Episode 19 - Talking Automotive Advertising with PMD’s Art Director Gianna Azzinnari

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Accelerate your dealership success. This is the Car Guy Simple Podcast.

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Welcome back to CGS Car Guy Simple, the podcast for everybody in the car business, regardless of position, rank, doesn't matter. We love you. Thanks for joining us. Car Guy Simple, the syndicated podcast for everybody in the car business. Happy to be back. I'm Joe Levine, your host, and today, today, today, we are today. We are today welcoming our latest guest, Gianna Azanari, our art director at PMD. Perhaps you've heard of PMD, the advertising agency that powers Car Guy Simple, PMDUSA.com. Welcome, Gianna.

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Hello. Welcome.

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Welcome, welcome.

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Thank you for having me. You may recognize my voice, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

You know, I heard your voice before. Are you the person that does the intro?

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Yep, yep. I am the intro. I'm the commercial break. So have a little VO.

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Yeah, you do. Yep. Can you do it in French next time? That'd be fun.

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No, but you know.

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How about Italian? Can you try it? I could try. I could try to do it. You could try a little Italian. All right. All right. Where's your family from?

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I'm from Naples. My family's from Naples.

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No temper there. No. No. Not at all. Not at all. Let's dive right in, shall we?

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Let's get into it.

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All right. Let's um let's I always like to start with background. So everybody understands your background, right? How how long have you been here at PMD?

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I have been here just short of five years.

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Five.

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Wow.

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Already. That's amazing. How did you get started? What have you been doing?

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All right. Well, that's a great question. So I graduated as a graphic designer. Um, I've always been into art. So I originally wanted to be an illustrator, got into the technical side of things. I came here as a graphic designer, um, and then just kind of moved up. So I was designing for a little bit. Then I moved into management. So I was managing the team for a little bit, and now I'm art directing. So now on top of managing the team, I'm helping oversee all graphics artwork, uh working with the video team, working with social to make sure everything is concise across all.

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Do you miss not pumping out art stuff? Do you get to jump in from time to time? Do you? So you don't really miss it because you're jumping in?

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Of course, yeah. I don't really miss it. So it's also good. I have my hand, I have my hand kind of everywhere.

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So what's the biggest difference that you find between being a graphic designer and being an art director?

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So I feel like now I know so much more. So, you know, when you're designing, you're given the prompt like, hey, the client's looking for their, you know, May specials. We're gonna do a May theme, maybe Memorial Day. And then it comes down the chain to me. I'd go into Illustrator Photoshop, give it a little look, send it back over. Now that I'm art directing, um I'm in more client-facing. So I'm talking to the clients more. I know exactly what they like. Um, you know, some of our clients are very particular about the style of artwork. They like, you know, the big 3D letters, they like blue, they like, you know, lightning and and unicorns and rainbows. So now that I know all of that information, uh, it's just a lot easier to put it down the chain. So when I'm making, you know, my art projects for the team, it's more, hey, so you know, we're doing this for this client, this is what they're into. We're gonna do, you know, X, Y, Z. And then they kind of know where to go from there.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Great segue, which begs a question, right? When we talk about um designing branding that works for dealerships, specifically for so we're talking tier three, we're not talking tier one, we're not talking about hardware stores, we're talking about branding that works for dealerships. Talk to us a little bit about designing branding. How do you see it? What do you look for? How do you think about that?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Sure. Um, it's you know, it's different for everybody, but thinking, you know, looking at design now in the new, the new space of everything, right? Everything's changing. So, you know, back in the day, a lot of these car dealerships, it was very car guy, bright colors, neon, you know, big sale, blowout, XYZ. And now it's things are a little different. Uh, a lot of branding now for dealerships is more clean, concise, um, you know, taking on it's their own store branding. So in the past, when we would do stuff for different clients, it would be, you know, crazy colors, neon, uh, anything, you know, attention grabbing to like get their attention. But now we're leaning more towards each store has their own central branding. So it may not be as crazy in your face, but it's clear, concise, everything kind of makes sense and it's easy for the consumer to follow.

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Now, here we are not, we don't really follow the traditional agency model where the account executive has to be the conduit, everything has to go through the account executive, whether it's from the office through to the client or the client back to the office. We don't do that here, right? We've opened up all party lines. Yep. Do you find that to be better? If so, why more efficient, less efficient? How do you see that?

