00:27
everybody welcome back to another episode of the daily dealer live I'm your
00:31
host Sam dark and thanks for choosing to be here on CDG daily deal live with us
00:35
this Monday February the 16th coming up today use cars as rocket launcher AI
00:42
doubling engagement rates system migrations in real-time and why service
00:47
absorption is about to separate pros from amateurs if you're not optimizing for
00:51
off-street acquisition acquisition AI workflows and customer pay service
00:55
right now then you're playing defense in a market that rewards offense and by
01:00
the way speaking of offense for anyone who watched the Daytona 500 what an
01:04
exciting weekend race that was America's greatest race Ziggler's own Carson
01:09
host of our sponsored number 77 spire went into the final lap of the race the
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the white flag in first place he was bumped from behind by someone who was
01:23
bumped from behind by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into the wall and across took him out
01:28
went from first I think it was a top 20 finish so still props to Carson for a
01:33
great finish but in automotive it wrote as in race car driving it does pay to
01:39
play offense and that's what we're here to talk about today in the car dealership
01:45
guy podcast but first let's hit today's auto industry headlines first up today a
01:53
federal bill aimed at cracking down on catalytic converters we've talked about
01:56
it here on the show just cleared a key hurdle in Congress the preventing
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auto recycling thefts are part act advanced out of subcommittee and is now
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headed to the full house energy and committee commerce committee thus far
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dealers thus far dealers have been backing the measure hard the bill would
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require new vehicles to have traceable serial numbers stamped directly on the
02:21
catalytic converters making stolen parts easier to identify and track it also
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Titans record keeping rules for converter sales and creates federal penalties
02:29
for anyone caught stealing or trafficking them law enforcement groups say that
02:33
without traceability prosecuting thieves is tough and supporters argue this act
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creates a national framework instead of the current Patrick of state laws what's
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the bottom line here well this could help protect dealers from costly theft
02:45
losses but it's not across the finish line yet NADA is urging retailers to
02:50
call their members of Congress and to push it through next up today Toyota is
02:55
taking one of its highest volume SUVs well they're taking an electric the
03:00
2027 Highlander will be an all-electric U.S. built model the first battery EV
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Toyota has produced domestically the vehicle have 338 horsepower full-length
03:11
LED lighting and a more aerodynamic profile inside buyers get a 14 inch
03:17
center screen a 12.3 inch driver display charging access in every row upgraded
03:23
voice controls and a built-in dash cam style recording feature assembly well it
03:28
will take place in Kentucky with battery modules sourced from Toyota's North
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Carolina plant big picture here the Highlander is a core family name plate
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with a serious volume and bring it to market as a three row EV in late 2026
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well it'll be interesting in other news the EPA is ending regulatory credits
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for automatic start-stop systems it's that thing that happens when you stop in a
03:53
light car shuts off I've always wondered how much gas does that truly save well
03:59
that feature that that falls the repeal of the Clean Air Acts 09 endangerment
04:05
finding for context over many years automakers received emissions credit for
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installing the tech which now appears in roughly two-thirds of new vehicles and
04:13
can improve fuel economy anywhere from about 7% to 26% depending on the setup
04:19
and although the systems were never federally mandated the credits gave
04:23
automakers incentive to include them as part of their broader compliance
04:27
strategy EPA administrator is Lee Zeldin called eliminating the credit a quote
04:32
added bonus close quote as part of the administration's bought broader emissions
04:36
rollback noting the feature is widely disliked by drivers looking ahead with
04:42
the credit going away mid-cycle automakers now have a choice they can keep
04:46
the technology without regulatory upside or they can find other ways to make up
04:50
those efficiency gains elsewhere let the market guide last up today dealership
04:56
M&A activity returned to the CDG buy-sell tracker M&A activity refuses to slow
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down with more deals happening in New York and in Texas this year in the first
05:06
transaction Kedge Cook purchased Martin Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Cleveland Texas
05:12
from Brian Bounds according to performance brokerage services the firm
05:16
facilitated the transaction Cook now owns two dealerships including Cook Ford in
05:22
Texas City over on the East Coast West her automotive group purchased Sharon
05:27
Chevrolet in Liverpool New York from Mike Carrow the store ranks second in
05:33
volume for Chevrolet in the Syracuse market according to West her and the
05:37
group they anticipate selling about 2,000 new and used vehicles per year there
05:42
and you can check out this deal announcement and many more throughout
05:45
the year by visiting the CDG buy-sell tracker at cdgbuysell.com
05:51
it's power we love our tracker and that is powered by of course the
05:56
Presidio group so welcome back everybody on this Monday as always you can push
06:01
your comments into the CDG comments all across social media anywhere we're
06:06
live streaming post your comments and join the conversation let us know you're
06:10
there we were thrilled to have you back on this Monday mid-February including a
