Exploiting seasonality in cars, Shocking revelation about his profits, Buying old cars | Joel Bassam
发布时间 2023-07-07 16:00:06 来源
摘要
In this episode, I'm speaking with Joel Bassam, President of Easterns Automotive Group.
00:00 - Intro
02:03 - Joel's background
05:15 - Easterns business model
13:06 - Weathering the current market
20:19 - Unit economics & Sourcing
30:37 - CDG's gov't auction story
36:21 - Revenues & Margins
42:28 - Marketing strategy
54:12 - Growth & Expansion
59:23 - Wrapping up
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Net margin was at our best to five and a half percent. And that's 2019 numbers. When Net margin is dropped to a beyond, it's almost zero at this point. And that's because our expectations for this year is to basically get through it. And then we will slowly grow that back up. I didn't expect to hear that.
净利润率达到我们最好的百分之五点五。这是2019年的数据。当净利润率下降到一个更低水平时，目前几乎接近零。这是因为我们对今年的预期基本上只是度过难关，然后逐渐恢复增长。我没有预料到会听到这样的消息。
Yeah. I mean, our volume has continued to decline. And that's not unique. I think that's generally the market trend right now.
是的。我的意思是，我们的销售量一直在下降。这不是独特的现象。我认为这是目前整个市场的趋势。
What's up, everyone? This is Car D'Oeship Guy. You're listening to the Car D'Oeship Guy podcast, which is my effort to give you access to the most unbiased and transparent insights into the car market. Let's get into today's episode.
大家好，这里是汽车推销员Car D'Oeship Guy。你正在收听的是我的汽车推销员Guy播客，我致力于为你提供关于汽车市场最无偏见和透明的见解。让我们进入今天的节目吧。
Joel Basam is the president at Eastern's automotive group, an eight-store use car dealer group based out at the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region. This episode was an absolute masterclass in the literal sense. Joel was very transparent. We spoke about how to exploit seasonality in the use car business, how much money he makes on every single car, how he's been leveraging the dominoes model for selling cars, his shocking revelation about his profits, the unconventional case for buying older cars, and a little surprise I added throughout the time I bought a hundred cars with a credit card. Pretty crazy story. I think you'll love it.
Joel Basam是位于华盛顿特区、马里兰和弗吉尼亚地区的八家二手车经销商集团——Eastern's automotive group的总裁。这一集在字面意义上是一堂绝对的大师课。Joel非常透明。我们谈到了如何利用季节性经营二手车业务，他每辆车赚多少钱，他如何利用多米诺骨牌模型销售汽车，他对利润的惊人揭示，购买旧车的非传统理由，以及我用信用卡购买100辆汽车期间加入的一些惊喜。相当疯狂的故事。我相信你会喜欢的。
But before we get into the show, this episode is brought to you by Full Path. Wasted data is a serious issue in automotive, but data is the key to driving revenues, which means some dealers out there are just ignoring a goldmine that is staring them in the face. Let's face it. Most dealerships are completely overrun with data silos. None of the data sources are integrated with each other, leaving the data as a jumbled mess instead of a clean set that could be turning into cash. Full Path solves this by gathering, cleaning, and sorting your data into one platform so you can use it to speak to your customers' needs with killer AI-powered marketing campaigns. My friends over at Full Path are breaking barriers and I'm really excited to have them as a partner of the podcast. I believe in their product and more importantly, intermission to help dealers grow. Full Path can help you turn your data into dollars, find them at fullpath.com. Alright, let's get into it.
在我们开始节目之前，本集节目由Full Path赞助。浪费数据是汽车行业中的严重问题，但数据是推动收入增长的关键，这意味着一些经销商仅仅忽视了一个正对着他们的金矿。面对现实吧，大多数经销商都被数据孤立所淹没。所有的数据来源都没有彼此集成，使得数据成为一团混乱，而不是可以转化为现金的干净数据集。Full Path通过将您的数据收集、清理和整理到一个平台上来解决这个问题，这样您就可以利用这些数据进行基于人工智能的杀手级营销活动，满足客户的需求。我在Full Path的朋友们正在突破障碍，我很高兴他们成为我们节目的合作伙伴。我相信他们的产品，更重要的是，我相信他们可以帮助经销商实现增长。Full Path可以帮助您将数据变成利润，请访问fullpath.com了解更多信息。好了，让我们开始吧。
Here's my conversation with Joe Obassum. All views of car dealership guy and guests on this podcast are solely their opinions. None of the views expressed should be treated as financial advice. This podcast is for informational purposes only.
这是我和乔·奥巴桑（Joe Obassum）的对话。此播客中的汽车经销商和嘉宾的所有观点仅代表他们个人的意见。任何表达的观点都不应作为财务建议。这个播客仅供信息目的。
Alright, we got Joe Obassum on the pod. Joe, how's it going?
好的，我们的节目请到了乔·奥巴苏姆。乔，最近怎么样？
Good, how are you?
好的，你好吗？
I'm doing well. Joe, you guys, Easterns, you're considered legends and they use car business and I don't say that lightly. You've been around for a very long time and you've done some very creative marketing which I, as a marketer, I really appreciate. We'll get into that shortly. Let's just.
我过得很好。乔，你们东方人被认为是汽车业的传奇，我并不轻易说这样的话。你们经营了很长时间，做过一些非常有创意的市场营销，作为一个营销人员，我非常欣赏。我们马上会进一步探讨这个话题。现在，我们先...
I appreciate that.
我很感激。
Yeah, and I'm very excited about it and we'll also play the jingle. Love it. Tell us.
是的，我对此非常兴奋，而且我们还会演奏那首特别的曲子。太喜欢了！告诉我们吧。
I apologize for your audience because it's going to be stuck on their head, I think.
对您的观众我深感抱歉，因为我认为这个想法将会困扰他们。
No, the jingle is great. I absolutely love it. Alright, so Joe, tell us how. How did Easterns get started? How did you get to where you're at today? Give us the background.
不，这个广告曲非常棒。我非常喜欢它。好吧，那么乔，告诉我们吧。东方音乐是如何起步的？你们如何发展到今天的地步？给我们介绍下背景情况。
Sure. Yeah, so Easterns were celebrating our 35th year this year. So we were officially established in 1988. You know, shortish version of the story was my father was a waiter who got transferred after. You came to the United States when he was 10. He was working in a tight restaurant, got transferred to DC and he went with his father to the Salvation Army, found that they were selling cars that ran for like 50 bucks. So he bought that car, sold it to his co-worker for 300 bucks and it was like, the light went off and you know, thought this is way better than tip money.
当然。是的，东方车行今年正在庆祝我们成立的第35个年头。我们正式成立于1988年。简短的故事是，我父亲小时候是个侍者，后来被调到美国。他十岁的时候，他在一家繁忙的餐厅工作，后来被调到华盛顿特区，他跟随父亲去了救世军，发现他们在卖50美元的汽车。于是他买了那辆车，以300美元的价格卖给了他的同事，他突然觉得这比小费要好得多。
So went back, bought a couple more cars, sold those to other co-workers, pulled his tip money with another co-worker, bought a bunch more cars, then kept getting tickets because he's driving them without, you know, tags or anything like that and he's trying to park them at the restaurant. Long story short, he added one of his regulars was a dealer. And so he was told the word to go, go to this place in Virginia, you get a dealer license. So within three weeks from selling his first car, he became a dealer. And it was working in the wholesale side of things for a long time, ended up transferring one of his wholesale lots into a commercial lot. And you know, that's where he really realized what is still a core identity of Easterns today, which is subprime market and the people who are in that credit position are generally not treated well across the automotive business. And so he started a company that was really intended to treat subprime customers like they were prime. We had higher quality cars, they were treated with respect and dignity, and we treated them with the same expectation of customer service that you would any other customer up the street.
这人回去后，又买了几辆车，将它们卖给其他同事，然后和另外一个同事合在一起，用他们的小费一起买了更多的车，接着他因为车上没有牌照之类的东西并试图把车停在餐馆附近，所以开始不断收到罚单。长话短说，他说他其中一个常客是个经销商。然后就告诉了他一个消息，他们告诉他去弗吉尼亚州的一个地方，那里可以拿到一张经销商许可证。所以在卖了他的第一辆车后不到三周，他就成为了一名经销商。他在批发方面工作了很长一段时间，最终把其中一个批发店转为商业店面。你知道的，就是在那里他真正意识到现在东斯汽车商的核心理念，就是次贷市场以及那些信用状况不佳的人在汽车行业中通常受到不公平的待遇。因此，他创办了一家公司，旨在像对待优质客户一样对待次贷客户。我们有更高质量的汽车，他们受到尊重和尊严的对待，并且我们对待他们的客户服务也同样如对待其他任何街边客户的期望一样。
We launched it with where your job's your credit. And then, you know, that was a slow burn for a long time, good operator, single point. And then, you know, the jingle that you had mentioned before really sent us into the stratosphere and we expanded into 17 locations, believe it or not, at one point, we've actually consolidated down to eight points and we currently park in some more cars than we did with 17 locations. All right.
我们以工作能力作为信用推出了这个项目。那时，我们的发展一直很缓慢，但我们运营得很好，只有一个固定的地点。然后，你提到的广告曲真正把我们推向了顶峰，我们扩张到了17个地点，你可能不敢相信，但我们最终将其整合为8个地点，目前我们比17个地点时停放更多的汽车。好了。
So a lot of questions here. So first of all, people hearing $300 for a car are probably thinking that's absolutely crazy. Oh, yeah. And you know, dock fees are more than $300 nowadays. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For sure. Second thing is, how many years did you have just a single point dealership before expanding to a second, third and fourth? How many years was that? In 1988, we opened our second location in 2001. So long time, long time, single point. Yeah.
这里有很多问题。首先，听到一辆车要300美元，人们可能会觉得这完全疯了。噢，是的。而且你知道，现在的码头费用已经超过了300美元。噢，是的。对，肯定是这样的。第二个问题是，在扩展到第二、第三和第四个销售点之前，您只有一个销售点经营了多少年？那需要多久呢？1988年，我们开设了第二个销售点，到2001年才开设第三和第四个。所以经营了很长时间，只有一个销售点。是的。
Okay. Now explain to me, what's the basic business model here for people that don't know? Clearly, I know very well, but I want the audience to understand, like what is your business model at Easterns? Yeah. So our current business model is built off of the concept of at its core, you know, my father, our founder and our CEO, who's incredibly active in the business, we buy a car when we saw a car. So everything's built around the concept of opportunity buying at its at the first step of our entire process. And then after that, it's all about efficiency throughout the entire process of getting a car from auction or off the street to a retail-ready car for a consumer and how to ease every single one of those handoff points to save money and do it faster and then do it at volume.
好的。现在向我解释一下，对于那些不了解的人来说，这里的基本业务模式是什么？显然，我非常了解，但我希望观众能理解，比如东方公司的商业模式是什么？是的，我们目前的商业模式是以一种核心概念建立的，就是我父亲，我们的创始人和首席执行官，在我们的业务中非常活跃，我们在看到车辆时购买车辆。所以我们整个流程都围绕着机会购买的概念构建。然后，在整个从拍卖或街头到零售可用车辆的过程中，我们注重效率，以及如何在每一个交接点都节省费用并加快速度，然后进行规模化生产。
So what do you mean by what do you mean by we buy a car, we sell a car, like do you mean that literally or are you trying to imply something different? I'm not following that. I mean, literally in the sense that when we buy a car at auction, that's the point at which you decide, I mean, you guess in a somewhat figurative way, that that car is going to sell well. If you buy it wrong, you're never going to sell that car well. Yes. The profit is in the purchase.
那么你所说的“我们买车，我们卖车”，你是字面意思还是暗指别的意思？我不明白。我是指字面意义上的，当我们在拍卖会上买车时，你会根据一定程度上的联想来判断这辆车是否能够卖得好。如果购买错误，那么你就无法将这辆车卖出好价钱。是的，购买时就包含了利润。
Okay. Just one of the hundred percent. And I do agree with that for the subprime business, especially the profit is absolutely in the purchase. Right. And so we've, that being our core, that's what starts everything. So our business at this point is built as a hub and spoke model, which means I'm currently in our corporate center in Sterling, Virginia. This is one part of a massive, I feel comfortable calling it a campus at this point. It's about 200,000 square feet of warehouse and 20 acres. And it houses roughly about 100 employees. And this facility has all of the brains and back house operations that you'd find a traditional dealership.
好的，只是百分之一而已。对于次级贷款业务，我确实同意这一点，特别是利润完全来自购买。是的，这就是我们的核心，这一切都是从这里开始的。所以我们的业务目前是建立在一个枢纽和辐射模式基础上的，也就是说我目前在我们位于弗吉尼亚州斯特林的企业中心。这是一个相当庞大的园区的一部分，我现在对它称为校园感到很舒适。它有大约20万平方英尺的仓库和20英亩的土地。这个设施约有100名员工。并且这个设施拥有你在传统汽车经销商那里找得到的所有智力和后勤运作。
And for your listeners who don't know what a franchise dealership, that's really, even if it's part of a larger group or organization, that's, that's its own entity and established business, meaning it probably has its own bookkeepers, it has its own, that she's on HR department. The service department, or your further? No, I mean, everything too. I mean, service as well. Yes. But additionally, you think of tag and title departments that handle all the paperwork. Oh, yes. Every single dealership has its own team. Right. Yes. Right. As its own business operations, right?
对于不了解特许经销商是什么的听众来说，即使它是一个大集团或组织的一部分，它也是独立的实体和建立的业务。这意味着它可能有自己的簿记员，自己的人力资源部门。服务部门，还是指进一步？不，我是说全部都包括在内。对，也包括服务。但此外，你也要考虑处理所有文件工作的标签和标题部门。对，每个经销商都有自己的团队。对，就像自己的业务运营一样，对吧？
So Easterns doesn't have that. So my retail locations, we call them delivery centers. And you know, that's, that's designed because they only have sales staff. They have what we call customer advisors and product specialists, which is really just marketing for a salesperson. And then we have sales management staff and lot management staff, which means our economy of scale changes dramatically as we add more spokes to our hub, right? Our fixed and variable costs at the center point, which is producing everything for all of our stores, stays relatively static as we add more retail locations. So we know everything is supported from this corporate hub, this, this single point.
