Roberts on Sales Growth, Spiffy on Mobile Service, Morton on Buy/Sell Winners | Daily Dealer Live

We're doing better as a result of social media presence. It doesn't do those three things, man, it's on the chopping block. It's in return on investment, discussion. Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the daily dealer line.

We have here in the best place to catch up on all of automotive's best content, information and news this Monday, September 29th, and we're going to actually break tradition here and dive straight into the news, the most important stuff that we're talking about today, before we get to our guests.

First up today, cdgbicel.com brings us an acquisition with the Sean Kirk automotive group. They've acquired Subaru Jacksonville from the Porter family giving the Texas and Iowa based group. It's first floor to dealership and first Subaru franchise. The Jacksonville store has been a family owned operation for 25 years under Phil Porter senior earning top industry honors for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

And with this deal, Sean Kirk expands its footprint to 29 dealerships across seven states, but the bigger picture regional dealership groups continue to push into new markets and brands targeting proven high performing stores, despite ongoing industry headwinds.

And don't forget you can see this deal announcement and many more throughout the entire year on the cdgbicel track.com. I love that we've got our own jingle makes me so happy next up. We don't have a tech outage.com announcement just yet, but JOR is getting used to it as they are announcing this week they're getting relief from the cyber attack that shut down its plants with the UK government underwriting a one and a half billion dollar loan to guarantee

support to support the automakers suppliers. The money will stabilize cash flow allow JLR to make overdue payments and protect jobs in the West Midlands mercy side and beyond which I assume that's English mercy side areas hit hard since production was halted on August 31st UK business secretary Peter Kyle called the attack quote an assault on an iconic British brand.

But to borrow a line from money Python. It's not dead yet. Adding the loan will help safeguard skilled jobs and keep the supply chain in tact, but it might not be enough. JLR is also raising another two billion from global banks reports Bloomberg bottom line here. Well, the loan buys JLR crucial breathing room as it restarts ice tea systems works hard toward resuming production, but it's also a stark reminder of how exposed the global auto industry is.

The digital disruption and it absolutely is again we saw that last year, thank goodness we're well past all of that craziness finally up today, a new over fuel study shows nearly every major auto group is flunking Google's core web titles. I object by the way and I'll tell you in a minute why in fact 95 and a half percent of dealership websites failed on both mobile and desktop out of more than 1900 sites reviewed only seven past Google standards.

And one dealer group own more than half of those why does this matter and I bet they're a client of over fuel. I don't know call me cynical. Well dealers that do pass typically see up to a 20% lift in organic traffic, meaning better visibility without spending more ads.

The signal for car buyers, the website is the new showroom and if it's broken or slow, they might assume the dealership experience will be two we looked into this article and we wanted to find out all right, what are those key metrics and we're still researching it. So if you're with over fuel and you want to share that, please share away, let us know what we're all flunking, but don't release a survey unless you're ready to defend what those items are because otherwise I don't want to hear it.

And that's a wrap on this Monday September 29th. Am I wrong? By the way?

No, Martina welcome you. Am I wrong?

No, not wrong at all. I'm happy to be here. I think it's a very sassy news day today and you're spot on. We got to hear what what those metrics are that everyone's failing on.

And not just to you, but to our entire audience, a reminder, we're livestreaming across all CDG social media platforms post to the comments, not only where are you watching today or where you listening, if you're on the live show, we've had people everywhere across these United States and globe checking in, but also you can put your comments in the link.

Yoga Car says, look up Amazon one second slow down cost and supervisor Dan says, let's go. Thanks for joining us on that. We've got a huge show coming up today.

Really buckle up because we're about to get a master class in by cell activities. We've got on the show a CFO that has become a master at buying auto dealership, CFO at Greg Young Automotive Group Alex Morton will come up and teach us a little bit about what it takes to buy a dealership, what he looks at and what metrics are key and most important.

Also, we've got Troy Blackwell EVP of spiffy on the show to talk a little bit about remote deliveries. And we've got crystal Roberts executive manager advantage Chevrolet of Hodgkins also joining the show. So we're super excited to get to today's content. But before we go there, just a reminder, we said it last time in Dennis, you're in.

Card dealership guy is back with our second annual NADA party. It's happening in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 5th. It's the hottest ticket at NADA 2026 with special guests and top personalities to be considered for a formal invite. Just hit the link in the show notes below.

Request to join and fill out that questionnaire. Again, we're not going to deny Gingrich a seat at the table or totally we want to see both of them there at the at the party and we'll see many more of you as well. Lauren kind of client checks in says still in Mexico, but listen.

Hannah Farmer watching from Nashville, Tennessee and Ben Shive semi west coast of Florida, which by the way is exactly where I wish I were today Florida, a little bit of sunshine.

Julie, let's dive into today's show first up today. Let's turn to CFO Greg Young automotive group Alex Morton Alex welcome to the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me big fan of the show.

All right, Alex, I hope I didn't over sell you, but before we get into this about all things by cell house biz and as part of that, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the Greg Young automotive group.

Sure. Yeah, business is good. 2025 is presented some new challenges, obviously with with tariffs and everything else going on, but

here the Greg Young automotive group were celebrating 25 years in business last month. So we've been kind of celebrating the last last couple of months.

Yeah, in my role, I've been CFO here with Greg Young group for just coming up on 10 years. When I joined, we had two stores and

now we've grown up to 12 rooftops in three different states. So a large majority of my time has been spent on the by cell front and working through the acquisitions.

And the number of by cells you've done, even just in the last nine months or 12 months, what have you done recently period time wise? Yeah, yeah, you know, it started late 2022, but we added seven different stores from 2022 to kind of early 24.

It's been a little quieter 25 as far as actually closing looked at a number of deals, but we were really, really busy for that 18 month period.

