Sedano on Leadership, SelectFI on F&I Efficiency, Lamphere on Veterans in Auto | Daily Dealer Live

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Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealer Live.

I'm your host, Sian Dark, and thanks for choosing to be here today, Monday, May 25th.

Today's show carries a little more weight than most.

Today we're putting this episode out for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day, it's not all about discounts or doorbusters.

It's about the men and women who gave everything they had so the rest of us

could have everything we have.

Service members who didn't come home.

Families who carry that loss every single day, not just the last Monday in May.

So before we get into anything else, to every Gold Star family watching,

to every service member, past and present, and to everyone in our automotive industry

who's worn the uniform, thank you on behalf of CDG Daily Dealer Live.

We see you and we remember.

And to the dealership teams working through this weekend, the service advisors,

the techs, the BDC reps, the salespeople, the lot porters who showed up

while everyone else fired up the grill, thank you.

The car business doesn't stop for holidays and the people keeping the lights on

right now deserve a shout out.

We see you too.

And for those of you spending today with family, telling stories, visiting graves,

planning flags at a headstone, that's exactly where you should be.

We're honored you're here with us, however you're watching.

Now, here's why this episode is special.

We've got Manny Sedanos joining us, dealer principal at Sedano Chevy,

Sedano Ford and Lincoln, and two Volkswagen stores in San Diego.

Manny is a US Marine veteran.

And we're going to dig into what military leadership looks like running

a multi rooftop operation.

The leadership lab, he's built for his GMs and department heads.

And why he says creating OEM trade cycles, not chasing digital leads,

is where you really win.

Then Andrew Sweet, CEO of SelectFi, is sitting down with Chris Taylor,

owner of certified auto brokers up in Grand Island, New York.

Chris runs a high volume dealership with zero FNI department.

No finance manager, no FNI office.

We're going to break down how that's even possible and what it took to get there

and what it tells the rest of you about where FNI is headed in the next 24 months.

And we close out with Kitty Lamphere, founder of Veterans and Automotive,

the nonprofit connecting transitioning service members and military spouses

with careers in this automotive industry.

If you've ever wondered why so many of the best operators you know served,

Katie's going to tell you exactly why and what your dealership needs to do

to actually retain veteran talent past the 90 days.

It's a heavy lineup.

It's an important day and let's get into it.

First up today, Manny Sedano, dealer principal at Sedano Chevy and Sedano Ford Manny.

Welcome to the show.

Thanks, Sam.

Thanks for the invite.

Thanks for being here.

So Manny, for our audience that doesn't know you, doesn't know about you,

tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Well, I'm an automotive dealer, new car dealer.

I've been in San Diego County and I've been doing this for now almost 31 years.

So on this day, you served as a U.S. Marine.

We can acknowledge that.

We can say thank you for your service.

And now you run this a successful multi rooftop operation there in San Diego.

How does your military background show up and how you run your operation,

your stores day to day?

Well, I think mainly a lot of it is chain of command stuff, right?

I mean that you can't, somebody has to cast that stone and provide the leadership

and everybody else needs to follow.

So we have at every store general managers and department heads that follow the vision.

Our vision is pretty much both down to doing the right thing all the time for our customers.

So speaking of that right thing and those who've served, who work alongside you,

Memorial Day has a different weight for people who've served.

Yet you're in the auto industry and Memorial Day is a busy day in automotive.

What does this holiday mean to you personally outside of automotive?

Well, I think also, I mean, it's remembered those that sacrificed everything,

but we also celebrate national military appreciation this month, right?

So that's an important thing.

A lot of the OEMs come out with special offers.

Ford came out with something special, which is the employee pricing for all

and providing access to vehicles, especially with pricing and that which saves thousands

and thousands of dollars, also Lincoln.

Every OEM has something different to me.

It's mainly because I live in a big military community.

The message that we send out has to be right.

It's about those that sacrifice, but also we honor those that currently serve

now and appreciation.

So we want to make sure we provide solutions to everybody that shows up,

whether it's in service parts or sales.

Yeah. And it's an interesting time on this Memorial Day.

Those who serve have never needed our support more than they needed today,

because they're engaged all over the place.

And so it is a meaningful holiday, maybe even a little more so this holiday than in the past.

Tell us, you've got the leadership lab.

Tell us, what is the leadership lab?

And what made you decide this was an important investment you should make right now?

Why? I've always thought about culture, right?

One of the reasons why I went to business for myself was because I didn't like the culture

I worked in.

So I went and created my own culture.

And as you expand and decentralize somewhere, you've got to figure out how to keep that

communication going, because the representation of every store is based on my beliefs.

Like I'm the salesman out there for the public, right?

I'm the one that's putting out the message.

They have to make sure that they deliver on that message,

because it's important, it's credibility.

And so the leadership lab started as getting all the department heads together to make sure

that we go through the exercises and collaboration.

There's some managers that have never spoken in front of a group of five or more than a group of

five, right? So you're challenging them.

You're asking them to think and collaborate and put together the values and the mission

for them to go out and deploy and teach their teams to make sure that every manager

comes in delivering the same.

Give us an example of an exercise that you do in the leadership lab that creates discomfort

or causes people to kind of have to get outside their comfort zone.