所以东方没有这个。所以我零售店的位置，我们称之为交付中心。你知道，这是设计出来的，因为他们只有销售人员。他们有我们所称的客户顾问和产品专家，这实际上只是一个销售人员的市场营销。然后我们有销售管理人员和地块管理人员，这意味着我们的经济规模会随着我们增加更多的零售店而发生巨大变化，对吧？我们的固定和可变成本在中心点上，也就是为所有我们的商店生产一切的地方，随着我们增加更多零售位置，它们都保持相对稳定。所以我们知道一切都是由这个企业中心支持，这个单一点。
So this facility will can put out 50 retail ready cars a day. And that then those then get distributed to all of my retail locations, which, you know, for me, it doesn't actually really matter where they go because we operate a single website, single inventory, and it's a single shopping experience for my consumers. So those, they'll get sent out by the way, we own the trucks at the corner of our campus logistics company. And all those cars that when we buy them from auction come here because we have our own reconditioning center, which is all of the mechanical reconditioning and anything that needs to do to get the car reets already. And for us, that means standard, slightly higher than Maryland state inspection. So my locations are in Maryland and Virginia. And then on top of that, we have our own body shop. The only thing that a vehicle ever leaves this facility for is weren't to work because, you know, that's free and I can't do it here. So everything else is supported out there.
这个设施每天可以生产出50辆零售就绪的汽车。然后，这些汽车会分发到我所有的零售门店，对我来说，它们实际上去哪里并不真的重要，因为我们只有一个网站、一个库存系统，为消费者提供统一的购物体验。这些车辆会通过我们校园物流公司附近的卡车运送出去。我们从拍卖处购买的所有车辆都会来到这里，因为我们有自己的车辆翻新中心，提供所有机械翻新和车辆重新整备所需的工作，对我们来说，这意味着标准，略高于马里兰州的车辆检验标准。我的门店位于马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州。此外，我们还有自己的车身修理厂。唯一需要离开这个设施的车辆是因为需要进行维修，你知道，那是免费的，我不能在这里做。所以其他所有工作都是在外面支持完成的。
So that's really the business model for scale. It's that because we can continue to add retail points without adding a second hub. And our fundamental belief is we can add, I'd say at least three and potentially five more retail locations without having to add a second hub.
这就是我们的规模经营模式。我们可以继续增加零售点，而无需增设第二个中心。我们的根本信念是，我们可以至少再增加三个，甚至可能增加五个零售位置，而不必增设第二个中心。
Yeah. So basically, if someone would Google right now, you know, the carvada reconditioning center, right, this is the same concept. And, you know, there's plenty of images of that online, but you're operating in a centralized manner, right, which makes no sense. I think for people that don't know, franchise dealerships like you mentioned, they typically operate a bit more decentralized. Doesn't mean everything's decentralized, but, you know, like they will have service on every single location. Now, the difference there, which I think is important to note as well, is that service typically for a franchise dealer is a very big business. Right. And for used, it's typically a lot smaller or just non-existent. Do you guys do retail service or do you only recondition your cars in-house?
是的。所以基本上，如果现在有人谷歌搜索一下，你知道卡瓦达修复中心，对吧，这就是同样的概念。你知道，在网上有很多关于这个的图片，但你操作方式有些过于集中化，这是没有意义的。我认为对于不了解的人来说，像你提到的特许经销商一般运作的更加去中心化。并不是说一切都是去中心化的，但是，他们会在每个位置提供服务。现在，那里的区别在于，我认为也很重要的一点是，对于特许经销商来说，服务通常是一个很大的业务。而对于二手车来说，服务通常要小得多，或者根本就没有。你们是只提供零售服务还是只在内部进行车辆修复呢？
So we, we don't do any customer service. We only recondition the house. And I actually, I'll take your point a little a step further. And one of the things that makes use car sales at a new, new point, a little bit more difficult, at least internally, is what you just mentioned, which is service centers or profit centers, or dealership, right. And that generally includes internal conflicts. So the service manager and use car manager at a franchise point probably aren't friends because that service manager is actually attempting to make money on their use car department, because they're kind of separate islands. You know, they're different countries, right.
所以我们不做任何客户服务。我们只是对房屋进行翻新。而且实际上，我想进一步谈谈您提到的一点。其中一件使得二手车销售在新的领域更加困难的事情，至少在内部，就是您刚刚提到的服务中心、利润中心或经销商，对吧。而这通常会引发内部冲突。所以一个特许经销点的服务经理和二手车经理可能并不是朋友，因为服务经理实际上试图从他们的二手车部门赚钱，因为他们就像是独立的岛屿，就好像是不同的国家一样，对吧。
So for us, like, you know, one of the things about our kind of company culture and what makes Eastern special is, you know, the trick question will always be, no matter what you do, what do you do? You sell cars because that's our only source of income, right. So it doesn't matter if you, you know, work in reception, you work in tag and title, you work as a reconditioning tech, not tech, you are a car sales person when you work for Easterns, because that's all we do.
对于我们来说，就像你知道的那样，我们公司文化的其中一个特点，也是使得东方汽车特别的原因之一是，不管你做什么，一个关键问题始终是，你做什么工作？你们卖车，因为那是我们唯一的收入来源，对吧。所以，无论你是在前台工作，做车牌和车辆登记工作，还是作为一个车辆装修技术员工作，当你为东方汽车工作时，你都是一名销售人员，因为这是我们所做的一切。
And, you know, a little bit more color to our background of really how we ended up here is, you know, part of my father's growth as a business person and its individual was going through dominoes, believe it or not, which, you know, yeah, I know dominoes gets talked a lot about, and I admire them a lot.
而且，你知道的，为了更好地了解我们是如何来到这里的，需要对我们的背景增加一些色彩，我的父亲作为一个商人的成长和他个人经历中经历了多米诺骨牌（的影响），信不信由你。你知道，多米诺骨牌经常被谈论，我非常钦佩他们。
Like, they're almost like a technology company at this point that happens to sell pizza. But they're incredibly committed to efficiency. So he had worked at a different Italian restaurant. And when he came there, he's like, oh, yeah, you know, I can make, you know, Stromboli's, I can make garlic bread, I can do all the stuff. And they're like, no, we just make pizza. And we're going to do it in 30 minutes or less. And it's going to be incredibly consistent.
就好像他们现在几乎是一家以卖披萨为主的科技公司。但他们非常致力于效率。所以他之前在另一家意大利餐厅工作。当他来到这里时，他说：“是的，我可以做Stromboli，我可以做蒜蓉面包，我可以做所有的东西。”他们却说：“不，我们只做披萨。而且我们要在30分钟内完成，而且品质持续如一。”
So the difference was he worked at this other little Italian shop. Like dominoes had thought of everything. They cut the cheese smaller. So it wouldn't clump. They had a spinning mechanism that would attach extra cheese and extra sauce. So you can reuse it on the next pizza. They had measuring cups, everything. So every pizza that came out was exactly the same.
所以区别在于他在另一家小型意大利店工作。就像多米诺骨牌一样，他们把奶酪切得更小，这样就不会结块。他们还有一个旋转装置，可以附加额外的奶酪和酱料，这样可以再次在下一个披萨上使用。他们有量杯，一应俱全。所以，每个出来的披萨都是完全一样的。
That like little bit of his life stuck with them to the point where we're literally like arguing about $5 cents on FedEx fees in order to charge less for a consumer. So we analyze every step of this process to make sure that we're able to sell cars at volume and maintain a healthy gross profit per unit, while actually being competitive in the market on pricing as well.
这就像他的生活的一小部分留给了他们，以至于我们甚至在争论$5美分的联邦快递费用，以便为消费者减少收费。因此，我们分析了这个过程的每一个步骤，以确保我们能够以较高的销量销售汽车，并保持每单位的健康毛利润，同时在市场定价上也具有竞争力。
And you know, all that ends up benefiting all of our stakeholders throughout the process. Because we buy more efficiently, we reconditioning more efficiently, we're able to get these cars to market quicker and faster. Our floor plan costs are lower. Our portfolio is with our lenders performed better because of the actual metal we're putting out on the street is of a higher quality, especially when you compare it to a traditional used car dealership, which generally has access to lower quality collateral.
你知道的，所有这些都将使我们的所有利益相关者在整个过程中受益。因为我们更有效地购买，更有效地翻新，能够更快、更快地将这些汽车推向市场。我们的库存计划成本更低。由于我们在市场上的实际产品质量更高，特别是与传统二手车交易所相比，我们的组合在与我们的贷方的交往中表现更好，这些交易所通常只有低质量的担保品可供选择。
All those things kind of add up to why we are in the position we are now, which is, you know, I would say there are, you know, generally the markets looked at as you are a franchise or not a franchise, right? I think that's a dramatic oversimplification of a very complicated business. And I'd argue that we're more akin to like a third box, which is like a super independent or something that's just different than the standard independent dealership lot, because most of those are single points.
所有这些事情加在一起导致我们现在所处的位置，你知道的，我会说，一般来说，市场认为你是一个连锁店还是非连锁店，对吧？我认为这是对一个相当复杂的业务进行过度简化的夸大描述。我想我们更类似于第三种情况，就像是一个超级独立的实体，或者说与标准独立经销商场所完全不同，因为大多数独立经销商场所都只有一个销售点。
Do the current market headwind scare you? I mean, you guys are, I think there's something to be said, you're very hyper focused on, you know, one profit center, not very, you know, well diversified in the sense of like, you know, a franchise dealer that has service parts, new car, used cars. How are you guys thinking about just the current, you know, market conditions and the disproportionate impact that's having on used car dealers?
目前的市场逆风让你感到害怕吗？我的意思是，你们非常专注于一个利润中心，没有很好地实现多元化，就像一个既有服务零部件、新车又有二手车的特许经销商那样。你们如何思考当前的市场状况以及对二手车经销商所产生的不成比例的影响？
No, I mean, short answers, no, I'm not worried at all. Actually, I think that in the used car spaces is the best place to be long term in the car business. If you're looking at the negative headwinds that are coming towards franchise models more than the use space.
不，我的意思是，简短的回答，不，我一点儿也不担心。实际上，我认为在二手车领域是汽车业中长期最好的位置。如果你看到了对特许经营模式产生负面影响的逆风，比起用车领域来说。
And why do you think that I think that the pressure on the franchise model is warranted in a lot of ways? And I think that the increased adoption of EVs and the pressure that the OEMs are putting on direct consumer in that market space is going to create a lot of issues for for franchises. In the sense that if I'm, you know, I'm putting on my my Ford hat, right, I'm probably not going to be extending doing a lot of open points, which for your listeners means that they're adding another Ford market to an existing market, right?
为什么你认为我认为在很多方面，对特许经营模式的压力是有道理的呢？而我认为电动汽车的普及以及汽车制造商对直接消费者市场的施压，将给特许经营造成很多问题。就是说，如果我戴上我的“福特帽子”，我可能不会开设很多新的销售点，对你们听众来说，这意味着在现有市场上增加了另一个销售福特汽车的地点，明白吗？
I don't think there's going to be a lot of new open points coming down the on the pipe. And I think if any of them, you know, go under or get consolidated with large players, they're not going to get replaced ever. And I think that that's only going to increase the blue sky costs, which I know I'm losing a lot of in industry terms.
我认为未来不会有很多全新的项目涌现出来。而且我觉得如果有任何项目倒闭或被大型公司整合，它们将永远无法被替代。我认为这只会增加尚未开发的成本，这方面我在行业术语中失去了很多。
Yeah, the blue sky costs just being the value paid on the goodwill. When you purchase a dealership, there's a multiple you pay on earnings, right? That's the price for the dealership. So that's the industry term for blue sky. Yeah.
是的，蓝天仅仅是在商誉上所支付的价值。当您购买一家经销商时，您会根据收益支付一定倍数的费用，对吗？那就是经销商的价格。所以，这就是蓝天的行业术语。是的。
And so if you if you think of that concept and apply it to, you know, OEMs, basically saying, Hey, I'm not going to let you sell these cars anymore. So that entire market share is in it. So I think that the new market share is going to continue to either stay the same or maybe slightly increase in where it's currently at. But then the availability for dealerships to actually monetize that market share will continue to shrink.
所以，如果你将这个概念应用到OEM（原始设备制造商）上，基本上是在说，嘿，我不会再让你们销售这些汽车了。所以整个市场份额就在其中。所以我认为新的市场份额要么会保持不变，要么可能会稍微增加到目前的水平。但是，经销商实际上将利用这个市场份额的机会将继续减少。
And I think none of those pressures applied to the use space, at least currently. And it if there's, I think that CPO has been wildly mismanaged at the, you know, tier two level in a lot of ways, which is a name. Explain this. I don't think that there's a true understanding from a consumer education side of what the value of a certified pre-ode vehicle is versus, you know, what I have, right?
我认为这些压力都没有对使用空间产生影响，至少目前是如此。如果有的话，我认为 CPO 在很多方面都被二级市场激烈管理不善，这是一个称呼。解释一下。我认为从消费者教育角度来看，人们对认证二手车的价值与我所拥有的车辆的价值并没有真正理解。
I don't have certified pre-unded vehicles, not legally speaking, but they're up to a specific standard that will stand behind. We back with value for a consumer with a 30 day warranty and, you know, at seven day return policy, all these things that I would argue probably have more value than they would the so the so-called, you know, manufacturer warranty, which is really all you're getting with the CPO in a lot of ways. But then, you know, they have, this maybe sounds a little crass, but the audacity to charge more for that car and say, Oh, it's actually worth a thousand dollars more than what Easterns has because my tech, my tech has toown it on a shirt, right? And that's really what it boils down to in a lot of ways.