Actually, that's an interesting trend. So you've looked at some, but not bit. Are you seeing unreasonable multipliers like what's caused you to pull back just a little bit in these past several months?

Yeah, I don't want to know if it's truly pulling back. It's probably more of a finding, finding the right deal. You know, as many as you look at, you know, as many as you pull the trigger on, you probably look at 10 times that right. You got to find the right one and we just haven't quite put our finger on the right one this year.

But they're certainly still out there. Yeah, so you have a lot of different brands. I was looking you up. I don't have it here in the list, but Chevy list the brands that you have the OEMs that you represent.

Yeah, primarily all domestic. You know, we've got eight, eight Chevy stores, some Stellantis, Cadillac, Ford, and then two Toyota points as well.

So as you think about, hey, I want to find that best acquisition opportunity. Is there an, are you looking, first of all, are you looking at an OEM? Are you looking at geography? Are you looking at, you know, a type of an acquisition when you first go to approach, what are the metrics that you're looking for?

Boy, you just hit it on the head, right? There's, there's kind of it's threefold. You're looking at at location. Is it in your backyard? Is it not what size of market? Are you looking at, obviously, the OEM comes, plays into it the second.

You see an importer of Toyota Lexus point come across your desk. It really perks your interest. And then, and then performance, you know, asking price or, you know, is it a, is it a fixer upper?

Is it a strong producing store? You're kind of looking at all three of those key points.

Are you having most success in the broker world word of mouth? Do you prefer finding it before a broker gets to it?

Yeah, both. We're lucky. We've got some great relationships with the brokers. You know, our friends are performance and egg and care again. Can I all, all, you know, you want to keep that relationship going?

Whether it's an idea or, you know, a dealer meeting or just keeping them on the phone. We have great relationships there where they're kind of calling us early on.

You'd love to get one in your backyard prior to the brokers getting their hands on it. Obviously, you can kind of work that deal a little bit smoother and, and, and however it works. We've been lucky to have both some just based on local relationships and some from the brokers.

Well, manifest it, man. You're on the live show of automotive right now. You've got the year of everyone. Your ideal deal right now. What would it be? Maybe we've got someone watching the show. It's going to reach out to you.

Yeah. Yeah. Boy, put my cell and choose on a little bit here. These are the accounts in the room. Aren't supposed to be the guys that sell, right?

Right. Our biggest ones are probably, you know, the one I like the best is probably going to be bigger markets. If you can get your hands on a little bit bigger, the ones we've bought the last three or four years have been a little smaller, maybe underperforming with some bigger upside.

We're kind of shifting our focus more to larger markets, you know, brand wise. We love the Toyota Lexus, but we know GM really, really well. We believe in their product. So, so I like looking at those as well.

And then it comes down to who's running it? And when you step in and take over, what does that personnel look like? Do you have the right guy and it's really coming in and just trying to help improve performance, or is it a, is it a true takeover guy retiring, stepping into, you know, his next, next phase of life, and now you've got to kind of bring a guy.

So we're always looking for the next person. And we believe that the folks around the store should be, should be partners in some respect. So as much as we're looking for the store, you're looking for the GM to look for my opportunity and have some sort of equity and come join our group. So it's people and opportunity.

So what does the partnership side look like when you're out looking for acquisitions? Are you giving partial ownership? Is it, or is it good pay plan? What's your strategy on that way?

We're flexible on it. You know, there's models out there where it's a buy-in, buy-out program. We don't have a true formalized one. It kind of depends on the deal and the guy running it. If they want to come in and work for a few years and kind of sweat equity their way into it, we can build something around there. If they want to, you know, put some money up front and buy in right away, we can certainly have that conversation. So Greg is, is open to hold it.

Alex, is there an OEM that you look at and you say never? We would never buy that because of our past history relationship or performance of the brand. Is there anything that's on your do not buy list?

I would not say any of them are truly on do not buy. We've tried the Mitsubishi route, didn't go as well. And so we onboarded and off-boarded that one. But it's funny how cyclical it is, right?

You see some franchises that are maybe struggling and they're popping up more for sale right now, but you got to imagine that they're going to kind of get their feet under them and go. So timing is more so than anything, you know, the Stellantis and the Nesons are popping up right now.

But there's a lot of folks that think maybe they're going to turn the corner and be worth something. So maybe it's worth buying now.

So I love what you're talking about where you're saying, hey, I want to give a GM ownership or I want to give them buy in somehow, whether it's a great pay plan or whether it's some sort of equity or whatever.

What's your strategy when you go in and you buy a store? What's your strategy to keep that team in place and have them grow?

Because you can't sell it all on your own, right? You've got to have great employees to continue that operation. And part of that multiplier that you're paying is tied up in those employees and how well they execute.

And you know, you bring the strength that you bring, but you want to bring your strength and add to what they're already doing, not taking backwards, right? So how do you keep people?

That's so well said. You know, when you go through these buy sales, regardless of size of market, it's a change for everybody. It's a name change. You got to answer the phone differently.

A lot of software changes, you know, DMS and CRM. And so it's tough on the people. So, you know, we like to come in and tell folks, you know, like the time you spent with the previous employer, we're going to honor that.

So if you worked 20 years from the previous dealer, you have 20 years of tenure with us. And so you've already earned the top level of the vacation turnout or whatever that looks like, right?

And we're going to celebrate your 25 year anniversary, even though if it's a couple years in with us. And so you got to sell them on that. And then obviously the number of questions is usually pay.

So you usually see opportunity on pay plans as you look at a deal. But that's kind of the last piece. You want to come in, give them an opportunity to show them maybe our processes improve and their paychecks get better, even with some small, small pay plan changes.

So pay vacation. And then just got to build the culture from from day one. You only got one opportunity to change that name. So coming in with resources and culture. But you need all those people.

Because we don't have, you know, if you buy a store with 50 employees, we don't have 50 people ready to come in, maybe one, come in and build a leader. But yeah, you need them all. And you just got to show them the way to be successful.

