0:02

You're listening to a

0:02

soda con sessions by effective

0:06

live from a soda con 2023.

0:10

Thanks for tuning to

0:10

another episode of a soda con

0:12

sessions presented by effective

0:12

and we had a chance to catch up

0:15

with Phil Gill who said Tom Gill

0:15

Chevrolet. And you're the GSM

0:20

out there obviously, you know, you said you were in the in the Cincinnati market. So it's kind

0:21

of cool to hear that someone's

0:25

from the Midwest, same area as

0:25

me. I'm from Northern Indiana.

0:27

Okay, great, um, spend a lot of

0:27

time down like towards Lexington

0:30

and Columbus, that area to

0:30

Cincinnati. Like it's beautiful

0:33

out there. So first off, thanks

0:33

for joining us. Oh, I'm

0:35

very happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

0:37

So like, give us a

0:37

real quick, like rundown of all

0:40

the transitions you've had at

0:40

Tom Gill Chevrolet. And of

0:43

course, like your last name is

0:43

the same. So? Sure. So you're

0:46

almost born into it. Right. Right. Yeah.

0:48

literally born

0:48

into it. My dad's whole side of

0:51

the family is automotive

0:51

focused. So sure. You know, once

0:55

I made the decision to make that

0:55

my career, I've I've had a few

0:59

different roles. And started in

0:59

the office. I'm an accounting

1:02

information systems background.

1:02

So started in the office then

1:05

got thrown into use cars. So you

1:05

do have iOS systems? I do. Yeah.

1:10

And got thrown into use cars,

1:10

and ran that department for

1:14

about four years and then moved

1:14

into the General Sales Manager

1:18

position. And by title that's

1:18

kind of where I've been at the

1:21

past five or six years now.

1:23

Yeah, that's cool. And one of the things that you've done recently, about a

1:25

year ago is doing your, your buy

1:29

center. So we'll get into that

1:29

here in a second. But I'm

1:31

actually curious. So growing up

1:31

with that, coming into the

1:36

dealership now becoming GSM. How

1:36

cool is it that you've been able

1:39

to be a part of that like with

1:39

your family and continue on the

1:42

next generation of that?

1:43

Yeah, it's really

1:43

meaningful, actually. So you

1:46

know, my grandfather started the

1:46

whole family in the auto space.

1:50

So by family standard, I'm third

1:50

generation there, it means a lot

1:54

to be able to work with My

1:54

Father on a daily basis and grow

1:57

this dealership to heights that

1:57

I don't think either of us

2:01

really thought it could achieve.

2:01

And my brother just came back

2:06

from Denver to start in this

2:06

store a little over a year ago.

2:09

And so now he's getting into it.

2:09

So it's, it's really becoming a

2:14

special thing. And something

2:14

that I'm very fortunate

2:16

unfortunate to have.

2:17

Yeah, that's cool.

2:17

What would you say it is about

2:19

your dealership that makes you

2:19

guys different than other

2:22

dealers in your market? Maybe

2:22

even other dealers from around

2:24

the country?

2:24

Yeah, I mean, I think there's, there's the intangibles that are things like

2:26

our culture and the people that

2:29

we have there that we put a lot

2:29

of effort into. But experience

2:33

wise,

2:34

interesting. So you say you invest a lot in your people. And that pays off?

2:37

Does it does pay

2:37

off? Imagine that right? Yeah.

2:41

Surprise, surprise, right. And,

2:41

you know, there's a lot of

2:45

effort we made there. But

2:45

there's a lot of structural

2:47

things we've done sure to, you

2:47

know, make a difference as well.

2:51

One of those things is in our

2:51

sales process coming right out

2:54

of COVID, we decided to go to a

2:54

more A to Z sales process to

2:58

where I said bye to our finance

2:58

managers who were headaches for

3:03

for a number of years and

3:03

started down this new path. So

3:07

really revamp what we're doing,

3:07

and it's been a really great

3:11

change for us. Yeah. And

3:13

clearly the end

3:13

result is so worth it when you

3:16

transition to an A to Z, and you

3:16

really invest in that customer

3:19

experience the entire time. Now,

3:19

one of the things you said

3:22

obviously that was within the

3:22

last couple years, they made

3:24

that transition. What was the

3:24

hardest thing about going

3:28

through that transition and

3:28

getting rid of finance managers,

3:31

or transitioning them to something else?