06:16
question for everybody how's your February going we hear a lot of talk
06:19
about February this month in the CDG circles but we'd love to have you share
06:24
your thoughts here as part of the show as well and we're gonna turn straight into
06:29
our very first guest today so first up today Tina Tash innovation and
06:34
technology specialist at Van Horn Automotive Group Tina welcome to the show
06:38
welcome back hi thanks for having me back I think it's my three-peat today so it
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is your last year I think in June of 2025 and you had a lot going on in the
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world you are focused on a lot of things AI and whatnot how's how's your world
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now in February of 2016 about six seven months later yeah I mean business is
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strong we've got honestly some really big milestones going on this year one of
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them being we're celebrating our 60th anniversary as a company so we have a
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lot of different marketing and fun things for customers and employees going
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along with that we actually just opened a brand new building for our Honda store
07:22
in the Milwaukee area so we've previously had what was probably the oldest
07:27
Honda building in the country and now at least for a minute we have the newest
07:32
and then the other big thing oh go ahead no no I was gonna say quickly to be
07:37
eclipsed in the building world and automotive like that'll be it that'll
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last for about 10 minutes but props to you and the entire group for that yeah
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yes it's two and a half times the size of our old building so it's huge wow
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excited about that and then the other big thing we've done in January is we
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switched for our CRM our DMS and our service scheduling tool so we moved over
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going all in on techie on so we're starting work today of a huge move for across the
08:06
entire company that is a huge move we want to talk a little bit about that
08:10
I've been through CRM changes it is a massive lift for a big group so we'd
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like to explore a little bit the why behind make that but before we go there
08:18
I want to step back and pull on a thread we talked about last time you were on
08:22
the show so you were talking about AI your tech stack and and what tools you're
08:29
using in BDC and elsewhere that helped engage customers better and one thing
08:34
you noted in the show notes for today you said you took your AI engagement from
08:39
nineteen point eight percent to forty one point one percent that's double that's
08:45
not incremental it's structural I'd love to learn a little bit about what
08:48
changed so AI engagement is an interesting metric why that metric and then how
08:53
did you get that particular metric to double and then what's been the result
08:57
financially but let's start on that metric yeah yeah so let me just break
09:01
that down so the first highlight on that is we decided last September that we
09:07
wanted to really narrow in on acquisition AI we thought we could do a better
09:12
job than what we had out of the box with our vendor partner so we worked with
09:17
them since September to customize in AI world what they call a procedure and we
09:24
would meet every month with my director overuse cars and then the vendor
09:32
partner and we just keep studying not only like what are the results but what's
09:37
being said what could we potentially change what do we tweak and we've been
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tweaking it every single month since September and that brought us to the
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stat that you just gave out of you know pretty much doubling the engagement
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right with our customers and our initial goal on this was just that
09:56
engagement we want to make sure that the customers are replying back to the lead
10:02
because that's you know the biggest part of the battle right is getting
10:06
customer engagement so rather than immediately focusing on the you know
10:11
the appointments which we obviously want first we wanted to study how do we get
10:15
more people to reply to these leads okay so so what's the tool that you're
10:21
what's the AI tool you're using to engage yeah so we are using podium for our AI
10:28
assistant platform and we've been with them since the very beginning of when
10:33
they started to decide they wanted to have an AI assistant so we've had kind
10:37
of a really you know a cool seat of being able to kind of help design what
10:41
that looks like and when we talk about these numbers one of the things that
10:46
was huge in allowing us to be able to train the AI the way we have is they
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have this new program called the AI studio that allows people like me to go
10:56
in there without knowing how to code or creating tickets or anything to redesign
11:00
exactly what I want to train into my AI assistant interesting and when you talk
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AI in this case I know podium has both voice and text I think they're just
11:09
coming out with voice are you engaging using voice or just text or email or
11:13
what's the method currently it's text and email we are looking into voice AI so
11:22
that is something that at some point this year we want to start to dabble and
11:27
do and figure out where we want to go with that voice AI I think we all know
11:31
is more difficult than the text because the text you have the grace of oh they're
11:37
typing oh they're looking something up and that's harder to look at on the voice
11:41
side so we intend to you know pick a racehorse on voice but today it is the
11:48
email and the text web our chat system off of our website and all of our third
11:53
party leads so Tina it's interesting I props to you on the success doubling that
11:57
