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. Yes, good morning. It is Friday. Welcome to the studio in Utah. Friday or TGIF or all of those kind of things. Yeah, we're heading into a long weekend. Yeah. Yeah, it's Memorial Day weekend. I already went in Utah, and this is how I was raised. We always, they call it decoration day in Utah. And it's the day that you go to all of your ancestors' graves and put flowers. And so you decorate their graves. And if you know anything about people, the culture of Utah is it's really into genealogy. And so every year when my dad was alive, and I kind of let my mom do it now, but my great, great, great, great grandfather's grave is, you know, about fifteen minutes away. And so every year we would put flowers on that grave. And it's one of the older cemeteries in the Ogden area. So went yesterday and bought a ton of flowers and all of that. So it'll be nice. I'm going to go with my mom on Monday to... go to my dad's grave. Cause I was like, you know what? The great, great, great, great, great. I'm, I'm, I'm okay, mom. So she's going to go with her sister to do all of the greats and I'm going to go to my dad's. So, yeah. So happy Memorial day. I hope y'all are, you know, I know some of my kids took extra time off. And so they're got a four day weekend. This is like the beginning. This is like the opening bell of, of vacation season and kids are out of school and all that kind of stuff. Something about that just doesn't feel right. I grew up differently. The whole thing about it's a big celebratory weekend, yet we're memorializing those who passed. Good morning, Kevin. Thanks for tuning in. All right. I'm going to just bring in, if that's okay with you, bring in our guest today, and then I'll give a little bit of background and all of that, and we can go from there. This morning, we have Ron Hyder out of Virginia Beach, this area. Ron is a marketing specialist. expert guru, all of the things. And, you know, I remember one of the things that I remembered about Ron is my dad's name was Ron and my brother's name was Ron. And, and so we were at a conference in Florida. I think it was an Orlando area and Ron was speaking and I sat in on it and I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. Really enjoyed his, his, his philosophy, his take on marketing and all of that. And so I've just kind of kept him like I've known who he is. And then I saw Ron wrote an article in Used Car Dealer Magazine for NIADA in April. And we thought, you know, let's have a conversation because we talk about this topic very often. So Ron, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here and Yeah, looking forward to where this conversation takes us. Yeah, there's no telling where it'll land, Ron. Yeah, I'm the wild card here. We look forward to having a conversation around video because that was kind of our primary theme for today. And that was the premise of your article. And so we maybe just start with that. It's like when you kind of to recap your article, like what do you feel like dealers can learn to leverage video more successfully in their small independent, especially in our audience, buy here, pay here. How would these buy here, pay here dealers best use video? Wow. I mean, that is there's so many opportunities, but I would say at kind of the core of And I've been talking about video. I've had the opportunity to speak at NIADA, some of the state conferences for a number of years. And the first talk I gave was years ago at NIADA. And it was about getting on the video bandwagon. It's new. It's fun. COVID hadn't hit. It's still in this infancy stage. And I'm like, you guys got to get on this because consumers are going to love it. And we just saw this rapid adoption. And it has not shut down. I believe the biggest reason why dealers and even within the buy here pay here space should be using video it lets them tell their story right we live I don't care what industry it is it's a sea of sameness whether you're a furniture store a food chain or any kind of re consumer facing you know company It looks the same. It sounds the same. Video is going to be that tool that will let that dealer get their voice, tell their story in an incredibly compelling way that will know them, like them, trust them and want to do business with them. And we could do a deep dive into all the metrics behind it, how the social media platforms are viewing video, search engine platforms. And maybe we'll talk about some of that. I touched on some of that in that article. And it's just, I mean, I really believe if the dealers want to thrive as they move forward and are looking for, hey, what's the edge? How can I get ahead of my competitors? It's time to get on the video bandwagon. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we see that. And I think for me, Ron, after being around the car business for a long time, I've been in it since ninety five and was first managing used car dealerships or buy here payers specifically in ninety seven. And so we've seen obviously across that time, the marketing world has changed. at least the media platforms, right, the way we deliver our message and all the different methods to connect with consumers, that has shifted across those years. And we see that it's even kind of amplified now in terms of the – sort of the attention span of the consumer, right, that we're appealing to. And I shared with you before we got started that I was able to watch the podcast where you appeared with Luke Godwin on the Independent Dealer podcast. I think it was sometime last year, if I got the timeframes right. Jeff actually wasn't there for that one. Oh, okay. But yeah, that's their podcast. But he was with Luke that day. And so I was able to catch that. And I heard your reference to TikTok. And I might speak to that because I think when I see TikTok and what it represents in the consumer awareness today, you know, that to me gives some insight about how. Mm-hmm. people are choosing to consume. And that's video over there. So let's talk about TikTok and what you see about how dealers might use TikTok as an example. Sure. It's interesting because TikTok has just been this constant evolving target. And when years ago, having some conversations, some dealers would ask me, hey, should