Thomas on Dealership Security, Wise on Recruiting | Daily Dealer Live

We're doing better as a result of social media presence. It doesn't do those three things, man, it's on the chopping block. It's in return on investment, discussion.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer Live. I'm your host, Sam Darken. Welcome to the Space Rotomotive comes together to learn, to grow, to share, but most importantly, to execute like we do an automotive. Thanks for choosing to be here on this Monday, December 22nd. Happy Holidays, week everyone. We are in the official

Super Bowl of all automotive these last couple of weeks. Who's feeling it? If you're feeling it, post it to social media. We're alive across all CDG social media platforms. We'd love to hear your comments about how this week is going, what your expectations are through the holidays. Again, happy holidays, less we forget the real meaning, but today we're covering two areas today's show that quietly make or break dealership profitability, especially in this holiday season, security and risk mitigation. First up,

personal leadership in a margin compressed market up second. So first, we'll go to transportation, Vinswap, synthetic fraud, I did. Vehicle theft, internal controls, AI misuse. These are no longer IT issues. There's survival issues in today's Ziegler zone. I'm proud to come from my own group. Head of security, carry on Thomas joins the show to discuss all of this and more, then we'll shift gears to execution. How a top performing store is in the hunt for 900 units

in a month. You've got that right. And they are closing in fast. That conversation coming up with Bradley Wise executive manager at Furman Chevrolet, Mazda in Tampa, Florida. But before we dive in, let's hit today's industry headlines. First up this week. First up this week. That thing won't go away. You know what? You got to love it. Every now and again, you get a little fun here. First up this week when 130,000 vehicles.

San Francisco residents lost power over this weekend. The city got an unexpected stress test of its autonomous vehicle future. A fire at a PG&E substation knocked out traffic lights across 30% of the city. And Wamos Robotaxi struggled to cope. The vehicles hesitated longer than usual, while their sensors assessed chaotic rainy intersections and listen to this.

Many of those Wamos froze in place. Some mid turn or blocking lanes with hazard lights flashing. Wamos suspended service Saturday evening and didn't fully resume until late Sunday. What does that look like if you're a customer in the backseat of the Wamos big picture here? Well, no one was hurt. And the chaos was contained. But the outage exposed how far autonomous vehicles still are from the set it and forget it reliability. And on a side note, I personally saw on Twitter. Of course.

The owner of X had to come in owner of X and Tesla had to come in and say, Hey, that was not a Tesla vehicle. They got stuck in the intersection without electricity. It was way more so props to him. Alright, next up today, findings from a new UGov consumer survey reveal that pricing transparency is the number one condition that makes or breaks a deal while 63% of Americans haven't been to a dealership in the past three years.

The 37% who have are far more likely to buy in store, but they don't want to play games. 56% of respondents said having clear pricing terms is their most important consideration for shopping on site, followed by honoring online prices in store and having a friendly pleasant atmosphere.

When what turns buyers off? Well, pushy salespeople, confusing fees or pricing and pressures to buy add-ons like warranties. Well, while this isn't exactly breaking news, the survey results are a reminder that simple transparent practices will make the biggest difference in closing deals.

Next up today, the Southeast continues to be a hotbed for dealership by cell activity last week. ZT automotive backed by the Baydar family office added four mouse dealerships in the Tampa Bay area, including Acura and Nissan locations, expanding their footprint to 16 stores across Texas, Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

And just north in Georgia, ALM automotive picked up five dealerships in Macon and Warner Robbins from five star automotive, fitting neatly in the CEO Kushbati's strategy of growing a focused franchise portfolio in a high growth metro area.

Meanwhile, Spring Hill automotive staff snapped up Sarah Automotive's Chevy store in Bartlett, Tennessee rebranding it as Dobbs Brothers Chevrolet.

The signal? Well, buyers who have clear geographic strategies and local knowledge are moving fast while sellers continue to prune non-core assets. And don't forget everybody, you can see this deal announcement many more throughout the entire year by visiting the CDG by cell tracker at cdgbicel.com.

And last up today, new research from the University of Washington and Toyota Research Institute finds that drivers often struggle to safely use their in-car dashboard touch screens.

We've talked about this in the past in a simulator study lane drifting increased 42% when participants use touch screens and making touch screen targets larger didn't help.

Drivers are still spending too much time looking away from the road to visually hunt down the control they need. So reach researchers are recommending integrating sensors like eye tracking or steering will touch to make key controls safer and more prominent bottom line flashy oversight screens may sell, but they come with real risks.

And that is our wrap on today's industry news.

All right, Julie, what's up? Hey, buddy. How are you? Excellent. Happy to be here.

We've talked about those buttons before. People want knobs and things they can flip and switch and push. They don't honestly go through all these digital screens, right?

Agreed. And how terrifying to be an AWAMO in an electric outage in San Francisco in all the weather and just have the things stop in the middle of the intersection.

Yeah, being in a digital standoff. Yeah, I would get out. That's the better question, right? Can you get out? That's where it starts getting terrifying, right?

Because it's really easy to solve by just getting out of the car and, you know, hailing a lift or an Uber, but if you can't get out, that's a whole difference there.

Do I think that's a fascinating contundrum in this new world. And of course, Elon Musk went to Twitter to capitalize on that little snafu by AWAMO.

And you know, obviously to see in the next few years how this thing all shakes out. So happy holidays this week, too, Julie. Christmas is coming up.

I think it's Monica all the things best of us for all the I forget how the rest of that goes, but sign best of us for the rest of us always that what it is. I'm just.

Yeah.

But it's a big week. And it's a big week for us and automotive. And I'm excited personally to bring on our first guest today because this first guest carrying Thomas helps us do what we do an automotive best, which is during the holidays.

people are out there trying to take our stuff.

She helps us protect it.

She helps us keep it.

So first up today, Director of Security,

Ziggler Auto Group, Karyan Thomas.

Karyan, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Glad you're here today.

You and I share a wall.

What everybody watches this show

were almost on the 100th episode of The Daily Dealer Live.

What most people may not realize is you and I share a wall.

So when I'm on this show,

talking very loudly, you can hear me over the wall.

I'm not today, but you should remember.

