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. Is it time to start the show? Happy Wednesday, y'all. Welcome to White Hat Wednesday. We've got a real treat today. We've got some guests standing by and have a fun thing to talk about. We're going a little bit old school. We are. It'll be a fun conversation. A couple of quick updates. I know tomorrow night we've got the webinar. Yes. And around culture and how to attract and retain talented people. Keep your talent sticky. Yeah, keep them happy. Have fun in the office. And I've done quite a bit of research on this. And we have a dealer, their general manager, and then a colleague friend of ours that's a vendor that has had a lot of success with teams. And And so we'll be introducing all of that then. But just some really interesting things about studies that have been done about different age groups and what motivators are and what... demotivators are sure that kind of thing so it should be a rich conversation and then on friday we have blake brown a woman attorney or a woman dealer from virginia who's going to join us and and talk about an important hiring decision she's hiring a top executive and we're going to talk through you know how she will go about making that you might have seen jim post something um I think it was on success and a couple other places that we were looking for for She was looking for talent. And it just started posing a lot of questions in our heads about what kind of things when you're a larger operation, what kind of things you'd be looking for. I think we should get to our guests because we have an important topic today. Before we start bringing them in, though, let me kind of explain some of the back story. So today is all about paying a tribute. um and I don't want to sound like we're eulogizing the guy he's uh he's very much retired and living in florida and so today is really about honoring uh the contributions of rick reeves and his dcf program to the larger buy here pay here industry And we've got some dealers standing by that are going to tell their stories about how, you know, Rick's program and Rick and the team in particular, you know, had an impact on their business. For Michelle and me, you know, we've been doing White Hat Wednesday now since Tommy suggested the name. Tommy Brandes is standing by in the wings. Tommy suggested the name to us back when we kicked off the podcast in 2022. And we did our first White Hat Wednesday broadcast on June 1st of 2022. And so this is just, you know, we're 90 some odd episodes, I think, of White Hat Wednesday. And White Hat Way for us is really about introducing dealers to a way of doing business that is really customer centric. And there's lots of other things to understand about White Hat Way. But I think for the purposes of our conversation today, it's really about customer success in addition to dealer success and what that balance can look like. Right. And so I think our dealers today will be able to speak to as they talk about, you know, the history of Rick Reeves and the program. And I've got some really fun material to be able to share from 1995. Oh, there might even be dealers out there that weren't even born then. Maybe Gunner. I don't know. Gunner is a young, young dude, but this is really great stuff. And so, uh, well, Can I just, you know, again, married into buy here, pay here that, you know, we talk about this stuff all of the time and, and it's been really, it's been fun to, to draw connections and parallels and, and, and to a lot of the things that Jim learned from Rick. And so it's really been a nice thing to go through and to see the things and to talk about the specific stuff. Some of our dealer guests will not know this story. I'll tell a quick version. In 1995, I was working in a new car store in Oklahoma. In 1997, I was managing sales manager trainer. and they came to me one day and said would you go open or buy here pay your store I said sure what is it you know and so that was me in 1997 they put me on a plane sent me sarasota florida for training and uh was a pretty intensive boot camp for about five days and uh there's just a lot of really fundamental information that we learned in that and so yes certainly uh you know today is not about me and what I learned I want to hear from these dealers but it's like I certainly picked up some fundamental things back in those days that still apply. And I look forward to talking to these dealers. Before we bring in the dealers, let's bring in Virginia Witter. I think she's standing by. So Virginia was part of the team. Good morning, Virginia. You are muted right now. There you go. Okay. Hi, Virginia. Welcome. Yes, it's it's really we're really glad that you could you could join us today. And it was a pleasure to meet you. We met a couple of years back. Yes. And so I just want to say thank you. Yeah, but that's we're glad to have you here, Virginia. joining the stories around you know these early days and of course tommy and I have known each other since way back in those early training days we if we weren't in the same training class it was close because we met way back then at one of the conferences whatever and that's how I came to know some of these other dealers and of course I was the director of training consulting uh back there for many years and so we got to know some several of these dealers let tell us how where virginia Yeah, so Virginia was one of the chief developers. Let me say the chief developer for the software that was kind of the core of, you know, Rick Reeves is credited by many. It's not me saying it. Others have said Rick was really the first one to come out with sort of buy here, pay here in a box. And software was part of that. Policies and procedures were certainly other parts of that. And Virginia, as the chief developer, was the one who designed the original software. And she's been around much of the training courses and knows these fundamentals frontwards and backwards. So, you know, Virginia, that's what today is about, is just kind of having these dealers speak to what Rick and that program meant for them. And for us, it's kind of spotlighting the customer element like