we get on TikTok? My answer then was, no it's young kids it's high school girls it's maybe college age it has been the most rapidly adopted platform yes hands down yeah and it's that short form content it's easy it's fun it's it's just and it's it's easy to participate and there's something with the tick tock algorithm right that We don't know. I wish I had a crystal ball and I wish I was on that development team. But they are so intuitive where they can pick up on what your interests are, what it is that you're doing. And that's that content that gets served. And it's so much better than Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and some of the other platforms. It is just so intuitive and it's fun. It's a fun platform and we are finding that the dealers that are using it, typically the ones having most success, they'll find someone maybe younger than me in the dealership. I mean, I think I'm pretty fun, but there's funner people out there. uh find somebody who's pretty fun somebody a little younger who just likes to have fun with it but still tell your story and you know and use it to get people again to know you like you become aware with you and let that algorithm do its job right of letting people find you because at the end of the day I don't care again what whether we're selling cars or tires or service warranty, you know, products, people still buy from people. I mean, this is a big purchase. Yeah. Extension, even in the buy here, pay here space. It's an extension of our personality, right? I mean, whether you want, whether you want an import, a domestic, a car, a truck, whatever that is, and video is going to let you kind of just connect with that consumer at that level. And they're going to be, man, I really like those guys. I like what they have to say. Yes. A couple of things. Well, I was late on the TikTok bandwagon. Jim has been someone that will... you get lost and, and, and because it is so entertaining and it's snap, snap stuff that's happening. And I, and I think of like around Facebook too, that when I'm in Facebook and I pop on a reel, it's like, ten minutes can go by and I haven't realized that I've just been on reels and I've just been, I've been learning different things from their algorithm. I get where you're, you're coming out. TikTok is pretty sophisticated. in its algorithms. And I don't know how it knows because I don't find... I don't know. There's psychics or something on the side that says, I think that she's in the car business because I'll get stuff that is auto... Centric. And it's like, I don't go looking for that stuff, but it somehow knows because I see some of the people that we know and work with that those kinds of things will pop up. I love how you talk about known, liked, and known. you know, we, we trusted as well. And this is, if this is people that have listened to us for a while, know that this is one of the foundational, it's like three words known, liked, and trusted. And that the best way to become known is is, um, is to put yourself in front of people. I'm like you, and it's not just your dealership, but it's you. And, and the liked part is, is our, you know, are you, are you adding things that are somewhat engaging? We've, we've worked with dealers that are like, I can't do that. And it's And they connect with people a lot more than they do to photos of cars with prices and all of that. They connect with people. And so we're always encouraging. It's like, get yourself out there. And I love what you said about having someone younger. Um, I would, I would suggest that it will be more impactful in your community if it is the dealer that is in front of the video, because then people know the person and then you can do, you can do things from your team members so that when they show up, they know that they, you Tell your story. Tell your story. And it's not just doing a walk around around a car too, even though they get to know your personality. But just talk to me about how important it is for someone to understand the drive, the foundation, the reason that a dealer has to being in business. Sure. Well... Kind of tying into what you had said, no one is going to tell the story better than the dealer. It is their life. It's their livelihood. It's maybe the name on the building. It is them. It's what they do. And they are going to deliver that message more compelling. And I've been coaching my clients and other dealers for a long time getting into the video. It's like, You don't have to be a superstar. You don't, you know, and let's be honest, the first couple of ones probably going to be a little rough, but just get over it, hit the record button, get over it, throw those ones away and focus on like just getting to the third or fourth one, because then it's really going to start to dial in. Being you, you know, you mentioned, you know, I did the podcast with Luke, you know, last year, and we spent time talking about being you. A lot of times dealers want to become something or portray themselves as something they're not. It's bigger than what they are. And it's like, just be you. We are not going to sell everybody. It's impossible. We're not Walmart. We're not Amazon. We're not the everything store. We are independent used car dealers buy your pay your dealers, we talk to the people that you want to talk to, you know, we talked a lot about in the marketing world of, you know, targeting your ads. And I get a lot of pushback on this because we're like, well, we can sell everything. It's like, no, you can't. It's like, who is that ideal customer? Who can you really do a phenomenal job of super serving turn them into evangelists, have them talk to you about your dealership to their friends or family. focus on them and forget about everybody else. And you will find much greater success with trying to just run after everybody. And video, it's so compelling. I mean, if you look at just how the, again, the search engines are giving preference to it. I mean, Google made a change a few months ago where they're doing featured snippets in the search results. Well, guess what? If you don't have video, you will never be there. ever. Right. And if they're given preference to it, if they're finding those snippets, you know, in the shorts and on the YouTube channel