He Went From Sales Manager To Car Salesman? - The Vincierge

Raul Tomsa, aka @vincierge did something unheard of in the automotive world. He left behind the steady job of sales manager to get back on the sales floor and start making automotive content. Raul sits down with Doug Horner, aka  @BenzsandBowTies  for a full length interview brought to you by  @CallRevu to unpack WHY he made this surprise move, and how the unique dealership group he works for has made it an intriguing option.

Hosted by Doug Horner, General Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz of North Olmsted and a rising voice in automotive social media, this new podcast brings a transparent, high-energy perspective to dealership operations, leadership, and digital engagement.

Known online as   @BenzsandBowTies  he has amassed 500K+ followers and 25MM+ viewers monthly across his channels where he often blends humor into content resonating with agents, operators, and customers alike with authenticity and real-world dealership insights. 

"We all are consuming social media all day long every day,” Horner shared in a recent Car Dealership Guy interview. “If everyone is doing this all day long, then that's where we need to be.” 

The Doug Horner Show dives into what drives dealership success today through candid conversations with respected industry leaders, performance coaches and digital creators shaping modern automotive culture. 

About Doug Horner

Doug Horner is General Sales Manager at luxury dealership, Mercedes-Benz North Olmsted, and the creator of @BenzsandBowties, a brand centered on real dealership culture and leadership perspective, and the joy of the work, as an auto industry influencer.

About CallRevu 

CallRevu is the leading communication intelligence platform built for automotive retail—empowering dealerships to take control of every conversation, from the first ring to the final result. Our holistic solution combines an automotive-specific hosted phone system, call monitoring, performance training, and reputation management­–fueled by AI-powered analytics that turn every customer interaction into actional intelligence. Founded in a dealership in 2008, CallRevu was created by the industry, for the industry to drive revenue, improve performance, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. 

Learn more at www.CallRevu.com

#cars #dealership #carsales #carshopping #cardealership #sales

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's a really amazing story. Mr. Mergado came over, you know, Freedom Flights, Cuban refugee immigrant, the whole thing, grew up in suburban Chicago, and made it down to Miami, and that's where he started his his career in the car business and stuff. But his dad was a huge Cadillac guy. And his dad purchased his first Cadillac from Motorworks years ago.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

So what would you tell people that this career can provide for you and what you are going to have to kind of be ready to commit to to make it a career and not just a job?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

It could provide everything. I mean, I'm a married father of four that lives in the suburbs, right? I'm living the American dream, if you want to call it that. I'm a fan of satire and sarcasm. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is like my favorite actor because of that. Nobody does it better. Yeah. Um and, you know, maybe some stuff I've pushed the uh envelope with a little bit, but I don't think I've done anything to really embarrass the store. Um, I didn't put myself out there, right? As far as uh promoting myself to my personal sort of uh community.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

But they're so focused on the now that it will never become easy for them because they'll always have to be working that hard to try to sell the car right this second. This episode is brought to you by Call Review, the dealership intelligence platform that connects every conversation to performance. From their hosted phone system and AI-powered attendant to real-time analytics, coaching, and reputation insights, call review helps you capture every call, understand every interaction, and convert more opportunities. Call Review, where communication meets intelligence. For more information, visit callreview.com. It is the Doug Horner Show, season two, and I have a very special guest today, a fellow Mercedes Benz guy. It is Raul Tomsa, better known as the Vincierge on social media. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Thanks for having me. So I have been wanting to talk to you ever since you made a decision at the beginning of the year to go back onto the sales floor from a management uh position, which almost never happens for many reasons in this business. So we'll get into that for a moment. But how long have you been in the car business and how did you get into the car business to start with?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Um I've been in the car business coming on 18 years this April. And I got in the car business simply because I was a geek at the time I was driving Volkswagens, and I would spend so much time at the dealership abusing the free car washes that they offered me a job.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Wow. Okay. So you were that guy. You were there for the free car washes constantly.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah. And, you know, I here, you got to have somebody that's your inn. So my in became the finance manager because he had taken care of me on like all my deals. Uh, we hung out a few times outside of the dealership. And he goes, you know, you're young, you're energetic, you actually love these things. Uh, why don't you sell cars? And I go, what are you talking about? Don't you have to go to school for that? Don't you have to be some kind of like high-level pro, you know? And he goes, you know, shut up, kid. Just gonna get in here and we'll teach you what you need to know. So yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Do you ever get those questions from people now that you're starting to get a following where they ask you, hey, what do I have to do to get into car sales?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Oh, somebody I sold a vehicle to just last month referred a young kid that she knows. He's 23, and he came in Tuesday morning to interview me about the career path. He's in hospitality. And I said, Well, if you're in hospitality, it's a great fit. But, you know, he wanted to know hours, lifestyle, things like that. And I said, Well, if you're coming from hospitality, this will be a vacation. I mean, he's got we've got St. Patrick's Day coming up, and he's telling me about an 18-hour day that he's got from 6 a.m. Uh, you know, this Saturday or whatever. So, well, we work hard, but but not that hard. So, yes, and you know, I'm I'm always an open book to anybody that, you know, wants to poke in prod and find out more about this business. Love, I I love this business. I love talking about this business.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah. I've always found those questions a little amusing because I one, I it's flattering that people would think that you need some special path to get into car sales. But the reality of it is, most places you just need a personality and a willingness. You know, there's not really prerequisites to being a car salesperson. You certainly don't need a degree. Um, I know some of the very best that have ever done it had very little schooling, right? Because it's a people business. And it uh it's just always interesting to me. So what I end up telling people a lot is that hey, if it's something that you want to do, just show up and let them know that you want to do it. And you're more than halfway there at that point.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

That's right. And uh one thing I did I did tell them about though is like, do you want this to be your career? Not a job, not something that I want to dip my toe into. Because, you know, can you be successful right off the bat? Yes. How many are though? Right. So it's something that you want to have to decide for yourself, like, no, this is this is the career, this is the path, this is this is my life now, and that's really when it starts to pay dividends.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah, I agree. So you are like a lot of us at the end of the day, where you sort of fell into it, not exactly something that you were seeking out exactly. But for those that are seeking it out, you mentioned you really need to decide that this is the career you want. And I agree with you completely. So, what would you tell people that this career can provide for you and and what you are gonna have to kind of be ready to commit to to make it a career and not just a job?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Well, it could provide everything. I mean, I'm a married father of four that lives in the suburbs, right? I'm living the American dream, if you want to call it that. So there are a few, and I said this to some people in the past, how many industries are there left? Now, the trades for sure, but um, how many industries are there left in this country where you could really build a business within a business where you don't really have to do much investing on your side and in in terms of inventory and things like that? It's just investing in yourself, your personality, your knowledge, things like that, and they could um reap the benefits that it does. So that's that's what I tell them. I said, this is this is we're running out of this in this country, right? So um for me, yes, it it does involve time, but everything does. I'll give you an example. You know, my mom was a nanny for somebody in high finance for a long time. And she told me about his life, right? So, like, you know, the the typical millennial, I want to work 40 hours a week and be a millionaire. Right. Those guys don't know what 40, 40 hour weeks, they got 40 hours in by Tuesday, right? Yeah. So, you know, to drive to fly private jets and to live in, you know, these massive houses. So anything worth doing is going to retire uh require time, right? And and and it's no different here.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

