Wake up, Buy Here, Pay Here people. It's a beautiful day. Go grab yourself another cup of Joe and say hello to Jim and Michelle Rhodes on the Buy Here, Pay Here morning show. Take it away, you two. Oh, goodness. Hey, good morning. Welcome back for take two of the morning show. I think that our soundboard might have... Been jostled a little too much. Been jostled a little bit too much. I took it on a recent trip to Oklahoma, maybe part of the Zoom. We just had a terrible time with the soundboard this morning. Yeah, well, we did on Friday as well. And yeah, it may have bit the dust. Don't know. I got to spend some time and play with it. Well, welcome, y'all. We just got a big topic for today. Only real announcement for me is V-Eight related. We got V-Eight plus sessions tomorrow and a few more meetings before the close of the month, of course. Our big reason for the topic today is we're in final preparation for our first white hat waste certification course. And this is something we really haven't socialized much out there. This was kind of invitation only. We invited a select group and we've got some dealers coming in. We've got our coaches that are going to be working with us. And some vendors as well. And some vendor partners. So happy to have a small group coming in here to do a first run on that. Yeah, kind of the pilot run on our certification course. And I think the big opportunity that we've seen out of this is, you know, as you start to dial this in and you think about the education, how it's going to be different. Like I had a dealer ask me on the phone when we started to really socialize this thing. So how is it going to be different from some of the other? you know, opportunities for training out there. And I would say that the main difference for us is this is squiggly lines, intangibles. You know, Michelle and I talked about that a lot, the squiggly versus straight. This is really about squiggly. So it's been a challenge to us to say, how do you take these intangible things and give dealers concrete ways to go back and Apply these in their business and be able to. And then the other piece for us is then being able to measure the results and verify that it actually makes a difference. Right. Because otherwise, you know, what way is a concept is a wonderful thing to talk about being, you know, good guys and good gals in the community and all the kind of things. It's a feel good thing to talk about. And we look forward to being able to show. that it will make a profound difference in a dealer's business when they bring these principles and kind of drive their business from these core ideas. And it's not just the ideas and then the principles. tools that we're releasing for White Highway dealers. When we talk to dealers, they can go to a conference and they can take a lot of notes and then they have to go home and implement. And so the next time a conference comes around, they open up their file folder and pull out the notes from the last one. And not a whole heck of a lot has been done because it just requires them to do a lot of the legwork when they get back. And so part of what it is that is being released is that White Hat way is helping create tools so that that process becomes easier for a dealer to implement. we're going to make sure that we're part of the solution. So there will be very actionable things. We basically have dealers coming in on Saturday. We're in session all day Sunday. We'll be recording that content, and then we'll have a test and wrap up on Monday morning. When those dealers head back on Monday, there will be very concrete things that they will have learned that they can take back and apply and go to work with their team, and that's where the culture is going to kick in and commitment to kind of a core mission and all these kind of things. But then I think that what you're alluding to is the tools will be actual things that we will be able to provide to them as a licensed dealer, if you will, to be able to go to work with them and on their behalf to reach new customers. Well, and we've been doing White Hat Wednesdays For three years. Since June of twenty twenty two. Yeah. So for almost three years. And so a lot of there's a lot of principles that we teach already. And so those of you who just are fans and you know how what are things that we can do to help create an atmosphere which is White Hat Way based on the principles of White Hat Way. So, you know, it's out there for it. Like if you want to just start applying those principles, do it yourself and all of that, it's there. What we've created is a way for them to let us help them in the process of shifting their purpose and their mission and how they communicate and all of those things. We're there to help them. Yeah, and I think for today, you know, the title of the podcast, podcast for today is this idea of how to earn and maintain and then sell trust so this is the part that I think way in recent months really in the last year we've started to really hyper focus on this idea of you know, selling trust, like what is it? How would we begin to, you know, I use the bottle sort of images, you know, how do you bottle trust? Like if I can help a dealer put trust in a bottle, put multiple bottles on the shelf and have those built up banked in a way that they could begin to use those, go open a bottle, you know, anytime that it's needed. Well, how do you, how do you do that? How do you start to bottle trust and how do you then sell it? Well, I think for our conversation today, The premise is really to help dealers understand, first of all, how do you actually do it? And so we'll take you in kind of a sneak peek of how this is going to look when we're with the dealers and the group on Sunday, in that we're going to be giving them very specific body language and techniques and things that can be done to start to train teams back at the dealership and begin to Help them to win the trust of more customers. But this is not just for customers. This is within the team. This can be vendor partners and the people that the dealer does business with. So the things we're going to teach really apply in all those ways. And I think when we