3:33

Yeah, one of the,

3:33

you know, honestly, making the

3:35

decision to do it was probably

3:35

because you're going into

3:40

something you're not really

3:40

comfortable moving into

3:42

necessarily, right. It's like,

3:42

Oh, something you want. Right?

3:46

Yeah. And, you know, once we

3:46

made that decision, I think we

3:50

did a really good job. And my

3:50

team did an excellent job of

3:53

being prepared for it, to where

3:53

it wasn't super painful. But

3:58

there have, I am not saying

3:58

there hasn't been pain. And I

4:01

think some of those pain points

4:01

have been getting down our

4:03

process, to where it's more

4:03

streamlined with the with the

4:07

customers making sure our

4:07

product specialists can really

4:10

speak to the paperwork there

4:10

having customers sign really do

4:14

a good job of presenting a menu,

4:14

you know, some of those hard

4:19

skills that you just have to

4:19

learn. But, you know, it's been

4:24

it's been really great, because

4:24

it's it's sped up our sales

4:26

process. It's actually increased

4:26

our f&i numbers, you know, all

4:32

and then the customers love it.

4:32

I mean, they're shocked when

4:34

they don't have to go back to

4:34

another office to finish their

4:37

deal. Right.

4:39

And I'm sure you've

4:39

heard the stereotypical name for

4:41

the finance business office, the

4:41

box, a box. Yeah. And that's

4:45

like a curse word around here.

4:45

You know, right. It's cool that

4:48

you guys have been able to

4:48

transition and make it in one

4:50

unique experience, like from the

4:50

A to Z part of it with one

4:54

person because to to a customer,

4:54

it makes the world of a

4:56

difference. Yeah, and

4:57

it really does and

4:57

the nice thing that we also did

5:00

Just kind of a carryover was

5:00

they handle the internet lead as

5:03

well. So that customer is truly

5:03

working with that same person

5:07

from their first interaction

5:07

with our store till they till

5:11

basically they go to deliver we

5:11

do have delivery specialists

5:14

that know the car inside and

5:14

out. So that frees the product

5:18

specialist to go back to doing

5:18

what they're great at. But that

5:22

whole kind of, you know, there's

5:22

there's the omni channel from

5:25

the technology you're using, but

5:25

we've got kind of transitioning

5:28

the omni channel of the person

5:28

you're working with as well. And

5:32

so you talk about really knowing

5:32

where the customer is at and

5:35

engaging that customer in the

5:35

experience, it makes it way

5:37

easier because there are no

5:37

questions. It's just from one

5:40

medium to the other.

5:41

Yeah. So now I got to ask you, Phil, one of the things we talked about before we

5:43

started rolling was that you guys recently came with Tachyon?

5:45

Do you guys use Tachyon for your

5:48

CRM and your DMS? Or do you have

5:48

a separation there?

5:50

Yeah. So we're not

5:50

with them on CRM just quite yet.

5:54

We're drive centric for CRM, but

5:54

we are with them are on our DMS.

5:58

And I'll have to say the

5:58

technology stack there is really

6:01

impressive. Yeah. And it's

6:01

really helped with this from an

6:04

Information Systems. Right,

6:04

yeah. It's really helped with

6:08

this process. Because everything

6:08

can be esign, it connects right

6:13

into route one. So all the

6:13

contract pulls over there. Yeah,

6:16

the integrations there, you

6:16

know, you can do it on almost

6:20

any device. So it makes it a

6:20

really streamlined process for

6:24

our people, it's pretty easy to

6:24

use. And then if the customer is

6:27

not there, we can actually share

6:27

everything with them. And they

6:31

can remotely sign all but three

6:31

pieces of paper because the

6:35

state law for the whole deal. I

6:35

mean, it blows my mind. And it

6:41

definitely blows our customers

6:41

minds that they can actually do

6:44

that.

6:44

Yeah, that you can

6:44

do that. Yeah, whether it's

6:46

techie on whether it's other

6:46

technology, I think it's really

6:49

important on how it looks to the

6:49

customer, but also to your

6:51

internal processes. So the fact

6:51

that you're able to save time

6:55

using the same system without

6:55

having to duplicate entry. And

6:58

you also have a salesperson, or

6:58

I'm sorry, a product specialist,

7:02

that's take care of the A to Z

7:02

side of it. So even if you add

7:05

up like niceties and small talk,

7:05

that could be 30 minutes of that

7:09

entire experience that you're

7:09

able to save just because you're

7:11

not having to pass them off to somebody else.