No, no.

Or when he's practicing, I get to hear it three times

before you hear it one.

That is the truth.

Well, Karyan, tell us how as we come into this holiday season,

how the heck is biz as it relates to auto theft

and all things security and automotive.

What do you think?

We're like a candy shop for all the bad guys, right?

And they all need Christmas presents too

and they want to get them from us.

So yeah, it's busy.

It's busy every day.

Yeah, yeah.

So you came to the Ziggler Auto Group.

How many years ago now?

It's been five?

Four years ago.

Four years.

In your background, this is a fascinating addition

in my mind to an auto group.

Many auto groups may not be thinking about this.

Your background was you were a police chief

and the largest police force in all of Michigan.

Tell us a little bit about your background

and how you came to be part of the Ziggler Auto Group, Karyan.

Yeah, so 27 years retired from law enforcement

and then the military background also.

And Aaron Ziggler approached me.

Ziggler Auto Group was having a lot of that problem.

Karyan's were being stolen

and they really needed someone to come in

and develop a strategy, right?

And given my background, I retired as the chief

but I spent almost three decades doing everything else,

including investigations.

So he gave me a call and I said no,

but you're I sit today, right?

And you had to drive a car and put gas in it

and suddenly entered the car dealership world.

But it's more about the strategy, right?

It's knowing the mindset of the bad guys

and how they think.

And then just learning the market and doing that,

we've really developed really strong strategies, right?

We went from 60 cars stolen in six months

to 10 last year and eight recovered.

So it's been successful, but it's changed.

I was hired for a lot theft

and now our biggest problem is fraud.

Yeah.

Well, let's come to fraud in just a second.

But when we talk about lot theft,

you know, a lot of our dealer friends are listening

as we come into the holiday season.

Many dealerships will be closed on Christmas.

You do a great service to the Auto Group,

our Ziggler Auto Group by sending out an update

before we go into holiday seasons,

reminding everybody to lock it down.

And that's not been something

that's always been top of mind and automotive.

What's important to do

as you come into the holiday season

to help protect dealership assets on a day

or a couple days when, you know, most lots are quiet, right?

Yeah.

Well, and let's just say, you know,

when we go out of our patterns and our procedures,

those bad guys know it, right?

When we're closed days, we're not supposed to,

you know, that's a great time to come on our lots.

And the goal is, you know,

just make it harder for them to steal

because if you can slow it down long enough

for us to get law enforcement, you know, on the lots,

but it's just being smart, you know,

I always, a couple days before every holiday

where we're going to have a closure

is I just put out a checklist like,

hey, make sure your alarm company knows who to call,

you know, put blackers in the lots.

One, you know, access in and out,

lock down those keys.

Just a reminder because on Christmas Eve,

when you want to get home to your family,

no one wants to be black in the entrances,

the doors, making sure the keys are all picked up.

And if you just have a simple checklist to go down,

but last Christmas was the first Christmas,

they didn't show up at any of our stores, right?

Every Christmas before.

I mean, Sam, you probably remember

when the bad guys drove through the overhead door

on Christmas morning.

I mean, I was opening gifts and managing that.

So it's just making it part of our process

and they know to anticipate,

hey, what do we got to do?

They're not looking for the old email.

You know, I'm sending them a checklist

for every single time.

So, Kerry, and what would you say to the dealer

who's watching this show right now that's like,

hey, I remember the good old days

when in automotive, you could leave keys in cars

above the visor and you know,

it made it easier for customers to go on a test drive.

It made it kind of a more warm and welcoming environment.

Those days are a long gone.

Where did the pivot come from and how should dealers

be thinking about securing things like keys and cars

and doors and windows and all those things?

Well, you know, and I always say,

if they can access it, they can steal it, right?

So you just have to make it inaccessible.

And I think today's customer and consumers,

they know the world we live in, right?

They know it's going on out there.

And when you tell them certain things take a minute

or two longer because it's making it more secure

or we're protecting their identity,

they really do appreciate it.

The only one that doesn't appreciate it

is the bad guy.

But.

Yeah, can't you speed this up?

Yeah, you don't even need keys to steal a car anymore, right?

We're dealing with things that even if the keys

ring the visor, you don't need the keys in the visor,

you know, they have a piece of equipment

that can do it in less than three minutes

while you're home and bad.

So it's really more complex than it ever has been.

And so you have to know what's happening out there

in order to put things in place so it doesn't happen

or it makes it more difficult to happen.

Yeah, do you have any opinion on there

or is recently a fine levied by courts against Kia

and I think Hyundai for making vehicles

a little too easy to steal.

And there was a TikTok deal.

It was all the rage a couple of years ago teaching people

how to use something as simple as a U.S.

The Kia boys.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

In your role as head of security,

how are you seeing that

and then how are you relaying that information

across the auto group?

Well, you know, things like that, anything,

I'm always trying to stay abreast because let me tell you,

that stuff is a moving goal post, right?

And so soon as we locked out,

I mean, how many years does it take to get that

from Hyundai and Kia to fix that problem, right?

They're doing that and they're moving on

to the next thing.

So it's staying abreast and then putting that information out.

If I see it at one dealership,

then it needs to be known at the other 39

so that we can stop it there because it is constantly changing.

And I, you know, you think after 30 years of doing this,

I would be, you know, I'm constantly surprised at,

oh my goodness, why didn't I think

they were going to do that next?

But it's staying abreast and being willing

to make the changes and not doing it

just because we've always done it that way

because it's just too fast.

The environment's moving too fast

and they're professionals.

So, Kerry Ann, a longtime listener of the show

as posted to social media, Lauren Klein says,

professional thieves know how to get in,

disable the OEM systems and get off with that vehicle

in under 60 seconds, Lauren Klein continues,

do you recommend dealers equip their inventory

with additional GPS for inventory management security

rather than relying on OEM supported systems?

So what do you say to somebody that says,

hey, I don't need extra stuff

because the factory installs a device, that's all you do.

Well, yeah, yeah, right.

But it's about layers of security, right?

And having, you know, you know this,

we use Lowjack and Ziggler out of group, right?

So I know where every single car is.

Those off lot alerts.