我没有认证的二手车，从法律角度来说没有，但它们符合特定的标准，我们会为消费者提供30天的保修和七天的退货政策等价值支持。我认为这些价值可能比所谓的厂商保修更有价值。然而，他们却厚颜无耻地为这辆车收取更高的价格，并说：“哦，这辆车比Easterns的值1000美元，因为我的技术人员曾经拥有它。”这在很多方面就是问题的核心所在。
And I think that because they've done that, there is no, there's no specialness with buying a car from a new franchise that's used versus a large reputable independent group that has access to a lot of the same places on a lot of the same collateral.
我认为，因为他们这样做了，所以从一个已使用过的新加盟经销商购买车辆与从一个大型信誉良好的独立集团购买车辆并没有什么特别之处，因为这些独立集团拥有和使用了很多同样的场所和资产。
I mean, you're making a lot of good points. And as a use car dealer, I, we've had a lot of these conversations. Look, certified pre-owned is a marketing mechanism. There's no doubt about it that different brands have different standards. Certain brands may hold their certified pre-owned to higher standards. But we always used to say similarly to you, you know, we are fully reconditioning our vehicles to in many cases to higher standards than our, you know, local competitors independent or franchise. And so I think highlighting that is super, super important.
我的意思是，你提出了很多好观点。作为一家二手机车经销商，我们一直在进行这种对话。听着，认证二手车是一种营销机制。毫无疑问，不同的品牌有不同的标准。某些品牌可能将认证二手车的标准提高了。但我们以前总是和你一样说，你知道的，我们会对我们的车辆进行全面翻新，很多情况下，我们的标准比我们的本地竞争对手，无论是独立的还是加盟连锁的，都要高。因此，我认为强调这一点非常重要。
Look, needless to say, it shows up in the numbers, right? It shows up in your default ratios, your warranty claims and whatnot later on in the last cycle of that car. There's no doubt about it that it's absolutely in a use car dealer's interest to properly recondition a vehicle. Because at the end of the day, you're going to one way or another, if you did not recondition a vehicle properly, especially if you're targeting the subprime consumer segment, it's going to come back to you and it's going to come back hard. It might be the consumer that needs something repaired and they're pissed off and they, you know, have tarnished your name. It could be higher default ratio with your lenders. So it just makes sense to play the long game as a dealer period because you end up benefiting in other ways economically.
看，毫无疑问，这在数据中是能体现出来的，对吧？它会在你的默认比率中、在你的保修索赔中以及车辆最后一个周期中的其他方面显现出来。毫无疑问，对于二手车经销商来说，适当进行车辆翻新是符合他们的利益的。因为到最后，如果你没有适当地翻新一辆车，尤其是针对次级消费者群体，问题就会回到你身上，而且会回得很厉害。可能是消费者需要修理某些东西，然后他们就不满意了，并且会抹黑你的名声。或者是与贷方之间的违约率升高。所以作为一个经销商，在经济上玩长期游戏是有道理的，因为你能从其他方面受益。
100%. And it's crazy that we're having that specific conversation. Where last night I was having dinner with my father, we were talking about this and it was the same concept. We were talking about how we've always had in our market, you know, one specific competitor that seems to be kind of coming after us in a lot of ways. Like instead of trying to create the real market share, they want to come after our market share, which is normal. It's healthy, good part of business. And, you know, frankly, none of them are still around. And it's because of not having that long term thinking, we will gladly take less money this year to create exactly what you're talking about. A better performing portfolio for my lenders, a better performing portfolio for my, you know, pot of warranties because I want my loss ratio, sub 20%, which is what we average. And we do, we get that incredibly low loss ratio because we recondition our car as well.
这种谈话真是太疯狂了。就在昨晚，我和父亲正在吃晚餐的时候，我们谈到了这个话题，而且是同样的概念。我们在谈论我们市场中一直存在的，一家竞争对手一直在多种方式下来进攻我们。他们不是试图创造真正的市场份额，而是试图争夺我们的市场份额，这是常态，也是业务的一部分。而且，说实话，没有一个他们还存在，这是因为他们没有长远思考。今年我们愿意放弃一些利润，来创造出你所提到的东西。一个更加出色的贷方投资组合，一个更加出色的担保金库，因为我希望我们的损失率低于20%，这是我们的平均数。而且，我们能够保持如此之低的损失率，是因为我们也修复我们的汽车。
And you know, that might be retic- For every dollar of warranties that you're selling to customers, you're losing 20 cents, which is incredible. Right. Yeah. And that's including the admin fee. That's, that's very, very anyone that knows anything about the insurance industry. That's a very, very low ratio. Yeah.
而且你知道，这可能是一种保留-每卖出一美元的保修，你就会损失20美分，这是令人难以置信的。对的。是的。这还包括管理费。对于了解保险业的任何人来说，这是一个非常非常低的比例。是的。
And just to be to pull transparency, that number has gone up recently, because we've been putting, you know, quote unquote, worst collateral into the pot because we've extended our buying parameters to buy older vehicles of higher mileage because of the inventory shortages. But that is a temporary, you know, thing right now. Right. And so, so let's say, which is another really good point that, yeah, like everyone is struggling to get cars and, you know, you sort of, quote, I'll have to go deeper into the well, because you just can't get, you know, you can get the stuff we used to get. So we have to kind of source in more creative ways, look elsewhere. So that's not surprising. And that's definitely something that I'm seeing across the board.
为了更加透明，要说明一下，最近这个数字增加了，因为我们投入了“最差的抵押品”，这是因为我们扩大了购买参数，购买了更老、里程更高的车辆，这是因为库存短缺。不过这只是暂时的情况。对吧。所以，我们可以说，这也是另一个非常重要的观点，是的，每个人都在努力购买车辆，你可以说我们得深入挖掘，因为你无法获得以前的那些东西。所以我们必须以更富创意的方式寻找其他来源。所以这并不奇怪，这绝对是我在各个领域都看到的情况。
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100%. Yeah. I mean, and honestly, there's some stuff that we've learned in there. Like we, if anything, we were almost too rigid with our Gargrails before, because, you know, our average car we were selling before, I mean, I guess I didn't get over this when we're talking about our business model was a two year old car with 35,000 miles or less, right? Two and a half year old car. That was our average car sold. Sticker price was 22 five. Give or take average credit score for a consumer was in the 680 range. We had a decent mix of prime and subprime because prime buyers were really more looking for the vehicle. Subprime buyers are more buying the brand and they were looking for payment cars. And what's happened in this climate is that's shifted to older vehicles with more miles that actually cost more. So our average age of a vehicle has increased by a year. Our mileage has increased by 20,000 miles. Our average retail price is increased by $5,000, which is just not good for the consumer, frankly. And what is your average, what is your average retail price today for currently is 27 five. So it's gone up about 27 thousand. And before it has, so it was 22,000. It was 22. Wow. Right. And that's just a car does that include like warranties or anything? No, no, that's just a car. Yeah. Warranty costs has actually been relatively stable, which is what is why, you know, I really are lost ratio. So because, you know, that is what it is. Like our pop performance was better because a lot of cars had some existing manufacturer coverage. All these things were like, by the way, all the stuff that I'm talking about now, this is like part of our buying strategy. Like we think about all of these things for the performance of the before I've had a lender, the warranty salute, all that stuff. That happens when we buy the car.
百分之百，是的。我是说，老实说，我们在其中学到了一些东西。我们在以前的时间里可能过于僵化了，因为你知道，在以前我们售出的平均车辆是两年车龄，行驶里程不超过3.5万英里，对吧？两年半的车龄，这是我们售出的平均车辆。挂牌价为22,500美元左右，买车人的平均信用分数约为680。我们的买家中，主贷款和次贷款的比例相当合理，因为主贷款的买家更看重车辆本身，而次贷款的买家更看重品牌，并且寻找分期付款的车辆。在当前的环境中，情况已经发生了变化，更多的是选择年龄更久、行驶里程更长的旧车，实际上价格更高。所以我们的平均车龄增加了一年，里程增加了20,000英里，平均销售价格提高了5,000美元。就消费者而言，这其实并不好。而你现在的平均销售价格是多少呢？目前是27,500美元。所以它涨了大约5,000美元。以前是22,000美元。哇，是吗？这只是车辆的价格，包括保修之类的吗？不，不包括，只是车辆本身的价格。是的。保修费用实际上相对稳定，这就是为什么我们的损失率相对较低。因为，你知道的，这就是实际情况。我们的业绩表现更好，因为很多车辆都有厂家的一些现有保修。顺便提一下，我现在谈论的所有事情都是我们购车策略的一部分。在购买车辆之前，我们会考虑所有这些因素，包括贷方、保修等等。
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How are you sourcing your cars? Like give me a pie chart of how you source your cars. Yeah. So right now, it's about 80% auctions and put a 20% trade ins and buying up the street. And if it was 2019, the last, you know, somewhat normal period of time that we have the measure, it was 95% auction of five percent trades. We're holding on to more trades than we ever have been before because of the same, you know, reason that we're buying deeper. And we've tried to dabble and buying off the street. We're not good at it, honestly. And I don't have the brain for it in this market. Like I spent 35 years talking about how the we are. I love that you said that. I love that you just said that.
你们如何采购汽车？给我一个饼图，展示一下你们如何获取汽车。是的。现在，大约80%的汽车是通过拍卖得来的，20%是通过置换和从街上购买得来的。而在2019年，也就是我们可以衡量到的最后一个相对正常的时期，这个比例是95%的拍卖，5%的置换。由于我们购买得更深入，所以我们保留了比以往更多的置换车辆。我们曾试图购买街上的车辆，但实际上我们并不擅长，而且我在这个市场上也没有相关经验。我已经花了35年的时间来谈论我们的方式。我喜欢你说了这句话，我真的很喜欢你刚才说的。
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Yeah, I'll tell you why I love it because number one, it shows self-awareness. You're you're cognizant of the fact that when you buy a car from a consumer, you're a number. You're not offering like, yeah, there's some service and stuff involved and whatnot. But at the end of the day, you're a number. That's what you're competing against. And you're competing with everyone and their mother that's trying to buy off the street. Some of these companies are right public, have way deeper pockets than you, and can probably even afford taking, you know, lower margins on these cars in you. And so I think that's a very just astute statement to make that, you know, that's not the sweet spot for you. And really isn't the sweet spot for most used car dealers, frankly.
是的，我会告诉你我为什么喜欢它，首先，它展示了自我意识。你明白了一个事实，那就是当你从消费者那里买车时，你只是一个数字。尽管涉及到一些服务之类的东西，但归根结底，你只是一个数字。你要与所有人以及那些试图从街头购买的人竞争。其中一些公司已经上市，他们比你有更深的口袋，他们可能甚至能够在这些车上接受更低的利润空间。所以我认为这是一个非常明智的说法，你明白那不是你的舒适区，实际上也不是大多数二手车经销商的舒适区。
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Yeah, I don't disagree. And I think everything you said is a hundred percent accurate. The commoditization of that in this in this current climate has gone wildly out of control. Well, you're right. It's it's the customer says, I will, you know, they'll come in our doors and say, look, I've got an arm full of these are the five offers I have. I give me a higher number. I'm leaving. Right. And it's gonna give you a menu. And yeah, they're like, yeah, I got this, I got this, I got this, and it's, you know, they're not wrong. 100%. But some of those numbers are inaccurate. Some of those have been inspected. And I asked, I'd actually argue that there are brands that exist that that push past that like, I think there's a difference between, you know, Bob, discount, I offer offering you 25 and car max offering you 25, right? If I'm a consumer, that car max offer has an inherent value, even if it's a thousand dollars less. I'll take the national brand competition is a really difficult thing. There's an inherent consumer trust that's built with a national brand that you're never going to get from a single point or even a regional player in a lot of ways. So you always gonna have to combat that and, and, you know, just being a smaller player versus a national competitor.
是的，我不反对。而且我认为你说的一切都百分之百准确。在目前的环境中，商品化已经完全失控了。嗯，你说得对。顾客们会走进我们的门店，拿着一堆报价说：“给我一个更高的数，否则我就走。”然后他们会拿出一个菜单，说：“我有这个、我有那个”，你懂的。他们说得没错，百分之百没错。不过其中有些报价是不准确的，有些商品也没有经过检验。而我认为，存在一些品牌能够超越这一点，比如，你知道，Bob折扣店给你报价25美元，而Carmax给你报价也是25美元。如果我是个消费者，这个Carmax的报价拥有固有的价值，即使它比较少一千美元。我会选择这个全国品牌。竞争真是一件非常困难的事情。全国品牌往往能够在消费者中建立起一种信任，而这种信任是你从一个单一点或者甚至是一个地区型的竞争对手那里得不到的。所以，作为一个较小的竞争者，你总是要和这种情况进行斗争。
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How many cars do you guys retail per year? So we were retailing about 12,000 cars a year. Now we're pacing closer to like 9,000. Got it. And what is that in like revenue? What's your annual sales? Like 300 million.
你们每年销售多少辆汽车？我们之前一年大概销售了大约12,000辆汽车。现在我们的销售速度接近9,000辆了。明白了。那这样的销售额大概有多少？你们的年销售额是多少？大约3亿。
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That's 200 million. Well, it's funny. It's up 250. So that's the funny thing is our actual revenue numbers have stayed about the same with that this with that decrease in volume because of the increase per unit cost. But that does not mean we are making money. You know, that's, like if there was something that I drum, I've been beating for the last couple of years, a different conferences is there's this general perception of like, well, everyone's been killing it for two years. And that just isn't the case as an independent. You know, we've been struggling with things that are very specific struggles that affect the our side of the business different than the new side because our entry point hasn't stayed static like a new car. Like they're them off, you know, franchise models charging over sticker and increasing gross profit per unit is a sure high that is going to be, you know, basically negatively impact their year over year comps probably the next five years. But I mean, they made money that's great. Good for that.