What's one thing they do?

Well, speaking of vulnerabilities, right?

I mean, would you have to be able to explain yourself and be able to say like,

here's what I don't have or what I lack and what I would like help with?

Because I grew to where I'm at now by collaborating.

I've had mentors, I've had peers.

And so a lot of the times it's like the managers don't know how to communicate within

with each other.

You know, there's always a division between the sales department and the service department.

And they don't speak to each other, right?

So you got to get them all in the same room and start to collaborate and start doing it.

Like I hate this about what you do and I like this about what you do.

And so together, they figure out that we're in this for the same reason,

which is providing solutions to our customers, right?

And so having them put their feelings on paper and getting up and explaining those feelings

to everybody, it's not a mushy thing, but it's really maybe it's overcoming

some things that we need to deal with.

I was just going to say, you know, my perception, and I didn't serve in the military,

but I would assume, you know, I think a military is high execution, high discipline,

you know, no, no frills, no fuss.

Like I would think most military people that are very in,

don't put up with a lot of the nonsense that goes on in automotive.

And yet you bring up feelings.

So talk to us about how you balance that.

And I'm interested what nonsense do you see in automotive that should go away

that your military background says we need to get rid of this in automotive?

I grew up in the business in the time where, you know, the corporate,

and I wouldn't call it corporate, but just the culture was sometimes demeaning,

keep the neighbor down so that you could look better, you know, surround yourself with dumb

people so that you shine.

And I'm just, you know, I'm saying it that way.

But I believe that information is key and you always have to be training your replacement.

Right. So it's, it's not, it's, it's good to have competition,

but not when it's destructive.

Right. When I call that, you know, office politics, where you spend so much time

working on inner company drama than you do in providing solutions for our customers, right?

So you remove, you remove the drama, you don't put up with the drama.

It's what we're moving that and also have an information and,

and disseminating that information so everybody's informed.

And I always believe that in order for you to supervise anything, you,

you have to know what you're supervising.

So you have to have gone through that position of some sort to be able to hold them accountable,

to teach them, to lead them.

Those are things that are important to me.

And I think that with the younger generation, they don't, you can't talk to them

necessarily the way that back 30 years ago used to communicate.

So now I think the emotional intelligence is, is much higher.

And we need to be more effective with that.

So what's one, as you've gone and engaged with this leadership lab, you've, you've recruited

your team members to become involved in it.

And you've done this leadership work.

Is there an uncomfortable truth that the lab has surfaced in the organization over the time you've

done it? And then how do you measure or quantify that it's working or not as you are creating your

culture? I think that's a good question.

I believe that the uncomfortable truth is that we're, we're not always as put together as we

think we are. And, and the measure is on retention of personnel, right?

They always say, you know, people don't quit the company, they quit the manager.

Yeah.

And so I think that striving on retention, especially retaining sales personnel,

but service advisors, technicians, right?

Technicians is like, it's a big deal.

It's costly to be able to get someone that is trained in that field and that, with that OEM.

So all of that is an investment that you have to make in order for it, if you're thinking long

term, is going to help you out tremendously.

So, so the measure is going to be and how well we retain the sales personnel, the service personnel

have tenure and, and have experts because that in the Ford field, especially the, the sales

people, they need to be well informed on the product and have history and have a pipeline

of business. It's always a people business. It's not just about tech stacking and percentages and

closing ratios and all this other stuff. There, there's relationships that have to be built

within that outcome in order for the dealership to continue servicing and selling.

So Manny, last week on the show, we actually had a dealer, a Subaru dealer from Utah on,

and he talked about, he talked about agent to agent sales. He had actually created an AI agent

to work in his dealership and take inquiries from other AI agents that were basically trying to have

a, you know, going back and forth. So he's trying to anticipate a more automated sales

process. You talk about the importance of people. Do you see with the advent of AI and technology

people's role in sales diminishing? Or do you think at the end of the day, automotive is still a

human and a, and a people transaction, a people sale? I think it's a human transaction. I mean,

even if you look at, if, if you were to shut out the retail system and create like a Tesla or a

Carvana form, that there's only one way to buy, then obviously that, that would be the process.

But when you're talking about independent dealerships offered in their own way,

it's still a people business. And I believe that AI makes your, is going to make your job easier,

per se, with a provide more information and it will get rid of redundancies. But the, but the

customer still wants to talk to many people. Look at the, the digital retailing programs that existed

after COVID. Yeah, they didn't really, they weren't great. Yeah. It was 90% of the people

dropped off. They had a 10% closing ratio. So nine out of 10 people still wanted to talk to someone.

So they got their information and then they went in to speak to someone to finish it.