Yeah. So you mentioned different brands that you've purchased Toyota at one GM, another, you know, everybody kind of bantees about this idea about multipliers, right?

And a CFO, you get a package, you look at it, you value it, you decide what your number is. How do you arrive at that number? And how do you think about multipliers as you get them from these different brokers, Hague and others.

How do you get to that number? Take us through the math.

The multipliers are an interesting conversation because the multipliers are pretty consistent, you know, the brand, you know, the carigans, the Hague, they produce those numbers. And they'll tell you it's four, five, seven, nine times.

But the question is, nine times what or four times what, right? And so that's where we've always spent most of our time. Is it is it current earnings? Is it a three year average?

Is it, you know, what we can get, you know, how can you get it to the point where it's four times? So that's the art of the deal. You've got to spend some time looking at individual metrics, performance of the stores, where there's opportunity and kind of get a feeling for what the dealers trying to try to get out of it for selling.

There's some deals, it's, it's a no brainer. And then there's some are like, can we move the needle in these three areas to get to the point where it is five times multiple.

And that's where you have the winners and losers is changing.

I want to ask about time bombs that you can find in a financial statement before I do that.

What are the biggest strengths you have as an auto group where you look at a financial and you're like, hey, we can improve this. We can do better in F and I. We can do better in use cars.

What, what, what are the biggest levers? You feel like you're culturally best able to move in a positive direction Alex.

Yeah, our group, we believe we're really strong and fixed and we're really strong in F and I. And so there's some opportunity, you know, fixed F and I used cars is kind of where your main focus is.

But, you know, quickly on a financial statement, you can identify some opportunity and fix if it's technician cost or it's, you know, door rate or any of those certain items.

And then F and I were we're strong in there. We're a believer that it comes to training and, and, and how we start to start the deal at the desk.

So, you know, quickly when you glance at a quick store, you can identify maybe, you know, a couple of opportunities to to move that you'll 10, 20, 30% to justify an asking price of a deal.

Now, so F and I get and I hear that quite a bit. I believe that with great training, great people, great execution. You can see that increase. Is there a company you do business with? You give props to on the show.

Yeah, yeah, we're firm believers with the firm partners with the ethos group, you know, all the way from training F and I to housing, you know, some of our compliance type stuff.

They've been a big supporter of ours. They have great staff to come in and train or folks help recruit.

It's a good, a good, a good operation. Fixed ops, you don't hear as much Alex. What's a lever you pull you, you mentioned a few, but when you go into some of these new acquisitions.

What, what's an area of big opportunity in fixed ops and do you have a partner you work with there?

Fixed ops less about about the true partner and the training ethos is developed the last couple of years, a great service advisor training module. So, you know, the training and upselling on the drive is a huge opportunity.

But little things too, you can play with that door rate. You know, some folks don't, you know, have true markup on their on their internal cars. How fast they're getting them through the shop.

There's so many little, like I love fixed ops because you can make small changes that there's so many customers coming in, big and back, right? It's not, it's not like just going under cards.

That's where all your customers are, right?

Yeah, speed to execution is everything and automotive and those groups understand speed to execution win and those that don't lose money, right, especially in an interest heavy environment like we're in right now and time to front line on use cars and even customer cars is huge.

So when you look at a financial statement, you're assessing it for a buy sell for an acquisition. Are there any time bombs you see in a financial where you're like, look, I see what they're claiming to be their net. But if I look beyond the financial statement, do a little digging, I can find some problems. What are some of the most common problems you see?

You know, maybe less on the financial statement, some of the questions you can ask, because there's, there's your addbacks and there's, you know, what are they charging themselves for rent? So if you just look at the trim bottom number, you might, they can, they can kind of hide some things.

So you're, you're really looking above the line, right? At true operating expenses, but some of the questions you start asking are, you know, do you have a, you know, a policy on aging you're used, because you might have really strong used car gross.

But you've got a problem on the inventory, right? And that's not hitting the P and L until it is recognized as a problem. So you just ask those questions. What software they're using? What are their processes?

People and pay plans, you know, just asking the operational questions will light up that financial statement.

Yeah, how often do you find a problem and use cars if there is no aging policy? And where do you resolve that? You resolve that in the negotiation piece or at closing by saying, hey, your inventory is not what you think it is. And here's proof.

That's, that's a common question to closing, right? Everybody thinks they're, their, their cars worth more than what somebody would pay. And it's a unique spot because it's not like they are in a position where they want to take every card of the auction and maybe a little bit more than we're all to pay.

So it can be a sticking point at closing. We want to be reasonable with them. We understand that they've given us an opportunity to take on their folks. And the last thing we want our sales team to do is not having to use cars to sell. So it's a, it's a give and take a little bit of closing.

But when we go in a couple days before closing and we put a number on absolutely every car and luckily guys a lot smarter than me are putting that number on it. And it's cars worth what it's cars worth some guy in a little bit worse spot, but every every store is a little different.

Yeah. Is there, you know, I think the partnerships you have in a dealership can either make that acquisition easier tough, right. And so you think about your DMS your CRM and all the different tools you have.

Are there any partners that stand out to you as really being helpful in that acquisition transition because that can be a tough part to how quickly do you get your website up and running. How quickly do you get your use cars and new cars syndicated. How quickly are you able to turn on and start marketing.

Any advice for dealers out there as it comes to your tech stack in acquisitions.

Yeah, I think you just got to be prepared and kind of overcommunicated. It's not one person. You got to really work together to make sure everything's ready to go on day one.

There's probably a strategy on some to just change the name and leave the tech stack in place so you don't have kind of go dark. We're more of the let's get it.

You know, let's rip the bandaid off and get it, you know, into ours. So, you know, we're an auto mate DMS and they've been great to work with as far as.