and wherever they're going to pull that from, just being there and being present. Yeah. And people can see they see you, they see the dealership, they hear your story and it doesn't have to again be over the top, doesn't have to be super salesy. We have found incredible success When the dealers just tie into, like this weekend, right? It's Memorial Day weekend. Do a non-sales oriented Memorial Day weekend greeting. Hey guys, this is Ron, ABC Auto Sales. I just want to wish you, your family, the safest, most enjoyable holiday weekend. Make sure to honor people who have served, honor people. that's real this becomes that real content people like wow I kind of I like what they say they're not just trying to sell me a car it's like yes it's easy to create the carousels load up the inventory run an automotive inventory ad people are just going to do it it's not giving you any differentiation between you and anybody else you're dealing with. People need to see you. And I mean, right now, video is the most consumed form of media out there. Light years ahead. And with, you know, my view has always been this, right? I'm not a rocket scientist, but I am a marketer. If consumers prefer it, if this is the thing they want to consume more than anything else, and if the search engines and the social media platforms are giving preference to that kind of content, I'd say it's a pretty easy decision. We should start doing some video. Yeah. No, no, no rockets needed. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's good. First, I got to pause for a minute. Are you good on time, Ron? Cause I can feel there's a whole lot to talk about here. I have carved out today just for you guys. Good. Appreciate that. Cause I'm realizing. We're heading into a holiday weekend. Yeah. Yeah. And so we've got you. I just I realize as we talk about this, there's there's a lot of things that come to mind. And I know this be true for Michelle, too. And so this will be fun, I think, important for dealers to think about, because as you as you touched on that, I think one of the things that separates us, especially in the buy here, pay here segment is is if I'm the consumer, Ron, and you're the dealer. If I'm choosing to come down and do business with you today, I know that in a buy here, pay here environment, that means you and I are going to be doing business together for about three years, probably. It's like a three-year contract. So it's a little different than an independent retailer franchise situation. You know, I'm not just doing business with you today. We're going to be kind of, you know, partners in business for a long time. So it helps to know who you are. And in this thing about being known, liked, and trusted, we did a – We did a presentation in Arizona a few years ago, and we kind of made that presentation around that concept. And I forget the gentleman's name, who we can credit for kind of bringing that phrase to the market. But the idea for me, we did a poll. We went on social media, Facebook, BHP Success Area, if I remember, and put a poll out about Do you, is it important for you to like somebody in order to trust them? And I was kind of surprised that the answers came back that no, you know, a fair number of the dealers said, no, I don't really need to like them to trust them. I think it helps, right? I think it would help if you're likable, I'm more likely to step toward trusting you quicker. But I think in that context, I think we think about the trust element. We think that's especially true, right, on the buy here, pay here side. Consumers want to do business with somebody they trust. I remember in the conversation with Luke that we referred to, which by the way, I'll find that podcast and share the link attached to ours since we're referring to it so much here. Because I think there's a whole lot that you guys unpacked over there that we don't need to rehash all that since you covered it so thoroughly with them. But I would say that in that context of being trusted in the buy here, pay here space, you mentioned that, you know, the dealer should respond to reviews because this is, this is how people decide, how do you do business? Like, who are you as a business so that I can better understand who I'm doing business with. And if I like you, even if I'm not in the market today, maybe my brother-in-law is buying a car this weekend and I'm going to mention, Hey, I saw so-and-so they seem like good people to do business with. Right. So again, So it's about that storytelling. And I'm going to pause. We worked with a guy for a stretch that is a former news producer. Okay, so like a larger market, like a metropolitan market news station. And he said when they featured news stories, when they made the decision about what went on the five o'clock news, they were looking for real, raw, and relevant stories. Okay, so when I think about that for the local news, now I think about how that ties into our TikTok thread. You know, you'll see people sitting in the airport or anywhere. We can go to the conference in June and we'll see people thumbing their phones because they're just attention spans. Like this one doesn't interest me. This one didn't catch my attention in ten seconds, so I'm on to the next one, right? This is kind of the attention span, the brain chemistry, the dopamine factor that is kind of where TikTok is really kind of dialing in with the algorithm. And, you know, Ron, if you'd asked me, Five years ago, you know, you think, will anything ever supplant Facebook? We might have thought, no. And then here comes TikTok. And like now suddenly Facebook is so uninteresting. Facebook is just, it doesn't keep my attention anymore. Right. After the TikTok thing. So I think it's evidence of what. short video can do to catch our attention. And I'm, I'm with the people who say, look, if the content is compelling, you can talk to them for ten minutes. They'll stay. If the subject matter is compelling, so now I'm back to the real, raw, and relevant. If it's, if it's real, I'll probably stay and listen, right? And so this is kind of where I think dealers have the chance to, to connect in a different way through social. Go ahead. Your thoughts on that? Oh, no, I, I mean I agree with that completely it's like what we have seen and social media really brought this to the forefront where people are looking for that authenticity right they're looking for you know is this real or did they fabricate this and right I think Our franchise counterparts, they do a good job of really polishing the ads. But again, they kind of all look the same. They do. It's good looking people. And it's just kind of ties, you know, feeds into that that model that they've created. Whereas we in the independent and the buy here, pay here space, it's just we can really do a great job of connecting at that real level. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be super polished. You just want to deliver that message where people would say, Yeah, I get that message. I get those guys, right? And you make that emotional connection. Every buying decision ultimately is made at that emotional level. We've got a connection. If we don't ever even get to that spot, right? If we're just relying on banner ads and static ads and carousel ads, that's a race to the bottom. I mean, how fast, you know, all we want to do, get them in, crank out the app, try to get them approved, get a five hundred more dollars down. Maybe they finish the payment and it's like, let's find a better quality, long term relationship. I work with a dealer years ago and he actually used a term. I don't know if he ever coined it or not, but if I need to give him credit, I will. He said he likes to do buy here, stay here. Oh, good. Oh, I love that. Yeah. It's like, and I remember talking to Luke years ago, one of the first times I met him, he said, you know, he goes, I don't want to, I just don't want to sell a car today. I want to sell them in three years, six years, nine years. I want to sell their mom, their dad, their brother, their sister, their friends. Let's end. I believe it's easier to do that when we make that real authentic connection as an independent dealer. Your franchise stores, man, they are revolving doors. They're just churning people in and out. And so we can be that local tie to the community, family owned dealer. The dealer is front and center out in front, you know, tying into the community, supporting it. and using that you know this platform you know that or this media to deliver that message and it can be in a number of ways I mean we could just I mean you could short form vertical you know landscape style walk arounds just again talking about community events it's it's unlimited The type of content that we could be producing and making that connection at that personal level. So I would argue if I could go back maybe five minutes when you were talking about doing your survey and you talked about like with some of the people they say, you know, they don't have to like them to trust them. I understand that at a base level, but on a consumer side, if I don't like you out of the gate, I am never, ever, ever shopping with you. And I was like, this is surveying dealers. I mean, if you want to understand the consumer, let's survey consumers and ask them how important that is. And this is something that we obviously... Serving customers is something that we have done with some of our clients and we'll continue to grow that through the White Hat Way platform. I want to talk for just a second about strategy and execution because for a lot of dealers, especially your smaller dealers, and we have a handful of dealers that have multiple locations and all of that, but most of them are kind of more on the mom and pop side. And so when they hear video, it's like, all right, um, how do I, do I have to hire a team? Do I have to whatever? And so basically how, from your perspective, how would someone create a compelling video on a really limited budget with limited tools and resources and all of that? So if you have a decent smartphone, which pretty much everybody does, and what I would do is spend an extra thirty bucks if you don't have it and go get a tripod with the holder because you don't want the camera jumping around and everything. That's really about all the equipment that you're going to need. A lot of the platforms have editing tools built right in. They might not be the best, but they will get you off the ground. There are free editing tools. software platforms available for the dealers free zero money you could go in and do final cut or you could do one of the adobe suites or something that the professionals do but you don't need to do that right you could start with a lot of independent dealers use a thing and I'm and I'm not an affiliate I don't get a dog in the fight but they use a platform called capcom It's simple, it's easy, it syncs to the phone, it exports, and then you can format it for whatever you want at all. You want a TikTok style, you want a real, you want a short, you want landscape for you, you know, what do we want? And it just does it. And it's got a free version. So we just covered the big things that we need. You've got the gear, okay? Do you want to go out and buy a red? Sure, twenty grand, but you don't need to, all right? You start with your smartphone, get a tripod just to get you comfortable with it. Because what you don't want to be doing is handling in and trying to jockey around. And it'll just make you more comfortable to start. And just start small, start with little short stuff. You know, start with little intro videos. Hey, guys, this is Ron ABC Auto Sales, your town USA and we are committed, you know, just experiment. uh michelle you started out right earlier going to you know using chat gpt chat gpt is amazing introductory content I wouldn't recommend using it as is but go to it and say hey write me a fifteen second intro video that I could use promoting my trucks promoting my finance and it'll come back in seconds and then you can refine it and use that as a baseline Um, the other thing I recommend all of the dealers, because it's easy to get overwhelmed and like everybody says, oh, I'm going to crank out all these videos and things start small. Yeah. Start with one of mine. Take it to one a week. Right. Then start experimenting with the different platform. You're right. Better to do, you know, to get good at one thing. I like the reverse engineer. Again, I work with a lot of independent family owned single location store, limited time, limited