Rico, how are you – and let me just say this – I am honored honored – that you’re here it’s an honor to bring such talent like you on the show, doing automation, digital marketing for quite some time and you’re really successful at it.
Did you share that with us? Yeah, actually, I’ve been doing it for five or six years.
Actually, I was doing it when other folks in the car industry say: oh that don’t do that it doesn’t work.
You don’t want to do that, you’re, taking out the salesperson and now, as we see mostly everything even most of the products that they’re using that dealerships from now.
Some of the chat features are live, but chats and just the retargeting remarketing things that nature has basically AI, taking one step out and taking the human out and being able to market and reprogram.
So you can get to more customer.
So I’ve been doing this as, like, I said around 2014 2015 or something right and I’ve seen I’ve seen what you’ve done with that first store.
You were in that Honda store, so a Bertrand.
I believe it was Brian at Honda down in Fayetteville got ta.
Give shout out to Tim, Lucille and the crew down there, the general manager down there so yeah Brandon.
I know what you did.
You went to HubSpot at the beginning right and you created daddy.
You created the blog’s and you created tremendous organics search because you know to spyfu how I monitor what you were doing.
Is I tapped in spyfu all those key word, and then I saw the results that you got yeah.
It was like amazing and the traffic, so you know how to develop something from the get-go and you’re so good that before awhile, when I’ve been monitoring you on the digital, you know platforms and I’ve been seeing how you’ve grown, and you got tremendous a bit early In digital I mean to me, I believe that you’re, the only digital guy out that really knows automated marketing a you know.
Rico.
I have artificial intelligence tied in with automation.
Marketing was just a killer, but you you’re really really the automation marketing King in our industry.
I appreciate that well, I had to back up the reason why – and I spoke about Brian Honda, which I was at around 2013 started around there.
Brian is that and when you’re speaking of HubSpot around 2000 and maybe 2010 2011 or so I was at Inter and I was at a subaru dealership and that’s why I started training with HubSpot became one of their first students.
Certified students with HubSpot got all their certifications and started blogging, and the reason was during that time period they were worn a lot of dealerships that were doing digital.
The way I felt like it could be done, so I had to learn from other industries other industries.
They were in e-commerce, other industries that were maybe in plumbing pools, there’s a guy by the name of I can’t Marcus Marcus is his first name.
I can’t remember the last name, but they call him the sales life as sales li o n, and I hooked up with him and trained a lot from him and now he’s big.
He goes around and teaches in training, but he owned his own little pool company and he got hit during the recession and started doing a lot of digital marketing.
So I’ve been doing on the automotive side roughly, since, if I, since you mention HubSpot for almost almost a decade, so it’s 10 years and there’s a book called, I think, all 10,000 hours and it talks about you’ve got to do something for 10,000 hours before you Really get to understand it, and I feel I really don’t feel like I’ve grasped it complete because, as we both know, like you just mentioned in your new product, that you have, if you’re not still learning every month and every year, you’re falling behind.
So I feel like I’m still a student of this whole thing and I’m excited.
I just did a training yesterday on tick-tock abs, and so I’m excited about that.
So it’s always learning.
You always learn anything wrong with this talk about that, because I saw a post that you did and, of course I want to talk to you about it and the reason I want to talk to you, because you really know what you’re doing with that.
Tick-Tock thing tell us a little bit, so our audience can actually learn that well tick-tock and it’s crazy.
I actually was first heard about heard about tick tock years ago, when it was, he was music not for me, and they said hey.
Do you know much about this tick, tock stuff on someone in the car industry, so I started doing what I always do.
I learned this from Elon Musk Elon Musk.
When they asked him, how did you learn how to build a car company? How did you learn how to build a a space company and a solar company and he looked at and he said I picked up a book and starting to read it.
So I started spending a lot of time, a lot of money.
It’s a lot of energy in a tick-tock and luckily, when I started doing that, it was right around the time when tick tock was just opening up their ads platform, so I became one of their beta testers, so I’m actually a beta tester for Tech Talk and I always put this in there in case this video comes out at this time, I’m a beta tester.
So I don’t know if everyone has access to the tick tock ads platform, but that’s another one of those things where it’s growing.
