Luxury Car Expert: Driving $725M in Sales a Year! Slinging Porsches and Land Rovers

We are where we are today, which has been very helpful. And our focus is really kind of shifted a little bit towards being more of a powerhouse in the used car department. And in order to do that, you know, you got to be priced right, you got to be merchandise properly. And then of course, you got to be able to make a few bucks with each transaction. Otherwise, it doesn't make dollars. It doesn't make sense, right? Today, I'm thrilled to chat with Dennis Gingrich, sales and finance director at the Nilo Company, a top tier 10 rooftop luxury dealer group in California. We dive into the latest trends in dealership finance products and uncover how he managed to literally double profits while improving the customer experience. A big thank you to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. CDK Global, Cars Commerce and Dealer Image Pro. And now let's get into the show. Dennis Gingrich on the CDG podcast.

我们今天的位置非常有帮助。我们的重点已经稍微转向了在二手车部门成为一个强大的力量。为了做到这一点，你知道的，价格必须合适，商品必须摆放得当。当然，每笔交易都要能赚一些钱。否则，就没有利润可言，对吧？今天，我很高兴与尼洛公司（加利福尼亚州的顶级豪华车经销商）的销售和财务总监Dennis Gingrich聊天。我们深入探讨了经销商金融产品的最新趋势，并揭示了他如何在改善客户体验的同时将利润翻了一番。非常感谢我们的赞助商，感谢CDK Global、Cars Commerce和Dealer Image Pro的支持，让今天的节目成为可能。现在让我们进入正题。CDG播客上的Dennis Gingrich。

Dennis, welcome. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Appreciate you. Pumped to have this conversation. I was doing my normal course of research prior to the episode, as I always do. I started noticing that where you came from into the industry. So you were on the vendor side at Zurich, which you can provide background on what Zurich does and how it's involved in industry. But you guys have bred some, you know, a little mafia over here. I mean, I know the COO of Ziegler on a motive is a, you know, Sam Dark. He's a, he's a Zirica. You're a Zirica. What's going on with that? What do they have in the water at Zurich? Well, I don't know, man. I had a great eight years at Zurich. You know, and honestly, I would give them a lot of credit just for my professional development.

丹尼斯，欢迎你。 是的，谢谢邀请我。非常高兴来到这里，感谢你们。我很期待这次对话。像往常一样，在录制这期节目之前，我做了常规的研究。我注意到你是从另一个行业背景来到这里的。你曾在苏黎世保险公司工作，可以给我们介绍一下苏黎世保险做什么以及它在行业中的作用吗？ 不过，你们公司似乎培养出了一些行业精英。我知道Ziegler公司负责汽车业务的首席运营官是Sam Dark，他也是从苏黎世出来的。你也是苏黎世出来的。你们那里到底有什么秘密？是水质特别吗？ 嗯，我也不确定。我在苏黎世度过了八年的美好时光。老实说，我的职业发展要归功于那段经历。

You know, I think Sam, who's a great guy, a good friend of mine would probably say the same. But, you know, really a great company and gave us a great opportunity to, you know, work with dealers on finance and insurance products, training, you know, and a little bit of compliance. But great company. I don't know what's in the water, but I'm glad I drank it for eight years because it led me here to the Nilo company.

你知道，我觉得萨姆会说同样的话，他是个很棒的人，也是我的好朋友。不管怎样，这真的是一家很棒的公司，他们给了我们一个很好的机会，与经销商合作处理金融和保险产品、培训以及一些合规事宜。总之，非常棒的公司。我不知道那里的水有什么特别之处，但我很高兴自己喝了八年，正是这段经历把我带到了现在的Nilo公司。

Well, you've done well for yourself. Tell me a little bit about something that I personally haven't experienced, which is going from the vendor side to the dealer side. I always, I always view these two things as like two completely different worlds, right? The dealership is this super entrepreneurial organism where, you know, you're only as good as the next car you sell, right? It's, you have to put cars in the road. Of course, let's not forget about service and fixed ops, but it's this, you know, kind of you eat what you kill type of mentality. Corporate side, much bigger typically with many different processes. At least I usually perceive it less as something is less entrepreneurial, which I'm sure some people would argue that that's not the case on some companies. Needless to say, how did you make that transition? Why did you make that transition? Why get into retail?

嗯，你确实做得不错。告诉我一些我个人没有经验过的事情，就是从供应商端到经销商端的转变。我一直认为这两个完全是不同的世界，对吧？经销商是一种超级创业型的存在，你知道，你只能靠下一个卖出去的车过日子，对吧？你必须把车卖出去。当然，我们不能忘记售后服务和固定运营，但这种心态有点像“吃你猎获的东西”。而公司这一边，通常规模更大，有许多不同的流程。我一般觉得这里的创业氛围没那么浓厚，不过我确信一些人会对此有不同看法。不论怎样，你是如何完成这个转变的？你为什么要做这个转变？为什么选择进入零售业？

So, while prior to joining Zurich, I was in the retail space. I started as a car salesman at 97. I was making me 18 back then and things got really real. I found out I was going to have my first kid about 20. So, I got really serious and buckled down about the car business. And then, you know, I moved over to California from Reno to chase my now wife. And, you know, we had our own, we had some more kids. And then I just, you know, was starting where I was at. I felt like I just wasn't growing or developing. I was a finance manager and I had a good friend that used to call on me. He worked for Zurich at the time, still a really good friend of mine.

所以，在加入苏黎世之前，我在零售行业工作。我在97年开始做汽车销售，那时我才18岁，生活变得非常真实。我在20岁左右得知自己要迎来第一个孩子。所以，我开始认真对待汽车销售这份工作。然后，我从里诺搬到加利福尼亚去追求我现在的妻子。我们有了自己的家庭，生了几个孩子。我觉得在当时工作的地方，我没有得到成长和发展。我当时是个金融经理，有个好朋友常来找我，他当时在苏黎世工作，现在仍然是我的好朋友。

He reached out and said, Hey, do you have any interest in this role? And just out of, you know, curiosity, I said, yeah, I'd like to talk about it. And really, the role was, I would say it wasn't too much different than my role as a finance manager. And that, you know, I still had to not sell a lot of F&I products, right? But I had to help other people sell more F&I products, increase their penetration profitability in the back end. And I also learned, you know, about the reinsurance piece.

他联系了我，说：“嘿，你对这个职位有兴趣吗？” 出于好奇，我回答说：“有兴趣，我愿意聊聊。” 实际上，这个职位与我之前做财务经理时的差别不大。我仍然不需要亲自卖很多金融和保险产品，但需要帮助其他人更多地销售这些产品，提高他们在后端的盈利能力。另外，我也学到了有关再保险的一些知识。

So for me, the transition from retail out of in into the Zurich role was was pretty comfortable for me because training was something I did in my earlier role. So, you know, it was good. And the better my dealers did, the better I did. So it was all about sales, but it was really getting things done through other people and, you know, being a trusted partner with the dealers to help them move, you know, as you know, a very important profit center in the dealership forward. So I would say it was not too much different, but it was definitely a competitive environment.

因此，对我来说，从零售业过渡到苏黎世的职位是相对轻松的，因为培训是我以前工作中的一部分。所以这很好。而且，我的经销商做得越好，我的表现也越好。所以一切都是关于销售，但更多的是通过他人来完成任务，并且成为经销商值得信赖的合作伙伴，帮助他们推动这个利润中心的发展。因此，我会说这并没有太大的不同，但毫无疑问是一个充满竞争的环境。

And it was just about helping dealers sell more F&I products, which is a good thing all the way around. Okay, so you've clearly had lots of exposure to retail by this point. And what why take the plunge and go retail? I was just, you know, my boss where I was working out prior to joining Zurich, I had a conversation. It was a difficult conversation. I don't think he appreciated it. But, you know, I told him because I was in finance, I was a finance manager, I did well, and I just, I told him, man, if I don't move up and do something different, I am going to move out, right?

