In today’s automotive industry, dealerships are fighting harder than ever for attention, retention, and revenue. While many continue to focus heavily on selling new and used vehicles, long-term profitability is increasingly driven by fixed operations—service, parts, and maintenance. This is where many dealerships are missing a major opportunity. Fixed Ops Marketing is emerging as a critical strategy for sustainable growth, helping dealers better understand their customers, improve retention, and generate consistent revenue through data-driven insights and digital engagement.
A major challenge dealerships face is customer retention. It’s common for dealers to lose 50–60% of customers after the initial vehicle sale, often because there is little to no ongoing engagement or communication. At the same time, many dealerships rely on outdated or incomplete data sources such as CRM or DMS systems, which can lead to wasted marketing spend and missed opportunities. Fixed Ops Marketing addresses this gap by providing clean, real-time data that dealerships can actually use to make smarter decisions. With accurate data, dealers can identify customer behavior, improve service retention, and power more effective marketing strategies that directly impact revenue.
Data has become one of the most valuable assets in the automotive industry. In fact, it’s often referred to as the new currency. Dealerships that fail to leverage clean and actionable data are not just falling behind—they are actively losing money. By contrast, those who embrace data-driven marketing can improve everything from repair order volume to revenue per customer visit. Clean data allows dealerships to better target their audience, optimize campaigns, and even integrate with AI tools to enhance communication and outreach. The result is a more efficient, more profitable operation that is aligned with how modern consumers behave.
Another key factor in dealership growth is the strength of partnerships and communication. Businesses often struggle to scale because of a lack of alignment between teams, vendors, and partners. When communication breaks down, opportunities are missed and performance suffers. Strong, transparent communication creates the foundation for real growth. When dealerships and their partners are aligned on goals and execution, they can deliver better customer experiences, improve retention, and build long-term success. Genuine communication, not scripted interactions, is what drives meaningful results and lasting relationships.
Balancing short-term revenue goals with long-term sustainability is another challenge that dealership leaders must navigate. While hitting monthly numbers is important, focusing only on immediate revenue can undermine future growth. Sustainable success requires building a strong foundation that can support expansion over time. This includes having the right systems, processes, and support structures in place. Fixed Ops Marketing helps create that balance by driving immediate service revenue while also strengthening customer relationships and retention strategies that pay off over the long term.
High-performing sales teams play a critical role in executing these strategies effectively. The most successful teams understand that sales is not about pushing a product, but about discovering problems and providing solutions. This starts with asking the right questions and understanding what success looks like for each individual dealership. A disciplined approach to sales—one that includes consistent planning, tracking metrics, and forecasting performance—leads to more predictable outcomes. Sales professionals who plan their weeks, manage their pipeline, and maintain strong work habits are able to consistently outperform those who rely on chance or short bursts of effort.
Discipline and structure are often what separate average teams from elite ones, and this is where lessons from the military can provide valuable insight. In the military, success depends on accountability, planning, and execution. There is no room for guesswork or relying on hope. Every objective requires a clear plan, often built by working backward from the desired outcome. This same approach translates directly into sales and business growth. When teams operate with a clear strategy and defined processes, they are far more likely to achieve their goals and deliver consistent results.
Despite all of these opportunities, many dealerships continue to overlook one of the biggest drivers of growth: their service department. Too much focus is placed on vehicle sales, while fixed operations are treated as an afterthought. This creates a significant gap, especially as consumer behavior continues to shift. Today’s customers are doing more research online before ever contacting a dealership. They expect clear information, easy communication, and a seamless digital experience. Dealerships that fail to meet these expectations risk losing customers before they even have a chance to engage with them.
Fixed Ops Marketing helps bridge this gap by providing the tools and strategies needed to connect with customers in a meaningful way. By improving service page performance, delivering relevant content, and creating better digital experiences, dealerships can build trust and keep customers coming back. This not only increases retention but also drives additional revenue through service visits and ongoing maintenance. Rather than accepting customer loss as inevitable, dealerships can take proactive steps to keep their customers engaged and loyal.
The automotive industry is evolving rapidly, driven by changes in technology, consumer behavior, and economic conditions. Customers are holding onto their vehicles longer, which increases the demand for service and maintenance. At the same time, competition is intensifying, and dealerships must find new ways to stand out. Fixed Ops Marketing sits at the intersection of these trends, offering a powerful solution for dealerships looking to grow and adapt. Those who embrace it will be better positioned to increase revenue, improve retention, and scale their operations effectively.
Ultimately, the first step toward growth is awareness. Many dealerships simply don’t realize what they are missing or how much opportunity exists within their fixed operations. Taking the time to evaluate current strategies, identify gaps, and explore new solutions can make a significant difference. Growth doesn’t start with a sale—it starts with a conversation.