resources. It's like start small. Do the reverse, build the onion from the inside out. Don't peel it back, start small. Start a little bit, get really good at that, add another layer. Get good at something else, add another layer. In time, you will find it really doesn't take that long to get out there. And what we also recommend, I'm probably hitting everybody with a fire hose. Once you get into it and get a little bit better, we always recommend what we would call batching them up and what batching it up is that's where you go in and maybe you take an off day if there is such a thing in our industry but an an offer day you know where it's a little quieter a few distractions and say okay I'm gonna knock out four or five little videos I'm just gonna focus on that I've got my scripts I've got my meet the team I've got a holiday greeting I've got something on my finance and now I'm set for a month I'm going to take a few hours. I'm going to knock it out. We're going to schedule it. And the beauty of all these platforms, we could schedule in advance, find the times that work, get in in advance, say I'm done with that project. Now I've gotten much more efficient with my time. Now I can go focus on other things. Yeah. Trying to do a little bit each day. It's not going to happen. Right. Yeah. Answer that. It does. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I got lots more for Ron. You got something? Go ahead. So I also, Ron, in preparation for this conversation, I ran, as I'm getting into practice doing, I went to chat GPT. So let me just read the prompt. I said, if operating a small used car dealership, offer five reasons to incorporate video in marketing efforts. Then offer ways to do so most effectively on various platforms, such as websites, social media channels, and other business listing locations. And the very first thing that it spit out, I want to read this one to you. It says, and I just, Michelle and I talk about it. It's amazing. Like it processes in one point five seconds. It has given me a ton of really fascinating stuff. And so the very first thing is this video. The reason that you use it in your used car dealership is video builds trust faster. Video gives potential buyers a human connection. They see your face, hear your voice, and get a feel for how you treat customers. That's a big step toward making, quote, trust deposits, which is probably picking up from our thread. That's a phrase that we use in terms of you know, meeting customers and and, you know, establishing the level of trust, that's transparency and making trust deposits. And we kind of as dealers, we have to step forward. Why? Because there's a perception about used car dealers. We have some stuff to overcome. And so we have to be prepared to lean forward and sort of earn that trust faster. But That's the part I wanted to share with you. That's what chat GPT sees across sweeping all the stuff that chat GPT has access to. And it spits that out as the very first thing it says, you can build trust with video. And I think as a used car dealer, especially used car dealer, who's looking to earn customers for life, I think we've got to get to trust. And in that thing about known, liked, and trusted, I can't build trust if they don't know me. And they don't know me if I don't get on video and let them get to know me. They can see what cars I have on the lot, but that doesn't help them get to know me. Right. And so this is why we like video for all those reasons. And one quick story before I get your thoughts on that, like we had a dealer we worked with some time ago and I won't mention his name. I don't need to embarrass him, but he, uh, working with him as much like what you described with some of your clients he was uncomfortable with the idea we were urging him to get on video and he said well I just don't think I'm that guy and I said no you're you're exactly that guy you're exactly the guy that we want your community to get to know why because you're a heck of a good dude your community needs to get to know you and sure enough he started stepping out there and got a little better and obviously there's a degree of vulnerability right you feel you know like any of us stepping out in that way would feel a little vulnerable but But it's worked for him. His little dealership in a small market is doing quite well. And I would say that we can say that part of that is just allowing his community to get to know him, right? And really that means getting on video and just kind of stepping out there. So you've mentioned you've seen similar scenarios yourself, but your thoughts on what I shared? Oh, no, I would agree completely. One thousand percent, if we could go that high mathematically, which I know we can't, but it is a million. I mean, gosh, again, kind of going back to what we talked about first. Right. It's you know, I really in my heart believe what can help separate us as that independent buyer payer dealer is. Making that connection, getting people to know you and trust you and like you. I really believe that is part of the equation. And when you let yourself be a little bit vulnerable and put yourself out there, you know, one, you're going to find out, oh, I don't suck as bad as I think I do. Right. And you're going to actually find out this is kind of fun. Then when consumers actually start to respond. Then that that'll be the winning ticket. I get I get tell you a funny story here. This happened with a client. It's a they own two stores. It's a husband and wife team. And they fought with me for years about we're not doing video. We're not doing video. I said, if we want to get ahead of the curve, we've got to do video. So finally, they said, well, the the owner, he did or the husband said, I'm not doing it. And so the wife said, how do I word this is she's not unattractive. Okay. We said, let's put her on and let's just start doing some greetings and let's start holiday and let's use it to introduce people and put her on the website and put some videos out there. Well, they get messages now on the lead forms that come in and say, Oh yeah, I'm coming in to look at whatever. And I thought, do I get to work with that girl? Yeah, right. Yeah, for sure. But that ends up being the connect because they're making that personal