The KPI Cafe

In this episode of the KPI Cafe, Laurie Foster of Foster Strategies Group challenges the status quo to dealerships' sales process. With compressed margins, increased competition from new players like Carvana, and the fluctuating circumstances of the economy, it's more important than ever that your process gives you more at-bats with every opportunity.
Part of that means activating your finance managers earlier in the process because you know that in-market car shoppers have questions regarding financing and leasing; part of that means thinking about your Business Development Center as more than a call center.
Laurie also gives insights about how to get buy-in from your team with these fundamental questions, as well as some tips about compensation for the new duties assigned. In the end, it's all about alignment.
Here's what you can expect:
3:22 Laurie’s Automotive Origin Story

• Furniture Sales
• Projected Growth Path in Automotive
• Possibilities

4:45 Foster Strategies Group

• Leadership
• Serving Others
• Maximize Management Potential
• Vendor Partnerships

6:37 Context for the Episode

• Inventory
• Margin Compression
• Issues

7:03 Activating Your F&I

• Role Redefinition and Clarification
• Current Process and Its Issues
• A Fresh Approach

16:40 Good Customer Experience. Better Results

• Customer Intent
• Friction
• Dollars and “Sense”
• PVR
• Less Time
• Product Penetration and Revenue Projections

21:18 Getting Buy-In

• Know Your Audience
• Measurement

24:00 Training for Comfortability

• Roleplay
• Priming the Customer

25:26 Managing Other Staff Concerns

• Getting the Help Wanted
• Greater Communication

27:53 What Does the Whole Process Look Like

• Forward Momentum
• BDC Statistics

29:40 Optimal BDC

• Break It Down
• Current Role / Responsibility

31:41 Alignment on Shifts in Roles

• Top-Through
• Cohesion
• Tap the Brakes

33:51 Perception vs. Reality
35:43 Customer-Centric. Dealer-Centric.

• Good Experience Across Touchpoints
• Dealership Customer

37:17 Better Together

• More Opportunities
• Market Statistics
• The Right Principles

38:45 Breaking Down the Silos

• Value and Elevation
• Business. Development. Center.
• Football Analogy

44:06 The Hiring Process

• Change Our Words

46:01 What’s Coming Up with Laurie

Can you define your organization's culture?
Is the culture creating positive outcomes for your business?
Culture is often a difficult aspect to manage because there are so many elements that comprise it, both tangible and intangible. While it starts at the top of the organization to align culture with core values, ever single member of your organization contributes towards culture and participates within it.
To discuss this in greater detail, the KPI Cafe brings two new guests to share their perspectives built from years as leaders inside the automotive industry: April Simmons, Corporate Internet and Marketing Director at Horne Automotive, and Troy Scheer, an agile Chief Marketing Officer and dealership consultant.
From building culture to identifying red flags to ensuring more inclusivity, April and Troy offer up myriad perspectives and insights that can help you simply just assess if your culture's effectiveness or even help you ask the right questions to start building a true culture that serves your people.
In addition to insights from these two, we're continuing with our new segment "What's Going on in Auto?" with Reunion Marketing's CEO Dave Spannhake diving into the many big changes in automotive at large.
Here's what you can expect to learn:
What's Going on in Auto?: At Large w/ Dave Spannhake

• 2020-2021
• 16-17 Mil Projections 2023
• Similar Lessons to Great Recession
• Position to Anticipate
• Abandonment of FLOC
• Building Ecosystems to Combat Reduced Targeting
• Fixed Operations Marketing

Catching up with April Simmons
What Troy Scheer Has Been Up to in 2022
From Where Do You Derive a Business' Culture?

• Top-Down

Seeing People Impact Culture

• Sprinkles, Not the Core
• Not Training Managers to be Managers
• One Perk Doesn't Fit All
• One-on-One Time
• Cut the Cancer

What Can Be Done to Improve Culture?

• Treat Employees as We Want Customers Treated
• "Parenting" / Human Principles
• "I Work for My Team"
• Coaching Perspective
• Cause-Effect of Retention
• COVID Story

Identifying Culture Red-Flags / Re-Fresh

• Catch While Small
• Never Step Too Far Away
• Numbers Never Lie
• Walk Through

How to Make Sure Culture is Inclusive

• Mini-Mentorship
• Understanding Role in Organization
• Clarity

Your Google Business Profile listings are an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. There are a number of components that your dealership needs to ensure are leveraged to maximize your potential for visibility in non-branded category searches for your vehicles and services.
George Nenni of Generations Digital joins the KPI Cafe to talk about the fundamentals of your listings to help you make smart, strategic decisions about updating and maintaining your Google Business Profiles across you dealership's operations. In addition, he tosses in a number of insightful tidbits that he's gleaned from being in the weeds, building his expertise for this particular strategy.
Here's all of what you can expect:
George Nenni’s Origin Story (2:25)

GMB Listings 101: Crash Course (4:28)

• Listings
• Categories
• Customer-Facing Profit Center

Importance of Images for GMB (6:32)

