How Jonathan Dawson and David Booth Doubled Sales at Cherokee Mitsubishi

Customer retention and employee engagement are driving a different kind of dealership growth at Cherokee Mitsubishi. On this episode of Inside Automotive, new dealer principals Jonathan Dawson and David Booth share how a relationship-first strategy helped the store rapidly build momentum after its acquisition in mid-2025.

Rather than focusing on aggressive acquisition tactics, Dawson and Booth explain how prioritizing repeat business, referrals, and internal culture led to measurable gains in both sales and service. They outline how intentional customer experiences—designed to extend well beyond the showroom—create lasting emotional connections that translate into loyalty and advocacy. The conversation also explores how treating employees as the dealership’s first customers strengthens performance, accountability, and morale. By investing in people, consistency, and community presence, the owners believe dealerships can achieve sustainable growth even amid broader market uncertainty.

Topics discussed include:

• Retention-driven dealership growth strategies
• Referral programs and customer advocacy
• Redefining the vehicle delivery experience
• Employee engagement and internal culture
• Community visibility without heavy advertising

Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick is powered by CBT News, your go-to source for the latest news, trends, and insights in retail automotive. Subscribe for more interviews with top industry leaders, dealership innovators, and experts shaping the future of automotive.

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Transcript

Meet The New Dealer Team

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:11

Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick. Thanks so much for joining me on another edition of Inside Automotive right here at CBTnews.com. I have got a special guest with me here in our studio, Mr. Jonathan Dawson. He's the new dealer principal at Cherokee Mitsubishi. He's along with his partner, managing partner of Cherokee Mitsubishi, Mr. David Booth. They are here to talk to us about the industry as a whole and then what really unique things you guys are doing at the dealer level to not just win customers, but I think more importantly in this case, it's to keep customers. So you know, the the retention in this business we've been suffering from forever. That's why we keep looking for Conquest customers spending thousands of dollars. We've talked about it ad nauseum, right? But yet dealers don't do enough to keep the customers coming back that they've already got. So, gentlemen, thank you so much for spending some time with us in the studio. Appreciate you. Thank you for having us. Thank you for us. Absolutely. This, as you guys can see, we have got a plethora of different items here that are just outstanding. Very, very impressive. Now, some of you are probably sitting there going, oh my God, you got a lot of stuff on there. And yeah, we might give away a hat or something, but we don't give away all that kind of stuff. And uh I know Jonathan, this this is something that we've talked about. Now you are a dealer principal yourself. Congratulations. You've been teaching other dealers nationwide how to sell more cars, keep customers coming back. So now it's kind of like where the rubber meets the road. All of this goes into practice. Talk to us about that.

From Training Rooms To Owning A Store

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Well, so for those that don't know, in June of 2025, uh I had the unique uh privilege and honor that so many in this industry dream for, which is to be given the chance to buy a store. So that's great. I bought a store and I did it with David Booth here, and that was actually one of the conditions my wife gave me, actually, is she says, you know how a store should be run, but but you need to put someone there who will run the store the right way. And there was a very short list of people that we would consider, and David and I have known each other for over a decade. That's great. So it was a great fit. But yes, I mean, having now in fact, this year I added two, or last year I suppose, I added two countries to my list where I'm now have been in 3,000 dealerships across nine different countries teaching uh teaching cell college and that. And uh this coming uh next month here, uh I'll have two more speaking slots at NADA, which will put me at a 25th and 26th total speaking time. Oh, it's fantastic. So I'm a 26 time speaker at NADA as next month. So, yes, all this energy and time collecting great ideas, working with amazing operators, and trying to go what's the best practice and how do we implement and transfer it. And now we have my own store, our store. The pressure's on. The pressure's on. Like, now what do we do? And this, what you see here, is just a small portion of some of the things that we do. And we're we're obviously excited to share with you and and the audience of CBT uh what we're doing along the lines what you said of retention, but I'll add a layer of retention. We call it raving fan advocacy creation. Okay. So we're going beyond retention, we're going into a concept of rating fan advocate. How do we cause someone to want to tell everyone? And then we'll go one step further. Raving fans will want to tell everybody, an advocate wants you to win. Yeah. And so our goal and what we're doing at the dealership is we're asking a big question: how do we treat customers in such a way that they not only want to do business with us, they want to tell everyone else and they want us to win. Right. So we're going way beyond the traditional, you know, consumer focused of just like how do we convert a customer, how do we set an appointment, how do we close a car deal, how do we sell a car? It's how do we build that kind of impact. Yeah. And so um, again, these are just small symbolic things which we'll talk about. But um, you know, David has been a client of mine in psychology for over a decade. So I he and I together in the stores that he was running, we got to implement some of the strategies I teach, but he he was never at the dealer level. Okay, right? He wasn't the operator at that level. So he didn't have the full autonomy. Right. But what's it been like now?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