SPEAKER_02 5:26

It's it's it's really helpful, uh, especially if you're a person that like doesn't mind talking to people. I have no problem talking to people on the phone. Uh to be honest, I'd rather open that line of communication, especially from you know, an art background, because a lot of times these, you know, the the car guys, they don't know what they want. They don't, they're looking for something that's gonna get them traffic. That's at the end of the day, it's we want people to come to the website, we want people to come to the store. They don't necessarily know what exactly they want. Um, so coming in with that art background, it's easy for me to have a conversation with, okay, so we want to do something for uh military appreciation month is coming up in May. So we want to do something for that. So, you know, are we looking to do what type of assets? We're gonna do social, we're gonna do web, we're gonna do an e-blast. And then from there, um, you know, I can kind of talk them into, well, this is what, you know, we're all put together for you. We'll keep it like patriotic, we'll have a little nod to, you know, military, whatever, um, and we'll send it over to them from there. So it's a little easier to have those conversations having that art background, other than, you know, somebody being like, oh, well, I'll get with the art team and we'll figure out what we can.

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Because they just want traffic, right? They just want to sell cars. So I I'm not gonna cite the the the big corporation because uh nobody's we don't get paid here. So right, we don't pay people to appear and we don't pay anybody's their stuff. So, but a big corporation a while back said the custom because the the old school thing is the customer is always right. And this company that I'm referring to said the customer is not always right, however, the customer is still the customer. So there are times where you have to say no and steer the conversation and steer the art project or steer the brand. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 7:06

So that's a tricky one. That's a great question. I know. I'm full of those. Yeah, it's it's it's difficult when, you know, you want to make everybody happy, obviously, you want to make the client happy, but there's just, you know, sometimes things just don't make sense. So, you know, as an example, one of our clients say we're looking to do, you know, a a carousel of artwork. So it's, you know, different images that lead into each other. Um, you know, sometimes there's different things that they, you know, may want that may not look as good. You know, and we always try, we'll always, you know, if they come to us, hey, I'd like to see this, we'll always give them what they want. Uh, you know, we'll do it our way, we'll we'll give them uh some type of you know look to what they're going for. Um, but we'll also give them an example of something else. You know, that goes, you know, for many of our clients. You know, if we're looking to do something for, you know, Memorial Day, Labor Day, et cetera, we'll do the artwork, we'll give them an example. They come back, hey, actually, I want this instead. That's fine. So then we'll lead into that. But if it gets to a point where we know, you know, it's this not gonna work, this is not gonna look good, um, you know, it's not gonna have the intended effect, then that's just the simple conversation of, you know, this is what you asked for, but we might not be where we want to be. And this is the solution to that.

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For 22 years, we've always had the the philosophy where it's our job to give the options to the client, not ask the client, what do you want to do this weekend? Yes, which is something that I feel very strongly about. I know that you do as well. When I was a Chevy dealer, I went through five agencies the first year I was a dealer. This is a well-known story because every one of those five agencies, what do you want to do this weekend? Make my mortgage? Like, come on, what do you got for me? Do you find that pitching ideas gets easier as you get to to get more ingrained and entrenched in a dealership's brand? I don't mean Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, the dealership's brand, the ecosystem and all that the culture within there.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

And everyone's different. So some clients are, we trust you, do whatever you want, and we'll love it either way. Some clients are a little more particular, which again, either either is great, we have no problem with either. But I think as we get, you know, situated with them, we get to know them, we know what they like, it's easy to keep moving forward on that standard.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

So once you find something, you you keep it simple.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah. I mean, you know, if they've made it clear, you know, we like clear, concise X, Y, Z, we'll give them that. You know, we'll do our thing. Right, we're gonna always make it look great, fantastic. Right. And then, you know, there could be certain events that come up, we'll give them something new. Right. Um, we always want to give them knowing what they like, but still giving them new, fresh content. We never want to just, you know, give them the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Okay, help me define, in your opinion, what is simplicity and how does it let's stay in this simplicity thing. What is it in your mind's eye and how do you look to apply it with your team when we work with clients?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Absolutely. So, you know, when I think about simplicity, I think about the consumer first. You know, as a per I just bought a car last year too. So I think about being a consumer first. If I'm going to a website, I want to know what's going on when I get there. I want to know what programs you have, what discounts I could get when I go there, uh, what are the lowest price leases that are going on right now? Um, and you know, if I do buy my car, what kind of service programs you have? What kind of things do you have that's gonna make me want to keep coming back? So when we do artwork, we try to keep things as simple as possible. So a lot of dealers or a lot of people, they think, oh, well, you know, we have 13 models. Let's give you an offer for all 13 models and and we wanna, you know, we wanna see that.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

But wait, wait, wait, we'll slow down. What's the downside of that?