And is it foolproof?

There's no system that's foolproof,

but it gives us that extra layer of security

and that extra tool for recovery on the other end

to know immediately that the car lot.

It's great that the OEM has the theft deterrent,

but I don't notice it till 12 hours later when we open up

that I'm making the call, that I'm calling the police.

But if I know at 2am that a car's been stolen at 158

because I got that alert, whatever system I'm using,

I'm hot on the tails and recovery

before damage has occurred as more likely, right?

In lot management, you know, I can find any car

whenever I want because we know where they're all at.

You know, there's a lot of different tools out there.

They can steal it under 60 seconds,

but if you're lots blocked, if your rows are blocked, right?

If they see that you've set up some minimal,

takes 10 minutes at the end of night,

security procedures, they're going to the guy down

the street who has it, right?

Because they want to be in and they want to be out.

You know, and we all have jurisdictions

or live in places that it's not really a crime

to steal a car anymore.

So.

What, what are the, so we've had some people on the show

that have kind of begrudged a police aren't going

after all the stolen vehicles.

There are vehicles out there

that they just aren't interested in pursuing.

What is the difference in differentliness palies

between the forces that are willing to go after

and then given your police background, Carrie Ann,

how can a dealer, a single point trying

to protect their inventory?

How can they collaborate with local

enforcement in a positive way to help get that back

if it is stolen?

Yeah, well, I just want to say a police officer,

you're a cop because you want to be a cop

and you want to chase the bad guys

and you want to catch the bad guys.

So it's not that they don't want to chase that car, right?

A lot of times, depending on what jurisdiction

and their climate, there are some lane lines.

It's the prosecution.

If the bad guys know at the end of the day,

even the police catch me, I'm not going to jail,

I'm not going to serve anytime.

They're going to continue to do it

because they're, you know, that's a huge profit margin.

But I will say law enforcement wants to catch the bad guys.

And, you know, seeing you asked, you know,

how can you make those relationships better?

As just any dealer doesn't matter if you're the size

of Ziggler on a group smaller or bigger,

having that partnership with local law enforcement

because you want your lot to be the one at 3 AM,

they're writing their reports in, right?

That when they hear the alarm go off

and you do that by supporting their events, right?

There's, I'm telling you, cops

will do a lot of things for food, right?

A night shift, sendin' pizza over there.

But it's also when they show up,

have the information with you, right?

Don't say, we don't want to prosecute,

some guy just stole our car, you know,

be a fraud and we don't want to prosecute

because the police are not your repo agency.

And soon as you make them feel like that,

that's a long relationship to try to mend.

So props to all law enforcement out there

on this holiday season as we approach this time

where everybody's hard at work right now

is the time to be making those connections,

making those contacts and having those relationships

because they're all hard at work, right?

And somewhere on the cases,

they're working on a holiday season

where it's tough to work.

Well, you know, when you bring that up to Sam, right?

We also have to, you know,

really lock things down on that holiday

because multiple police departments

are at minimum staffing, right?

There's less officers and more calls for service.

So you're not gonna be at the top of the queue

when your car's go missing.

So anything you can do to, you know,

make that a little harder and you not be on that call list

is gonna help you in the end.

So, Carrie, let's transition off physical theft

because that is a big deal

but even a bigger deal, you know,

vehicles are becoming more expensive.

Usually, and I report on this a lot

on the car dealership show,

new car prices are an all time high,

use car prices have escalated to an all time high.

And theft, physical theft isn't the only type

of theft that's going on.

We're seeing all sorts of things.

We're seeing income fraud.

We're seeing synthetic fraud.

We're seeing all sorts of attempts by folks

to get vehicles from dealers and steal them

and then take them elsewhere.

What are some of the most concerning trends

you're seeing right now in those types of frauds?

And what are you doing to combat it?

Well, yeah, fraud.

I mean, fraud, whether it's identity fraud,

you know, where you've actually stolen someone's identity,

synthetic identity, which is sort of,

you know, the Frankenstein, you made someone up

and you created a credit profile, you know,

for them or artificial paydowns where, you know,

you make it look like that car's paid down next,

you know, they're trading it in and putting it

on another vehicle.

Those fraudsters post COVID, COVID monies have dried up.

They are professionals, right?

And so in order to, I see one every single day,

not a day goes by, I don't see a fraud trying to come

through Ziggler Urban Group, but it's having education

and communication within the auto group, right?

I work really hard at, you know, I've got to do it.

I go out and do PowerPoints and training

on actual case studies that have happened, right?

What are those red flags?

How are those red flags changing?

What do you do when you see one of those, right?

Because no one knows it's happening

other than the person sitting there.

And if you can educate that sales person

that F and I guy like, hey, this doesn't sound right.

In this business, what I've learned

is everyone's a people person, right?

You know how to read people.

And if it doesn't seem right, take the minute,

ask for the extra ID.

And I also, you know, make sure I'm accessible

to anybody in the auto group at any time.

So when that service advisor is getting that bad credit card

of someone trying to pay for that $1,800 repair,

you know, with something fraudulent,

anybody can call me.

And then we use that as an education tool

and let the rest of the auto group in the industry know.

You know, it's interesting.

There are probably a lot of auto dealers

that are watching today that would love to pick your brain.

So we're going to pick it a little bit here.

Most dealers in general managers will hear

from their teams, their finance managers

or their sales managers, like you said.

Hey, you know what, they said all the right things.

You know, they, I really wanted to help them

get into this vehicle.

And you know, fraud in a lot of cases

ends up becoming who's the best salesperson.

A lot of these people, Aaron will often tell us,

hey, if they just go do something productive in the business world,

they'd actually be, they'd be pretty successful

because they're, you know, a lot of the fraud,

a lot of the theft, it's pretty creative,

especially with some of the AI-generated things

that are going on out there.

It takes a lot of work.

What would you say to a finance manager out there

that says, hey, you know, I was just trying to help them.

And then I became victim to a fraud.

You've got to watch those red flags.

And maybe what are some of the,

what would advice be you'd give to the finance manager

and what are some of the biggest red flags

over this holiday season to watch out for?

