
Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Autoworld, shares insights on how his family business doubled its locations in five years by focusing on customer service and innovative marketing strategies. He discusses the importance of a unique VIP loyalty program and how AI tools enhance customer interactions. Spitzer emphasizes maintaining a strong company culture while adapting to market changes and highlights the significance of community engagement through partnerships with local athletes. The episode also touches on the evolution of dealership practices and the role of technology in improving customer experiences.
Original notes
Today I’m joined by Andrew Spitzer, COO of Spitzer Autoworld.
Spitzer breaks down how his fourth-generation family business doubled its footprint to 26 rooftops while maintaining radical showroom etiquette. He reveals why he bans AirPods on the floor, how a chance encounter with Henry Ford shaped the group’s legacy, and the specific ways they use AI to scale high-touch customer service.
We also explore the group’s "Elite 8" meritocracy and why service retention is now the primary driver of their long-term growth strategy.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Topics:
00:39 What is modern showroom etiquette and technology?
03:12 What is the history of Spitzer Auto World?
06:40 What are Spitzer Auto World's core marketing and branding strategies?
08:21 How does Spitzer Auto World engage via social media?
13:23 What drives Spitzer Auto World's acquisition and growth strategy?
19:46 How do cultural touches enhance customer experience?
27:32 How does a centralized BDC and meritocracy work?
30:07 How is AI used in sales and service?
36:26 What is Spitzer Auto World's service retention and VIP program?
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Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Car Dealership Guy
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51:12