the whole customer relations side of this business you know there's you would think when you bring a bunch of car dealers into a room and you start training them how to do buy here pay here you think well you got to have this much markup and you got to charge this much apr and all the good stuff and in fact what they spent a lot of time talking about was the customer that we serve and how to be successful serving that customer help the customer be successful I'm sure you can confirm that yes and and again a couple of clarifications you know rick and I developed the software together you know he was the primary developer but you know again I did what he he needed done and whatever um and his philosophy is it's better to repossess the customer than the car because your customer is actually your um security you know in that sense sure um And again, I remember back when we were doing those intense five-day training classes from, you know, 8 o'clock in the morning till midnight. And I promise not to throw any beanbags at anybody. I'm sure most people already know about the beanbags. Yeah, for sure. And it's the only training course I can remember attending where we started with morning calisthenics and then there was an obstacle course at lunchtime. I'm kidding. I'm exaggerating. Teen bags in the back of the head if you went ahead of me. It was definitely intense training and I think it was super fundamental training and I think what would be fun about today is we'll be able to confirm that so many of those fundamentals that you taught and that Rick taught back at that time still apply. I should take a moment to explain. I didn't say on the front of the broadcast that You know, we didn't invite Rick because, you know, we didn't want to embarrass him. Today is really about just kind of, you know, taking an opportunity to share some of these stories and let him hear from some of these folks and kind of hear from them what kind of impact You know, he's had now retired, you know, and spending a lot of time with family in Florida. We just want to take an opportunity to just pay tribute to, you know, his contributions and especially on this customer success side. Let's bring in Mr. Tommy Brandes. He is. in the wings he's at a car auction today on behalf of the mid-atlantic state association multi-state association and he is the executive director there so you're one of a few examples of folks that continue to serve in leadership and now 30 plus years in in business tommy so you know welcome you want to share your your early rick reeves stories Yeah. Good morning, everybody. Um, yeah, I got my executive director hat on today. So, uh, uh, which is fun, but I still see, you know, a bunch of my, uh, my friends keeps, keeps me, uh, young in the industry, so to speak. But, uh, yeah, early days with Rick, uh, Virginia isn't lying beanbags to the back of the head. If you weren't paying attention and, um, You know, I don't want to discount Navy SEAL training. We didn't get thrown into an ocean, but it was pretty vigorous. But that being said, what we learned in those five days, I would love to somehow, you know, replicate that today because there's so many dealers out there that just don't have that five-day, we'll call it a boot camp, that could go out. But, yeah, Rick was instrumental in everything. I mean, I still – it the the philosophy is simple and timeless yeah um and uh and I still have the books in my desk drawer um I broke it out you know we hired a lot guy the other day and he didn't know anything about 18 year old kid I said here read these to get a kind of a feeling what what our customer is and what we do so yeah I i still use the philosophy and and the the training tools to this day Yeah, of course. And I think, you know, you're a guy who obviously knows you and I have talked about this. And I know in our prior conversation on the podcast and outside that, you know, what some people would call old school, you and I call fundamentals. And like, you know, it's like blocking and tackling a football. It's like just because it's old school doesn't mean it's wrong. And, you know, it's still obviously very fundamental things that we learn. And I think you and I still. um, follow a lot of the stuff we teach and share a lot of the stuff because it's very much focused on longevity. It's about long-term success, right. And how to, uh, you know, win customers and get those repeat and referral opportunities. So, um, so just kind of share your, your customer perspective and how much that was shaped by the training you received back then. Well, it, it, it truly goes back to the customer. Everything is a digital age and credit scoring and all that. And, and, um, I'm speaking on that at the Buy Here, Pay Here United Summit in April. But all that digital and all that technology comes from the concept of how the customer is taken care of. That's how it's built. And you could go back and if you're not taking care of this customer and working with this customer, sometimes I like to call myself the world's highest paid babysitter, I guess. But the customer has to be part of your family. And you have to truly have a vested interest in their success in order for your success. We just had a third generation just by last week, and we've had a fourth generation. And the other guys you're going to get on this are in the same boat I am. I think they all still use Rick's teachings. Yeah, and they've been in business for many years, all of them, and so this is the first, Tommy, this is the first time we've had a guest eaten by a Rottweiler while live on the broadcast, so I'm great with that, Virginia. Virginia, you still there? Mine are at home, so I have my two at home, so maybe Virginia. Well, you know, like I tell everybody, you know, I'm always available because I live here. I mean, I work from my house, and... Beautiful. Let me see if we can play, Michelle, if you'll put that on. I want to get this from Gordy. Let's see if we can play this from Gordy. Gordy was not able to be here today. He's out buying cars. And so we just wanted to get his commentary. Let me make sure I got the right video loaded here. We're actually