No, you're absolutely right. And that's a great point. I think that uh we definitely run into that with younger generations where they want it all and they don't want to have to put in the time necessarily. And I don't like to generalize because I do, I don't think that it's everybody, right? I've met a lot of young people that have a great drive and they understand that if you want big things, you've got to put in big work. But uh, but yes, this is a career that can be very rewarding. It is a time commitment for sure. At the end of the day, it is still retail. But when you are on the sales floor, especially, and I don't know if you're experiencing this yet again, but uh you can earn some flexibility that managers don't necessarily have, right? Managers kind of have to be there bell to bell, typically, unless you're staffed in such a way that you've got uh somebody else that can fill the seat. But how long did it take you to kind of climb the ladder into a management position? And have you always been with Barrington or have you moved around at all?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I I have moved around. So I'll just kind of briefly summarize. I worked for two and a half years at a Volkswagen store. I left that to do some uh transport work. My dad had a transportation company, and I thought I was done with the car business. The car business pulled me back in when I decided to get my own dealer license, if you could believe that. So I had a small lot for about a year, year and a half. I did it terribly. I I failed miserably, but I grew up fast. After that, I wound up back in a franchise store, uh, sold cars for a few months, and then a FI position became available. And my mentor uh that initially got me into the business, he was at that franchise store. He had moved to that franchise store and we had reconnected, and he put in a good work for me. And so I would say, you know, four years into the career, four maybe four and a half years into the career, I made it to F and I. And so the next 12 years was between F and I and sales manager, uh, up until this past January. So um, you know, you can climb the ladder pretty quickly in this business. That's another thing I I love about it. If you've got the talent and you and you've got the work ethic, you know, and the FI gig, I remember when I got it, Doug, I would go in on my day off to package deals. It was like this thing, like I'm a manager now. I've made, I felt like I I reached the promised land, right? And I would stay late. I would, I loved being in a dealership because now I really felt like I was contributing to something, right? Um, it was a silly thing. It was in downtown Chicago, so I'll tell you this fun story one time. I'm riding my bike through downtown Chicago on my day off, and I stop in just to say hi to the guys, and they were backed up three, four deals. My then general manager would keep his, he would take the train and bike into from the train station. He goes, I'm gonna throw you one of my suits. I need you to spin a deal because I'm three, four deep. And I'm like, I'm in, right? So I'm wearing like these oversized suits and and and uh building out a deal on my day off just because I had the love of it. So yeah, yeah, and and Barrington, Barrington, this is actually my second tour of duty. I started here in um 2018. About a year and a year after I started here, we had opened up a new JLR store, brand new building. We had the point, we just modernized the facility. And I wanted to get out of F and I because one day I wanted to grow up via GSM, via GM. And you're not always plucked out of the F and I position for that without having like sales manager, you know, T Own, bunch of customers, training salespeople. That that was something that I lacked. I was, you know, I I ate what I killed, right? So I went to the JLR store, they sold us off to another group. No big deal. Everything was great. I was with that group for five years, and now I've been back in Barrington since December of 2024. So back with Mercedes-Benz.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Okay. Awesome. So when uh so were you in finance then for the majority of your time in the business? It was split between finance and pre-owned manager. Uh, and my yeah. Okay. And what would you say are the key differences between now you because like you said, we put manager in the title of the finance position, but really at the end of the day, you are a salesman that has extra responsibilities, right? Now, once you become a pre-owned manager or a sales manager of any kind, what are the the key differences there between finance and sales manager?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Well, it depends on the store. So a lot of the stores that I worked at when I was in FNI, they they didn't really, as crazy as might sound, they they were fine with me just being in a cave and them handing me deals. They didn't want me getting involved too early for whatever reason. So that's just what it is. You kind of took the deal as it came in and you had to maximize the profit. And, you know, I had a my first GM at in finance told me, your your job, your job is to get me funded and to put a car on the road. That's how you keep your job. You make your paycheck by selling the products. So, you know, I took that very seriously. First things first, my job is to efficiently get this client on the road. Okay. Um, so I did that. When you switch to the sales manager side, you know, the desk manager, if you will, you you're dealing more in hand to hand, you're helping the client, you're helping the salesperson get a deal. You know, let's not talk about as deep as you go as a pre-owned manager when it comes to acquisitions. I mean, with JLR, I took over that pre-owned job uh end of 2020. I had gotten sick with COVID and uh over like July, I come back and I'm uh I'm a sales manager doing backup FI. It's a JLR store, so we were like one and a half FI guys, right? Yeah, yeah. And I get back and the pre-owned manager decides to go sell Ferraris for a living. Good for him. Like, good for him, right? He's still there, he's doing fantastic. So the GM comes up to me and says, we're gonna give it to the pre-owned department. And in my entire career, if I could be frank, I'd said, Great, I hate used cars. What's the worst that can happen? I and I did. I even when I was a salesperson, I loved selling new pre-owned cars, you know, the scratches, that this, that it was never like a perfect transaction, right? But new cars, there's something about new cars. So um we didn't have inventory. There was months where we had nine cars on the ground, 20, end of 20, going into 21, mid-21, forget it. You know, we we had no Range Rovers on the ground, et cetera. So I was running about 140, 150 car inventory, all auction buys. Just every week I'd buy 15, 20 cars, and you could you couldn't miss in 21 and beginning of 22, right? So, you know, I was buying cool cars that didn't really need a lot of recon and and you know, it was kind of keeping that going. It was a profitable used car department. Um, but again, for it it was it was something that I didn't want to do long term. I said, I'll do this for now.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Um, but I don't want to be a used car manager forever.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

So Okay. So then what led you to the decision? All right, I want to go on the sales floor. And when when did that decision kind of get made? And then I know that you you started the year, right? So January 1, you hit the sales floor, but what kind of led you back to that decision? Because a lot of people look at that and are like, that's so weird. Why would you leave management to go to sales? I have my understandings of that, but I'd I'd like to hear from you how that came to be.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Well, okay. You're part of it? Uh so you're you're part of it. Oh, really? Oh, interesting. Well, it was the content creation stuff, right? I mean, uh, you know, run into you about a year ago, and I I see you, I see Joe W, and I see guys that are at Mercedes-Benz or at a Highline store like I am, and really doing it the right way. Yeah. And really showcasing like, we're professionals, you know, we're not sleazy joe's used car lot, right? We there's a right way to do this. We're dealing with highline clientele, we're businessmen, we're doing this the right way. So I'm noticing, you know, okay, this client, this truthfully, I was like, I missed out on the whole content creation thing. You guys are already big, there's no room for another guy. Um, but this past summer, I'm friends, I'm very friendly with the guys over at Cars Commerce. I'm a huge accurade user. They had me on a panel for Used Carpalooza, which they run every summer in Chicago. And they happen to have Alex Cortiz from who's moving merch, right? Yeah. And, you know, I know it. I started this whole thing purely uh to start an acquisition pipeline. Uh I look at Alex, I look at George Saliba, and I'm gonna create content and hopefully buy 20 cars off the street.