这就是2亿。嗯，很有趣。增加了250。所以有趣的是，我们实际的收入数额与这个销量减少相比基本保持不变，因为每单位成本增加了。但这并不意味着我们在赚钱。你知道，这就像如果有什么事情，我在过去几年一直在强调，也是在不同的会议上，有这种普遍的观念，即“每个人过去两年都表现得非常出色”。但事实并非如此，作为一个独立个体，我们一直在与非常具体的困难抗争，这些困难对我们的业务方面产生的影响不同于新业务，因为我们的进入点不像新车一样静止不变。比如他们的特许经销模式收取超过标价并提高每个单位的毛利润，这肯定会对他们的年度比较造成负面影响，可能持续五年。但是，我是说他们赚钱了，那很好，祝贺他们。
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But in the use side, like we were still we were buying in the craziness. Like, you know, if I'm buying a car for 27 and I'm selling it for 30, it's the same as what I buy a car for 22 and sell for 25. Yeah, it's not really that different. The gross profit percentage is the margin did stay, you know, relatively flat, maybe, you know, some increase around, increased kind of oscillated back and forth. But yeah, it's definitely cars prices like ever use credit or had to pay more for those cars as well. So I kind of went up literally, but the consumer paid more and then, you know, you couple that with increase in interest rates and you know, the loser in the scenario is really the consumer at the end of the day. I mean, there and that's that's the part that that is the, you know, the hardest thing right now for for us as operators is I don't feel like I'm doing the best for my consumer. And you know, those are market conditions that will eventually fade.
但在使用方面，就像我们仍然在疯狂购买一样。比如，如果我以27的价格买车，以30的价格卖出去，就和我以22的价格买车，以25的价格卖出去一样。是的，差别不大。毛利百分比保持不变，你知道，相对稳定，也许有一些增加，来回波动。但是是的，无论是使用信用还是不得不为那些车付更多钱，车价肯定上涨了。所以从字面上说，我赚得更多了，但最终的输家是消费者。我是说，那就是现在对我们作为运营商来说最困难的事情。而且，这些市场条件最终会消退的。
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But you know, I my bread and butter consumer, my average consumer, you know, they want a $100 payment or $300 payment and that collateral just does not exist right now. I can just not something that is possible because I can't buy a 12,000 or 13,000 car. And if I am buying a 12,000 car, it's got 108,000 miles. Yeah, so what ends up happening is the customer just taking a higher payment because they have no choice. Exactly. That's exactly what's happening or they're having to come up with higher down payments. And all that's, you know, negatively impacts of everything that's talking about for portfolio performance, warrants, performance, all that stuff. Yeah, it's it's it's not a it's not a great thing. I mean, these customers are in need. We're going to we're still going to recon up to our standards and we're going to put them in our vehicles don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, those are conditions that I can't control. That's the weather. That's kind of what we always say. And you know, we want that to continue to change, but that's just going to take time. This has to work its way through. I always refer to, you know, the wholesale retail relationships, franchise independence, like kind of the it's like an ecosystem, right? And we introduced like a plague or a blight at some point into the inner into the ecosystem, which would have been the lack of productions in 21 and 20 and 21. And now we're dealing with those consequences. And we have to just work them through the system.
但是你知道的，我的消费者，我的普通消费者，他们想要100美元或300美元的付款，而目前就没有这样的抵押品。我根本不能购买一辆价值12,000或13,000美元的车。而且，如果我购买一辆价值12,000美元的车，它已经行驶了108,000英里。是的，结果就是客户只能接受更高的付款，因为他们别无选择。确实如此。这就是正在发生的事情，或者他们不得不提供更高的首付款。所有这些都对我们讨论的投资组合表现、授权表现等都产生了负面影响。是的，这不是一件好事。我的意思是，这些客户是有需求的。我们仍然会按照我们的标准对他们进行检查，并把他们放在我们的车辆中，不要误解我的意思。但是归根结底，这些条件是我无法控制的。这就像天气一样，这就是我们经常说的。我们希望这种情况继续改变，但这需要时间。这必须通过它自己的方式解决。我总是提到，批发零售关系、特许独立性，这就像一个生态系统，对吧？而我们在某个时候引入了瘟疫或灾害到生态系统内部，也就是2021年和2021年的生产短缺问题。现在我们要面对这些后果，我们必须让它们在系统内运作。
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Every car that's produced today needs to get bought sold, leased, returned to become a use car. And that just takes time. Like we're we're making wine. We're putting we were putting stuff in barrels and letting it age. So how many cars do you carry in stock at all times? Right now it's actually super low. It's about 1100 cars. And we will have as many as 3000 cars. And we'll we'll use seasonality to our advantage and our access to capital to maximize returns.
如今，每辆生产出来的汽车都需要被购买、销售、租赁或返还，成为一辆二手车。而这需要时间，就像酿酒一样，我们把东西放进木桶里让它慢慢陈化。那么你们每次库存多少辆汽车？现在实际上是非常少的，大约只有1100辆汽车。而且我们最多会有3000辆汽车。我们会利用季节性和我们对资金的访问权，最大化回报。
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So new 2019 more talk more about that. Yeah, what do you mean by that? So yeah, I'm core right core identity by car when you sell it kind of thing.
所以新的2019年更多地谈论这个。是的，你是什么意思呢？是的，我是指当你卖了你的汽车时核心身份感。
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You know, generally there's a seasonality in the wholesale market. So cars will increase in value during the, you know, heaviest selling times, which is generally March to April that tax season bump. And it'll kind of stay steady through the summer and then start dipping towards the winter when things slow down. Again, new side has a big bump during Christmas on the use side. It's like the most, you know, depressing months for any independent dealerships out there. And even from September to like February, you just want to get over with it and get the tax season.
通常来说，汽车批发市场有季节性变化。所以在销售最繁忙的时期，也就是三月到四月的报税季，汽车的价值会上涨。然后在夏季保持稳定，然后在冬季开始下降，因为销售变缓。同样地，在二手车市场上，圣诞节会有一个销售高峰。这对于任何独立汽车经销商来说都是最令人沮丧的月份。从九月到二月，你只想尽快度过这段时间，等到报税季。
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And so we'll use that to our advantage though. So because we have phenomenal relationships with our floor planning and we have a massive amount of space and a recon that can handle it, we'll buy, you know, thousands of cars when no one's buying cars because I'll be able to get into them at a lower entry price. And now just hold them. And the car. You're not concerned. You're not concerned that depreciation will outweigh that benefit, given you're holding it for so long. So that's this is this is in normal times. It it doesn't because there's always that bump in tax season that makes those cars better, right?
所以我们将利用这一点。因为我们与我们的楼层规划有非凡的关系，并且我们拥有大量的空间和一个可以处理的回收车辆，所以当没有人购买车辆时，我们会购买成千上万辆，因为我能以较低的进入价购买。然后只需保留它们。并且这辆车您不担心。您不担心长时间持有会被折旧所抵消的好处。所以这是在正常情况下。因为总是在纳税季节有一个提升，使这些车辆更有优势，对吗？
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Yeah, in tax season, let's say like March, April, people are getting their tax refunds. If you're coming to buy used cars. So of course, you're stocking up December, January, right, you're getting heavy on the inventory. Right. The taxis and arrives, the values rise a little bit. Oh, and by the way, the book value rises a little bit. And for those that don't know what book value is, and I'm speaking from experience, of course, but for those that know what book value is, it's when you're going to get a car financed through a lender, a lender gives you financing, you know, based on some number. And that number happens to be the book value in the subprime world. And so you're buying this, you know, this car that is actually is going to likely be trading for a higher price in a couple of months because there's more demand in the market. But also it's, you know, perceived value or the book value that the lender is lending against will go up. And so net net, it's a win because you have the capital, you can afford to buy it earlier. And then you have the car come taxis and when prices are crazy. Exactly. Yeah, you're seeing 100%.
是的，在纳税季节，比如三月、四月，人们会收到他们的税款退还。如果你来购买二手车的话，当然你会在十二月、一月备货，存大量库存。一旦纳税季节到来，车辆的价值会略微上涨。顺便说一下，账面价值也会略微上涨。对于不了解账面价值的人来说，我可以通过经验和知识为你解答。当你通过贷方获得汽车融资时，贷方会基于某个数字给你提供融资，而这个数字恰好是在次贷市场中的账面价值。因此，你购买的这辆车在未来几个月内很可能以更高的价格交易，因为市场需求更高。而且，贷方贷款所依据的账面价值也会上升。总之，这是个双赢的局面，因为你有资本，能够提前购买，而当纳税季节来临时，价格就变得疯狂。确实，你会看到百分之百的效果。
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So that's that's really one of the things like that our buying strategy, if I have to simplify it is opportunity buy. So that's generally a seasonal opportunity that we take advantage of. And this is all things that, if I'm a single point dealer, I'm going to probably try to do the same thing. But the difference is I, you know, maybe have access to capital to buy five or 10 or 50 cars. We'll buy thousands of cars and hold them. And we'll just maximize that opportunity. So tax season is a seasonal bump, right? And that happens every year, but take the same kind of concept and apply it to the middle of the summer. So let's say there's a massive hail storm somewhere in the country and all these cars get dumped into the market. You know, a regular dealership's going to say, great. Oh my god, I just got a great deal on, you know, these 10 cars. I mean, I'll go in like, we'll buy no cars for a month and buy 500 cars in a day. It just, it doesn't make a difference to us. Because of all the opportunities that we've been able to achieve with scale.
那么，这实际上就是我们的购买策略之一，如果我必须简化它的话，就是机会购买。通常，这是我们利用的季节性机会。如果我是一个单店经销商，我可能会尝试做同样的事情。但不同之处在于，我可能有能力购买五辆、十辆甚至五十辆车。而我们会购买成千上万辆车并保存它们。我们将充分利用这个机会。所以税季是一个季节性的增长，对吧？每年都会发生，但是把同样的概念应用到夏天中间。比如说，在全国某地发生了一场大规模冰雹暴，所有这些车辆都被倾销到市场上。一个普通的经销商会说，太好了，天啊，我刚刚以很优惠的价格买下了这些车。而我们会说，我们可以一个月不买任何车，然后一天买下500辆。这对我们来说并没有什么区别。因为我们拥有足够的规模所带来的各种机会。
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Can I tell you a cool secret about car buying a nice one? So I forget what year this was. Maybe like 10 years ago, I don't know something that but anyways, so we found this one government auction, right? Like it was the GSA, there was some government cars. Yep. And this is crazy. But first of all, clean titles, clean titles, of course, all clean. It was like bread and butter cars, but ready for this. This is crazy. So they, first of all, they didn't charge any fees. Like let's just start there. There was no, there was no auction fees, which was wild to begin with. Yeah. But but but here's, here's what's even crazier. They let you pay with a credit card. What? So you get 3% cash back? Dude, you're getting, I forget how much I think it was, I think we were using capital and Spark at the time. Yeah. And that's a little bit ago. Yeah. 2% or something. Yep. Yeah. And I just remember being on the phone with a credit card company, like, Hey, we need, we need a bigger limit. This is that. But putting every single car on the credit card and just fooling it with points. Right. So that was absolutely. You can probably do like some kind of cash flow with your floor plan too to pay like no fees for it. That's amazing. Oh my gosh. Well, yeah. Well, these cars, we weren't even putting on floor plan at the time, but it was crazy because yeah because I just won't forget that. Just you can't find these things anymore. These things like they don't exist in the market anymore. You know? Yeah. Yeah. No, if you're looking for a honey hole, you're, you're, tell your dad about that one. Your dad won't want that story. Yeah. We're not. Well, you're going to send him down a rabbit hole to go find it now. So that's my worst. You stay up on. I'm telling you, but you know what it is. Yeah. Like listen, don't hate the player. Hate the game. Like if I can pay with a credit card, of course, somebody add 2% to my margin, 2 points to my margin. But yeah. But I think this is the ethos of the used car business. You know, it's like a dollar saved as a dollar earned. That's the only way to make it into business where your net margin is, you know, 3 to 5% depending on the year. 100%. Yeah. I mean, and that's, I think that I'd argue when I said the Southern's before and outside again, I because of the nature of the independent space, one, I think it brings in and lures in more entrepreneurial spirit than almost any other entry because it requires almost no experience, no education, and you know, very little capital gets started and then the returns are immense if you do it well.
可以告诉你一个关于买辆好车的酷炫秘密吗？我忘记是哪一年了。可能是大约10年前，我不知道确切的时间，但是总之，我们找到了一个政府拍卖会。就是GSA拍卖，那里有一些政府车辆。是的，这很疯狂。但首先，这些车都有干净的车牌，当然，所有的都是干净的。就像普通的车一样，但听着，这才是疯狂的地方。首先，他们没有收任何费用。就从这里开始吧。没有拍卖费用，这实在是太疯狂了。是的。但更疯狂的是，他们让你用信用卡付款。什么？这样你可以获得3%的现金返还？伙计，你得到，我忘记了具体金额，可能当时我们在用capital和Spark。是的。那已经是一段时间之前了。是的。可能是2%或者其他一些数值。是的。我只记得当时在和信用卡公司通电话，说：嗨，我们需要，我们需要提高信用额度。这简直太好了。然后用信用卡付车款，通过积分来愚弄它。是的。这绝对。你也可以通过你的融资计划来进行现金流的操作，以便不需要支付任何费用。太惊人了。哦天哪。是的。但是，当时我们甚至没有把这些车拉入融资计划，但是这真的太疯狂了，因为你知道吗，这些东西再也找不到了。这些东西就像市场上已经不存在了一样。你知道吗？是的。是的。如果你在找一个赚大钱的地方，你，你要告诉你爸爸这件事。你爸爸会很想听这个故事的。是的。我们不能。那么你现在要让他去找它了。这就是我的糟糕之处。你自己想着吧。我告诉你，你要知道这是怎样的。是的。别恨玩家，恨这个游戏。如果我可以用信用卡支付，当然，有人会给我增加2%的利润。但是是的。我认为这就是二手车业务的核心。你知道，每节省一个美元就是赚进一个美元。这是唯一的方法，进入一个净利润率只有3%到5%的行业。对，100%正确。是的。我想这也是我之前提到的南方和其他地方的不同之处，因为独立空间的性质，我认为它引入和吸引的创业精神比其他任何行业都多，因为它几乎不需要经验、不需要教育，只需要很少的资本就能开始，一旦做得好，回报是巨大的。
And all you have to do to do it well is a hustler and someone who understands cash flow really well. And then you can really make a lot of money very quickly and grow very, very fast. And I'd also argue that it brings in a tremendous amount of diversity in a space that doesn't have a lot that doesn't exist in the franchise model because of the gate keeping that inherently exists there.
