Culture of Value: Recent Episodes
Troy Scheer
Join us as we interview leading professionals to learn how they cultivate a value culture to win sales, profits, and the hearts and minds of their employees and customers alike.
When you build and execute a strong content marketing strategy, it does more than just make your brand look like it's everywhere. A strong content marketing program creates value in prospects' and customers' minds and can create true demand generation. It can also help in focusing your team across marketing, sales, operations, customer success, etc. In the long run, it can drive profits.
Let's hear what PR and Content Marketing pro, Laurie Halter, Owner of Charisma! Communications, has to say about it. In this episode she shares:
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How to strengthen your brand promise through content
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How to create content value
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How content and thought leadership can create demand
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How to expand your marketing force and simplify your content marketing program
And so much more.
In this episode, we hear from Tyler Dickerhoof, host of Impact Driven Leader, about the 4 barriers to leadership and how one can overcome those barriers to build a team that is moving forward together.
Those 4 barriers are:
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Insecurity
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Insensitivity
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Inactivity
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Intensity
You will take away some actionable insights to start overcoming those barriers immediately.
So you want to know: What Should I Focus on to Drive Growth? In this episode, Melanie Borden, managing member at Melanie Borden, LLC (marketing consultant, brand strategist, speaker, and author), answers that question.
She highlights that you must first focus on the problem your business solves and the value it provides. Melanie also discusses:
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Developing your Why foundation before diving into tactical execution
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Focusing on how you engage with your team and your customers
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Understanding how to generate qualified demand over quantity of leads
In this, she also talks about how to maximize time and dollar efficiency while also maximizing your presence with prospective and current customers.
Is it possible? How does one make that happen? Well, different people will likely answer differently. However, today's guest, Boris Zhukov, CEO & Chairman of the Board at LetYouKnow, Inc., has a very specific answer. He and his team have found a way to streamline the sales process while making the customer, sales team, and dealership happy. Could there be a "Priceline" for the auto industry that connects buyers who want to buy NOW with dealerships that can meet them where they are? I don't know. Listen and find out.
Wrapping up the week with Ben Thomas, Sr. Director of Publishing at Market Scale, talking about how important video is in building your brand, no matter the size of your business. Video is no longer optional. Gone are the days when your brand had to spend millions to compete via media. If you don't have a strong media strategy, it's time to develop one.
In this episode you'll learn how video marketing is:
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No longer optional
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Driving far more engagement than non-rich media
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The foundation for a wholistic media approach
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Expands the size of your marketing department
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Creating far more than video content
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Helps with customer acquisition and customer success along with employee recruiting and retention
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Great for customer research
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Essential for making your business future-ready
This episode with Chris Walker, CEO at Refine Labs, is chock full of insights regarding marketing in 2022 and challenging many of the previous "rules of marketing." You'll want to listen to the end and take notes.
Just a few of the topics Chris covers:
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Rethinking marketing measurement
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Marketing aligned to revenue
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Customer-centricity
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Challenging the marketing budget
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Tradeshow booths
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Lead Gen vs Demand Gen
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Awareness and intent
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ICP fit and intent
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Creating demand before your buyer gets to sales
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The cost of scaling an unproductive sales team
Take notes and put what Chris shares into practice.
What does it mean to "grow relationships with your data"? Glad you asked. In this episode, Tim Hayden, CEO at Brain+Trust Partners, talks about how companies can truly understand the "state of their customer" by syncing data channels effectively. Tim digs into moving deeper than the top and middle of a funnel to looking at a complete 360-degree view of customers. We talk further about utilizing machine learning to create a single customer record that allows brands to offer a truly personalized experience to customers. He also reminds brands to use data to add value, not take advantage.
We're just scratching the surface of our conversation here. Give it a listen and take away a whole lot more.
We all want to get away from simply being "so busy" to being productive. So, how do we do that? In this episode, Sara Genrich and Nancy Kruschke, share valuable insights into time management, including how to use your calendar as a productivity guide and how to control your inbox, and other things that can distract you instead of those things controlling you. Take some notes and get productive.
According to Gino Wickman's book, "Traction", there are six areas of your business that you need to get a grip on to drive business success: Vision, People, Process, Data, Issues, and Traction. In this episode, we talk with Nick Gartside and Lindsay Smith, Founder and Customer Success Manager respectively, to discuss two of those areas.