Read the Transcript
Hey everybody. Russell Hill, host of WTF and that is what the Fixed Ops podcast to all of you out there. And I’m joined today by this lovely lady. Hello everyone. I’m Charity, your co-host here and I would like to welcome Matthew Wilson. He is our chief revenue officer and Eric Wilson, the SVP of OEM partnerships. Now these are two new employees here at Fixed Ops Marketing. And we would like to do a Q&A with them today. So thanks, guys. Thanks for coming and having a conversation with us today. Thanks for having us, Jared. Really appreciate it. All right. Well, before we get into the weeds, um, Matt, this question is for you. Uh, what excited you about joining fixed ops marketing? Yeah. You know, that’s a really good. You make it sound really good, too, Matt. I’m just. I’m just kidding. Go ahead. I first met Russell Hill back in this last October, and he had the opportunity to show me the product that fixed ops marketing has. It’s such a dynamic, I think, revolutionary way to run your service page and just the amount of raw data that’s collected off of those pages, that becomes actionable intelligence for a dealership blew my mind away, I think is the main thing that really excited me to come over here was the performance of the product and the, the amount of data that they collect and provide back to the dealer. Eric, same question to you. What made this the right move at this stage in your career? Yeah, absolutely. Great question. And for me, very similar to Matt, I think that the timing here is absolutely perfect. Fixed ops marketing focuses specifically on a need that dealerships have neglected pretty much for all time. And in the state of the dealership, the state of the world, and the initiatives going on today, this is the place. There’s no other place I’d rather be to be able to help dealers with the right technology and the right data. Matt, you’ve built your career on scaling revenue. What’s one moment in your career where you realized, I’ve cracked the code on how to grow accounts? Yeah, I mean, I think working within a large dealer group like I have in the past, um, really understanding what’s important for a dealership on the, on the marketing side and being able to bring a product that, that helps a dealer target the right people at the right time, which is what fixed ops marketing does. On the fixed ops side, but take that at a dealership level, show them success, show them how to generate amazing results off of that marketing. And then lo and behold, you know, kind of catapult that into dealership after dealership within the group until you have the entire dealer group singing your praises. I think that is been one of those breakthrough moments in my career where we’ve been able to take where I’ve been able to help take one store into an entire dealer group level enterprise agreement. Um, you know, just awesome to see that that kind of power spread across dealerships and they see it as an idea, they take it and run with it. And that’s what I hope to do here with fixed ops marketing. I think this is the best technology I’ve seen that I think can really make an impact within not just an individual dealership, but in, but an entire dealer group at an enterprise level. I love it. And Matt, if you weren’t already hired, I’d hire you right now. Thanks, Russell. Eric, you’ve led partnerships, growth, and customer experience at a high level for a long time. What’s a common mistake you see companies make when they think they’re scaling? Good question. It is a great question. And it’s extremely easy to me is that it’s a two way communication. I think all too often what we run into is either a partner or the person you’re partnering with has an idea of what they’re, what they want to do and that they’re really strong at or where they’re, they’re needing growth. And the two companies don’t communicate. When both could execute at such a high level if communication happened, I think that’s the most important thing. And that’s why I consider probably the strongest part of my career is relationship building. Because as you do that and you can have two way genuine communication, good or bad, that’s where the magic happens because you really dig into what is needed and then you execute and then just keep that line of communication open. So for me, it’s communication. I love it. So you worked across multiple industries and partnerships, and what did you see here at Fix Market that made you say this company is positioned to win this company’s position to win because it’s offering the right product and the right industry at the right time. I think that through all of that. Everybody always is looking for the shiny object. And a lot of times in most cases it’s variable. But what people who run dealerships and see the numbers and know how they operate is that the fixed operations of a dealership is the glue that holds the organization together. You know, even in conversations we’ve had recently, partners are acknowledging that this is a at the forefront of their initiatives and it’s the forefront of our initiatives as well. So we’re going to be able to partner, just like I said, with that communication, talking to their needs, what we offer, and really seamlessly connecting. Yeah, I want to I want to paint a little backstory here and share with everybody how I came to know these guys. And this is the way I remember it. Everybody remembers what they remember. But this was in like Madison in October at the Mopar Parts and Service Convention, which in my opinion is the elite best of all. And anyway, Gregory Noonan, if you don’t know him, he’s the guy that orchestrates all that. So anyway, I’m there the first day the show doesn’t start till the next day, waiting for some of the team to get in, etc. and I remember walking and many, many times this happened, I passed. This guy happened to be Eric at the time and he said as I remember, he even use my name. Hey, Russell. Oh hey man, how’s it going, man? You know the ten foot rule thing, that’s Eric Wright. So. Yeah. Great. It happened a couple of different