只要你是一个勤奋而且对现金流非常了解的人，就可以做得足够好。然后你就能够非常迅速地赚很多钱，并且快速地成长。此外，我还会认为这种方式在某种程度上带来了非常多样化的变化，而这在特许经营模式中是不存在的，因为其天然的门槛制约限制了多样性的存在。
That obviously those those those barriers have less end over the years, but they existed for such a long period of time that there is an inherent systemic difference between the independent, you know, the composition of the independent dealer body versus the composition of the franchise dealer body very different when you go to NADA versus NIABA. And that's that's which are which are again for listeners.
显然，这些障碍随着时间推移变得越来越少，但它们存在了这么长时间，独立车商群体的构成与特许经销商群体的构成之间存在着固有的系统差异，当你去NADA与NIABA时，你会发现非常不同。这是对听众来说的重点。
That's just two that the two industry conferences one is targeting franchise dealers one targeting independent dealers. I think that the use car industry fundamentally it it favors, you know, that that immigrant mentality because I think as an you come to this country and you know, you have to sort of, you know, kind of really figure it out fight to live in a way. And that is the use car business. It's I think that that mentality is it does not serve well in many other industries. Like there's plenty of industries where you need to actually, you know, allocate as much capital and go big and this is an industry where I know you look for every day you come in, you say, where can I save a buck? Where can I look for more efficiencies? That's the only way to survive and thrive in this industry.
这只是两个行业会议，一个针对特许经销商，一个针对独立经销商。我认为二手车行业基本上支持那种移民心态，因为当你来到这个国家时，你必须努力去适应生活。而二手车业务就是这样的情况。我认为这种心态在其他许多行业中并不适用。在很多行业中，你需要真正分配资金并大举进军。但在这个行业中，你每天进来都会问自己：我能在哪里省钱？我能在哪里寻找更高效率？这是在这个行业中存活和繁荣的唯一途径。
100% and it's a tweet that you sent out this years ago. I mean, I feel like a year ago, but I think you said like the franchise model is, you know, at the end of the day, it's like a real estate play and a dealer or an warranty play, right? And I think you could argue that that's relatively true. I mean, for a lot of dealer principles and not all obviously I'm not painting with a broad brush, but you know, I don't think that they necessarily care if their dealerships are tremendously profitable in the sense that they want them to turn a profit, but they're not going to lose sleep the way an independent dealer will lose sleep if their profit margin drops by a quarter of a percent.
这是你几年前发布的一条推文，我觉得就好像是一年前的事，但我记得你说过特许经营模式，最终归根结底就是一个房地产游戏和一个经销商或保修游戏，对吧？我认为你可以说这是相对正确的。我是说，对于许多经销商，当然不是所有人，我并不认为他们一定在乎他们的经销商店的利润是多高，他们希望他们能盈利，但如果他们的利润率下降百分之四分之一，他们不会像独立经销商那样夜不能寐。
Let's say, or let's say 10 basis points if our net margin drops, we're going to frantically look through every single receipt and PLL statement and expense statement to find out where that point 1% increased and how I can immediately eliminate it so that I can fix it because that's our live, that's our livelihood. There's nothing to fall back on. There's no blue sky for independence. There's no established expectation of, you know, multiples because, you know, as Alan Hagg said to me at a table, the dealer principle is the value, right? And so if you're going to buy, do a buy sell and they're gone, then there is nothing left, assuming that there's no brand and all that stuff like push it out or, you know, develop technology or proprietary things. Yeah, we're the franchise. You can, you can buy and sell them pretty easily because there's the franchise, the brand. We use car dealership or group. It's to your point, the dealer principle is so critical. It's almost a key man risk. Like you need that person to operate the business.
设想一下，或者假设我们的净利润率下降了10个基点，我们将会疯狂地检查每一张发票、PLL报表和费用报表，找出这0.1%的增加点，并如何立即消除它，以便我能修复它，因为这是我们的生活，这是我们的生计。没有什么可以依赖的。没有独立的蓝天。没有已建立的期望，比如，乘数，因为你知道，就像阿兰·哈格在桌子上对我说的那样，经销商原则就是价值，对吧？如果你要买，做一个买卖，然后他们离开了，那就什么也没有了，假设没有品牌和诸如此类的东西来推广它或者开发技术或者专有物品。是的，我们就是连锁经销商。你可以很容易地买卖它们，因为有连锁经营，有品牌的存在。我们是二手车经销商或者集团。对你来说，经销商原则是如此关键。几乎是一个关键人风险。就像你需要那个人来运营这个业务。
100%. I mean, and there's no market exclusivity which you get with the franchise. Correct. Yeah. I mean, low barriers to entry. Someone can open up next door. It doesn't mean they'll be successful, but they can. No supply advantage necessarily.
我的意思是，并且没有像特许经营权那样的市场独占性。没错。是的。我的意思是，进入门槛较低。有人可以在隔壁开店。这并不意味着他们会成功，但他们确实有可能开店。并不一定有供应优势。
So, okay, before we get into some more juicy stuff, numbers, economics, you know, I'm curious about your profits. I do want to just tell the audience, please take a second. This episode has already had like tons of gems and I'm super excited about it. Take a second tweet at me. Let me know what you think so far because, you know, the stuff you're sharing, it's truly how to operate this business. Like you said, there's a reason you guys have been in business for 30 plus years because you're doing it right. On that note, let's keep going.
好的，废话不多说，在我们深入讨论一些更有趣的东西之前，先谈谈数字、经济等等。不过，我对你们的利润感到好奇。我只想告诉观众，请你们花点时间，这一集已经有了很多珍贵的内容，我对此感到非常兴奋。发个推给我，让我知道你迄今为止的想法，因为你所分享的信息确实是如何运作这个企业的真谛。就这样，我们继续吧。
So what's your net margin? You said you're doing about 250 million a year in sales. What's your net margin on that? Net margin, you was at our best to five and a half percent. And that's 2019 numbers. That, that, you know, net margin is dropped to, you know, beyond us, almost zero at this point. And that's because our expectations for this year is to basically get through it. Wow. And we will slowly grow that back up. I didn't expect to hear that. Yeah. I mean, we just want to stay in some version of profitability to keep our lenders happy to keep our floor plan happy. And we're doing that by cutting costs and, you know, and doing everything we need to. But our volume has continued to decline. And so, and that's, and that's not unique. I think that's generally the market trend right now.
那么你的净利润率是多少？你说你每年销售额约为2.5亿美元。这个销售额的净利润率是多少？净利润率在我们最好的时候达到了百分之五点五。那是2019年的数据。而目前，这个净利润率已经下降到几乎接近零了。这是因为我们对今年的预期只是保持稳定，然后慢慢增长回来。哇，我没想到会听到这个消息。是的，我们只是希望保持某种盈利能力，以让我们的贷款人和我们的库存计划方满意。我们通过降低成本，做所有需要的事情来达到这个目标。但我们的销售量一直在下降。这并不是独特的情况，我认为这是目前市场的趋势。
So, so that's, that's really big. I didn't expect that to be honest. So for, so let's just start. So you said typically let's just say 5%. So 5% on 250, like 12 and a half million, typically what you're netting a year. Correct. Now you're saying that what is causing such a big swing? Is it volume and your, you know, your fixed expenses are staying the same? What's happening this year that you're going, you know, such a big swing to the low end? Yeah, it's combination of both. I mean, so volumes dropped. I mean, we were down about 30% in volume, but a gross profit had increased per unit slightly to combat that. So we did all right. 21, 22, the volume has continued to decline and gross profit had stayed relatively stable. And, you know, that's just the expectation that it, you know, I don't think it sounds dramatic, but it's also the expectation. You look at all of the, you know, versions that we can see on public groups. It's, it's about the same story because customer sentiment is still really low. I mean, it's been climbing this month and I'm hoping it continues to climb now. The default woes are behind us. But I don't have expectations of them cutting rates this year, which I think is the last kind of shoot a drop on customer sentiment getting back to somewhat of a normal level. So I think that there's still a story out there that is not totally untrue, that it's maybe the worst time in history to buy a used car.
这样，这真的很大。老实说，我没想到会这么大。所以，我们就开始吧。你说通常是5%。所以对于250万美元的利润，通常你一年能净赚1250万美元。是的。现在你说是什么原因导致了如此大的波动？是销售量下降，而固定支出保持不变吗？今年发生了什么，以致于你的利润大幅下降？是的，是两者都有。销售量下降了。我们的销量下降了大约30%，但是每辆车的毛利润微增以应对这种情况。所以还算不错。在21年和22年，销量继续下降，但毛利润保持相对稳定。这其实是预期的结果。你看，根据我们能看到的公开数据，情况大致相同，因为客户情绪仍然非常低迷。这个月情绪有所好转，我希望它能继续上升。默认担忧已经过去了。但我不认为他们今年会降低利率，这恐怕是客户情绪恢复到正常水平的最后一次冲击。所以我认为目前还存在一个并非完全不真实的说法，即现在可能是购买二手车的最糟糕时机。
Right. I mean, you see, and once once CNN talks about the car market, you're like, wow, this is, that's not good. That's not good for us. And that's been the case. So customers, I would say that the way I've explained it to my staff that we're talking about our expectations is we're in a need only business right now. Right. So I'm saying like customers are coming in the door are in need of a car. Not there's no want out there. There's no one saying like, this is the time where I'm just going to upgrade my car because I want something nicer. That is not going to happen in 2023. And I don't think it should. Now, the argument for that long term means that there's a tremendous amount of pent up demand that will be coming down the pipe. And a lot of collateral out there that will be traded in at that point. But I think that that's really the story of it. And you couple that with what you've been covering very heavily, which is tightening of lending, that means the same customers coming in that would have come in two years ago are not going to prove for a loan today. Or they're getting approved for a loan with an incredibly high fee that or a really high requirement for down payment.
没错，我的意思是，你看，一旦CNN谈到汽车市场，你就会觉得，哇，这不好。这对我们来说不好。情况一直都是这样。所以我对我的员工解释我们的期望时，我会说我们现在只是在做有需求的生意。是的。所以我是说，进门的客户需要一辆车。并没有人说，这是个升级车辆的好时机，因为我想要一个更好的东西。这在2023年不会发生。我也认为不应该发生。现在，从长期来看，这意味着有大量潜在需求即将释放，还有很多会被交易掉的抵押品。但我认为这就是故事的要点。再加上你一直在重点报道的收紧贷款，这意味着与两年前一样的客户现在无法获得贷款。或者他们能够获得贷款，但手续费非常高，或者对首付要求很高。
Are you, are you expecting to break even this year or? Yes. Are you, so you're just flat out expecting that you're going to either break even be a little negative, a little positive. That's pretty much it. That's our plan. That was our, when we exited 22, that was our plan for this year. And I do think that it's clearly, again, you've been in the business for a long time, right? And the reality is there have been some really good years for the business. And so you have to isolate one year.
你们预计今年能够实现收支平衡吗？是的。所以你们预计收支平衡或稍微亏损或稍微盈利，对吗？基本是这样。这就是我们的计划。当我们结束2022年时，这就是我们今年的计划。我认为，很明显，你已经在这个行业工作了很长时间了，对吧？事实是这个行业有过一些非常好的年份。因此，你必须把一个年份与其他年份隔离开来。
So again, I didn't expect you to say break even. But I do think it's important to look on a longer time horizon. I'm sure the last five years have been great. Oh, been phenomenal. We had, we actually had stacked 10, six years of exact 10% growth year over year for both volume and net profit. And that was the expectation. And frankly, like you said before about Savo Buck to earn a buck kind of mentality of a dealership. I mean, we have, we have GM meetings and manager meetings once a month, we bring everyone in from every store, we have meetings, lunch, breakfast and stuff. And I mean, I'm telling you, every for the last three years, it's been, don't overextend yourself. There's something coming. There's a recession coming. That's just my father being my father. But that's the same thing applies to the business. We've been taking those profits and stashing them and investing them and putting them in real estate, buying all of our dealerships so that we're not over leverage, making all these slart moves to be in a position where when we need access to capital, we'll have it.
所以，我没想到你会说达到盈亏平衡。但是我认为重要的是从更长远的角度来看。我确定过去五年一定很棒。哦，超级棒。我们实际上已经连续六年保持了净利润和销量每年精确增长10%的增长率。这也是我们的预期。就像你之前说的，我们的车行有着为赚钱而赚钱的心态。每个月我们都会举行GM会议和经理会议，把每个门店的人召集在一起，还有会议、午餐和早餐。我告诉你，过去三年，我们一直在告诫大家不要过度扩张。有什么暗示着不好的东西即将发生。这只是我父亲表现出来的父亲样子。但是这也适用于我们的业务。我们一直在把利润存起来，用于投资和购买房地产，以保证我们不会过度负债，做出一些稳健的举措，使得在需要资本支持时，我们能够获得它。
Now, I'm not saying that by eating stretch, the imagination that the prediction was that we would have a global pandemic followed by a massive inventory shortage, which would then be followed by lending tightening. But we were somewhat prepared with massive cash reserves to handle this kind of instability in the market because we had an expectation of a recession. I mean, the cycle was longer than normal, but it was going to happen. It's going to happen. What, what's your gross profit per unit? Right now, it's a little over $5,000. And then how much is that on the actual car versus the warranty? It's about half and half. Got it.