Yeah, so I think one of the biggest red flags,

and if you're just at the F and I, you know,

and you're going through that,

is they're trying to rush you through the deal, right?

They're trying to rush you.

They're keeping you talking, so you're not paying attention.

Because usually phone numbers don't match up.

It's an old address, but if you look at the bureau,

it's on there, but it's the previous address, right?

It's all the little details

that if you're rushing through a deal

or you're distracted, you're not going to pick up on.

And on the holidays, what you see is, you know,

let's come in and try to rush a deal on a Friday night

when maybe the lenders, you know,

are doing some auto approvals,

you're going to get that cleared through.

You want it delivered now.

So you're going to leave with that car

only to find out, you know, come Monday or Tuesday

when they want to ask you,

the lender wants to ask some questions.

That person's gone.

It's been been swapped.

It's got a new title.

It's on its way.

All those techniques, the online deals, right?

You never know what you're dealing with online.

I 18 months ago, we used to be able to say,

have a take a picture of their ID next to them, right?

And send that to us.

Now with AI, oh my goodness.

Damn, we'll tell you this, right?

I have a stack of like, oh, look at this one.

You know, they tried to say they were this person.

That's not even their hand, right?

But just with AI.

So, Kerry, one of the things you mentioned earlier

is you send this information out across the group.

And so that's the benefit of being a privately held

multi-store rooftop group, right?

And those that come into the group

get the benefit of that information.

And that information helps stop fraud in its steps

because you've identified fraud schemes

that have gone store to store to store to store

and put them down, right?

Because we're able to communicate,

what advice would you give to a single point operator

or maybe somebody with two or three stores

that doesn't have the benefit of that scale?

Where could they go to to see some of these trends

that are emerging because they come fast

and then they go even even more quickly, Kerry?

Well, I think it really pays to be involved in like,

if your state has an auto dealer association

or locally and have those groups that you know

that hey, we just got broken into last night

or hey, this guy's been in our store

and we know it's fraud because it's that communication.

I'll catch frauds here, let's say in the Chicago land area

and they're showing up down in Houston, right?

Because I have contacts all over

and I tried to belong to as many fraud association groups,

law enforcement groups and all those things

so that I'm always hearing about the different trends

and it's having that type of,

but even if you're one store,

you got to know the store down the street

and have the relationship that they'll say,

hey, you know what, they tried it here,

they're probably headed your way

because when you're siloed, you're gonna get hit

because you don't know what's going on,

it's moving too quickly, the fraudsters,

as soon as you figure it out, they figured out a new way

because the tools are only the tool

and the person behind that sale

is the one that's gonna be able to pick up on things

that those tools that we're buying and exchanging

and ID scanners and all those things aren't gonna pick up

but you're gonna say I tell people all the time

always go if you're got, always go if you're got

and never hesitate to call me.

Yeah, so Lauren Klein says,

sounds like we need a CDG fraud alert tracker and jingle LOL

and by the way, I agree 100% with that,

we love our jingles and our trackers here

but I think you're right, like belonging to an association,

you know, Don Hall's with the Virginia Auto Dealers Association

there are the Chicago dealer trade association,

a lot of these share information

and we'll share expertise and resources between stores

and you can see those emerging.

There was even a recent scheme that was emerging

in the auction space where bad guys would pretend

to be somebody and pick up vehicles you bought

and run off with those and the only way you can stay

on top of that is by knowing, Carrie Ann

and it's tough to know if you're not part of a network, Carrie Ann.

Well, it also, every state has auto theft teams, right?

Whether it's by county, whether it's statewide

and having that association or knowing somebody

who can maybe, you know, every couple months have them in

or get to know who the leads are.

So they can come in and tell you the train,

the trends that are locally in your area

because they just move around, right?

You know, if I hear that it's happening in Houston,

I'm gonna count for it to come to 45

and it'll be, you know, happening here.

So you just have to, you know, your eyes wide open.

Sam, you said something that was very, you know,

interesting and I just want to not push back

but add some context to what you're saying, Carrie Ann.

So, you know, it's counterintuitive for us sales guys

to trust our gut in something like this.

I mean, to trust your gut being in law enforcement,

it makes sense.

But when you get that hungry sales person on a Friday night,

like Sam was saying, you know, you're about to close

and oh man, I just messed up my last check in my checkbook.

You sure I can't come back tomorrow with the money down?

You know, like those scenarios where it's like,

we're right there, we can get the car over the curb.

Can you believe this thing just fell apart?

Those are the ones that a sales person's gonna say,

let's figure it out, right?

Like we figure out everything else,

but that's when you got to pump the brakes.

This is super important.

Yeah, but I think learning to pump the brakes

comes with education and awareness, right?

Let me tell you the first year year,

for my first year here, no one wanted to believe

when I was telling a worst-case scenario, right?

But it was that constant, you know, education

and awareness and being available to say,

hey, and I tell them all the time,

I'm giving you all this training,

not to, you know, put your deals to bed.

I'm giving you all this training

to make sure you get the deal, right?

And no one to pump the brakes.

And now, you know, now I like to be part of the team, right?

I got a lot of junior detective badges I can hang out

because they'll call me, never believe this one.

I think I got one on the line.

And last year, we actually,

I worked with local enforcement

where a lot of our dealerships are located

and came in and the bad guys were arrested in the store, right?

So you could see that it pays off

because these guys don't want a bad deal on the record.

No one wants to make my security alert, right?

No names are included, but they all know who it is.

You know, so I think really culturally safety

and security has moved up, what you say, Sam?

Oh, yeah.

Actually, so last question is we go through this.

We appreciate your time on the show.

Appreciate you sharing so openly this topic

which impacts every single card dealer.

What do you say to the finance manager of the GM

or the even the dealer that says,

hey, you know what?

It's different here in insert rural part of America

where fraud just doesn't exist.

You know, it's different here

because people don't steal things.

What's your answer to that, Karen?

Well, I just want to say our smallest, most rural stores

are the fraudsters that like to do these online deals.

I'm telling you, they're looking for those.

They're looking for those that, you know,

they're hungry to get that deal.

They're not exposed to all the fraud you see

in the big cities.