So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, they've been a great team where you cannot go live and they turn on and they've sent folks to be ready on site.

And then kind of everything else just you just turn on as fast as you can. There's a there's a week there where you're just you're on the phone a lot and you know every every departments trying to get something lit up as quickly as possible.

But usually the vendors are much better than sometimes that they owe you. Right. They got to turn off. They got to push all their fancy buttons behind the curtain.

And that takes three or four or five days sometimes and the vendors are ready to go. Yeah.

So, in the in the buy sell marketplace currently, where are you seeing the biggest competition? Who's who's competing against you the most? Is it public? Is it, you know, family dealerships? Is it single points looking to grow?

Single points are looking to sell. I think that's where we're finding the folks that are, you know, maybe not wanting to play the game as much.

The the stores that we have maybe said no to that have actually sold. You're seeing groups like ours, you know, that are trying to grow. You know, it's the it's the private groups that are trying to go from 10 to 20 or 25 to 50 rooftops.

The publics have dabbled. We probably aren't quite looking at the deals that they are. But it's a little bit of everything. Not a lot of single point guys buying the stores that we can look at.

Okay. Online RM Wooden says don't forget most manufacturers will reset the stores warranty parts market back to cost plus 40% after a buy sell. Not sure that's true. Is that true in your experience? What do you see?

Yeah, some will. Yeah. They're kind of depending on state and depending on location as well. So you kind of you have that and you got a short period where you can kind of immediately ask for an increase after that.

So what waiting doesn't isn't in your favor, like get your customer pay, you know, rates locked in and ready to go. And that way after 90 days and you got a number of repair orders in place, you can ask for that increase back to where it needs to be.

Scott Simon says listening for Greece. That's cool.

Dan C says be sure to get earnings from a CPA review audit statement, not a manufacturer factory statement. Tell everybody why that's right if it's right.

Yeah, that's certainly helpful. Obviously, you know, the CPA if the store that selling does have a review or not it performed. I mean, they're they're going to back into the

a few of the things and and require you to present it correctly, you know, because there's there's some goofy things with acts and other things on the inventory set of things that you can do on a factory statement that might not show the full picture.

So you're going to peel back the onion a little bit there. Yeah.

And then how do you deal with for the new store? How do you deal with the blue sky? So blue sky for everybody not knowing that's the cost to acquire the point.

Do you charge it back to the stores a monthly cost? How do you deal with that as a as a as a group? How do you fund that finance it?

Yeah, you know, a lot of a lot of banks will loan you at the store level to let you borrow some of it, not a lot.

You know, we have different prices different. They're going to look at that as as learning a little bit. So we'll charge that to the store, you know, the debt, the debt to acquire the store.

Usually likes to hit the statement. So, you know, years, years one through five are traditionally, you know, maybe you're building into that performance ramp up of trying to pay down some debt.

So it's one of the obstacles you got to tackle what while you're early on after acquisition.

So Alex, last questions we get to wrap here. What's the thing as a CFO that keeps you up at night when you're in the acquisition mode and you're trying to like grow the group. What stresses what keeps you up at night?

Boy, besides my young kids.

The CFO front, it's really just cash flow. This business just it's crazy to think that the more you sell the tougher cash gets, right?

And so just making sure you have process and place across our group, making sure

on those deals, it's dealership 101, but that slow everything down. And especially when you're, you know, in exhibitions coming and you're going to maybe, you know, use some of that excess cash.

Just making sure cash is flowing. So we're lucky we've got a great team that they spend most of their time on that.

Well, Alex Morton, CFO Greg Automotive Group, an absolute pleasure having you on the show today to talk about your strategy and acquisition.

We wish you the best of luck as you continue to acquire stores and grow the auto group.

And we love to have you back on some time when you acquire your next few stores and talk about how that goes.

Very cool to get the transparent behind the scenes look at it. So thanks for being on the show Alex.

You bet. Appreciate it guys.

Thanks Alex.

That's fun. Interesting isn't it? I don't I don't hear a lot of people say, hey, we can do better in fixed because fixed is fixed, right?

It's pretty flat, pretty even, but he had some very interesting strategies as it relates to increasing that. So fun.

Yeah, it's kind of shocking how how low the bar is set in some of those deals like he's he's talking about how how much money's left on the table.

So yeah, well, hey, let's talk a lot links with lot links dealers win with every then the AI powered platform uses the most robust then and shopper data to help

operate optimize every vehicle and protect profit. Take control of your inventory today at lot links.com. You can scan that QR code to the right.

You can also go into the show notes, click on the link to learn more.

But we appreciate lot links for supporting the content on today's show, including this little bit of a bicell behind the scenes look that we just got. So props to lot links. Thank you.

All right, let's go to Troy Blackwell, let's talk remote service executive VP automotive business development spiffy Troy welcome.

Hey guys, thanks for having me and watching the show for a long time. So great to be here.

It's fun to have you on the show you and I met out at Reynolds in Dallas at a very cool contest for their Reynolds brought a bunch of people together and they wanted to get the best practice out there.

It's fun getting a chance to meet you and learn a little bit more about your business and what you're doing. How is biz and as part of that just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Yeah, no business has been great. It's great timing just on the hills of your previous conversation around fixed.

Obviously we've been doing mobile service for about 11 years and we've done over three and a half million services. So really think of us as a mobile technology platform for automotive industry.

And we're taking this knowledge and we're transferring it into the dealerships and saying we built in house software, we build vans internally.

So we've learned a lot and kind of learned from some of our early mistakes and what can we do to help accelerate you guys dealerships into the mobile business.

So and it's an interesting point you know when you talk about seeing an increase in fixed ops for an act acquiring dealer like we just heard about remote to remote service is definitely one area.

So you build what let's start with that. What are some of the biggest lessons you learned early on that you've corrected that maybe other dealers could learn from as it relates to remote service this September 2025.