engagement rate but I'm curious from a dealer perspective where we win in 30
12:01
day increments and we all want those sales in the month if you've been with
12:06
podium as an AI solution since the beginning what caused you to say hey
12:09
let's take a step back and not measure appointment not measure sales as a
12:14
result of let's measure just simple engagement were you having a hard time
12:17
getting engagement or or is it the studio where you're like hey we just really
12:23
want to perfect it before we start going to appointment what why why now is a
12:28
combination of both of those things the studio came out at about the same time
12:31
that we were starting to really want to you know pull back and kind of look back
12:36
at just the basics and one thing a lot of people don't realize is just how much
12:41
time you have to actually put into training your AI assistant and I think
12:47
a lot of times I hear dealers you know it's week two and it's not incredible so
12:52
now we want to cancel but I can't say it enough it's not a set it and forget it
12:56
product so you have to constantly be building into it and I look at it the
13:00
same way as you wouldn't expect a new employee of two weeks to know everything
13:04
so it takes time to train that up as well so it was kind of the combination of
13:10
all of those elements and then having a partner who is willing to work alongside
13:14
us on the project and just you know when we all can sync together our brains we
13:21
can really build some pretty amazing things and that's kind of what we've done
13:25
on acquisition so we're pretty excited about the results and next we want to
13:31
start to do more tracking on you know the AI autonomously scheduling
13:35
appointments on its own but to us step one was there's not enough people are
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applying to these leads off of what our AI is texting in the first text message
13:44
it's that text message isn't good enough is the way we looked at it and we just
13:49
pulled back to figure out what can we do to solve that problem okay so a ton of
13:53
comments online we're gonna get to those be patient with us to the audience but
13:56
I've got to ask this so you mentioned you started to kind of hone it in using
14:01
the studio what are the top three things that you did that resulted in this
14:05
doubling engagement over that period of time Tina yeah so number one was
14:10
redesigning the procedure and then within that we looked at things like what
14:16
can we say that people are going to actually want to respond to so rather
14:20
than the generic initial first response that that kind of would go out maybe on
14:25
a traditional lead that doesn't make sense on an acquisition lead we looked
14:29
at how can we optimize that so we did things like let's make our intro be let's
14:35
just ask them are you looking to just sell your vehicle outright or are you
14:39
looking for a vehicle upgrade so that was one big switch that we made another
14:45
one was keeping training the AI to keep things open to let's try to get the
14:50
customers to come in for the appraisal whenever possible but we have an
14:54
acquisition team who can strategize you know being able to put numbers on
14:59
vehicles and accommodate things without them actually coming in the dealership
15:02
so that that was another thing we looked at and then another thing we added that
15:07
actually surprised us that customers have been responding back to was was
15:12
simply asking them where else have you gotten values do you have other values
15:16
on that your vehicle already that you've gotten and the combination of those
15:21
things and they sound so basic but when you put them all in play that's what
15:26
increase the engagement for us that's awesome and what a great way to kind of
15:29
refine that and run that to ground so a few questions online yoga cart or let's
15:36
see actually let's let's start in order here so sagar doga says hi Tina podium
15:41
was being used as an engagement tool like automated emails or just service
15:45
queries like a chat box curious your take on that yeah so for us what we've
15:52
kind of been able to do through optimization is move on from just
15:56
thinking do we have a good assistant whatever you want to call it to what
16:02
are we doing to train up and optimize the system to make it excel so our assistant
16:08
is able to take both service and sales conversations the sales has kind of
16:13
been the focus of last year so this year we're putting a lot of focus on the
16:19
service leads and the integration with allowing the agent to be booking service
16:24
visits on its own the big thing is just we want to create as much of an
16:29
autonomous environment as we can and a whole nother conversation this would be
16:34
but it's just all allowing our employees to focus on higher level tasks and
16:40
letting the AI assistant take the lower funnel things okay another comment from
16:44
online yoga car says I count fan horns branding their pre-owned locations as
16:48
cars for 15k.com who came up with that who's behind it and why you know I don't
16:54
know who was the actual person who came up with that but just to add to that we
16:59
don't just have cars for 15k anymore we have trucks for 25k also okay and that
17:05
was kind of a branch off of one of our CDJ our stores we have a building across
17:11
the street so we have trucks for 25k as well so it's been very popular so far
17:18
I mean popular enough on the car side that we built the truck side so yeah
17:23
that's been a little bit adventure for us and look for everybody in our listening
17:26
audience here across the Daily Deal Alive world you've got to know Van Horn
17:31
you're an ESOP right so you can you all sort of talk like owners because you
17:36
all are a little bit owners you have ownership interest in the organization
17:39
which is pretty pretty pretty strong. Segar Dogrel also says the best part of
17:44
moving into a new building is getting those new coffee machines so maybe you
17:48
can maybe you can relate to that so Segar also says thanks for applying but
17:55
what's the total cost of acquisition total cost of acquisition if you have
17:59
thoughts on that I mean I don't have anything top of mind other than you
18:07
know we're what's nice about it is when you purchase like the AI assistant that's
18:11
all bundled in it's not something that we have to purchase an AI assistant for
18:16