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So uh it's great, you know, to have all those different offers, but when we're thinking about the consumer going to your homepage, things get lost. So a lot of dealership websites, many of them, it's a simple scroll on the home page. Things get lost if there's 13 vehicles, you know, there's two events going on for your brand, there's um, you know, some why-buy incentives, we also have a service tie-in. Well, now that's 20 things that are on that site. Uh, and a lot of them, you can't choose what goes first. So it just kind of all feeds through.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

So that's a misnomer, isn't it? Go ahead, finish your thought.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

So the consumer is just gonna get confused.

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Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

They're not gonna sit there and scroll through eight, nine things. No. But if we simplify it to, you know, a small amount of offers, a why-buy, that that tells the consumer, hey, you come here, these are all the things that you're gonna get. You're gonna get our program that's gonna give you discounts, our rewards, uh, our service program. You bring your car here, you get the free car washes, you get, you know, loaner service, we'll we'll you know, take your car and we'll Uber you home, things like that. These are things that people, you know, want to see, especially when they're you know, after they've purchased a car and they they're gonna come back, or they're looking to purchase a car.

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Overkill creeps in because everybody wants to shoehorn more in and more in and more in. Do you believe because well, we already know, right? Because we heat map our clients' websites and we know what it what consumers are hitting and what they're not. And the least of all the things that we tip put uh stress test when we apply a stress test to a dealership's website, the least viewed most of the time, the majority of the time, are sliders. But yet a lot of people want, you know, 15 to 20 sliders because we gotta have it all, people gotta see it. Yep. Do people pay attention to that, or should the sliders only be the core models, keep it simple and an amenities slider?

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Core is always better. Um, a big thing really that consumers are looking for is that why buy. So a lot of our clients have that as the forefront. Why come here? That'll take them to their specific landing page, and that has all the info in it. So instead of scrolling across 18 different vehicles, oh, there's also a 0% APR this month on whatever models, everything is concise and everything's there. So you're gonna get all of that, you're gonna get the why-by, you're gonna get the shop these specific vehicles, and you're gonna scroll down. We also have used inventory, you're gonna scroll down, check out our reviews. So I feel like keeping things simple is always just better for the consumer because they're not really spending a couple hours on a website.

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So hit the biggest things to talk about. Yep. Consumers have told us that, well, I didn't see the deal on what I wanted, but these other deals look so good I wanted to ask them about what I wanted. And we see that a lot, don't we? In the remaining couple of minutes, Josh, we're coming up on a break. Coming up on a break. All right, nobody's going to go. We're not done yet. Okay. We're good. All right. So, Jonna, um what's working now moving towards the future? What in your mind is working now, and how do you see it staying relevant as we go forward?

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, especially in today with this fast moving pace of everything, social is very, very, very important. Um, you know, we're we work with a lot of our clients on their social media. It's no longer just a place to post a vehicle here and there. You know, uh, a lot of our clients are doing TikTok. They're following trends. We're getting them in the dealership making content. That stuff's very important right now. And everybody's attention span is now under 10 seconds. We need to be able to get them interested in what's going on. And they might, you know, watch a funny video that has nothing to do with uh, you know, selling a car. But the fact that they're entertained, the fact that, you know, it made them laugh, it kept their attention. I've seen TikTok videos of dealerships with a million likes and people being like, oh, well, I'd go buy a car there. Has nothing to do with the service, has nothing to do with, you know, them being a salesperson. Um, but it's it's keeping the attention and showing, like, hey, we have fun here, you know, hey, come get a car over here. And then once they're in the door, these are all the things that we have.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Well, we've seen, we've seen, don't panic, Josh. I know we got a break coming. I I promise. I I promise, Josh, to go a little over this time. I promise.

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Yeah, we're in the conversation.