marketing their program about the period that I first met him. It would have been roughly August of 92. And he came to a 20 group meeting that I was at and spoke about buy here, pay here and what it was. At that time, we were pretty strong on used cars versus new. Always thought that the ratio should be at least two to one used to new. And we were looking for a way to jump that to three to one. And so the timing was very good. Rick came in and explained his system. I think he was amongst the very first people ever to systematize the approach to buy here, pay here. In other words, controlling your cash and deal and having a very, very, clear written policies in terms of how you were going to treat customers and how you're going to collect. They were actually marketing their... That was, it's looping back. So, you know, it's, again, you already heard from Gordy, the idea that, you know, it's how you treat customers, right? And treating customers with respect. And I've got a couple more videos teed up from him that we'll play, but let's bring in some more other guests. We've got Mr. Mike Dewey standing by. Mike is somebody... You know, I knew, I'm guessing Tommy knew him well back in Iowa. I had multiple locations out there and he's now comfortably retired. So the buy here, pay here business has been good to you, Mike. And I'm looking forward to hearing your story about how Rick Reeves and that training served as a foundation for you and your success. Well, good morning. I just certainly had to be here when you invited me to a tribute for Rick Reeves because he Certainly nobody was more instrumental. And if I've had business success, Rick was the leader that meant so much to me. It's really good to see the guys. I haven't seen the guys for so long. Tommy and Randy and Bob, the group we were used to when I began. I began in 1992, like everybody else attending that dealer seminar. Um, with Rick and like my father taught me the facts of life, you had the facts of life printed there when, as a lead in, when we came on this morning and, and it's certainly Rick's facts of life that we followed to get a tractor run on to do this thing, being a new car dealer, everything worked in reverse. It seemed in those early days when we were making decisions, we didn't have a decision that was just. something that was automatic it was something we had to search for and rick rick was the guy providing that yeah you want to talk uh for a minute about um what you felt like you learned and what you continue to teach your team from the customer standpoint like how did you view the buy here pay your customer as a dealer yes and that's a repeat of the same thing that you and tommy have already said certainly if we We worked at making sure that our customers succeeded, not throwing up obstacles in the path of his success. Like, no, we can't fix your car, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, always finding a way that he would succeed, then we in turn would succeed. Sure. No, that's great. Let's bring in some of the others. I see Bob Shaver out of Minnesota standing by. So welcome, Bob. So great to see you. Good morning and thank you. yeah so you want to share your how did you meet rick and how did you come to be in the buy here pay your business um I met rick in and his crew in 1992 at at a seminar uh where as everyone has said he was training people or soliciting the idea of dealer control financing we went to a conference on Thursday if I remember correctly and by Monday we were getting licenses and we had bought into it that was in late 92 and we actually opened in January of 93 and I've been with Rick all these years until he retired a couple of years ago. He did, as most of us know, take some time off after he sold one of his companies, but he came back. I've been with his software, I think, since 2018. Again, I'm still a thorn in Virginia's side on a daily basis. Yeah. We bend over backwards to take care of the customer. We do absolutely everything we can for them. If they get garnishments or they get a broke down car, we have a system to take care of that. That's all Rick's system. We never got away from the model. You know, for years and years and years, we held the cash and deal. We don't do that anymore, thanks to inventory supply and COVID and whoever you want to blame. But, you know, our cash and deal has doubled in the last four or five years, if not gone a little more than that. But when I see Rick or when I have seen him over the years, I've always thanked him for making me a rich man. So I appreciate that. We currently have four stores in Minnesota. about 35 or 6 million in receivables and 27 or 800 customers. Life is pretty good in spite of the world. It's tougher, but we're hanging in there and we truly appreciate Rick and Virginia and what the software has done for us. Absolutely. It sounds like all of the principles still apply today just as much as it did before towards the customers. Maybe even more so right now, you know, the customers living paycheck to paycheck are in trouble. Yeah. And I want to bring Randy Ola. Randy, if you can stand by for just one minute. That's okay. I just want to follow up on one thing. I don't want to get to ask Bob Shaver. Bob, I have, without saying your name over the years, I have said I met a dealer once upon a time who shared. So I first of all want to find out if this story is true. I am. heard the story I cannot tell you how many times I want to see if I'm remembering right and then too if you still feel that way so I I seem to recall that you said in a group you know conference or whatever once upon a time that as a company you tend to look past the down payment of the customer is that is that telling something you would say or is that my failed memory I'm not sure what the definition of look past is. Well, as in the context that I'm talking about, it's just kind of overlooked or, you know, look beyond it. Look at the customer qualifications in addition to the down payment. We don't get a down payment. So yes, that's a true statement. So you should probably know there are other dealers out there that get a down payment. So maybe you should know