unknown 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Sorry about that. And um, you know, we're we're um we're rocking, we're rolling. The content is starting to get created. Bump in, you know, kind of start connecting with Russ, Russell Richardson, right? And, you know, hey, we're creating leads, hey, we're doing this, we're doing that, and and you could get a pipeline. And this is a special place. We have six brands. So, yes, I am in Mercedes-Benz showroom, and that's the that's the brand that I prefer to sell. But we've got Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Infinity, Honda Cadillac, right? So I've got a little bit something for everyone. And at least at first now, yeah, I'm here Bella Bell. I wasn't here at Bella Bell as a manager, I'm here at Bella Bell as a client advisor because I'm building something. And when the social media stuff started taking off, I thought to myself, okay, here's my chance to kind of have this parallel side hustle as the kids call it, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

And but I need an engine. I need an engine to fuel the side hustle. I need, well, how am I gonna create content? Well, I'm gonna place with six brands, right? So that's where the idea, and it was about November of last year that I sat down with my GM and I said, I've got this crazy idea. I think he could use me on the sales floor. I think I'd be great at it. He's like, well, yeah. Um, and and I said, I want to do this. So the entire month of December, kind of nobody knew. None of my none of my salespeople knew. It was like this kind of secret. And then first Saturday in December at the Saturday morning meeting, we announced it and I moved from sort of behind a desk to the other side of the desk. And you know, now's month three. And again, I did it because um another thing that I mentioned, we're we're A to Z here. So you sell the car, you did the F and I, I do all that uh front to back. And yeah, I I looked at it as like, okay, if I do want to create this content business, and as a sales manager, as you said at the beginning of this call, I might not be able to just say, hey, I'm not coming in tomorrow because I have to go to NADA. I don't know. Um you have to be here. You're a sales manager, right? Right. So I thought that here, being on the show floor, working my leads, being successful as uh retailing automobiles would probably give me the freedom to sort of build these two things uh side by side.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Okay. Very cool. So you had some conversations with Russ. Did he train the store, or were they just conversations that you had with him about doing this?

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Well, Russ trained my brother's store. My brother's also in the business. So my brother had this um relationship with Russ, gave me Russ's number. Um, Russ started noticing me on social media, and he goes, Oh man, he goes, You, you, you've got it, right? Um, but you know, about a couple months into our relationship, he kind of reaches out to me and he goes, Hey, you've got it, but there's still stuff I can teach you. So you should really sign up for my program. And I go, deal. I go, why not? Why not if I if I've got it, why not supercharge it? Right. So um, so I signed up for his program and I'm and I'm in it, and you know, the calls and the training. And I I could I could tell you, if you've if you're starting from zero and you want to do this, that's your you know, it's just a springboard into into getting it to a higher level faster. And I I would not I would not not consider it.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah. So how has uh management ownership have they been supportive? Have they ever been a little bit nervous about the social media? What's that experience been like?

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Um they've been um they've been mostly supportive uh about it because you know um it's it's getting out there. Um we've had some things happen within the group. I'm part of a really large group. So Motorworks was purchased a few years ago by Mergado Automotive. They're out of Miami. So they're you know, 30 stores, they're up to five Mercedes stores now. Wow. Um, two in Virginia, two in California, and that's in the Midwest. So um, you know, I'm no, I mean I've never gotten in trouble. I've never done anything, you know. I don't really do anything. I don't, I don't like to be super controversial. I don't do things that, you know, I I here, I like satire. I'm a I'm a fan of satire and sarcasm. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is like my favorite actor because of that. Nobody does it better. Yeah. Um, and and you know, maybe some stuff I've pushed the uh envelope with a little bit, but I don't think I've done anything to really embarrass the store. Right. And nor do I ever want to. You know, why would that? Um, but you know, it's it's great. Like my GM likes my content, and um everybody around this here. We've got 80 client advisors, you know, on Canthus, and the people in parks and and the tax, and you know, the algorithms working. I'm I'm in front of the eyeballs of people in this business, and people are just like, where do you come up with this stuff? How do you do this? Like, you know, so it it's been very um, you know, people people have been very complimentary to it, and uh it's it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah. And really the reason for my question is that it's so interesting. I mean, what what you're doing and what I'm doing and what Russ is doing, right? I mean, I think generally people see that it works, but there's still a lot of people out there that have the blinders on almost where it's like they they get it that social media is important, but they want to kind of handle it from a corporate level and do sort of the the normal, hey, let's post some pictures of cars and maybe do some walk arounds on our corporate pages. And I what I what I think that some people out there haven't wrapped their head around yet is that not unlike selling cars, it is a people thing. And you've if there's not a personality there kind of behind the social media that it'll only take you so far to show new Mercedes Benzes over and over and over again, or new BMWs or whatever it is that you're selling. So it's uh I think more and more people are are starting to come around to it. But I also the the other part of it is that some might look at it and say, oh, well, if he's out there making a video, then he can't be selling a car. And it's like I get it. In that moment, yes, if you're filming a video, you couldn't possibly be selling a car, but the the effect that that video could have could yield, you know, a ton of sales in the near future or down the road, right? So that have you had any feedback like that where it's like, hey, you're goofing around too much and making videos, or or have they, is it really just been, you know, show me the results and we're good.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Sure. Well, thank thankfully, no. But what what a lot of people, the people that don't do it assume a lot. How long does it take me to film a skit? And I'm talking about this is these are the ones that require work, not just the pointing the camera at myself and talking to it for a 45-second clip. A skit. A skit maybe, maybe involves 10 minutes of setting up, filming, and maybe eight minutes of editing. It's been a hobby of mine, so I can't really say that I've like started I've never done the skits and stuff, but photography and videography, like I film people like will, other GMs will message me, like, DM me, like, what's your setup? I'm like, you do not need my setup. I unfortunately have a$4,000 Sony camera that I bought because I want to take really cool pictures of my kids and other things. Okay, so no, do not like go get a DJI, whatever. Okay, do not do what I'm doing. I have more gear than some of my friends that do this as wedding videographers, okay? So that's my that's me. That's just how obsessive I get. But these videos take 10 to 15 minutes to make. And you know, you could push back on any GM. Every GM will always tell you there's plenty of time in the day, right? There's definitely plenty of times to make your phone calls, send texts, emails. Of course. There's there's plenty of time in the day, especially if you're for a nine, 10-hour shift to invest 15 minutes into one video.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And trust me, the the salespeople that aren't doing it find other ways to be unproductive with some of their time during the day. And it certainly isn't yielding the results that you probably have. So I I know that you've made a few videos that you've started to have some sales directly because of the social media. How has that been? What's that been like? Are people just DMing you? Are you getting calls to the store, internet leads? What has that been like for you?