connection. It's like, hey, I own the store. I'm here at the dealership. I am part of the community. Our kids go to the same schools as you do. We're doing the same things as you do. And this is what makes us different. And we'd love to earn your business. And it's just... I mean, we've seen meet the team videos because again, people, you know, we're, we're never going to be able to sell everybody, but that's why we have different team members, different people. Yeah. Um, that are available to, you know, let them tell their story, let them see them, you know, push that you meet this person, meet the sales manager, meet the tech spec and reconder. I mean, that is going to just add so much depth to the dealership and getting people to really like you. I was at a seminar a couple of years ago, maybe, um, less than that. And I heard, uh, Nick Marcosian, he was talking. And he said, you know, he goes, you know, they're big in the analytics. And he said, you know, we look at where the traffic's coming from, where the leads are coming from. Of course, you've got that, you know, organic search people find you. He said, but he finds his absolute best customer comes from what we in the industry would call that direct traffic. And that's where somebody goes to Google, goes to Bing, goes to Facebook, and they key in your dealership name. All right. That is the creme de la creme. As a marketer, I would agree with that. And the only way you're going to do that is by being out there, inviting people to get to know you. So after a while, they see that. And I mean, I've been doing this now for a while. We have tracked it in the analytics. We have seen the dealerships that use the video to get themselves out there. Their direct traffic starts to increase. That doesn't cost anything. one penny in media money. Right. Cause I can get people to choose me. They go to, you know, they're going to, okay, where am I going to buy? Oh yeah. I remember that dealership. Let's now I'm on the site by name. I remember it. Mm-hmm. I get a higher conversion rate and a better quality customer. And Nick, he's quite a character. And we had the privilege of going and spending a few minutes with him at his dealership down in Salt Lake because this is where he's at. And, you know, we mentioned video. He's like, oh, not everybody can do what I do. And it's like, they don't have to do it the way you do it. It's just, you know, it's because he's just fun. He's a character. He's out there. He's done videos and like one of those sumo things. And he's just very, very dynamic. You know, one of the things that we we. We met a lot of just small dealers out there. And one thing we really encourage them to do, because you talked about the different types of things. It's like meet the team. Fantastic. A walk around a car. And I really love what Jack Carter does when he does those, is he points out everything wrong. And he sometimes will say what looks like they probably were backing out and saw a cat and swerved a little bit too much or whatever it is. He makes it because he's really, really funny. It doesn't have to be funny, but it's a walk around. And one thing about video is that it's very easy to be very transparent. And by doing something like that, it's like that. But there are some dealers that we've worked with. that have a story that is like, I've been in their shoes. I've been, and you know, we were, we, we were talking with, um, with Corinne from GP, from a pastime, who's one of our founding sponsors. She was at our, our certification course. And she's like, and her father was, is a founder of pastime. And she's like, We were there. And one of the reasons why being part of helping people understand and humanizing yourself is that she's been really open about telling that story. And we've encouraged dealers. It's like, if you have a story like that to tell... that will earn you. So, I mean, it's like trust exponentially. It's like, I've been there, I've been mistreated. We were doing this because, you know, and, and that one of our, one of our foundations are to, to, to, to treat people well and give them opportunities. I, it's, Along with that, about being known, do you encourage dealers to go in and quantify in writing or whatever? What is your story? What is your why? Why are you in this business? And for us in White Hat Way, it's like, how are you trying to help? And why are you trying to help? It's not just like I started a business and I'm selling cars and I'm making money and I'll give you, you know, for five hundred dollars. It's it's like they're getting down to the why. So if you could just what are your thoughts on getting that's that raw thing? It's like tell the why of why you're doing what you're doing, not just. And step out of the sea of sameness. Yes. Yeah. Well, I agree with that completely. I'll be candid. It's a little bit of an uphill battle because a lot of dealers, they kind of don't want to get transparent and maybe open up the door a little bit, but we have seen whenever, I don't know where it is, American consumers, I think worldwide, but I'm a study of the American consumer, right? Especially in automotive, but we love stories. We are... pulled in to storytelling and that's where if you tell that story you're gonna make that connection right because people will be like man I I I've been there I know what that's like so when the dealer can say just exactly what you're explaining hey we've been in these situations before and that's why we do it this way that's why I decided to do you know you know we we might not aim to be the biggest and the most locations and the most things but we want to be the best at serving people like you you know and just make that connection tell the story people are incredibly drawn in to that content because, and again, it goes back to that initial thing we were speaking about. They're getting to know you. They're getting to try. They're like, well, if they would share this information, You know, I can probably believe in them that they're going to treat me pretty good. Yeah. And, you know, years ago we were at the first Buy Your Pair United and the address that we were asked to speak and the address we gave is like, how is Buy Your Pair like a chicken sandwich? I don't know if you've heard the