times. And I wonder who in the hell is this guy? And so I see him and Matt at this booth. Now, uh, this is a in my opinion, this is like a, a wonderful thing for us. But they were it’s not like they were, they were both at another company at the time at another booth. And I won’t mention who that was. And I meandered my way up there and there’s a third person there and he left, Matt still hanging on. We’re talking. And I guess I must have had this like, you know, I’m just doing my Russell thing. For those of you all, you know me out there and and Eric, as I remember he said, you don’t remember me, do you? And I said, uh, no, no, I don’t remember you. And so he proceeded to tell me, uh, how we knew each other or where the common ground was. Even he even knew about our recognized company that we had before this company because of a mutual acquaintance. So anyway, next thing I know, um, uh, the short story is I, I met with both of them separately and I’m thinking there’s no way, uh, we’re going to be able to. Rick and I are going to be able to hire both of these guys, but boy, what a team, because they’re already working together as a team and they know each other. But you know what? We’re we’re going to the next level. And what I’m saying, what I mean by that is that I can only do what I can do and I’m not naive or where I say, hey, no, I got this. I know exactly what to do because sometimes I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing. Okay, but but I know we’re poised and ready. We built the last six years a phenomenal infrastructure. These guys just need to believe that because they came from really high powered organization that had all kinds of infrastructure, etc.. So they saw the technology and that was really it. I’m sure they did their own research on me and or Rick and I and a little bit more about our company. And, uh, here they are. So now all of you that know them, now you, you know where they’re at and what they’re doing. And like Eric and Matt both we are, we are poised for some great big things. Like, uh, we’ll probably come up here in a little bit, but I wanted to kind of give everybody the backstory on that because they do things that I can’t do or just just I’m too ADHD, type A or some, I don’t know what it is, but they got my back. So anyway, go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. Russell. Yeah. And you’re about to get your your question answered. So Matt, this is a question I’ve been looking forward to asking you. When you look at our current sales process, what’s the first thing you’re focused on fixing or elevating. First thing I noticed coming in here to fixed ops marketing was the product is phenomenal. There are a lot of different offerings that can be presented to a consumer or to a, you know, a dealer client, but it’s not simplified the way that we, you know, the way that fixed ops marketing may, may have been presented in the past. So that I think scaling this company with product that is easily digestible for a dealership and, and making that, that entry level point is key. I want every dealer across the country to have fixed ops marketing running their service page. I can’t imagine running a service page without everything that fixed ops marketing brings to the table. So making it putting as much value into that initial offering as possible is my goal to make sure that every dealer sees and gets the full power of what we offer in an easily digestible format. Well said. Eric. How do you align sales, marketing and partnerships? So they’re not operating in silos but actually driving revenue together? Yeah. And I think this kind of goes back to where Russell mentioned about Matt and I working together, because I think it’s really important. You know, we all can work with anyone over time. We can get to know them, their nuances or strengths or weaknesses where we can support each other. Matt and I had already developed that. So I think first of all, before I go into that, I think it’s really important to know that said, you know, I think Matt and I in tandem, one thing we learned at our last company we worked at is when one may be overloaded or have something going on, the other one could cover it and vice versa. And I think that that’s really important because you need to understand how important both sides are working together. So revenue can come from many different places tier one, tier two, tier three referrals and relationships. And they all come, you know, from from the same mindset of we’re trying to help other dealers. We’re not just trying to sell things, we’re trying to provide value, whether that’s through a partnership showing at the OEM level or strategic partnership level, that we can support them and give them consistency for their organizations and their dealers, or whether it’s at the tier three direct to dealer level where we’re giving that support as well. So it’s the same basic mold of providing value that then can be turned into partnerships, whether it’s store direct or dealer direct or a larger scale OEM or strategic partnership. Great response to that. Matt. You’ve trained teams and worked long sales cycles. How do you coach reps to stay to stay disciplined without losing momentum? Yeah, that’s a really good question. Because sales, you know, it’s tough to remain disciplined in a sales organization because so much of being a sales person is, is working for yourself honestly. And it takes good work ethic. So whether it’s training car salesman on hey, you know what? Yes, you work for this dealership, but really this is the one job that you can actually, you know, you decide your future and it all comes down to how hard you work. I’ve seen people start as porters who become general managers, and it’s all because of their work ethic. And how hard do they want to work? How much effort do you want to put in? So building a sales team is very similar. It all comes down to numbers. And how many meetings do you have a week? How many demos can you have a week that’s going to determine your future? How well do you prospect if you’re going to go into a