So I think the, the appointment setting, the, the information, the connections, the, the,

the tools that exist in order for people to get status updates and service. I mean,

all of that is great, but still need to speak to someone for them to get that, that clarity and

that assurance. And I think that that's still a valid part. Now, the people given the information

need to be informed, right? They need to be pleasant, good people. They need to be

Johnny on the spot, as I say, and that service, that's, that's hospitality and that's the business

that we're in sort of. So, so in the intake form, you talked about, you talked about winning by

creating an OEM trade cycle. Talk to us about the trade cycle you're talking about and how are

the manufacturers you represent Lincoln and Chevy and Volkswagen, what are they doing right in the

trade cycle world? I think that they have different, most of the captives like Ford,

MotorCredit, Volkswagen financial services. I mean, when you have a lease penetration rates at

like 60% rate, that means that, you know, 60% of the new cars that are selling are coming back

within two to three years creates that cycle that people are going to come back. You're going to

have in a given month, let's say a hundred vehicles coming back at you a hundred times,

you don't have to go to an auction, right? You don't have to be out chasing the KBB buyers or

whatever. And I think that creating that trade cycle, not putting people out to 96 and 120

miles out, you're losing that customer and you're never going to create that retention.

So what are one or two strategies many others could learn from that you're implementing to help

strengthen that trade cycle or shorten it? Stick to the OEM captives. I know that's sometimes a

tough sometimes. But stick to that OEM. The minute that that goes out of that ecosystem,

when it goes to a credit union and it goes to whomever, they get marketed by, you know, whatever

brand or whatever marketing partner they have, and they send that customer, they divert it from

you basically. The information that is, you asked me earlier, like, what are good things that

some brands do, you know, Ford, Ford credit has private offers for almost every customer

coming out of a purchase or a lease. That's money that is over and beyond invested into loyalty

to get people back into the dealerships. And we have to think about this when we're just selling

cars. A lot of us happen to think about, like, I need to sell more vehicles and you're always,

you know, trying to start new relationships with strangers when you have thousands of people in

your database that already know you. And so you put them out too far. Yeah. So keeping them

not as far out sticking to the captives. So you've got Chevy, Ford, Lincoln and Volkswagen.

Yes. How are you thinking about keeping that customer loyal to you as an auto group?

You know, the OEMs, you stay with the captive, they're going to keep them back to the OEM.

Is there anything you're doing, Manny, in your auto group to retain them to the group? And

maybe, maybe you're okay, Chevy, to Ford or Ford, you know, Ford to VW. Is there anything you're

doing innovative in that area? I think that constant communication, especially with the

maintenance cycles that happened there, 10 to 12 months or 10, 12, 15,000 miles out,

I think it's important to establish some type of program for your own self, like

multi-point inspections, let's say, at the 90 day for new customers, mobile service options.

We have our weight of mobile service vans at Ford and we send them out, right, so that we always

keep in touch with our customers. That's the only way other than sending them, you know,

promotional emails and birthday emails, which you end up getting spammed sometimes. There has to be a

real purpose and relevancy for them, not for you, but for them, you have to be relevant to them

and useful to them so that they can continue shopping with you and honoring your business.

All right, so talking about trade cycle, talking about staying with the captive,

talk to us a little bit about your finance department, your F&I philosophy. Do you see

F&I as a product sale or a protection conversation with the customer? What's your F&I strategy

in 2020? My F&I strategy, obviously, is just as everyone else, I mean, for some front-end margin

compression, F&I has become a lifesaver, right, especially with products like Volkswagen and the

Sword. With the high lease penetration, per se, like Volkswagen, you have to find different products

in order for them that are relevant, right, that are useful, not junk, maintenance plans,

you know, gap, surface care, things that provide value, windshields, I mean, how many times do

people's windshields break and key replacement? All of these things are products that are available

to the consumer, but we just end up sticking to, you know, sometimes finance reserve or

or service contract work. I mean, there's plenty of different products to be able to offer the

customer that are of value and benefit to them and also something that we can sustain profitability

with. So as we wrap up our time together, Manny, we appreciate you being on this special Memorial

Day episode, sharing your vision on automotive with us and also for having served. You know,

one of the questions we often ask on this show is we talk about the American dream and I always

believe that automotive is a great place for people willing to work hard to come and really the

opportunities are limitless if you're willing to work hard. It doesn't matter your background,

doesn't matter what language you speak, doesn't matter, you know, gender, although obviously

it's not perfect, I think it's one of the best industries we currently have in the United States.

Let me ask you this, do you think the American dream is still alive in automotive

and and what do we need to do to continue it? What would your message be to anyone

thinking about joining this industry? I believe that it's one of the most generous

businesses in the world and if you look around, there's vehicles everywhere. So there's a lot

of talk been about, you know, consolidation where we am to to public selling. I mean,

all of that stuff getting us out of the way, I think we still have the real estate, the barrier

of entry is high, of course, but there's a lot of different programs that exist for you to be able

to obtain the store. I believe that, you know, if you work hard, you can leave from from anywhere,

you don't need to do that and and you have to communicate, you know, what your intentions,

what your dreams are, because if people don't know what you want to accomplish in life, you'll

never get that opportunity and don't think that that is not for you. It can be if you if you're

intentional about it and you work hard. Nothing is free, you have to sacrifice time and time away

from family and time in that business when it's yours, but I've been doing this already 30 31

years and almost 20 on my own and and you just have to be dedicated and motivated

to do it and and decisive and it's it's a great business. It doesn't matter whether you're in

service as a technician or or you're you're in sales selling vehicles. A lot of people get

are afraid of the commission based salaries or structures, but I think that's the only way

to earn a living with no ceiling. Yeah, well, I appreciate you sharing that vision with us. I

think that is 100% the correct truth that, you know, if you're willing to work hard,

that there is no ceiling, but you've got to be willing to work. It's not a it's not a free pass.