You know, we didn't even touch on transportation, Todd,

fraud, but you know, they'll get those deals

and they'll probably be stolen off a truck

before they make it wherever they were going to be stolen to.

But yeah, I would say it's coming to you.

If you haven't seen it, you may have already experienced it

and just don't know.

So getting educated, formulating a plan

and then implementing that plan is key.

Lauren Client says smaller stores are the biggest victims.

Now I'm gonna ask, you know, to a, and the promise last up.

I always go for one or two extras,

but what would you say to a dealer that says,

hey, you know, I'm not sure if I need a head of security.

I'm not sure I need somebody focused on this role.

Yeah.

What's your take on that, Karen?

Well, not everyone does need a head of security, right?

We're a laundry wrong group.

But what you need is maybe someone

to help you come up with that strategy

so that you can figure out what you really don't know

and how you can prepare yourself.

And like I said, just have yourself in touch

with those associations, with the law enforcement, right?

Anybody can call me and I do get calls from all over

the country in different auto groups.

Like, hey, we heard, you know about ex-wires.

The only way we stop the fraudsters

is by addressing this all together, right?

When we be, stop becoming such a big target,

they're gonna look for a better target.

Yeah.

All right, what's one thing every dealer

whether they have a head of security,

whether they've got a GPS, whether they've got anything,

what's one thing when every dealer could think about doing

this holiday season to help protect the house and ensure.

Lock up every single key.

Those damn keys, right?

Sounds so basic, Karen.

Yeah.

Carrie and Thomas had a security ziggler auto group

and my office neighbor.

Thanks for being here.

We appreciate you on the show.

Thanks for coming.

Thanks for coming, Karen.

Yeah.

Merry Christmas.

That is a fun conversation.

I remember when Carrie and I first came into the auto group

and everybody was a little bit skeptical.

It's like, hey, stop trying to keep us from selling cars

until they realized, hey, are our relationships

with lenders improve?

As soon as the lender sees how aggressive we are

at dealing with all sorts of fraud.

I like, we don't have finance managers,

that sit and just hope.

Hope is not a plan.

Wait, who's the option that said that?

Let's not get political.

We don't have finance managers that hope,

we act, we clear, and then we sell with confidence.

And now, listen, is there going to be an exception somewhere?

Don't hear, don't listen to this, Carrie.

But yes, I'm sure that there are exceptions,

but they're the exception to the exception, not the rule.

So you have a fun conversation with Carrie and on all things

and you're right, you leave people hoping on motor.

We just love hope, right?

So yeah, because we figured out they know the industry

and they're looking for that shortcut.

So they're praying on that emotional side

of even the salesperson or the sales manager,

especially on a slower store.

You run into one of these big stores

that's pumping out hundreds of cars a month.

They understand no one car deal is worth it.

Stop, do your due diligence, but maybe a smaller store

that's a little hungry or they're like,

we'll figure it out, we'll work with you.

It just blows up your face.

So this message brought to you by Daily Deal Live,

Cardiola Ship guy coming in the holidays,

because by the way, after this, after we have this little

conversation on 700 credit, or KPA,

we're gonna get into an auto group

that is selling a ton of cars.

And probably Brad Wise says,

hey, I need Carrie and his number.

Well, Brad, you can't have Carrie because we have her

and we're not giving her up.

She sits right next to me.

So let's talk KPA.

The 700 credit breach triggered real compliance obligation.

So watch this on demand session,

brought to you by KPA to understand what happened,

what regulators expect, and the immediate steps

your stores must take, watch the webinar

by clicking the link in the show notes below.

There is no QR code.

We'll come back on that on our next show

when we've got our regular crew back on.

But huge props to KPA for supporting today's content,

including that fascinating conversation.

I'm protecting the house in automotive.

And Yulee, let's dive straight into our next guest,

Bradley Wise, executive manager,

Furman Chevrolet, Mazda Tampa.

Brad, welcome to the show.

Merry Christmas.

Thanks for having me.

Merry Christmas.

First segment very much.

You can't have Carrie in.

Okay.

It's theft a big deal in your world, Brad.

I mean, how much are you seeing?

You sell a ton of cars.

Yeah, surprisingly not, and knock on wood.

I'm listening to that, and I'm from the Chicago area,

originally I worked there for 25 years.

And in this market's big and booming.

But we have lots, I mean, I shouldn't say this.

We have lots spread out all over the place

and run into very few problems that way.

So it isn't because we do an exceptional job

like they're doing and you're doing

by having regulations and joining groups.

And that has just hasn't been a problem.

But open my eyes to a lot of things.

So I'm glad I was able to listen to that.

There are things that are worth thinking about.

And it is interesting how has Carrie

and said a lot of these things spread.

And sometimes they can hit us even

while we don't know exactly what's happening.

So you guys are in search of a huge goal, Brad.

Tell us how many units are you working to hit

as a Chevy Mazda location in Tampa, Florida?

Well, I've been there almost eight years

and in the beginning, I always believe

in having something to play for.

I came from a sports background and I operate this business

very much like a sports program

as far as a lot of my ideologies and philosophies.

So a team needs something to play for.

So I looked at the opportunity that is in front of us

with the population and I looked across the street

for the largest Ford dealer in the country

and the largest Toyota dealer

and the largest Honda and the largest GMC dealers.

I mean, I'm literally on Las Vegas Boulevard

of high-volume dealers and this door was not one of them.

So that's why I jumped at the chance

to be able to serve here and get that opportunity.

And we've come a long way.

We've basically tripled our sales,

our fixed operations is tripled

and by many observations, we're doing awesome.

But I know there's more in this market.

And so we set a goal of 900 cars a month

that would put us up to the top dealers in the country

and I'll never retire until we hit that.

And we sign every email with hashtag 900.

We had hats and cakes and cupcakes

and we're manifesting that.

But we're doing more than manifesting that.

We're recruiting the right people

and sending the right message.

And hopefully I can be on this show someday soon

and celebrate that with both of you.

Brad, you need to be able to deal with us

on this holiday week that that day you hit it.

You got to come back on because we want to hear

how you did it.

How many units did you clear last month?

And November's a tough month, right?

Yeah, it was a tough month.

We did 580 last month.