这其实是为了帮助经销商卖更多的F&I产品，这无论从哪个角度看都是一件好事。好吧，所以显然你在这个阶段已经有很多零售方面的经验了。那么为什么决定投入零售呢？其实，当时我在加入苏黎世保险之前，和我之前的老板有过一次对话。那是一场艰难的对话，我觉得他并不太理解我，但我告诉他，我在财务部门工作，担任财务经理，表现不错。但我直言如果不能晋升或做一些不同的事情，我就会离开。

I just needed something new in my life. I'd been doing finance since I was 20. And it was just, it was just time. I didn't feel like I was growing professionally anymore. So, you know, that is really what piqued my interest. And getting in dessert just really opened my eyes to, you know, so many different parts of the automotive world. You know, so really for me, it was just looking for growth in a different way to grow my career.

我只是需要一些生活中的新鲜事物。我从20岁起就一直从事金融工作。这简直，简直是时候换一换了。我感觉自己在职业上已经不再有成长。因此，真正引起我兴趣的是这个原因。而进入甜点行业让我看到汽车世界的很多不同方面。所以对我来说，这实际上是寻找职业成长的新方式。

And I did say early in my career, I'm never going back to retail. Well, never the world. Yeah. So tell me, before we hop into the nitty gritty, I don't want to talk about Nilo as well, but what you're doing today, you've, I love talking to people like yourself because you've seen so many different businesses across the country. What are some, and again, you train dealerships on F&I, right? So you were doing this daily. What are some of the best performing dealerships in the country doing when it comes to F&I? Like how, what separates the over-performers and the under-performers? In my mind, I think it's just, you know, individuals that are open to looking internally, right? Just saying, you know, I always use the example, finance managers typically if they're having a tough month, while it's, it's cash, it's leases, it's, you know, all the things we've heard in this industry for a long time.

在我职业生涯的早期，我确实说过，我永远不会回到零售业。嗯，世事无绝对。是啊。所以，在我们深入探讨细节之前，我也不想不谈Nilo，但说说你今天在做什么吧。我喜欢和像你这样的人交谈，因为你在全国范围内见过很多不同的业务。你也在培训经销商的金融与保险（F&I）业务，对吧？所以这是你日常在做的事情。那么在F&I方面，全国表现最好的经销商们在做什么呢？是什么将表现超群者和表现不佳者区分开来？在我看来，我认为这就是一些愿意自我反省的人，是吧？举个例子，金融经理们通常在一个月表现不佳时，会说是现金交易、租赁合同之类的，这些我们在这个行业里听了很久的借口。

But I think the individuals that just take some accountability and understand there are certain things we can control in this business and there's other things that we can't control. And I think the, the dealerships that have employees that are able to really put those two things in different buckets, allows them to be open and really engage and find in a way to do things better. And, you know, and better means, yeah, profitability, but I think better also means a better customer experience, right? Because the better we do in offering these products and, of course, trying to sell more, but the customer is buying them for the reasons they believe they need them, it just keeps them coming back into the dealership for parts and service and, you know, ultimately another car deal down the road.

但是我认为那些愿意承担些许责任并明白在这个行业中有些事我们能掌控，而有些事我们无法掌控的人，会更有优势。我觉得那些拥有能够清楚区分这两类事情员工的经销商，会更开放、更投入，找到更好的工作方法。“更好”意味着盈利更多，但我认为“更好”还意味着提供更好的客户体验。因为我们在提供这些产品时做得越好，当然，也会努力多卖一些，但关键是客户购买这些产品是因为他们觉得有需要。这种情况下，客户会不断回到经销商那里进行配件和服务购买，最终可能还会在将来买车。

So, you know, that is the biggest thing is, you know, not sitting around pretending that you have all the answers. And the companies that I dealt with that had that type of mentality every day of the week would eat the others lunch. Okay, so for anyone that doesn't understand, you were saying, what separates over performance under performers, you were saying cash leases, which you were essentially alluding to the fact that if a dealer is doing lots of leases and selling lots of vehicles cash, there will be less, you know, lower attach rate, less people, fewer people are going to be buying these F&I products, right? Which it's pretty, pretty obvious.

所以，你知道，最重要的是，不要自以为你全都懂。我接触过那些有这种心态的公司，他们几乎每周都能把其他公司的饭碗抢走。那么，为了让不明白的人理解，你其实在说什么是好业绩和差业绩的区别。你刚才提到现金和租赁协议，实际上你是在暗示，如果一个经销商做了很多租赁协议并且销售了大量现金购买的车辆，那么就会有更低的附加服务率，购买这些金融和保险产品的人会更少，对吧？这其实相当明显。

Tell me a little bit about Nilo. So how many stores, how many cars selling per year, give us some context about the size and scale of your current organization? Yeah, so the Nilo company was founded in 1921 in the Bay Area. Our entire platform consists of currently 10 rooftops here in Sacramento. We've got a couple of Porsche stores, two JLR stores, Acura, Audi, two BMW stores, Mini, Volkswagen, and Volvo. We're predominantly in the high line. All of our dealerships as the crow flies are within about a 30 mile radius. Currently, we're selling right around 1100 retail units a month and we do about $725 million a year in sales, looking to grow. So, but family owned, family operated, and I tell everybody this, all 650 people that work here, I think, I don't want to say everybody, but the vast majority would believe that we really work for good kings at the Nilo company. They're like amazing human beings and we're in the auto industry. That's crazy. Before I add another question, but what does it take to have someone in your organization say that about you? What have they done? How do they brand themselves so well that you're speaking so highly of them? What do they do? It's funny. The Nilo company was my largest account while I was at Zurich or a top two, depending upon the month. Whenever I would come to the Nilo company, it was the weirdest thing. I would come in here and everybody's like, God, I'm just so grateful I work here. This place is great. I've worked at other places. Rick Nilo, our president, he's here. He's just always thankful for what I do. Rick will pick up the phone regarding if he hears somebody doing something greater amazing. He will literally just call and people go, what's he calling me for? He just wants to tell you you're doing a good job. It's not the norm.

介绍一下Nilo吧。告诉我们你们有多少家店，每年卖多少辆车，给我们介绍下你们公司的规模和现状？ 好的，Nilo公司成立于1921年，总部位于湾区。目前我们的平台在萨克拉门托有10家门店。我们有几家保时捷店，两家捷豹路虎店，还有讴歌、奥迪、两家宝马店、Mini、大众和沃尔沃店。我们主要经营高档品牌。所有的经销店之间直线距离大约为30英里。我们目前一个月大约能卖出1100辆车，每年销售额约7.25亿美元，且希望还能继续增长。此外，公司是家族拥有和经营的，我告诉过大家这一点，我们有650名员工，大多数人认为在Nilo公司就像为一群好国王工作一样。他们是非常出色的人，而我们是汽车行业的，这很疯狂。 在我提另一个问题之前，是什么让你的员工对你们如此称赞？你们做了什么？是如何塑造自己的品牌的，以至于让你这么高度评价他们？他们做了什么？ 这很有趣。Nilo公司是我在苏黎世工作时最大的客户之一，每个月排名在前两位。每当我来到Nilo公司，总是有一种奇怪的感觉。这里的每个人都充满感激地说：“我很感激能在这里工作，这地方真好。我在其他地方也工作过，Rick Nilo（我们的总裁）总是对我所做的事情满怀感激。”当Rick听说有人做了特别了不起的事情，他会亲自打电话过去。人们会想：“他为什么给我打电话？”其实他只是想告诉你，你做得很好。这种做法并不常见。

On all the dealership walls, we have our core values. I think a lot of companies have core values. They post them on the wall and they're just kind of there. They just send us signs on a wall. They don't mean anything. They don't mean anything. I will tell you these things. If you come into our dealership as a customer, we get customer feedback about them, the employees. We lead with we're a team. We respect one another. We encourage self-improvement. We have high expectations. We embrace change. We enthusiastically value our customers and we do support our community. I think if anybody were to walk into any single one of the dealerships, they would see that on the daily basis and they would feel it from our employees because they're all treated with those running in the background, which is great. Obviously, we're compensated well. They treat us great and they thank us for a good job. If there's a challenge, they can articulate it. We're just two civil human beings having a conversation about how to get better. I think that's how they get all the fan base they have about people working here.