And as we wrap up here, Manny, for our Memorial Day audience watching, is there any message you

want to leave dealers and our vendor partners who are watching today's show, Manny? Well, I think

that we have to honor those that sacrificed everything and and appreciate all of the, you

know, from first responders and and military active and and retired and their families. I

mean, we have a responsibility to serve our communities and and and provide people solutions.

And I think that we just stick to that. Don't complicate things, right? Yeah, simple business

and and love what you do. Manny Sedano, dealer principal at Sedano Chevy and Sedano Ford, San

Diego, California. Thank you so much for joining the show and being part of this special Memorial

Day episode. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Sam. All right, everybody, let's talk Open Lane.

Today's episode is brought to you by Open Lane. Today's show once again, voted the most preferred

digital wholesale marketplace by dealers. Learn how you can earn up to $2,500 and buy and sell

the credits right now at Open Lane dot com Ford slash CDG. Again, Open Lane dot com Ford slash

CDG and to Open Lane. Thanks for supporting today's content, including this Memorial Day special

and that cool conversation we just had with Manny Sedano of Sedano Chevy and Sedano Ford.

We appreciate his perspectives. And let's keep today's special episode going. Next up, Andrew

Sweet, CEO of SelectFi and Chris Taylor, owner of Certified Auto Brokers Inc. Thank you both for

joining this special episode. No, thanks, Sam. Glad to be here. We appreciate you both being here.

So if you would, let's start here. 10 years ago, dealers fought the trade and valuation tools

and lost. You're saying FNI is at that same inflection point right now. What does that look

like on the ground? Yeah, I think on the ground, I think back my first go as being an automotive

entrepreneur, it was all in the trade in and customer acquisition space. And like a wet blanket,

I remember trying to convince people that you'd be able to get an online valuation so good,

you wouldn't even need to see the car. People were not thrilled to hear that when I say people,

I mean, dealers mainly. But it was a black box 10 years ago, who and how what someone

thought the value of the car was. It was a mystery and now it's for the most part democratized.

And from our perspective, we see FNI going through a similar transition. The information

being exposed by providers on all sides of that equation are being pushed to the forefront.

Consumers are more educated, dealers and all things being considered,

I think it's speeding up the process for everybody. And we'd like to happy to say that we're on the

forefront of that. So a lot of organizations have tried to fully solve for product penetration

in FNI without having an FNI department and many have failed what and not failed, but they still

and I don't even want to bring up the company's names, but there are some electronic tools that

say, hey, we can we can deliver FNI to a consumer without having a department and without having

a person there. What's the biggest challenge to running a high volume dealership with no FNI

department? Let's just go there. Chris, you've done it. You run that high volume dealership.

You've got no FNI department. How does it work? How do you make that work, Chris?

It works beautifully. So my background is I came from a large auto group as a finance manager.

And when we started this, it was just something that came to me. I actually read something in a

publication that had indicated that it surveyed a large group of consumers who had recently

purchased a vehicle. The unique thing about this survey was that these consumers were all very happy

with their their experience. They're buying their buying experience. But the survey asked,

this was years and years ago, except for finance. They hated finance.

The answer was 70% if they could change one thing would have changed the FNI process.

Yeah, everybody loves to hate finance for me. And I looked at that and I said, man, we can do this

better. And we were really small at the time, but we had big dreams and big aspirations of where

we're going to go. And I just decided at that point that I would buck the trend and we weren't

going to have a finance department. We will take a cradle to grave approach to the sales process.

And I was in 20 groups. I've been in 20 groups for a long time and I would get beat up pretty bad.

And I have really low FNI numbers to begin with. We stuck to it. We developed a strategy and a

process that really worked. And we teamed up with Selectify a number of years ago. And that really

brought it all together for us. The biggest thing for us is that it's streamlined that process.

Right. So how do sales people, I have a bunch of questions on this because my background is FNI.

And I've seen it train both ways. One of the challenges I've seen with sales people doing

it start to finishes, they then become very good at advocating for an intangible. So the car is

tangible. You can touch it, see it, feel it, get excited about that's the reason you go in to buy

the car. The intangible is the FNI products, the vehicle service contract. You know, you don't

intend when you walk through the door to need to be protected that way yet a lot of, you know,

the attachment once they're given the opportunity is typically high. And I found that once sales

people get trained up on how to do it, then they go buy it, they get a finance job somewhere else

because that's a promotion in a lot of cases. So walk us through how do the sales people handle

deals from the start? What does that process look like? And how do you keep them from defecting

to a traditional FNI role that presumably might pay a little higher?

Well, so how do they start the process? It's much like any process you would see at any store.