• Owner vs. Customer
• Google
• Image File

The Play of Citations (8:29)

• NAP
• Moz
• Educate the Internet
• Primary Number on GMB

Deep-Linking on GMB (10:45)

• Orange Notification

Q&A on Your GMB (11:59)

• Wild West
• George’s Suggestion
• 3 Likes

Best Practices for Managing Reviews (14:34)

• Subscribe to Platforms
• 1-on-1 Engagement
• Keywords

Impact of GMB Posts (16:41)

• Frequency
• Indexation
• Evergreen
• Keywords

Getting Your GMB to Populate for the Right Searches (17:46)

• Category Best Practices
• Google Knowledge Graph
• Selecting Primary Category

Role of Attributes (19:56)

• Consumer-Connected
• Confirm or Deny

What Does Automotive Retail Still Not Get Right? (21:30)

Is There a Cadence of New Content for GMB? (23:59)

Sources to Help Dealers Manage GMB (25:07)

Final Tips on GMB from George Nenni (27:14)

Connecting with George (28:17)

In this episode of the KPI Cafe, Matt Sneed from Power Ford joins Host Dane Saville to dive deep into the weeds about the proper way to leverage Facebook advertising. In this hour-long session, a great number of topics from Facebook's purpose to traditional advertising to the strategy itself to measurement; literally, no stone is left unturned in this discussion about how your dealership can benefit by following the guidelines laid out.
Here's what you can expect:
4:53 Guest Introduction: Matt Sneed

5:25 Matt’s Automotive Origin Story

7:57 Context to Set Up the Episode

8:45 Transition of Ad Dollars from Traditional to Digital

• 2017: How to Market and Sell Cars?
• Mustang Example
• AIA (Automotive Inventory Ads)
• Moneyball Effect / Cost per Sale
• Vendor Evaluation

13:20 The Inherent Waste of Traditional Media

• Not Your Buyers
• Not in Market
• But the Feel Good Factor

16:21 Facebook Being an Intent and Stimulus Channel

• Influence the 98.8%
• More Control
• Doing Social Media vs. “Doing” Social Media

19:10 Getting to the Land of No Competitors

• Your Website | Your Inventory
• Marketing to Everyone | Marketing to No One
• Full Funnel Strategy
• Quality Content

23:55 Two Trends in Automotive Marketing

• Quality > Quantity
• Relevance is King
• People are Finicky
• Click-to-Marketplace

27:30 Managing Organic in Conjunction with Paid Ads

• BDC
• Podium
• The Challenge

29:39 Importance of Branding

• Consistency
• Tone of Voice
• Reputation Management
• Brand Evangelism

36:00 Breakdown of a Facebook Advertising Campaign

• Sales and Service
• Birthday, Inventory, Thank You, Lost Customers, Et Cetera
• The Association with Programmatic
• Dealer Distinctives
• It’s About Them

46:14 A Quick Review of Niche Budgeting

• Historical Sales Data?
• Incentives

49:20 Other Cool Facebook Ad Capabilities

• Oracle
• Retargeting
• Inventory Feed

51:50 How to Measure Your Facebook Ads

• Sales Matchback
• DTSC
• Cost per Sold Unit
• Attribution

56:01 Final Thoughts: Getting Dealers to Buy Into It

• Sales Effectiveness
• Go All In

In this episode of the KPI Cafe, Dr. Scott Garlock, the Executive Director of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, shares his insights and passion for the only true American art form. Whether you're an avid jazz listener or have never really witnessed the beauty of this form of musical improvisation, there is plenty to glean: the history of jazz, introducing yourself to jazz through fusion and funk, the way players meet creatively while playing, and much more.
You'll also get to learn more about the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra itself, including the wonderful work they do in taking musical instruments as donations, refurbishing them, and providing underprivileged middle-school and high-school students an opportunity to discover the joy of playing.
I promise that you'll break out the vinyl (as I do) or pop on some downloads or streaming to jam out to some tunes -- and, hopefully, they'll be to one of the greats like Coltrane, Brubeck, or Davis.
Here's what you can expect:
Casual Conversation and Context

• The Batman
• Jazz Appreciation Month

What's Going on in Auto?

• Digital Dealer

Dr. Garlock's Introduction and Jazz Origin Story
How to Draw Yourself into Jazz Music

• Funk / Trombone
• Importance of Live Jazz
• Dave Brubeck / John Coltrane / Miles Davis
• Fusion

How Do All Pieces Coalesce into Jazz?

• First, a Fusion Caveat
• New Orleans: Walking Groups
  • African-American
• 1930s: Formulation
• Peculiar Sounds

Are Music Sheets a Basic Recipe for Jazz?

• Melody and Chords
• Make Arrangements / Mores
• Experiment but Sound Polished

What the CJO (Cleveland Jazz Orchestra) Has Been Up To!

• Season Series
• Best Jazz Ever Heard, Best Jazz Never Heard
• CJO in the City
• Educational Outreach
• Instrument Donation

What's Happening at the KPI Cafe