在我们所有的经销商墙上，都贴着我们的核心价值观。我觉得很多公司都有核心价值观，他们把它们贴在墙上，然后就不管了。那只不过是墙上的一些标语罢了，并不意味着什么。但我要告诉你这些事情。如果你作为顾客来到我们的经销商店，你会从顾客反馈和员工那里了解到这些。我们以团队精神为核心，彼此尊重，鼓励自我提升，设立高标准，接受变化，热情地重视顾客，并且支持我们的社区。我认为任何人走进我们任何一家经销商店，每天都能看到和感受到这一点，因为我们的员工都是在这些理念的支撑下工作的，这非常棒。显然，我们的报酬也很不错。他们对我们很好，也感谢我们出色的工作。如果有挑战，他们会清楚地表达出来。我们只是在进行一场关于如何改进的对话，就像两个文明人一样。我觉得这就是他们拥有大量粉丝的原因，很多人都愿意在这里工作。

I want to break down a little bit about a little bit of your sales process. You oversee the sales and FNI. You are really driving a lot of these decisions behind the scenes. Tell me, let's just start. You mentioned all the brands under your roof. I want to pull back to curtain a little bit here. What are some of the brands where you see the best FNI profits versus some of the brands where you see the worst FNI profits? Can you give us a little overview? It goes in line with the overall price of the car. We're fortunate. We do very well with Porsche and the JLR brand. Then probably BMW, Audi, Volvo, Acura, and then Volkswagen. I think I hit them all. That's the order they go. People that buy these type of vehicles, nobody needs a Porsche, nobody needs a Land Rover. It's definitely. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I need one. I feel that way sometimes too. I can't quite convince Mrs. Gingrich, but I'm working on it. I'm like the worst clotheswear in the history of the car business, I think. I used to have this. Well, actually, this is going to be pretty shocking to some that know me and I'll listen to this. The only car I ever said, oh, I actually won that car, desired it. It was the two-door Porsche. Every guy wants that at some point. Then my dreams got shattered. Having kids, you're like, this is not that practical right now. Let's delay this a little bit. Adulting facts sometimes. You got a sack of advice, but the long-term gains are there. I've been told, and I'm starting to see it. Right. Okay, so now, are the margins the same? Is it just.

我想了解一下你的销售流程。你负责销售和FNI（融资与保险）。你在幕后推动了很多决策。我们开始吧。你提到你们代理的所有品牌。我想揭开一点幕布，了解一下。在哪些品牌上你看到的FNI利润最好？又在哪些品牌上看到的FNI利润最差？你能给我们一个简要的概述吗？ 这与汽车的整体价格有关。我们很幸运，在保时捷和JLR（捷豹路虎）品牌上表现很好。然后大概是宝马、奥迪、沃尔沃、讴歌以及大众。我想我都提到了。这就是它们的排序。购买这些类型车辆的人，没人真的“需要”一辆保时捷或路虎。这绝对是……哦，等等，我需要一辆！有时候我也是这么觉得。不过我还没能说服我太太，但我正在努力。我可能是汽车销售史上最差的销售员了。我经常有这种感觉。这可能会让一些认识我的人感到震惊，但我会说，我唯一真正想要的车是一辆两门保时捷。每个男人都有过这样的梦想，但当有了孩子后，觉得这并不实际，所以推迟了一下。成年后的现实有时候就是这样，你必须做出妥协，但长远来看，这种牺牲是值得的。我被告知，我现在开始了解了。好了，现在，利润率一样吗？还是只是……

We're talking about the absolute profit is maybe higher on those, or are the margins actually. Do you see a big variance of the actual margin percentage on the different brands, whether it's Highline Luxury or Basic? Yeah, it's a larger per car, the margins higher on each transaction. Porsche stores are incredibly valuable. If you look at the Hager Report, I think they're at the top of the list of the most desirable franchise for an auto dealer to want to own. Land Rover is up there as well, so margins are good, but I think it stands to reason. It's probably the same with almost any business. The higher the price of whatever the item is, the more margin you would expect to be in there. When you go down maybe more towards the domestic that's more a volume-based or a need-type car. The margins aren't quite as good. It would be pretty common. This episode is brought to you by CDK Global, who will once again be streaming its annual Industry Conference CDK Connect 2024 on October 22nd. This year's Virtual Connect Conference will feature CDK's latest product innovations, a keynote from CEO Brian McDonald, and live breakout sessions focused across all operations of the dealership.

我们在讨论的是绝对利润可能更高，还是利润率实际上更高。您是否看到不同品牌在实际利润率百分比上的巨大差异，无论是高端奢侈品品牌还是基础品牌？是的，每辆车的利润更大，每笔交易的利润率更高。保时捷经销店非常有价值。如果查看《Hager报告》，我认为它们在汽车经销商最想拥有的特许经营权名单中位居榜首。路虎也名列前茅，所以利润率很好，但我认为这是理所当然的。这几乎适用于任何业务。无论是什么商品，价格越高，你期望利润空间就越大。当你转向更偏向国内市场，主要卖量或以需求为导向的车型时，利润率就不那么好了。这很常见。本集节目由CDK Global赞助，他们将于10月22日再次在线观看其年度行业会议CDK Connect 2024。今年的虚拟连接会议将展示CDK的最新产品创新，由CEO Brian McDonald发表主题演讲，并设有涵盖经销店各个操作方面的实时分组讨论。

You can register for CDK Connect at the link in our show notes below, or by visiting CDK.com slash connect. That's C-O-N-N-E-C-T, CDK.com slash connect. Can you explain to us and share what were, I would have to assume that you're brought into grow margin and improve it alongside other things. What were the margins before you entered Nilo? What are they now? Because I want to break down what you've done to drive improvement at one business or one dealership in the country. Without, I know the public's doing a good job of putting out their average margin in the back end. You can use public proxies. That's fine. Just because ballpark ranges. But we perform better than some of the best performing publics.

您可以通过点击我们下面节目笔记中的链接，或访问 CDK.com 斜杠 connect（拼写为 C-O-N-N-E-C-T，CDK.com 斜杠 connect）来注册参与 CDK Connect。您能解释一下并分享一下，您作为 Nilo 初期成员之一，应该是被请来提升和改善利润率以及其他方面的表现。在您加入之前，Nilo 的利润率是多少？现在是多少？因为我想分析一下您在一个业务或一个经销店层面上所做的努力来驱动改进。虽然我知道公众通常会做出一个平均的利润率展示，但您可以使用公开的参照物，这是可以的，只需要一个大致的范围。但我们实际上表现优于一些表现最好的公众公司。

I also understand that we're more in the luxury ballpark in terms of which those like we just talked about, the margins are going to be higher. But from when I came on as the finance director, I had a role as a finance director in the mid-2000s. That role was more to chase around subprime loans and drive the per car. But this role, when I joined the Nilo company after being was predominantly to improve our F&I PVR. Because front end margin isn't there. And that's been the case for a long time with the exception of COVID. Dealerships have to make it somewhere. Parts and service, finance. So my role was to move the F&I PVR.