We talk Vision and People and dig into Visionaries and Integrators. As a business leader, you have to have a clear vision, communicate it, and understand how visionaries and integrators work together to achieve success. Focus on your vision and your people, not your ego.
We all know that improvement doesn't come from watching a single instructional video or going to the gym one time. Getting better at anything requires training, consistently and with purpose. I think we can all agree that having fun in that learning and training helps drive our desire to be consistent and grow. In this episode, David O'Brien, President/CEO at Quantum5, talks about the immense, bottom-line value that proper training/learning can deliver for your business. He clarifies the Why, How, and Who to focus on. And while he is focusing on the automotive industry, the lessons and insight David shares are applicable to any industry. Listen and you'll change your mind about the value of investing in learning/training programs.
CRM - Customer Relationship Management, or better yet, Customer Relationship Maintenance. Rick McLey, Partner at DealerPeak and Chief Growth Officer at CarDog, dives into this topic to give a more in-depth look at the importance of "Relationship" in the CRM acronym.
A few key takeaways from our conversation are understanding how to move past the transaction to a true relationship, the value difference between a relationship and a lead, how your greatest assets are your team and customers, and how this mindset drives more consistent profits in the long-term.
We talk with Sean Welsh, Founder of Car Biz Done Better, today about the importance of developing and living a vision for business success. Your Vision and your Why are the basis for a culture that further helps in establishing business outcomes. We discuss how everyone in a dealership or any business can't just talk about culture. It has to be lived and be a shared experience. Culture is action not just words. Ultimately, we focus on having humanity in business and dive into how humanity is what truly binds and drives everything. Humanity helps keep your people and your customers, which in the long-term, manifests itself in the bottom line profits your business will see.
We wrap up 2021 with the 45th episode discussing the VALUE of people. Sure we talk about the value of technology, but only as it relates to improving what we can deliver to our teams and our customers. Had a great time talking with April Simmons, Corporate Internet & Marketing Director at Horne Auto Group, about where she sees technology fitting in with People, Process, and Profitability (her 3 Ps).
April reminds us that technology is great, in fact, very beneficial when it serves to enhance the value we provide to people. When it's forces people and processes to fit it, technology becomes a 4th P, PAIN.
So, as we finish 2021 and launch into 2022, remember, when you continue to value people and lead them to achieve their best, all the rest falls into place.
With digital retailing and smartphones becoming the go-to for engaging with customers, where does your business stand? Are you a prisoner of your past? According to Lyamen Savy, Founder & CEO at 321 Ignition, more than 70% of car shoppers visit a dealership website via their mobile device. Listen as she talks about reaching audiences where they are. It's time for your business to think Mobile-First, not simply mobile-responsive.
Pretty simple title and pretty simple concepts, just not easy. Terry Lancaster, the author of the book "How to Sell More Cars: Make More Money & Have More Fun", shares the strategies and tactics that help do just that. While following up on leads is important, Terry shares how following up on RELATIONSHIPS is the real key to long-term success. That's just one of a number of successful options for building your book of business, whether the frontline salesperson or the people helping them grow. Check it out on Amazon. It's an easy read full of great insight and direction.
Unfortunately, many see HR as just checked boxes for risk mitigation, worker's comp, OSHA regulations, etc. However, that is so very narrow in mindset. Sandy Zannino, Founder & CEO of Innovative Auto HR, shares that while "compliance to protect" is an important function of HR, having a truly people-focused HR leader on the team is the real value. People-focused means there is someone to build strong employee relations, just being there to listen. And as Sandy says, "Putting people first creates an environment to create more profits." Sandy even has a little fun keeping things light while the host deals with some technical issues. It's a good listen.
Would you like to keep more of the revenue you earn in your dealership? Of course, you would. Well, one of the best ways to do that is by keeping small problems (customer complaints, employee complaints, advertising issues, compliance issues) small. In this episode, Tom Kline, Lead Consultant and Founder of Better Vantage Point, takes us through the best ways to mitigate those risks and prevent small problems from becoming COSTLY, large problems.
