Shepherd on path to GM, Egan on Closing Deals w/ AI, Carlstedt on Auto Techs | Daily Dealer Live

Hey everybody, welcome back to another edition of the Daily Dealer Live.

I'm your host, Sam Dark, and this is the space where all automotive comes together

to have a real voice in what's happening today across our industry.

So whether you're a dealer, a vendor, or someone just passionate about where

automotive is headed, you are in the right place.

Thanks for being here.

Let's get to it.

First up today in breaking news, PrimaLend Capital Partners has filed for bankruptcy

this after months of missed interest payments and failed talks with creditors.

According to a press release, the Texas-based firm provides financing to buy-here-pay-here

dealerships that cater to credit-challenged buyers.

The company says it plans to sell the business through bankruptcy court while continuing

to fund the service and service existing dealer and borrower loans.

PrimaLend listed both its assets and liabilities below $500 million.

That's half a billion and says it secured new bankruptcy financing to keep operators running.

CEO Mark Jensen emphasized that no debt is being called due and that the company intends

to maintain its dealer relationships during the process, which as an aside might be tough

when you're under a bankruptcy filing.

The filing shows the recent collapse of another subprime lender, Tricolor Holdings, which

shocked investors after sliding into liquidation just weeks ago.

Bottom line here, well, tightening consumer finances are putting real pressure on lenders

and the dealers who depend on them.

And is this yet another canary or a second or a third canary in the coal mine for the

subprime market?

Next up today in our first news item, a new international standoff over Dutch semiconductor

chipmaker is threatening to throw the global audit industry into supply chain chaos.

And this is something most may not know.

We're bringing it to you here as part of the CDG Special.

The Dutch government seized control of Nexperia.

It's a China owned semiconductor company that makes hundreds of millions of chips used

in vehicles for everything from switches to steering wheel controls in response, Beijing

retaliated by restricting exports, cutting off the flow of those chips to global automakers.

Nexperia has already warned major suppliers like Bosch and Denso that it can't guarantee

deliveries.

And automakers were told earlier this month to brace for shortages.

U.S. plants could start feeling the impact as early as November.

And industry groups say even a brief pause in shipments could shut down production lines.

What's the bottom line here?

Well, every day the Nexperia disruption drags on, vehicle production becomes more vulnerable.

So this news item kind of hidden in the print could become a major impact to our automotive

industry even here in the United States.

Next up, we turn to the CDGBicel.com tracker.

Bicel.com tracker.

CDGBicel.com

Jeremy Hodge Auto Group is expanding again in Oklahoma, acquiring Patriot Honda and

Ardmore from Patriot Auto Group.

The store is now operating under its new name, Jeremy Hodge Honda.

Hodge Honda.

It's the second deal between the two groups in just over a year.

Hodge also bought the former Patriot Chevrolet GMC and Ardmore last October rebranding under

its own name.

For context, Patriot Auto Group was founded by Tatin Manning in 2014 and has grown into

a seven store network across the state.

Hodge, meanwhile, comes from a deep dealership family and he got his start working for his

grandfather, James Hodge's Ford store in Itabel.

Big picture with deep local ties, Hodge is aggressively building an Ardmore stronghold

likely seeing higher margins or customer loyalty in a market where he already operates.

And so you don't forget you can see these deal announcements and many more throughout

the entire year on the CDG Bicel Tracker at CDGBicel.com.

Cue the tracker.

CDGBicel.com

We love our track.

We're going to get more of these little jingles because I just love it.

Makes me happy.

Next up today, a new report from Spine and AI based auto retail tech firm says 2026 will

be defined by one thing above all, the balance between supply, demand and price.

The company's analysis warns that tariffs and affordability pressures are converging

to create what CEO Sanjay Varnwall calls a quote, composition crisis, meaning the industry

likely won't see a shortage of cars overall, but a shortage of models cut customers actually

want to the longer lead times fragmented shipping routes and higher compliance cost.

Spine's analysts also noticed a new kind of slowdown.

They're calling the quote, intent gap.

They say it's when shoppers browse online, but hold off buying because they're spooked

by talks of tariffs or rising payments.

What's the takeaway?

Well, according to Spine for dealers, profitability will come down to reading buyer behavior faster,

adjusting mix quickly and staying nimble in a market where psychology matters as much

as price.

And finally up today in CDG news, Porsche has officially named its new CEO.

This ends month of months of speculation about leadership and putting to rest concerns over

Oliver Bloom's dual role running both Porsche and Volkswagen, taking over as Michael leaders,

the former McLaren boss who also spent more than a decade at Porsche earlier in his career

where he helped develop the first Cayenne hybrid.

Leaders brings a mix of engineering depth and luxury sport experience from Ferrari and

McLaren.

This makes me happy having just been to F1 credential and credentials analysts say line

up the lineup perfectly with Porsche's next chapter as it pivots back towards hybrids

and performance models looking ahead after a stretch of divided leadership and slowing

momentum.

Porsche is finally getting a dedicated chief the move that could sharpen its product focus

stabilize operations and re-energize dealer relations heading into 2026.

And that is a wrap on today's CDG news.

Yuli, welcome back.

Happy to be here.

Hey, we're pumped to have you where we're going to have some great conversations about

things, all things automotive.

And on that note, let's dive right in.

Let's turn to the principal of Chevrolet of Troy, Troy, Ohio by Jacob Shepherd.

Jacob, welcome to the show.

Guys, thank you so much for having me.

It's a great pleasure to be here.

We are excited to hear your perspectives and learn from you as is our entire audience.

By the way, I hope I can get some good information.

Thank you.

What Rod from the Q responded in watching from my office right now.

And one thing I forgot to say, Jacob, and we do this all the time.

We're live streaming across all the CDG platforms.

If you know, Jacob, if you have an opinion and you want to ask a question, you want to

share a perspective, put your comments in the chat, whether you have a question about

some of these subprime things that are going on or a topic Jacob brings up.

We'd love to hear all of your perspectives and it does change the trajectory of today's show.

All right, Jacob, let's start out with the question we start with on everyone, which

is how's business part of that?