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So on our website, PMDusa.com. That's right. Pmdusa.com. Go enjoy. And you scroll down towards the bottom. We'd started a TikTok just to see, just to experiment and have fun. And one of the first ones we did, actually, you were driving. Volvo was bringing us vehicles because we have manufacturers that bring us new vehicles, let us drive and break them down and experience them, not on the side of the road, but just break down all the accessories and other options and stuff. And you were driving a one-pedal EV Volvo and you were freaking out. And we caught that on a camera, yeah. But it wasn't designed to be funny, but it turned out to be funny. And in the first, in the first few hours, we had over 2,000 eyes, not boosted. And so that's when, right, we caught the bug and realized that there's a way to continue the conversation. However, not rely on social as something that's going to sell vehicles. It's part of the mix.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

It's part of the mix. Social is just a way to get attention to the dealership. So you could be, you know, you could be the funniest guy in the room, but once the customer's in there, like, so I'm looking to buy this car, right? How do we go from there? Right. So I think it, you know, has to be a part dealer training. It has to be a part, you know, artwork that's going to support what the what the consumer is seeing. Um, and then keeping relevant, you know, uh people think car dealership stuck in the past, they think, oh, I don't really want to come here. Staying relevant in the market is how you're going to make money, Hunter.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So stay relevant in the market, keep it simple, don't throw too much against the wall because that's not going to sell more vehicles. Talk about what you do and why you do it, and listen to your people at the agency when it comes to ideas. You don't have to agree with everything, but a good communication back and forth pays off as a full circle relationship, in your opinion, to manage a brand.

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I'd say so.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

I think we're out of time. Unfortunately, I have to say so as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Thanks for coming back again. You're going to agree to come back again?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Yeah, I guess I might have some more things to do.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Josh, a willing participant. Just uh there it goes. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. And and you this is now the person behind the voice of all of our intros and halftime stuff, right? Jana Azanari, art director, PMD. Thank you so much. Um you're welcome. And uh the first five years went fast, so then the next 50 will go even faster. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

I think so.

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All right. Sure. Let's go to a short break. We'll be back in 60 seconds. TGS CarGuy Simple, the podcast, will be right back.

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Our full service ad agency specializes in providing creative solutions for new car dealerships, looking to sell more vehicles, increase service numbers, and promote their brand image more effectively. We use our experience in television, OTT, digital, social media, and more to anticipate challenges and find effective market-dominating solutions so that our dealership partners can thrive in an ever-changing landscape. You can learn more at PMDUSA.com.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Welcome back. Welcome back, welcome back. CGS Car Guy Simple, the podcast for everybody in the car business. Um, many thanks to Jana Azanari, our art director at PMD. PMDUSA.com. That's right. But thank you, thank you, thank you for uh for being our first guest on the first half. Now, the second guest and the second half is mailbag. Isn't that right, Josh?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

That's right. We've got some mailbag questions.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

And then we we there's no notes. It's mailbag time. This is fun. This is the real fun. I mean, we have fun all the time. This is real fun when when when people just like you send us a mailbag question. We love that, so please keep it coming. Seriously, please keep the mailbag questions coming. And with that, first question up, Mr.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Josh, what do we got today? All right. I work for a Stellantis store with nothing to work on the hood and high MSRPs. How can I convince people to say yes to the deal?

SPEAKER_01 19:07

There's always that's a great question. That's a great question. So it doesn't matter what manufacture. It really doesn't. And our perception of what a good deal is and what the consumer thinks are always two different things. Like we're we think we're our customer, we're not really our customer. You hear me say this all the time, right? We are not really our customer. Sometimes we are, but for the most part, we're judge and jury when we see the programs kind of like, no, no, stinks, crap, no, stinks, crap. That's not the way to do this. Whatever the program is, the program is, and that's what's gonna drive the payment or the interest rate or whatever. If there's more money on the hood of the vehicle or less money on the hood of the vehicle, that's gonna drive whatever it's gonna drive. That's the monetary part of the conversation, right? In the 10 steps to the road to the sale that that we preach, right? The close is step eight. It's one step out of 10, step eight. That's the money discussion. The rest of this, and Josh, you've heard me say this a ton of times, right? The value proposition is what your dealership or dealership group offers a consumer in addition to the vehicle. Here's a vehicle, okay? We'll call it the coffee cup. Here it is. Nice. It's got white, it's got orange on it, it's cool, it's got a logo. Here it is. Trotted out. And theater of the mind, if you're listening and not watching, thank you either way. We love you for participating. The reality is I could get this white coffee cup pretty much anywhere, right? Wherever Stellantis vehicles are sold, I can get one. I can order one. They can swap it in. What is the differentiator, right? If you're concerned, and a lot of people are, I'm losing business to the person down the street or the other manufacturer, they have better programs. Where is our value proposition? How does it land? How are we setting up our branding? How are we setting up our website? How do we set up our point of sale? What does our sales process look like? Are we greeting somebody at the door? Can I help you and sit them down and take a five-liner and try to shoehorn them into a payment? Or instead, though, are we building value, taking through the value proposition of not only the vehicle and what the features and benefits, right? The what and so what's of the vehicle? What about what we offer our value proposition? When we're showing off the service department in the sell service portion of the sales process, are we introducing our guest, our honored guest, to someone in the service department? Are we going over all of the amenities, all the things that we do? Are we building value there? What about on the showroom floor before we even talk money? What else is there to talk about other than 0% or a lease payment? There's got to be a value proposition. I am not dismissing the fact that from time to time, various manufacturers, it's like A yo-yo. It's up, it's down, it's up, it's down with regard to incentives and money on the hood. And the be uh the the the be all end all is the fact that if the back wheels go forward, we have to sell them. That's our job. That's how we make money. So let's build more value in the conversation. If everything ended at one o'clock today or tomorrow or the next day in terms of incentives. No more incentives, no more factory help, no more rebates, nothing. And we had to sell. And everybody else had the same thing thrown at them, where their manufacturers said, effective tomorrow, nothing for the next 50 years. What are you gonna do? Go sell bicycles? No, you're gonna go back to basics, which is where we should be, and build that value. Josh, that's what I got.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Perfect. We'll move into the next question. I saw your episode with Optimum. How can I more effectively decide what zip codes are right for me?