territory? Some of the best salespeople I’ve ever worked with have such discipline. When it comes down to planning their following week and planning their month, that they know exactly who they’re going to go to, go and see, they can, you know, forecast their month at the beginning. You know, on on the first of the month to within one hundred dollars of where they’re going to end up at the end of the month. Those are the guys that and girls that I’m trying to train up here at fixed ops marketing and put those processes into place. You know, prospecting skills, demo skills, closing skills, working through sales processes that really help determine, you know, an accurate forecast and, and, you know, an accurate closing month. And ultimately, my goal is to have my team make money and you can’t make money if you’re not working hard. And this, you know, I learned this very early on in the car business. And then, you know, I’ve, I’ve had years upon years of training salespeople on how to sell cars and how to structure their month that it translates very easily into building a sales team here at fixed ops marketing. I love it. So I’m going to say something about that real quick. So one of the things I think that was important. I don’t even know if it’s maybe come up one time, but when Rick and I first started this company and charity was all part of that because she was like the first or second person next to our programmer. And it’s like, um, we rolled out our first product January seventh, twenty twenty. And of course, everybody knows what happened about a month and a half after that Covid hit. But the, the, the level of commitment that Rick and I had. But Rick, on the product side, who’s my business partner, we, everybody’s probably if you’re in sales, you’ve heard of Stephen Covey and the seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And the second habit is starting with the end in mind. And I think both of these guys saw it as we dug into it, is that we built this for scale and for large strategic partnerships with OEMs and even manufacturers, and that’s how it started to be built. And we’re there now that infrastructure. And I think they saw that as a crucial component to where we’re going with this. But sales, I gotta tell you, it it’s the easiest, hardest, funnest thing that I’ve ever done. But you, like Matt said, you and you gotta have discipline. And that’s what’s made me successful is discipline. Uh, getting up and going out every single day. And whether you want to or don’t want to, and showing up for your, for your clients and building those strategic partnerships, but to have a plan and there is, there is no magic coincidence or luck. It’s all numbers. It’s math, isn’t it? Matt. Yeah, it’s, it’s numbers. And I want to touch on one point that you brushed over. One of the things that I really liked that makes selling fixed ops marketing. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but what excites me about selling fixed ops marketing is the majority of the people that work at this company are on the tech or support side, which is huge. It makes it. Again, sales is never easy, but it. It makes it easier to sell a product where you know, the customer that’s going to buy it is going to be supported by a top tier account manager, and the technology is able to be adjusted, adapted, new things can be inserted into it to make that to make it even better on the fly. It’s such an amazing part of fixed ops marketing, and that’s another reason why I was so excited to come here, was you weren’t heavy on the sales side. A lot of the sales were by reputation. And Russell, you carry the brand really well. You know, you said built to scale. This company is built to scale. And now it’s time for everyone to know about fixed ops marketing. And we’ve got the support, we’ve got the structure behind it. We’re ready to rock and roll. Damn it. I’m excited man. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about can I can I jump in there? Yeah. I think what Matt just said is the goal that I think that a lot of people miss in an organization. So there are companies that have so many salespeople and they just sell and then they disappear, right? Whether they have the support or not, they just disappear. You know, we talked earlier, I’m a relationship guy and that will never change. Even if I were in sales, which I’ve certainly been many times in my life. I always keep that relationship and it’s genuine. It’s not, it’s not BS, but it is the most comforting thing, whether it is sales or partnerships or any communication, that when you do hand it off, you’re still available for them, but the people you’re handing it off to, you trust that they’re going to execute for them. And you do not have to be concerned about that because that’s something that organizations some do have, and that makes it a very challenging piece. But for me, growing here and, you know, continuing these partnerships and conversations, that is just gold to me to be able to have that confidence in fixed ups marketing. Right on. It’s not just sales, it’s marketing to having a reputable solution and the people working behind it. It’s very important for sales and marketing all the way down. I’m sure you guys have worked for both types of companies. I have two and it’s so much easier when everything is aligned. And I always said, you know, my family owns a dealership. We’ve, I’ve run stores for large groups. Um, I’ve always said it doesn’t matter if you’re a porter, if you’re a detailer, if you’re a sales person, if you’re a tech, if you’re the GM, if one of those areas fail, the organization’s fail. If your if your car’s look horrible, it doesn’t matter how great everything else is, nobody’s going to come visit you. It’s the same with organizations that like ours, where if a part of it fails, we all fail. So we’re all here to support each other. But it’s great to have such a foundation at a company. I would agree, and I’ve been looking forward to asking you this, Eric, you talk a lot about relationships and long term growth. How do you balance short