Tell us a little bit about who you are, where you are and what you do.

So I answer the second question first.

So my name's Jacob Shepherd.

As you mentioned, I'm a dealer principle of Chevrolet of Troy.

So I run the day-to-day operations.

I'm kind of like a guy with many hats within the business, you could say.

Yeah, I'm 33 years old now.

I started in the car business when I was 19.

I originally had a goal and a plan of getting a job with General Motors and I just didn't

have a college degree and it just didn't work out.

So make a long story short, one day I went and bought a truck from a Chevrolet dealer

and it's like, wow, this guy gets to wear a shirt and tie every day.

The heaviest thing he listens to a pen all day.

This is exciting.

And I was working for a retailer called Kroger at the time on the back dock.

So totally opposite of what I do now and I applied for a salesman's job.

I got the job and I just come in there every single day, seven days a week for years with

the goal of being the very best salesman I can be.

And I wanted to be, so Chevrolet would rank its top salesman in the zone and I always

wanted to be number one and many times for many years I was number one and long story

short I wanted to become a manager, a new car manager.

I applied at every single Chevrolet dealer in my zone, which is about 13 of them.

And finally one hired me.

I was 26 years old and I was inspired by working at that company and I thought, well, if these

guys could be a dealer, why can I be a dealer?

So I'm quickly Googling how to become a dealer.

And I ran into all these different brokers that are out there that sells dealerships.

So I'm going to Montana, I'm going out west to all these different small towns looking

at these different dealerships that I could afford on my own, but they were just so small

in structure and it would have been a big life change for me going from where I'm at

in Cincinnati, Ohio to these small towns of two or three thousand people.

So long story short, the broker put me in touch with the gentleman who was eager to get

into the business, but he didn't want to run the day-to-day and he was eager to help

catapult somebody like myself to the next level in their career.

Him and I have been partners for about four or four and a half years now and it's been

a wonderful relationship.

I run the day-to-day operations.

I became dealer principal of the store when I was 30 and I'll be thirty quarter soon.

So, you know, my highest level of education when I took over was being sales manager,

new car sales manager of a pretty high volume Chevrolet store in Cincinnati, which is about

an hour from my store now.

So when I come in, I had no experience in fixed stops.

I had no experience and use cars or none of that.

So I relied on a lot of resources like your podcast here and NADA groups and many good

people out there who've inspired me over the years.

You know, it's a rare quality, Jacob, to go from you're on the back docks of a grocery

store, Kroger's is a grocery store, right?

But yet it's distinctly this is an automotive path into sales, into management and then

into ownership.

What what planted the seed in your head where you said, hey, as a salesperson or as a sales

manager, I can become a dealer principal.

I can become an owner.

You know, so for me, I quickly realized when I got in the business, I was really

passionate about cars.

And that's what led me to the doorstep of wanting to become a car salesman.

But I quickly realized you've got to be a people person.

And if you're not a people person and you're not passionate about what you do, it's

going to be a hard road to go.

At some point, you know, you just got to say, hey, this is either for me or not for

me. And for me to answer your question, it was just, I thought, you know, if they

can do it, I can do it.

And I just wanted more in my life.

I wanted more for my family.

And I really didn't think it would happen.

And it's 42 months now into the to the role.

And I just absolutely love it.

So one of your questions when I come on was house business, business is fun.

You know, I wake up every day and there's no bad day.

It's a great day every day.

So Jacob, a bunch of comments online.

So yoga car says that's fast.

Congrats.

Laura Klein says it's all about mindset and having a great attitude.

And then our own CDG's Hannah Farmer says very cool story, Jacob.

We echo each one of those sentiments.

One of the biggest hurdles to becoming a dealer is obviously the finances to be

able to do it.

So we want to talk a little bit about that.

The other hurdle is factory approval.

So at 33, how on earth or at 30, how do you get OEM factory approval?

Even if you have the funding, what was that story?

OK, so they have an interview process.

It's a good question.

They have an interview process where you meet with several different

factory reps from General Motors.

And one of the things that inspired the reps that I met with about myself was I

had about nine years of Chevrolet dedicated experience at that time.

I didn't hop from dealer to dealer.

I didn't sell at Mazda for three months and then at Ford for six months.

I stayed consistent with Chevrolet.

And during my time with the Chevrolet brand, I was a very top producing

salesman as well as sales manager in terms of CSI, hitting the factory goals

that they set month in a month out.

And as a new car salesman, I was selling roughly 400 plus new Chevy's every

single year.

And like I said in the beginning, it was a seven day journey for me.

I was young, didn't have a family at the time.

So I had the ability to commit myself.

And that's exactly what I did.

So my encouragement to be for people out there, you know, number one, be

passionate about what you do, but be willing to sink the time into it.

You know, it's easy to go online and see what people do and say, I wish I had

that or this, but it's even harder to put the time in.

Yeah, I love Bill Vaughan's comment on socially says 30.

Wow, I'm a loser.

Bill, you're not a loser.

And this is why you're not a loser.

No, not at all.

And by the way, this is why we have you on Jacob and others like you because

you show the path.

What you have done is possible in today's world.

Talk to us a little bit about the economics of it.

You found an investor.

What did it cost you cash in to get in an equity position?

And are you on both operating in real estate or just one of the two?

Operating and it was a sizable investment.

You know, it's close to a million dollar investment.

And that was probably pretty good at the time.

The store then was doing about $22 million in sales.

It was selling about 300 new this year.

It will eclipse $60 million in sales and do over 750 new cars.

So it's definitely been getting pushed, you know, by me and as well as the team.

I've got a wonderful team.

And one thing I did when I come into the stores, I told myself, I'm not going

to come in with an iron fist and start catapulting people out.

And I've really worked hard to retain a lot of the same managers that I had come

in daily set goals, lead by example.

And them see me and the trenches working, you know, alongside of them to make things

happen, whether that service or sales.

So you're a you're a young owner and you're in this brand new store

and you've got a financial backer that you've got a report to,

including yourself and your family.