SPEAKER_01 23:03

There's a few ways to do that, right? We we could take the easy way out and just look at the zip codes that are included in our deal sales, dealer sales and service agreement. Easy for me to say. Uh PMA, ASA, AOR, whatever you want to use as an acronym. Um, and that's really the cheap and easy way out because that's not really your market. That's where they want you to be sales effective, but that's not your market, right? The best, easiest, fastest way is twofold. First, heat map your sales. Go to your, not your CRM, go to your DMS and pull out all of the new vehicles you delivered by zip code. I'm I don't care about model, I care about quantity. How many vehicles by for each zip code did you deliver last calendar year? And then a separate report for this calendar year to date, new. And then last year, the full calendar year, right, used, and this month, I'm sorry, this year calendar year to date used. So you have four data sets, right? And you take those and you pin maps. Now we do this, we we have the software that we execute this, it's very simple and obviously it changes color and blooms and the the hotter the market in certain areas, it's a different color than others. That's an important way to do it. And on top of that, what you start doing is you looking at other metrics, right? We I'm not bragging, I'm just saying our other process is we overlay on top of the heat map for a client a understanding of not just pump in pump out. We want to see how many total, if it's a uh uh, I don't know, a Ford store, right? How many Fords were delivered in a given geography that we're selecting? Because we look at drive time, because nothing is even in the Midwest, I understand people talking mileage, but nothing's a perfect circle. Drive time map, and you skew that and you bend it and shape it into what your market looks like. Drop your heat map on top of that. Look at those results. On top of that, also look at what I just mentioned regarding the total number, or in this case is an example, Fords that were delivered in that drive time from your store. In that drive time from your store. And then you'll see what the availability is in terms of the size of your market is based on total Ford sales. And don't get upset that you didn't deliver 100% of those vehicles. There's your opportunity. And if you can take the top five stores other than you in your geography, and you can pick off just a few vehicles from each of those five, how much does that change your numbers? And that's where we get back to the value proposition to help this and a better brand strategy. Josh, that's what I got.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

I liked it. All right, moving into the next question. I'm not seeing enough customers in my service department. How can I boost numbers, especially during weekdays?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Well, service specials will help that. Um, having an acute awareness of your online scheduler and making sure that you're shaping that maybe a shape shift of sorts, Josh, a little shape shifting, right? We can amend and we can change how many available service appointment slots there are on certain days of the week as opposed to others. We can make sure that when we sell and deliver and follow up with customers that are new and used vehicle uh owners or lessees in our portfolio, make sure that we're contacting them directly with available hours and other things going on. Not necessarily price point, though, because we don't want it to backfire where somebody gets ripping mad that the only way that they can do a BOGO deal, buy three tires and get one free, is on Thursdays at two o'clock in the afternoon if they can only come in on a on a Monday, you know, before work or whatever. So a little less sensitive to the price hook, be more sensitive to the amenities. How can you help them? How do we get the vehicle and bring it back or pick it up and deliver it back or make it more comfortable for them, the customer, right, when they're in our dealership if they if they need to come in or they want to come in? All of that plays a role in balancing a service schedule for the number of days that you're open in any given week. Balanced performance in the service drive allows for proper stall utilization and helps build the absorption that we want across all days of the month, not just one or two hot pocket days.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Perfect. That was a good answer.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

All right, perfect. That was shorter answer.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

I love a good short answer.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Do you?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Okay. All right. Our last question for today. What is the best way to tell that my dealership branding is working?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yes. Short answer. No good?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Short answer.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Okay. A little longer than that? Best the best way for me to know if my brand is working? Well, it's not just from sourcing. Josh, can I ask you a question? Absolutely. Thank you very much. What was the most recent piece of advertising that motivated you to come in and see us today?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Uh, I believe I remember seeing a TV commercial with your name on it. Do you remember what channel you were watching? Uh, probably the news. I'm always watching the news.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

What was the thing that influenced you the most to come in and see us in that commercial?