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah, well, I'll I'll be honest. Part of, okay, I've been doing this as long as I have. And a lot of people, a lot of people know me in my community. I'm um ethnically Romanian, right? And uh so I know like a lot of people around Chicago. I mean, like here, I had 850 people at my wedding, right? My parents, we've been in Chicago since 91. It's like one of those things, weddings and funerals, people show up, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

So, but I've never really, on like my personal Facebook, I made an automotive type post maybe once a year. Like, hey guys, look at this cool car I got, right? So I I didn't even really, because I was in a management, I wasn't really on the floor, I wasn't really going for deals. Um, I didn't put myself out there, right? As far as as uh promoting myself to my personal sort of uh community. Um, this has been different. This has been, hey, I'm at the store, I sell cars, DM me if you need help. Um, I've had, for instance, this 13-month S-Class Lee special that you know about. Yep. I've done well over 100 DMs off that video, just quoting people like crazy. Yeah. Um, and you know, it's fun. And it's one of those things. I think, like Russ said, again, I'm three months in. It's now my um follow-up tool, right? I've got a little QR code on this like black mat thing on my desk. And before people leave, it's like, you know, that's my link tree. If you're on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, follow me. And I'm not gonna call you every day. I mean, I know you don't want me to call you every day, but this will remind you of me three months from now, six months from now, I'm not going anywhere. Right. Like I I decided to do this very purposefully here because there are 30-year client advisors at this dealer. The people have made a life out of this place. And I go, well, if they can, so can I. And uh I said, you know, yeah, maybe it's not a deal today. I'm only at the beginning of this, of this journey, right? And I know the dividends will start stacking up here real quick.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Yeah, no, that's exactly what happens. I mean, it's Russ has often talked about it as like the ultimate follow-up tool. And I think that was one of the things that appealed so much to me. Where let's be real, making a hundred calls a day to your client book is a lot, right? It's hard and you could end up having a lot of very long conversations. And and I advocate for that. If that's the kind of person you are, man, pick up the phone and dial 100%. But for me, that always felt like it was taking me away from other things that I could be doing. So now the this idea that if I'm filming every day, if I'm coming up with ideas, and really I don't want to say coming up with ideas, because most of my content is just what's actually happening in the dealership, which is nice because I can turn my brain off and I don't have to come up with a skit like you're doing, right? Which is more mentally challenging. Um, but to just have these videos that go out every day, it suddenly becomes a it's like every day you're in front of the people that you would otherwise be following up with. So it's kind of like you're calling them and having a conversation every single day almost, right? If they like watching your stuff. So you'll reach a point, it's a tipping point where all of a sudden, when they are in the market for a car, they're going to think of you, right? And and so that is definitely a broad appeal for the salespeople out there that have a law, and you and really you've got to have a long-term vision to be successful in car sales. I think I've seen I see a lot of people who work incredibly hard. They're very talented, but they're so focused on the now that it will never become easy for them because they'll always have to be working that hard to try to sell the car right this second.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

And never a car that could be a deal a year from now, six months from now, two years from now. Right. So it's good that you've got that long-term vision because that will you you will start to see that pay off, and it might even reach a point where all of a sudden you're like, what do I do with all these people that are calling? Right. So tell me a little bit about that. You've got six brands on campus. You've mentioned that you kind of go A to Z. That's very unique in this business. What does that look like? For somebody who's wondering, what does that mean? You're you're selling the car, you're doing the finance paperwork, you're basically the only person they're talking to the entire time. Is that do I have that right?

SPEAKER_00 30:03

You you do if I do my job properly, right? So um, here, I'll unpack my second week on the sales floor. Gentleman comes in, and right through the front door, we you know, we take turns watching the door, we have an up system, and he walks in and he goes, I'm here to look at a GLS and an escalate. And I go, You come to the right place. Uh he goes, I want to drive a 580 versus 450, and I want to drive an escalate. So we start off with the 550. I call over to the Cadillac store and said, Can you just have the keys to an escalate? Ready? I'm going there. So 580, escalade, 450. He's coming out of BMW X5. This is key. This is really key. Um, he goes, you know what? I'm leasing. He goes, the 450 was plenty peppy. He's coming out of a V8X5. So his lease is up in a week. And only BMW dealerships can pay off BMW leases to this day. Okay. So we're close on numbers, right? Same. I'm I'm a regular guy. You put someone in a CRM, you start your visit, and then we work in techyon as a DMS. And when I tell you how much I love Tachyon, I cannot sing its praises enough. Because it's all on just like you're in desking, when you're done desking, you push F and I, and then the menu comes up. Well, so we're$60 away on payment. And I say, give me your X5 keys. He goes, why? And I look at him and we've had a good time. We've got the report. I go, have I wasted your time up to this point? He goes, nah. You know, and he just throws me the keys.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

In five minutes, I appraised his car. I've got the experience. We're gonna go in, put it, plug it into you know, provision via auto, walk over to the BMW boys, say, here's the VIM, give me a payoff, walk back over. I found$2,000 in equity. I said, guess what I found? Here's$2,000. We're at your payment. And it was an hour and 15 minutes, maybe an hour and a half, because we took three good test drives. Yeah. But in about an hour and a half, we had a car deal. And, you know, we we have uh our motto is one person, one price, one hour. We are a one price dealership. We developed this a few years ago. It's called one and only. Um, it's all over our website. So a lot of customers kind of come in understanding it. We we we have marketing behind it, but it's a great thing. And then when I start, you know, and here, I I sat in the FI office for a Mercedes-Benz store, so I know how to residualize maintenance on the lease. I know the tire wheel, I know the, you know, I know everything. Like Mercedes, Mercedes is one of the, it is like the greatest brand you could sell, truthfully, because it's like soup to nuts, everything within, you know, like really client focused, customer focused. And and and that's that's a deal. And and, you know, fast forward a couple weeks after that, I get another, you know, a lead and I talk to him on the phone and he goes, Well, I see this whole thing about your one and only and whatnot. And I said, sir, if I can't sell you a car in half an hour, it's it's on you, not me. You know, and he laughed. I will see about that. I didn't sell him a car in half an hour, I sold him a car in three hours because we were having such a great time. Yeah. You know what I mean? We're just the test drive, the everything. We made a deal. We just sat around. He he was in the oil and gas business all over the world. He lived in Romania for a few months. You know, it was just like, it's it's this amazing thing where it seems like the the pressure, sort of like every everything on the side of what it means to transact at a dealership kind of falls away, right? There's no there's no odds behind the curtain that you're scared to go see, or he comes out and says, right this way, let me do your paperwork. It's just, it's all there at my desk. And we have we have these um, we have a support staff. They're referred to as loan processors. So, you know, I get my deal jacket ready after my menu's done. We hand it to our loan processors, they print everything out, they validate contracts, they get me my license and title. Okay, I bring it back to my desk. You know, it's five to ten minutes to sign. I go, I get their copies. In the meantime, you know, we're usually having our product specialist set up the Mercedes app, going over their vehicle. And it's just a really great, really great process.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Yeah. No, I love it. So do you get pushback ever? I mean, uh, from people that say, so you're not going to negotiate with me, it's just one price. And how often does that happen, would you say?