Tom has been a dealer principal for a large part of his professional career and knows what it takes in actual day-to-day practice. He's saved 1000s of dealerships huge fines in compliance penalties by knowing what it takes to work with difficult people and regulators. You're going to want to hear what he has to say.
How does one know what success is without defining it? Do you have a blueprint or playbook based on business objectives or are you just "winging it"? Jason Harris with Digital Dealer Solutions and StrategyMob shares his experiences in what it takes to achieve success. Jason has been proactive in his and others' success whether as a Marketing Manager, Business Development Manager, General Manager, or Dealer Principal.
He shares how to be intentional, have a game plan, and focus on outcomes over activity. Take advantage of his real-world insights and solutions.
So, what does it take to "win" in business? To answer that question, one must clearly define what "winning" looks like. Do you have specific business outcomes established to measure success or failure? In this episode, Laura Patterson, President at VisionEdge Marketing, offers experienced insight to help answer these questions and help business leaders understand how to employ their marketing teams and agencies to deliver to improve business outcomes, not increase marketing outputs. This is a great follow-up to our most recent episode with Stacey Ackerman and the discussion around Agile Marketing. Be ready to take notes.
Just coming off of Halloween, we have Stacey Ackerman, Founder and Trainer with Agilify Coaching & Training to talk about some scary things she's seen in marketing departments this year. She talks about the problems and provides solutions to help make marketing more effective and accountable. Things like focusing on business outcomes instead of marketing outputs, collaboration vs. siloing, and customer-centricity over company-centricity are just 3 of the 5 scary things companies do to their detriment. Listen and learn how to implement the processes that, in the vein of Halloween, provide sweet, yummy, bottom-line goodness.
No, building a culture of positivity is not all about rainbows and unicorns. It's not about just "being nice." According to Gartner, only 30% of customer experience leaders say most of their company’s CX initiatives have produced the intended results. Really? Only 30%? Why? In this episode, Sabrina Erskine, Digital Sales & Service Director at Advantage Auto Group and Auto Genius Member, shares how developing and living a Culture of Positivity is the key to higher employee productivity and lifelong customers. It's not about rainbows and unicorns. It's all about dollars and sense.
When it comes down to it conferences are truly all about the ROI. Whether we look at this from the Dealer perspective and how much could cost the dealership to take someone off the sales floor for two or three days or through the lens of the Vendor and how much it would cost to send staff including (and not limited to) accommodations and client entertainment.
There is a lot of possibly wasted time and lost revenue at stake. In this episode, Hannah Lifson with Friendemic covers the biggest do’s and don'ts at a conference to ensure you maximized your conference agenda (and ROI).
Main Takeaways:
- How To Plan 30 Days In Advance
- I’m At The Conference Now What?
- Post Conference Follow Up
Let's face it, your comfort zone is a nice place to be. It's familiar, safe, and doesn't require a lot of courage. But that is no place to be if you want to grow, especially grow a business. Kristina Shrider, CMO, Neuormarketer, and radio host (much more so check out her LinkedIn profile and website KristinaShrider.com) talks about the mindset one needs to leap out of one's comfort zone to become a leader that is growing people and growing business.
She also reminds us that it's ok not to "know it all." Humbling oneself and admitting a lack of knowledge in certain areas is a great first step out of that comfort zone. It helps people become better leaders and draws better engagement from our teams. Excellent, honest insight from Kristina.
Customers want the path of least resistance. If it's not easy, they may just pass you by. In this episode, Eric Brown, CEO/Co-Founder of inSearchX talks about how dealerships can make things easier and more personalized from the very first interaction a prospect has with a dealership. He also shares how utilizing gaming components and rewards in your marketing programs can drive better engagement while cutting the costs of paid search. Win-win.
When you build trust with your teams, you have teams focused on delivering the best experience to the customer. That leads to both short-term and long-term profits for your dealership. Listen to Brian Kramer, GM at Germain Toyota of Naples, talk about how he works with his teams in sales, finance, and service to achieve success.