You got Google Ads Facebook ads and now, if you combine that with tick tock, which is the fastest growing, pretty much social network out there, I mean you got folks that, are you know, 85 90, all the way down the 14 and 15 that are on this Platform and they have a lot when I got onto the beta test, I noticed that a lot of their ads platform is based upon Google and Facebook reason being is that Facebook Google’s ad platform – and it looks very similar to it now tik-tok – has both Google and Facebook’s ad platform, we can create audiences put pixels that you have our pixel, so you can put it on your website and things that nature.
So it’s just another way.
What we call in the visual marketing world just become an omni-channel omni-channel, which basically means is that you’re all and you know these words are but omni-channel for some folks that don’t know all it is, is being everywhere.
Digital did you possibly be Google, Facebook, tick-tock Instagram? All over the place so that you can actually be able to just build your brand up, so I’m excited about it.
I tested it out and got good results when I did the first ad for the dealership that I’m at got great results as a matter of fact, so I’m really excited about taking it to the next level, just adding that to our platform on omni-channel ami chill.
Our tick-tock happens to be really good.
I actually, I don’t know a lot about it, but I do got to tell you this.
I enjoy those funny videos they put up there that night.
I watch them and there’s a lot of comedians on there and I actually enjoy it.
So tic toc has a really good positive approach.
I think it’s yeah.
It’s not like Facebook words, there’s a lot of negativity on Facebook, so I try.
I try some time to stay away from Facebook with that kind of platform because they really are video oriented and everything was video and you know Rico.
When I saw that post I had to share it and I share on mice on my platform.
You know I share over sorry, like everybody that has any talent and it’s positive, I’m sharing it in your stuff with sharing, because I believe in you know that’s what social media is about.
Yeah, that’s what my perception is.
So the reason I called you for this show is because you’re really big individual, you understand what we’re trying to do.
We became integration partners would deal attract, Wow, alright and we’ve got right now.
One shop, smart, auto everything’s, pretty much branded under you – know we’re using Kelley Blue Book’s platform for appraisals for the price of the car for a lot of different things.
Car reviews also dealer review right.
Okay said we had to integrate.
We call an integration partner with new attract because with this digital retailing, that’s going on now that we have much more value and by the way by our company, was not built like an auto trader or a card guru.
Dealers don’t pay anything to be on there.
You have ill directory at all complimentary for nothing.
What I do is I charge per lead: okay, right, I’m a full full Legion, my subprime liens, because it’s much harder when you sell a subprime lead yeah notice.
The deal has a hard time getting them in the door.
It is we automated it now we’re the customers, that’s not for lead.
It’s per appointment show Wow.
Okay.
We took it to the next level because we didn’t want to kill that program because we said you know with such a hard time to follow up.
These are special finance customers, but they are so so why don’t we do this? Why don’t we make it automated right? Well, we make the appointment for you by SMS by emails consistently.
That being said, now, it’s not per leave, no more special finance.
It’s per appointment that show data, so we developed this platform probably will be up and running within the next ten days.
So now the sub-prime business will be per appointment and I can really do that automation process.
I can really do that with any with anything.
So there is a setup fee, Martin and when we’re ready, we’re gon na be announcing that what do you think about that? That’s also because, although I’m a digital marketer I’ll actually set up the BDC at the current location on that down a priority.
Honda in Huntersville part of the party priority group and although I’m a digital guy, I know that appointments is the key thing and one thing I hate hate hate hate.
I hate to use hate, but I got ta use it cuz, that’s one of the strongest ones.
Is that and I’m a salesperson before I got back into the management side? I was selling cars just like a chef, oh and I could sell cars and became I missed number one for the company that don’t ship I was at by four cars.
So I’m a digital yeah, but I’m a car salesman to court and one of the things that I hated.
What salespeople are that they always tried to prequalify customers from Leeds over the phone.
So what you just mentioned was – and I’m old school, I’m digital.
But I’m old school, the more people you can get into your dealership appointment, wise, the more you will sail do not try to sail over the phone.
Do not try to sale online unless you’re for e-commerce, less you like a carvanha or room where you actually got your systems set up to do that no dealership should be trying.