think about trust, it's like the thing that the old joke about, trust me, I'm a used car salesman. It's like facetious, right? This idea that that a dealer is trustworthy. So I think in our segment, certainly there are dealers that are trustworthy. There are members of their team that are trustworthy. Question is, how do I convey that to a customer in a way that I can start to earn their trust when I just met them? I just met them today, whether I met them online or met them in the building, right? Yeah. And trust is actually an action word. yeah you know what what things are you doing to to elicit a level of trust and you know we shared a while back a quote from Mark Cuban with Rx yeah and he actually was like what people what people are are really buying is trust they trust that we're going to give them the best price they trust that we're going to have it delivered quickly. They trust that we have their best interests at heart. They trust that we are not going to do it the way everybody else does it. There are certain things that they trust about that. And it's a do thing. It's not just a say thing. It's a do thing. What are you doing to help elicit that trust? Yeah, so we've been compiling materials. I wrote my own list of kind of actionable things or specific things that anyone could do. It's not just a car dealer or a member of their team. It's like, how would a person go about earning trust? Okay, so let's go through some of those. I've got some banners teed up over here. Let's see if we can put those up. So you got, maybe it's in the wrong, I don't see them. But, oh, there you go. So number one is communicate transparently. You know, we talk about in our, In our Appendix W and in our material and our core principles, transparency is a big one. And I think that just stands to reason. We had a conversation, I can't recall where it was, with a dealer, but this idea, you know, we've all been in a new car store, potentially buying a car, and And you think about that experience where people go in a back office and you can hear them talking that, you know, they're talking about you and your offer or your negotiation and they're over there kind of. It feels like they're conspiring, right? Yeah, or that there's hidden stuff that doesn't come up until the last minute. And it's like, what? And you don't want to say no, because it could just blow the whole thing. But you feel like it dissolves trust when there are things that are hidden as well. Yeah, and so I think this is the big thing. And a lot of times, maybe they're using an actual sales tower, and they go behind the glass. Or maybe you can see them, maybe you can't. But the idea is they're having a private conversation. The feeling is that they're conspiring, strategizing against me, and I don't feel like they're on my side at all. It does. It becomes very adversarial. Yeah. And so I think this is the thing about, first of all, this is transparent. And I think one of the things I really look forward to, Michelle, is I'm going to be challenging our dealer attendees. to throughout the day when they hear us present our education, I'm going to ask them, is there anything at the end of the day I want to ask them, is there anything that you heard me say throughout all of this training that you would not want to have a member of your team hear me say? That you would not want to have one of your customers, one of your vendor partners? Is there anything that you heard me say that is not transparent and is all about the success of your operation as a business and the customer? Because when the customer is successful, you're going to be successful. And so this is kind of the whole premise of what we're doing. I look forward to kind of tackling education that way. Yeah. And I just, you know, like a lot of this that we're talking about, too, is putting in the context of a lot of things that we're seeing. And it's like some of these pieces that we've been talking about for three years are really, really prevalent right now. So it just it means something and transparency is a big piece of that like being completely transparent The next one is to deliver on your promises if you say you're gonna do something Do it or don't say it and this is a big problem with a lot of salespeople That we've seen is like is you as the dealer we when we talk to dealers all the time you as a dealer is just like They're sitting there mortified at the stuff that they're hearing a salesperson promise that it's like oh crap because now I have to make good on this promise and and so it's the delivering on the promise is being very clear on what promises will be made and And it's like if those promises are made, you better deliver on them. Yeah, and this kind of falls into the category of overpromising or overdelivering, right? So when you overpromise, basically what you're doing is you run the risk of underdelivering. And so I think about this in the context of Customer's car goes in the service department. I think it's going to take five days. The tech says probably a five-day job. So I can go back to the customer and tell them five days, in which case we just had kind of a funny conversation where we know that when you tell the customer five days should be ready on Friday, the phone's going to be ringing at eight a.m. on Friday morning. Yeah, exactly. one way to avoid over promising here is just tell the customer you know they're saying probably Tuesday looks like you know seven day job so you know obviously if it gets done earlier we'll let you know but it looks like Tuesday so that gives us room to avoid over promising we can have a chance to over deliver and and get it finished earlier, but that's where we paint ourselves into a corner. Yeah, and it's like that under-promise and over-deliver. And so if you're over-delivering what you promised, that is going to go a lot further than ... Well, it's complete opposite of under-delivering It's easy to see where trust erodes whenever we say five days and it's Tuesday, whatever, it's two days later and we still don't have it. That's where our trust starts to erode. And this is where I talk about, I always ask our clients to, let's not create our own