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. hey good morning everyone it is in fact a beautiful day here in western oklahoma and uh hope you guys are being able to uh get your new year fired off well it's just me today michelle is uh visiting family back in utah and uh so i've got a reaction conversation to uh review with you i've got a pick six uh recording that we did with uh mr joe powell out of oklahoma yesterday and i'm gonna get to that we've got uh kind of three little segments queued up from what uh what joe and i talked about and uh you know is a good example he's he's a member of our v-eight dealer groups and he's just he's a good example of somebody who's an excellent mentor always happy to share uh has been in the business since oh wait he's a lease here pay here dealer and you'll hear a lot from him about You know how he chose to do what he does and also just kind of you know update from the work that we're doing, we had our first V eight meeting of January last night and. Excellent meeting. We recapped twenty four versus twenty twenty five. And, you know, many of our members were had been in long enough to have full array of data from both years. And so we we looked at profit. We looked at cash flow. We just try to break down the the different elements of their business to get them a feel for what really changed and and some things that didn't change. You know, certainly some of the examples were, you know, people had much higher charge off experience in twenty five than they did in twenty four. But they also recovered more repos. Right. So they recovered more cash value there. And so the actual impact to cash and even, you know, adjusted gross profit was huge. was not significant. In fact, some cases, even though charge offs were up by more than fifty percent, the adjusted gross profit because of their volume was was up a little bit. So, you know, it's just it's been a weird year. And I think, you know, the theme for us and going into our meetings and hope for yours as you start into January here is, you know, how do we make twenty six better than twenty five? And so that's always kind of the objective. And I think you'll hear some ideas from Joe here today where he touched on some things that are going to be helpful that could really put some money in your pocket like this year if you just kind of clue into what he's suggesting. And I suspect after you hear much of what he shares, folks are going to want to get in there and reach out to Joe and get the details about some of what he talks about. the um you know the other things he talked about bottlenecks i don't think i brought that particular segment which by the way i've already published the um the full recording with joe over on our youtube channel so you can hop over there and find that i'll try to remember to uh get our uh our our youtube channel listed over there so you can hop in and find that but bottom line is get in there and uh make sure you uh subscribe when you're over there because that way you'll get the notifications as we post new content and uh that includes a podcast and a lot of these pick six uh recordings are going to be released separately so you're going to want to make sure that you're subscribed over there so you can locate that information but let's dive into some of the um the subject matter with joe i want to start with he speaks to you know why he um chose to get into the lease your pay here space let's let's see that one up first kick off joe and you sent me your six questions and i i have one that uh i've thought about that um our listeners would enjoy here and i'm sure which is you're you you're in a lease your pay here model down there and have been for many years can you talk to us about what what motivated you to do that why why lease your pay here for you You know, many people know I come from the agriculture background. So I was in farm equipment for a long time. Then I went over to the franchise world and worked in a Chevrolet and Cadillac dealership. And we all get the magazines. And I kept seeing some magazines based on lease to own. And it kept talking about quicker, easier, and simpler. And that's kind of the way I like to do things. The accounting was easier. The repos were easier. The bankruptcy was easier. And not that it's perfect by any means, but it allowed me an opportunity to look at the GM leases we were doing at the time to make sure that the customer had some form of payoff, make sure it was good for the customer as well. Because I'm pretty... concerned with my customers and my employees, because like Zig Ziglar said many years ago, if all those people are taken care of, I'll probably be taken care of on the end of it as well. But we've never changed our model. We started out in lease here, pay here back in May of oh eight. That's all we've done. That's all we do today. Obviously we'll sell a car here and there, but it's the one off. It's not the norm. And then we do buy here, pay here on our residual accounts that come in in their final six months of payoff. So we just thought it was good for the customer. It was good for us. So we move forward with it. yeah nice two two other things i know that are good for you that you didn't mention is one is you avoid the need to have a separate related finance company and then you also get to spread your sales tax out over the contract so it keeps you as a dealer from having to pony up that sales tax up front so that's a another big benefit so yeah i i'd forgotten i think you shared that with me some time ago about the equipment leasing background and so that all makes a lot of sense i think you know when i look at it it's structured