You know, we have a road to the sale, a meet and greet, an interview. Oftentimes a big part of

that is select buy comes in very early. We'll send that, we'll send that request to the customer

where they get to fill that information out on their own, on the phone. It's a soft pull with no

impact. So they're very eager to do that. You know, I think our shopper now at 1.2 dealerships,

you know, they're going to visit on average to purchase a vehicle. So they're there to buy, you

know, that's what we all know that at this point. So they're usually very, they want to do that. They

want to speed up the process. They don't want to be there for the next eight hours. So that's

pretty early on in the process. Then from there, you know, we're going to go in and we're going to

sell the car and this, you know, the field of wheel and all that good stuff. But then when we come back

in, it's right to the numbers. And we've already done that, you know, that select buy, as we just

referred to it as a select buy, but that application was immediately pushed to the desk. While they're

out there on a test drive, the desk is starting to work the numbers, the desk is starting to

structure deals, the desk is looking at what they've got and where they need to go. And they're

just very, very prepared. When the customer walks back in the door, we're ready. I mean,

chances are most of the time it's just hit print and here's your numbers, there you go. And so we

take a lot of the, the waiting out of it, you know, we don't have that backup on a Saturday

at the desk where you've got half a dozen sales reps standing behind a desk manager, you know,

waiting for a credit poll or waiting to get their numbers. It's a much more streamlined

process. Go ahead. Do you pay the sales, the people mostly on the FNI gross? Do you pay it

equally? So you asked the question, you know, how do you get them to leave or not to leave to go to

a traditional FNI role? They kind of have one, you know, they're incentivized on the FNI products.

They are flats on the car deal. I price the inventory. I provide an incredibly nice and

unique inventory. It is not hard to sell. I spend a lot of money advertising it. We have a ton of

opportunities. That's the easy part. You know, creating value and representing the products

that we offer. That's the part that takes some learning, some education. And once we get them

dialed in there, it's a really easy process. So you focus on the tangible sale. The assumption is,

and actually it's a fair assumption that in today's world, when the customer walks through that door,

they're probably going to purchase because they've done all that homework in advance, right?

They've seen 47 photos, three videos, the car facts, they ran a payment calculator. They did

everything before they got to the store. This is no longer the hard part. Yeah, it's not. And

honestly, our FNI process isn't the hard part. You know, it's just the part that takes a little

bit more skill. But the sale of the vehicle, there's just not a lot to that. The customer knows so

much when they walk through our doors that that part of it is just being nice and don't screw it

up. How did FNI become such a high friction part of the entire purchase process, Andrew?

And what's the compliance exposure most dealers are sitting on right now that they're not even

thinking about? Oh, I think, I mean, Chris would know better than I, but I mean, all the paper and,

you know, water cooler conversations that are happening between, you know, various people in

the dealership end with the customer that are not documented or are not supposed to be documented.

You know, obviously, the amount of compliance and the amount of rules and regulations that

are coming out are endless. For us, compliance is something we're very passionate about. But

at the same time, it's not a very sexy topic to talk about. But for us, it's a, you know, it's just

on demand ongoing. And we manage and track all that data for seven to 10 years, depending on

scenarios. So the system updates and modifies itself. If there's a change on the customer record,

both the customer and dealer are in the loop, all the notices that need to go out again,

depending on situation and state, all are communicated proactively, all through the platform.

So the platform is, is it an iPad? Is it a, what is the platform? I assume a salesperson's holding

it and they're engaging with the customer with this platform. Yeah, we're a web services app. So

any way that you can, you know, access the internet, you're going to be able to use

SelectFi. I mean, all of our customers use it slightly different. Most of the tools all

dealer facing. The only time a customer would interact with it today is the way that Chris

described. Everything's going to be initiated from that end user for Chris. It's sales people only,

but the end user is actually going to start the process and sending a encrypted link to the

customer to where they can start the process and obviously complete it to their liking.

So you said, Chris, you've talked, you've said all deals are lost with time. And if you don't lose

the deal, you lose the growth. Talk to us about that. Well, so what we, there were two things

that we were looking to solve and SelectFi came in at the exact right time for us. One was a compliance

measure. I'll admit it. It's embarrassing to admit that there was a time here where if you

walked through this store, you could find a written credit app on almost any flat surface.

That's a nightmare for all of us. It's a nightmare. It kept me up the night and it really drove me

nuts. And they came in with this tool and really all they had to do was stop there. There won't be

any more credit apps. Okay. But the other thing that I was really looking to improve on, we were

really growing Saturdays and any given day can get extremely busy. And what we would have would be

this bottleneck at the sales desk. And I was beating my brains out trying to figure out, how do I

relieve this? And what I saw was it running credit apps and it was structuring deals.

But they would all happen all at once. We'd have this terrible bottleneck. We'd end up losing

opportunities or again, losing gross. We'd have to drop prices and do all these things to make

the deal happen because the customer's been here too long. And SelectFi came in with this tool.

It was kind of the perfect fit for us. It allowed us to get way ahead of the game very early on in

the process and streamline that entire thing to where now I can have a packed showroom on a Saturday

and guess where my sales professionals are? They're on the desk selling cars with customers

instead of instead of the sales. So part of that's tied back to this, the soft pull that Andrew

talked about. So your sales people can send this link. What changed? Obviously that's speed, right?

That's the friction. Explain to us what the soft pull is and how that helps speed up the process.