stresses. And this is an area where We sometimes, the temptation, we want the customer to have the car soon. We know just this simple example that we know that we want to make them happy. So the temptation is to tell them it'll be ready quickly. And this is where we put ourselves in a bad spot because we paint ourselves into that spot. Yeah, and it also goes back to this communicating too, that if something comes up and your promise has to be shifted or we need to come up with a new agreement, is communicate with them quickly and transparently about the things because we all know that when we don't communicate, And a customer's like this, but everyone else in the team has known that there's a problem here or that, you know, the part didn't, whatever it is, that your customer is on your team. And so make sure that you really communicate on those promises so that if there needs to be a shifted expectation, it's a lot easier that it's, This promise is really, really tied to communication. Yeah, absolutely. When we can show that we're on top of it, I think just keeping in contact is big. The next one. Show genuine interest. Obviously, this word genuine, you really start to step into it. When we think about words like being genuine and being trustworthy and being authentic, In this course, we're going to take the opportunity to really take dealers through, because I'm aware, like these are things that I can say to a dealer, be genuine. Well, how do I do that? What is a way for me to show myself as genuine? And so I think this is what we're trying to give them is actionable things, a way to go back and be genuine. So what is it to be authentic? Well, there's all these things that you can begin to visualize, but it's like it's, and I would challenge everybody to look up the word disingenuous. Like I think I see that a lot in material across this industry, others where people are trying to come across as genuine, but because they include elements that are not specific to the matter, then you begin to come across as disingenuous. So when I'm genuine, I'm just being real. I'm getting, I'm establishing a real connection and I am being truthful, transparent, all the things that when, and we can answer this question ourselves. If you know somebody that you would view as genuine or authentic, why what is it that you see in them that you would say makes them come across as well authenticity um and you know I I actually that that makes me thinking of an example uh like them or hate them um I've I've watched different podcasts uh ted talks and things of people that have been in a line at the white house to meet president clinton uh bill clinton Like them, don't like them, whatever. But it is a very consistent thing that when people say when I met him, it was like I was the only person in the room. that there was there was such a a genuine interest in the person where through the you know visually and asking questions and not being distracted by anything and body language and all of these things that this is something that you know people that that didn't like them would say You felt like you were the only person that mattered to him when you were standing in front of him. So part of that is active listening, right? Which is a whole different thing. You can look that up. There's actual kind of methodology that has evolved around just more than just listening. But I think when you use the word about genuine, like even to include it in a sentence, it's like, What is it like what what made Bill Clinton in that situation? Like what are the specific things that you could identify? One was his attention, right? The other was he's being he's being active listener, right? He's not he's not campaigning or stumping or whatever he's being and he's actively listening, he's engaged, he's connected. And so I think anybody that you might view on social media that you think of as beat, they're real. They speak about things in a way that you can tell they're not putting on airs, they're not promising to be something. And so as a result, that comes across as authentic, genuine, real. I can put all those things in the same bucket. And then the next one is being consistent. So that's another thing about being genuine is people will identify that you are genuine when you are consistent in that approach right whether it's the phrases that you choose it's back to body language which is obviously something that's challenging to sort of portray in this room as part of why we we knew that it was going to be important to do the white certification in person right it's really because there will be a amount of role playing there will be uh you know some talk about body language and some real physical things that are very real and can help to to um to create that relationship that we're looking for and make trust deposits with customers or wherever the relationship is. But I think that's what people look, they want to see consistency. Are you saying, think about this within the context of a team. Are you, as the dealer principal in this case, are you saying the same things to somebody else that you're saying to me. And when we don't have consistency, then it's natural that trust would become eroded. And we know that thing from just personal relationships. When you meet with a friend and that friend Speaks negatively about someone else then it's natural for us to conclude that they would probably do the same thing Yeah, when they're sitting with someone else talking about But consistency is also something that is measured and it's met and and so like a really great way to infuse your dealership with consistency is to have a very mapped out what are your procedures and what are your policies that your team work from. And so the entire team knows this is how we handle this. The entire team knows this is what we can promise. And so that consistency, it's really hard and it's easy for someone to pick up, they're not consistent, when they can hear someone being told something different. At the next station or when they come in and someone says, oh, well, they shouldn't have told you that or whatever. Those are those are our consistency is, again, it's an action