我也明白，我们现在处在一个高端市场中，这意味着利润空间会更大。但自从我担任财务总监以来，我就意识到情况有所不同。上世纪2000年代中期，我的职责主要是追踪次级贷款、提高每辆车的利润。而在加入Nilo公司之后，我的主要任务是提升财务和保险每车收入（F&I PVR），因为前端利润一直都不高，除了疫情期间有些例外。经销商必须在其他方面赚钱，比如零配件和服务、金融业务。因此，我的职责就是提升财务和保险的每车收入。

And from when I joined where we're at now, we nearly doubled in a relatively short short time frame. And I don't, you know, I'm not going to be the guy. Oh, that's all me. That's all me. Because that's not, yeah, we did training. Yeah, we did support. You know, I think just rising, you know, increasing awareness about how important it is to the financial health of the store was part of it. You know, being in this industry for a long time, I have a pretty good network of people that I just kept in contact that I had great relationships and jobs prior to Zurich and, you know, was able to recruit, you know, a handful of top tier performers.

从我加入到现在，我们在相对较短的时间内几乎实现了业绩翻倍。而且我不会说这是我的功劳，因为其实不是。是的，我们进行了培训，也提供了支持。我认为，提升对于店铺财务健康重要性的认知是其中一个因素。因为我在这个行业做了很久，有着不错的人脉网络。我一直保持联系的那些人，之前在与苏黎世公司合作和其他工作中建立了很好的关系，所以我才能招募到一些顶尖的优秀人才。

So I think between getting some great talent that fit the Nilo company mold and just keeping it top of mind and, you know, obviously having incentive programs to drive that type of behavior, we are where we are today, which has been very helpful. And, you know, our focus is really kind of shifted a little bit towards, you know, being more of a powerhouse in the used car department. And in order to do that, you know, you got to be priced right, you got to be merchandise properly. And then of course, you got to be able to make a few bucks with each transaction. Otherwise, if it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense, right?

因此，我认为，通过招募一些非常适合Nilo公司的优秀人才，同时始终将其放在首要位置，并且显然提供激励计划来驱动这种行为，我们达到了今天这个状态，这非常有帮助。你知道，我们的关注点确实稍微转移了一些，现在更倾向于在二手车部门成为一个强大的存在。为了实现这一目标，你需要合理定价，妥善展示产品，当然，也要在每笔交易中赚取一些利润。否则，如果不赚钱，那就没有意义，对吧？

Yeah. So yeah, many of the publics are their F and I profit is typically around, again, plus minus 50% of their margin on the vehicle. And in many cases, nowadays, it's sending the load amid 2000s per car. Right. So I'm going to assume that you're over performing there. Now, okay, cool. Now tell me, tell me a little bit about you mentioned a couple things here. You mentioned merchandising. What were the two? What were the other two? No, just, you know, merchandising, you know, getting focused on our used cars and just making sure that we're able priced price market, right? If you're not competitively priced, you're not merchandise, you're just not going to sell cars, right? Because of all that information available.

好的。 所以，大众的 F 和 I 利润通常约为其车辆利润的正负50%。而且，在很多情况下，如今每辆车的利润可以达到2000美元左右。所以，我假设你在这方面的表现超出预期。那么，好吧，现在告诉我，你提到了几件事。你提到了商品销售，还有什么呢？哦，只是关于商品销售，专注于二手车，并确保我们的定价符合市场。如果你的价格不具竞争力，你就无法进行有效的商品销售，也就卖不出去车，因为信息都很透明。

Neil has a really strong reputation yet you're holding really strong profits. I want to, I want to bridge this gap, right? Take us like one by one, right? So what has been your process, like very, very specifically, I want to dissect this, we can start with merchandising or anywhere else you'd like to start, but I want to sort of break this down into what you've been like, how your, your and your team have been able to do this very specifically. Well, I think, you know, when you get into merchandising, if people don't know you have a good or service, you're just not going to sell it. You don't want to be the best kept secret in town when it comes to selling anything.

尼尔有非常好的声誉，但你们却有非常高的利润。我想填补这个差距，我们一步一步来，好吗？我想非常具体地了解你们的流程，我们可以从商品销售开始，也可以从你们喜欢的其他地方开始，但我要拆解一下你们具体是怎么做到的。 好吧，我觉得在谈到商品销售时，如果人们不知道你有好的商品或服务，你就不会有销量。你不想在销售方面成为城市里最好但却不为人知的秘密。

So from a merchandising standpoint, you know, it's, I think it starts with just the, the Nilo family's philosophy that we would rather have, we would rather not have a car deal at the risk of maybe losing a customer because we didn't treat them right or give them a good product, right? Every, every pre-owned vehicle we sell, we give everybody a seven day, you know, no questions asked return policy, right? Because that's just something we believe in. If we can't get you the right deal on the right car, it's the wrong deal, right? Both those things have to be present, you know, and I just think it starts with making sure we're putting out a quality product.

从商品销售的角度来看，我认为这源于尼洛家族的理念：我们宁愿不做一笔交易，也不愿因为没有好好对待客户或没有提供好的产品而失去客户。对于我们出售的每一辆二手车，我们都提供七天无理由退货政策，因为这是我们的信念。如果我们不能为你提供一个合适的交易，那就是错误的交易。这两者都必须兼顾，我认为这一切始于确保我们提供的是高质量的产品。

We're very meticulous when it comes to reconditioning our car. So when people leave a Nilo company dealership, it's not just a car going over the curb, it really is our reputation. The family's been in this community for over a hundred years and they really, that's more valuable to them than I think them the dollars and cents. They want to have a good name in the community, they support the community. So I think it starts there. And when it comes to merchandising, one thing that we, we really push with our stores is, you know, when we take a, take a vehicle in on trade, or maybe we get something from the auction, which we try to stay out away from there as much as we can, or we acquire a vehicle out of our service drive, you know, it's a full push to get that car photographed, put through the shop and priced in line with the market as quickly as possible, because with used car values diminishing the way they are, time is not on our side.

我们在翻新汽车方面非常仔细。所以当顾客从Nilo公司经销店开车离开时，这不仅仅是一辆车开上马路，更是我们的声誉。我们的家族在这个社区已经有一百多年的历史，对他们来说，好的声誉比金钱更有价值。他们希望在社区里有一个好名声，并且支持社区。所以我认为从这里开始很重要。在商品销售方面，我们非常强调的一点是，当我们收到一辆二手车，无论是通过置换得到的，还是从拍卖会上购得的（我们尽量避免拍卖会），或者从我们的维修服务中获取的车辆，我们都会全力以赴尽快给这辆车拍照，通过车间检查，并按市场价格定价。因为二手车的价值正在下降，时间对我们不利。

So merchandising is good, is a big focus for us because we know the better we do there, the quicker we do it, the more success we're going to have. And it's really played out over these last several months. That way. A couple questions there. First of all, you mentioned seven neighbor return policy. How many people exercise that return policy? Like, or percentage less than 1%. You know, the sales people, if it happens to them once, it happens all the time, but it like seldom happens. You know, if we sell 1100 cars, I would be surprised if we had more than five in any given. I think that's the best kept secret.

所以销售是非常重要的，我们非常重视这方面，因为我们知道做得越好、做得越快，就会取得越大的成功。而过去几个月的表现也确实证明了这一点。有几个问题。首先，你提到七天退货政策。有多少人使用了这个退货政策？比如说，百分比不到1%。销售人员如果遇到退货的情况，可能会觉得总是会发生，但实际上很少发生。你知道，如果我们卖出1100辆车，我会惊讶于有超过五辆车被退回。我觉得这是一个最不为人知的秘密。

I've actually experienced a similar thing, right? We found ourselves in a situation, right, at our use car lot where we were taking cars back anyways, because we would just not argue. It's literally not worth it. Anyone who's been in business for any amount of time knows that it's, it becomes a war. It's just, it's a dumbest thing you could do is keep someone hostage in a vehicle that they don't want. And then it came to appointment, they were like, wait, why are we not marketing this if we're anyways doing it? So to your point, I have experienced the same exact thing. It's almost no one, almost ever returns their vehicle. No, they don't. And you know, I mean, hell, at the end of the day, we have people that return their vehicle for good reason. And it, you know, it, maybe it's not now, but it's certainly not never to where if you hold their feet to the fire, chances are you're never going to see them again.