Well, it's more than just a soft pull. I think we all know what a soft pull is, right? It gives us,

I mean, it used to be just a quick flash of the credit history. Now, I don't even know what the

difference between a soft pull and a hard pull is. They looked the same to me. That's for sure.

They give me the same amount of information. In fact, now they give us even more information

because what they're doing for the desk. So early on, it was that. That was what got us ahead of the

game. Now what it does for the desk is it's using whatever tools that they have or whatever

technology they have, but it's really accurate in being able to pair us to the right financing

option for that customer so that we can present the customer the best possible terms we can

present that are both great for the customer and great for the store and the structure of the deal.

And it does that in a flash as well so that my desk managers no longer have to sit there

and beat their heads against the desk and, you know, try this bank, bank.

It really narrows down that playing field where we should be going with that customer.

So you gave us some stats. 429 soft pulls a month, 69.7%. We'll call it 70. Pull the submission,

zero compliance instances, all with no finance manager. What's the number one?

What's the one number that still surprises you about that stat?

The number of submissions that we get, it's, you know, it really, like any tool, it took us a

little bit of time to get everybody to buy in, you know, but we ripped up the credit apps so

they really had to kind of jump on board pretty quick. But that number just started to climb

and climb. If he came apart of the process, it just wove itself into the process. And before you

know it, you know, we're having a lot of, you know, I look at each one of those as an at-bat.

And we've got a lot of at-bats every single month of that month. That number keeps

declining every single month. And so does the store volume and gross.

So, Andrew, a lot of the FNI tech out there can digitize an old process. What's the difference

between digitizing it and actually replacing it in May of 26?

Yeah, I think we, you know, we're very fortunate we've built technology that understands three

things very intimately. So Chris already talked about one of them, let's just call it a consumer's

position, their pre-qualification status, their credit score, et cetera. The second one is the

dealer's inventory, right? So we're seeing the cars that are in those inventory fees, their pricing

adjustments, how they're being presented, et cetera. And then the last one is really what's

happening in the lender system, whether it's route one or dealer track. And intimately

understanding not just what decisions were made, but why those decisions were made and

eliminating that gap between maybe how those things are being represented to FNI versus

how those deals are actually being bought. So to put a bow on what Chris was mentioning earlier,

we're taking all that information and looking how the real market is behaving. And that's what

Chris's team is using to say, here's what the likelihood is happening. So we call it, you know,

I think somebody wrote a book called, you know, the speed of trust, you know, that's what business

operates at. We're trying to do that. And what Chris is doing very effectively is doing that in

the first three minutes with the customer. They've already done all this work online. Now the first

quote that they get from Chris is like 99% of the way they're on, and in terms of the rate,

the payment and the structure of the deal. So when they come back from that test drive,

deals done. What do they have left to do? Yeah, interesting. So for it reduces the friction

and speeds along at a faster pace. Yeah, you know, and that that pull time that the rate that Chris

is talking about or what you're really talking about here is going from a first pencil or first

estimate to the deal being submission submitted as one in the same. So instead of that happening

two hours later, it's happening in the first three minutes with a customer. I mean, that's a big shift.

Yeah. So you had mentioned that select FI's data helped Chris realize he was targeting the wrong

buyer. What data revealed that? How does that happen? And what did Chris end up doing about that,

Andrew? Yeah, I think that's an overlapping issue. I mean, when we look at again, kind of going back

to we understand the consumer, the inventory and the lender's behavior pretty well. You know,

we see dealers all the time, they're purchasing inventory that sometimes doesn't align with their

buyers, nor what lenders can actually lend against or fund against. So I think for us, it's Chris being

a really smart operator looking at what some of those decisions look like in accordance to some

of the recommendations select FI was making saying, you know, either we're targeting the wrong person

or we don't have the right inventory inventory all the time, we need to get those things in

better alignment. And I think Chris is, you know, that's why his business is so successful. He's

doing that all the time. Yeah. And just to touch on that quickly, you know, the data that we

receive from select fi has really shined a light on some things, you know, I think we're a little

unique, especially in the independent space. I think a lot of independence are subprime focused,

which for a little while we thought we were. But through select vis data that we were able to

kind of pull and examine, we saw that that we actually had a fairly strong crime business. And

we needed to spend a little more time focusing on that. But I took that a little further and

started to break that out. And what we identified, we're in Buffalo, New York. It's, you know,

we all know about Buffalo. And what we notice is that there's a shift, right, your spring and summer

markets, we need to shift towards, you know, you know, our inventory needs to shift

in a certain direction and come come winter, you know, our inventory needs to make another shift,

you know, based on the consumer that we're seeing during those time periods. So

taking a look at that allowed us to really tweak our business. And I can say that I think we're

one of the very few dealers in the Buffalo market that in December, January and February, we really

don't see a significant downturn. You know, we're still cranking it's because we're able to make

those shifts and tweaks to our business model that allow us to stay relevant to the consumer that's

out there shopping. 2026. It's all about the data and taking action on the right data at the right

time. Yeah, we were looking at the wrong data there for a long while. We were looking at our

gut for too long. Yeah. So you have broker in your name. We've had a lot of conversations about

brokers on the show. Are you broker independent? No, no, just independent use. I'm not calling

any Hyundai dealers trying to buy the rest of their everybody in the text chats gonna come out after

if you're a broker. Alright, last question up and then I'm gonna ask you if you

want to say anything relative to this day Memorial Day but where do you see Andrew F and I headed

in the next 1224 months you've got the FTC letter out there to 97 dealer groups about advertised

price you see increased scrutiny on disclosure doing things right where do you see the future of