7:12

Well, for sure.

7:12

And the efficiency comes in. I

7:15

mean, think you think about

7:15

this, you've worked with a

7:17

person for an hour. And they

7:17

say, Well, let me go think about

7:19

it. Right? Yeah. And they say,

7:19

oh, you know what, yeah, I want

7:22

to move forward with it. Great.

7:22

You don't even have to come back

7:24

in. Let me send you all the

7:24

paperwork, we'll have somebody

7:27

to deliver the car to you. And

7:27

how much time is that free up

7:30

for the product specialists

7:30

because they don't have to waste

7:32

all the all that time with the

7:32

person coming back in and

7:35

getting everything done. It's

7:35

just, it's done behind the

7:38

scenes, they can go on, and let

7:38

everybody else kind of manage

7:42

the rest of that process. So it

7:42

makes it really nice.

7:45

And Phil, I think of

7:45

so many situations where you

7:47

might not even have the buyer

7:47

and the CO buyer there where you

7:49

can at least remotely spend the

7:49

majority of those documents to

7:52

help them save time 100, whether

7:52

it's a parent, whether it's a

7:56

spouse, whether it's someone

7:56

else that's going on the loan

7:58

with you. Yeah, the time saving

7:58

part is nuts. Oh, it's insane.

8:01

And it makes it

8:01

very easy to do. So it's been

8:03

something that we use more and

8:03

more and more. Yeah. And it kind

8:09

of, you know, at some point, you're looking at it, you're like, Well, I'm not seeing a lot

8:10

of these customers back in the

8:13

showroom or in the showroom at

8:13

all, because it just becomes

8:16

that much easier to interact

8:16

with them. But yeah, I think

8:19

that's long term wins for us,

8:19

because we're creating a

8:22

convenient experience.

8:23

Sure. How long did

8:23

it take your team to dial in

8:26

that experience for the remote

8:26

signing? Yeah, so we we had had

8:30

just like it's a new beast. Yeah, it's a new beast, different value propositions?

8:32

All

8:33

right, we were

8:33

CDK, prior to Tachyon. And we

8:36

were doing esign stuff with CDK.

8:36

So we were kind of used to that

8:40

part of the process. You knew it

8:40

existed, right, the remote sign

8:43

piece we caught on pretty

8:43

quickly, you know, it took when

8:45

we launched with Tachyon. It

8:45

took about 45 to 60 days for our

8:49

people to become comfortable

8:49

with just the general instore

8:53

flow. But after that, I mean,

8:53

the the process for sending it

8:57

remotely in the in store is

8:57

pretty much the same other than

9:00

a couple of different button

9:00

clicks. Yeah. So once they had

9:02

that down, well, now we just got

9:02

to learn to push two more

9:05

buttons more into the remote

9:05

signing. So the transition to

9:08

that was very easy. And now that

9:08

we've got a process around that

9:12

it just flows. I mean, it's it's

9:12

pretty easy. Now it's

9:14

so cool. where

9:14

technology is growing,

9:16

especially with you know,

9:16

companies that are very forward

9:19

thinking in that space. It's,

9:19

it's great that they're focusing

9:23

on the customer experience. So

9:23

here it is a save money, I'm

9:27

sorry, save time, hopefully even

9:27

save money. If you're looking at

9:30

all your different options and

9:30

the customer wins. Your store

9:34

wins. Everybody wins.

9:35

Yeah, I think that's one of the big things that we've tried to focus on in

9:37

the last couple of years is

9:40

finding vendors that help align

9:40

us with the customer. Yeah. And

9:46

I think that just goes a long,

9:46

long way to where their focus on

9:50

improving customer experience so

9:50

we can easily improve customer

9:54

experience, because the

9:54

technology is there to do so.

9:57

Yeah, exactly.

9:58

One of the things we talked about the beginning episode Audible is your buy

9:59

center. Yeah, so give us like a

10:02

quick recap. I know you said you

10:02

started about a year ago. How's

10:05

that going? What's that look

10:05

like? How hard was it to do? How

10:07

many vehicles you buy in a month? What's it look like? Yeah. So

10:10

this is one of my

10:10

most exciting things that we've

10:13

done. Recently, just a little

10:13

past. Yeah, just a little

10:17

passionate about I spent four

10:17

years as a used car manager,

10:19

right. So like, exactly the way

10:19

to acquire cars. That isn't the

10:22

auction sound is awesome, right?