OK.

Yeah, so you got a 600.

But the most we've done is 740.

And that was pre-COVID.

And we've done six is here and there.

But if you look at it, it's about 25 to 30 units a day.

We're open Sundays here.

And if you break down that number, it's very doable.

So we're ready to do it.

We're building the processes and the accountability.

We already have the right people.

It's just getting them to be more and do more.

Yeah.

So give us one thing that you've done.

You talked about tripling, right?

Volume and grosses.

And you've had a big increase already in the organization.

What's one or two things that have made a big impact

that others could learn from this December of 2025?

I think internet lead handling.

You know, all the payroll, all the accolades, all the tickets

and all the pets on the back go to the showroom managers

and staff, and then there's that department in the back.

I call the leads we can't see that are handling

those phonics and those chats and those internet leads.

And in a lot of cases, they're not

getting the respect of the pay or the admiration

or the recognition like the department up front.

Now, listen to this.

If somebody walks into a store physically,

really, how hard is it to sell a car?

I mean, the closing ratios are 60%.

The real work is handling these leads

that close at 10% to eat the phone, 75, 100 phone calls a day,

and getting nothing out of it, right?

And so in my mind, I kind of reversed that

to put a lot more focus on the internet lead handling,

the prices that we quote, the trade in values that we quote.

You know, we were very conservative

and a lot of, you know, side unseen appraisals

and the interest rate payments that we would quote

is almost like we were discouraging people from coming in.

No, we want to just give them the best price, you know.

Half the dealers aren't even answering the lead.

So why would we give them everything?

You know, we're big on trade.

We're probably the only organization in the area

that doesn't have forced the dendoms.

We're the only one.

Most of the dealers in our area are, you know,

really advocating these hidden dendoms.

In other words, they're not telling people about that

on the price over the phone or online

and then they come in and then it's a surprise party

on why the price went up, you know.

So we do that never will.

We're we're super high on transparency

and you just mentioned in the onset of the podcast today

that 50% percent of consumers are very interested in that, right?

They don't want to play any transparency.

Right, right.

So that really struck a chord with me

that were, you know, on the right track with that.

So Brad, walk us back and talk to us

a little bit about this department.

It's a BDC, right?

Glenn Lundy would call it frontline sales, right?

How many people do you have in that BDC?

Do they take calls, inbound, outbound?

Do they do service and sales?

How do you train?

What does this team look like that are these unsung heroes?

Yeah, so, you know, the Ferman organization

has many different franchises and luckily for us

we get to operate our stores differently.

We can use our own creative brush to do that.

So what I did, we have an enterprise BDC that's off site

that does a lot of the heavy lifting

and to do a great job.

But I needed, you know, six figure people here at the store

that were the watchdog of leads that weren't responded to quickly

or not responded to accurately,

didn't have the creative juices to be able

to see if that's a deal or not.

So I call them golees or something like that.

So I have, you know, one in every rooftop

that's the watchdog looking at the screen

making sure no one's shot lifting kind of person, right?

At that whole process.

And you know, we've tried a lot of different things

and some of them worked, some of them didn't

and we're gonna probably blow that up this year

in our quest for 900.

We feel like there's a lot of opportunities there

and some things that we maybe we can put everybody together

because one thing that we've discovered

that everybody's separate, you know,

three different buildings, putting everybody in one

where it creates more excitement

but it also has more depth of talent to be able to look

at three people, look at a deal to try to figure out

what it's gonna take their own business.

So we haven't mastered it at all

but I can tell you that it just seems like

it takes a lot more talent to sell a car online

than it does in the showroom.

I might have found people and it has

and I have offended some people

but, you know, how hard is it to sell a car

to someone's already here?

You know, you know, what the internet lead handling

and phone ups and chats, those are hard.

100%.

Yeah. So a lot of people are asking in today's world

they're saying, hey, is a BBC a good thing?

Is it a bad thing?

I just need to have sales people handle their own leads.

So if I understand what you said right,

the organization has its own BDC

and then you've got another layer

that's kind of pulling things in

from that professional BDC,

is that a sales person that would then go out

and meet and greet that customer

at brick and mortar on the floor

or is it an additional layer

that that customer encounters before sales?

And how do you help it be a consistent experience

from BDC through this other layer

into the brick and mortar

which is a big challenge for automotive.

It is and it's a challenge for us.

But to answer your first question,

these are top-line desk people,

not they don't sell the car.

So these are people that they could go up to the desk

and work a deal just like anybody else

but their focus is not on the showroom,

it's not on the lot, it's not on anything other than

what's handling digitally on those leads

if we can't see.

Somebody who has that expertise

that is listening to podcasts like yourself

trying to learn the greatest and, you know,

would it be, whether it be AI?

I mean, if they don't know what,

if they don't be in a badador and impeller

then they're really not those kinds of people.

So, yeah, so they're top-line managers

that are, you know, that's that important to me.

So that's why I can answer your question

that, you know, I think I don't think enough dealers

put enough emphasis on putting talent back there

as opposed to, you know, $15 an hour inexperienced people

that like a lot of BDCs have

and they do a great job.

But I think you just need to have another layer

to make sure that, you know, we're offering solutions,

offering alternatives, trying to solve the problem

that, you know, is keeping the guests from moving forward

in a creative way and in an abundant way

in a massive outbound way

and knowing the finer points of, you know,

all our emails are going into spam, okay, well.

Yeah.

That's some of the finer things

that are good as an email campaign

if they're all going into spam, right?

Or the phone number don't work on our website.

I mean, it's just the whole, I call it spillage.

Every mission has acts amount of spillage.

I'm trying to reduce that spillage.

So Brad, in your quest for 900 units

are getting a lot of props online.

Scott Simon says, Brad Wise is a great car guy

and even better human beings.

Wow.

Scott Simon says that.

Cartool says, Furman Chevy's operation is super impressive.

We did a walk through on two separate occasions

and it did not disappoint.

By the way, you're in Tampa, Florida.

I want to do a walk through in December or January

because you're in the perfect automotive place

to be selling cars in the winter.

So that from Cartool.

And then Lauren Klein asks a great question.