reference to that, but it's we use Chick-fil-A. And Chick-fil-A are masterful storytellers. And it's, you know, you hear through other, like the story of their why, but they also tell success stories. And very rarely do we see a chicken sandwich on the screen or on a billboard. It's, it is something very different and it's like people, people want a story they can relate to. So, you know, if you've told your story, another thing you can add to that arsenal, if you have, uh, if you have a customer that it's like you've worked through some, some, some things and they're now a repeat customer, ask your repeat customers, right? Hey, would you be willing to, you know, share your story about like, because everybody, most customers, especially in buy, hear, pay, they're going to hit rough spots and, and they come and they repeat because you've been able to gracefully help them navigate their rough spot. And so like, just ask your customers to tell those stories too, because not just with the dealer and their story, your customer stories are, really are relatable and and they and they will bring more people in it's like oh I had that problem and the people I went to before they didn't treat me like that and this is where I want to go yeah yeah I would say oh go ahead ron no I was gonna I was just gonna give you another example here I was working with a client and he actually had they worked with a young girl came in Single mom, maybe some of the stereotypical things that the buy here, pay here's deal with. They treated her so well, they hired her. She became their best salesperson for years. She got on, she would use video and tell her story to be like, hey, I was in the same spot as you. They helped me out. now I'm working for them I mean this is you can't get any more compelling and real than that I mean absolutely so any any type of like you said customers you know talking about their experience and again telling the story I mean started out we talked a little bit about facebook and years ago the big thing was put a picture of the customer up there tag them thanks so much for buying a car I saw other dealers telling the story. Hey, you know, Jim and Michelle came to us looking for this. We helped them through that. They drove home in this. Everybody's happy. Okay. Well, I can relate to that rather than just, oh, thanks so much for buying the car. Yeah. We did it. p we we love stories yeah yeah and I would say you know to michelle's point about telling the why story I think you know dealers might get the idea well I need to sit down and record a ten twenty minute video that tells my why story I don't you you can do that I think another way to tell the why story is twenty thirty seconds at a time you can take people inside and sort of they get glimpses of and I'll give a quick example like to me whether this is video or posts or whatever but obviously for our conversation here video I could give you a list of a half a dozen dealers across the country that we follow on Facebook, and they're just what I would call a fun follow. They're somebody, if I met somebody who was looking for a car in so-and-so Indiana, I would say, you're going to want to go meet with these people because they're, why? What do I see in them? They have fun at work. They don't take themselves too seriously. If I were doing business with somebody, this is somebody I would definitely want to talk to before I leave. I did that. And so we've seen others where they have fun within their team. You can, you get glimpses into their culture, right. Which I think is another thing that video can take us to because, you know, I'll give you a quick example. Just this is not a real example, but you know, you may see them on their team is so-and-so brought in chicken gizzards for lunch, you know, today who, who likes chicken gizzards, you know, and get feedback from people, but you'll see that people, they get engagement because people are just, It's real and it's just, it's their life too, right? And so it's like, this is where I think we have a chance to win with video and let folks get to know us. And I think all the things we've talked about here, the smaller the market is, the more true these things become. Yeah. right right right so I think it's just uh it's just trying to help dealers get comfortable with the idea I think there's a vulnerability factor there's this idea that you know and listen michelle and I stepped into this podcast thing june of twenty twenty two and we thought let's just fire up these microphones I don't know if anybody listened to this or not but we're gonna do it you know we're gonna get out here and talk about the buy here pay or stuff and I don't I think we're up to seven followers ron so we're you know it's working so you're right We come and do what we do. We tell the story. And obviously this part of what we would recommend that dealers, you know, make time to do. And, and so it just, it's about, it's about getting comfortable and getting out there and just telling your story and, and taking folks inside who you are as a company and, and kind of what you believe, what you stand for. And, and that's, that's, That ultimately sells more cars than running those carousels that you're talking about. Because when I see carousels of, you know, we have used cars at reasonable prices. And that's what the other guy says across the street, too. And that's what the guy down the street is also saying. So that's back to that sea of sameness. It's like this video gives us a real nice opportunity to separate ourselves. And I just we are encouraged dealers to step out there, get comfortable and take more advantage. I put up on the screen Ron's email address. If you wanted to reach out to him, have any further questions, please feel free to do that. I wanted to just real quick, just a couple of comments. George from Florida, love you, George, was, he mentioned earlier, it's like, if you don't treat them like buy here, pay, buy here, stay here, they'll be buy here, pay never. Which, you know, I get that. And then Kevin piped in too, and I appreciate this an awful lot. He says, we were initially apprehensive about TikTok, thinking it was a bit taboo. But after having good luck with videos on Facebook, we're leaning towards giving it a try. Please