acquisition now because it's different than you know sales purchase straight
18:21
purchase or service so it's all bundled together in one assistant for us. Okay so
18:27
a few more questions on one part you talked about in the very beginning of
18:31
today's interaction then we're gonna we're gonna go to our next guest but we'd
18:35
like to bring you back for a little lightning round both guests together at
18:39
the end of the show if you can hang out and stick around so you talked about this
18:42
transition to Techion that's a big lift DMS CRM all the tools where did you come
18:49
from what are you moving from and what spurred that for you said four months
18:54
ago why make the change now yeah so last year we spent pretty much the entire
19:00
year with kind of the target plan of deciding if what we have today is great
19:07
and we don't need to make a change just to make a change or explore other
19:12
opportunities out there one thing that we were really seeking is a unified
19:16
platform that whether we're talking CRM DMS service scheduling with Techion is
19:22
just Techion it was all built to be you know have that golden customer record
19:27
for us and that was a lot of it is just being able to holistically optimize
19:32
departments all using the same technology we have a we call it support
19:38
services which is basically a building that we purchased that we have about a
19:42
hundred employees and now that their job is just that they support the
19:45
dealerships and allowing us to have a system that can piece all that together
19:52
for all those different support services employees the dealerships and and just
19:56
make it really smooth that was the goal we're on week four so probably a six
20:02
month checkup is a different conversation of where we're at but so far so good and
20:06
where did you switch from what was the prior yeah we switch we had dealer track
20:12
then solutions and X time so we switch all those platforms three weeks ago all
20:17
the same day over to Techion so who in the organization when you think about
20:22
that big of a lift all those different platforms that's massive it's basically
20:27
the operating bones of any dealership who's kind of spearheaded this and how
20:31
many months in advance the actual transition did you begin the planning
20:36
for it yeah so our leadership team is awesome at Van Horn so they kind of had
20:43
the conceptual plan that they passed off to us as we call them the CRM the DMS
20:50
champions to really you own your area we want you to be the biggest one part of
20:54
the research phase of asking the questions because you live this you
20:59
every day you do this you know it fast so it was a collective research project
21:04
with probably about 30 employees that we all like just poked for holes and in
21:10
any piece that we've needed to make sure was going to be level set upon moving to
21:15
any new partner so again we were just we we've had all of the right minds on the
21:23
project in the research phase which then makes it simpler when you move into the
21:28
onboarding phase which I mean this is the first time I've really been through a
21:35
transition quite like this on this scale and there is a lot involved in those
21:40
moves and you just have to have the right people in the puzzle taking care of
21:44
the things that they sell an specialist at so early on recognizing a large
21:49
organization you're gonna have adversity and challenges making a big change like
21:53
that what have been some of the biggest challenges you've had to overcome
21:55
initially during that transition yeah anytime you make change it's never easy
22:01
it doesn't matter what system you're moving to from anything in between I
22:05
think one of the biggest challenges that was somewhat bittersweet for us was we
22:10
were forced to kind of look at all of our processes look at every granular
22:15
little detail to figure out should this still be here just because it was in you
22:21
know the last system for 10 years should we make a change we have the
22:26
opportunity to kind of have a whiteboard right now yeah yeah it was in a way when
22:31
you did that process Tina what did you kill you know I think a lot of what we
22:36
did was we really started to look at the tasks that we had going out what could
22:42
we automate that we aren't automating today the right tasks going to the right
22:46
people to our templates need a refresh and when you have to install the stuff
22:52
in a new system you have to put eyes on it in a way that you wouldn't in a
22:56
product you just had for you know 10 plus years yeah yeah so one thing you
23:01
ejected is there one thing that you could say hey we decided we just don't
23:04
need it anymore I don't think there's anything that we just completely
23:09
eliminated one thing that was nice with this system is there was there's a lot
23:15
more customization that you can do there's a thing called a decision tree
23:19
that I think I'm gonna have to get a college degree to really really know what
23:24
I'm doing on but I'm making my way through it and there's there's pieces that
23:27
we're able to do now to just separate tracks so much more so it's a highly
23:33
customizable system but it isn't undertaking to learn it all right again
23:39
door our listening audience there's a ton of comments you can see me get
23:42
distracted I'm looking around all these comments trying to figure out which ones
23:44
to bring in I want to make sure we keep momentum in the show today you talked
23:47
last time you were on about a CDP Van Horn went through that process of
23:52
cleansing data creating the CDP was that strategic in advance of making that
23:56
shift into techie on and has that process process benefited benefited you in
24:01
the transition yeah so one thing that's actually a big project that we're
24:05
working on this year is kind of creating our own data warehouse so that we can
24:10
start to have ownership in an area of all of our data but as it relates to
24:16
like the CDP I think those two things kind of happenstance fell together for
24:22
us at the right time so it was great to you know kind of have the cleanse data
24:27
that we wouldn't have had otherwise and I mean it's it's still anytime you move
24:33
data it's messy so there's little things that you find and learn every day
24:39
you're talking about you did the CDP you cleanse the data then it's creating
24:43
that data lake is that what you're talking about that's the next project