Well Sam you'd be surprised when we do go and talk to dealerships what they're doing to make try to make mobile work and when I say that even using Excel spreadsheets to manage routes.

Those were things we did very early on and we've since improved with the software. So that's one right away because you know they schedule like the cable company remember when they said it will be there between noon and 10.

And then they always show up at that last hour I want to be the guy where they get there at the first part right so yeah that's where we really focused on to really optimize the scheduling and the routes from an efficiency standpoint.

We've got some great partners like Bozard Ford which I know Ed Roberts has been on the show many times and even in their environment they're one of the leaders of mobile.

When we got there they were at 20 mobile vans and today they're around 46 so they certainly have grown and by implementing the software certainly tightened up to get as many as four to five arrows a day in that mobile space.

So so we're excited those are some early learnings that we've had.

All right Troy all bite on the yes the cable scheduling because nothing drives me more nuts than a company that says I'll be there between 10 and three and they don't even show up for the 10 and three and you see that a lot cable HVAC like any of those home service companies.

How have you been able to go from that spreadsheet to being able to predict when that technician is able to arrive at a home.

How does the software work that it's able to predict more accurately and how tight is the window you give consumers when you show up their house.

Okay I know my engineers are probably listening so they're going to be the best ones to kind of really walk through the natural.

From my side it's really building in understanding traffic patterns at the very beginning so you know that that van needs to leave from one point to another right so we have things built within so we know traffic patterns and how long it's going to take to get to the job and then we have op codes and we understand how long it's going to take to do a particular job.

Now we build in buffers and we work with our dealer partners to add those buffers in so think of it too if they actually go to a fleet environment you may get to do a fleet and someone has the keys and they're locking three cars ahead of you so little nuances that happen.

But our technology puts things in place now when you're managing one van it's actually easier to manage when you have multiple because then you can pull bands and resources and apply them into the jobs but that's from the simplest way to kind of relate it to your audience of what our technology can do.

So you've had some to do with Ford dealers Ford grew from 20,000 to 360,000 mobile pickup experiences in just two and a half years what are a couple of the takeaways from that growth and that experience that have moved the needle in.

Yeah no I think Ford as we all know Ford is probably the most aggressive with mobile service they were the early ones out of the gate put a lot of programs in place for the dealerships to have a van and even a Ford escape to go out and do things like recalls but I think the learnings from that.

You know two and a half three years ago they were looking at 20,000 customer experiences a month and that was half mobile and then half pickup and delivery fast forward to today 360,000 so it's collectively right but what that tells you is there's certainly a customer appetite right there's a customer saying hey we.

As much as you want us to probably come to the dealership from a convenience side we'd love for you to come to us or come to our home and then not to mention there's a recall aspect baked in here as well and whether you're going to your customers or other dealerships to fulfill those recalls that's also something that we've seen.

What are you seeing on the CSI side when when you talk about consumer appetite for that 20,000 to 360 in Ford's case like what's the impact to CSI with remote service yeah that's the one of the first things I talked about when I sit down with the dealer or principal or GM is the lift in CSI and it's about 12 point pickup in CSI so any of those bad ones that you may get on the service drive are going to be offset out in the field.

There's great partners out there I think of Jim Sabina at all American Ford who post his Google reviews daily and so it's pretty fascinating to see the customer's feedback and their desire of asking looking for mobile service.

So if you're a dealer watching the show today and you're like all right I get it remote service makes sense but you've just never done it I think a lot of dealers have been pulled into it through Ford because their program made so much sense financially like you almost had to do it you were giving up free money to not get into it let's say there's a dealer out there single pointer maybe a few stores they just haven't done anything with it.

What are a few first steps a dealer could take to get into this business and help understand or realize that the benefit of the impact of remote service well we like to sit down with them and understand what stage are they at are they at the stage of I'm not sure mobile scares me I don't want to put a couple.

Let's pretend it's the first stage they haven't done nothing because look I think there's dealers out there that don't want technicians driving vans around doing whatever right like how do you know

where this driver is how do you know what they're doing I think that's overblown I don't believe that argument at all but there are some dealers that have not done step one what would you say to them.

So I think the first thing it is like you know dealers operate in 30 day cycles so let's look at a pro forma and let's sit down and pencil it with your numbers and see what it's going to take for this band to be profitable.

Obviously it's important that the principal and the GM the service manager are behind this so my first step is leadership absolutely.

And you have to treat it like a different department you have you have variable you have the business office you have F and I you have fixed and then mobile kind of sits over here right so you have to one create it like its own department let's create its own P and L.

It's a relatively small community still and you know kudos and compliments to Ed Roberts and his team we're starting to create like 20 groups where GMs can come in and educate and that's you know I spent a lot less time selling and it's getting on these platforms like your show and educate and consult and share 11 years of best practices and show them where to find technicians and you know it reminds me of a.

You know it reminds me of a story down in Florida where there's a lot of swimming pools they went after and hired swimming pool technicians that are have a skills that can clean a pool but also are great with customers so that's an area that some dealers may never have thought of and if we can share those of how to find the right tech at the right skill and bring them in that's what I think dealers know why they should do mobile they just don't know how.

And if we can slow down and sit down and say here's how mobile can work well so let's say you want to start you've got the van you've got a technician what are some of those starting services as you go out for those first interactions you should deliver as part of that remote service.

Now some of some of my dealers they'll they'll look at the easy ones first and when I see easy they'll look at you know should we go out and do recall can we go tackle some of that recall work can we go start in flea and then I've got some customers that say you know what we're really going to jump all in on the customer side.

I've got some customers that are trying to educate their consumer about mobile so they'll even sell it in F&I right early like hey we have a mobile program and let's take you through when we get into F&I and bundle it up into a package to go really you'll come to my house and we call it driveway in the right you show up to their house.