It's been amazing and scary and awesome all in one. That's right, that's right. Yeah, so you know, the main thing at the core of it is you know, we really want to create an environment that makes customers just feel, wow, this is just not what I'm used to. It's just such a great experience. And we're we're really um you know setting the standard for that, I believe.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:19

David, you know, as as uh you know that in the auto industry, we spend so much money. Some dealers are spending as much as a thousand dollars a car or more um just in the marketing to get those customers to call, click, or come in to a showroom. And uh usually when you talk to uh most dealers and you say, well, what do you spend you know on an after-sale basis? What do you what are you sending them? What are you giving them? They might send a card, right? They might throw somebody a hat at the literary hey, you gotta hope you wear it, you know, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

That's that's after after the customer asked three times. And the salesman asked three times.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:48

That's exactly right. Maybe maybe a koozie or whatever. But nobody does it to this extent. How important is this in in the scheme of things? And I know that I'm probably asking that question on behalf of a lot of dealers. How important is this to bring that customer?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, from a cultural perspective, I think it's probably one of the most critical things we do. I think most dealers have it backwards. They spend the most amount of money on a really a guest to see if they can get a transactional customer in there to transact with them. Typically that's at the lowest price possible. Absolutely. Every time. We believe that's the worst way to do business. We would rather, you know, invest the money back into our customer because we really see this as an investment. Right. And you know, really make them feel so loved that they feel obligated to tell their friends and family about us. And you know, any dealer that's been doing this or any sales manager that that might be out there watching this video, they know you referral customers, you can just sell them faster, you can sell more of them, they're happier, right? Uh the gross is better, like the whole process is just smoother and better. So it's one of the reasons why this is a cornerstone to what we're doing.

Jim Fitzpatrick 5:54

That's that's fantastic. And and you know, because you trained in this every single day, uh, and you've been an advocate of it, and uh, that is that referrals make dealers more money. We all know that. We've been pitching it forever. Um, you know, for that customer that comes in and says, Hey, I was referred by Susie Smith, their guard's gonna be down, they're gonna be more open to a close on the deal, they're there typically more flexible to buy. Yeah, they're there really to buy the car if you have it. They're not so much focused on price. You gotta give them a fair price, but it's not all about price. Um, this goes hand in hand with that, right?

Red Carpet Delivery And Swag Strategy

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, so one of the things that I teach in in psychology is this concept which I didn't invent, but it's something that dealers should pay attention to, which is the lifetime value of a customer. Right. And asking the question, what metrics help determine the lifetime value of a type of customer? For example, cost of acquisition is one metric that goes into the value of a customer. Uh, ease of sale should be considered, speed of sale should be considered, uh, ease of acquisition, not just cost of acquisition, but how easy is it to get that person to interact with you? Then you have upsell potentiality, you have referrability, right? You have all these metrics, along with initial profitability, long-term sustained profitability, retention and service, and so forth. And if you put them all, if you put the 10 metrics that I teach, if you put them all on a grid, and then you ask this question of all the customer types, which there's six main sources, you could have a service conquest customer, a repeat household, a referral, a self-gen, a walk-in, and an advertising induced customer. Right. Those are your six basic buckets. Yeah. Well, you look at them and you go, hmm, which of the six have the highest lifetime value? Yeah, it's a good thing. It's your service customers, your repeats, your referrals, and then the ones salespeople generate. That's right. Which ones are the worst human beings on the planet? The ones your average dealer. The walk-ins and the advertising. And then you ask a dealer, the average dealer, which one of those six groups do you have the most metrics about? Oh, it's the ad-based customer. Which ones do you have the largest budget for? Oh, it's the ad-based customer. Which ones do you have the most meetings about? It's the ad-based customers. Which ones do you do the most training about? It's the walk-ins. So all of our resource, mental, energy, financial, they all go into the two worst human beings on the planet. Yep. And then the top four buckets that have the most value to the company are neglected.