24:46
that you're looking at that's the next project yeah exactly is there a
24:49
particular partner you're looking at that stands out that you're leaning
24:52
towards or you've already made a commitment with we're actually working
24:57
with four eyes right now okay they're going to help us facilitate creating a
25:02
snowflake for running all that we're pretty excited that project has been
25:07
kind of like moving very slowly because we needed to get techie on in place
25:11
first so we're going to be hitting the green light pretty fast moving on that
25:15
now that we have techie on live at all the dealerships all right last question
25:20
up then we'll move that's a lot like CDP cleansing data making the transition
25:26
you're engaging with podium on on quantifying AI engagement you're making
25:32
all these platform changes big picture at the end of the day we got to sell
25:37
cars was there one or two things that just pushed you guys to I mean you're
25:42
basically doing it all at once which is fun to watch and we definitely want to
25:45
check back with you but it anything that kind of pushed you in that direction or
25:50
any advice or warning you'd give the dealers considering it maybe being too
25:53
much I mean I think one of the things is you don't want to do too much which is
25:59
why we've kind of just to go back to the AI assistant conversation like we said
26:04
let's tackle acquisition you know now there's other areas that I want to
26:09
start to optimize that the same exact way we haven't put as much focus on the
26:13
service area so what can we build out to make that experience better for our
26:17
customers there's plenty of optimization that will never end when it comes to the
26:25
assistant because you again you have to think of it like you're training this
26:28
person so whatever you're training process yeah just one quick example would
26:34
be the other day a sales manager came up to me and said I we're not taking
26:40
deposits right now in the 2027 Kia tell your rights okay well you tell the
26:44
staff that but you also tell the AI and wait how do you tell the AI that so
26:52
you tell the AI that by creating what they call policies so you create a
26:57
policy that you then extend out to whichever dealership does or doesn't
27:01
need it and then it just it's genius it just knows and the next time somebody
27:07
asks it'll say it you know professionally that we're not taking
27:12
deposits right now and it does a great job of spinning negative things to
27:16
sound more positive than I think a human yeah so the role of the general
27:20
manager today we've talked about this isn't just managing developing people
27:25
within the organization it's also managing developing AI Tina to your point
27:28
you can't make a big policy adjustment and forget to tell your AI agent
27:33
wherever that yeah exactly exactly it's a lot of work to continue optimization is
27:38
the biggest buzzword for me when it comes to this Tina innovation and
27:42
technology specialist at Wisconsin based fan horn automotive group thank you so
27:46
much for joining the show and we're gonna have you back at the end of the
27:48
segment for a little roundtable thanks for being here awesome thank you all
27:53
right let's talk stream companies how much revenue is slipping through the
27:57
cracks at your dealership stream companies missed opportunities report
28:00
analyzes your strategy and highlights where you can drive more sales faster
28:05
request your free report at stream companies.com slash DDMOR again get
28:12
your get that free report today at stream companies.com slash DDMOR and thank
28:17
you to stream companies for supporting today's content including that fascinating
28:20
conversation with Tina as we talked about their transition from CRM, DMS all
28:25
these different platforms over to Techeon and how they're being super
28:28
thoughtful in their AI integrations and cleansing data and data lakes they are
28:35
really in 2026 seeking to do it all so we've got to have Tina back at some point
28:39
to go through that next piece because I'm fascinated by all they're doing next
28:44
up today Wes McCuller dealership operator at Lake Norman CDJR Wes welcome
28:49
to the show thank you thank you for having me. Wes we're pumped to have you
28:54
thanks for being here this is your first time on the car dealership guys show so
28:59
we're pumped to have you hey what do you think of Tina and making all those
29:03
changes all at once I mean DMS alone is a big lift but you add the CRM to it you
29:09
you're working down the road of AI agent and all that that's a lot of change all
29:14
at once that's a huge lift for sure yeah yeah yeah all right let's let's talk use
29:21
cars then we'll bring Tina back in you called used cars your rocket launcher in
29:25
a market where margins are tightening per Cox data what has made you double down
29:31
and use cars and and why do you call it the rocket launcher in February of 2026
29:36
well I mean really last year used cars without question is I call it the
29:44
precipitator of profitability for the entire operation I mean it's it's it's
29:48
really what transformed our year it made our year what it was so yeah you know
29:55
used cars was the most impactful department bar none year of a year in
30:01
25 for our operation so before we dig deep deep tactically into what you did to
30:07
achieve the result you did tell everyone who you are what store you are just tell
30:11
us a little bit about yourself yeah West McCuller Lake Norman Chrysler Dodge
30:16
Jeep Ram parks automotive group acquired the store three years ago last month
30:21
actually the store has a long-standing history of success so we were blessed to
30:26
you know walk into a you know already prominent operation that was well ran
30:32
by the prior owners and already had you know national recognition so it's an
30:37
honor to be here you know the only challenge we've taken on a store that
30:40
successful is you know the I'm gonna keep it going you can't screw it up right
30:44
so yeah our focus was to not mess it up the you know best we could and just
30:49
optimize areas that we felt you know we could improve upon okay so as used cars
30:54
one of those areas where you felt like hey they're doing it well but I can even
30:57
make it better yeah you know used cars they weren't underperforming and used
31:02
cars I mean the store was doing a buck 30 buck 40 used when we acquired the