that. No, I think I just, I remember you saying that and it was really in the context of you list, look at the customer and make sure they're well qualified for your program. And then the financial structure is almost secondary to you. Is that fair? Yes. Okay. It's very important that they can afford the payment. I don't care if they have a hundred dollars down or a thousand dollars down. That's to me is irrelevant as to whether they can pay. you know, our customer gets, if they have a thousand dollars, they get the lottery ticket or grandma gave it to him or, you know, it's fake money. They don't have a thousand dollars ever. I need to know whether he's got a hundred bucks today and he can make his payments. Nice. Okay. So I'm glad we talked about that because I think, you know, you can share like how much of that mentality and Randy, I promise I'm coming to you next. I want to find out from you, Bob, like how much of that mentality can you credit to that early education from Reeves and company? Oh, I think it's a hundred percent. You know, it was a lot easier back then. We bought a $500 car and sold it for 1995 and, or maybe $29.95 if we were greedy, which sounds crazy 30 years later. But keeping your cash and deal in line was a lot easier. If you got $100, you were okay. Maybe it's unfortunate, maybe it's not, but we trained our customers. All they need is $100 and We've done it for 30 years, 31 years. Hard to argue with that success. Yeah, it's like I always say about Tommy and Tommy, his attitude about, you know, customer success and customer retention. It's hard to argue with that success. Let me introduce everybody to Randy Oler out of Iowa. As I remember, Randy, you're in the Quad Cities area. Yeah. You also, when did you meet Rick and how did you get started? We joined the buyer payer business. Excuse me. Through the new car dealer, Vinji Dahl. And he was looking for a niche market, something to break him out of the used car market. And there was nobody, of course, in the market at that time doing buyer pay here. And he met Rick at an NADA function and hooked up with him. and started the business uh through rick got the software I joined I joined in a couple years later probably in the mid 90s and I was the default manager because the general sales manager at the new car store was running it for benji like a red-headed stepchild and not given a priority or the attention it needed and Benji asked me to step in because he knew that I come from the new car world in sales and fixed operations both. And I got involved in it reluctantly saying, what the hell am I getting into? And anyway, he says, oh, you can still work at the new car store, but you can armchair manage it, go on site a couple of days a week, do this and that. Well, the first thing Benji did was signed me up to go to Rick Reeves training. And that's when I met Rick in Wheaton, Illinois through the, like, I think Tommy and some of the other guys had mentioned, uh, you know, go till midnight at night. I'm going, this guy's crazy, you know, Mark fish and Jimmy Robilar and, and Virginia and all of them were there in the training. And it was a pretty, pretty intense training. And, uh, I got back and my head was swelling. Uh, But it intrigued me and I jumped in with both feet. And, you know, here we are 30 some years later. And of course, Benji is enjoying retirement also. And me and my son and Benji's son, Keegan, are running the buy hair, pay hair stores. And I'm sliding into retirement. Thank God. But anyway, Rick Reeves give us the foundation. And I think Jim, you mentioned it, the dealership in a box. I mean, we had everything there from the forms to the popcorn machines, to the free soda, you know, I mean the whole, almost like a franchise image to make us successful. And if we didn't have that, we wouldn't have been successful. And Rick Reeves put that package together. And thank God for Virginia and the software. We would have been hung a few times on that withdrawal symptoms when we found out Virginia was leaving to go to work for a dealer. And we're going, what are we going to do without Virginia and the software? I just, you know, look at the screen. I see. When was I going to work for a dealer? I know the dealer bought us out and, and, you know, he's, he's extended quite a bit of stuff, but I don't, I don't remember when I went to work for a dealer, except when, you know, we were in between when Rick wasn't there, but. Right. Yeah. You you also enjoyed a nice long career. I look at these dealers, you know, and have enjoyed, you know, decades of success in the buy here, pay here space. I won't ask them for those who are also in the franchise business. You know, I've met many dealers who share with me that their buy here, pay here. operation actually fed their franchise operation. So that certainly can happen and we can hear from this kind of sustained success that we know that's possible. But I think again for today, I really wanted to kind of focus mostly on the kind of the customer relations element. And so I want to come back to you, Tommy, and we'll kind of go around the screen here. uh clockwise at least the way it appears on my screen so tommy with you um let's uh let me find out from you like what what do you remember some of the core elements out of that training that you feel like still apply you know we've touched on some of them already but anything else come to mind that you feel like still apply in terms of how you approach customer relations I just I i think you have to realize and you probably said it and and looking back when that customer walks in They've been conditioned and trained to do whatever they can. They're survivors. And they've been conditioned and trained to do whatever they need to do to obtain financing and get a car, ultimately get a car. And so they'll lie if they have to lie. And what I think we've learned and probably what all of us do is break that barrier down immediately and say, look, we're going to be upfront and honest with you. And I've just become more and more transparent as the years go on. And it just brings the honesty back out of the customer. Let's cut to the chase. We know why