F and I Andrew man I don't know if I'm gonna go out on a limb and make any declarations here but

I do know everybody's trying to go faster and the consumer is always gonna win right so if the

consumer says I'm not willing to spend an hour two hour three hours in a dealership somebody

else will deliver an experience where they don't have to do that. Yeah. And everybody wants things

faster for less money so if we can help the customer go from shopping online to a funded

transaction in store I'd like to think that if technology activates that they'll be getting

cars at you know perhaps a better price in the future. Yeah, very good. Well Andrew sweet CEO

of SelectFi Chris Taylor owner of Certified Auto Brokers thank you both so much for being on the

special Memorial Day episode of Daily Deal Live. Chris as we wrap up Andrew got the last word

there a moment ago anything you want to say relative to the day Memorial Day those who

find for us but also who are working today. Yeah it's a very very special day for me I'm a US

Air Force veteran and a Gold Star family member so today's an incredibly incredibly special day

we actually we're closed we give the team a hear off but one thing I ask of my team and I think

I'll just put it out there it's you know all around the country in every single market there are

Memorial Day services going on take an hour out of your day and go go go spend an hour at one of

those services it'll touch you and it'll mean the world to those family members who made the ultimate

sacrifice. Thank you for your sacrifice your family's sacrifice for your service and for that

challenge to the industry whether working for you or anywhere across the country appreciate both

you being on this special episode today thank you. Thank you Sam. All right we continue on next up

let's talk to Katie Lamphere founder of Veterans and Automotive and by the way I incorrectly

credited Katie Veterans and Automotive as being a non-profit in my intro and that is not correct

so I appreciate you coming on Katie Lamphere founder Veterans and Automotive welcome to the show.

Hi Sam thank you thank you for having me. Thanks for being on this special episode today so take

us back to the beginning what was the moment you decided veterans and automotive needed to be connected

in a more intentional way. Yeah so I've been thinking about this for a second right and I

cannot narrow it down I cannot narrow it down to one specific moment okay in time myself being a

military veteran I'm a Navy veteran from Desert Storm time and being a long-term. Thank you for

your service by the way. Thank you you're welcome for me being a long-term automotive veteran as well

right many years from an automotive on the retail side and both on the dealer partner side throughout

my time in this industry I've kept hearing like these conversations about opportunities to bring

on associates right like how do we go out here and find associates to fit certain

areas in the dealership that we're seeking and I hear this back and forth and then also

look at the veterans and this is something that I want to have the opportunity to bring

up here is the thousands almost 35,000 military veterans that are homeless right now living on

the streets looking for a roof over their head trying to find a meal to put in their belly right

so let's think about that for a second and how this industry can actually change lives.

We can do that the automotive industry we've done it for many and I know we'll continue to

so why not bridge that gap you know we're looking for qualities and they have them they offer them

so how do we collaborate right like so that one moment if think it was just a our time Sam it

was like something that was always in the back of my mind like why aren't we talking more to

these men and women that possess these skill sets right I mean they come out of the military we do

we already have the skill sets that most of us in the automotive industry are begging for you know

the teamwork right the accountability the following a process with standards over shortcuts

and and all those things that we are making sure myself and others that are joining me in this

that are making sure that we get that message out there so what so where that started from

what let's talk this through what makes those who've served in the military

such a great match for automotive and what makes automotive such a great match for our military

friends and family yeah so like I was stating just a second ago we are already trained

through bootcamp right you start in boot camp and we're trained to follow direction we have

discipline there's adaptability there's a strong leadership skills as far as accountability

processes that are followed um how to perform under pressure think about that Sam think about

this industry there's pressure right there's a lot of pressure yeah there's a lot of pressure I mean

I grew up okay so I grew up in the suck of the buttercup era right I started in this industry

in the 80s and it was like hey you can do this and then I went into the military for several

years got out went back into the automotive industry and I just remember thinking you know

the ones that perform I mean think about the people that you talk to here right the different

leaders that have that military background look how far they excel and I think there's a tolerance

that we actually hold as well I mean let's just be honest this is a tough industry to be part of

retail it is not that easy and so that's where I believe that we have that strong work ethic

and that ability to adapt and overcome situations and yep pushing through right so you go to you

go to men and women who've served in the military and you advocate for the auto industry and then

you connect them up to jobs that's what you do in your business right oh you know

I it's turned into that and okay yeah okay so what how this started a couple of years ago is

do you mind if I talk about this for a second no no no please give us the story and then what