31:08
operation and we maintain that a year one and year two and really you know
31:13
going into the end of 24 the team and I really sat down and you know I think it
31:19
first starts with just making a decision that you want to be high volume
31:22
you want to scale used cars any sector for that matter but used cars without
31:27
question we we kind of grew grew used cars out of necessity I don't think it's
31:34
any surprise to anybody about a motive the challenges that our OEM has had the
31:38
last two you know two to three years with CDJR yeah so you know you know we
31:43
kind of had like our own recession if you will on the new car side so the only
31:49
way to survive was to double down the focus and you know hit the rocket
31:54
launcher as you said for used cars and that's what we did but it all started
31:58
with making a decision you know we pretty dramatically scaled and increased
32:03
our our stocking levels in January February last year and it really took
32:09
off in March of last year and we kind of carried that the entire year so we
32:15
often talk what is the strategy for stocking if you're not getting it you
32:18
use car trade-in that's the best source or service lane which you know if you
32:24
don't have a ton of UIO units in operation because your new car is coming
32:28
back what's your what's your best methods January of 25 a year ago for
32:33
getting that new inventory as you started to scale well back then we
32:38
weren't as evolved as we are now you know we've since then have built an
32:42
off-street buying team that's sourcing cars from the public and that's
32:47
starting to really take off but you know January and February of last year we
32:50
we leveraged the options I mean that was the only source that we had at our
32:55
disposal to you know press the press the button on quickly so we did that you
33:00
know we knew that that would come at a cost of front-end margins you know I
33:04
think the one thing that we did here is we had to really come to terms with the
33:09
fact that front margins aren't going to be attractive if that's our if that's
33:15
the strategy that we're going to deploy is is auction purchases so we did that
33:20
and you know we we really try to focus on holistic profitability across the
33:25
entire operation I've got a super gross calculator I built you know a couple
33:30
years ago that I really built the tool to kind of help educate my you know
33:35
managers on how a car deal impacts the entire operation and how it really
33:42
primes the pump of all the revenue streams in a car dealership not just
33:46
front margin or back or back in growth so once I built that and kind of showed
33:51
my team hey listen for every every used car that we sell the operation
33:55
holistically generates X amount of profit per car and here's the total
34:00
financial impact across the entire store per month if we sell let's say 200
34:05
cars versus 130 used cars and it was you know a couple six figures increase in
34:10
profitability by making that decision even at the expense of eroding front
34:16
margins which is going to happen if you're if your strategy early on is
34:20
is heavy auction which ours was because we weren't getting a trade capture at
34:24
that point in time to to really offset that so you said you weren't have you
34:29
changed that or are you are you seeing a higher ratio of of non auction to auction
34:35
vehicles and so you know jinx so about the same time last year we took a sales
34:43
person who wasn't really doing a great job selling cars but he he did a great
34:50
job with working leads and following up and you know reaching out for whatever
34:55
reason that that never translated into car deals but you know he he had the
35:01
ability to hunt right just couldn't convert into a car deal so as you know
35:05
we we we sat him down and kind of pitched this this vision of building an
35:10
off-street team of buyers that sourced cars from you know Craigslist and
35:14
Facebook marketplace primarily nice by and right a buying so yeah so we built a
35:20
you know a bbc a vehicle buying center but we sat him down and we helped him
35:25
build a Facebook he never even had a Facebook so we had to teach him how to
35:28
how to build a Facebook and my admin you know helped him sell the Facebook page
35:32
and yeah we just trained him on how to go a marketplace and you know sec you
35:37
know select your geo market and leverages Intel for my used car
35:42
director as far as what cars to source and so that kind of started January
35:46
February I think his first book he bought like 10 you know the goal that I
35:49
try to have you know for each buyer is 30 minimum you know 30 to 40 plus is what
35:54
I like to see him buy well that kind of evolved you know as we got to summer you
35:59
know that one person was buying about 20 to 30 by himself and as we got to the
36:04
back part of the year we started to add more buyers you know once we've
36:08
perfected the model we have a model that we know works we added some
36:13
additional buyers some we have three at one point and then we lost one in
36:17
December but currently I have two buyers and they're buying about 60 combined
36:23
it's about 30 pieces what they're average so that's what half of your used
36:27
car sales each month right in that but we're selling about 200 used cars a
36:31
month oh you're 200 now okay yeah yeah yeah okay okay so how do you how do you
36:40
convey to them what you want purchased and what you don't want purchased like
36:45
how do you slow them down if they're out just buying everything or point them in
36:49
the right direction of what to buy yeah so we have a Google sheet that they
36:54
work off of with my used car director my used car director sits with them daily
36:59
they review offers that they made but really he kind of quarterbacks the play
37:04
you know stars what to seek you know what to go after but we also use analytics
37:11
you know we use you know previous sales data from you know from our DNS and our
37:16
CRM has go ahead who's your CRM DMS CRM is drive-centric or DMS is Reynolds
37:27
okay we use data from both of those tools to analyze potential downstream
37:33
impact you know when when making those acquisition decisions you know for
37:36
example we try to you know capture or purchase cars that have a high
37:41
probability of capturing a trade so we could continue that that sales cycle
37:46
forward as well as cars that have a history of turning fast so that's