What are some of the biggest changes that you made that resulted in the big

increase that you now have have created?

Yeah, you said that well.

Yeah, you said that well, because when I started with, you know, not

giving too much here, I literally had about $18,000 left in the bank.

You know, so I was lucky to go in or a lot of us were at the time during COVID,

where I think the stores were doing a lot better than what they organically would

normally. So it was already making a little bit of money.

But my main thing was just to push the factory goals.

If General Motors wanted me to sell 30, my goal was to at least do 10% more

than their goal. So I meet the factory goals and then some every month and focus

on PVR, you know, use cars, buying use cars, right?

Not over allowing in a use car every single time to make a new car deal.

You know, drawing that line in the sand so I could focus on not only just

hitting new car units, but also making PVR on the use car side.

So Jacob, what would you say to a dealer that says, look, your goal is to outperform

the OEM's goal for you.

But at the end of the day, it's about profitability for you personally.

Like there's got to be a healthy balance between what the OEM wants and then

you, you know, delivering that net.

What would you say to a dealer that says that in your situation?

Well, I would say to them, you got to look at all aspects of the business.

So I'm part of an NADA 20 group.

And one thing I focus on in that 20 group is having a 4% net return.

And I'm thankful to say, since I took over the store every single year has been

a four and a half, 4.75% return with ad backs.

So my strategy is I personally advertise my new cars, you know, behind cost,

about $1,000 behind cost.

And then I pushed my FNI team to make back in money.

We worked to get every single trade in.

And then on the used cars, we're hovering right around a 4,800 to $5,000 front

and back PVR like clockwork because we're buying that used car right at 94,

95% of the market.

We're not burying ourselves in it.

Just again, like I said, make a new car deal.

So my, my saying to that would be you could absolutely hit the factory

goal and still get a return on profit.

You just got to look at every category and speaking of fixed ops real quick,

you know, my 20 group, they've been real good at setting me up with, for example,

parts department every month, 38 to 40% gross profit return.

Service department 70%.

It's just meeting with the managers.

In my opinion, it's setting the goals and the expectations.

So two and a half is a standard bench.

You're a point and a half above that.

And a big part of that is the focus on the relationship between the dealer or you

and the OEM, you and General Motors.

And then being super focused on outperforming each one of your departments.

The auto ranch says online, I have been a customer of Jacobs since he started

in the business, he got there because he was the hardest working sales guy around.

And he's also a passionate car guy, which I can tell you, we can feel and sense that

you mentioned your involvement in 20 groups.

Are you part of the CDG 20 groups or the CDG circles?

There's dealer group, dealer operator, 20 groups that we have their text chains.

And then there's also GMs.

Are you have you signed up for any of those and gotten any interesting insights out of that?

I have not, but that's a great inspiration.

And I'm going to certainly do that.

I am part of a 20 group through NAD, like I said, but they've been at every meeting.

I really invest myself and I just try to push, I set goals and standards.

I write them down and, you know, I don't go back from the meeting and push everybody

the very next day, but over the course of three months, I work it into what we do.

You know, as managers, we meet every Thursday and Tuesday.

We set goals, we talk about the wins, we talk about the losses and we keep pushing forward.

But the main thing for me and my role is focusing absolutely on the net profit.

But I do want to meet the factory goals and standards.

You know, and I can say for 42 months that run in Chevrolet of Troy, the stores hit it

every single month, the highest benchmark that General Motors gives, which is 110

percent plus of your goals.

So it's been a fun ride.

It's and I think it will continue that way with, like I said, passion and enjoyment.

So a couple other questions about your growth, but I want to go to another online comment.

Segar Daghra says, cool, such an inspiration.

They're asking, what were the problems you faced when growing up the hierarchy?

We'd love to know that not everyone is happy seeing people grow.

And that's an interesting point, right?

You can get to certain steps in your career where you're held down more than you are pushed up.

He is right.

The comment is absolutely spot on.

I think if you want to kill a big dream, you tell it to a lot of people.

And, you know, if you have something that you're passionate about, if you've got a goal in mind,

the worst thing you could do is go back to the store that you're at now and tell everybody

that, you know, whether you're a salesman, hey, I want to become sales manager.

If you're a sales manager, I want to become general sales manager because you're right.

I was told years ago about a story about a bucket with crabs and it's like one's trying to get out

and it's crabs in a bucket.

They just pull you down and they don't want to see you get to the next level.

So he's right.

And my answer to that would be to kill a big dream.

Tell it to a lot of people.

Just keep it to yourself.

Keep it on your notebook and look at it every day.

So your evolution and it's been very fast from salesperson to dealer is interesting

because a lot of people who are elite salespeople, elite producers, there's something.

And I want to be careful.

I say this, there's something inherently selfish.

You've got to be selfish.

You've got to take every up.

You've got to develop a relationship with the customer.

You've got to like find the right inventory.

You've got to control the floor a little bit.

And sometimes that skill set doesn't transfer well into a manager position.

Sales manager, GM.

And sometimes that doesn't transition well into a dealer with or their mindset

shifts you had to take in each step along the way.

And what was that like?

I think I would agree with you.

And I think that there is people who would probably have to take them steps for me.

I felt like of course, there's people working for me who may not agree.

But I felt like that come pretty easy because I organically like to work with people.

We have a lot of parties at my store, costume parties and holiday parties.

And I started something when I took over the store called test drive for calls.

So every single month I partner with a local nonprofit.

The store generates anywhere from 800 to $1,200 back to that nonprofit.

We're giving away a car literally this Friday at Troy High School in the community.

The stores in.

So for me, it was just taking care of people.

And I knew if I was blessed from above to have this opportunity

that I need to make the very best of it and make them the very best of it

is taking care of the people around you.

360. Yeah. Yeah.

It's the people.

It's a people business.

Your story is so fascinating.

I'm going to ask you to go.

I'm going to ask you to go against something you just said.

You said have a big dream and then don't share it a lot.

But when you look at the future, the next five years, 10 years,

you're so young, so much of the runway is ahead.

What is your goal for next step?