现在，我并不是说通过吃住处解决问题，预测就是我们会经历一次全球大流行病，接着是巨大的库存短缺，然后再紧缩放贷。但是我们有大量的现金储备来处理市场上这种不稳定情况，因为我们预期会发生一次经济衰退。我是说，这个周期比正常情况要长一些，但是它会发生的。它将会发生。你们每单位的毛利润是多少？现在，每单位的毛利润略高于5000美元。那么在实际汽车销售中，与保修相比，是多少？大约一半一半。搞定。
Which doesn't surprise me again for for an independent focusing on used cars and, you know, near and subprime market, that sounds about right. That's still, but it is on definitely on the higher end, which is nice. Yeah, it's healthy. Explain to me now, what's your customer acquisition cost? Over $600 right now, which has been said, got it. That's insane to you. Yeah. Why? What are you expecting? 300. The 300 is normal for us. Got it. Well, actually, it's that is that lower than you thought? No, I think that 600 is right in market. I think that's okay. I think NADA puts out the numbers they're typically five to 600 to acquire our customer. And I think that 300 is definitely on the lower end. The better months, I could almost bet you that on your best months, you're closer to 300. Right.
这对我来说并不让人惊讶，毕竟我们是一家专注于二手车、次级市场的独立公司，听起来差不多是这样。当然，这个数字还是有点偏高，但是这是好的。是的，这是健康的。现在跟我解释一下，你们的客户获取成本是多少？现在超过600美元，之前也是这样说的，我明白了。这对你来说太疯狂了，是吗？是的。为什么？你希望是多少？300。对我们来说，300是正常的。我明白了。实际上，这比你预想的低吗？不，我认为600在市场中是正常的。我认为NADA公布的数字通常是500到600美元获取一个客户。而300绝对是比较低的。在最好的月份，我敢打赌你们的成本接近300美元。对的。
But I want to talk about your marketing. This is something that I mentioned earlier in the conversation. Give us a high level overview of what has been the marketing strategy for Easterns. Again, no barriers to entry really in the used car market. Anyone could do it. But you guys have done something very unique and creative. Can you just tell us about that? How did you get started? Give us an overview of what it is. Yeah.
但我想谈谈你们的营销策略。这是我在对话中早先提到过的内容。给我们提供一份有关Easterns的营销策略的高层概述。毕竟，二手车市场没有真正的准入障碍，任何人都可以进入。但你们做了非常独特和创造性的事情。你能告诉我们一下吗？你是如何开始的？简单说说它是什么。是的。
Well, I first of all, I appreciate it as always. But yeah, so I think a long time ago, my father, whether he knew it or not at the time, was a brand marketer. And he had been building a brand in the market. So I picked the ball up where he got it to a certain point and continued that effort. But Easterns is a known brand in DC and Baltimore. And we've done that through a ton of different ways. But we were early on television, early on radio. And I've always believed in the idea of building a difference between the Easterns name and other independent dealerships name.
首先，我一如既往地非常感激。但是，我认为很久以前，我的父亲（无论当时他是否知道）就是一名品牌营销者。他一直在市场上建立品牌。所以我在他达到一定程度时接过接力棒，并继续努力。但Easterns是华盛顿特区和巴尔的摩地区一个知名品牌。我们通过各种途径实现了这一点。我们早期使用电视和广播，我始终相信，要区别于其他独立经销商名称，要建立Easterns的差异化。
And we did that through a couple of interesting ways. The first big thing was our jingle, which is really what we're famous or infamous, depending on who you talk to for a one second. But that Harley, can you please play the jingle people have to hear the jingle? This thing is so freaking catchy. Like I can't get out of my head. So let's play. All right, the jingle just played, we can get back to it. I hope you enjoyed that. Let's keep going.
我们通过一些有趣的方式来实现这一点。第一件重要的事情是我们的广告歌，这正是我们因为这一秒钟的广告歌而出名或臭名昭著，这要看你和谁说。哈雷，请播放广告歌，人们必须听到这个广告歌。这个广告歌真是太吸引人了。就像我把它从脑海里抹不去一样。让我们播放吧。好的，广告歌刚刚播放完毕，我们可以继续了。希望你喜欢。我们继续。
Yeah, it's so we did that with buying heavy on radio. And I'm telling you, there was a period of five to 10 years where you were not driving in a car. And this is mind you, by the way, people still listen to radio, where you would not not hear that jingle. And to the point where if you were an Eastern shirt in public, someone was going to start shouting at you. It was lighting in a bottle.
是的，我们在广播上投入了大量资金，效果非常好。我告诉你，有五到十年的时间，你几乎无法在汽车里开车而不听到那个延声。值得一提的是，那时候人们还在听广播，如果你在公共场合穿着“东方衬衫”，别人会开始大声叫喊。这真是一种难以复制的成功。
Fun fact is actually in the expansion pack for DC for cards against humanity, which I think is amazing. It just became a DC thing. If you were from DC, you're from the DMV, you're from Baltimore, you know, the Eastern's jingle. That was like, you know, one of those tests, like you say at Eastern Motors and someone said, you're wearing jobs or credit. Like that was like, you know, almost like a gatekeeping test.
有趣的事实实际上是《匪徒对抗人性纸牌游戏》的扩展包中的一部分，我觉得这太棒了。它成为了一个DC的事情。如果你来自DC，来自DMV地区，来自巴尔的摩，你就会知道东方汽车的广告曲。那就像是一个测试，就像你说东方汽车，有人会接下来说你穿了假冒品牌或者只有无信用。就像是一种门槛测试一样。
And you know, that was on radio for a long time did super well. And then it really grew when we started our relationship with different, you know, football players. And we've had basketball players as well through the years, but different sports personalities, which, you know, anyone who's listening, who's, you know, if you're thinking of kind of almost a stereotype, or car dealership, you know, they probably have a sports figure. But I think we really set ourselves apart by being really picky with who we put in our commercials. And we kind of joke that if you didn't make a pro ball, you're not going to be in a commercial. And we felt true to that. We felt true to that.
你知道的，我们在广播上播放了很长时间，效果非常好。随后，当我们与不同的足球运动员建立起关系时，它真的开始扩大。多年来，我们也有篮球运动员，但不同的运动明星加入是因为他们是听众中几乎成为汽车经销商定型印象的典型人物吧。但是我认为我们之所以与众不同，是因为我们非常挑剔那些出现在我们广告中的人。我们还有个笑话，就是如果你没有入选职业橄榄球队，就不会出现在广告中。我们对此深信不疑。
So it actually, so yeah, I was saying, were some of the athletes and celebrities over the years, we've had over 30 or 40 different people doing it. It started with LaVar Erington and that kind of era of the Redskins and Washington team. And that had Clint Portish on Taylor, you know, Tana Moss, you know, just we had Carmel Anthony before he got signed to the NBA. We had Ray Lewis, we had John Witherspoon, we had, you know, Alan Pollack. I mean, it was a tremendous list of people that we've had in our commercials.
之前我们的广告中有很多运动员和名人，可能陆续有过30到40个不同的人参与进来。最早是在“红皮肤队（Redskins）”和华盛顿队（Washington team）的时期，例如LaVar Erington，然后还有Clint Portish、Taylor、Tana Moss等。我们还有卡梅罗·安东尼在他加入NBA之前参与广告拍摄，还有雷·刘易斯、约翰·维瑟斯彭、还有艾伦·波拉克等等。我们能找到的参与广告的人真是一大堆。
And we've done it, I think, in a car dealership way, like we've, you know, been very honest and saying, Hey, I'm not going to pay you the most, but we've got a trusted brand, we've got a long time doing this. And yeah, I'm going to make it really easy for you. It's like, you know, one hour or two hour annual commitment. And this is what I'll give you in return. I'm not going to make you come to the dealership on a Saturday and sign autographs, all that kind of stuff that I think makes things real messy.
我认为我们以汽车经销商的方式做到了这一点，就像我们一直以来那样，非常诚实地说，嘿，我不会给你最高的报酬，但我们拥有值得信赖的品牌，我们已经做了很长时间。是的，我会为你提供非常便利的条件。就像你知道的，每年只需要花上一两个小时的时间。作为回报，我将给你什么。我不会让你在周六到车行签名，或者做一些会让事情变得麻烦的事情。
And it's worked really well for us to the point at which every draft, you know, my inbox and phone call, like it's, I get a lot of calls, a lot of different players, which is great. I feel like we've done that well in the same way that we kind of treat our customers. I consider them a little stakeholder.
这个方式对我们真的很有效，从每一次起草开始，你知道，我的收件箱和电话都会充斥着不少来电，不同的人都会找我，这真的很好。我感觉我们在这方面做得很好，就像我们对待客户一样。我把他们视为一个小利益相关者。
But that even got more complicated and better in a lot of ways because we actually ended up partnering with the washing commanders. So we're actually, we're technically the official car dealership of the washing commanders. And they're executive staff and coaching staff, all driver vehicles in exchange for marketing assets, which is kind of insane. So that's one part of it.
但是事情变得更加复杂，并且在很多方面变得更好，因为我们最终实际上与洗车指挥官达成了合作伙伴关系。所以我们实际上，从技术上讲，是洗车指挥官的官方汽车销售商。为了获取营销资产，他们的执行人员和教练团队都使用我们提供的车辆，这有些疯狂。这就是其中的一部分。
So the brand. So we've always said that that brand wins us ties. So same way I mentioned car max versus a regular dealership giving an offer. We invest so much in that because we think our brand dictates one, a premium on which helps us to gross profit. But two, if we have similar collateral to somebody else, they're going to choose us because we're a known entity, a known brand, something they're familiar with. So we kind of constantly beat that drum in the market. We think it's, it's not sunk cost. It's something that you have to keep doing.
所以品牌。我们一直说过品牌给我们赢得了胜利。就像我提到Carmax与普通经销商给出的报价的方式一样。我们在这方面投入了很多，因为我们认为我们的品牌第一，能够提高利润。第二，如果我们和其他人有相似的质押物，他们会选择我们，因为我们是一个众所周知的实体，一个熟悉的品牌。所以我们在市场上一直强调这一点。我们认为这不是无谓的成本，而是一项必须坚持做的事情。
That being said, we actually cut back on it a lot to save costs. And then we saw it slowly wither away. Like you could actually see it in our, on our GA when you're watching our web traffic, you can see the organic start to the slowly, slowly, slow their way, which is the only kind of the brand market from brand marketing, correct.
话虽如此，为了节省成本，我们实际上大幅削减了它。然后我们看到它慢慢枯萎了。当你观察我们的网站流量时，你可以看到有机流量开始慢慢减少，这是唯一来自品牌营销的市场，没错。
And then you so our other marketing, we do a ton of other digital stuff that's, you know, we could bore your audience for probably two hours on that kind of stuff. But it's all like behavioral targeted and finding people in market presenting them with brand and presenting them with vehicles they're looking for and things like that. But I mean, it's a decent marketing budget. We'll spend, you know, five to $6 million a year. We spread that across two DMAs and eight retail locations. It actually works out to be, you know, still a pretty healthy budget, but not one that's completely outrageous.
然后我们有其他的营销活动，我们做了大量其他数字营销活动，你知道的，我们可能会让你的观众在这方面无聊至少两个小时。但是所有这些都是行为定向的，找到市场上的潜在客户，并向他们展示品牌和他们正在寻找的车辆等等。但是我要说，这是一个相当不错的营销预算。我们每年会花费五到六百万美元。我们会将这些资金分配到两个DMAs和八个零售店。实际上，这个预算在某种程度上还是相当健康的，但并不完全过分。
But again, all that's managed here at corporate. So there's no, there's no GM making these random decisions or getting pitched. It's just me and my marketing team here and we run all that in house and it's a blast.
但是再说一遍，在这里所有的事情都是在公司进行管理的。所以没有总经理做出这些随意的决定或接受推介。只有我和我的营销团队在这里，我们把所有事情都自己处理，这真是一场爆炸。
I'm actually in the process of scheduling our next commercial shoot with Terry McCorran in two weeks. So we'll do our next commander shoot soon. That's amazing. Yeah, it's a much that's the funnest. It's like good. Yeah, no, I believe the I I love I love the marketing side of this business clearly.
我实际上正在安排与Terry McCorran的下一个商业拍摄，两周后进行。所以我们很快就会进行下一次指挥官拍摄。太棒了。是的，这非常有趣。就像很好一样。是的，我相信我喜欢这个业务的营销方面。
But you mentioned so we you mentioned again, the centralization. Another question on that earlier in the conversation, you mentioned that you used to have like 16 or 18 locations. You've downsized that. Why did you go? Why did you even expand to 16, 18 locations and then walk me through the thinking of downsizing that back down while having volume remain the same walk me through that.
但是你提到了，所以我们再次提到了集中化。在对话的早些时候，你提到你过去有大约16或18个地点。你缩小了规模。你为什么扩大到16、18个地点，然后再向我详细解释为什么要缩小规模，但是交易量仍然保持不变，给我解释一下。
So we had 17 locations. All that rapid expansion happened prior to the crisis of 2008. And we actually had a franchise point at that at that period of time. So we haven't been a pure independent our entire career. We can come back to that. But the reason was we actually were able to buy a competitor. Well, one of those competition people I mentioned earlier in our conversation that did make it. They had a Commodore model and they had ready advice that return key. Would you buy? Actually, there's a company called Southern's. They weren't subtle about it. Yeah, it's different than Southern. There actually is another group called Southern automotive. They're a really good operator that's in the Southern area of Virginia and North Carolina, but different operators. But it was, you know, it was a complicated, messy thing. It was in and out of court and up just letting it go and actually I was talking about the soil that side. He even said to his attorney, he's like, look, you met the guy who was running that group at the time. He was for oil money. And he's like, you know what, let's just settle this case, move on, give them their costs. I don't want to deal with this. I'm going to let the street decide. This is the words he said. So we let the consumers design and within a year, they ended up closing their doors and we bought all their points. So we grew real quick. And there's actually a real we learned a valuable lesson about growth through that period of time.