Do you notice the little yellow pucks on LinkedIn profiles sharing the Pandemic of Positivity? Well, it's the brainchild of David Long, Executive General Manager at Hansel Auto Group. David and Heidi German, Human Resources Director at Hansel Auto Group talk with us today about how they are spreading this much-needed attitude of positivity across the Hansel Auto Group team and customers of the brand. They share how it is positively impacting the culture at Hansel and adding value to the brand. When they say, "Caring Drives Us," it's not just a slogan. It is a culture that is lived every day.
In this episode of Culture of Value, Drew Delaware, CMO at Gubagoo, talks with us about digital marketing vs. digital retailing. We discuss how the two are not synonymous but can work together to provide a frictionless customer experience if implemented properly.
So what is Agile marketing you ask? Agile Marketing is not a sprint. Agile Marketing is not a marathon. Agile Marketing is more like a lifelong commitment to exercise. You have to practice it every day, and over time, with commitment and consistency, the benefits begin to accrue. Listen to Jim Ewel, President and Founder of AgileMarketing.net, and author of The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing, as he discusses these disciplines. It will be worth every minute of your time. Make sure to visit https://agilemarketing.net
Far too often, dealerships rely on OEM and vendor brands thinking that will build their business. Today we talk with Paul J Daly, CEO at Congruent, about building and living the brand promise of your dealership. When dealership teams understand the financial value of building the dealership brand, the time invested in building and living that brand will be more than worth it. Strong brands: Provide greater price resilience, center on emotion to drive willingness to purchase, and create a strong sense of loyalty among employees and customers.
Sometimes that multiple-choice question gets confusing. On this episode of Culture of Value, Bronson Ma, founder of Bronson Ma Creative, goes into detail about what the terms really mean from a practical standpoint, how they stand alone and work together in truly building a brand for your business. While there are those who use the terms interchangeably, you'll find out that they are not, and how that line of thinking can create less than desirable results for your business.
How are you analyzing information and making decisions from the data storm? In this episode of Culture of Value, Dan Trinidad, CEO at DealerFox, talks about synchronizing your data from all areas, including marketing, inventory, finance, and personnel. He discusses how dealers should leverage data in all aspects of their business, not just marketing. The science behind the data is what allows Dealer Fox to translate the data into actionable tasks that improve overall performance for dealerships.
Dealers that address these blind spots will definitely widen the gap between themselves and their competitors.
Do you want to crack the code for growth in your dealership or any other business? We all know that when customers are deciding to buy, they all ask: Why should I do business with this company? Richard Weylman, Chairman & Managing Director at Weylman Consulting Group, stops by Culture of Value to share more about the power of WHY and how asking the right questions and being willing to take action when you discover the answers, will help you take any business to new heights in terms of new business, retention, and taking market share away from your competitors. Simple? Yes. Easy? No. But when you truly grasp the Power of Why, the rewarding results will be worth it. Be sure to read Richard's book, "The Power of Why - Breaking Out in a Competitive Market Place."
If you don't know who Tom Brady and Ryan Leaf are, you're encouraged to do a little research. Fleming Ford, VP Retail Leadership Academy with ESI Trends, talks with us about how being a leader like Tom Brady (or Patrick Mahomes :) ) will help you in engaging your team, whether that be an auto dealership, another company, or a sports team. When you are willing to work harder and do what it takes to bring the rest of your team up to a level where success is just part of the culture, you become a leader your team believes in and strives to emulate. It requires a selfless mindset, but do the right things, and you, too, can become the G.O.A.T in your field.
Being a leader doesn't come from your title on a business card. Tim Cox, SVP of Sales and Co-Founder at CarNow, talks about what it takes to be a leader and earn the respect of your team. Tim reminds us of a message from Gary Vaynerchuck, Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, 5-Time NYT Bestselling Author, that tells business owners that their employees will never love the company the way the owner does. Such an accurate statement. However, if you treat your team members as being significant and develop a culture that reinforces significance, you'll be able to draw your team closer to loving the business like you and making sure they take care of your customers. Win-Win.
Through more than 40,000 assessments and hundreds of interviews, John Eades and his team at LearnLoft have discovered the most important job a leader has today is to elevate others. That's exactly what we talk about in this episode. Leadership is more than having a C-level or management title. For any entity or group to succeed, there must be a leader who truly believes in servant leadership, elevating each member of the team to be their absolute best. So, if you're struggling in your leadership role, not getting your team to "do what you want them to do," listen to what John has to say and take it to heart. You'll be amazed at the results.