我其实也有类似的经验，对吧？我们在二手车销售点也遇到过这种情况，对吧，我们干脆就不和顾客争论，乐意退车，其实根本不值得争论。任何在商业上有点经验的人都知道，这样争论下去简直是一场战争。做这种蠢事毫无意义，就是强迫顾客使用他们不想要的车。后来我们想，既然我们反正都在退车，为什么我们不像这样做广告宣传呢？所以我才说，我对你的经历感同身受。几乎没有人真正退车，真的几乎没有。而且你知道，最后，我们遇到了一些有正当理由退车的顾客，虽然不是现在，但未来可能也会发生。如果你强迫他们，只会导致再也见不到他们。

We do have people, hey, you let us out of a car three months ago, thanks, we just had something come up, we got it all sorted. And now they're back and we got a customer for life, you know, and theory. Third question is you spoke about merchandising photos, getting those cars on the website, just get, take us, explain that a little bit more to us. I mean, are you doing anything unique? Again, I'm scrolling through your inventory here. I looked at it a second ago. And so it seems like, you know, you, you invest a lot into your merchandising in general. What do you do there? We have individuals in house. We use a platform called dealer image pro. And you know, we have an individual or two individuals at each store that uses this technology and hardware to photograph every single vehicle as it comes into inventory. Right.

我们确实有顾客，比如说，"嘿，你们三个月前让我们下了车，谢谢，我们刚刚遇到了点问题，但现在全都解决了。" 现在他们又回来了，我们获得了一个终生客户，你知道，这只是理论。第三个问题是你们提到过商品化照片，把那些车放到网站上，能不能再详细解释一下？我是说，你们有什么特别的做法吗？我刚刚查看了你们的库存，看了几秒钟。感觉你们确实在商品化方面投入了很多。你们是怎么做的？我们在内部有专门人员。我们使用一个叫做Dealer Image Pro的平台。每个门店都有一到两个员工使用这项技术和设备为每一辆进入库存的车辆拍照。

And you know, they do a good job from in terms of making sure they're consistent. You know, I kind of equate it. If you've ever deposited a check on your mobile phone, it's really not any different, right? It just shows these little wire frames around the car. So the, so the individual taking the photos just goes bing, bing, bing, bing around the car. That way they all show up consistently. And we get a consistent look and feel across the group. You know, they do some backgrounds, but you know, we really weekly, you know, twice a week, we really measure, you know, what percentage of our inventory new and used has photographs, because if it's not photographed, chances of somebody clicking on that vehicle, submitting a lead, just plummet significantly, right?

你知道，他们在确保一致性方面做得很好。我觉得有点像你用手机存支票的体验，基本上没有太大区别。它会在车周围显示一些小的线框，这样拍照的人只需要围着车子“咔嚓咔嚓咔嚓咔嚓”地拍照，这样所有的照片就能保持一致的效果。我们会得到整个团队里一致的外观和感觉。他们会选一些背景，但实际上我们每周都会去测量，大概一周两次，看看我们新车和二手车库存中有多少比例是有照片的。因为如果没有照片，用户点击这辆车的机率和提交意向的几率就会大大降低，对吧？

So we really lean into our team and track and measure what percentage of their inventory is photographed and online. Because if it's not online, it might as well not exist. I believe if you do not have photos, like, well, you're not going to sell that car. I know for me personally, I was shopping for a truck. And I had zero interest in looking at anything that did not have real photos because the, you know, the jelly beans, as they call them, those little CGI images, like it could be blue, but that blue does not look like the blue you're buying. Yeah. Well, first of all, I know dealer image broke very well. They are a partner of the podcast, a sponsor of the podcast. So super familiar with the product. Second of all, I'm curious about, you mentioned putting pictures on, you measure your, how many vehicles have pictures on the website twice a week. How do you balance this equation of having pictures on vehicles? Is that only like post reconditioning pre? I always found that in our industry. You know, we used to put pictures right away for everything.

所以我们非常依赖我们的团队，并跟踪和衡量他们拍摄并上线的库存百分比。因为如果没有上线，就等于不存在。我相信如果没有照片，就卖不掉那辆车。就我个人而言，我之前在选购一辆卡车时，对于任何没有实际照片的车，完全没有兴趣看。你知道，那些小的CGI图像，虽然可能是蓝色，但那个蓝色看起来并不像你要买的蓝色。 对了，首先，我对Dealer Image Pro很熟悉，他们是我们播客的合作伙伴和赞助商，所以对他们的产品非常了解。其次，你提到了在网上上传照片，并且每周两次衡量有照片的车辆比例。我很好奇，你们是如何平衡车辆照片的问题的？这是只在修整后上传照片吗？我发现我们行业中，我们过去总是尽快为所有车辆上传照片。

And then we ran into a situation where people would come in for vehicles that weren't ready. And they wouldn't want to buy what's already available. And then we hired someone from drive time, believe it or not, who really was a gun call about deploying the drive time model, which is like, hey, like, I rather have a little bit more inventory. Let's recondition at all. Let's make sure it's perfect, then put a picture is when it's ready. So we'll always have, you know, a certain percentage of our inventory and what's called like work and progress. And that is actually not merchandise debt or visible on a site with real life images. And maybe it may be there potentially as a coming soon, but no images.

然后我们遇到了一个问题，就是有些顾客来店里想买还没准备好的车辆。他们不愿意买已经有的车。然后我们雇用了一个从Drive Time（汽车销售公司）过来的人，真是难以置信，他非常热衷于推广Drive Time的模式。这个模式就是：我们宁愿多一点库存，把所有车辆都翻新好，确保它们处于完美状态，然后在准备好之后再拍照片展示。所以，我们总会有一定比例的库存处于所谓的“进行中”状态。这些车辆实际上不会在网站上以真实照片展示，可能只会以“即将上线”的状态出现，但不会有图片。

So how do you run that process and, you know, are able to maintain such a high customer experience at the same time? So we encourage our stores to take photos immediately. The sooner they're on the website, whether they're through reconditioning or not, we want them out there. And, you know, I guess there's probably different viewpoints on this, but going back to the earlier conversation about acquiring inventory, right? You got to go in eyes wide open. You know, you're going to need tires. You know, you're going to need this. You know, you're going to need that. If you're doing a good job, you're able to know where you're going to be in that car. And then you can see what the market is transacting at from a retail standpoint, and you price it accordingly. So it's out there. And then what we found is, is we do get leads and inquiries on these vehicles that aren't quite ready. That allows us to really prioritize what's important, right?

那么，你们是如何运行这个流程的，同时还能保持如此高的客户体验呢？我们鼓励店铺立即拍照。照片越早上传到网站，无论是否经过翻新，我们都希望它们能尽早上线。关于这一点，我想可能会有不同的观点，但回到之前关于获取库存的讨论，你必须保持清醒的头脑。你知道你需要轮胎，你知道你需要这个，你需要那个。如果你做得好，你就能预测到车子的哪些部分需要维护。然后，你可以查看市场上的零售价格，并据此定价。这样一来，车辆信息就发布出去了。我们发现，即使这些车辆还没有完全准备好，也会有潜在顾客询问。这帮助我们真正确定优先事项，知道什么最重要。

If I have a customer that's really excited about this, you know, Q5, I took in on trade over the weekend, I know, hey, I got to make sure the front deals clear, right? That's all good. And then I can just go to my top and say, Hey, we got to get this one in because we got a customer that's wanting to come in on Wednesday, right? And the quicker we turn that inventory, the better we do because these cars aren't getting worth more as each day passes, as you know. So, and we just let the customer know, Hey, it hasn't gone through the shop. But when it does go through the shop, you're going to be able to see everything we did do it and what we didn't do because, you know, we just believe in sharing that with our customers.