Do you want multiple stores?

Do you want a group?

What where do you go from here?

I have been working diligently to get more stores.

I've had five or six stores presented to me over in the metro.

I'm out here in Cincinnati over the past year for various different reasons.

The brokers and I just went to another dealer.

I had an offer put in, I had the financial backing.

My partner and I had the resources to acquire larger stores,

a hundred million dollar store.

But for one reason or another, didn't work out or were actively trying

to pursue another General Motors store right now that I think we're kind of close on.

So I think to answer that to get my plane off that runway, it's going to be

I want more stores.

I want to become a dealer group and I want to stay invested with my community

that my stores are in and give them back.

So a lot of people online are asking questions about, you know,

and you don't need to tell us who your investor is.

But what type of an area or background does this investor have?

Is this person in automotive?

Are they in another industry and they're kind of fascinated by automotive

and they see the profit?

What's the profile of someone who's a good investor partner look like that you found?

He's just like me.

Identical.

He just doesn't want to be involved in the day to day.

He did very well in the auto body shop world.

He was in the automotive business, but never in the franchise side of things.

But they always piqued his interest because like me, he just loves cars.

He's got a pretty big car collection here in Cincinnati.

And but he's 58 years old and he just doesn't want to run the day to day.

So him and I met after one meeting for lunch, we connected extremely well.

You know, he said, if you find a store, I'm willing to invest in you.

That was in 2019 and in 2032, the pandemic slowed things down.

We were finally able to close on Chevrolet of Troy and that led to the opportunity.

But this background is absolutely automotive, but it's also just business in general.

Yeah. All right.

The producers are prompting me to move on, but I got to have two more questions

because you got to give us you got to give us some best practice gold

given your quick rise and given the massive impact you've had in that store

in terms of gross, in terms of net, in terms of units sold.

Give us one process that just changed the world in that store.

And then I've got one other question that that delivered to the bottom line,

not just a culture, but to bottom line since you've been there and part of it.

My question, my answer would be be patient with those that work for you.

Be patient with the team members around you.

They're there for a reason.

They're there because they probably want to win like you.

Not everybody's going to have the same passion and drive as me.

I recognize that.

But as long as they want to win and want to do well and you see incremental progress

and you think they're the right person, stick with them, you know,

don't look to just cast them out so quickly.

All right.

And what's one thing most dealers as you're getting used to being around other

dealers and you're understanding that environment, what's something most

dealers just over complicate or don't get because they're thinking about it

in an old mindset and you're 30, you're looking at it fresh set of eyes.

So I'm on the board for the LMA for Chevrolet, which is part of the marketing

and the advertising.

And one thing that I see in particular that I've never understood is just

talking bad about the manufacturer.

Oh, they're pushing these EVs on us.

Oh, they're pushing these processes and these regulations and they're cutting

profit and all these things focus on the controllables, not the uncontrollables.

And I think that's what myself and my store as well as my business partner

do well at is focusing on what we can control.

The fixed ops percentages, you know, CRM processes, just everything that we can

control.

So a lot of dealers are very negative against the manufacturer that they represent.

All right.

And and finally, and then we're done and just appreciate your time today.

What message would you give to other salespeople or even that guy tossing

bins at Kroger about the path?

And somebody who might say, you know what, the opportunity or the time

for that path that you've created is is long gone.

The bar to entry is way too high.

And, you know, you just can't do what you've done anymore.

You know, it's it's going to be different for everybody.

But I think the main thing is don't give up and find something you're passionate

about, you know, write it down on your board at night and look at it and just

kind of work on a goal to get there.

Don't get online and see what other people are doing and think that you're a

loser like the one gentleman or guy I've mentioned there, you know, lift yourself

up, be positive and be thankful and grateful for what you've got.

But also at the same time, do push yourself for goals, write them on a quiet

board, find something you're passionate about.

And Jacob, Jacob Shepard dealer principle of

Chevrolet of Troy, we absolutely appreciate you being on the show.

It's been fascinating to hear your perspectives, your energy and your

excitement for our auto industry and wish you all the best and best of luck.

Thanks, Jacob.

Thank you guys all the best to you and the people listening.

Thank you.

Wow, that's a cool path.

That's pretty really cool.

Just shows the power of intentionality.

Yeah.

Well, and you know what, it got in his mind.

This is what I want to do and he went and got it.

And I think that's still a possibility no matter your age today in this

environment, you can do it.

You just got 100% laser focused.

And then there is something to reducing the noise between you and your goal.

So speaking of reducing the noise, let's talk automotive mastermind.

Top performing dealerships use mastermind to drive loyalty, efficiency and results

because they don't just automate, they activate, learn more and take their

sales efficiency assessment at drive.automotivemastermind.com Ford slash

CDG again, drive.automotivemastermind.com Ford slash CDG.

And then of course, as always, you can scan the QR code if you're

watching the live show or if you're listening to the podcast, as many of our

audience do, you can check out the link in the show notes for more information.

We appreciate automotive mastermind for supporting today's content, including

that cool tale from Jacob Shepard of going from tossing and stocking shelves

at Kroger to now a dealer principal there in Ohio.

And we wish him the best of luck up next today.

Let's turn to automotive mastermind.

Speaking of which, let's go to Bill Egan.

Yeah.

Bill Egan, vice president product at automotive mastermind.

Welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you very much guys.

I appreciate you having me.

Yeah.

What do you think of Jacob's story?

That's pretty cool.

That was an incredible story.

I'm very happy and proud of him and what he's been able to accomplish in such a

short time, I would say I have a different path in the automotive space.

I've been 20 years in the industry and I started off as a marketing intern in

college for the Aspery Automotive Group and went to their management training

program, sold cars and then eventually found my way and run in their corporate

marketing department, then Gulfstays Toyota and then been on the product side

ever since, really trying to help out dealers and understand where they're

coming from and what can we do to make them more efficient and better?

How much of an advantage does it give you your automotive background and knowing

this industry and being able to speak to this industry?

How much of an advantage does that give you as vice president of automotive

mastermind and serving your clients?