37:51
really what you know what we focus on as fast turn not so much you know how much
37:57
gross we made per car we we you know predominantly focus on cars that have a
38:02
history of turning fast so we could you know emphasize velocity and then also
38:07
cars that have a you know high probability of capturing a trade so that's
38:11
that's what the source yeah so great comments from online I'm looking down
38:16
here right now Salim Khan says Wes is a great operator miss him at the Hendrick
38:21
store in Richmond how is he acquiring cars across the curb so you've answered
38:25
that question a little bit I didn't know you were a Hendrick prior I was we at
38:29
Ziggler have a great relationship with that group and actually spent this past
38:33
weekend Daytona they they run a car we run a car and you know we I think they
38:40
finished better than we did this past weekend but we were under the white flag
38:43
first place so it's pretty exciting but what what did you learn at a big
38:48
organization like Hendrick that has helped you in this current rule of
38:52
parks and then I want to go back into used cars because Hendrick is a class
38:56
act yeah it was a tremendous experience for me I was there for five and a half
39:01
years almost six years what did I learn I mean that was my second store I ran I
39:06
ran a small store in Pennsylvania for four years prior to joining the Hendrick
39:10
group and then you know obviously coming to parks but I think I learned I think
39:17
that's really where I learned how to be an operator what what what metrics are
39:22
the most important to look at daily you know as it relates to the impact it has
39:27
on the operation in downstream effect I learned a lot I learned how to be an
39:32
operator I think that's probably the best way to summarize that yoga cars come
39:38
in that comes in the comments as our buyers going out with a truck or do you
39:42
have people coming into the dealership to drop off cars you buy so I think
39:45
referencing the buy center are you are you going far afield are you driving to
39:50
them if need be or yes able to get most people to come in for the sale both so
39:55
this whole thing first started off local and I found that we were kind of tapped
40:01
out on our local market you know this is not a new initiative you know five or
40:06
six years ago nobody was doing this now we've kind of reached a point to where
40:10
you know private party acquisition is becoming a primary focus of most
40:15
dealers we've got car max in our local market as well as well as Carvana so you
40:23
know we were having a hard time initially getting past that 30 purchase per
40:27
month mark so about three or four months ago we started to expand that radius so
40:32
now there's really no limit I mean our main focus is in the southeast but we're
40:37
we're going out as far as we can where it makes sense so we do have a team of
40:43
logistics drivers that we deployed to go pick up cars yeah so and and another
40:52
comment from say guard over I says great story I'm interested to know and how
40:55
much digital tools are being leveraged to help boosting the sales on side on the
41:03
on the buy side are there digital tools that you're using with the buy center
41:08
that are helping to helping with acquisition yeah so we just signed up
41:14
auto hub I want to say three months ago we were using Accu trade which we had
41:19
great success with Accu trade especially you know in our desking process as it
41:23
relates to holding back on on trades but auto hub had a feature that was over
41:31
and above you know it does the same thing that Accu trade does so we we signed
41:36
up with them they have an AI tool that every customer pay RO that gets open
41:41
the customer automatically gets a text message with an offer oh very cool it's
41:45
an AI generated offer and it's pretty damn accurate yeah and you know the the
41:51
opt-ins are pretty good I mean we're I think we're picking up about 10 I think
41:56
last month we got 12 if I'm not mistaken okay first mark we also got 12 now
42:02
most of those are customers that have chosen to upgrade their car which is
42:06
still the same thing really that's a double win for us if you sell a car and
42:11
yeah but yeah we are so another thing that really stood out to me in last few
42:18
questions we go here was so coming outside of used cars and going into just
42:22
culture going into reputation so again you're at you're a you're a CDJR store
42:29
you're hustling to win in the used car marketplace you're having success you've
42:34
built this by center your rep.com score for reputation jump from 645 to 868 what
42:45
caused that big jump when you think about reputation and culture and customer
42:49
satisfaction what what caused that big jump that's a massive jump I think with
42:57
anything it starts with focus I mean that which you focus on improves right so
43:00
yeah you know that it's been a big focal point of mine since I've taken over the
43:05
operation was to improve that metric it wasn't really something that that was a
43:11
lot of attention was you know applied to recently you know prior yeah so we just
43:16
made it a priority we signed up the reputation comm tool and I think we
43:21
really operationalize speed and ownership you know everybody owns the
43:25
customer experience from management down to you know a quarter we also tied
43:31
reviews to all staff pay plans sales and service advisors so you know I'm not
43:37
afraid to compensate you know compensation is not something I'm afraid
43:41
of especially if it generates high performance and it helps the store
43:44
achieve its visions can you quantify the lift in that reputation score back to
43:50
greater sales greater CSI greater profitability like is there is there is
43:54
a way you're thinking about that in February 26th that helps generate more
43:58
more bottom profit sure I mean you know the the better your online score and
44:07
reputation is it has its own SEO value you know it enhances and it improves
44:14
your your organic position it helps boost you higher in the relevancy as
44:20
far as the search goes so yeah we we have certainly seen a lift in in that
44:26
regard and you know the downstream effect of that is more more customers you
44:31
know more opportunities which translates into more coordinates but I mean last
44:35
year alone is a testament I mean last year was the year that we made the most
44:39