term revenue pressure with building something sustainable? Uh, it’s a great question because we all want revenue to to continue the growth of the organization. But for me, that relationship piece and the foundation is as critical as new revenue, because what you have to do is you have to have the organization that can support that revenue from the bottom up and every layer, like I just said, like every aspect of the organization’s covered. So that partner is covered. It is a balancing act because obviously we need revenue to, to grow, but in order to bring in and support partnerships and organizations, you have to have that foundation solidified. Matt’s doing a great job, you know, building out those, those opportunities and deals and his team, you know, all cumulatively, everyone on this call included is we’re all working these partnerships and growth opportunities and processes to make sure that when they do happen, they’re supported. So it is a balancing act, charity. But for me, having that foundation is slightly more important because you can’t let anything fall as you build upon it. That’s a good one. So, Matt, what does high performing sales team actually look like to you in terms of habits, not just numbers or anything you’d like to add to that? And just so everybody knows, Matt and Eric are just now really diving in and getting into it, but the sales opportunities are just untapped. So what does that look like to you, Matt? Yeah, I mean, ultimately I look at sales as really just discovery and problem solving. So a high performing team is going to know how to ask good questions to a to a potential client. What are they doing right now? I think the key question that always needs to be asked is, what does good look like for you? Like good for me. It could be five more CPR rows a month. That’s not a hard ask. We can help you with that. Good for me. Could be. Um. You know, I’m averaging three hundred dollars per CPR. Oh, and I need to get that to three hundred fifty. Okay, I can help with that. So identifying what problem the dealership has, maybe it’s driving more traffic. The cars used to be lined up every morning at six o’clock AM on my drive. Now I’m struggling, right? We all know the like gas is more expensive. Everything is more expensive right now. But I think the key thing that that isn’t ever going to change and if anything, it’s becoming more and more evident is people are going to hold on to their cars longer, which means you need to service those cars. And the the competition for most franchise dealers out there isn’t independent and they’re not getting any cheaper either. So identifying the problems that each dealership is having, and not every dealership has the same problem. Some have capacity issues, some say I can’t. If I got another row, I don’t know what I would do with it. Well, okay, but I guarantee you there’s hard to fill times in your in your schedule. So let’s identify those times and then work towards that. But a high performing sales team is going to know how to ask the right questions to figure out what good looks looks like for that consumer, because it’s never a one product fits all your problems. It’s, hey, I’ve got a solution for you and let me show you how it works and then show them how economically it’s going to benefit them. You know, because there’s a thousand vendors out there. We were all at nada. I mean, that Las Vegas was packed with vendors, every dealer. You know, you’re constantly probably throwing vendors out of your dealership. Don’t throw me out. But, you know, we’ve been we’ve been in this business a long time, but how can you solve the problem for that dealership? Deliver the support they need. And at the end of the day, deliver a partnership and not just a product. So a high performing sales team is going to be able to identify problems, help the dealership solve problems, and then bring in an organization to that dealer that that becomes a partner. I can’t do my business without fixed ops marketing. If I were to go to whatever my website provider is giving me for a service page, what do I lose out on? I lose out on so much. The partnership between fixed ops marketing and my dealership, it makes the difference. So that’s what a high performing sales team. And that’s what we’re building here. That’s what we’re going to deliver to our our dealer clients and our dealer partners. Right on. And this this isn’t a one size fits all either. No, but I’m going to this is a question for both of you. I’d like to hear your response to this. So given financial statements and advertising marketing budgets and all the different vendors out there that do some assembly, I mean, we all hear this so and so. Yeah, but we do it in a different way. So we’re all trying to sell to our strengths. Obviously, I get that. Okay. But you know, and there’s a line item, you know, for for that expense, but there’s not a line item for fixed ops marketing. It’s like this has been my encounter, which is why I want to hear impromptu what you guys think. But it’s like they don’t even know this exists. Okay. I mean, so what are your thoughts on that? And how do you get people’s attention? Because when they see fixed ops marketing, they, they have some preconceived notion based upon their history of what they think it might be. And here’s what I found in six years. Not even close. Not even close. What are your individual thoughts about that? Well, I’ll jump in first. So I think my history over the before I came to fixed ops marketing, it was with some other, you know, very large companies that deal with data. Um, and I think we can all agree that data right now is the new currency. Russell you’re famous for saying that, but it is one hundred percent true. Having that clean data, if you’re relying on DMs data, CRM data to do any of your marketing efforts, I’m sorry, you’re you’re spending a lot of money on wasted advertising. That’s right. The goal would be to have a clean data source. And that is exactly what fixed ops marketing brings to the table, is the ability to collect good, clean data in real