Yeah, it really comes down to how I work with my product team as well as with

the engineers to really explain the why.

Why are we looking at the things we're looking at?

What are we trying to accomplish?

But really getting everybody in the organization to understand what it means

to the end user and probably the best interview question I've ever had in my

life was when I started at mastermind, one of the product owners asked me,

where does your product ideas come from?

What's your methodology?

And I really came down and said, empathy.

I've been there on Saturdays in August and it's really hot and it's hard to

sell a car.

So if we can make that one salesperson more efficient and better and make sure

that they can make a paycheck, we know the sales managers, the general managers

and owners are going to be just as successful.

So let's come from that kind of place.

What can we do to make that individual better and then ultimately the overall

dealership as well as the manufacturers going to be happy?

And Bill just want to correct VP of product.

I want to correct that.

I think I misstated that in the very beginning.

So let's start with our first question.

How's biz and what is biz in the world to you at Automotive Mastermind?

Yeah, business is going really, really well.

When we look at our growth and the number of dealers that we're able to now get in

front of and really help and support, whether it's through our manufacturer

relationships and working and bringing it down to tier three or direct and

organic with some of our enterprise groups as well as individual dealers.

We've been spending a lot of time and investment really focused on that kind

of efficiency side of salespeople and then really what kind of insights,

data enhancements and things like that that we can then bring to market

and then get that out to all their other systems to really kind of

help declutter some of the problems that we have.

So Bill here at the Ziggler Auto Group, we do a monthly general mandrame.

We get all of our GMs together and today and then we bring in one department.

We'll do finance, we'll do sales manager, use car manager, new car manager.

Today we had BDC and we had internet in and I'll tell you what Bill,

you started to see about a year ago a lot of these AI tools start to creep into that meeting.

Today 90% of the meeting was occupied by different AI tools.

They're all over the place and there wasn't a single presentation from one of our 42 stores

that was the same AI tool. They were all different and so that leads me to my first question.

Dealers truly are bombarded with different AI tools today.

What separates AI that actually drives that sales behavior and helps

from AI that's just automation or as I like to call faux AI?

What's the difference maker there?

You know, I think you have to really understand what you're trying to use AI for.

There's different areas and capabilities.

Are you trying to use it for predictive models and forecasting?

Are you trying to use it to just have large language models that are going to be talking

to and from with customers based on the customer reaching out or a chat or an internet lead and

then now you're trying to engage them using an LLM in that particular way?

Or are you trying to use it to kind of understand and then be able to then prospect using AI

capabilities? And I think as dealers there's a lot of different AI tools out there.

There's a lot of different use cases that they want to use it for,

but you really have to really kind of narrow down what's the tool you're looking for

and then look at the use case and can they accomplish that particular use case?

I'm not saying that they're all great, but I'm also not saying that they're all bad

within there, but there isn't one AI system that I've seen that can really do that predictive

modeling as well as the prospecting and as well as the direct communication side of that.

That's really kind of where the industry's got to figure it out and that's when you're

going to see winners and losers, I think, in the AI fraud coming over the next couple years.

So what's the hurdle for fully solving for that? Why hasn't that been done completely yet?

Yeah, it really comes down to the backend data side of it. So a lot of people have built large

language models that really can figure out how to communicate to people and really read and

understand the way the customer communicates and what your intent is, but how do you get that person

to engage in the first place? And that's really the prospecting side. And that's where I think

Automotive Mastermind really kind of stands out is because we've got our buyer propensity models

and our BPS scoring and really the behavior drivers of why a customer is going to be coming

into market, what are they going to be coming in and working for, how they're going to price it

and buy their next vehicle. We use that to then really kind of craft that first initial message

that's going to get the customer engaged. And then you can use other tools out there to then really

kind of hone in and get to that intent side and that back and forth. And how do you get that

perfect message in front of them that's going to say, okay, I'm interested in talking.

So you mentioned the scoring. What goes into that scoring before we ask how you craft the message?

Yeah, so we have kind of an overall zero to 100 BPS score. So what's the likelihood this

customer is about to be in market to buy a car? And obviously 100s are there in market or they're

really close to being about to be in market. But we've broken that down in 2024, we really broke

that down into an in market score of vehicle scores. So do you have the car the customer would

be interested in? And then the deal score, how are they going to structure their next deal?

And we do that utilizing all of our data that we've got with our sister companies

within S&P Mobility, Automotive Insights, Car Facts, we bring all this kind of data together

to be able to kind of craft up these scores. And then within there, what are the behavior

drivers? One thing I really love to do opening segment was you're talking about the 2026 Outlook

and there's going to be a lot of shoppers out there. But there's not going to be a whole lot

of people that are understand why they want to buy or if they're going to buy right now.

So how can then Mastermind bring this all this data together, put the scoring model and then

put it in front of a salesperson to then articulate why a customer should be considering buying now

and then using our Fritz Copilot capability to even craft that initial message for them.

So I think that's to your point about the news item, I do think that's fascinating,

this idea and I need to think about this more because it was in today's news like this idea

that there are shoppers that are online looking at vehicles and they're just not quite coming over

that like they think interest rates will come down, they think things are going to get less

expensive or more expensive or for whatever reason now is not or maybe they're just confused

because there's so many messages, so much data out there. Do you think there's truth to that?

And how can a better crafted message sort of connect with them to bring them in

to the dealership to have that conversation? Yeah, so what I'm seeing in most consumers,

they might not be necessarily in market or they're just in market just shopping around on

vehicle detail pages because they're looking for service or they're looking for other things,

but we're capturing all these events. But at the same time, their deal scores may be really,

really good. I'm seeing a lot of Toyota customers right now that are probably not in market in our

scoring model, that's going to be in the 30 to 40 to 50 range, they're not quite ready to come into

market, but the deal score is so incredible, they've got great equity in their vehicles,

the incentives are starting to come back with those vehicles as well. And so I could lower your

payment by $150. Now, that's not just a single data point that we can say this customer is going

to buy a car, but how's their warranty look? What's going on with them? Maybe they're in a lease

and what's their mileage outcome going to be looking like? What are the vehicle upgrades and

things that they've done? All of those kind of go into what we call our behavior drivers to then

really kind of articulate. And with one click of a button, now a salesperson can then craft that,

hey, I'm going to do a proactive call to this customer, what should I say? Or a text message

or an email out to them to entice them and say, hey, maybe I can bring you into market a little

bit sooner than you normally would. So you've got this score, how do you correlate? Like,

have you been able to like connect the high score to them buying? Like, how do you test it?