Now you want to promote that online and you give them the ease of that, but really the key to that is actually you’re.
Gon na have to have those appointments come in and if you could take out like you’re doing that right now, taking off, take it out that salesperson that wants to do the path of least resistance how’s, your credit, I’m a sin over this form.
For your credit information, because, as we both know, is secondary or second-chance finance, it’s not really that person that you’re focused on because they may have some challenge credit.
You want to get them in, so you can let up on them so that they can fall in love so that they can find that money.
That extra money, you’re gon na, need to get the deal done or they can find that special someone that likes a little awesome that may go on to the line and sign with them.
So I love the fact that you said appointment first leads are great, but I see so many dealerships that get a ton of links and they blow the leads, because they’re trying to be a carvanha with 1965.
How to credit your other crazy things like that.
Instead of getting the people in men why women line numbers don’t lie the more appointments that you put into your showroom, the more cars you will say.
Oh Point: Blank period I had an old sales manager at a when I was working in radio advertising.
He said if you’re not in front of a customer you’re unemployed, so do second chance finest customers.
Do you have to work em a whole lot harder? Yes, do you have to work a lot more? Yes, but I rather work ten customers or sale.
Then 1.
0 and sale 0, so I you say an appointment first lead come in, not leaves, you didn’t say, believes you said: appointments someone’s, correct, matically will grow here.
Like Rico.
First of all, you early early generate in this industry.
They always blame the Legion.
They never phase.
The processes of your slides, I have the two worlds.
I have Brandon K, Patterson right Hardison, he is our corporate trainer.
Then I got valve Mazzone right, ABC guy, and then I have a few other set of sales trainers.
Okay, so when your legs don’t work with shop, smart, the first thing that we do, we don’t even sell you a lead.
If you don’t do a contract with us and after our product is done after you get the leads, you got ta allow us to give you a free assessment totally for free.
Yes, because that way, now I have the training world, which obviously you know that’s one of the things that I do right: the training world first, the lead second, and now we’re automating it.
Okay, so because dealerships always tell you, they don’t was the Legion, it’s never their process.
Great.
Now, we’ve automated, where that customers gon na, show up to you a lot mother.
That way, I know, based on that information, is if the dealership really done the right thing.
The guys go one of them all right and they don’t even ask the simple question based upon what we shared today.
Would this be the vehicle you would like to own yeah? That’s it trial closed.
They don’t even do that.
No more yeah! They talk about what happened last night yeah, you got a demo right.
The whole idea for a demo right is to do a trial close outside of the dealership environment psych psychologically, so the customer feels comfortable if they don’t do that.
No more! You know what two different dealerships as a customer and we’ve gone on a demo right people that don’t know me you know, and they don’t even ask me.
You know what you said.
You hit something on the head and no like I said before, and although on the Digital side, I know that the old-school still works and I’m real adamant on using that.
And I think that is because and I’m just gon na say it a lot of folks.
Gon na get mad at me, but I’m used to that in the industry.
Anyway, we tried to they try to hire these folks and treat them as though they’re entrepreneurs, but then feed them like their employees.
What I mean by that when I was working in real estate, I got out of the car business for close to four years and became a digital marketer, a trainer for Remax the whole big corporation, but a local franchise that myself in a partner.
I we parted, together with and in Remax in those types of um they actually as a salesperson or L estate salesperson.
You get charged anywhere between five hundred to maybe two thousand dollars just to have a name at that location.
Now, why don’t? I say that they treat the leads and they treat their business completely different.
They most real service they actually pay for their own leads the ones that are producer pay for their own leads.
They got their own, funk the whole nine.
They treat it like that where’s, where the second largest purchase that anyone will ever made, but yet until we treat these customers and these salespeople like they’re like how can I put it the nice way without causing any problems, we feed them like babies, but we want Them to be professionals instead of going out and not get it all the time, even at some locations I worked beforehand and I’m like hey guys.
We’ve got as far as the BDC we’re handling all the incoming calls we’re handling all the outcoming calls you’re handing the leads that come in.