I'd like to do is just in the brief few minutes we have left I'd love to find out what are some

of the biggest misconceptions about veterans in automotive and and and how do you overcome some

of those misconceptions to help people pair up in automotive because I think you know you

heard us talk with Manny like automotive is the American dream I think it still is I believe in

that you can come here with a willingness to work if you're disciplined and you work hard and I think

our our brothers and sisters the military they have that they can achieve and accomplish anything

if they're given the chance right so yeah share the share that with us Katie I agree one of the

things that happen is I never intended on like really going out there and being that that advocate

so much in person it's developing more and more into that so a couple of years ago with talking to

my peers in the automotive industry and hearing all of the hey we are looking for a talent where

do we pull these from I'm like guys why are you not looking more like aren't you a military veteran

like you're you were a marine you were air force you were you know maybe whatever like myself so

why are we searching more in those those avenues and some of the most successful dealer groups

have programs right now that really focus on okay so we started um what I did is I launched an

event called veterans and automotive oh so really what this is it's an event that I host annually

and now it's growing into a little more frequently I'm being requested but um this

year we have an on June 16th in Raleigh North Carolina and um where's the collaboration so what

started as having an event to offer opportunities to show military veterans what's available in

this industry and that is not just about selling cars right yeah there's the misconceptions there

too I could go on and on about that but it's there's so many more opportunities and I know I have

a time here but um and also opening the doors to the dealers and that's when we have so many

dealers that are engaged this year coming in June that are like hey I want to learn more how do I

do this how do I get involved and and try to break that barrier and collect right so so Katie is

there a success story that stuck with you a veteran or a military spouse who's transitioned into

automotive really kind of connected or captured you man there's a lot so there's quite a few um

there's a gentleman who was living in his car and you know sneaking in and getting himself cleaned up

for the day and searching for jobs and you know he was introduced to a person you know and just

started selling he was in sales actually started in sales like hey we'll give you an opportunity

in sales let's see what we can do and has definitely been um very successful in that so

those are common stories right now that I'm not made for heartbreak like it just makes me

overjoyed because I could see as myself transitioning many years ago back into the

automotive industry and then having three daughters that I've raised and I've got one um my middle

daughter who is still in this industry just went um from 10 years of retail to um actually going

over to the dealer partner side to help more individuals and she actually preaches all the

time about hey if you're looking for someone for your service lane why don't you hire a veteran

give them an opportunity we're talking about acquisition all the time right she works for

auto help and they do a great job so she does a great job but she's when she when she talks to

the dealer she says hey why don't you look at the veteran community you want to have somebody come

in and try that so she's advocating for me she's like like my mom you know that's awesome that's

an example of it as well so so so since we're talking to this Memorial Day audience on this day

there are there are members of this group who've served there's some who have it I haven't

what do you want the automotive industry to understand about what it actually means to hire

a veteran that person that you talked about who is living in a car wasn't given a an opportunity

what what do you want automotive to know about that group of veterans

this is um this pulls at my heart's for heart strings Sam because what I want them to know is

that we deserve they deserve more than a thank you for your service and I can get you a good deal

on the car okay maybe that sounds a little harsh the best we've been hearing over and over and

over again I hear the industry talk about how we honor veterans that are maybe an ally while

at their dealership but what are they really really doing okay in Memorial Day is the time to

reflect a little differently right that's completely different than veterans say so let's stop confusing

the two as well okay that's what I want to talk to the automotive industry about let's let's stop

confusing the two of them as well let's I love that you just had a gentleman that said he's given

his team off okay at Memorial Day isn't that great yes it is amazing and it's more than selling a car

and let me tell you I love profit I love selling cars I've spent many years in that role right

but to actually feel like I really really truly care and we'll reach out and do more than just

say thank you for your service and how do they do that how can they they can actually take time

have a conversation with a veteran sam and learn about them more in their skill set because that's

where we're losing that it's the translation right the car lingo and the military lingo we each have

our own so they need to take the time and educate themselves heck this doesn't cost them anything to

come to the event I'm hosted they can come and they can get educated that way okay like um not to

plug that that way but it's like you can again tell us about the event that's coming you can

you can get in front of the people that do this already and learn from them educate yourselves

how you can help them more so yeah so much more than thank you for your service okay

Katie I'll tell you what to have you on and to advocate for veterans and hoping to connect veterans

with opportunities that exist in automotive it's a huge treat and a privilege for us to have you on

the special Memorial or the special episode of Daily Deal Alive so and we would say keep up the

great work there's a link in the show notes to your events and to your organization so folks

who are watching today's episode whether they're working or whether they're spending it with with

family and friends they can learn more about your organization so Katie Lamphere founder veterans at

automotive thanks for being on the show today thank you so much thank you thank you well that's

our episode our special memorial episode thank you to our audience for watching this special

Memorial Day episode of Daily Deal Alive today we've broken down not only the biggest moves in

the car businesses they happen but we've also taken a moment to stop and reflect on the service of

those who've given they're all in a given a part of their lives for our country so don't forget we're

back live every Monday Wednesday Friday which means we'll be back this Wednesday 1 p.m. Eastern so if

this is your world hit like hit subscribe turn on those notifications you never ever miss a beat

thanks for your service everyone we'll see you next episode thanks for being here

you

Sedano on Leadership, SelectFI on F&I Efficiency, Lamphere on Veterans in Auto | Daily Dealer Live

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