As you think about your BDC

and then you think about this layer

that pulls people into the brick and mortar,

have you incorporated AI or video

in your lead response?

Yes.

We experimented with an AI company

and there's a lot of, you know,

when you're trying to deal with an offsite

BDC, it has to work for all the stores,

not just one store, so I get that, you know.

So we experimented with that.

And there's certainly, it's certainly amazing.

A lot of things that it can do,

especially handling leads in the middle of the night,

you know, setting appointments for in the morning

and then handling all the mundane tasks.

You know, you look at the leads

where you get a hundred of those

and it could be somebody at the state fair

trying to get a Chevy T-shirt.

We have human beings just wiping themselves

out all day on those.

It's not a good thing.

So the AI, I see AI doing a lot of great things

on that regard, but to be front of lead day one,

leads day two, it requires some human intervention

looking over the shoulder until it understands it.

So I'm pro AI and all the companies

have their strengths over others,

but for us, we're pretty much starting over

because we're gonna put everybody together

and we've got a new leader up front

in our variable department that brings some expertise

that I didn't have, who has a track record

of selling 1,000 cars a month, the two stores

that he's worked at.

So we're gonna kind of like,

you know, I got us to the NFC championship.

Now I've got Jimmy Johnson coming in

to win us a Super Bowl

and I couldn't be more excited about that.

So I'm gonna, you know, kind of take,

give him the history of the store,

but he obviously has sold more cars than we have.

So that's what he wants to do.

We kind of want to just start over with it.

You're not Bella check in this case.

This is not a Bella check scenario, is it?

No, no.

YogaCars says Brad rounded up to 1,000 goal,

rounded up to 1,000 goal,

and then a comment I was just thinking

as you were talking about AI

and its role in your organization,

you were about to say,

it's not ready for prime time in your goal,

which is you want human beings to have connections

with customers on the other side of the phone

and you believe that that human process

could do better than AI can if they're well trained.

Is that true?

I just think that if you're a salesperson,

cradle to grave, and you have this tool,

it can be a great benefit to do a lot of your birthday task,

your anniversary task, your releases do task,

your happy birthday, your Merry Christmas task.

A lot of that, take a lot of those things off your plate

and maybe deal with the unengaged leads that are older

and then that way you can focus on the leads

that are more likely to get on base

from the money fall aspect.

Could you just wear a human being out

when you're not getting any response out of a lot of these?

But they're important, these people buy.

If you look at the gestation period,

when someone gets a lead, life gets in the way.

What was a good idea today for consumer X?

Something happened and then they're going to re-engage

with it maybe three months later, two months later

but we got to be top of mind again, right?

Not just say everybody buys in the first four days

and then throw it to AI.

I don't know if I agree with that.

But there's a lot of difference

to schools of thought on internet lead handling, you know?

Yeah.

So the lead comes through, it makes it through the BDC,

it comes through to this additional team,

your salespeople engage on the showroom floor.

What's your process look like

at this store seeking to sell 900 units a month?

What does your process look like on the sales floor?

We have salespeople that only sell internet leads and phone up.

They don't take any walk in.

So we have kind of two divided groups of people

and we kind of matched the skillset.

You know, this salesperson might be better

with walk-ins and this person might be better.

But you know, that also creates some

and for lack of a better word, animosity.

Why aren't I getting the leads?

But then they don't realize that it takes a lot of work.

You know, they just want the leads

that want to come in and buy a card today.

So, you know, and I get that.

I mean, I was a great salesperson.

I wanted all the toys to and didn't want to share either.

So, having empathy for that.

So, we have two different departments.

There's lots of walk-in traffic here.

Like I said, we're on this busy street.

So, you, no matter what side you're on, you can eat.

But it's just a different skill set.

And the salespeople off front are allowed

to come in there instead of an open desk

and take leads and a lot of them never come back again.

Because, you know, they didn't have,

weren't very successful with it.

So, we need both.

There's just two different ideologies.

In your pursuit to 900, how many salespeople do you have?

Right now we have 44, and Alex Flores,

who we brought in, we should talk about him.

You know, one of those first things

is we need to recruit a lot more salespeople.

Yeah.

So, what's his target?

Where does he want to go to?

Oh, well, he's done it already in two stores.

He's done it in Capitol, Chevrolet, Austin, Texas.

He's done it at Charles Mon, Toyota.

He along with Chris Martinez.

And that's the reason why, I mean,

I'm a big self-development guy,

thinking, grow rich guy, Tony Robbins guy.

And it's simple, success leaves clues.

If you want to get a desired result,

you need to do what those people did.

Or get those people.

So, this is somebody who's gone into a store

that's selling three, four hundred cars a month

and almost overnight,

set it on fire in a good way

with or selling 900 to 1,000 cars a month.

So, this isn't talking about it.

This is somebody who's done it on them, you know?

So, you know, this is a playground for talents of people.

One of my biggest strengths is I'm a recruiter.

And it's one of the four things I focus on

is recruiting just like on a sports team.

You can't win without super talented people.

You gotta have somebody who can kick a field goal

in the snow, 50 yards, freeze in the depth

or thread the needle when you're in the pocket.

It's not the plays or the coach

or the fan base or the training.

And yeah, that's all important,

but without those special to people,

you're never gonna win a Super Bowl.

So, I just landed the Tom Brady

of the Variable Department.

And I couldn't tell you what he's all about that.

So, Brad, you took him to the NFC Championship

under a strategy and now,

Alex is going to expand that strategy.

He's gonna add more sales people to the floor.

As you do that, I have two questions.

Where are you getting these sales candidates?

Good sales candidates that are qualified

to lean into your goal and produce.

And then what are you doing on the buy-in standpoint

to get the people that are already there

to spot into, hey, we do need more sales people

so that we can hit this 900 goal

and it's just flooding the floor, Brad.

Well, because recruiting is something,

one of the four things I focus on,

I'm big on social media.

And I do it with a lot of intention

where I'm trying to position our dealership

and our town, Tampa, as a place to move.

So therefore, IDMs are, I'm like an Instagram model.

I get filled with DMs all the time.

My target is that talented person in Minnesota

who's had it with the sales manager

and had it with the snow and say,

I'm gonna come down to sunny.