time, and then deliver that to the dealer to act on. Whether it’s putting it into a CDP, whether it’s sending it to a BDC to make outbound calls, whether it’s sending that good clean data to an AI tool to engage with. That’s really, I think, the difference maker that we have here. Um, and you know, that’s what, that’s what excites me. And again, that’s what one of the major reasons that I came here was the, the data aspect of what fixed ops marketing brings to the table. Eric, your thoughts? Yeah. So I know I go back to relationships and communication, but I think that most dealers do not realize what they miss out on by not listening to their customer, even digitally, of what they’re looking for. If there’s one thing we learned from Covid is people are doing their due diligence and doing all their research online before reaching out to anything. I don’t care where they’re buying it or what product it is. But automotive is has always been shop online, especially in the last fifteen to twenty years. And service wise, the dealerships have fallen way behind on that. So what we can provide that I think just jumps out to me is customers want information, they want ease of use, and they want you to understand how they want to be communicated with fixed ups. Marketing has ways to say, hey, great, here’s the information you’re looking for. Oh, you’re driving or you’re on the road. We’ve got the content if you want to read it. But we also have the videos. So it’s short snippets that answer their questions. It’s not salesy. It’s just telling you important information that you’re looking for. And then in turn, you’re building that trust, right? You’re building the value and trust in your dealership. You’re highlighting how you’re affordable for them, whether it’s up against competitors, whether it’s, hey, I understand that people do struggle from time. I know that we all have in our lives and that by the way we offer financing, we can help you get through those challenging times. We’re helping answer those questions, solving challenges for them and making it where they haven’t even reached out to the dealership yet that they found this information. Now that we’re all we have, that we can also give them easy, clear communication. Our products, if we have, you know, on some of our products, it gets pushed out. It changes overnight to be relevant to the situation at that store. Then that gets pushed out to social and YouTube. And by the way, that’s where other people shop. So we’re communicating with them where they are, where they’re shopping, where they’re looking. And what I love and what I am so excited about is people are so open now to realizing how much they need this and how it’s been lacking and missing at their stores. And that’s why these communications are happening and happening more frequently, because people are acknowledging that it’s a need. Yeah. Well said. Thank you both for that one. Go ahead. Matt. I’ll just jump back in here real quick because I think you touched on a couple things, Eric. I think not every dealer, but a lot of dealers kind of just they either do one of two things. They, they understand that, hey, after every car I sell, I’m going to lose half of those customers. I’m not going to retain them. They’re going to buy their car and go elsewhere. I think some dealers just accept the fact that, hey, they’re gone, they’re going to defect, whatever. The other half of those dealers actually do try to do something about that, right? They have lifecycle marketing programs. Maybe they just do the basic factory lifecycle marketing, but they they pay no attention to the fixed side of their website and their profit centers. Everything’s forced on new used. Maybe a couple of bucks are thrown at fixed ops for parts and service coupons. And I think dealers are missing a huge amount of possibilities there because if you’re just doing the bare minimum, yes, you will have half of your customers defect. But if you if you try to do a little bit more and fixed ops marketing is going to do a whole lot more for you. But if your retention is struggling, we have ways to really drive home. Keep those customers engaged. Eric mentioned our videos. We educate your consumers. Most fixed ops managers, they think like a fixed ops manager. We think like the consumer and we market to the consumer in in ways that educate them, that keep them coming back to your store. So I think that’s the big difference. Don’t don’t accept the fact that fifty to sixty percent of your, of your, the people that buy a car from you defect. Don’t don’t be that dealer. You know, capture more of those, keep them coming back and we can definitely help with that. Yeah. Before the next question, Terry, I want to add something to that. On top of everything that has just said, one thing you know about us is it’s been alluded to a couple times about the clean data, but right now you don’t know who those customers are. And even if you did not want to increase, this is we do so much. But even if you didn’t want to increase you, you got enough work. How about getting a few more lines for the people that are already coming in? Now you can’t say no to that one. And we do that too. Eric, what’s one thing leadership teams think drives growth? But you’ve seen it consistently doesn’t. So for me, the thing that I love is that we are in touch with our consumers, with our partners and with the people we work with on a daily basis. I think a lot of times leadership loses touch with that communication, which kind of gives them separation between what reality is in the market and who we’re talking to and what their vision is, because that changes. I mean, this company has already changed since I’ve been here, not in a negative way, but to adapt. And I think that a lot of times leadership sometimes neglects adapting in a timely manner to be relevant in the market. Very fair point. Matt, I’m curious of how your former Army experience has shaped the way you lead sales teams today. And thank you for your service too. Well thank you. Yeah. You know, in the military, accountability