the same for the consumer from the consumer standpoint they get a car they have a down payment they have a payment and uh and in your case you're making sure that they have an option to own exactly right so it's all good i always want to show a person how to get to a zero balance and and get the title a lot of people say that you'll never own the car which is uh myth and not fact we show people how do you get to zero balance how do you take the title home with you good nice yeah i love that all right so uh you were able to hear that apologies got my uh my format set up a little bit wrong so the um you were able to hear in that that um you know joe's been at least your pay here since um since two thousand eight he's um he's been quite successful down there he's um he's got his business structured a little bit differently i don't need to share the particulars about how he does things exactly in terms of his his operational structure but i would just say you know joe seems to have a healthy business it's uh it's chugging along and doing well he's got multiple locations in southwest oklahoma i don't think i explained that and uh you know he's carved out a nice uh niche for himself and i can share that in the the conversation we had on the question about bottlenecks he did indicate that you know they were wrestling with some of the same things that you know others talk about obviously uh you know, reconditioning and, and, uh, you know, acquiring enough inventory to, to keep the front lines full. But, you know, he talked about, uh, lead management too. So again, one more reason to make sure you find the full, um, uh, conversation with him over on our YouTube channel. And, uh, let's step into the next question though. Give me just a second. Sure. Miss Michelle on this technical stuff, all the, all the buttons and knobs over here. So you guys bear with me. Ice would you give to somebody thinking about getting in it? You know, my first advice is don't try to be someone you're not. You have to have good roots. You've got to have a good foundation. Be you, be honest, be open, be transparent, have integrity. Grow slow. You know what I mean? This business can eat cash pretty quick. Do not outrun your capital. You can sell your way out of business just like you can collect your way out of business. Carve your niche. Doesn't matter what the guy across the street's done, the guy next door to you. Stay in your lane. Just don't try to be somebody you're not. And do deals for the right reason. I've kind of got a saying, I tell customers a lot, I'll never try to gain a car deal for the wrong reason. And I'll never, I would rather lose it for the right reason than I had gain it for the wrong reason. Meaning, you know, I'm not going to put somebody in a car that we just absolutely know is not going to work. So have integrity, be you, and most importantly, grow slow. So, you know, the white hat way coach and me can't let that thing go about integrity. I appreciate what you shared there. And I would ask you to expand just on enough. Like I can appreciate how having integrity helps you feel good about yourself. Right. And what do you do business and sleep good at night? Talk to me about how it impacts your business. Well, I think first and foremost, it has to help your staff. The staff knows that, you know, one of the questions down here is how do we perceive ourself in the industry? Your staff always wonders if they want to go work for a buy here, pay here place. They have to wonder if they want to go work for a used car dealer. But at the end of the day, they want to work for somebody that, I've said it before, is open, honest, and transparent. in everything we do. So you have to be who you are. You have to carry that forward to your staff. You have to make sure that the processes that they do and what your company stands for is carried forward to the customer. And we will all get a bad review from time to time. And they're all pretty much the same. Either the car broke down and didn't have... any kind of service contract. So now then the customer's mad that the dealer's not going to pay for it. The customer was repossessed. So therefore they're upset. Or it's a disgruntled former employee that to be honest, didn't do their job and didn't make the cut. So let's do the right thing at the right time, every time. Good. I love it. And I got to believe that pays off for you and your vendor relationships and the markets that you do business in, right? I mean, whether it's a parts company or any of those folks around your area that you do business with, if they know they can rely on you to be the same as yesterday, that's worth a lot. Yeah. I mean, our, we, we pay parts on a weekly basis just so those accounts don't get too high. And if I forget, or I'm gone for a couple of weeks, they're not calling me. They, they know, they know they're going to walk in one morning and that account will be at a zero balance. So yeah. Good. Hopefully that's earned over the years. Yeah, for sure. And it makes life a little easier, makes business easier to conduct. And so I applaud you for that. Okay. So you heard a little bit from Joe there on an integrity and obviously from a white hat context, you saw me clue in on that. Like that's, that's what we talk about. And that's, it gets into these intangibles that can be hard to hard to measure, hard to identify the real value as it translates to your business. And Joe's a good example of somebody who lives it as a, as done that, you know, from day one. And obviously as part of what we, We teach and recommend and we think the long game is really the way to go here. And, uh, so Joe has, uh, has made that