10:22

So, you know, we actually

10:28

started working with David long,

10:28

about a little over a year ago.

10:32

I'm David Long's biggest fan. So

10:32

he's great. And he's really

10:35

helped us in still a process

10:35

that helps us do this. But yeah,

10:40

I mean, more, you know, the real

10:40

shout out is to my team of

10:43

people there that shout out to

10:43

your team, right, Tom Gill

10:47

Chevrolet that, taken hold of

10:47

it, and learn the process and

10:51

put in the work and continue to

10:51

put in the work to grow it and

10:55

push it. So, you know, I think

10:55

our first month we bought maybe

10:58

12 cars. This month, we're on

10:58

track for the best month that

11:02

we're going to have. And we'll

11:02

buy somewhere between 70 and 75

11:06

cars.

11:07

So how big is the

11:07

team doing that?

11:10

We've got four

11:10

people on the team. So we've got

11:13

two buyers, a manager, and then

11:13

I've got one person who's more

11:16

of a, like BDC for the buy

11:16

center. So just trying to get

11:20

people engaged into the

11:20

communications. But I'm, I'm

11:24

just really excited about that.

11:24

I get till

11:26

Yeah, so one of the

11:26

things that's really important

11:29

is starting any new process, any

11:29

new, you know, cost center is

11:32

not the right word, it's actually a profit center, because the factory will do

11:34

acquire those vehicles. So when

11:36

you're creating that profit

11:36

center, how do you get buy in

11:39

from your team to do that?

11:39

Because I mean, you said that's

11:42

what made it so easy, as

11:42

everybody was so bought into

11:44

what you were doing already? Yeah,

11:46

well, you know,

11:46

the one person that I put in

11:49

charge of it right away, you

11:49

know, at that point, we were

11:51

exploring a couple of different

11:51

things. And I called it a kind

11:54

of our innovation labs, and I

11:54

put a, one of our people may

11:57

Mendy, in charge. And Mindy is a

11:57

great process person. Sure, and

12:01

a great student. And so I knew

12:01

like, hey, at least we'll do the

12:05

thing we're supposed to be

12:05

doing. And it might be wrong,

12:08

but we'll learn together. So a

12:08

lot of our success was to her

12:12

making sure that the process was

12:12

built and instilled in the

12:16

people to make them successful.

12:16

Sure. And the rest of the team,

12:20

you know, they kind of sit by

12:20

the they sit up up the street in

12:23

another building, they work it,

12:23

and then everything's done down

12:27

in our main store. But sure

12:27

everybody else started becoming

12:30

believers, when we start seeing

12:30

3040 5060. Now it's going to be

12:33

70 cars being bought a month.

12:33

That's customers that turn

12:38

quickly that are good cars. And

12:38

the best thing is like how do

12:42

you you know, we're General

12:42

Motors deals. So before we

12:45

started the buy center, almost

12:45

70% of our used inventory was GM

12:50

products. Well, that's dropped

12:50

to about 55% Because of the buy

12:55

center because all this sure

12:55

other product is coming in that

12:58

we never had access to. Right.

12:58

Yeah. At a good value for

13:03

ourselves and our customers. So

13:03

it's been a it's been a win all

13:06

around. Yeah, man, this

13:07

is great. So Phil,

13:07

I'd love to have you on again

13:10

sometime. So we can talk more

13:10

about the processes that you

13:12

have in place to your by center.

13:12

Because I mean, there's a huge

13:15

story there and even kind of

13:15

learning some of the in house

13:18

software that you guys have

13:18

created to be able to make that

13:20

easier, make it better. But

13:20

thanks so much for taking a few

13:22

minutes out of your day out here

13:22

to sudo con and like it's so

13:26

cool to collaborate with people like you connect with people like you and like grow for the

13:28

future you know,

13:29

yeah, absolutely. Thanks again for having me on. It was a it was a true pleasure,

13:31

of course. Phil, thank you.

13:33

Yeah, thank you.

13:36

Thank you for listening to this ASO to concession by effective if you

13:38

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13:42

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