significant lift in our reputation score and we had a tremendous year and our
44:44
volume increased by 70 or 80 cars per month so yeah I would have to track you
44:50
to correlate that back to that so you know I would highlight just just as we
44:55
wrap up here it's interesting you know you saw a challenge in the marketplace
44:58
you talked about a challenge in your Stellanus world and you've doubled down
45:03
on used cars and you've overcome that challenge with a strategy when you think
45:09
about the remainder of 2026 West what do you see as the next challenge hitting
45:14
your market hitting your OEM hitting your store that you're working to
45:18
overcome today February 26 for us it's fixed operations I mean we don't do a
45:24
bad job in fixed operations but you know we have improved our unison
45:28
operation the last two years you know as an operator I'm never gonna be
45:34
satisfied right I don't think any operator is ever truly satisfied no
45:39
ever so you know I'm always pushing for more and I you know I think that there's
45:44
a lot more out there especially in a market size like ours to bring more
45:48
customer paid traffic back in so you know last year our focus was to
45:53
establish stability consistency and you know alignment that was our theme last
45:57
year inside the store and this year you know that helped us to make pretty
46:03
tremendous improvements on the variable operation side now that that's rolling
46:07
and I've got an incredible leadership team in place that I could trust to kind
46:11
of keep that evolving even further I've you know I'm now deploying my my focus
46:18
back towards fixed operations so that's that's my main focus this year is is
46:22
honing on fixed ops and make it deliver the best it can well Wes we
46:27
absolutely Wes McClure we absolutely appreciate you being on the show today
46:30
and actually hang tight with us here we appreciate all your perspectives we're
46:34
gonna bring Tina back on and have just a little recap convos we wrap out today's
46:37
show Wes thanks for being on the show thank you and we'll see how they do this
46:43
Tina you came right back fantastic so we're still learning like this whole
46:46
transition piece so I just wanted I wanted to get you both on here at the
46:51
very end it strikes me you know Wes has overcome some of the manufacturer
46:55
challenges by going in on used cars Tina you're going in on AI and technology
47:01
stack and making a lot of tough changes February of 2026 the intersection of
47:06
both of what you're you two seem to be doing seems to be a little bit of AI and
47:10
Wes I'd love to ask with Tina here get her perspective as well how much AI are
47:16
you using in that off-street use car sourcing right now just just the auto
47:22
hub tool that's that's all we're using as far as yeah okay and Tina what what
47:28
what's your take about AI and using it use car acquisition or even use car
47:32
pricing you know as long as you have your confidence that you've picked the
47:39
right partner AI I've seen it do some incredible things I've seen AI we all
47:44
know that there's going to be hallucinations and issues from time to
47:47
time but generally speaking it's all about the partner that you pick when it
47:52
comes to any piece of AI and Wes it is interesting Tina talks about hallucinations
47:58
they've had to go back and train and retrain to get the engagement up one of
48:02
the questions I had interviewing Tina is in this 30-day cycle of automotive like
48:08
I want car sales today I don't want to have to go back and train is it seems
48:13
like you're you're more slowly adopting some of that AI tech is that part of the
48:19
reason Wes or what would you say is the reason for that the reason for just kind
48:25
of a slower acquisition a slower adoption timeline for AI than a group like the
48:32
Van Horn group as an example well I mean AI is a new technology it's new to the
48:37
world you know I'm not gonna claim to be an expert by any stretch when AI either
48:42
was my team so you know AI without question is the future and it's
48:46
something that I think all groups stores and operators need to fully embrace but
48:53
you know I don't think it makes sense for at least for us to go full-war with AI
48:57
across the entire landscape of the dealership until we can you know
49:02
conceptualize it out one phase at a time so we started with AI about a year ago
49:08
with our CRM drop-centric and that's really been a phenomenal job on the
49:12
sales side and now effective last month January we just deployed AI in service
49:18
so we're 30 days in on that we're already seeing a you know modest
49:22
improvement yeah so it's interesting Tina a Wes talked about his improved
49:27
rep reputation score Paul Salisman online said I'm wondering if Tina stores
49:30
seen customer sentiment score improvement since implementing AI in her
49:36
stores and across the group Tina yeah I mean we have had people shout out our AI
49:43
assistant in reviews yeah so that's how he's interesting that the magic of it is
49:48
alive enough that they know or they think rather that it is actually a human
49:53
that they're talking to I think the biggest thing there is just the fact
49:58
that we're helping customers with I'm looking at my stats here within 44
50:02
seconds was our average last year we're just there and we're there whether
50:07
we're open or we're closed to help meet the needs of those customers so
50:11
sentiment has improved I think from the fact that our response times are just
50:15
spectacular now with the assistance of AI in tandem with our human agents who
50:20
come in and bring it home yeah awesome well Wes McCuller dealership operator at
50:27
Lake Norman CDJR and Tina Tash innovation and technology specialist at
50:31
Van Horn Automotive Group a huge thanks to both of you for being on the show and
50:35
thanks for joining this end of show recap and roundtable so good to see you
50:39
both thank you thank you fun show today everybody and thanks for your online
50:46
engagement there are several questions we just didn't get to at the very end
50:50
Segar Dogra asked what are the matrices we used to track AI performance it's a
50:54
great question just a ton of engagement today on a line to our listening
51:01
audience thanks for watching Daily Deer Live where we break down the biggest
51:04
moves in the car business as they happen don't forget we are here every Monday
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