commitment for himself from day one and it seems to spill over to his team and his entire community. We'll move into the last one and, uh, uh, be sure and, uh, clue in on, on what Joe talks about here, because he's, uh, he's, he's offering a best idea. The question to him, I think you'll see it on the screen was, uh, you know, what advice would you give? And, uh, kind of, we, we re wrapped a couple of conversations into one, but, uh, check this one out. To recent accomplishments, you know, whatever time period it makes sense for you, but what can you point to that's been a recent achievement or accomplishment you feel good about? You know, in the last year, met a guy out in San Diego a couple of years ago at the LHBH summit, a guy by the name of Steve out of the Boston area. And he got me going on these third-party appraisals, invoking third-party appraisals on our total losses. And since I've started that, we're averaging an additional twenty four hundred and seventy dollars on every total loss because now we are invoking third-party appraisals. We're getting the insurance companies to pay a fair and equitable settlement instead of, you know, they're like a lot of us. They have a low figure, a medium figure, and a high figure. And every time they propose the low figure to us to begin with, and they will fight and try to defend that figure. You know, we have to be better than that to understand that we're not going to accept the low figure. So every time we do not accept that low figure, we gain an additional twenty four hundred and seventy bucks. And I think over a year's time that that adds up to be a lot of money that will help buy parts. OK, that's huge. Yeah. I hope our people are paying attention on that. A lot of folks going to be reaching out to you trying to track down that information because that is a big number. And so that's and it also just kind of points to. uh of frustration and that without that third party in the picture those insurance companies are essentially looking to take advantage of us uh you know pay below market and uh and so we've got to be we've got to know how to to act to protect our interests there and sound like you found a solution so good for you anything else No, I mean, I agree. Just like in sales, we always say a customer is looking for a salesperson or they just keep shopping. If we don't keep demanding that we get a fair and equitable settlement on our accounts, we're not going to get that. We're going to take what they give us and move on. Yeah, and it feels like having a third party in the picture would probably add some strength to your position, right? So it kind of feels like that probably adds a layer to it. Oh, that one dropped unexpectedly. And so let me get that one taken down. So yeah, wow. Twenty five hundred dollars, you know, per per write off loss on on these total loss and just damaged vehicles. I mean, I think most of us can see even at a at a small count on those three or four of those a year. It's a pretty nice vacation for you and your family. So, you know, if you can probably track down Joe and we can try to bring that information back here if he if he wishes to share it. But But, yeah, that's something that, you know, dealers wrestle with. We hear it. We see it on social media that folks are just, you know, getting beat up by these big insurance companies. They send in a low offer for the value of these cars. And, of course, a lot of them have high miles. But you're hearing Joe. who's also got, you know, cars with miles, he's succeeding in getting more per deal. So really good stuff. I think this is important. And one of the quick thing I might just share before we wrap up is that one of the things that's different for us going into twenty twenty six, you know, we talked about on our Wednesday broadcast that we're we're being quite intentional. That extends to our coaching and we're moving to more of a cohort coaching model. And What that really means for, you know, clients is that, you know, for those who wish to get in the cohort, we'll have a number of dealers going through a similar twelve month process at the same time. And, you know, this is going to be really high touch, high value, should be impactful kind of coaching and really should make a difference in some dealers organization. And so if you're interested in that, by all means, reach out, you know how to find me, I think my phone number is available here, I'll post it as we wrap up here, but the thing to know is that, you know, we're focused on trying to really make a difference with folks, we, you know, we, as coaches, I've done this now for many years, I've been coaching in some form or fashion since I just am trying to get away from a scenario where we engage and we get paid and we show up and we do some things and we help here and there, but we really just don't get a chance to have a real impact and make a difference. And so that's something that at this stage of my career and being intentional in the coaching realm, it's just important to me that we kind of shift to a place where we can know that as we engage, we're able to really, you know, make a difference with folks. So, you know, that's kind of it for today. appearing for a pick six conversation. We've got about fourteen questions on the list now. You can choose from those. Of course, we're flexible. If you've got another topic that you would like to discuss, we're open to that as well. Just just reach out if you'd like to to schedule a time to be part of a pick six and be part of our podcast. We'd love to hear from dealers. And so hopefully we'll hear from you all soon. Have a great Friday. Enjoy the rest of your day.