I'm leveraging the fact that people want to live here, right?

I mean, if I was a lender, it's the best way.

Yeah, right, no state tax,

beaches, sunshine, who wouldn't, right?

And I'll give you a funny story about that

and I also engage in Facebook group.

So I got into an automotive technician and Facebook group

and that was a mistake because automotive technicians,

what I wanted to do was to try to recruit 40 somethings

in up north to come to,

why are you waiting to your 60 retire?

Do it now, come down here and down here.

And I got kicked out of the group,

they don't like suits in that group, you know,

I'm not one of those.

That was kind of, I mean, I got so much hate

going into the technicians, but I'm a maniac.

So I like that, but I'm on clubhouse every single morning

networking with, stop, listen.

People who were in a Facebook group,

people who get up at 5.30 in the morning on clubhouse,

people who listen to this podcast and others,

these are people who are heading shoulders

above everybody else that are really into their job,

they're a learner, they want to get better

for these type of target audience to recruit.

As people who wake up 10 minutes before they need to get ready,

you know, let's listen to some nonsense.

I don't, we don't want those people,

you know, we want, Brad,

why do other GMs and odor operators see this?

So so many GMs and odor operators

just churn through talent that just seems to cycle endlessly

in a market.

You're saying, don't do that.

You're saying, get out on social media,

be more prominent.

What's stopping most dealers and GMs

from taking that strategy or approach?

Why not more social out there?

Limiting beliefs, the whole world's full of limiting beliefs.

And if copied their previous manager,

so they think that's the only way to do it.

Where, you know, if you, I've studied,

I've studied the top, top, I mean,

I had notes and notes and notes on Alex Flora's,

even before he started working here, Brian Benstack,

okay, we can go on and on of people that I,

when they're talking, I'm listening

because they've achieved the results that I want.

And it's simple, it's why we,

why go east looking for a sunset

when they've done what you want to do.

And in this amazing world we live in,

with AI and all this content,

there is no knowing problem.

It's a doing problem, right?

Yeah, that's totally wrong.

If you stay in your cocoon at work

and only listening to the people around,

there's a whole other world out there

of people who are willing to share their secrets

who are the most, you know, the kindest people

willing to help big-time people.

It's amazing how that,

so the information's all available to you.

It's just a lot of limiting beliefs

or I call them flat earthers.

People who are on social media.

They're either running from someone

so they don't want to see, you know,

their ex-wife, CM, or ex-whatever,

or the conspiracy theorist, whatever side.

The people that work here

that are not on social media,

I call them flat earthers, they don't like it.

But it's just, I mean, it's the greatest thing ever.

You can communicate with people,

direct messages, you can target people

that technicians, or FNI managers,

or use car managers, or whatever.

So how did you get Alex?

Just, I actually have two last questions.

Hey, how did you get Alex

and then speaking about social,

what are the requirements for your sales people

and how did you get Alex?

I got Alex for the reasons.

I just said we're both involved

in the same social media groups

every single morning.

We're hearing each other's voice.

Yeah, we know each other a long time.

I've been to conventions with him.

And some of it was a law of attraction to tell you the truth.

I think two people has no accident

on how this happened.

That might roll some people's eyes,

but if I believe it and it makes my life better,

so be it, I don't really care what you think.

I really believe that is the case.

But in his case, he was a dealer.

And I think he wanted to move out of Texas

for whatever personal reasons.

And he didn't want to travel so much.

He's got this beautiful family, young kids,

and he was gone traveling all the time.

And I know the Tampa floor that was on his short list

of places that he would move.

And we just kind of looked at each other and I'm like,

why not?

This is a position that he's way overqualified for.

But what's more tantalizing to him than the ego

or maybe even the money in the beginning

is doing something great to be a part of something

and just annihilate the competition.

We're car people, right?

We've got big egos, we're really excited.

We're like, we're competitive as it can be, right?

So both of us together just blowing up this place,

putting everybody out of business,

and just taking what's ours.

That's really kind of what it is.

I love that.

It all began on social, it all began out there

knowing each other, hearing each other's voice.

And then you knowing him well enough

to understand what it was that would light him up.

And I agree with you.

A big goal bigger than oneself is something

I think most people employees be afraid.

They want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

So Bradley, Brad Wise, you've got to come back on the show

when you get 900.

Is that agreed, Hannah?

Absolutely.

Brad's coming back and you've got to be the month.

And you've got to bring Alex with you.

So yeah, Alex, we're doing it together.

So Brad Wise, Executive Manager,

Firm and Chevrolet Mazda, Tampa, Florida,

the beautiful weather.

Thanks for being on the show today,

sure.

Thank you, Merry Christmas.

Thanks, Brad, Merry Christmas.

That was a cool conversation.

Most dealers are not on social media enough.

They just are not.

So, and I love it.

Hannah piped in.

She is on it.

Sam Shinobi says, hi.

Got a bunch of great comments on social media.

I was just informed there's a fire alarm

that's buried to go off in this building.

So we're going to wrap this thing

before the fire alarm destroys everything

we got going here.

Yuley, have a great Christmas.

Have a great day.

Thank you, my friend.

We're going to be at rest on Wednesday

and Friday, I believe it is, back on Monday.

I think we'll post it to social.

And then we've got a big New Year's Eve special episode

coming up.

So we're super excited for that.

It will be a best of episode featuring

some of our best conversations here to date.

And by the way, don't forget January.

It's our video MPI video sales contest.

We want everybody that is using video out there.

We're going to compete at the highest level.

By the way, I love.

I'm so fired up with what Brad said.

Everybody wants to be something part of something bigger.

Bring it 900 units.

I got to get with, get with some teams.

And Dancy says, see you next Monday.

Happy holidays to our loyal listening audience.

Thanks for watching the daily dealer live.

We break down the biggest moves in the car business

as they happen.

Don't forget we're here live every Monday, Wednesday,

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Everybody have a great holiday.

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About this episode

AI misuse

synthetic fraud

vehicle theft

autonomous vehicles

Wamos

pricing transparency

add-ons

Acura

Nissan

Toyota Research Institute

Ford

Honda

GMC

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