"Great Leaders Ask Questions," "Now That's a Great Question," and "339 Questions Jesus Asked" are fantastic books authored by our guest, Bob Tiede, Director of Global Operations Leadership Development for Cru. Bob reminds us that "Leadership is not as much about knowing all the answers as asking the right questions." Just listen to some of the simple questions great leaders have asked that have given insights to improve teams, cut costs, improve efficiencies, reduce turnover, and change cultures. Is it worth your time to listen? We'll let you be the judge of that.
Tatton Manning, Dealer Principal at Patriot Auto Group in Oklahoma, stops by Culture of Value to talk about his entry into the automotive industry, his vision and process for growth, and how he leads to create a consistent culture across all of his dealerships. Patriot Auto Group has added one new store a year for the past seven years to the group. Tatton offers some great insights on how he and his team made that happen.
Don't leave your brand promise and marketing strategy to chance. Kyle Mountsier, Marketing & Business Dev. Director for Nelson Automotive Group, says, bring your vision and strategy in-house. With that, he cautions that it doesn't mean a wholesale firing of all your vendor partners. In fact, Kyle says it means developing deeper partnerships with your vendor partners. Marketing is a team sport. The trick is getting the right players in the right positions.
Sabrina Erskine, Digital Sales & Service Director at Napleton Auto Group, shares with us the importance for dealership leaders to keep track of all the moving parts involved in digital marketing. She points out that dealer principals and general managers need a better working knowledge of digital marketing as a whole as well as getting the entire dealership team involved in the digital marketing strategy. Sabrina highlights the fact that digital marketing impacts every department in the dealership and how breaking down department silos will help everyone better contribute to success throughout the customer journey.
Tom Kline, the founder of Better Vantage Point, discusses the importance of conducting dealership business with intention, giving full attention to everything from cash reporting and advertising compliance to hiring, firing, social media, and customer complaints. Tom shares a lot of great insight into how doing the right things from a compliance and customer perspective can stop small problems from becoming very expensive problems.
Doing things the way you've always done them is not a great strategy when change is constant. Dennis Ephlin, Automotive Partner with IBM, shares a number of the changes he sees coming in the automotive industry and how customer experience will become your dealership's unique value proposition. Dennis talks about how every process, engagement, and guest experience needs to be a dealership's North Star.
The complexity of marketing strategy & execution should not be left to "whoever has some extra time" to keep an eye on it. Today, Glenn Pasch, CEO at PCG Digital, shares why having (or hiring) a marketing director is so important. Successful marketing is not a set it and forget it program. Someone must understand the goals and KPIs that need to be measured, and not just once a month. Managing the relationship with outside agencies is critical. And having a single point of contact to maintain consistency while focusing on a changing business landscape is a must. Many ask if there is enough work to justify a marketing director in a dealership. We ask if there is enough marketing director to effectively handle all of the work.
Generations Digital Founder, George Nenni, stops by to share insights on the importance of local search, Google My Business, and what strategies and tactics dealerships need to employ to make the most of local search. We talk through a number of the topics in his books, “A Car Dealer's Guide to Google My Business” and “A Car Dealer's Guide to Digital Marketing”. George also shares ideas on how to achieve the best results from your digital agency and how to eliminate ad waste to maximize your dealership's marketing dollars.
Dane Saville, with Reunion Marketing and host of the KPI Cafe, stops by to discuss some of the ways in which local dealerships and businesses can rank above 3rd party sites in organic search. Understand, there is no one silver bullet, and it will take strategic thinking and work. Just take a listen, though. Dane has some great ideas to share.
Joe Overby, Senior Editor at Automotive Remarketing, talks with us about what he's seeing with new car and pre-owned sales as the auto industry deals with chip shortages. We talk about some of the strategies and tactics dealerships can implement to continue to grow revenues on the front-end, back-end, and in service.
This week we talk with Ilana Shabtay, Director of Marketing at AutoLeadStar, about some things that are many times overlooked or taken for granted that are costing dealerships revenue in the short-term and long-term. Siloed marketing efforts, poor communications, hard sales tactics, and making assumptions about customers are costing dealerships. We talk about what can be done to solve the problems these issues create and how solving these problems leads to long-term growth.