如果我有一个客户对这辆Q5特别感兴趣，你知道的，我在周末接收了这辆车作为置换。我知道我必须确保前期交易没有问题，对吧？一切顺利之后，我就可以去跟我的上级说：“嘿，我们必须赶紧处理这辆车，因为有个客户想要在星期三来看车。”我们处理库存越快，对我们就越有利，因为这些车每天都在贬值，就像你知道的那样。所以，我们会告诉客户：“这辆车还没经过车间检修，不过等它检修完后，你将能够看到我们对它做了什么，没做什么，因为我们相信与客户分享这些信息。”

You also mentioned CGI. So for anyone that's not familiar with the term, right, Dennis is referring to those virtual backgrounds that some dealers use. I'm assuming I'm correct here. But so tell me more about tell me, do you do you do any of that kind of stuff to kind of speed up your merchandising? Yeah, some of this built into the dealer image pro product, you know, they can apply background. So you get that consistent look at feel, you know, up until I can't tell you the exact date we had, you know, all of our backgrounds with the exception of maybe some fresh some photos of some fresh merch, right, that was just trying to get on the website. We were all the same, but one of the manufacturers, Porsche, you know, they elected they did not want their dealers to use CGI background. So, our quest to get uniformity across your voter, he railed.

你还提到了CGI。那么，对于那些不熟悉这个术语的人来说，对吧，Dennis指的是一些经销商使用的虚拟背景。我假设我这里是对的。那么，告诉我更多关于这方面的信息吧，你有没有用这些东西来加快你的商品展示速度？是的，有些功能内置在经销商图像专业产品中，他们可以应用背景，这样你就能获得一致的外观和感觉。直到某个具体日期之前，我不能告诉你确切的日期，除了可能一些新商品的照片尝试在网站上展示外，我们所有的背景都是相同的。但是其中一家制造商，保时捷，他们选择不让他们的经销商使用CGI背景。所以，我们在追求一致性方面遇到了些挫折。

Yeah, you know, whatever. I mean, personally, backgrounds, whatever, you know, yeah, I don't think anybody is looking at our look at that beautiful background, right? I think they're looking at the car, the descriptions, the miles, you know, price. That's good. Yeah, yeah, I actually never use CGI in my experience because I was too like, pedant. I needed, I needed that real live photo. But that's, uh, that's an interesting observation that you're saying, Porsche doesn't even allow those CGI backgrounds. That's crazy. It's crazy the amount of detail, the luxury manufacturers, you know, think about it's actually like beautiful. I love that. Because I'm the same way, like I obsess over like a letter or like a, you know, punctuation when the creative piece of content. So that's cool to see that, you know, there's other areas in the car business where that's prevalent.

是的，你知道，随便啦。我是说，就我个人而言，背景什么的无所谓，对吧。我觉得没有人会看我们的背景有多美丽。他们关注的是汽车、描述、里程数、价格。这很好，是的。我其实从来没有在我的工作中使用过CGI，因为我太讲究了，我需要那种真实的照片。但你说保时捷甚至不允许那些CGI背景，这太疯狂了。这些奢侈品牌在细节上的关注是不可思议的，真是美妙。我喜欢这种方式，因为我也对创作内容时的每一个字母或标点符号都非常讲究。所以看到汽车行业的其他领域也如此重视细节，真是太好了。

Yeah, no, it's a, you know, Porsche is an amazing manufacturer. They make an amazing car. You know, I mean, they are, you know, not the others aren't, but they are very well put together, put together very meticulous across a lot of friends. But you can't argue with the success that brand has. This episode is brought to you by cars commerce. The platform is simplified everything about buying and selling cars, including the quote unquote follow up. Let me explain dealers fast and effective follow up is crucial for converting leads and customers. But here's the problem. 40% of shoppers report that they are not getting timely or helpful responses from dealerships. This is a huge problem because your own team could be leading four out of every 10 sales opportunities on the table. Cars commerce makes it simple to measure and improve your follow up performance. A cars.com experience report tracks the percentage of leads your teams responding to and how customers rate those responses. While dealer inspires retailing technology enables your team to quickly text follow ups with personalized financing options to make the most out of every opportunity. To learn more about how you can measure and improve your team's follow up performance, go to cars commerce dot inks slash experience or click the link in the show notes below.

是的，不，呃，你知道，保时捷是一个了不起的制造商。他们制造的车非常棒。你知道，我的意思是，不是说其他品牌不优秀，但保时捷的车确实很精致，注重很多细节。在朋友中口碑非常好。你无法争辩这个品牌的成功。 本集由 Cars Commerce 提供支持。该平台简化了买卖汽车的所有过程，包括所谓的“跟进”。让我解释一下，快速而有效的跟进对转化潜在客户和实际顾客至关重要。但是问题在于，40%的购物者报告说没有从经销商那里得到及时或有用的回复。这是一个巨大的问题，因为你的团队可能在每10次销售机会中错失了4次。Cars Commerce 简化了衡量和改进跟进表现的过程。 Cars.com 体验报告会跟踪你的团队回应潜在客户的百分比以及客户对这些回复的评价。而 Dealer Inspire 的零售技术则能让你的团队快速发送个性化融资选项的短信跟进，以最大化每次机会。 想了解更多关于如何衡量和改进你团队的跟进表现的信息，请访问 cars commerce 点 ink 斜杠 experience 或点击下面的节目注释链接。

Okay, so before we move on to market and your insights into where we're at today from the car industry, tell me a little bit more about your actual in-store sales process and F&I. Right. Here is how you run that. Do you do anything that is maybe particularly unique to your organization? There's so many different ways that dealers across the country sell. I mean, I guess in some ways it's all the same, but in other ways it's all has its own tweaks and quirks and whatnot. So curious to know what is your process that your store follows?

好的，在我们深入探讨市场以及你对当今汽车行业的见解之前，请先告诉我更多关于你们实际店内销售流程和金融保险业务（F&I）的情况。对，你们是怎么运营的？你们有没有做一些可能对你们组织来说特别独特的事情？全国各地的经销商销售方式有很多种。我是说，在某些方面它们都差不多，但在其他方面却各有其调整和特点。所以我很好奇你们店遵循的流程是什么样的？

I would say we're traditional in terms of the steps of the sale. Most of our traffic comes by way of an internet lead. They're looking at us online well before they come in. With the exception, we got a couple stores and auto malls where we'll get a higher frequency of foot traffic. But the process overall is just welcoming customers to the store, finding out what it is they want. If it's an internet lead, we already know. Just asking questions. We want to make sure they like the car. They like the company. Because if they like the company, they like the car and they like our sales professional. We're set up for success, I feel like. We do like our customers to take the vehicle for a test drive prior to buying it. Because no two use cars, as you know, you'll see drive the same. Same goes for new. The wheels seal the deal. It does, man. I definitely subscribe to that. But I think if there's one thing that might be a little bit maybe different, we have our sales professionals. At each store, they have some finance and insurance products that they present with the initial proposal. Because there are studies out there that indicate people do want to buy these protection products. They just want to know more about them earlier in the process. So they have time to consider and figure it out. You have some customers that, yeah, I'll take that and that. And then they'll buy the car and then they go through. And then we have our finance managers, obviously, make sure whatever was agreed to out the front in terms of products are properly disclosed and go over any other options that may not have been shared with the customer upfront. Obviously trying to sell a few more protection products. And then do the paperwork, shake their hand, thank them for their business, and make sure they're coming back to see us for parts and service.