you're here. You know why I'm here. And let's build a relationship together. Yeah, I seem to recall, Tommy, at the top of the application, there was a phrase was, you know, our finance decision. Credit will be extended to you based on your honesty and accuracy along with your honesty and accuracy application along with your ability to pay. Ability to pay. There you go. So it was kind of the lead in. So Mike, your thoughts, anything that you recall in terms of customer relations, like the core principles and elements that were taught then? The first thing that jumped to my mind when you mentioned that question was Rick and his staff making sure that we kept our promise to the customer in the area of delinquency. When we told them that we'd come and visit one day the next day after the payment was not made, we needed to live up to that promise. Um, or, or we just set them off in a, you know, in a methodology of not making payments and it was okay. Sure. And that's, that's part of what we feel about what it looks like for us is that thing about, you know, we can't ask the customer to do something if we're, if we're not doing our part, right. If we're not doing what, you know, we've said we're going to do. So that's, that's a good tie in there. So anything else on that? yeah uh just just that that came to mind I guess yeah great and bob anything of that nature for you any core principles that come to mind well picking up where mike was headed there uh you know we told the customer from day one uh if you miss a payment on friday at six o'clock I'm going to be at your house at 6 30 and we did that of course it was easier when you had 10 accounts than it is when you got 2800 but you still have to do it And I can't tell you how many times I've knocked on the door. They opened the door and they say, I didn't think you'd come. Yeah. Which I always said, why not? I told you I would. Right. Yeah. And you really reclosed it right there or you got them back to the store and reclosed it. And I would say 90, 95% of the time that took care of the problem. Right. There's that 5% that's not going to pay anybody no matter what. If we could figure out how to avoid that, we'd be richer than we are. But, Otherwise, we've already discussed the basic things. Some of it's buying the right car. I think most of us probably would have made bigger mistakes without Rick's input on which car to buy and what not to buy. Back in the day, we didn't buy foreign cars and things. I had a partner for the first three years before I bought him out, and the first car he brought me was a Mercedes. Luckily, I could say, no, see, we can't have that. No, that's good because it kind of I think what you're touching on it when we finish this question, I want to show the document that I was talking about. But so we dug up with Tommy's help. We found the old facts of life, you know, educational information. I look forward to sharing with that some of that with you, because it does talk about what you're touching on there, Bob, about the. you know, we, we just, we can't set the customer up to fail. You know, it's, it's on us to make sure that we structure something that can work for the customer. And so that's part of what, you know, we certainly feel like we learned back then. What do you, what do you think, Randy, anything else come to mind that in the way of kind of core, uh, relation or customer relations elements? Well, I think we're like Bob said that we're going to have, we're going to have a delinquency, uh, no matter what, um, know and we were we were taught to try to keep that number as low as possible through rick reeves but I remember rick reeves um in a training actually a conference in florida telling stacy forrester that she had single-digit delinquency and he says you're too low he says you're not taking enough chance or risk we're in the risk business we manage the risk business I think That's what I have to remember a lot is that we take chances every day, but we're betting on the customer to pay and hopefully they will. And those core fundamentals, you have to remind yourself every day of, you gotta love your customer. And if you don't love your customer, you're in the wrong business. And I think Rick Reeves taught us how to get the customer to pay. Right. No, for sure. This document, Michelle, I'm going to show this. So this is something Virginia will recognize. And again, Tommy provided it. And it's copyrighted in 1995. So the attorneys can reach out to me if we've violated any kind of a copyright infringement here. But I think it's all kind of the fundamental stuff that I don't know if everybody can read that. It's it's really, you know, important kind of facts of life that touch on many of the things that, you know, that we've touched on here. I'm just going to read a few. And then there's one down there that might be due for an update. But, you know, just I'm going to rifle through some of them. So our customers need dependable transportation. If the customer does not if the car does not run, the customer will not pay most customers. or most customers cannot pay as agreed. So that's an interesting one to flesh out. And then 95% of all people are good people. Now you're starting to get to some of this stuff that we talk about with White Hat Way. It's kind of the lens that we see the customer through in a way. We do not sell dream cars. Being turned down for poor credit is embarrassing. And our customers live from paycheck to paycheck. So it goes on and on. I want to jump down to the one that says our customers can afford to pay $45 to $60 or $45 to $50 a week, I think is what it said. So you're still in that payment range, Tommy? We're not, but that's all they can afford. We just get them to pay a whole lot more. You just ask them to pay more. I get it. Yeah, that makes sense. So you can take it down, Michelle. I think there's a lot more there. But I think it's kind of fun to go back to that stuff from 1995 and think, this is what we learned back then. And I came in in 97. I'm the green pea of the folks that are here. And it sounds like this is something that like you referred to, a lot of you referred to that list of