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Um, it happens, but you have to you have to make them understand, right? So, I mean, I think with pre-um cars, uh Doug, I've been doing this 18 years. 18 years ago, my sales managers loaded my lips with a phrase hey, the internet has changed things. There isn't profit and margin in used cars like there used to be because we have to be aggressive. That was 18 years ago. So I have to believe that any client I have has maybe bought a couple of cars over the last 18 years, and they probably heard that in a different dealership, right? And then you substantiate it, you know, iPacket is another amazing tool that we use. They they come out with this iPacket value thing, yeah, and it's showing you Vince specific versus somebody else. And I go, look where I'm at. I'm the first, you know, the cheapest guy or the lowest priced guy, or second or third, but mine's certified, his isn't, et cetera, et cetera. Um, but it it was a it, you know, the the lining is true. Hey, we've listened to customers over the years. They don't like the back and forth. We took the back and forth out. Will you lose some clients to that? Sure. But what do you gain? You gain a lot more, right? Will somebody buy you know, beat my quote by$200 and then that guy is not coming back because he's already sitting in my competitor showroom? Probably. But what we win on the other side, which is like the process that we have in the long term, and uh, you know, the the amazing reviews we get and and people telling their friends, go to Barrington, their one price is an easy experience. I got it, Disney, you know, on the new cars. You gotta you gotta be aggressive on certain vehicles, especially when you're in a market as saturated as Chicagoland is. There's there's a lot of dealers here, right? I mean, nobody's holding MSRP on GLEs, right? Yeah. So, okay, here, this is where I'm at. I'm a G I'm a GLE, X percent off, and and and this is my one price, and this is why we do it. And and I want to get you out of here in an hour. Does that sound fair? And people go, yeah. More often than not.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah. No, I th look, I mean, we're living it now for about a year and a half, and I I would say 98% of people love it, and two per 2% of people hate it, and that's okay, right? That's I'm okay to lose that 2%. Um, are you determining the one price, or is it determined kind of at a higher level and it's already there for you to see?

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Well, again, on pretty on cars, hey, that's the price. You know, it's it's easy. It's no adolescent. A new car, a new car are a new car manager. So Jadrian's been here about five years, and you know, again, we're the auto dealership conquest. You see what everybody else is doing, right? So, like, yeah. Now, as you know, with Mercedes-Benz, you can't advertise off MSRP on your sites, but you know, all you have to do is put up one of those unlock your price things. And it's not hard, right? And so it, you know, the interesting thing is really clients, they'll do that unlock your price thing. They'll get a price, they'll get a total out the door number. It's it's really up to, you know, we've we've done our part, right? Like, okay, fine, here. What's your best price? There it is. You know, no, you got to do better. It's like, you asked me what my best price was. I gave you my, I'm making it easy, you know. And and again, it's split. Um, and even from there, there are people that will shop five, six different dealerships, unlock the best price of all five, six different dealerships, and you know, do you get them? Hopefully, you know, you you take your phone out, you film a video, and maybe they like your face versus the next guy. If the next guy even bothers sending them a video, they probably are not. And you hope to stand out. But but that's that's our game. I mean, that's that's this is what we chose to do. But I can tell you, anybody, you know, my store is kind of a destination store. If somebody's coming through that door, that's a that's a high close you know probability. Like pre-on cars are amazing. So, you know, those leads are great. And it it's this business after all. You still got to do the fundamentals, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

No, of course. And for those that are interested to know, I mean, a lot of websites when you go, when you fill out your information to get the the price, unlock the price, that's just a generic lead form. You're not actually gonna get a price, you're gonna get a okay, we'll be in touch with you with the price. And then it's like a normal, like you know, you've got to kind of be a one price store for there actually to then be a price that gets unlocked. So it's I think we have a price.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

You you we actually have a price. You can, you know, you can get that price. We'll stand down.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

I I get it. I mean, you and I are we're living the same thing, right? We're doing the the same thing here, and it's um I love it. I absolutely love it because I'm all about speed and efficiency. And if it's gonna be a no, let's let it be a no in 20 minutes, not in eight hours. Right, right. But I think that most people, yeah, right, because it's like, I don't know, it's just um amusing to me that dealers there's no perfect way to sell a car. Let's just be in agreement on that, right? You can negotiate, you might think that's the better way. You can do one price, you might think that's the better way. But I can tell you one thing for sure negotiation will never be quicker, easier, less um, just you know, there's always gonna be more friction and just um, I don't know, unpleasantness in that model, right? There's you cannot tell me that oh, negotiating is a better process from like a client experience. Like it's just not. Nobody enjoys it. I mean, there's a very small percentage of people who do, but those people you could argue maybe not gonna be the best long-term fit from a relationship perspective. But um, so yeah, you might think that's the better model, but it's less efficient, I promise. It just is. You know what I mean? So it's uh it's interesting to see more dealers coming around to this concept of, yeah, the internet did change everything. It changed it on used cars a long time ago. Yes, you can go get the same new car to any other dealer within 10 miles of here, but do you want to get the deal done pleasantly in 30 minutes or less, or do you want it to be painful and take three days? And you probably don't even like the person at the end of it, but hey, you saved 500 bucks. So congratulations, right? That's I think that's really what it comes down to. But that's you gotta believe in it. Do you sometimes work with people that don't believe in the process?

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Uh well, that's the thing. It's like do you ever hire somebody that maybe worked at you know, call it a domestic store? Sure. Right? And they're used to selling things, you know, highline sales, you know, okay. In between coming here and leaving the JLR store, I tried my end up being a GSM for a while. And I went to a Honda store. And I think Honda's a great brand. I mean, it's it just is a great brand. High brand loyalty, and the cars are great and all that. Um but you know, it was it was within the city limits of Chicago. And I remember telling a lot of customers about and say, hey, I just got done, you know, I've been with Mercedes, with Porsche, and with JLR most recently. And now here I am at Honda trying to give you a Mercedes experience, you know, and telling this to customers. I'm telling that, I'm trying to train the salespeople to be the same way. And, you know, you get these blank stares, like, no, I just want a better deal. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh, knowing what some of the other stores were doing around town, I'm like, if you paid me, if you walked in and just paid me MSRP, you would be getting a better deal than majority of the other stores around town in in that brand, right? Um, but oh boy, what what I found out was going on around town because there's no margin in a Honda. Yeah. And then a three-year-old one is$2,000 less than a new one. So figure that out, right? Paying MSRP for a Honda is a good deal. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Interesting. Okay. I I never uh expected there to be shenanigans in the Honda world, but uh, I mean, I've I'm not totally surprised. I mean, I'm sure you've seen at least one of my videos where I uh go on a little rant about Toyota, which is it they're the same thing in that in that way. Where and by the way, to reiterate for the hundredth time, both excellent brands, don't have a problem with either of them. I just marvel at the uh the used car values and and people's willingness to pay$2,000 less for a three-year-old Honda or Toyota than a brand new one. But uh I digress. So is it a truly open floor or is it complicated? Can you really go and sell any of the six brands that you have?