所以我们有17个地点。所有这种快速扩张都发生在2008年危机之前。而且实际上在那个时候我们有一个特许经营点。所以我们并没有整个职业生涯都是一个独立的实体。我们可以回到这个问题上来。但原因是我们实际上能够购买一家竞争对手。嗯，就是我在之前的谈话中提到的那些竞争的人。他们有一个康莫多尔模型，上面有一个返回键。你会买吗？实际上有一家叫做Southern's的公司。他们在这方面毫不含蓄。是的，它与Southern（南方）不同。事实上，还有一个叫做Southern汽车的公司群体。他们是弗吉尼亚和北卡罗来纳南部地区的一家非常出色的运营商，但他们是不同的运营商。但这是一件复杂而混乱的事情。它在法庭内外来回打官司，最后我们放手不管了，实际上我正在谈论那块土地。他甚至对他的律师说，你见过那个当时运营那个公司的家伙。他靠石油钱养家。他说，你知道吗，让我们解决这个案子，继续前进，让他们支付费用。我不想再理这个事了。我会让市场决定。这就是他说的话。所以我们让消费者决定，并在一年之内，他们最终关闭了他们的门店，我们买下了他们的所有地点。所以我们快速扩张。在那段时间里，我们学到了一个有关成长的宝贵经验。
But what we found aside from that, which I'll come back to, was that our customers were being served better. Because of all the investment we had made in brand, we started understanding that I didn't need regional points. I didn't need, you know, 10 satellite lots that had 50 or 60 cars parked on them. I have enough of a brand where they'll drive past, you know, a couple dealerships to get to the big Easterns that parks two or 300 cars. And so now our minimum parking for a dealership acquisition is 200, 200 spots. And really our goal is 400 plus. And, you know, that's that's our business on now. It's built on super centers that can be supported from the hub as opposed to a ton of different satellite lots, because, you know, the fixed costs and staffing, all that stuff gets way more complicated when you're running more points than one more efficient point.
除此之外，我们发现我们的客户服务也变得更好。因为我们在品牌方面的所有投资，我们开始明白我不需要区域性的销售点。我不需要有50或60辆停在卫星停车场上的10个卫星销售点。我有足够的品牌影响力，他们会经过几家经销商来到停放了两三百辆车的大型东田汽车中心。所以现在我们收购经销商的最低停车位是200个，而我们的目标是400个以上。我们的业务现在建立在可以由总部支持的超级中心上，而不是大量的卫星停车场，因为当你运营的点比一个更有效的点要多时，固定成本和人员配置等都会变得更加复杂。
So, well said, it's, it's, yeah, and agreed. Yeah, more you can show on one lot why dispersed, why dispersed to customers to, you know, various locations, if your brand can bring them to the same place. Yeah, and it's also enabled us to be more efficient on one of our value propositions, which is when you shop at Easterns, you're not buying from one point, you're buying from a brand. So that, you know, the first thing a customer says, sorry, a customer advisor and product specialist or a caps, as we call them for short, it's a salesperson says to a customer is, you know, besides their name and how are how are you is just so you know, I've got 200 cars here, but you've got 1000 cars to choose from, and I can have any of them transfer here within 30 minutes. It's all part of it's part of our BDC language is part of all that stuff. And we will move cars from one point to another based on customer convenience with no deposit, which, you know, our close friend john Harriby, Harriby, and thinks I'm absolutely nuts for doing that, by the way, but I've, I've said the data and I've proven that it works, but he still doesn't believe it.
所以，说得很好，是的，同意。是的，如果您的品牌能将他们带到同一个地方，您能在同一个地方展示更多产品，那为什么要分散地展示给客户，分散到不同的地点。是的，这也使我们更加高效，这是我们的一个价值主张之一，就是当您在东方购物时，您不是从一个地方购买，而是从一个品牌购买。所以，你知道，销售顾问和产品专家或者我们简称为CAPS的销售人员对客户说的第一件事是，除了问候客户的姓名和问候客户的状况之外，他们会告诉客户，我这里有200辆车，但您可以从1000辆车中选择，并且我可以在30分钟内将任何一辆车转移到这里。这是我们电话中心语言的一部分，也是我们所有的内容的一部分。我们将根据客户的方便，没有定金，将汽车从一个地方转移到另一个地方，你知道，我们的好朋友约翰·哈里比，哈里比对我这样做觉得完全疯狂，但我已经证明了数据，它有效，但他仍然不相信。
But it's, it's funny, like he, the idea of it will just, it makes sense because in the use space specifically, and not to be a little, you know, dramatic, but you know, every, every car snowflake, right? There's only one of that silver Nissan Versa with that many miles on it with, you know, that specifics, you know, tear on the back corner, right? There's only one of every one of them. So customers, we encourage them to dislike a vehicle based on something small, because I think that's what matters more.
但是，这很有意思，就像他说的，它的想法只是说得通，因为在使用空间上，而不是为了小题大做，但你知道的，每一辆车都是独一无二的，对吗？只有一辆带有那么多英里数的银色尼桑Versa，它还有那个具体的，你懂的，后角的磨损，对吧？每一辆车都只有这样一个。因此，我们鼓励顾客基于一些细小的问题不喜欢一辆车，因为我觉得这更重要。
Because frankly, modern cars are all built super well, they're super reliable. There isn't some secret that I'm sure you'll get as being in the industry all the time. It's like, well, which are the good ones? I'm like, they're all good, you know, all of them will last 250,000 miles if you treat it right.
老实说，现代汽车都建造得非常出色，非常可靠。我确信你在这个行业中一直存在着一些秘密，但实际上并没有什么秘密可言。就好像，哪些是好车呢？我会说，它们都很好，你知道的，只要你好好对待，它们都能开到25万英里。
If you treat it right, what really, yeah, if you treat it right, what really matters is, do you think the seats are comfortable? Do you like the way the infotainment is laid out? I mean, you know, is the trunk big enough for what you're going to use it for? Do you have car seats? That's for your previous guests, the car seats fit in the backseat. Are you planning on having another kit? These are things that our sales staff are trained to talk about with customers because we don't, we don't want to be a commodity seller, right? We want to be a brand that offers options that fit that person's lifestyle.
如果您正确对待它，真正重要的是，您认为座椅舒适吗？您喜欢信息娱乐系统的布局方式吗？我是说，您知道的，行李箱足够大，能满足您的需求吗？您有儿童座椅吗？这是为了之前的客人，他们的儿童座椅能适应后座位。您打算再要一个孩子吗？这些是我们的销售人员受过培训要与客户讨论的事项，因为我们不想成为一个普通的卖家，对吧？我们希望成为一个提供适合个人生活方式的品牌。
And so everything's built around that concept. The vehicle doesn't matter. And even in our prep notes, you would ask like, what's our best selling car? Frankly, I mean, I actually don't know and I don't care because whatever it is today, it'll be a different car tomorrow. It's going to be a different car in a week. And they're probably the ones that we're going to sell the best on, sell the best most of are the ones that we got the best deal for auction. It's the best, it's the most financeable car. That's exactly. Yeah, if this is an independent thing, you every GM we ask, what kind of cars you want to do a lot? Left a book. I don't care. And just for you listeners, cars, cars that you have equity in, and you can actually sell with a line on payment and make money. Yes. The ones that at retail are lower, I have a less than 100% LTV. Yeah, those are sellable cars. 100% that's sitting there at 110% LTV at sticker is not going to be easy.
所以一切都建立在这个概念之上。车辆本身并不重要。即使在我们的准备笔记中，你会问我们最畅销的车型是什么？坦白说，我实际上不知道，也不在意，因为无论今天是什么车型，明天都会是另一款不同的车型。在接下来的一周内，它可能会变成另一款车型。而我们最好卖的那些车，很可能是我们在拍卖中得到最好交易的车。它们是最容易获得融资的车。没错，如果这是一个独立的事情，每个通用汽车公司都会问你要做哪种车型的库存最多？那简直就是浪费时间。对于你们听众来说，你们能赚钱并卖出的车是你们拥有资本的车，你们可以通过分期付款来卖出。是的，零售价较低且LTV（贷款与车辆市场价值的比率）低于100%的车是可卖的车。而那些零售价为110% LTV的车，将不容易售出。
What's what's next for the group, Joel? Like, are you guys expanding right now? Where are you looking to expand? What's the deal? Yeah, so it's funny, you'd ask, like, what's my sentiment about the business overall? Yeah, it's positive, even though I'm talking about not having a great year and I'm in a proof in the pudding, we're looking at adding at least one more point this year, potentially more in other markets. So we believe that our Baltimore markets underserved. So we've got some points that we're looking at there. We're really close on that.
乔尔，团队下一步计划是什么？你们现在在进行扩张吗？你们打算扩张到哪里？具体情况是怎样的？是的，很有趣，你会问我的对整个业务的感觉如何？是的，尽管我在谈论今年不太好的情况，举不胜举，但我对此持积极态度。今年我们计划至少再增加一个点，可能在其他市场上增加更多。因此，我们认为巴尔的摩市场的服务不足，我们在那里正在考虑一些地点。我们离达成目标非常近了。
Wait, why do you believe that? What data do you look at? Like, why do you think it's underserved? Well, so Baltimore is our busiest store. We have one and I'll call it one and a half store. So DC, just a little bit of R-area, DC is a huge DMA that's comprised of three, oh, I guess two states in one territory. By the way, I'm pro-DC statehood if that matters, but that's a different podcast. But that market is huge. It's got eight and a half million people in it. It's served across multiple states and we want to have more stores in there, but we're landlocked in a lot of ways. So Baltimore is a much smaller market. It's got two and a half million people in it. We have one store that's in the Baltimore, the actual Baltimore County inside the Beltway. It's our best performing store, by far, but not even close.
等一下，你为什么相信这个？你看了什么数据？像，你为什么觉得这个地方需求不足？嗯，巴尔的摩是我们最繁忙的店铺。我们有一个，我就称之为一个加半个店铺。华盛顿特区，还有一点点郊区，它是一个巨大的市场，由三个，哦，我猜是两个州一个地区组成。顺便说一句，如果有关心的话，我支持华盛顿特区成为州，但那是另一个节目。但那个市场非常庞大。里面有八百五十万人口。它跨越多个州，我们希望在那里开更多的店铺，但我们在很多方面受到了土地限制。所以巴尔的摩是一个小得多的市场。巴尔的摩有两百五十万人口。我们在巴尔的摩市郊内的一家店是我们最佳表现的店铺，绝对是超凡的，其他店铺无法相比。
And we think that, then, honestly, a problem with the store is it's too busy at times. We can't have enough sales people to fit into the showroom. So that's why we've been looking for the right property to find. And we finally found one that would think it's perfect.
我们认为，实际上，商店的一个问题就是有时候太忙了。我们无法找到足够的销售人员来适应陈列室。所以这就是为什么我们一直在寻找合适的物业。最后，我们终于找到了一个我们认为完美的。
And, honestly, another thing is with the recent woes of Echo Park, they have a location there that's actually turnkey that might end up shifting our attention from the property we had looking at to that property, because, again, it's built to be an independent shop. We've turned out the old carbiz location.
而且，说实话，最近 Echo Park 遇到的麻烦也让我们对他们在那里的一处现成的店面产生了兴趣，这很有可能会让我们将注意力从我们之前考虑的那处物业转移到那个店面上，因为它本来就建成为一个独立的商店。我们已经改造了那个旧的 carbiz 位置。
Yeah, Ethan's already talking about it. Yeah, it's good piece of property. Yeah. But yeah, that's that's that we want to keep adding that because, again, our business model, if I even if we're not doing well, if I add a spoke to this hub, my fixed and variable costs on my hub stay the same, if it contributes anything to the middle, it has an exponential return at the bottom of net profit, because the staffing requirements and costs of that store are really low. Yeah, it's all leverage makes sense.
是的，Ethan已经在谈论这件事了。是的，这是一块好的地段。是的。但是是的，我们想要不断添加这个，因为我们的业务模式，即使我们不做得好，如果我在这个中心增加一个支点，我的中心的固定和变动成本保持不变，如果它对中央做出了任何贡献，在净利润底部就会有指数级的回报，因为该店的员工需求和成本真的很低。是的，这是一种杠杆效应，有意义。
Right. And we're firm believers in buying the dip. Like I, right now, buying the dip behind the dip. I didn't think I would hear it on this podcast, but I love it buying the dip. I mean, it's the opportunity cost of not expanding at this point is massive. So we're going to look for it. And honestly, I'm looking at opening a franchise point pretty soon. There's some opportunities in the present. And it's a change of set of it. That could work.
没错。而且我们坚信在价格回调时购买。就像现在，我正在购买更深的回调。我没想到我会在这个播客中听到这样的话，但我喜欢购买回调。我的意思是，在这一点上，不扩张的机会成本非常大。所以我们要寻找它。而且，说实话，我正考虑很快开设一个加盟店。目前有一些机会。这是一种可能会成功的变化。
Well, you know, I said all that stuff about franchise doesn't mean that there's not availability there and diversification. And you know, a little, you know, kind of behind the scenes stuff for, you know, you're not automotive listeners is independence at times can be borderline second class citizens in the automotive space where they have a blanket policy of we do not sign independence. Right. You're talking about your, you're referred to lending partners. Is that right? Lending partners, floor plan relationships, potentially, you know, even real estate. Correct. Many, you know, many industry partners are very tough and independent. And you know, it's really derived from the statistics because yes, there are a lot of, you know, independence that are not great, but there's also a lot of independence that are great. And I've also been vocal about this that, yeah, it's sort of unfair. It's a reality though, right? Like, yeah, I've tweeted about lenders that just cut off every single independent, no matter what. Yeah, even if you've been with them for 30 years. So it's, I agree with you. It definitely feels that way at times. Yeah, literally just happened to us. I mean, regional was one of our longest standing and best partners, which, you know, part of the truest, you know, cut off there. And yeah, it's, it's, it is what it is. It's something that we have to deal with in this market. And a lot of our relationships are long enough and have built on such positive performing portfolios that we might be their only independent in the nation that they, that they accept. They're one of their own leads, right? But the problem is at some point on paper, someone up top might say, Hey, why are we making an exception to this group? And so there is potentially some value for that. Like in our past, that gate has been open for us. So we haven't been concerned with it. But in uncertain economic climate, one of the first people to get cut are independence. So there's there's opportunity there. And there's potentially a short term opportunity and gaining access to some up funnel, you know, buying channels. But right now, most of those are open to us too. That's just the funnels are empty for everyone. It doesn't really matter for independent or new. But anyway, it's an opportunity and we might do it. And I think it'll work out well for us.