reminding yourself. And I can promise you they continue to do business that way. I mean, I've seen them and known enough of their operation to know that this is this is part of, you know, what contributed to their success. Which brings me to the next question. This is kind of a. an interesting element for me. And I want to start with you, Tommy. Why the popcorn machine? Why did they include a popcorn machine? What do you feel like was the significance of that? Well, it would smell great when you made popcorn on a Friday. And it was one of those things when we all started the majority of the payments were weekly payments and majority payments were the most were in person payments. So you were just creating a relaxed, fun atmosphere on a, on a Friday afternoon with the popcorn and the Coke, you know, and I think a lot of us have done it where we've extended it and did a happy hour and all that. And, and that's one of the things I talk about now that we've lost in the business because everything is ACH, you know, and everything is auto pay and it's tough to, it's tough to keep the, The customers energized and engaged like we used to. And the popcorn and soda was one of the things that kept them around. And the kids loved it. I have one guy who bought from us who came in when he was 11 years old. He just bought a car from us about eight months ago. And he remembered riding with his mom, coming in every Friday and getting a box of popcorn. So now he's buying cars for me and he's got little kids and I'm sure... his kids maybe someday I'll buy from, you know, gunner. So, um, it was pretty cool. Yeah, for sure. So Mike, your thoughts on the popcorn machine, what do you remember about why they felt like that was important? Yeah, it was that, it was that party atmosphere. I, I guess on, on payday, um, any way to create smiles and, um, um, not selfish. We're happy to hand out popcorn and, and pop and, and, uh, We're on your side. Yeah, that's great. Um, Bob, anything to add there? I think it was a lead into, to the customer service. Um, you know, back when we started, uh, our customer would go to a new car dealer and literally they'd throw them off the lot or they wouldn't talk to them at all. Uh, I've had customers back way back then that they would ask me, how do they know? They didn't even come out and talk to me. Yeah. Um, uh, So I think it was just a way of opening the door that we're going to treat you different. We're going to treat you right. We're going to respect you. And, you know, you're going to be honest with us. We'll be honest with you and we'll figure this out. It was just a lead in. Yeah, I agree. And I think, Randy, before we come to you, I would just add that. So as somebody like myself, who's worked with dealers and coaching and consulting over the years, when I meet dealers who are coming from franchise and independent retail space, this is one of the things that's difficult to help them understand in terms of creating an atmosphere. You know, a couple of you use the word atmosphere. It's like there's a different component when we we have the opportunity, I should say, to create a new atmosphere. And I feel like the popcorn machine was was in a way, you know, an opportunity to do that. Randy, your thoughts there? I agree that the pop and the popcorn, because of my background coming from the new car store, you're 100% right. I mean, the salespeople wouldn't wait on these kinds of customers. And to give these customers experience, whether they were buying today or tomorrow, or they were in there making a payment, we had to make it a fun environment and give them a reason hopefully to come in and see us in person because we had to check our inventory to make sure it was still viable and check their addresses, register for the weekly drawing and the $50 to make sure their address hadn't changed. I mean, We had to make this customer experience the best and the pop and popcorn. We still have a popcorn machine. I just got to get them to make it every day. Yeah, for sure. I want to play Gordy's comments there. Something similar. Ready? The gist of it was to create an atmosphere that really made folks feel comfortable. You know, it's, It's like, you know, how they ask you when you're selling your house to bake some cookies before you have a showing. It had that same kind of effect. People came in, they smelled popcorn. They made or might not have some. I mean, you know, we gave away a lot of popcorn over the years. But it was just creating an atmosphere that was different than expected when you go to a car dealership. And that was really the concept there. I love it. I feel the same. And I can tell you, I've told Michelle a story about how, you know, as a dealer myself having popcorn machine many years ago, that I would find that when you just walk by and offered folks some popcorn and you say, Hey, would you love some popcorn? And they would say, Oh no, thanks. I'm good. And then, but if you took a scooped up some popcorn and walked over and handed it to them, they would accept it every time. It's like, you know, They just kind of one of those things where you cross a barrier and have a chance to connect with people. So then our last question really is around this thing about any any final thoughts. And Randy, let's start with you this time. Like any any final thoughts that you want to share about how you feel like Rick Reeves and their program? you know, had a positive impact on maybe the larger industry, certainly on your business. We've talked about plenty of those things, but any, any final thoughts that you want to share in terms of how you feel like, uh, Rick Reeves has had an impact on our industry. Oh, I can't begin to explain the impact he had on me, let alone the industry. I mean, I wouldn't be in the buyer pay your business if it wasn't for Rick Reeves and then she'd all wouldn't have started it without Rick Reeves. So. I mean, going forward, it's like everybody said, the foundation and the program that he provided made you almost, as long as you had a little bit of money, you were fail-proof. You had the basics there to start, and the rest was up to you. Yeah. And I think because