is everything. And you have to trust your soldiers to do what’s required of them and trust that they’re going to do what you ask of them, right? And if if they don’t, you know, lives are at risk. So I think that’s that’s the biggest difference, right? I know when my sales guy doesn’t do something that I ask them to do, nobody’s, nobody’s at risk of being injured or hurt. Now, I will say that leadership skills in the military definitely translate into running a sales team, I think. Um, you know, I think those skills translate in a lot of ways. Um, you know, again, holding people accountable to specific metrics, giving them a sales plan. You know, in the military, you don’t do anything without a plan. So, okay, I need to get from point A to point B. How do I get there? And the military, we do what’s called backwards planning. And there’s a whole military decision making process. You can take whole classes on it. And trust me, they’re boring. It’s called mdmp. But you take a military decision making process and it really is. It’s very similar to a medic type process on the sales side, where you have specific things you need to identify to get to the goal you need to be at. So what I try to do with the sales team is implement processes that make sense to go from, you know, hey, my goal is five thousand dollars a month or my goal is I need to do twenty demos a month. Well, how do you accomplish that? Because I need to be able as, as the chief Revenue officer, I need to be able to provide my boss Russell a number every month and say, hey, Russell, I think our sales team is going to be at this number. Well, at the end of the month, Russell’s going to say, well, are we there? And I need to be able to say yes. So in order to get those sales, the sales team to hit that number, there has to be a process. Forecasting is not done on hope. Just like, hey, I hope I can take that objective in a military operation. Well, it’s not you can’t forecast on hope. You can’t accomplish a mission just based on hope, right? There needs to be a plan. So it’s having the right plan. And sometimes a plan doesn’t work for every individual salesperson. People work differently. I would say that’s the one thing that that is different about the military is the military. Here’s your plan. Go do it. I don’t care how you get it done, just do it in the real world. You know, everybody works differently. People are motivated by different things. So you may have to adapt that sales process plan for, for, you know, your individual reps And you know what works good for one guy may not work good for the other one. So just ensuring that that the right processes are layered, layered on there. That’s that’s what. Yeah. And you seem to be the kind of guy that would know what those little intricacies are and what motivates and what somebody why is. So Eric, just you described yourself as a business accelerator. What does that actually mean in practice? When you step into a company like this? Yeah, it means listening and listening and observing because to accelerate a business, you have to take the foundation that’s already been created, fortify any cracks, and then start scaling upon that. The reason the term business accelerator is out there and it’s not more directed, is because every organization has challenges and they’re all different. What one company has, that’s their strength, maybe another’s weakness. But if you don’t go in and look, listen, do your due diligence, you can’t identify that. So to be a business accelerator, you have to identify areas of growth Areas that just needs more support or structure, and then build upon that and then listen to the organization saying, great, okay, well, now we can build, but what do we have to do to be able to scale that properly, whether it’s add people in certain departments, whether it’s create more automations, whether it’s to partner with other organizations that may, may also fulfill those needs. And you can complement each other. But a business accelerator is somebody who helps identify areas of opportunity, um, and areas. And I will say this of faults or weaknesses that we, we need to strengthen to grow. You know, that’s great. And I can’t wait to hear Matt’s response when he asks this next question. But before we do, they have already found some cracks or things that have or could potentially be a part of this acceleration. And what, what it’s really interesting to sit back with the team and watch them interact with those cracks that they have already found just makes us better, particularly when we’re ready to hit our full stride. Is that the support staff that they were talking about earlier? Are there to assist and they’re getting stuff done and turned around pretty darn quick. Matt, if we’re sitting here in a year from now, what does success look like for you and the sales team? Good question. And I actually really like that question because I see this happening. There’s so much happening right now at this company that has got me so jazzed. Success to me would be doubling our dealer count. And I definitely think that’s possible with the partnerships that both Russell and Eric are working on to the new sales strategies that our team is working on, to the support structure that we have that is going to be expanding and focused more on keeping our focused on our individual dealer clients, but also building out an enterprise support structure to take on those larger relationships Because that’s coming like big dealer groups, I see that more and more of. Those coming over to us because we’ve got a solution that’s going to feed their data strategy, their advertising strategy that they currently have no idea who, like Russell said, they don’t know who half these people are. We’re going to be able to provide that. So doubling our dealer count this year, that’s success to me. And I think we are going to be well on track to being able to do that. I love that. Okay. Is that good? Okay. Go ahead charity. We we all love that. Russell. Um, Eric, this is similar. You know, what is fixed ops marketing look like when it’s