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Doug, day one, they hand you a Microsoft surface. Nobody has a tower here because you were designed to be uh mobile. Now, again, we have six on the campus here. When uh before Motorworks was sold to this current group and sold the other, we had we had two Mercedes-Benz stores. So we had Mercedes-Benz Barrington and Mercedes-Benz Hoffman Estates. We're both under Motorworks. They're a few miles south of here. Um, you could from Mercedes-Benz Barrington go to Mercedes-Benz Hoffman. You didn't have to deal or trade. You said, Oh, that that's in my sister's store's inventory. You grab your surface and you could drive with your customers there and sell them a car there as if you worked at that store. And there was an infinity. Store there and a JLR store there. So it is amazing. Now they don't, you know, they're not going to get you like I can't, the JMF Porsche doesn't want me to get certified for Porsche, and neither do I. It's a lot of time to get certified for Porsche. But you got to think, you know, especially in the pre-owned world, to have, you know, as turn is this important thing. One showroom gets a customer, and maybe they came in and that's just not the vehicle that works for them. But you have something similar in another store. Why would you want to interrupt that rapport? Why would you want to interrupt that flow and then say, okay, well, now I got to walk you over and introduce you to this guy and start all over again. I got to relog into the CRM. Let me get your driver's license. Let me do this. No, right? You just, you know, and we're Advent Solutions dealer as our CRM. And it is shocking. Like I've got leads in in multiple showrooms. And as I work my tasks, they're, you know, uh I isolated by the showroom. And I can flip between showrooms and work in every showroom as if I was working in my dealership. It's it's an amazing setup.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

That's pretty wild. I I don't really know of too many places that operate that way. Is there any ever, you know, obviously you've got a home base. Your home base is in Mercedes. I'm sure everybody else there has a home base as well. Do people ever get frustrated with you going over and selling a BMW or a Porsche or Cadillac if that's their home base?

SPEAKER_00 45:30

No, because I don't get frustrated when they come into my showroom, right? And that's the beauty. Like, if if you would sell cars anywhere, like I it was kind of funny, even when I was not part of this group when I was at the JLR store as a pre-own manager, you know, because we used to all work under the same group and stuff. I I've had this conversation with sales salespeople for the last few years. I said, if I were gonna sell cars anywhere, it'd be on Motorworks because you could sell six brains in under one roof. Like, why would you not want that, right? And the the previous owners really, really like, you know, help that out, really, really like put that behind. And, you know, as a selling, no, don't get me wrong. There are Honda guys that will never step foot in my showroom.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

They're not interested. They sell 20 Honas a month, and they're not interested. But I've got everybody can buy Honda, right? I mean, you know, and I've got friends that need to buy Hondas for their kids and stuff. So here at a Mercedes Benz store, um, I could sell somebody a brand new Civic for their for their son that's graduating college and and let's go, right? Yeah. Um, it's it's in and you know, like our Porsche store, for instance, has just grown like crazy over the last decade or so. You know, think about that. They were a smaller Porsche store in the region a few years ago. Yeah. And the fact that they're sandwiched between a Mercedes and a BMW store, and by the way, our Starbucks is in the Porsche showroom, the amount of like in influx of business that they received from that has been huge for them, right? If somebody coming in looking at a GLC or maybe an X3 and saying, I'll step up to a Makan, yeah, it's been it's been huge for them. So they're they're getting a new building uh this year. It's I mean, we're breaking ground this year. So it'll be sad to see them kind of go out of the out of the complex, but they'll still be, you know, on campus. But uh no, and and especially here, you have to, if you want to do this properly, get a good relationship with the managers in every showroom. They know what I can do. They don't have to babysit me. I mean, I was on the desk, I was an FI manager, I was whatever. I mean, when I work a deal for the most part, again, it's a one price, it's a this, it's a that, it's just like, here's my deal. It's done, it's banned up. I sold it in half an hour. Sign off on a let me go get my paperwork. So, not a lot of pushback.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

That's awesome. That's smart. Put the Starbucks next to the showroom that you want the most traffic in. And uh that that's a good strategy right there. That's right. Yeah. So is the pay plan just does it is it consistent across or does it change based on the rooftop?

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Um, it's fairly consistent, but every GM sort of has leeway on like the monthly spiffs. Right. So, like in this showroom, it's like, okay, well, we really got to get rid of CVPs, uh, loaner cars for people that are not familiar with the uh nomenclature. So um here, my spiffs this month are on CVPs, or my spiff this month are on CPOs, and the volume is this and the volume is that. But um, we again, why does the one price we don't get paid on front-end growth here? So it's it's a flat commission. Yeah. I really don't care what what the sales manager sell you the car for. Yeah. It does not matter to me, you know? And so it makes it freeing because it really doesn't matter, right? It it's it's okay. This is why the one price, you could believe in the one price, is because we've done the hard work up front, and now and now I just got to give you the experience that you deserve. So let me concentrate on the experience because the price part, which usually is the worst part, the hard like I keep telling everyone, the hard part's over, right? Like that's what let's let's find the vehicle that you like. Let's that's where we're gonna spend our time is making sure that you're well taken care of and you find the vehicle that's right for you. And then the the hard part's over.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Yeah. Look, I mean, it's it's amusing to me because I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, and you're probably the first and only that I've spoken to that does it just about the exact way that we do it. Now, we don't have the kind of A-Z, we still have a finance department. We're extremely integrated, right? It's not like we're sending you off to some dungeon to do paperwork, right? Like people imagine. It's all very integrated. But but you're exactly right. I mean, our salespeople also don't get paid on the front end gross because uh they have nothing to do with it. I'm sorry, they just don't. I I will argue that with anybody. Um, I mean, if you're in a store that does the whole big back and forth dog and pony show negotiation, then I guess, yeah, sure they have a little something to do with it. But the reality of it is I'm trying to get people in the door as are you. And to do that, you've got to be aggressive, you've got to make it easy. I'm not trying to just hope somebody walks somebody walks in and then we can, you know, get some huge commission on them. That that's just that's a very outdated way of thinking. So it's uh it's refreshing to talk to somebody else that sees the business in in the same way. And I think it's when you're not being paid on the front end gross of the deal, the client wins because you don't care what they buy. You just want them to get the right car. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Correct. I mean, here I go, I went on a test drive just last month, two Benzes, two beamers, and a and a and a cayenne in one afternoon. I mean, it just it is what it is. Now it's about here, we're gonna have fun. We're gonna, you know, and and and when you start think of it that way, it's like, well, I'm gonna get a sale. Now, and and somebody might say, ah, that seems like so much work. Well, let me ask you this: have you ever upped somebody in your dealership, showed them two Benz, and had to say goodbye to them because they had to go look at the BMW or look at an Audi. You know, they're gonna, we're not sure where we're on, so we're gonna, you know, well, that they're gone for a day, and it might take days to get them back. Versus, or then if they ever come back, right? Or they're gonna go to another Mercedes store to to shop you versus okay, I have to go another hour worth of test driving. That's days. That extra hour of you know labor or whatever is is saving me days. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Yeah. Yeah, that's uh that's truly, truly unique, very cool. And it sounds like this process was put in place before the dealership was sold. So you the new ownership decided to retain it. Is that am I understanding that correctly?