word. that you that what your team what your team communicates and and what promises they make and how the experience is when they come into the dealership is very consistent consistency is a really really strong thing for developing trust because they know like they know like they know that that this is what the experience is gonna be like. They know that. Just don't make it a negative one. Yeah, and I think the way that starts, and one of the reasons White Hat Way as an identity becomes important is, you know, could you use a different name on the thing? Sure. We chose White Hat Way as a way to represent something that is about character and integrity, right? And ultimately being trustworthy. But when you choose White Hat Way as an identity in this case, then when a dealer takes that back to their team and they live it, they don't just say it, they live it so that the team hears in all the decision making and all the directives that come down, there's nothing inconsistent about this idea that we're, our culture is built around this, we're anchored in this kind of core identity. And as a result, everything that we do, everything that I do as a dealer in that case, everything that my team would hear me do that they would then do is going to be tied back to this is who we are. Right. This is this is what we operate from. And so this is the thing that starts to really separate us and allow us to build a culture that is outstanding. You know, we we frequently just talk about the customer, but these elements are also about your team. um so it's like being consistent inside the dealership with how you handle certain things and you know how you work what like what's expected being very consistent it's these these are it's and and if a team feels like they can trust you because you've communicated with them transparently you've delivered on promises you've shown genuine interest in who they are and you're consistent I mean how easy is it for them to be able to they live it's coming from the top they live in an environment where this is this is their guiding principles these are the things that matter and so it makes it a lot easier for that to be conveyed to the customer as well certainly so the next one is to provide value early so we could replace the word value with other things but it's in whatever way you choose it's making a decision to lean in if I'm gonna earn your trust Michelle then when I meet you I have to I make a decision to show up in a way that is I'm gonna I'm gonna deliver value I'm gonna I'm gonna offer more than you ask for I'm gonna provide you things that I know would be based on our conversation we get to know each other things that would be useful to you and so I'm just going to award those to you I'm going to gift them to you and as a result I'm going to begin to build some equity because you didn't ask for it. Or even if you did ask for it, I give you a little bit more than you asked for. It's like this is part of how we begin to establish that. hey, we're on your side. Without us ever saying those words, they will begin to see that we have an interest in their success. And so I think that's an easy thing for me to say. You heard the words come out of my mouth, but will they see in all of my actions and the efforts that I put forward, will they see that I'm truly interested and invested in. You know, one really beautiful way that we've seen with multiple dealers that we've worked with, Candice Price, who is one of our honorary white highway dealers from twenty twenty three. They had and there's another dealer recently that they at their desk the salespeople and the collections, your team, have a list of community services or people to, you know, they're there to solve problems early. And so that if, In the process of sales, the whole showing genuine interest, you're asking questions like, what are the friction points? What's happening in your world? And it can also be something that's not necessarily tied to, we can or we cannot buy this car today. But if it is something that is creating a pressure point that you could see, because you've seen these, we know that there are patterns with customers and So you see that this could potentially become a problem. Then you solve that problem before that problem becomes a problem for you. And so it's, you know, it can be little things that, you know, I've got to go and do a thing for my kid with the stuff. And it's like, oh, there's a community organization that can help you with that. Do you want me to give them a call right now and let them know that you're going to be coming in to talk to them or we can talk to them right now? Whatever it is, is that when you when you can help them solve a problem early in the game. That is money in the trust bank, if you can help them solve a problem. And then if they know that the collections team, the first time they get that phone call and they're having a problem, and that collections team has a whole list of things that they can help with. You know, that tool belt we had Kristen Acosta on here recently talking about collections. And she's like, yeah, we have a long list of tools that can be used for solving those problems and helping help. Because a lot of our customers don't have the skill set to solve their own problems. And so it's a beautiful with White Hat way. It's it's not it's not. giving a man a fish so he can feed his family for a day. It's like teaching a man how to fish so he can feed his family for a lifetime. Sure. By the way, women fish too. And women do too. I've done that once or twice. Yeah. But the idea here is to be able to make those deposits in that way. And then a couple other quick things and we can start to wrap up. But I think among the things that I had kind of recorded for my own preparations was There's a lot of body language stuff that can happen, and Michelle touched on just now the idea of solving problems. So that's one of the ways we can provide a value is solve problems. The other ways we can do that is very physical, like very specific things that we can do, whether it's a handshake, it's eye contact. So this is a big part of the way thing in my upbringing and the actual