Jim Fitzpatrick 8:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

And because we take it, we take it for granted.

Jim Fitzpatrick 8:03

We just take it for granted. We don't have to spend any money. They already bought a car from us and they'll buy their next car from us. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Not the case. Not necessarily the case. So what we have committed to is flipping the paradigm. And so, just as rough numbers, what we're looking at as a metric is to say, okay, if the average dealer spends$500 a car to acquire a sale and maybe$50 to retain them, we're going to flip the paradigm in his head and say, we're going to get to where we're only spending$50 to acquire and$500 to retain the relationship. To retain them. And so what you're seeing here is some of the stuff. For example, you know, at the delivery of a vehicle at our dealership, they actually get a swag bag presented by the salesperson at the time of the actual delivery. Okay. And uh I know your team has some of our photos and videos, and so hopefully they can be integrated in this interview. Yep, you're looking at them right now. Yeah, so some of the things you see. So you see a red carpet, you see balloons. Yeah, they're amazing. Yeah, confetti. The confetti cannon, the customers being handed the gift bag. The gift bag has things like this is our branded cup here, that's just a really nice tumbler cup. It's gonna have that, it's gonna have uh the can koozies, it's gonna have key custom keychains, it's gonna have some of these things in it that are part of the uh the hats. That's part of the initial gift bag they get. And then there's a process that's part of the never-ending delivery, and I'll let David share this. But the team, as they're staging the car for delivery, what's happening there?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah, so we're hiding notes throughout the car so that over the course of ownership, they're gonna find these notes that are hidden in the car with little notes, you know, underneath the visor, underneath the floor mat, uh, spare tire. We put a note on the spare tire that if they ever need to use this, they need to call us and let us help them. We put$2 in the gas tank with a note. So the first time they go to fill up, there's a couple bucks to help with your first fill up. So yeah, we call that the never-ending delivery because over the course of one month, two months, even six months, they're gonna continue to find notes from us. Wow. Um, again, no one's give us an idea of what I mean that that what a note might read if it's under a floor.

The Never Ending Delivery Notes

SPEAKER_01 9:59

So, for example, underneath the driver's size floor mat is a note that says if you found this, you're cleaning your car for the first time. Please stop by. I'll clean your car, we'll catch up with a cup of coffee, hope you're enjoying your new car. Okay. It's not just a note, that's yeah, that's an offering. Invite for a car wash and a cup of coffee. In the gas cap is a two-dollar bill wrapped around the salesman's business card that says just a couple bucks to get you on your way. Hope you're enjoying your new cap. That has got to bring a phone call immediately. Oh my gosh. I'm telling you, the number of posts and phone calls and stories and social media where people will, after they find like the second and the third thing, they just keep going back and tagging the salesperson and going, you won't believe, and I found this this time.

Jim Fitzpatrick 10:36

It made me start to really search all over their car.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Well, that we had people there, one one of our Google reviews is actually, you know how Jeeps will have the Easter eggs and the little things. They're like, I bought a car and it was not a Jeep, but I have an Easter egg hunt every I'm looking for new stuff. But so behind the pack, the the rear seat pocket of there's a note there. There's where he said where the spare tire is. Hey, if you found this, you're on the side of the road, let us know you're okay. Here's your service manager number, here's your road set assistance. That's really cool. Here's our tire and wheel package if you subscribe to that. So, what we want to do is we want to take the anchor to the core memory, because there's two impressions. First impression, yeah, never get a second chance at. Last impression is the lasting impression that they hold in their heart. That's right. So if we can master the first impression, and then if we can master the last impression, and then if we can elongate, if we can take that last impression, that emotional experience with the confetti and the laughing, and the we pray over our customers that are willing to allow us to do that. We offer a prayer of safety protection for them, their family, and their vehicle. And they have this moment where we're hugging and all this stuff. They leave with that car, and then they might find the center console note pretty quick. Yeah. And they're like, oh, how nice and how thoughtful. Yeah. And then they're thinking it stops there. Yeah, and then somebody might flip down that passenger visor and find the next one. And they go, Oh, well, there's another note. Well, that's crazy. And then two weeks later they go to the pump and for the first time and they're like, oh my gosh. And by then they're just like, Whoa, well, this is not stopping. Right. And you know, and we're getting that feedback from our customers.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:00