How do you pressure test that? Okay, we've got all these different metrics that lead to a higher

score. It shows that they should purchase. Like, how do you test that that score correlates with

they're going to buy if we say the right things? Yeah, so we're tracking all of that information

with our sister company on the S&P mobility, the automotive insights, or you probably know it as

the Polk automotive side of the business. And all their transactional data that they're able to

receive their relationships with the manufacturers and stuff, we're able to leverage that and then

take the dealer's first party data against our third party data and then really understand, okay,

not only that, you know, you typically buy Hondas, that's great information to know.

But you know, maybe for this Honda dealer, you financed your last vehicle. But before that in

your garage, you leased the three before that. Okay, now we can actually put some predictive

score models in there is like, you know what, we think you're going to go and buy another Honda.

This is the kind of the Honda model we think you're going to go to, based on life changes,

demographic changes, added a kid, subtracted a kid from, you know, moved out of the house.

All those kind of factors then can determine what vehicle you would think we'll go into next,

including what competitors you might actually go towards. And then how are you actually going

to produce it? Well, in your case, hey, you might have a really high likelihood to go back into a

lease, but you didn't lease back in 2021-2022 when the offers weren't very good. It's fascinating how

we can take all these data points we can predict. And then we can match that prediction to messaging.

So your co-pilot system will build the call, the email, the text, and it will connect with

that customer. And then at the end of the day, I believe that person on the Sherman floor,

once that person customer is qualified and they're sitting there, we can sell to them.

But you're doing a really good job of bringing that customer in through the door.

You've recently announced DriveCentric, an integration with them. Tell us a little bit about

that. Part of your part of the integration promises, there's not going to be any more

system switching. How are you measuring the timer efficiency gains that creates for sales teams?

But maybe first talk about the deal first. Yeah. So when we look at this and this partnership that

we announced, it's our first time we're going to do a full data integration with the CRM at us.

So everything that we've got from a mastermind side, we're going to be able to see and be able

to utilize inside of DriveCentric. And then we're also going to be able to leverage the DriveCentric

CRM data to then adjust our marketing and our communications and stuff that we're doing on

behalf of the dealer. And so with this kind of partnership, we'll get that data. We'll really

kind of prospect and bring people into market through our marketing as well as use of co-pilot

and other systems within the mastermind platform. But once they actually generate a lead, raise

their hand, that's when mastermind needs to stop. And that's one of the most difficult

things about integrations in our systems in the industry is people don't know who's on first.

And so with this, exactly, we want to make sure that DriveCentric knows everything that we've done

and they want to make sure that we know when to tell mastermind to stop. And as a user,

as a BDC person or a sales manager, you'll be able to see all of those opportunities,

all of our BPS scoring and what vehicle we think the customer is going to go into,

how they're going to structure that deal. Does this customer have a private incentive with

some of our OEM manufacturers? All of that will be available inside of DriveCentric so that users

don't have to switch. If you're working a transaction, working a deal in DriveCentric,

you're going to have all that information. If you're trying to prospect and trying to drum up

new business, that's when you're going to utilize mastermind, but you can see it in both spots.

So it's interesting. I agree with you. I think the customer has got to be so frustrated today

where there's so much technology, there's so much capability and yet we have so many

different systems that are doing their own things that the world of the customer being

contacted while they're sitting at home looks one way and then the phone conversations look

another and then once they come in through the door, it looks a third way. So you've got this

new integration with DriveCentric. How long until you have more integrations

where there are multiple CRMs that benefit from that as well?

Yeah, we've actually been reaching out to them actually highlighting this press release and

saying, hey, we would love to do this with you guys as well. And so luckily we've gotten a couple

of them come back to us and say, yeah, let's talk a little bit further. And we really started this

type of integrations with CDPs last year and helping out the Morgan Automotive Group and their

Telium CDP build that they were doing. We've gotten more enterprise dealer groups also trying to

build CDPs that we're trying to help power. And now this is our first opportunity to really get

into the CRM side of the business to where we can provide this data directly. Our goal is to make

this as an open and agnostic system as we possibly can. How can we get this information in the hands

of your salespeople the most efficient way? And when we look at utilization and those are some

of the big metrics internally that we want to monitor, we're working with them. So DriveCentric

is to be like, hey, we'll give you events that people are clicking and engaging in the content

that Automotive Mastermind's putting in our system. So we can track that efficiency metric

and continued and say, you know what, here's all the clicks and the events and things that they've

had to do. But guess what? They didn't have to open up another tab to login to Mastermind again.

And we're really looking forward to hearing from our clients once we get the full integration live

early next year to get their feedback and what they're seeing.

Less logins, more capabilities to integrate. We want that. We need that. Give it to us. So Bill

Egan, vice president of product at Automotive Mastermind. We appreciate you being on the show

sharing your perspectives and these new integrations and new technical capabilities you have.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Bill.

Cool. That's fun. So yeah, super deep integration. We should be done with the world where we have all

these different, all these different logins, all these different data sets and all these different

customer experiences. We need one experience. So with that, let's turn to Fixed Ops Friday,

but it's Wednesday. Fixed Ops Friday on Wednesday. We're going with that on every Fixed Ops call.

Let's welcome Ryan Carlstadt, EVP Fixed Operations at Willis Automotive Group. Welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me, guys. And what an honor to be the first ever Fixed Ops Wednesday,

right? Yes, yes. Ryan, thanks so much for coming on the show. You know, we got to start off with

our signature question. And while you're answering that, sorry, the question is, how's biz? And then

give us a little background. Who are you? What do you do? And give us some context on the group.