Are you a Customer-Centric business? Are you sure? Laura Patterson, President of VisionEdge Marketing, stops by to talk with Culture of Value to share insights on how you can truly know your business is a customer-centric business. Laura shares how you can measure your company's response to customers during "Moments of Truth" to determine whether or not you're truly Customer-Centric. She offers real-world examples of companies who are and those who only think they are. So, where do you stand? Are you a Customer-Centric business?
Melanie Borden, Vice President of Marketing at LotLinx, stops by the Culture of Value podcast to share her experience with building brand trust for dealerships by having dealer principals and general managers build a social media plan. She shares how everyone in a dealership can be vital in building that trust relationship with customers and how those relationships positively impact the dealership's bottom line.
Christine Mitchell (aka The Car Lady) shares her insight on how auto dealerships can develop a focused process for educating and empowering customers to keep them coming back to the service drive and showroom floor. Christine shares how dealerships can get a “second chance at a first impression” – to build long-term and loyal relationships with your customers. Because loyal customers are repeat customers.
She shares how you can truly introduce your customers to the dealership and its departments in a relaxed and comfortable setting. This “second delivery” allows you to set the expectation of vehicle maintenance and service being performed by your dealership experts.
These are some great ideas and results you'll want to hear.
Matt Wilson, host of the Mostly Automotive Podcast, Co-Host of the Experimarketing Podcast, and Account Director with Silverback Advertising joins Culture of Value to help dealers better understand traditional and digital marketing metrics along with performance metrics of your team. We discuss the importance of a true marketing team that can work with sales to focus on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals. Matt talks about strategy and tactics that dealer principals, general managers, sales managers, and marketing teams can employ to gain the most knowledge, and get the most return, from their marketing efforts.
Quantum5 President/CEO, David O'Brien, shares the importance of focusing on the "I", the Individual, when implementing an omnichannel marketing initiative. David talks about making sure everyone understands their individual role in creating and living a positive customer experience at every touchpoint a dealership has with its customers. Omnichannel marketing provides the perfect opportunity for leaders to bring their teams together around the common purpose of delivering the best possible customer experience, which ultimately drives increased customer lifetime value and return on marketing investment.
Colin Carrasquillo, Digital Marketing Director for Nielsen Motors and Host of the Experimarketing podcast, joins us to help clarify the differences between multichannel and omnichannel. We discuss how putting the processes in place to implement omnichannel properly can provide a significant boost in sales, more importantly, a significant boost in the lifetime value of a customer. We also talk about how implementing in a silo can do more harm than good.
Want to learn how to make sure you're achieving both revenue generation and revenue preservation? Max Zanan shares insights on the key processes for making both happen as well as driving optimal performance in your Sales, F&I, and Services Departments to help you achieve customer satisfaction that becomes your key dealership brand differentiator.
Strategic Training Partners CEO, Frank Gustafson, talks from both the customer and sales training professional perspective on the right way for sales professionals to guide sales from the first interaction to repeat business of lifetime customers. He shares stories of the auto sales professionals that guided him to buy a new vehicle even when he wasn't in the market to buy.
Brisa Renteria, CEO at Improve Growth, talks about the process for attracting sales rockstars, weeding out sucky salespeople, and getting you out of the endless hiring and firing cycle. A great listen for dealer principals, GMs, and sales team leaders in general.
Laurie Foster, president at Foster Strategies Group, talks with our host, Troy Scheer, about her company's focus on 'Transforming Automotive Partnerships and Performance'. This is done by incorporating all aspects of Automotive Retail: dealerships, service providers, and vendors plus manufacturers.
They discuss moving away from legacy thinking, combining what's best from before, what's best from current landscape, and how all of that will affect business tomorrow.
In this episode of the Culture of Value, we speak with David Adcock, Executive Vice President of Binary Automotive Solutions. David and I discuss the importance of establishing a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and how business owners can use their UVP to cut through the clutter and establish themselves as the top brand in their market. Join us!
Welcome to the Culture of Value Podcast. Your host, Troy Scheer (Binary Automotive Solutions CMO) provides a short introduction to the upcoming podcast series that is launching in early December.