Why don’t you go generate your own leads? Why don’t you sit down to your old customers and write a note to them and say thank you for buying from me and go back to every customers? You got and they look at me like I’m strange because they want to get fed.
So I blame the industry.
We want to make professional wages, but we treat them as though they’re the employees at the local fast-food restaurant, just waiting for the drive-in customer to come in and buy a car.
So until a dealership understands that they’ve got two types of people that are salespeople, you got the automotive preneur that treats the business like a business, and then you got employees that all they want to do is get fade, fade, fade, fade, fade, fade and until a Dealership understands that it’s gon na be a disconnect and even the way they treat their customers.
So I’m off my soapbox on our right and you know Rico, what’s more important, is they always say it’s the légion guy right I own a trade.
Oder trade has got seven to eight thousand dealerships any giving day.
Then they lose a thousand.
Then they gain five thousand way down.
Why? Because they, the dealer and the general manager, blames the lead.
Yeah, look guys it’s about your process, that’s it! Okay, because all those stores are setting the world on fire.
Okay, if you want to know something, the cost per lead is much cheaper.
If you can’t handle a lead from a customer that wants a car and puts on our form says: when are they in the market for a car? Is it alone? Is it at least what is it? We do Automation, marketing with them with Infusionsoft, so we set out on email once we get it and qualify them.
You can sell somebody in the market for free come three days in the market.
They want at least their previous, have a trade-in with a number on the trade already.
Why are you gon na spend forty fifty or $ 30,000 in your dealership for digital marketing, when we do all the work for you, we automate everything for you, so I don’t understand you know, but yet you’re spending this money.
Well.
Why? Because you get co-op buddy.
So it doesn’t really hurt you as much well guess what I will leave your cooperative okay, and now we got the appointment going.
I want to see what dealers tell us.
You know when that happens.
You know what you’re gon na have to do, and I know you already probably got your game plan.
You’re gon na have to find someone and I’m not bragging or boasting when I say this cuz, I’m not the best in the industry.
I’ve been trained by some of the best in the world from Ryan Deiss to a rich, Linnet, Mollie Pittman.
So I’m saying this because I’m still a student of the game, I’ll be the first one to tell you that all these great guys, Pat flea and all these folks that I listen to so I’m not bragging or boasting.
But what I’m going to suggest to you is that you’re gon na have to find someone like me.
That’s in the car in the street at that dealership that understands what you just said, because there’s no bigger fight than to try to explain what you just said to someone that still thinks that the old way works in a in a covert 19.
There’s no way in the world there’s no way in the world that, even if you got to that someone asked me this one time before they say what is the best CRM system out there, and I say the one that you use correctly.
So it’s not the tool is actually the person.
That’s using that.
So what you gon na have to do is find that roaster, gentlemen, Rudy Rudy thawne down the CEO.
Oh, he came out with a name and I use it and he calls it the digital retail marketing manager and what that is, is someone that understands what we’re talking about the data.
Data-Driven is right now for the automotive industry and for folks they don’t understand that I’ll.
Take give a perfect example: a company that’s been around for years.
Carmack’s Carmack’s has been around for years, and I had this discussion beforehand, consol and said we all are getting all the leaves from the PDC and we need to salespeople to actually have and be able to correspond with the customer.
So they can feel good and I didn’t say it out of my mind, but I said it.
I thought about it in my head.
I said whenever you go to the Carmack’s, they got salespeople waiting because they already automatic the system and the customers are actually sent in there directly.
Am i saying we don’t need salespeople, no cuz you’re gon na need salespeople, but I just bought you the process.
It has to be more focused to anything Carmack’s.
I don’t know if anybody knows that, but Carmack’s.
If you go in there, try to pitch them, Google, Adwords and Facebook and Instagram they actually not that much interested, but we’re going to call Maxim.
You tell me or Li Chen they are yeah.
Do you know why they are interested because they have it down to exactly exactly everyone? They don’t want to lay out a hundred grant, goes there BBC and there or they have an automation, department, yeah, yeah, ok, they’re automation, department handles the leads yeah.
Ok, I want to talk about Carmack’s versus other dealerships.
The Carmack’s is pumping in humungous registrations.