operating at its full potential for, for you from your perspective? Yeah. Um, I think that Matt’s assessment very much mirrors mine. Uh, slightly different, but a year from now with the foundation that we’re building the partnerships that we’re already starting to scale and roll out. Conversations that we already have. You know, in the beginning, when you get some of these larger partnerships, they take a little longer to launch and get live because there’s new processes to build, and we want to make sure that we’re not neglecting our duty of getting what they need. Fulfilling the objectives, meeting those, and then growing from that. But as you do that, you learn process. And when you learn process, you grow with that and then scale with that. So as we are launching these, we already have conversations queued up and teed up to, to go and start moving those forward. So every time you, you launch partnerships or have these conversations, they go even smoother and quicker and you build that momentum and guess what that does that feeds Matt and his team to get to that doubling of our dealer count. Damn it. I love the way that worked, man. Well, it does, and I think that’s the one of the coolest things about Matt and I coming aboard at a very similar time is Our strategies are similar. There are some differences, but we’re complement each other and we have the same goals, right? One of the other things that really excites me is automotive is our core. Like it’s in our DNA. However, our products can grow from that and not getting outside of our lanes either. We can expand and we can help in other verticals that are auto other or what would be considered automotive like landscape or opportunities. And we can start growing into those. We need to make sure we’re maximizing everything in tier three and other automotive avenues now. But a year from now with this team and how we’re growing, if we execute like I know we can, I mean, I’m excited to do this. We should actually mark this date and literally go ahead and schedule April twenty twenty seven. Do this next podcast and talk about it. Probably we won’t forget because it’s right at April Fool’s Day. Yeah. So I know we’re out of time. And first of all, I want to thank, uh, charity, uh, for unwavering commitment to five years of this show and what it’s turned out to. And all of you out there, uh, that follow and listen to all the shorts and we’ve had amazing guests. And here’s a couple more right now, but here, Matt, uh, and Eric both for all the dealer partners listening right now, why should they be paying attention to what fixed ops marketing is doing next? Do you have some individual thoughts on that before charity, uh, closes this out? I’ll start with the short answer is the reason they should pay attention is because, you know, not to say, hey, stare at me, but but look at yourself, what your needs are and what the goals and initiatives are moving forward. And in fixed ops. To me, all the conversations we have are centered around that. So be proactive instead of reactive and go ahead and make the conversation reach out. We’re happy to have a conversation because we need to make sure that we’re the right fit too. However, we haven’t had one we didn’t fit properly with at this point, so reach out. It never hurts to have a conversation. The worst thing that happens is we make some some good connections and we help each other in the industry. So I look forward to talking soon. There you go. It’s my sales pitch. Your turn. For me, I would just say, look, um, take be honest with yourself as a dealer. Where do you need help? Yes, I’m sure we all wish we were selling more cars. Could I, can I sell more used? Could I acquire more used? And could I, you know, do it for a cheaper price? Yes, all good things. But be honest with yourself on your on your service side. AM I doing everything I can to maximize my fixed ops absorption? Because if not, we’ve got solutions for you so we can help you take advantage of the way AI is doing searches. Now with our video content. We can help you educate your consumers to drive more more line items, to drive more seaprose. We can help you with our data collection with your retention problems. We have a solution to help you. And don’t just accept the status quo and do business the way that you’ve always been doing business. Things are evolving faster than we can all imagine, and we are at the cutting edge of this technology to help you. Yeah. Thank you. I’m going to say something really bold here. Look, when this releases, there’s going to be shorts all over the place. I know a lot of you out there already know. Or if you don’t, you’re going to know Eric and Matt. Like them, love them, follow them, tag them, share, make comments, etc. but reach out to them. I mean, because if you’re listening to particularly the shorts, you’re going to hear something that makes you kind of wonder. And if you think you know what it is, trust me when I tell you you don’t, not really. but if you take a few minutes to find out, it’ll be well worth your time. Just that few minutes to realize, hey, I’ve been missing something. And that’s what fixed office marketing is to this particular industry. And then, uh, once again, uh, charity, thank you for putting this together. And, uh, for five and a half, five, a little over five years of, uh, I don’t think people really, I think, matter of fact, people underestimate what it is to actually put a podcast like this together and be consistent with it month in, month out, day in weekend, getting guests coming up with the questions, etc.. So if no one told you all out there that they loved you and appreciated you. Hey, Russell Hill just did. And this is a oh, wait a minute, charity. There’s one last go for it. Go for it. Russell. Thank all of you once again. And this is a wrap for another successful WTF. And that is. Yeah, what the fixed ops to all of you. It’s not the other thing you were thinking, but that’s what got you here. I get it, I understand. Cool. Thank you guys.
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