You know, all along the line, they're sharing these stories and these notes with everybody in their sphere of the city. Yeah, of course, when it happens. They're sharing it with their kids and their people that they work with and everything. They might even be with them in the car. That's right. You know what I mean? When they're discovering some of these things.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

So post-sale, also, if I can jump in. Please, okay. We're committed to after the sale, we have a custom gift basket. And we have an employee, a team member that hand delivers this basket to their place of business. Wow. That's pretty cool. So if they're within 20 miles of the dealership, we're hand delivering that. It's got a custom cup in it with their name on it. Um, you know, with And how soon after delivery? Within two days. Two days. Typically, that's the goal.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:36

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah. So the cup, this again, this really nice stainless steel cup has their personal name on it. Wow. They get one of those, there's a couple of things.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:44

You're able to deliver that that quickly with a personalized, I mean, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, we have the ability to produce.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:49

Actually, we do them in-house.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Really? Yeah, we have an in-house. I I bought the printer and everything to be able to do these in-house. That is really interesting.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:55

So if I take a delivery from you and I get this in two days, just this kind of stuff alone, I'm impressed with. Well, of course, right? How did they get my name on it?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

You know, yeah. And so there's a chip clip there that's gonna go in your pantry. There's a mouse pad that's gonna go on your desk. There's a couple of different cups. We got the plastic cups that are gonna be like the everyday use, long-term hard plastic. We got the stainless drill travel mug.

Jim Fitzpatrick 13:16

We got chapstick that I gotta tell you, I I this reminds me of getting a gift after a purchase that um I would have gotten from, let's say, my realtor. Maybe a realtor might have done a basket with a bottle of wine or something. Maybe maybe this. Maybe, yeah. Maybe. Maybe. I know. Probably not, but maybe here I'm buying a car,$30,000,$40,000,$50,000. I'm I'm getting this. Well, no, you're buying a$6,000 car, you're getting this. Wow, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

We're every everybody. Yeah, we we've given away three vehicles since we've been opening six months, and the customer who uh we gave a car to, yeah, uh, we did the full delivery.

Jim Fitzpatrick 13:49

And you you realize that because of the the retention and the emphasis that you're putting on retention, that six thousand dollar car, guess what? The next they're going for the next car. Now their credit is good, they're all good, they're they're moving up in their career, and now they want the$30,000 car. They're coming back to you for that.

Flipping The Budget To Retention

SPEAKER_01 14:04

So a funny story about that. Uh a gentleman showed up at our dealership with his son, and I happen to greet him personally on the lot. We start talking, he's looking for a car for his wife. She came out of uh uh she had a Mercedes, and but this time she wanted something very basic because she's got a job where she's gonna be commuting. So she wants something super basic that she's not gonna be afraid of on the road. We end up finding her uh an older um Honda CRV. It's got like almost, I think, 100,000 miles on it. And so she went from a Mercedes, a nice Mercedes, to this$100,000 car. We do, he doesn't know this, but we do we end up doing the whole delivery and everything. He's blown away. He says to me, Jonathan, I've bought six vehicles in the last four years, including my wife's Mercedes. He said, I've bought Harley's, I've bought a I bought a hundred and forty thousand dollar Porsche. Your delivery on an$8,000 car or whatever is like he's like, this is insane. So then, not only that, he sends us referrals, and then he came in later on, about three months later, and bought a truck. And he said, I don't even really need a truck, but I keep watching guys' videos about everything. And I started thinking, you know what? I think I want to go look for another. So he came in to buy a truck because he was watching how and he was like, I want my point is that you brought it you brought him into the Cherokee family. That's right. You know what I mean? And we're wanting to create the kind of experience, and we've already seen this. Well, our our number one current referral generator has sent us six referrals. So he bought a car and then he bought a car for his daughter, uh, his his son.