Business is great. We've got a great year going in 2025 here across all of our brands. And

my background, gosh, I was born into the car business. My dad was actually a Fixed Operations

director for a local dealer group here in town in Des Moines. And I took my first job out of

college. I went to work for Enterprise Renekar and then joined the dealership shortly thereafter and

jumped over to Willis. I've been at Willis Automotive almost for 12 years now. And gosh,

it's just been a ride. I think of my first job in the dealership was probably sweeping the floor

in the parts department. And I think my first paycheck was a day old doughnut.

But now, you know, in this role, just nine to your second gen in the business, following dad's

footsteps. Yeah, I love it. So how's, aside from business being great, you know, where have you

brought the group? Where have you started from? And where are you today? Can you give us some

context there? You know, I started as a service advisor, worked my way up to service manager,

then parts and service manager, been with many different brands along the way, Honda, Hyundai,

Chevrolet. When I joined Willis, I actually came on to be the service manager for the

mini service department. And for our accessory installation department, we put expel vinyl

paint protection on a lot of vehicles and kind of headed that up. And through here, I've held

several jobs to took on the reconditioning department, Cadillac service, and then parts

director and then into this role. Now, as Jason Willis, our DP, he was the

fixed director or EVP of fixed operations that hired me. And when he moved into that DP role,

I got to come in and take over his office. I love it. I wanted to make a little joke about

a mini service department, but we all know it's a full size service department. No, it's pretty

mini. So as we all know, fixed ops is the absolute backbone. And it's always been super

important. But now that margins are kind of compressing, it's more important than ever.

Tell us something that you are doing in your organization that you're absolutely crushing.

You know, for us, recruiting and retaining technicians, I think it's the most important

thing. Years ago, across our group, I think we had 14 or 16 technician jobs open. And that was

when I really said, you know, I'm going to focus in, it's hard to get a guys to jump ship, right?

I mean, they're comfortable with the brands they work on, they're comfortable with the dealerships

that they work. So we're going to focus our recruiting efforts into colleges, into high schools

even. And, you know, we built and just live off of our relationship with a local community college

here, DMACC, Des Moines Area Community College. I'll bet we've hired 24 students out of there

in the last three years. And we just focus now on getting good students, hiring the best of the best,

bringing them in our senior technicians, they're bought in on taking these students under their

wing. And they know that they're growing the next generation of automotive technician, they take

pride in that. And so we really just focus on building our own. We're not going to get a bunch

of guys jumping over. Well, it's fascinating that you mentioned these, you know, pools to draw from.

I mean, it's not rocket science. You have a lot of dealers that say the same thing,

but they're maybe not as successful in recruiting from there. What are you doing differently

that allows you to have that success in recruiting this talent and then growing your talent in the

house? I spent a lot of time there myself. I'm up at DMACC. I'm meeting the students.

You know, we bring in pizza, we buy them lunch, we get to know them. And, you know, we developed an

apprenticeship program a few years ago. We bring in four kids in the summer and we say,

learn about us. I'm so confident that once you come in and meet us and get to know us and work

with us that you're not going to leave and that you're going to go be an advocate for us with

the other students that, you know, just bringing in four in the summer, keeping them hooked in,

getting them to go back and, you know, sing the praises of what it's like to work for Willis.

And just again, the relationships you build at the school, whether it's with the professors or the

counselors, I really feel like we get the best of the best out of that school and there's a giant

Chevy store right down the street from them. Oh, well, listen, for dealers that are listening in

on this conversation, what's something that you could suggest for them to structure these in-house

apprenticeships or mentorship programs? You know, I sat down with some of our senior technicians

and I said, what are the things that they need to learn? You know, we got a Chevy store and a

Calac store. So with that, you know, the ASAP programs already got the structure there. So you

can really just take away from their programs, you know, what is it? Imitation is the sincerest form

of flattery. I didn't revolutionize this thing. I just looked at a lot of different programs and

built one for us and then getting in there, building the relationships at the school, showing them

what we have and, you know, understanding that we're going to bring in their students and we're

going to give them a great career in the automotive field. It is such a rewarding career, isn't it?

So now you have the pipeline, you're recruiting these people and now you're implementing them

and deploying them under these rooftops. What are you doing? What are you pushing? What KPIs

are you monitoring on the day to day that really helped push the needle? You know, early on in their

career, we're super lenient. You know, I mean, when we look at students, let's say I hire you out of

high school, I'm going to give you the first four years after high school. I'm going to guarantee

your clock hours during that time. If I hire you out of college, I'm going to give you your first

two years out of college. And that way we can just call it a four-year learning curve, right?

Where by then you're ready for flat rate, you're ready to make a great career on flat rate. So

that's part of it, just that leniency right out of the gate while they're learning.

And then on along, you know, we're looking at their productivity, we're looking at all of the

regular, you know, KPIs that the car dealerships talked about for years. But for me, it's attitude

and work ethic. They're KPI one and two. I think you had a guest last week that even mentioned

something along those lines, he didn't use the word attitude and work ethic, but he kind of

said something along the lines of, I can't train that, you know, we can have guys come in and train

you how to fix cars, but I can't teach you how to be a good coworker, a good employee, and just

enjoy life in general. For sure. And when we have that great attitude and work ethic, then

we're going to bet the house on them. And, you know, we started a deferred compensation package

for our technicians about five years ago now. And, you know, we do a lot to make sure that

once you come in, you're going to realize that it's the best place to be and you're going to stay.

Expand on that deferred compensation package for us.

Yeah, we came up with the idea five years ago, we said it's a three year deferred compensation

package. And I wish I had my notes in front of me. But like I said, attitude, work ethic,

effort, I put effort on the list on how we decide how much money we're going to put in there,

because a guy, he can give you his all and his all might be 98% efficiency.

Am I really worried about that extra 2% or 12% to get to 110? If he's given me everything he has

and has a great attitude, I want to reward him for that. So we set these standards up and we said

at the end of the year, we're going to put a discretionary amount into your deferred compensation

account. And at the time, it was up to $3,000 per guy per year. And the coolest part, though, is when

we brought it out five years ago, we said that you're not going to have to wait three years.