SPEAKER_00 28:34

I think it was just your name that just stood out. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

That's interesting. Isn't that a better question to ask than not asking anything and going to the desk and just going and opening up a new file and starting a thing for a new consumer and write? Drive by. That's not sourcing. So sourcing is important. Asking the right questions is important and really listening to the answer. Also, what about exit interviews? Right? Person drove the vehicle. It's interesting. We'll TO a deal, right? Everybody has to touch the desk before we let them leave. Nobody leaves the showroom without a TO. Nobody, nobody. All of a sudden I became a World Wrestling Federation. I pity them. I put no, no, no, no, right? No, no. That's not what we want here, right? Well, we're so interested in TOing to make the deal, right? Now we've closed the money. Shouldn't we be as interested as an exit strategy, an exit interview of sorts? Can I ask you a question? Thank you so much for your business today. Before you leave, can I just ask you one last question? I'm sorry. Can I ask you one last question? Yeah. Thank you so much. Um, you thought I was going to go for the Tom Stuoker referral. That's actually comes before the Tom Stuoker referral. So let's get back into the role play. Well, thanks, Josh. Uh, you know, we we are constantly asking customers of ours why they're customer of ours. What what motivated them to do business? What were the things in our value discussion that that well, what do you find to be most valuable? And Josh, you would tell me that, wouldn't you, if we took the time to listen?

SPEAKER_00 30:09

If I'm talking, I hope people are listening.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Good. So if I ask the question, I need to have a pad, I need to have a pen, and as you're talking, I need to be writing things down. If I'm standing there with my hands in my pockets and I'm just listening, do you think I'm paying attention? No. Right? I'm not paying, right? Probably thinking about my next delivery, right? But if I'm writing down what you say, and I can bring that up in a group team meeting with management, with the ad agency, with things that are going to start potentially really hammering more effectively the things that work and bringing up to speed people on things that maybe we don't talk enough about. And maybe things that we think are really important are as not as top of the list. We had this discussion recently with a client. Like, I know we give free car washes. That's not the main reason that we should be taught hitting the value proposition in the first example. Well, we probably need to find out if it was true. It was true, right? Car washes are nice, right? Car washes for life, no charge. That's great. What else we got, right? So there's there's an exit interview that that matters as well. And the more we learn, the more we can include in our sales process, the presentation of our value proposition. We spend too much time in this business. In fact, roughly 70 to 80 percent, Josh, I don't know if you know this, the average store spends 70 to 80 percent of the time hammering price payment, price payment, price payment, and 20 to 30 percent of the time talking about themselves and their own value proposition, which is off to me. That just sounds off. So that's where I would start.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

That's great. That's all the questions we have for today. But if you have any questions, please feel free to send them in, whether you're going to carguysimple.com, sending us an email, which you'll see at the end of this episode, or visit any of our social media platforms. We're always listening, and we thank you for taking the time.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

I'm Joe Levine, and I approve that message. Help us out, man. Fill this mailbag. There's other, we had other mailbag uh sessions coming, right? There's other ones, episodes. We've got more coming up. Okay, great. Well, and with that, thanks a lot for spending your time. Thanks a lot for dedicating the opportunity for yourself to come offline and listen to some perspectives. There's a lot more coming. We're well along the way. We're not new anymore. We're established and we're listening. So help us, send us, tell us, we'll bring it to life, we'll do it. I'm Joe Levine for Car Guy Simple. On behalf of everybody here at CGS and the ad agency that powers this PMD, thank you so much. We appreciate you listening. We appreciate you watching. Until next time, this is CGS, the Car Guy Simple pod for everybody in the car business, and we'll see you real soon. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and at CarGuysImple.com to learn more and the behind-the-scenes action. If you have a topic you want us to discuss, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to send Joe an email at Joe at CarGuysImple.com. This is the Car Guide Simple Podcast. See you next time.