Jim Fitzpatrick 15:24

Well, talk to me about that, because I've got I've got some things here that I gotta get on behalf of the people that are watching. Yes. We've got these, you know, car washes, these cards that you give away. Talk talk to me about this.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

So this particular one here, and again, you'll see uh the the spinning wheel that we have. So the spinning wheel, which was, by the way, built by one of our customers. We're showing that right now. Yeah, the so that spinning wheel, right? That the the customer, when they spin the wheel, there are uh four grand prizes that are available. Okay. Um then there's four standard prizes we provide. Okay. There's 12 slots. The last four prizes they custom pick themselves while they're waiting for their worksheet on the numbers. Okay. So while they're waiting to get their numbers, they're given a selection of things they can put on the wheel and spin for. I love it. Along with the grand prizes and everything else. So they're already a fan at that point at that point in time at some level. Yeah, they've seen the wheel, they kind of understand, now they get their selection from it, and and they get to kind of pick what things they hope they win. Yeah. And they're gonna put them on the wheel, then then when they spin. So what this one particular is, this one says 15,000 in cash. This is one of our grand prizes. Okay. Do you see here in the bottom the little grid? Yep. There's four spots. That's right. One of them's X'd off. Yeah, so what happens is in this particular prize, this one is on the wheel twice. So you have a one in six chance out of 12 spots, it's on there twice, okay, a one in six chance of landing on the 15 grand. So if you buy a car from us today, Jim, and you spin the wheel and it lands on 15 grand, you've checked off one of the four times total. Okay, you do have to land on it. Okay. So that means you have now 12 months to land on it four times total. You have three more. Okay. How do you land on it again? Well, you spun because you bought. Every time you send in a referral, they get to spin for buying, right? And then you get to re-spin because you sent us a referral. Which also means that that person's coming back into the showroom. Of course. Right. And actually, just recently we had a lady, her name was Linda, and Linda had bought a car from us recently. She actually spun the wheel like two weeks ago, and then she sent in her daughter and her son-in-law because they were needing a car. And here's what's fun about this going back to the what's the referral sale versus a traditional sale. This customer showed up and said, Our mom told us we have to buy a car from you guys. We don't really know what you have, so can you show us some cars? That's it. So out of our inventory, we found a car they would say yes to, and they bought a car, no resistance, and now they're spinning the wheel. Mom then came back knowing they were buying a car, and she spun the wheel again. That's fantastic. And so, really, our mission is to out-experience the competition and create these raving fan advocates, and then through things like this, which are just symbols of it, we're gonna create memories.

Jim Fitzpatrick 17:54

All right, so now talk to me about this because you got Cherokee Cash, which I love. By the way, folks, this cash looks like real cash. It even kind of feels like real cash. Yeah. Kind of scary. Yeah, yeah. But uh it does have Jonathan's face right on there. So we have to do that. So do we have David's. So it kind of devalues the cash.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Jim, that's actually internal currency. So yeah, we have a Pro Shop set up with North Face gear and all kinds of like high-end gear. Yeah. Where uh you know, we gift this to our customers and they can use this currency internally. So how do you think? So during the course of a of a pencil in the deal or a close, tell me how you would use it.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Yeah, so one situation may be, let's say, for example, the client says, You're you're my client, you say, hey, get me$500 more for my trade and you got a deal. At this point, I'm gonna say something like, you know, Jim, at some point, the vehicle only has so much value I can put into it. If I put more money into this vehicle, I'm buying it wrong for the dealership. So what if I can't give you$500 more? But what if I can give you$500 in cash? Right here. Right. And then of course they go, oh, well, okay. Um, and I say, now the cash is gonna be our cash though. So then I show them we've got this Cherokee cash, they can spend it in parts and service. They can. Yeah. Parts and service. All right. And they can obviously spend it in our pro shop. Now, think again from retention. If I give you$500 off on a truck, if that's all if I just give you$500. I don't need to come back. Right, but if I give you$500 in my cash, what do we got? I've got$500,$500 reasons to get back to the building.

Jim Fitzpatrick 19:18

Right. Or even if I go to your pro shop and I spend two or three hundred dollars of it, I kind of feel good. You know, people go in and go, I can't I can use that.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Well, not only that, but get what you want. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Yeah, you get to pick out. And we're, I mean, again, we're still in the building stages, but we have really nice hoodies and sport and sport uh uh uh sports bags and duffel bags and you got your brand on it. Yeah, yeah, the Yeti Cups. So what are they doing? You're literally buying my billboards to be a human billboard for me using my money to become my Raving Fed ambassador?