We're going to just go ahead and push the time machine and act like we put this thing in three

years ago and we populated everybody's account right on day one with three years worth of their

deferred comp, just looking back at they worked with us on those five measurables. And we filled

up these accounts and we pay them out every single year. The coolest is if you choose to retire,

we always say here, our goal is for everybody to retire from Willis. So if you have a great career

and you retire, the best part is I pay you out the full lump sum on your retirement date. So

some of the most fun days I've had is guys who worked for us for years and years and they decide

they're going to retire, getting to go hand them that check right at the very end. You think of

the old days of the Rolex watch, you know, technicians, us fixed ops guys, we don't really

care about a Rolex watch. But hand me a check for 12 grand on my last day. That's pretty nice little

going away. So what a cool program. What a great way to create a tradition of retention and letting

people know you value them. I just have a question. So you going back to the Hey, if they're doing

their best, right, if 98% efficiency is their best, we're going to go ahead and pay them. But if

another guy's not, you know, like, how do you avoid that becoming a problem? Right? If one guy's

like, Hey, you know what, 90 is my best. And the other guy's like, I'm at 105. Like, do you ever get

people that push back a little bit on on, you know, pay me my full at 95?

No, you know, I mean, the guy, the employees that we hire, the technicians that we have,

they all want to be the best and they are. They're all know and so we have those relationships,

we build them and I trust that we're getting it all. Yeah. So you've got a lot of manufacturers,

you've got Cadillac, Chevy, Infinity, JLR, Lexus, Mini, Nissan, Volvo. Do any of your OEMs

support your training efforts? And is there one that stands out as being really supportive of

your training and retention efforts and another one that struggles a little? Well, God, I'm sure

you heard it over and over. You know, I mean, I don't want to say any of our partners are bad,

but we definitely have one that just unbelievable. And that's Lexus. I mean, yeah, their partnership

with the dealer group that goes back to the Covenant, they want to be number one and they are,

you know, all of our brands have great training, they do what they can to help us.

Land Rover is the biggest struggle. Jag Land Rover. Why? Why is that? I think it's just a volume

thing, right? You know, when you can only handle bringing so many guys in for training and as the

brand grows on our side, on their side, it's just got to be tough to say, I want to train the next

generation of 10,000 technicians across the country. And I have the capacity to train 20 at a time,

10 times a year, you know, what message would you give to JLR that you've learned from your best

OEMs? If you're asking for better support? Yeah, just come hang out our Lexus store for a couple

days. Yeah. Yeah. What does Lexus get right that others could learn from?

Everything, just the value of the partnership, just everything that they do, it's tip top. I mean,

they're truly a partner. You know, I think Jacob earlier, he mentioned, don't ever badmouth your

dealer, your manufacturers. And I 100% agree that when you have one that stands out that much more

than the rest. I mean, they're all great. Lexus is just better. It is truly a partnership. They

don't push a bunch of programs on us. They don't force us to do things that we don't want to do.

They understand that we're in business together. And together, we can go a lot further.

Yeah. And that is the truth, particularly, you know, as you're hiring the right technicians,

you're you're training them and retaining them. That is an art, but then also partnering at the

OEMs and helping to do that is an art as well. What do you think is the biggest mistake? This is

our last question for today that most dealers make when trying to hire that young technician.

What's the biggest mistake? I, you know, it's that patience thing. You know, I think they think,

okay, you finished two years of local community college, you're going to come in and just hit the

ground running. And, you know, I just don't think they have the patience to get through that first

couple years, and they give up on them too early. And, you know, like I said, that four years out of

high school, two years out of college, it's a learning curve. Their job is not easy. It's only

going to get harder. Yeah, you've got to be patient with them. All right, I got to ask you one more

question. We had a guest on last week, and he's like, look, I tell young technicians that are

looking for a job, if you want to work with your hands, the shops a great place to be if you want

to work with your mind, go find another job. And he didn't say it quite that way. I'm being a little

facetious. But, but a technician is more of a thinking job than it used to be. Is it not like

you've got to be able to study very complicated charts, understand it. And it's a skill. It's a

different skill set today than it was even 20 years ago. Yeah, there's no doubt. I say you can have it

here, and not have it here. It's the get it from here to here that make the connection and you

have to be able to work with your hands 100%. But it's the thinking is step one, you just have to

be able to get it out of your brain and into your hands. I'm one of my very first service

manager jobs. I had a great, great guy in the shop. Past all his AS, he was probably the valedictorian

of any school. If there was a straight A ASC guy, he was him. And I watched him doing a break job

one time. And he was scratching his head doing this. And it just that's where it clicked to me

where you can have it all in your head, but you got to be able to get it to your hands.

I love that truth. That is true. It takes both. Well, Ryan, Ryan Carlstad EVP fixed operations

at Willis Automotive Group. Thanks for being on the show. And I have ridden on a bicycle

crossed here by your dealership as part of Rag Bride there in Iowa. So yeah, you're right.

Afterwards, you're here. You know, let's do it. Let's do it. Walkie. That's right. That's right.

So thank you for being on the show. We appreciate your perspective. Thanks, Ryan.

You only a heck of a fun show. All of social is a light today. A ton of great feedback to

everybody watching, including Nate, the truck driver who said, hello there. I'm still around

reporting in from the showroom. Thanks for being here and thanks for watching. And to all of our

daily dealer audience, thanks for watching daily deal alive where we break down the biggest moves

in the car business as they happen. Don't forget everybody. We're here live every Monday, Wednesday

and Friday. So if this is your world, hit like, subscribe, turn on those notifications every

single one of them so you never, ever miss a beat. And we'll see you next week or next Friday.

We'll see you this Friday. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, guys.

Shepherd on path to GM, Egan on Closing Deals w/ AI, Carlstedt on Auto Techs | Daily Dealer Live

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CSI

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Audi 100S

deal score

Toyota

incentives

warranty

lease

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Expel

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