And now you're doing a mobile service what you'll find that neighbor next door will all of a sudden say hey where'd you buy your car these guys come to you.

So Troy are you saying that you're seeing some dealerships and groups selling remote service as a package like prepaid how does that work walk walk me through that yeah so I've got a couple early dealerships that are saying hey I've created this like one I need to help get the message.

I need to help get the message out and one of the messages being as if it's a prepaid maintenance maybe it's prepaid maintenance plus mobile and maybe we have a silver gold and platinum package and so some of them have offered it in that way some of them.

I haven't even taken approach if I'm going to mark it up but some some will look back at fixed and say I'm five weeks out on an appointment I need to free up those bays for the bigger jobs let me let me go take these small jobs and go do it globally and that's where some of my customers live today.

Yeah I get nervous when you talk about that because I don't want F and I to over promise what you can do in remote service right is that a risk is that potentially something that could well with with our yeah with our software we won't we build everything off of op code so there's jobs that a customer can't do.

When we did get with some customers they actually did not want to add headcount to a BDC so they wanted a customer to kind of self navigate so think about everything we do outside of automotive is on this right I mean yeah you don't talk to anybody just get on there in order and things show up and tell my kids talk to me but with that all being said that's that's where I see

the customers appetite if like from a convenience standpoint now there'll be jobs that will have to redirect the customer back to the dealership we have a electronic MPI into our technology too so when we do go out and do a walk around we're looking at things within the car and let's say they are below 4 30 seconds on tires well let's reroute them back to the dealership and schedule an appointment so that's another easy out one

And then the other piece of this too is also think of variable if if we are actively trying to find cars to acquire not only is it the car that you're working on but they more than likely have a second car in the driveway yeah that's good yeah you know let's tap into an acquisition play too

how do you do that what does it look like there's different tools you can use I need you know Brian Kramer that you trade in a couple others that are out there you can tie that in some of already are using it now just put it in the technicians hand a little bit of training from the technician but the technology has come so far along that it's very easy and if they're already doing an MPI you're not adding a lot of time to to that process but if that's your strategy and you want to build that into the car chart car

then it's a good strategy to have a lot of different ways you could potentially go as we wrap today what are a few problems or attempts the dealers will make that causes their remote service to fail like what are some pitfalls dealers should look to avoid this September of 2025 yeah great question I think not separating it not putting leadership in charge not hiring someone and dedicating that person because here's what's happening you strap a fixed obstacle

director or a service manager they have a full-time schedule and agenda and it's something new they can't dedicate they'll do well we got one appointment on this today or two you know what so and so called in sick let's pull this guy off the van and put so all those little nuances happen so I think what needs to take place as a strategy we've got to sit down and lay out a blueprint what is your commitment what your strategy to

really drive mobile and we've got some huge success stories from a even a Stellantis location in Little San Marcos Texas where they went after mobile and did 95 RO's the first month and and in your 23,000 a rev on the van and 16 gross and you know those are things those are real numbers not for me it's real numbers from a dealership that launched mobile

and share those with with other customers a ton of opportunity as it sits in big stops in mobile delivery and it's interesting to maybe just I've only got a couple seconds left but that customer experience right it seems to me if you're doing that like I love the idea of you could use car acquisition I love the idea of

you know recalls and basic services and even selling it and I think figure out how to do that right like focusing on that customer experience at their home that's quite a world right quite literally meeting them where they're at yeah and and that said a lot right that slogan is said quite often and I will just tell you that customers are less guarded at home and more hope that they're on their home turf they're you know in the comfort of their house or their work and

technician comes says hey you've got a derby dirty cabin filter you got bad wipers those are easy add-ons that may have been declined at the dealership but now that they're at home those are we're finding those additional add-ons are happening

Troy Blackwell EVP automotive business development spiffy thanks for joining the show today and sharing your perspectives on all things remote delivery I want to know more about

use car acquisitions in our best service I think that is just a cool cool angle as well but thanks for being on the show yeah thanks it's a fun conversation it's it's definitely something I never thought about you know arming your

technician with the ability to acquire use cars it's awesome awesome so we had we had Alex Lawrence on the show month or so ago and he was talking with

Yosey and I about you know there will be a day where a Tesla an automated Tesla will just drive itself back to the dealership and get serviced and then drive

itself back to the garage this is the reverse of that and this allows us to bring dealership to the customers home I actually think

that's better you can figure out how to do that in a really elite way remote service remote delivery remote pick up all the

things coming to the customer where they want to be is very very cool all right let's go to Crystal Roberts executive manager at advantage Chevrolet Hodgkins crystal welcome to the show

hi thank you guys thank you for having me today how's everyone doing fantastic thanks for being here thanks for joining the show we're

going to start out with the question we ask everyone crystal house biz and as part of that tell us a little bit about yourself

when you do that every day above water is a fantastic day that's how it's so when people come to work with complaints I say new woke up today so today is a new

fantastic day but I'll tell you a little bit of background of myself I've been in the business automotive for 25 years now and the exciting new

news I have is I'm being involved in my first by cell so I will be leaving this location I'm at as executive manager to move next

door and I'm involved by self or Cadillac view of GMC store nice same group so just continue on with the background by myself and my

brother operate eight of our locations were family owned and operated business so my brother and our second generation and my

brother started my father started a business 40 something years ago which as his first store was a general motor store is

actually a Pontiac GMC store back in 1984 85 I believe he's also former NADA NADA chairman a director I'm sorry not chairman and industry relations for