Jim Fitzpatrick 19:46

It's a win. Can can this also be used at this NADA uh in Vegas? Or can I I think you can get arrested. That's right. Use it. That's fantastic. And all of this really goes down to uh uh really gets I should say really comes down to the overall experience that that consumer is having at that um at that place, at that business, right? To say, I'm not getting any of this or this kind of a treatment or the spin of the wheel or the cash or anything else from any other dealership.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

No, you're probably not. I mean, obviously you hope to inspire. I mean, I've spent over two decades trying to share with dealers' ideas to inspire them to to create uh the kind of industry that is worthy of what we've you know, we get such a bad rep, but you and I we've talked about how many dealers give to their local schools, how many dealers have built literally dealers have built hospitals. Yeah, I know. Dealers have interviewed in so many ways. And then a salesperson who is transactional says or does something and it gets viral on a video or it goes on a Google review. It's like we you know, we have to protect a customer experience, it's paramount to everything. Yeah, and so in the back of our minds, uh David and I have Inspirations, which is two companies that we admire and that we're trying to see if we can replicate.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

That's right. Savannah Bananas, we love. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and also Chick-fil-A. So we want to be uh kind of a you know, somewhere in the middle of those two companies. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

If we get accused a year from now of becoming the Savannah Banist Chick-fil-A of the car business, we'll be very happy. We'll be very happy.

Spinning Wheel Prizes And Referrals

Jim Fitzpatrick 21:14

And those are two great organizations. Uh there's no question about it. And in and in many cases, in I should say in both cases, it's not so much, although the chicken sandwich is pretty good. It's really more about that overall experience. Everybody loves the people that work there, they love how they're treated, they love the, you know, uh, what is the line when you say thank you and then say, you know, my pleasure, right? So uh and everybody knows it. They're there's kind of waiting for it, you know. And uh so so it all goes down to experience.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

I'll add one other layer that I know that is important, and you'll understand this from all the conversations you've had, and I think dealers sometimes miss this, which is you know, your first customer, though, is not actually the person you're trying to get in to buy a car from you or service with you. Your actual first customer is your team member. So you the first person you need to sell every year. Your internal customer is your internal customer, which is the team member to want to buy what you're selling. Which is the vision and mission of your company. That's right. So we also are intentional about what we do. Because this is obviously customer focused and facing, but all of our team members, they have their own marketing budget. So they have discretion on their marketing budget. And again, one of the photos I shared with your team, if they can pull it up, is a young lady with a big basket. That's uh our delivery queen Peyton. She's one of our salespeople showing in now. Yeah, she's got that giant basket. What's that basket? Each salesperson at the end of every month gets to select a customer of the month that they had the strongest connection rapport with that has another special, completely different custom basket that gets sent again to their workplace or hand delivered by the salesperson. And we we asked the sales team like, what what would make meaning, what would make what you do more meaningful? What do you care about? And whether that's a charity, an organization, a cause, uh time off. Our schedule is the best schedule in the industry, right? I mean, each employee, if they have children under the age of 18, their birthdays of their kids are off. Their spouse's birthday, they get off. Their birthday, they get off. Valentine's Day, they get off if they want it. I mean, like we because we understand our first customer that we must win and win over and sell is the people who work on our team. That's right. You win their hearts and minds before you win the hearts and minds of the consumers that come in. And that's the service advisors, that's the service uh technicians. Everyone on our team, we're constantly asking as owners, how do we um out-experience where they could have worked before? How do we become the place that they'll say honestly? And we haven't lost a single team member since we bought the store, except for one, which the day after we bought the store, he quit. He didn't give us a chance to do anything yet, but he quit. But after that, and it's been six months, we've kept everyone, and um, and we've grown the store more than double the retail volume of uh over the same window of time from six months to the last year and tripled service. That's great. That's and uh wow, yeah, it's an adventure.

Jim Fitzpatrick 23:50

Yeah, that's fantastic. And look, at the end of the day, you know, I don't have to tell the dealers that are listening, they they already know this, that Mitsubishi is a little bit of a tougher sell than if you're a Toyota franchise, Nissan franchise, uh Subaru or what have you. So um so you've looked at this operation and you said, okay, how can we do it differently to win those customers over, uh, win over the employees of the operation, but then get it to the point where those customers come back. You know, you're even you probably haven't even realized that yet in the course not in six months. Yeah, in six months, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:20

And some of this stuff has only really been I mean, it's a it's a growth process, but some of this stuff, you know, this a month ago this was in formation and just became these are only three months old. Okay. Some of the stuff and some of what we're doing next, I mean, yeah, you know, interview me in another six months and see what we've got.