嗯，你知道，我说了那些关于特许经营的话，并不意味着那里没有可行性和多样化。你知道，对于那些不了解汽车行业的听众来说，有一些幕后的事情，有时候独立经营者在汽车领域可能会被边缘化，因为他们有一项“不签署独立经营者”的一刀切政策。对，你说的是你的贷款伙伴，对吧？贷款伙伴、库存融资关系，甚至房地产。对，很多行业合作伙伴对于独立经营者非常严苛。这是基于一些统计数据得出的，因为确实有很多独立经营者做得不好，但也有很多独立经营者做得很好。我也一直对此表示不公平。不过，这是现实，对吗？是的，我发推文过，有一些贷款机构无论如何都不再向任何独立经营者提供服务，即使你与他们合作了30年。所以我同意你的观点，有时候确实感觉是这样。没错，我们刚遇到了这个问题。我指的是地区方面，他们是我们最长期、最好的合作伙伴之一，但被拒之门外了。没办法，这是我们在这个市场上要面对的问题。我们很多伙伴关系已有很长时间了，并且建立在良好的业绩表现上，我们可能是他们全国唯一愿意接受的独立经营者。但问题是，从某种程度上说，高层面上可能会有人在文件上问，为什么我们要对这个群体做出例外。因此，这可能有一些价值。就像在过去，对我们来说，那扇门一直敞开着，我们并不担心这个问题。但在经济不确定的氛围下，独立经营者往往是首批被裁减的对象。所以这里存在机会。有机会短期内获得一些上游的采购渠道，但现在大部分渠道对我们来说也是开放的。只是对于所有人来说，渠道都是空虚的，无论是独立经营者还是新入行者。不管怎样，这是一个机会，我们可能会抓住它。我相信这对我们会有好处。
I there's no doubt that I think we'd be successful at it. We were in the past. I'd mentioned that we had a Hyundai franchise. You know, and we honestly, we just ran it like a used car store. We took it from, you know, bottom of the market to second, we increased its service revenue by 300% within a year. And we just ran it like a used car dealership and, you know, treated customers well and lo and behold, it worked out. I mean, it's kind of funny. Sometimes it's the simplest answers the best. Like, why don't you just treat them well and be transparent? And you'd be surprised how much that works out.
毫无疑问，我认为我们在这方面会非常成功。过去我们确实如此。我曾提到过我们当时经营着现代汽车特许经销权。你知道，说实话，我们就像经营一家二手车店一样。我们把它从市场最低谷带到了第二名，一年内增加了300%的服务收入。我们只是像二手车经销商一样运营，善待顾客，结果竟然获得了成功。有时候真的很有趣，最简单的回答往往是最好的。就比如说，为什么你不善待他们，保持透明度呢？你会惊讶于这样做会带来多少好处。
But yeah, what is Eastern looks like in 10 years? Like, what's changed? I mean, I think hopefully we're able to continue to expand other markets. We're looking at growing more into Northeast and potentially in the South.
但是，对于东方来说，十年后会是什么样子呢？有什么变化吗？我的意思是，我希望我们能够继续扩大其他市场。我们计划在东北和南方进一步增长。
And frankly, some of our decisions that changed because of the Echo Park announcement, there's now suddenly a bunch of purpose-built independent stores that are the right size, right fit, right market for us that we might kind of pivot some of our attention to. But that's like a really, you know, recent and volatile thing right now.
坦白说，由于埃科公园的声明，我们有些决策发生了变化，现在突然出现了一些专门建造的独立商店，它们的规模、适合度和市场都非常适合我们，我们可能会把一些注意力转向它们。但这是最近一个非常不稳定的事情。
But again, it's the hub and smoke model needs to is our core. And something we haven't really talked about is, you know, how you leverage modern retailing or digital retailing or whatever, you know, the term will be by the time this is put out for what used to be called digital retailing, leveraging that to increase sales per salesperson and using that to maximize a hybrid model of in-store and online retail, I think is the future of the car business.
然而，核心问题仍然是我们的中心模型和烟雾模型需要改进。我们还没有真正讨论的是，如何利用现代零售或数字零售，或其他将在本文发布时使用的术语来利用数字零售，以增加每位销售员的销售额，并利用此来最大化线下和线上零售的混合模式，我认为这是汽车业的未来。
I think that there is a huge area of misunderstanding for online only that it's going to be incredibly difficult to make that be truly profitable. But you can see that in Carbonas numbers and their road to profitability is still really far away. And I believe that in today's world, so I'm not even talking about the car business, the real way to market is online first brick and mortar second, because you're going to hit a certain point where the adoption curve for online is just going to get capped. And I don't think that's necessarily going to go away.
我认为对于在线只有这一块领域存在巨大的误解，要让这个领域真正盈利非常困难。但从Carbona的数据可以看出，他们要盈利仍然相去甚远。而且，我相信在当今世界，我不光是说汽车业，真正的市场营销方式是首先在线，其次实体店，因为在线的采纳曲线会达到一个瓶颈点，我不认为这种情况会消失。
I don't think even as Gen Z and whatever the next generation, like, there's still going to be a point in which they're going to want to test drive this car. And we believe that having those support points will also enable you to do more online retail.
我认为即使作为“Z世代”和下一代的人，他们在某一时刻仍然会想要试驾这辆车。我们相信，拥有这些支持点也将使您能够在网上进行更多的零售。
So you take a company like one of my favorite companies is Allbirds, right? I buy their shoes religiously. I think they're basically a marketing company. They were online only and lo and behold, now they're open to retail points. They could cast for mattress peloton. Any of the big brands that have grown dramatically over the last few years, they hit a point at which they looked at their spreadsheets and growth and poor farmers and said, if we want to get more customers, we need to know to touch the product. We need to feel the product. We need to see it in person. And that's the future.
你看一个我最喜欢的公司Allbirds吧，对吧？我几乎是宗教般地购买他们的鞋子。我认为他们基本上是一个营销公司。他们一开始只在线上销售，现在竟然也开始开设了实体店。他们可以像mattress peloton那样扩大业务范围。像这些在过去几年里增长迅猛的大品牌，他们在某个时刻都会看着自己的财务报表和增长情况，再加上可怜的农民们，然后说，如果我们想要吸引更多的客户，我们就需要接触产品。我们需要感受产品。我们需要亲眼见到它。而这就是未来。
It's the same way that we treat prime customers or subprime customers like prime customers. We want to do the same thing with our online and in-store customers. And so we actually trademark the term any car, any way for everyone. And this meant to encompass a few different things. One, any car, we sell cars from, well, not right now, 10,000, maybe 20,000, 20,000 to 150,000. We sell anyway. That means you can do none of the deal online or 100% of the online have a show up your house.
我们对待优质客户或次级客户的方式与我们对待优质客户一样。我们希望对待在线和实体店的客户也是如此。因此，我们确实注册了“任何车辆，任何方式”这一术语的商标，这意味着几个不同的事情。其一，我们销售的车辆从目前来说大约是从1万到15万美元不等。我们不计较销售途径。这意味着您可以选择不在线上购车或100%在线上购车，然后交付到您的家中。
And right now, about 30% of my transactions are happening from my REIT or actually hung paper from my sales center that are picked up in-store. Those MPS scores are through the roof of 30-minute transactions. Customers love it.
目前，大约30%的交易是通过我的房地产投资信托基金或者实际上是在我的销售中心挂出的纸张完成的，然后客户亲自到店内取货。这些交易在30分钟内完成后，顾客对我们的服务满意度非常高。他们喜欢这种方式。
Explain that for a second. How are 30% of your transactions or what? The financing product sales, the car selection is happening from my BDC department. And it's set up as a deal for the store to print. So it's happening here. So the customer remotely, 100% remotely. Critical, stiff collection, contract printing, everything's happening remotely. Customer just goes to the store to pick up. They sign their, they e-sign their contracts. And they're happy.
请稍等一下，解释一下。你的30%交易是指什么？财务产品销售和汽车选择都是通过我的BDC部门进行的。而且这是为了店铺打印而设立的交易。所以这一切都是在这里进行的。客户完全通过远程方式进行交易。重要的是，紧密的沟通、合同的打印、所有事务都是远程完成的。客户只需去商店取车。他们会在商店签署电子合同。他们会很满意。
Yeah, so you're like 30% of your sales, you're pretty much like a delivery center. Yeah. And that's why we call our source delivery center. And that's our anticipated growth. And what are you using to power your online sales? Like what software is it for that? We use Roadster. We were actually one of, we invested in Roadster really early on. So, and yeah, we love that. Love that software. I think it's a perfect fit for how we use it. Great.
是的，你们的销售额大约占到了30%，基本上就像个交付中心一样。是的，这就是为什么我们称之为我们的交付中心。这是我们预期的增长。你们用什么软件来支持在线销售呢？像是什么软件？我们使用的是Roadster。实际上，我们早在初期就投资了Roadster。我们非常喜欢那个软件。我认为它非常适合我们的使用方式。太好了。
But yeah, that's, so that's the growth. So we want to keep adding points. Because it increases our reach for delivery as well as, you know, customers being in those markets. And it lost to parkour cars. Use cars you have to have to sell. And right now you can't have them. So we're not selling as many, but that's a temporary market condition that will be alleviated. And so we're going to continue to put, keep our foot down on the gas and grow. Because it's just going to make us that much more profitable.
但是，是的，那就是增长的情况。所以我们希望继续增加点数。因为这不仅可以增加我们的配送范围，也可以吸引更多的顾客进入这些市场。虽然汽车销售输给了parkour汽车。使用的汽车必须要有销售。而当前你并不能拥有这些车辆。所以我们销售的数量有所下降，但这只是暂时的市场状况，将会缓解。所以我们将继续加油，保持增长势头。因为这将使我们更加有利可图。
And I actually mentioned this a little earlier in the podcast about one of the things we learned in winning at 17 stores is part of that growth model is slow plan sustained growth. Because what we found when we grew too fast was we lost all of our culture. There was no ownership at the store level. There was no concept of connection to, you know, my father at the time and, you know, my father and me and our COO, Tim, and our CSO Ali, like they need to know them. I want to know their kids names. Like that's important to me. And that is a core identity who we are. And I need them to have myself on. And if he's having trouble logging the podium, he can text me at eight o'clock. And that happens. And I'm okay with that. I want that's encouraged.
在播客的早些时候，我实际上提到过我们在17家店取得成功的一些教训之一，就是慢慢精心规划的可持续增长是我们增长模式的一部分。因为我们发现当我们增长得太快时，我们失去了所有的文化。在店铺层面上没有任何的所有权。对于我这个时候的父亲、我和我们的首席运营官Tim以及我们的首席战略官Ali来说，没有与他们联系的概念，他们需要认识他们。我想知道他们孩子们的名字，这对我来说很重要。这是我们核心的身份认同，我需要他们把我放在心上。如果他在登录平台时遇到问题，他可以在八点发短信给我。这种情况确实发生过，而我对此毫不介意。我鼓励这样做。
And you can't, if you, if I'm opening, you know, a store year, like some VC might demand or even a buy sell for another larger group that's really aggressive for growth, they say, I want to store open every six months. I can't do that. I just can't, I can't physically have enough culture built in that store. And so our goal is 16 to grow that.
而且如果我开了一个店，就像一些风险投资者可能要求的那样，甚至是为了增长而非常积极的另一个更大的集团进行买卖，你是不能这样做的。他们会说，我希望每六个月开一家店。但我做不到。我真的做不到，我无法在那家店里培养足够的文化。所以我们的目标是增长到16家店。
In 2019, we planted our flag and we said we want to 25 by 25. 25,000 cars sold by 2025. Then COVID happened. So that's not going to happen. I don't, you know, I feel pretty confident that I think 20 by 25, if we can capitalize some of these deals is within reach. But even then, it still might not be possible. But let's say 25 by 30, I think that's totally reasonable. 25,000 used cars retailed. That's, that's doable. I mean, yeah, it's double what we were doing that are better growth. But I think if we leverage our online tools better, we have more points. We park more cars. It's super doable for us.
在2019年，我们竖起了旗帜并表示我们要在2025年前实现25000辆汽车的销售。然后COVID-19疫情爆发了。所以那是不可能发生的。我不知道，但我相当有信心认为如果我们能利用一些交易的机会，2025年前实现20000辆汽车的销售是可以实现的。但即使如此，仍然可能不太可能。但假设到2030年之前实现25000辆二手汽车的零售，我认为这是完全合理的。这是可以办到的。是的，这是我们过去的两倍增长，但我认为如果我们更好地利用线上工具，增加汽车存量，对我们来说这是完全可行的。
My friend, this was a, this was a use car masterclass. I think people will absolutely love it. This was really great. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, man. Loved it. And I will talk soon. Yeah, pleasure as always, sir. Thank you.
我的朋友，这真是一场专业的二手车大师课程。我相信人们会非常喜欢它。这真是太好了，谢谢你，伙计。我很感激。非常感谢你，伙计。我喜欢它。我们很快再聊。是的，一如既往的愉快，先生。谢谢你。
Alright. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
好的。希望你们喜欢这一集。请给这个播客一个评价。考虑订阅节目并查看节目说明中关于我们讨论的链接。谢谢你们的收听。我们下次再见。