value and the significance of a handshake. And more recently, I don't think I've even shared with you, is I'm starting to think about a handshake in terms of a lifetime handshake. OK, so when you think about when I meet somebody and I think about. In order for me to adapt and to adopt this idea that when I meet a customer, I need to get in my mind that this customer is a customer who could be with us for a lifetime. We have dealers who have had customers for generations and decades. And so that that's a very real opportunity. And I think a way dealer is going to be more likely to achieve that. So when I think about meeting a customer for the first time, we don't need to go into it today, but you and I've talked recently about this kind of fear factor. We see a fear factor in the used car industry. You dealers are afraid of your customers and the customers are afraid of you. And so if we come into every new relationship in a way that is fearful, then it stands to reason that that's going to impact that relationship negatively potentially. And so when we can develop, again, I'll call it a lifetime handshake. When I meet somebody for the first time and my expectation is that that customer is going to be with me for a lifetime. It's really the attitude that I bring to all of our business relationships now. It's kind of that handshake is sort of our appendix W in a way is a digital version of a handshake in a way. It's a commitment. It's like we're making that statement, we're making that commitment. So I think these are physical things that we can, you know, you make eye contact, you have a firm handshake, and the feeling of the handshake is such that it doesn't, there's no fear in that handshake. We're going to get to know one another today. It doesn't mean that at the end I'm going to do exactly what you're asking to do, but I'm certainly going to listen and learn. One of the other big things for me is I'm going to listen and learn and I'm going to do the best I can to provide this new customer choices. One of the things that we do, and it again comes out of fear, is that we tend to put and we did a whole separate podcast on this more than a year ago about customer choice, about when we when we make the customer accept our terms, we've got to buy that car with that down payment, then that doesn't build trust. That's that's really pigeonholing a customer into a place where, you know, we just we haven't we haven't given ourselves an opportunity to solve the problem. And I think there's new data coming out for us. Like we're learning more and more as we go through our data and we meet the dealers and we understand more about their business approach and their practices. And you're starting to see some real strong mathematical evidence that these things that we're talking about that are intangible have very tangible results, financial impact. So I think this is part of what we're going to start to share and introduce as we move forward. But certainly we'll be working to measure the things that we do to illustrate that the things that we apply, the actual application of the techniques and the methods and the principles that are our way, we're going to start to measure and show that it makes a difference. It does. And one last bit on that. The idea of having a lifetime customer, we would hope that we can help support them in having better credit and better experience. There are a lot of dealers that we work with that actually have programs in-house that can help facilitate a customer that is just you know they've been with us for a really long time but also to remember whether or not they're they're coming in and making a payment to you every week they're your neighbors yeah and they're your community and and so being your neighbors and being your community if you if you are a valued community member you know, someone that they know, you know, these are good people. I don't need their services anymore, but these are good people. I mean, if you don't have a program that can help support that. That being a good neighbor in your community is, this is that bottling trust as well. And so becoming someone that is a valuable person neighbor yeah yeah and as part of the phrasing that we've adopted the simplest phrasing we've come up with with white hat ways like if somebody just saw the name white hat wave what is it then the tagline or a byline would be um earning the trust of our neighbor like I think this is going to be true regardless of whether we're a car dealership or regardless of what kind of business that we're in whatever these are our neighbors these are people that we do business that can even be a gps provider I mean it's yeah it's it's all businesses that have customers yeah yeah but if you think of them as neighbors first they're part of your community and so I think it's it's like earning the trust of our neighbors so this is why I just kind of wrap up on this idea of bottling trust it's like when you think about that's just our effort to make it more tangible and if you can think about if I can build up a bank of trucks and I can put in a bottle And I've got a bit of a setback with a customer, right? There's a bit of a conflict or setback. And if I could somehow tap into that trust that hopefully I've accumulated, then if I need to make a withdrawal from that trust deposit, because it's kind of a withdrawal from the customer side, then our ability to go and utilize that trust that we have accumulated, that's going to pay dividends. It's going to help us navigate a conflict. and get on to the next thing and keep that customer as a lifetime customer as we talk about. So, you know, this is just part of our ongoing effort and the challenge that we've accepted to make these things that are less tangible, right? There's just a lot of kind of nebulous ideas here and intangible ideas, and we're working to make them more tangible and more actionable in a dealership. And more easily communicated to our customers and our community. Yeah, and our team. And our team. Yep. All right. We should wrap up there. Thanks for tuning in, y'all. All right. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you guys taking the time.