Chevrolet so I was tough shoes to fill but in my background of 25 years I've worked in a lot of roles in the store I was a porter started as a

porter while I was going to school graduate school I was filling venue machines nothing too glamorous but worked in service worked in

parts worked in the office administration started business development center in 2006 worked vehicle exchange which I'll talk a little bit

about that says we're talking about vehicle acquisition that's a great place to go to get your vehicles on trade ins and also new

opportunities for new sales work in office so I've worked in every role so the last role here is executive manager I've been

that for nine years and I also serve as president for dealer advisory board for Chevrolet's commercial medium duty

trucks so within our grotto group we have three Chevrolet stores Toyota Acura we're building a Honda store at open

point we have a medium duty trucks and then Cadillac BMC which I'll be moving to which is literally the same

parking lot which is fantastic so we're going to be making this old GM campus and we're located what city are you in

this is Chicago so all of our stores are within 30 miles 30 miles of downtown Chicago Chicago

crystal how do we never met you're wearing the same geography we need to meet somehow I was quite

kept for many years come on I would see so now getting really involved in and I'm having a more vocal

role I was more of just behind the scenes with the family business so is the Buick GMC Cadillac is

out of secret or is the public now that acquisition oh no that I wouldn't discuss it if it wasn't ever

I wouldn't have the conversation actually I worked with this from the manufacturer and it was our

neighbor that's been there for 20 years it is Edelsson Buick GMC and it's now going to be

advantage Buick GMC so my partner talking with the banks are you know my experience is working with

the manufacturer so that's how my father got his start and the reason why he wanted us to partner

with Motors Holding which is the division within GM is Motors Holding is not just a bank in an

umbrella they actually help you in training you to be a successful dealer so you have board meetings

you have to any expenses over a certain dollar amount you have to clear that with the board so they

really are more hands-on in involvement especially with first-time dealers I highly advise if you

can to go through that program and on top of that a lot of times not not too many people have the

kind of capital unless they have right their families involved in business to come up with the

10 or 15 percent or 20 percent that's required as a down payment toward the acquisition of these

stores so even though we could have gone a different route I prefer to go through Motors Holding

so I can learn that part of the business with my business partner so crystal before I ask you about

Motor Motors Holding versus an ADA tell us a little bit about the opportunity that is automotive

what would you say to someone that's like hey you know I'm thinking about you got your start much

the same way I did I was washing cars in high school and I started and and this industry has given

me tremendous opportunity throughout the course of my life talk to us a little bit about the

opportunity that you see as automotive having started in a very similar position and and now you

are today where you are this is one of the few industries where it's not your your ability to

achieve success is not based on where he went to college and I have an MBA from DePaul University

but 90 percent of people in the car business don't have master's degrees let alone a four year

undergraduate degree so this is the first business that I ran to that is based on your work ethic

and your drive as opposed to where you went to school so we've been able to promote a lot of people

within to grow within the organization it's not just about the bloodline in the direct family I

look at core people in our organization that we can promote from within we've had a couple of

managers that started out as porters and we put them through NADA Academy and their ambition to one

day be a dealer and working with them with that program all right I'm going to ask a question

because I'm just going to say it I the host I get to do it right so I don't think there's enough women

in automotive agree disagree and how do we get more women into automotive I would tell you was

tough for a long time because women would generally be the ones that are the primary caretaker for

their children and the hours that are required and requested of them was a little bit prohibitive for

that and there's been worse I would say there's been more flexibility as time and have progressed

in this country to in an order to allow for women to be a part of that and it's a little intimidating

when you come walking to a dealership and you the only person you see is maybe one or two women that

are working there so flexibility and scheduling also a zero tolerance for some of the nonsense that

would go on in the dealerships appropriate behaviors and conversations we're not conducive to

women being in the dealerships and making things uncomfortable so making sure you're having a good

working environment a professional environment and an environment that both male and female feel

comfortable doing business and working in right now I'm talking about 25% of our workforce in the

one location as females yeah what do you think is driving the change you said culturally there's

better accommodations made do you think it's automotive as an industry where I feel like the younger

generation wants a little bit better work life balance which would be support in our auto group we

won glass doors best auto dealers to work for work life balance which that's a tough needle to thread

right so when you talk about it whether you're a man a woman whoever you are like enabling and

empowering employees to be involved in places they need to be kids family whatever do you feel like

it's becoming more accepting and tolerant to to leave work to go do a kid thing or whatever or

is that still a challenge no what we say is this is a people business right this is also involved

your employees and figure out your employees why to come to work is it might not want to carry

why are they doing this are they taking care of an elderly parent do they have health concerns

is it the children it is a time with their church group whatever that is what is their why why do

they get up in the morning and if you cannot determine that you're not going to be able to get

the best app output out of your staff yeah so you're the first female a chair of GM's commercial

dealer advisory board like anything you want to share with us about that in your path you would say

to other women or other people in your position what it took credibility wise what it took to

achieve that that position and and what does it mean to you today to be there and what are you

able to do in terms of making changes in the industry in that role sure I appreciate that you

know in that position president for the dealer advisory that's an elected position so I was elected

by my peers congratulations thank you very much I appreciate that but I also stand behind my

word in it whether it's male or female I speak on behalf of dealer counsel not just a

journal group so when their industry relate the problem I was finding the frustration I have with

a lot of auto dealers is we can't make changes if you're not willing to address them what

puts us do you need to get to to make those changes so on the board I get to sit down with Duncan

who's the president for GM or did you know different presidents for their different franchises

what are you willing to do to talk about those changes to get them addressed you know the factory

isn't they're not car dealers and vice versa we're not the factory so we have to have some type

of conversation and a lot of people want to make complaints but don't want to get involved to make

the changes and it is a sacrifice on your time right for business is to be on dealer advisory but

it is important in case you want those changes to be had and also you know industry relations is

good for your buy sales and in open points because at the end of the day the manufacturer has the

right to execute in a lot of states their first right of refusal so if they do not believe you are

qualified that is going to you handle that business in the way they want they can execute that

whether I'm warm buffet or not so industry relations is a part there a lot of I don't think there's

a lot of conversation about that but it is important so among your other accolades you won the 2025