Jim Fitzpatrick 24:36

Yeah, for sure. David, um, you're a a car guy. Uh we talked about that before we got record. You've been in the business a long time, as uh Jonathan has as well, but you're more on the car side operation side. Yes. Jonathan's been crisscrossing the globe. The globe, I said the country, it's really the globe, helping dealers and and and trained people and what have you been very effective in doing that. But you're like on the front line. You're, you know, is there ever a part of you that sits back and goes, Do we need all this? Is this needed to sell a car?

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Because it's probably where we're doing this is just one small part of what comes out of his brain. So I I love it. I live in the community we serve. I've been living in that community for close to three decades. And, you know.

Jim Fitzpatrick 25:16

Was this the kind of stuff that you kind of wanted to do? What hust were your hands are tied? I'm a I was a manager myself working for dealers, although they're all great, nice people. But you're you're limited. You can do just so much. You know, you need the approval of the dealer principal, and if they're not on board with something like this or other ideas.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

This is a let's face it, this is a big financial commitment up front. Yeah, and um, and this is playing the long game. This isn't a we're gonna turn this thing around in 30 days and rah-rah. Yeah, no, this is a long-term strategy that most dealers wouldn't try, but most dealers would throw money at maybe a mailer or 20 grand at Auto Trader, and who knows, man. Who knows if it works? I think you know maybe half of it works. That's right. This I know long term because I'm already seeing it, it's gonna pay huge dividends to allow us to live out our mission, which is to serve our community. That's great. To be a huge impact in the community, yeah, to be a dealer that people love and want to do business with and want to tell their friends and family about. And to me, that what that's what gets me fired up. That's right.

Cherokee Cash And Pro Shop

SPEAKER_01 26:16

That's right. Yeah, yeah. The fruit of it is also in like in our county, where we're located in Cherokee County, there's a large Facebook group called Cherokee Connect, and it's got about 160 or so thousand members. Wow. And recently, just the other day, someone posted, I'm looking specifically for a Chevrolet dealership I can buy a Chevy tracks from. Go see Cherokee Mitsubishi, even though they're not a Chevrolet store. Scroll through. Uh, I don't know why you want a Chevy Trax, but you should go check out which and we've only been open six months. That's great. And I'm scrolling through, and it's not, it's maybe one out of every seven or eight comments. But when you see, you know, out of 40, 50 comments that pop up, and you're seeing your name that often, and you're like, and it's on a specific, it's not even like on a post that says there was one this morning actually, uh just said, I'm looking for a used car, it's like cherry kimitsubishi, cherry kimitsubishi, and and we've only been in both we've only been open for six months. Wow. So again, where we're gonna be in six months, more months, or a year more by pouring into our community, by by serving and loving the people that and I told this and I said it, it's I kind of mean it, but I kind of am joking, but I kind of mean it. If I never sell a car 30 miles from our store, I'm okay. Like I just want to sell only our neighborhood. Like I want to own our neighborhood. I want the people who will service with us, yeah, who go to the schools that we go to.

Jim Fitzpatrick 27:34

But if you do, if you are 60 miles away, he'll he'll do that. I will work a deal. I won't go crazy, but I'll work a deal if you really, if you're a referral. If you're a referral. If you're a referral. That's exactly right. Let me let's talk about uh the business as a whole for just a second and switch gears. Um we finished, you know, a kind of a unique year in 2025. We're dealing with uh obviously with tariffs early on, and then we're dealing in September, we're dealing with uh the EV tax credit benefit going away, and that that both did two things. It both increased the sales of EVs, and then it you know, uh kind of the uh the the uh hangover, if you will, from in into um into uh uh October and November was kind of a letdown a little bit. Dealers were struggling a little bit. But talk to us about that. How did you finish uh 2025? I know you only own the dealership for maybe five or six months at that point in time, but what what was your feeling on 2025?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

I'll let you answer that. I I think I'm optimistic in the general economy and where we're headed. Um I think the tariffs did play a role. Yeah, um a lot of Mitsubishi's inventory was already produced and already in the country. So it didn't necessarily slow down the ability to get new cars, um, but it did affect pricing. Yeah. And um, so where do we go from here? I I feel like with some of the things happening, you know, globally, there's there's gonna be some headwinds still early into 2026. But I really feel strongly about used cars and what's happening there. Uh I think it's gonna be a really good year.