SPEAKER_00 52:04

They did. So it's a really amazing story. Mr. Mergado um came over, you know, Freedom Flights, Cuban refugee immigrant, the whole thing, grew up in suburban Chicago, um, and made it down to Miami, and that's where he started his his career in the car business and stuff. But his dad was a huge Cadillac guy, and his dad purchased his first Cadillac from Motorworks years ago. So as he grew his dealer empire, Mr. Mergado had his eyes set on Motorworks. So when he bought Motorworks, he bought it for its culture, for its process, for what it was. Yeah. And that's that's amazing. I mean, and I know you've gone through something similar recently, right? Yeah. Um, so a lot of dealer groups, when they buy a place, they come in with the sledge handlers. They wipe the sales management staff clean and go, well, we got our guys. We brought they bring in their own GMs, their own sales managers, GSMs, everything, and go, we we bought, you know, and everybody has to sort of reapply for their job. They might not do that to salespeople, but definitely the the management staff, right?

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

That was not the case here. They saw the one and only process, they let it, they said this is how it works, and uh they let us continue it. And it's it's been a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 53:31

That's amazing. And yeah, you're exactly right. I mean, we went through the exact same thing, and it was 2019 when Terry Rafi and his family bought the dealerships, and they're primarily in Canada, but similar, similar size, 30 plus rooftops. And, you know, they they said this, I never forget the first day that they kind of came in. We were meeting them, and you know, everyone's nervous, of course, right? Anytime that something that you know and love is potentially going to be changing. And they said the exact same thing that, hey, we're we bought this place because of what it is, the culture that it has, it's standing in the community, the way that you operate. So we're here to support you, hopefully improve in certain areas, but just keep doing your thing. And I remember feeling that day like, all right, we'll see. Right. And sure enough, yeah, it that they said it and they meant it. And and it's been, you know, they have let us operate in a very unique way that uh, you know, they could have easily come in and say, we're changing everything, right? And it and it didn't happen. And I'm glad that they didn't do that. So that that's a cool story because I was as we were talking, I'm like, oh, it sounds like this wasn't something that was implemented with the new ownership. It sounded like it was already there and they kept it. And that's rare. That's really, really rare in in this industry. So I just figured we'd wrap up talking about some of your videos. Um, there are a few of them that stand out to me that some of the more, I guess, satirical ones. Uh, I really loved your your cover charge uh idea. They kind of are of the same vein, so you might be onto something here, although I'm sure they're the ones that are a little bit more controversial. Do you do you have a feeling what the other one's gonna be that that I that I thought was very amusing?

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Was it telling the guy to come back at 7 30 to look at the 20 cars?

SPEAKER_01 55:18

That one was pretty funny, but no, the other one I'm thinking about was your uh your just looking pricing package, your the uh just looking menu. What inspired those two ideas? Basically, the idea that you would have to pay uh when you get to a dealership to have an experience there.

SPEAKER_00 55:36

What inspired it? Well, I a little bit of buy-in. I mean, imagine if you had that buy-in from, and maybe I didn't make it clear in the video that that stuff would get credit to you at time of purchase. But um it what inspired it was my time in the FI office and menu selling, right? You know, you got these three levels of protection. So um imagine if you did that to somebody up front walking in and like what kind of you know, pick your adventure, what kind of experience do you need here? And you know, uh we it's it's when when for the dealer, when for the you know, for the customer. Hey, you know, that the guy, you know, might might get a$100 for going on test drives, and but the customer gets knows exactly the service up front of of what they're going to get. And you know, it people ask me all the time, how do you come up with this stuff? I'm like, well, 18 years. I've seen it all. So um that was one.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

What was the second one? Well, so that the the second one was the the cover charge. They kind of had like a similar concept, they were two separate videos, but it was oh that's right, that's right. Walking into a nightclub, right? And you gotta pay pay to get in. Now that one you very explicitly say, hey, this gets applied towards your purchase. The other one maybe as well. But I just I found them both amusing. That's right. Yeah. Anyone who's been in car sales knows that unless you're in a very unique place where you're paid a salary as a salesperson, which I I think those places do exist some places, but you know, you're 100% commission at the end of the day. So a lot of salespeople, and this is part of the the thing that I don't love about the industry and that I hope to change, is that a lot of salespeople feel like it's like them versus the the customer, because until or unless you buy something, I'm just working for free. And you just kind of have to make your peace with that. That's you're we are client advisors, and until you earn a sale, yeah, you're you're just providing advice and service at that point.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

You you do. And you know, it kind of stems a little bit from I wish uh some customers would be a little bit more upfront about it. I'll give you a quick example. I was on a sales for our store, and it was like Labor Day weekend. So we were running skeleton staff, and I upped somebody, and she straight up tells me, Hey, I'm an FI manager at a Honda store in Pennsylvania. I'm in town for the weekend. You know, we're getting drunk all weekend. Where do you think I took that test drive? Fine, it's Labor Day, it's you know, let's what do you want? Audi A5, cool. Let's go on a test drive on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, let's have a fun time. Didn't expect much about it, right? It's like, this is my and you kind of make peace with it. And you're like, you're right. I get it. I'm not going to sell 100% of the people walk through the store, but be up front about it. You know, if somebody were to tell you, hey, I'm realistically, I'm I'm doing this for my kid. My kid's down in Florida. He wanted me to see what I thought about this vehicle. I'm just here to kind of get no problem. I'll give you half an hour of my time. No big deal. You're not gonna ruin my day. This won't ruin my day. Yeah, but you know, we're we have expectations from our management staff that, you know, once once you get a customer in the serum, that's your responsibility, and you you gotta, you know, squeeze blood out of a rock. And that was kind of what I'm trying to get uh through to clients. Like, I don't mind helping you. Like I said, you may not be ready today. That's okay. I'll be here in six months, I'll be here in six years. But like just kind of be upfront with it so I know what I'm dealing with, so I could take it in a particular direction, and it'll be better for you. I promise.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