ally sees her award what is that what is that award and what does that award mean to you personally

but also I think to your team as well right there's a meaning to the team you lead

sure um you know ally sees her as they're recognizing women that are forward thinking and

in the automotive industry and I I'm not selfishly looking out for myself I'm looking to see

other young people that can grow within the business whether it's male or female

and um you know I know I'm breaking barriers and walls but I'm gonna tell you when I go into

different automotive rooms I don't care if I'm the only woman or not I don't take no for an answer

and I'm gonna go into what I need to get into and get my address but I'm also at the same time

have to take care of business so I can't demand or ask of things if my stores are not doing well

and see a side your RSI your retail sales index and you're you fix stops metrics so I can complain

all I want but the first thing a manufacturer is going to say is what are you doing to take care

of your day-to-day business so a lot of demands so that's important to to measure those things and

make sure that you're on target and if not meeting with your rep to figure out how you can get

either your allocation on parts your allocation on vehicles in order to meet those

manufacturer requirements so uh you you are all in with General Motors that's the brand you have

right there's no additional brands in your portfolio of stores is there we have Acura Honda

and General Motors okay I apologize we didn't have an all listed there so there's no problem who

who do you see and we always ask this question puts everybody in uncomfortable position

who's your favorite OEM and then and then what's the biggest challenge if you want to go look at

additional acquisitions crystal there's no favorite I'll always have the brilliant general

Motors brought up to the dance that's who our first store start was with and we have three

Chevy stores almost it's within 10 mile radius of each other but all the manufacturers have their

opportunities you know the number one sought after franchise is still Toyota and that that's the

flagship brand but every manufacturer presents its own opportunities but I've worked in corporate

America and I've worked in the out of the industry now I much prefer my passion is in the car business

yeah interesting so so talk to us a little bit about you you made this additional acquisition

Buick GMC Cadillac um they brought you to the dance so that's why you're expanding into these

but what do you see as being uh the the the bright side of GM over the next 12 24 months how are they

winning today in the market and how will they win in the near-term and long-term you know what's

interesting is um the number one luxury brand in China is Buick that's true I was fascinated by

why is that crystal what is Buick what do the what is China know about Buick that Americans maybe

don't fully appreciate you know what though their technology shocking is as forward thinking and

as innovative if not even a little bit ahead of the scale there which shocks me because they're

very innovative in that country but you know I look at some of the luxury brands from some of

the other imports general motors is extremely very innovative on their technology um new it's you

know portion of that is their EV sector right their EV the technology is I'm gonna give you a perfect

example I'm driving a 2025 GMC Sierra EV 470 miles on a full charge 0 to 16 under four seconds

and the whole dash of computer under a hundred and ten thousand dollars I'm in yeah very

extremely innovative and um there's not even I don't think uh I'm trying to think of even the

Raptor the Raptor can't even keep up with that type of the torque that it has in that vehicle so

they're very very innovative when it comes to technology very cool all right I I completely lost

track of time crystal and our producer just prompted me they're like we are at time but I'm gonna

I'm gonna actually do I'm gonna make a decision and I'm gonna ask the producer to hang in here with

because I have just two more questions we do not want to let you go before uh because this has

been such a great conversation do you ever talked publicly about falling in your father's footsteps

so you said falling in your father's footsteps could make you only the third female

African-American GM dealer in the United States what barriers still remain uh to becoming a dealer

as as a as a female African-American and which ones are myth versus material which ones are real

versus uh fake we'll find out while we're talking my GM rep was texted me to say congratulations

early the only female African-American Cadillac dealer in the U.S wow okay there's 580

Cadillac dealers nationwide so you know I know um this is a huge milestone just for women period

and and doing that but then I could came to the show I got to perform I don't want to be the first

one that came in and out so I have a you know heck of a job ahead of me and it's it's about winning

you've got a deliver you've got to execute and what message would you send to others looking

I think in any no matter who you are no matter what place you're in when I see someone that I can

emulate who can mentor me into the similar role whether it's becoming a dealer whether it's

becoming a GM I can follow that path and there are those that are watching the show today in September

of 2025 that see you and say I love what you're doing I want to emulate what you're doing I want

to copy your path I want to be mentored by you what advice would you give to someone looking to

follow your path in and through automotive never get too comfortable I operate every day like it is

my last day and I would tell you all um working for my dad's private the best experience we have

our corporate board meetings and he makes it clear they can be replaced and he's referring to him

myself and my brother they can get a check but they don't have to be in my business if they're not

taking care of business so we have our resumes ready at all times I don't even have personal

pictures in my office I work out of a laptop every day like it is my last day at the dealership

you don't get comfortable and operate like it's your last day you will take care of business I

love that I love that well crystal crystal robert's executive manager advantage Chevrolet of Hodgkins

soon to be pure GMC Cadillac we appreciate your example we appreciate your message and for

sharing with us today and we need to do lunch at some time in the Chicago land I'm there often

sounds great we we need to make that happen at some time but we appreciate you being on the show

and thanks for sharing your perspectives crystal robert thank you all and thank you all the

proofers the other fantastic job thank you oh I tell you what this is why I love automotive I truly

believe this automotive unlike any other industry it is one of the last great American enterprises you

can come in as she said regardless your background religion what like the it's not perfect so don't

write in and say oh well here's an exception here here's an exception there there are exceptions and

we still need to but I love how the American dream if you want to call it that is alive and

well and well in this industry still to this day and and just appreciate her message in in

sharing that with us crystals so for sure getting that work is a choice so if you don't want to

get out work no one is gonna work you yeah I love it and thanks to the producers for allowing us

to go wrong and thanks to you our daily deal of live audience for tuning in today to listen to this

show we're back on Wednesday thank you for watching daily daily deal of live where we break down the

biggest moves in the car business as they happen don't forget everybody we're live here every

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