of Rick's influence there and helping you and that family get in the business, imagine all the people that you've helped in the Quad Cities. Oh, man. It's like Tommy said earlier, and I'm sure that Bob and Mike and everybody here, I mean, I've known them all through 20 groups, and we always talk about our referral business. And we were always tracking our referrals. If you didn't have 50% or above referral business, you might be doing something wrong. And like Tommy said, the generations of customers coming back, and some of them are past charge-offs, but sometimes their lives change and they become better customers. Sure. And we know that part of what happened there is, you know, we were encouraged as dealers to offer a shorter term note and give the customer every reason to do business with us again as that account started to wind down. So that's all part of the program and part of what I think we can point to as your long-term success. So Bob, anything to add there? Any kind of closing thoughts about Rick Reeves Impact? Well, the impact was tremendous. We've got four dealers here and you've got recordings from one or two, but there were hundreds. And we set the standard, the TCF dealers set the standard that everybody else tried to live up to. And it started with the bootcamp that you guys have already discussed, but nobody at this point has mentioned that we went back every six months to a free conference and and basically had the basic training over again, pounded back into our heads. Cause I would be willing to bet that all of us drifted a little bit in that six months, especially in the beginning. And he brought us back to the model and kept us in line. You know, I don't think there's a better guy anywhere out there to look at your data and tell you what's, what's going wrong, where, you know, Up until a couple of years ago, I had a weekly meeting with Rick and it was the most valuable thing we ever did. He's just had a tremendous impact. Sure. And I think we see that through your successes and your long history, just like you, of all the customers that you have come in contact with in those markets in Minnesota, there are a lot of people who were in a tough spot and needed some help in the way of transportation. You've been able to provide that for many, many customers across those counties in your area. So in that way, I can see that he's had a positive impact in your whole region. Absolutely. In the whole region. Right. Good. So, Mike, any thoughts from you on that? I do have one little clip to play from Gordy, some parting thoughts as well. So, Mike Dewey. Yeah, certainly Rick had such far reaching impact. I remember just being so excited about the program, discussing it with the NADA 20 group buddies and, you know, and they'd go see Rick and that's where that all started. in terms of a referral system, dealer to dealer to dealer. And Rick was about doing the right thing. And when we did the right thing with our customer, it made it pretty perfect. super business so yeah and uh great I appreciate that and then tommy you know he mentioned doing the right thing you know that's what you and I try to do through the podcasting and every place else we can do in success we're trying to introduce people to this idea that you know what you can take care of your customers and have a really successful business you know yeah exactly exactly and and I think I think one of the things when when rick created this if I look back on it He created it for just like a mom and pop used car. It made sense to a mom and pop used car dealer where you can go out and sell 10 cars a month and build a small portfolio. But it scaled, as you can see, with Bob's situation. You could scale it, but the fundamentals still stayed the same. And he also brought together a bunch of like-minded individuals. I mean, I'm looking at the screen and I'm just going, wow, the amount of knowledge sitting there. The amount of knowledge I took from the guys on the screen in front of me over the years, it's immeasurable. It's pretty cool to still have that family. It's very smart people, very much following the fundamentals that you and I talk about. It's pretty clear evidence of a lot of success. Virginia, final thoughts from you there before I bring Gordy's comments in? Well, again, concerning like the weekly drawings and the popcorn machine, there were some other alternative results from that. One of the things that we did was we would send the dealers off to do other buy here, pay here, pretend shopping. And they can see from firsthand how the customer is treated at other buy here, pay here. It's not just new car dealerships. But, you know, some of the other buy here, pay here, they want half the money down and all this other stuff or they got dirty bathrooms. The bottom line is that by having the popcorn machines, having the cokes, having the cellar. you know, different systems and different parties that you have going on, the giveaways, it's all to show respect to the customer. Provide a clean dealership, a clean environment, and let them have the same respect they would have had at a new car store if they had perfect credit. And then the other side to that is by having that, they're looking at your new inventory. They're looking at, oh, what do you got now out there? I think I'm getting ready to trade my car in or something like that. So you're getting them to see that inventory, even if it's once a month, once every three months. And like they said before, the weekly drawings, customers are more likely to write down the correct phone number if they're going to get 50 bucks. At least then you can verify that the information is up to date. So everything that Rick planned was with the understanding that even though you're giving things away, you're getting a lot back because they're bringing their friends, they're bringing everything. It's what builds the business. And the best I can say is give your customers respect. Let them feel like they're important to you. And then they'll treat you right in return most of the time. Right. You can tell that Virginia did a lot of teaching and learning in those years and working with Rick