You have an automation, team, hmm, lead gen team yep, they have a BBC team and then they got a digital marketing to you.
Yeah, ok, so now you’re talking about a company, that’s on their game and you look I want to talk about.
Is this integration would deal attract it’s gon na be on shop, smart that what they fill in the former it’s gon na go right into the dealerships.
Once the dealership signs up, it’s gon na go right into the village Dilek track.
What is the value of that? I mean now it’s not a lead that somebody fills out the form they get approved.
That’s lit retailer guys, yeah, that’s right in your platform.
Deal attract now.
You’ve got a shot, you know of putting a deal together and then you have approval.
Okay, a lot of guys, you know they’re thinking about the general retail at all that.
Well, we have the solution.
We’ve been having the solution for quite some time.
We’ve been working on this solution and now the solution is ready to go to market we’re gon na be going to market in the next two weeks.
Okay, true now we have the site set up or conversion, so you’ll see what kind of leaf we get based on the website.
You know it’s all about: what’s your technology is that well, customer goes in there.
Your cars are branded under Kelly, know the price advisory.
Knowing that it’s the right number, you got reviews of cars, you also were gon na, have the review of the dealership and the customer is gon na, be able to appraise the car on our site.
It’s true through Kelly Blue Book.
That’s her! Okay and now the integration, which is gon na happen no later than July, and maybe August and okay, they’re gon na, have on all their inventory.
The integration put them down.
That’s impressive right: yeah, that’s out not only down goes in there and I was so prying partners which is coming in Monday, our subprime partner, we’ve already developed the automation for appointments.
So forget you know what Richard got.
A hundred leads only five showed up about it.
She said I’m taking it away and I’m gon na develop the platform for automation, mister, you know between SMS and emails.
Now our customer comes in and says I’m here for a demo right, yeah, I’m here for a test, drive yeah.
How are we gon na say exactly? Does that less room because we have the technology and we have the computer engineers to do that and to touch base on something else where you go? I don’t know with you if you know this, but one of the things that you should know right is really digital.
Retail is going up like crazy, and you know carvanha, there’s gon na be a lot of companies around like parvata.
That’s gon na eat up.
Yes, registration, this is our man is not the only one.
That’s going there.
They’re gon na eat up that registration and it’s not gon na be a good thing for the automotive sector.
One more and more companies come on board with that, and you know Rico.
You’ve been doing a great job right with what you do, you’re amazed, and you know what dealers need to see you with a workshop or something like that, because the the talent and the knowledge that you possess is very big for any dealership appreciate it.
You know we’re in automation for quite some time.
I’m gon na tell you.
I have a company called look: smart.
Okay, we don’t do at Google.
Adwords is a search engine, just like Google.
If you look it up, have the same customers as Google.
Well, we don’t do peepees feet unless we use big data center right and platform consists of big data and big data.
Only we have two data warehouses in Phoenix and that’s what we use guys.
It’s all about the data, it’s all about the game playing no copy on PPC we’ve been do big data, automation, marketing and artificial intelligence.
We thought last six years, you know with.
Is it for you? It’s funny.
You say that cuz, I’m one more time to chime.
In what you just hit, and if most dealers can get this they’ll understand why they need to tie into a product like yours, there’s a company called Texas and I’m pretty sure about it, Texas, Auto direct.
They started back around 2000 2007 and one of the fart first, privately, all dealerships used car dealerships, the guys that started with not car guys they were computer geeks, who started selling cars out of a trailer, and they would only do appointments through the trail reason.
Why? I’m saying this by 2000: that’s when they wrote a book called from zero to 60.
I think there’s 60 million or 60 billion or something like 60 million.
They wrote a book.
I actually went.
This comes to what you’re saying I went down to Texas out of the wreck, maybe five or six years ago, and I actually looked around spent.
My own money went down there to see their own platform.
I studied how they put everything together, not too long after that they were sold.
Now.
This is a car company that was started by two non car people guys, but they were a tech company.
They didn’t even consider themselves a carpet company or a tech company.
They started selling cars on eBay, eBay before all other car dealerships that have been around for years.
They were sold for in 2017 to room – maybe five million dollars.
Now.