Oh, 100%. Yeah, I think that, and that might be hard for some people. Some people, it might be hard for them to come in and be totally lay all the cards on the table. But but yeah, it it definitely helps when people are transparent with you about what their reasons for being there are. One of the questions that I love to ask, and I encourage my sales team to do it, is right off the rip after the introduction, what are we what are you looking to accomplish today? What are you here to accomplish? Right? Because people don't really expect that question. A lot of times they'll just sort of word vomit like exactly why they're there. You know, they'll start and they might divulge the hey, I'm I'm in town for a bachelorette party and I'm I gotta kill some time, right? And cheaper than a movie. Yeah, right, exactly. Cheaper than a movie. Exactly right. So what is the vision, right? Fast forward a couple of years, you're back on the sales floor now, you've started social media. Where do you want this to go?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Honestly, I would love it if I could, you know, a friend of mine who's kind of a successful business guy said, Could you teach this to others? And I said, Huh? You know, because you know, in your mind, most successful sales guys wind up starting a marketing department and pitching dealers on I could sell you more cars, right? So I had that kind of in the back of my head. I don't know, maybe you know, that's that's an idea. But he goes, No, no, no. Like he's he's in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he goes, All right, um, you know, Pennski's out here or Hennessy or whoever is out here. Could you plant a Vincierge in every single dealership? So what you're doing front to back, the whole process, I love it. He doesn't like car shopping, but he so I was always like when he had a car shop, I'd go with him or whatever, and literally not as a Maven, just like, you know, let's pay profit, please just let's just do this quickly, almost like Tommy does or whatever and delivered, right? Um so I go, well, that's an interesting concept. He goes, Yeah, you know, so I don't know, is this a consulting firm, right? Where every dealership has one, two, maybe three guys, because as you know, I mean, we're we've been at a we've been talking about this crossroads in this business forever, but what is the future, right? When you have somebody that really only wants to work 40 hours a week and make X amount of income versus somebody that wants to be that top producer, top earner, whatever, is it two different kinds of pay plans on the same chrome floor, right? You're your product specialist focus versus actual Vincier's client advisor type type level thing, right? And and could this be taught? I think it could be taught. You know, when it comes to dealerships social media, somebody asked me one time, uh, well, we're looking to hire, I said, listen, this is what I see that's successful. I could be wrong, but there's two ways to be successful as a dealership in social media. One, have amazing eye candy and the most amazing videographer that's going to draw the views from pictures and reels of like a GT3RS, and you know, like we have a Porsche store in Chicagoland that's got the 50,000 followers on Instagram and they're 4K high-end content. Yeah. That's one way to do it. The other way to do it is believe it or not, it's you have to have somebody with a personality. It's actually got to be a person or a team, right? Where people, and I'm just saying, what what's successful idea, what I've seen, what I've observed, right? So it's it's a Doug Horner, right? Where it's like, I'm the GSM. And and again, you you really kind of blew me away when you came out where you're like, and you know, don't take this as just you know, blown hot air, but I'm like, every Mercedes, every BMW, every, you know, should have that Doug Horner, right? Where it's like, here's who I am, here's how we do things. I put myself out there, and you know what to expect at this dealership. And I think that pays dividends more than just reposting a picture of the stock Mercedes Benz at that every dealership has, and that you get zero clicks on zero likes, zero shares. Oh, you know, the lease special on GLA is$359 this month. No one cares. You know, no one cares, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

Yeah. No, I I so that's very cool to hear. And I agree with you that there probably is a future model where you've got maybe those different tiers of people in the store, right? Because you've got people out there that are content to work 40 hours a week and they make four or five, six grand, and they're just kind of, you know, they're they know the cars and they'll take you on test drives, but they're not really, they don't want to work extra and make all the calls to do the sales. And then you got people that really just put their all into it and they approach it in a totally different way. And it I could see a world where you've got that those differing levels uh of sales people. It's very interesting. And I look, everything is teachable 100%. If you've got, but you've got to have the right people, you know, otherwise it's square peg round hole, right? So, well, this is uh, you know, this has been a lot of fun to get to know you a little bit more, very interesting. I think uh, you know, if I can give you one piece of unsolicited advice, you have because you have, you know, what works for me, like you said, is that people are seeing what it is to do business with us, right? Because they're they're watching it happen. And I've told people, you know, when I go to any DA or people just reach out to me, they're they're like, I want to do the same kind of thing. And I caution them, I'm like, well, let me just warn you that you better do business the right way, or I'm not sure you're gonna want to show them what it looks like to do business with you. Now I'm proud of it. You've got basically the same process. So mixing that in as much as possible so that people know, hey, if I call Raul, this is what it's gonna be. This it's gonna be A to Z. He's gonna be with me every step of the way, and it's gonna be a best price up front. And it's um, it's gonna be and it's gonna be just an easy, easy, easy process because they already know you're you're already likable, you're knowledgeable, you're funny, you've got the skits and everything else. Now, just keep showing them exactly what it looks like. Because I think that the more you can mix in the real stuff that's happening, the more people will believe it that that's the experience they're gonna have when they contact you. And that is what's I mean, I I feel so blessed now. I never thought a million years, I thought honestly, my content would be way too boring to work. But I think that now when I look back at it from you know 30,000 feet, I see, oh, people like to know how things really work, how what really goes into it, what happens when the salesperson disappears into the sales manager's office. And, you know, for me, it's more trade appraisals and updating deals with uh incentives that they can't do themselves. But what it's um, you know, it's it works. And then people show up and we give them the exact process that they were expecting, and they're happy. So, you know, I think if you start mixing that in, it'll it'll supercharge you because you've you can do it because your your process works and it's good. And then I wouldn't hide it from anybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

No, and and I really appreciate that. I mean, you know, that's that's always been like, so where do you take take your content? I don't think that 100% all the time skits, you know, it's fun, it's funny, it's it is what it is, but it's it's not reality of like actually doing business with the guy. And and that's where like for again, I I will commend you one more time before we end this thing. And I'm like, I'm I'm really grateful. I'm really grateful that because everybody wants to know how the sauce is just made, everybody wants to know what Oz is doing behind the curtain, and you showing people that it's it's not some we're not just scheming, you know, right and and you know, it's like no, is this these are real numbers, these are real things, incentive your vehicle's worth what it's worth, you know, all this stuff, and we do things the right way. And and I think that clients, especially at this level, uh deserve deserve the the process. And, you know, again, thanks for having me on. Yeah, thank you for doing what you're doing. Um, I'm you know, I I owe part of this uh in a way to you. So again, I'm very grateful and and uh thank you for the support and I'll keep supporting you and and you know, hopefully, you know, we meet one day and and you know, again, thanks again.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:56

Yeah, no, I'm and I'm sure we will, and thank you. Uh that means the world to me and I appreciate it. And it's uh I've had many similar conversations with people like Russ and George, the people that were there that kind of pushed me over the hump. So I'm thrilled to be a part of your journey in some way. And I'm I'm confident that at one point you'll be part of somebody else's journey when they see you and they're like, hey, if he can do it, I can do it too. Or uh, you know, that to me um just makes it all worthwhile, right? Because it's this has been a wild ride, it's been a lot of fun. But more than anything, it's been just such a great way to connect with car buyers and car shoppers and the people out there that maybe have a a notion about car dealers that that we can help change, right? So, well, Raul, I really appreciate you being here today. The Vinciers, I love the name, by the way, so clever, very well done. And uh can't wait to see where you go from here, brother. Appreciate. Thank you again, of course.