我会说，在销售步骤方面，我们是比较传统的。我们的大多数客流量都来源于网络咨询。顾客往往在到店之前就已经通过网上了解了我们。除了在一些店铺和汽车城，我们会有更多的步行顾客。不过整体流程就是迎接顾客到店，了解他们的需求。如果是网络咨询，我们已经知道一些需求了。我们会提问，确保他们喜欢我们的车，喜欢我们的公司。因为如果他们喜欢我们的公司，喜欢我们的车，再加上喜欢我们的销售人员，我们就有了成功的保障。我觉得这是关键。 我们确实希望顾客在购买前先试驾车辆。因为你知道的，每一辆二手车开起来感觉都不太一样，新车也是一样。车轮是成交的关键，的确如此，我完全认同这个观点。不过我认为我们可能在某些方面有点不同，我们的销售人员在每个店铺都会在初步提案中介绍一些金融和保险产品。因为有研究表明，人们确实想购买这些保护产品，只是希望能在流程早期多了解一点，这样他们有时间考虑和决定。 有些顾客会选择某些保护产品，然后购买车辆并进行后续流程。然后我们的金融经理会确保前期商定的所有产品都得到正确披露，并介绍其他可能未提前告知顾客的选项，显然是希望多卖一些保护产品。然后我们会处理文书工作，握手感谢他们的生意，并确保他们会回来找我们进行零部件和服务的需求。

In terms of products that you're selling nowadays, are you seeing any interesting trends? Is anything changing? Particularly in the environment where today where vehicle values have been declining? We're still pretty close to all-time highs in terms of actual prices, but values are declining, which is putting downward pressure on dealership profits. Other than the traditional vehicle service contracts, gap insurance, whatnot, are you seeing anything going through your mind, any products that are up and coming, anything like that?

关于你们现在销售的产品，你们有没有注意到什么有趣的趋势？有没有什么变化？特别是在当前环境下，车辆的价值在下降。虽然实际价格仍然接近历史高点，但车辆价值的下降正在给经销商的利润带来压力。除了传统的汽车服务合同、差价保险等，你们有没有什么新想法，或者看到什么新兴产品？

I think just cosmetic products in general, things like ceramic coating, tire and wheel, we work in a luxury environment here, so I think people have a lot more concern over how their vehicle looks. I think security is important. Nowadays, you look at California, the insurance rates. I can't remember the, I think they're supposed to go up another 25% next year is what I was reading the other day. And I think when you take all that together, when you look at inflation, you just look at these F&I products. And it certainly is a way for a customer to control their monthly expense. So I just think broadly, they're definitely a value. I think they're more valuable than they ever have been.

我认为仅从美容产品的角度来看，比如陶瓷涂层、轮胎和车轮等，在我们这种高档环境中工作，人们更加重视他们车辆的外观。我认为安全性也很重要。现如今，你看加州，保险费率。我记不太清了，我记得我前几天看到明年预计会再上涨25%。当你把所有这些因素加在一起，再看看通货膨胀，这些F&I产品确实是客户控制他们每月开销的一种方式。所以总体上，我认为它们确实有价值，而且比以往更有价值。

How expensive everything is getting between gas, groceries, insurance rates, and then you look at our labor rates. I mean, people are more risk-averse. People are definitely more risk-averse. Well, I think so, because all of a sudden you look at what it costs to buy a new car. And I mean, you talk about this extensively. It seems to be a common theme. You just can't afford to go out and drop a sign up for another $1,000 payment because you talked about cars' values are decreasing. So what they're worth, people owe more on their car than the value that there's no payoff ferry, right? That difference just gets tacked onto the loan. So you just have you're exacerbating an affordability problem.

物价真是越来越贵了，汽油、杂货、保险费率都在上涨，再看看我们的劳动力成本。我是说，人们变得更加不愿冒险。人们确实更不愿意冒险了。我想这是因为突然间你会发现买辆新车要花多少钱。而且，我是说，你对此有很多讨论。这似乎是一个普遍存在的问题。你根本负担不起再多签一笔每月$1000的贷款了，因为你提到过汽车的价值在下降。所以人们欠的车贷比车的实际价值还多，这种差额无人能买单，对吧？这种差额就被加到了贷款里。因此，这就加剧了人们的经济负担问题。

So finance managers and just dealerships in general making F&I products really a focus will not only give a good experience, but it really will allow the customer to hang on to that vehicle and manage risk a lot more efficiently, especially if they're live in paycheck to paycheck. And, you know, I mean, it's in the news. There's a lot of a lot of the public is live in paycheck to paycheck, unfortunately.

因此，金融经理和经销商普遍将金融与保险产品（F&I产品）作为重点，不仅会带来良好的体验，而且确实能让客户更有效地保有车辆并管理风险，特别是对于那些靠每月工资度日的人来说。这一点在新闻中也有报道，不幸的是，很多人都是依靠每月工资生活的。

What's your outlook right now for the business? You know, I posted this the other day. I wrote interest rates at decade highs, vehicle prices near all-time highs, monthly payments near all-time highs. So new car sales must be declining, right? Nope. Plus over 8% from last year and plus 12% from last month, the resilience of the American economy is bewildering. What's your take care? I'm optimistic. I've been doing this since 97. And, you know, if you put it all on a graph, minus a few dips, it just continues to go up into the right. You know, we got some stuff coming up here in November, which will be interesting. But what goes up must come down, you know, eventually, and I'm referring to rates.

你现在对业务的看法如何？你知道，我前几天发了这么一条信息。我写到，利率处于十年来的最高点，车辆价格接近历史最高点，每月付款接近历史最高点。那么新车销量一定在下降，对吗？不对。销量比去年增加了8%以上，比上个月增加了12%。美国经济的韧性令人困惑。你怎么看？我是乐观的。我从1997年就开始做这一行了，你知道，如果你把所有的数据都放在一张图表上，除了少数几次下跌，它一直都在稳步上升。我们在11月还有一些事情要处理，到时候会很有趣。但凡是涨的东西最终都会跌，我是指利率。

But I think, you know, America, its citizens, you know, there's a love affair with their car. We are very much into our cars where you go over to Europe. I don't, you know, they don't quite have that same vibe that we do. You know, that's just how we're set up. So I'm optimistic it's going to be good. And I also, you know, I just think it's a great industry. And I don't think it's going anywhere. And, you know, anytime soon in the way that we know it today, I think if it's going to go anywhere, it's going to be dealerships being more customer-centric and finding out the right way to meet the customer where they want to be to make these transactions quicker and more enjoyable. I think that's where it's going.

但我认为，美国和它的公民对汽车有一种热爱。我们对汽车非常痴迷，而在欧洲，似乎没有我们这种热情。因为这就是我们的生活方式。所以我很乐观，未来会很好。我也认为这是一个很棒的行业，而且它不会很快消失。如果有所变化，我认为它会变得更加以客户为中心，找到更好的方式来满足客户的需求，使交易过程更快、更愉快。我认为未来就是这样发展的。

Is anything out there concerning you nowadays? And I asked, look, I know you do a lot of luxury in Highline. So you are pretty well insulated, especially talking about, you know, Porsche and stuff like the Range Rover Land Rover, right? You're talking about these are vehicles that, you know, if you have money and you lose 50% of your net worth, you can still purchase that vehicle. So your customers have disposable income to play with. But what's concerning? I mean, anything keeping you up at night, anything going through your head, what give us kind of behind scenes?

最近有什么事情让你担心吗？我问，因为我知道你处理很多豪华高端产品。所以，你的情况还是比较安全的，尤其是考虑到像保时捷和路虎这种品牌，对吧？这些车是那种即使你失去了50%的净资产，你也还能买得起的。因此，你的客户有足够的可支配收入。那么，有什么让你担忧的呢？有没有什么事情让你夜不能寐，或者反复思考的？能不能跟我们分享一些幕后情况？

Yeah, I mean, I do broadly have concerns about overall affordability. We sell a significant amount of pre-owned cars, you know, even off-ground, they're not all luxury. You know, and people are looking for, you know, as my father used to call him sheet seats, everybody wants an affordable car to get back and forth to work. And, you know, if those aren't present, which, you know, it makes it tough, and then you have these rates, I think it does make it really challenging for consumers to find affordable, reliable transportation. And if you can't get to and from work, you know, you've got a whole host of other problems that go along with it. That concerns me. And then I just think the, you know, in the background, we have the FTC with everything they're talking about relative to the car industry.