and company. And I would just, we can go ahead and play Gordy's and a couple of things to share on the backside there. Okay. Ready when you are. Good. To Rick and Virginia and John and some of the folks that we dealt with on a regular basis, I really want to say thanks because it's ironic. In my career path, I was a successful new car dealer until I had an internal theft. And it was my buy here, pay here operation, which every bank I talked to frowned upon, that kept my butt above water until I was able to work through selling off the franchise. I never declared a bankruptcy, and I'm still here because of that business. And we found our way through it, and it is provided for homes and college educations for kids and lots of toy cars and all sorts of different things that have been a marvelous lifestyle because we got into buy here, pay here. New car business is fun because there's a lot going on, but this business is fun, and you're really enriching the lives of your customers while at the same time you're able to make a good living for yourself. So it's been tremendously rewarding, and I'm very thankful for it. So yeah, there's so many things that he said in there that I think kind of sum up what we all talked about. But I think it's really about, this has been touched on, I mean, it's about customer success. So many dealers here have been in business, like Gordy, like I think Randy said, in 92, whatever those years were that people got started in those programs. So you're talking 30 plus years. of doing business, you know, Michelle and I meet dealers that say, you know, maybe they're franchise dealers. Oh, tried that. Buy here, pay your thing. Been there, done that. Won't do that again. And I think for us, it's kind of this an opportunity to just introduce folks to, you know, there is a way to do it. And I think if we if there's a common thread here, I think it's it's customer retention. It's it's customer success. And it's about, you know, understanding that that level of respect for the customer. So so, yeah, this is this is what we wanted to have a chance to talk about today, Michelle. And any closing thoughts from you, Virginia, before we close up? Well, again, and I don't mean to kind of pitch anything, but, you know, I worked with Rick over 30 years. And, you know, with the purchase through Paul and Michael for the DCL team, we have made great strides. We've made quite a few changes to the program and we're basically taking that same basic buy here, pay here module, turning it into a leasing module Because again, Rick started it and Paul just loved it and thrived on it. And he turned it into something better where these buy here, pay here customers, they do want to be better. So we want them to help them improve the credit. And therefore, we help them educate themselves with the credit education piece. And now, you know, that lease here, pay here, we've gone full circle. We got the buy here, pay here customers. Now we got the lease here, pay here customers. And those can graduate into, you know, the the new car, getting a new car. Now, of course, some of those are going to come back because they can't manage their money. But, you know, with. with everything that we're changing and enhancing, because now you can't force the customer to come to your lot and make a payment. that's kind of gone away. You can do the best you can, but you're not going to get the impact you used to get. Yep. I think it's definitely, there's indications that, you know, there's a lot of things about the way customers pay and the way they interact is different. But I think for today, it was really about just emphasizing that many of the fundamentals that we all learned are still there. And it's really still about finding ways to help the customer to be successful and not put up barriers. As we've heard, you know, let's not put up roadblocks. Let's help this customer be successful. And I think the fact that you've got people dealers here the 30 plus years in business saying that should tell us all that you know there's there's some some merit to that concept so so again uh thanks gentlemen for making time to to do this and we're we're glad to have the opportunity to acknowledge uh rick's contributions and uh and I would just say you know michelle and I do the best we can to continue to sort of advance that those some of those ideas through you know what we call white hat way and so today was white hat wednesday it's all about just kind of helping folks understand you know When we take care of our customers, you know, we can enjoy success like these gentlemen have enjoyed. So thanks for tuning in. We'll let you gentlemen get back to your stuff. If you're able to hang around backstage for just a minute, we'll say a proper goodbye. Yeah. If you guys, if you all can stick around for just a minute while we close the podcast and then we can say a proper thank you. So, all right. Um, all right. So much good stuff as expected. I mean, I just, I know. It looks like Tommy had to drop off. Yeah, I didn't say that, but yeah, he did send me a note saying, I gotta go, gotta go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's at the car auction, uh, manning the, the desk for the, uh, for the attendees. So anyway, just be aware that, you know, this is part of what we do with White Hat Way. We're trying to make sure and introduce these ideas and help people really think. Be good to your customer because it's good business. Yeah. To be good to your customer. Sounds so simple just coming out of our mouths like that. But it's like, if it's so simple, how come we see so many people struggle to adopt the concept? So anyway, it's part of what we enjoy doing with our White Hat Wednesdays. We're glad you were able to join us. Thank you everybody so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. And we know a lot of you will be catching the broadcast on the recordings and we'll be sending a copy of this to Rick so that he can enjoy it as well. Make sure that he has the opportunity to hear some of these really awesome tributes to him and the program. All right, everybody have a great rest of your day. We'll see you on Friday.