Jim Fitzpatrick 29:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll give you the last word here. What's what's your take on 2025 and 20 and moving ahead to 2026?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Well, obviously, as a new dealer, um, I'm I was coming in delusionally optimistic, right? You have to be, otherwise, you shouldn't have bought a store, especially a broken Mitsubishi store losing 100 grand a month.

Jim Fitzpatrick 29:19

I will say this that this is going to speak volumes about your own ability and your company's ability on the training side. Yeah. You've already turned it around, so you you're proving it to, you know, in a large part. Well, in fact, I'll be.

Culture That Wins Employees First

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Well, so my wife informed me who manages our company, our training company, too. She said, she said, you know, we had a record year in 2025 uh as a training company. And she she let me know uh just yesterday. She said, Do you realize with just incoming commitments and everything we're we're we're already on pace for a record January in the history of our company? That's great. So that's great. And and dealers have told me, and here's what they've said, because I I mean my reputation has been established in two decades. Yeah, of course. I I didn't get into this thinking I have to prove something. I mean, I hopefully have already earned that right through all my clients. But but it's true that I've had dealers actually say to me, Jonathan, uh it says volumes about how you believe in retail. Yeah. That you would put your two decades of reputation as a training company on the line. That's true. Given what we know about other consultants and trainers who have tried it and not made it. Yeah. And there are some out there who've done that and fallen, fallen short and failed. And that you would even risk your established company by and they're like, you believe in retail, and you're a true car person. And I am. And so I'm very optimistic about uh 2026 because I really do believe in creating our own economy and getting our unfair share through creating Raving Fan Advocates. And that's the difference. Again, anyone watching this, when you sell a car and you simply caused a consumer to consume from you, you lost money, maybe. Yeah. When you created a customer, you maybe got by. When you create a client, you might get a good review or a testimonial or a referral. Get out of the convincing business though and get into the advocacy business. Ask your sales team when they set a goal at the beginning of the month. If somebody says my goal is 20 cars this month, make them pause and go, and how many of those will become your advocate? Right. What are you going to do to make an advocate? Because if you sell 20 cars and not one advocate was created, then you're here at a zero again. Yeah. And you're back to the grind again. That's right. But if you can create an advocate and do it enough, you can one day build a business that'll work as hard for you as you worked for it. Yeah. And that's what we're on a mission to do. And that's what we hope that we shine uh this light on our store and bring attention to, and it maybe inspires others.

Jim Fitzpatrick 31:33

Yeah, there's no question about it. It is an inspiring story. And uh, these are the kinds of stories that we want to be bringing you from uh CBT News. Uh there's a lot of dealers probably right now that are taking notes. Some of you might even be shaking your head going, I don't need to do all that stuff to sell a car. And then there's others that go, Wow, this guy has actually, or you both of you together have put together maybe the secret sauce in keeping customers coming back to the showroom and the service center, which is something, as you both know, we've suffered from for years in this industry, right? That's right. And uh so congratulations to you on that.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

And Jim, I I would encourage you, I would encourage you to invite the dealers into the dealership to see firsthand. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We love it. Cherokee Mitsubishi, we're not hard to find at all.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

You're you're in Canton, right? Yeah, corner of Bellsfrey Road, Marriott Highway. Uh go to our Google reviews, uh, look at our last hundred and fifty reviews that we've gotten, uh, scroll through them for 10 minutes. Go to the one-star reviews from the store that I bought from read the one-star reviews and see my replies, but uh see what we're doing.

Jim Fitzpatrick 32:32

So not only did you buy, it wasn't like a new point, you had to do some control.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yeah, yeah. Next time you want to do an episode that's just filled with tears and sadness, we'll do one on the damage control.

Jim Fitzpatrick 32:45

That's that's something. Well, thank you both for coming in here, Jonathan Dawson and David Booth from Cherokee Mitsubishi knocking the cover up the wall and really really thinking outside the box on how to keep customers coming back time and time again and buying, you know, like you said, a customer for life. That's what it's all about. That's what we all want in the industry. Sure. We talk about it, but you guys are actually doing something about it. So thank you so much. Thanks, Jim. Thank you. Appreciate it, Jim. Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.