Why am i bringing that a room today? As of I think it was today or maybe early this week and I’m pulling it up, cuz, I’m a man of facts.
I don’t like the someone to tell me.
I want to put it up so boom who purchased Texas out of the wreck.
Boom is an online.
Each car company just had their stock and it says room to the moon, and this is from man step.
You can go to Nasdaq calm this room to the moon stock, soars 118 percent in best tech, IPO pop since 2018, and it says online used-car dealer room, popped, 118 percent on Tuesday the best first day return for a tech IPO since China’s – and I can’t even Say the word in September of 2018 among us beats IPOs room, not just the best since new Tech’s in September.
Now.
Why am I saying that once again takes his auto? The wreck started with two guys, nothing about the car industry, but want to use technology.
They built that into a company that was selling billions of dollars worth of cars.
That company was sold to voom in 2015 for 95 million dollars.
Room just had an IPO within the last couple of days, the largest one six one hundred and eighteen percent.
You don’t have to tell your story.
All you have to tell is hey like I got a tech company you’ve seen what’s happening with carve-out.
Have you seen? What’s happened in the room? Do you want this because it’s working and some people are gon na laugh just like they laughed at Amazon people would always say: Amazon is not making money.
Amazon is not making money and Jeff Bezos if you’ve studied.
All you have to do is study success, Jeff’s, saying his whole goal was not to make profit immediately.
She wanted to acquire customers for the lowest amount of money, and once he acquires the customers for the lowest amount of money, he can take care of the competition.
There’s now everyone knows the name of Amazon.
Amazon sells everything from toilet tissue, the cars, so you keep rolling with your product rich it.
It’s going.
You gon na look back four or five years from now or it’s gon na be like man.
I wish I would have used it back then yeah now we’re people is our goal.
Our mission in our company is to make as much money as we can and not to have private planes or to walk around with $ 5,000 suits.
No we’re humble what we want to do is take our money and invest it in veterans.
Make sense we want to take by Ricci Bello Institute and put every dollar that we made into our Institute for one thing: to bring you veterans to America’s workforce in the automotive sector make sense.
I have a bunch of trainers that are with me now with this and want to do this and that’s what we want.
Brandon is a director of that Institute and that’s what we want.
We want to make as much money as we can, but not for us.
What we want to do is invest it in Americans veterans.
Why? Because the car business needs people like that, but the veteran comes come back from the pointman and don’t even have a job.
Then right now we train Metra’s.
Let me just say this totally at no charge: zero, no dollar out of a veteran’s pocket.
Well, not one cent, and we want to bring them into the work for in the automotive sector and why veterans follow process? Yes, the veterans, listen because they wouldn’t follow process and not listening.
They could ever be get back from deployment, okay, so they’re very good for the automotive sector and that’s what we want to do.
We’re building all these platforms and all this streams of Revenue and all that, for one reason, one reason only to give back to the veterans if back to our community, because we feel the government doesn’t give me enough to American vectors that make sense.
That’s a good and as a as a son of one and a father of one that actually served on military.
I appreciate that and I know how our that is.
So that’s that’s a good mission to half and that that actually will hope not only the company but the country as well.
So I appreciate your hats off for doing that.
That’s what our mission is and that’s why we develop and consistently star for every hearing, because we want to give back.
We want to give back to America’s veterans.
We want to build such a boot Institute with a workforce must never got ta, go in game they’ll.
Never got ta go anywhere, just call us and we’ll put veterans in your place makes things everything is basically for no charge just because it’s a non-profit, it’s wrong that make sense.
That’s a good, cleaner, that’s religion! Rico! I’ve learned so much today from nutrition.
Keep up what you’re doing thinking amazing, what you’re doing and let’s talk outside of life, okay, what we can do for each other! You see what I could do for your dealership.
What you could do for my business jumping up! It was 100 something Rico.
You got so much talent you possess and you’re great at content, and you know how to deliver content on video push it in.
So I mean I, I look forward to our conversation here and Rico.
Have a great awesome weekend means when I go to your team’s more important, say hello to your family.
Tell when god bless you you doing a great job.
Thank you appreciate your is it.
Thank you.
Take care, bye, bye, .