do. Please, please do. Because most of our consumers are on quick video content. That's where... If you look on... people waiting at a bus stop. You look at people sitting at a fast food restaurant. We were watching just yesterday, we were coming home from the gym and there were two people walking and they both were down on their phones. And it's just like, I can pretty close guarantee that they're on some kind of entertainment app. And, you know, being entertained as they go. And TikTok, all of that, very, very much so. I think one other piece of evidence, and by the way, Kevin, I don't think you can go wrong there. I don't think you can hurt yourself on TikTok. So I think you get in there and give it a go. And so, yeah, I would definitely encourage that. But the other thing I think is evidence of all the stuff we're talking about, if any of us goes to our Facebook feed today, look and see how many static posts you go through before you get to Facebook Reels or whatever they call theirs. Oh, yeah. They're going to feed you Facebook Reels. Why? Because they know that's what people are consuming. They want to make sure and get your attention. And most of us have clicked on one. The next thing you know, you're like, oh, it's time for my meeting. It's like that's part of what happens with that. So I think TikTok is an example of that people are consuming in that way. Um, again, I, for those of you that are not watching video, uh, uh, Ron's email address, and I'm going to have to spell it out is Ron Heider, R or R Heider, R H E I D E R at H M A A D S. So it's H M a ads.com. So, uh, if you like have any questions again, that is the best place to reach, to reach Ron. Yeah. Or message us and we'll get you in touch with it. Yeah, absolutely. Hey Ron, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope that we can, um, keep you on our, I'm going to age myself, Rolodex, um, to have you come back and talk to us again. It's just been really, really educational. And, um, And obviously, you're not afraid of video. No, I've got a few videos out there myself. I started building out a lot of content. And it's again, giving what dealers what they want. We've got it on our website. Same thing. I try to practice what I preach. And I have found that that content style marketing, just again, and delivering in that format, that's going to yield the greatest results for everybody. um could I give one little tip okay to your dealers because this is something that I hear a lot and this is especially in the buyer payer space we we want to drive a lot of people to the credit application whether it's a full credit app quick credit app but there's usually no nothing guiding them through it We started this about a year ago with our clients that, you know, some do, you know, second chance, subprime, pure buy here, pay here. We put little videos up there explaining here's how easy our application process is. Fill out the form, do this, do this. We saw our completion rates almost doubled. And callback rates, all that stuff. All we did was created one short little, not even, twenty second video, had the web company put it up there. Here's how easy people watch it. And they're like, oh, OK, this is what I need to do. Don't assume your customers know what to do. Yeah. Assume they don't. And if we have to spoon feed them, and especially because I know in Buy Here, Pay Here, that is one of the most important pages on the website that we want to get people to walk them through it, guide them through it, introduce them to, you know, just that that's maybe one super tangible, easy takeaway. Maybe that would be a great place for them to start, right? Say a little video on this page, real short, quick to the point, just an idea. I like that. I like that very much. Ron, I located that podcast from, I'm going to use the YouTube link from your appearance on the Independent Dealer Podcast. So I'm going to throw that in the comments here so people can find that and refer to it. And yeah, again, thanks for making time to chat. I think that's a lot of really great information. Well, thank you so much for having me. This has been super fun. I could, hey, I'm super passionate about automotive, about marketing, about video, about marketing. the ocean surfing, things like that. So there you go. I love it. I love it. We really, really appreciate it. I'm, and I'm glad that I, I'm glad that we went in and were introduced to you at that conference a few years back. And, you know, thank you. Thank you for taking some time with us today. And again, I hope that we can get you on the show again some other time. We'd love to have it. So thank you so much. And yeah, we'll see you guys in Vegas here in a few weeks. Oh yeah, Vegas. Pretty much so. Yes, please. We have a booth and it's like one twenty one or one one two or something like that. But I should know that by now. We should really be. I should. It starts with the one. And real quick before. Oh, Jim, that was Jim. Never mind. I was like, we got all these comments. It was Jim adding comments. All right. And we're going to have you put you backstage if you'll stick around for just a second so we can say. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Video. And this is something that we talk to people about. many of our, many of our clients, it's like, it just, it, that's a really, really, it is a beautiful way to become known, liked, and trusted. Yeah. I think viewers have known videos where it's at. Now, we hope we gave them some real, you know, insight into how to do it. Yeah. But it's, and it doesn't take very much. Just take a little bit of time, a little bit of courage, and that's it. Yeah. So, right everybody um thank you so much for joining us again it is a holiday weekend I hope that you guys have a wonderful holiday weekend and um you know take the time to to honor those that have have passed and especially those that have have served our country well and so I've got a bunch of american flags in the back of my car that I need to get to my mom so she can put them on all of the all of my ancestors that served in the military. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. And thank you for, um, tuning into the morning show in the morning show. We'll talk to you later. Thanks everybody.