是的，我的确对整体的可支付性有些担忧。我们销售大量的二手车，不全是豪华车。人们总是在寻找一辆经济实惠的车，正如我父亲说的那样，大家都希望有一辆能够上下班通勤的车。如果这种车不多，再加上利率问题，就会使消费者很难找到价格合理、可靠的交通工具。如果你无法顺利上下班，就会引发一系列的其他问题，这让我很担心。另外，背景中的联邦贸易委员会（FTC）对汽车行业的讨论也是一个值得注意的问题。

I think some of what they're talking about in that course, rule, what is it? Combating cars. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think there is some good stuff in there that I think would be good for the industry. But I think there's a lot of other stuff in there that's onerous and is a byproduct of having individuals that truly don't understand the automotive industry, regulating it. And that concerns me quite a bit. What do you think would be good in the cars or like what aspects do you think could be a positive? I think this is like the part where I try to exercise as much intellectual honesty and really kind of dissect and say, let's let's be real for a second, right? What is wrong with the way things are being done?

我觉得他们在那个课程中讨论的某些内容，那个规则，叫什么来着？“打击汽车”。对，对，我觉得里面有一些好东西，对行业有好处。但是，我也觉得里面有很多其他内容是繁琐的，是由那些真正不了解汽车行业的人来监管的结果，这让我非常担忧。你觉得哪些方面对汽车行业有好处？我认为这是我尽量保持知识分子诚实、认真分析的时候，说实话吧，当前的做法有什么不对？

Why is this even a topic of conversation, right? There's plenty of industries that make a lot of money. So why this industry? And to your point, what actually could maybe make sense? And then of course, what could not make sense? Because you mentioned people that potentially don't understand the industry trying to regulate it. That's a problem. So let's just start with what do you think could be good? Well, I think the biggest thing, you know, if I had to put in a nutshell why the industry has, you know, such a bad perception, I would say one word to describe that would be transparency, right?

为什么这甚至会成为一个话题，对吧？有很多行业都在赚大钱。那为什么是这个行业呢？你刚才提到的那些问题，有哪些可能是有道理的？当然，还有哪些可能是没有道理的？因为你提到了一些可能不理解行业的人试图去监管它。这是个问题。所以我们先来说一下，你认为哪些方面可能是好的？ 我认为，如果要概括为什么这个行业有如此糟糕的形象，我会用一个词来形容，那就是透明度，对吧？

I think the part of the cars rule that I, you know, that I think makes sense is, you know, if Dennis is going to advertise a car for a certain price, right? I think it would be good for the dealership down the road or the neighboring state to advertise their car at whatever the price is, right? So you have people go into stores and there's add-ons and these different things. And sometimes they're just not on the website. They're not clear, they're not conspicuous. I think at that added layer of transparency and level setting that for the consumer would be good. And I think it would just make for an overall better experience for the consumer in terms of transparency.

我认为关于汽车规则的部分内容是有道理的。就是，如果 Dennis 要以某个价格广告一辆车，对吧？我觉得对于附近的经销商或邻近州的经销商来说，以任何价格广告他们的车也是好的。这样的话，人们到店里后，不会因为附加收费或其他东西感到困扰。有时候这些附加费用不会在网站上明显显示。我认为增加透明度和设定统一标准对消费者有好处。这会让消费者在透明度方面获得更好的体验。

One thing in California, every retail car deal, you know, someone that finances, we have this form, it's called a pre-contract disclosure statement. And what that does is that every single F&I product sold on a transaction needs to be itemized, the name of it, and how much the customer's paying for it down the whole list. And then on the bottom, it shows what the car payment would be with and without those products. And that has to be on every deal. Like a lender won't even fund a consumer's loan without it present in the deal package.

在加州，每个零售汽车交易中，如果有人贷款购买车辆，我们都有一个叫做"预合同披露声明"的表格。这个表格的作用是将所有在交易中销售的F&I产品逐一列明，包括产品名称和客户为每个产品支付的金额。表格的底部还会显示有和没有这些产品的汽车月供分别是多少。这个表格必须出现在每笔交易中。没有这个表格，贷款机构甚至不会为消费者的贷款提供资金。

I think that coupled with, you know, kind of consistent pricing, the way we need to advertise our cars online, I think that's good. I think it gets rid of the transparency problem the industry has. You know, that is one piece that I think would be good. Because, you know, I mean, let's face it, I mean, we have some well-deserved black eyes from some behavior over the years, I think. But if a customer comes in and it's transparent, I don't want to deal with a consumer that thinks I'm not being honest and forthcoming. It's not great to be on the receiving end. And it's not, it just makes for a hard transaction, I think.

我认为，如果我们在网上宣传汽车时，与一致的定价相结合，这是好的。我觉得这样可以解决行业的透明度问题。我认为这是一项好的改进。因为，你知道的，我们过去因为一些行为而受到应有的批评。但是，如果客户进来后能得到透明的信息，我不想面对一个认为我不诚实、不坦率的消费者。这种情况对双方都不好，这样的交易很难进行。

Alright, Dennis, before we wrap up, I'm curious to know, and this is a very general question, you know, what's exciting to you nowadays? What's going through your mind on a positive note? What are you excited about? Man, I really, I'm just, I'm, I think I'm weird. I really don't feel like I work. I really am fortunate to be here. So everything about this place, everything about the people that work here, I'm excited about. I really am on this journey. I've been here a little over four and a half years now.

好的，丹尼斯，在我们结束之前，我很好奇，这可能是个很宽泛的问题：你最近有什么让你感到兴奋的吗？有什么积极的事情在你心中萦绕？你对什么感到兴奋？ 哇，我真的，我觉得我可能有点奇怪。我真的不觉得我在工作。我真的很幸运能在这里。所以关于这个地方的一切，关于在这里工作的人们，我都感到兴奋。我真的在这段旅程中充满激情。我已经在这里工作了四年半多一点了。

I'm just really excited to see people continue to grow and choose to make a career out of our industry. Because it is a great industry. It's a people industry. And that's, that's what excites me. That's what keeps me going. And, you know, that's what floats my boat, man. I got it. It is a, it is a people industry. Yeah. Yeah. And so my shameless plug, we actually, we just announced CDG recruiting. So car dealers have got acquired global auto staffing. We are in the recruiting business, baby, because sometimes the job board is not enough. And you need your handheld. So that's my shameless plug.

我真的很兴奋看到人们不断成长，并选择在我们的行业中建立职业生涯。因为这是一个很棒的行业，这是一个以人为本的行业。而这正是让我感到兴奋的地方，也是让我继续前行的动力，也就是让我开心的原因。对，这确实是一个以人为本的行业。所以，我要做个不怕丢脸的宣传，我们最近宣布了CDG招聘服务。我们已经收购了一家全球汽车人力资源公司，现在正式进军招聘行业。因为有时候仅靠职位公告是不够的，你需要更多的指导和支持。这就是我的宣传。

I agree with you. It is a people industry and people are, as the most important. So, and I think it's great that you're doing that. You know, if you don't have great people that want to win and want to get better, ultimately the customers are the one that are suffering. And I think if you're a brand and then doing that, you're going to be able to offer a great service to dealership that are looking for quality talent. So we drive their business forward, but improve their reputation within their communities because they do a great job. So I'm excited for you.

我同意你的看法。这是一个以人为本的行业，人是最重要的。我觉得你在做的非常棒。你知道，如果没有优秀且愿意进步的人，最终受影响的就是客户。我认为，如果你是一个品牌，并且在做这方面的事情，你将能够为寻求优质人才的经销商提供出色的服务。这样不仅推动他们的业务发展，还能提升他们在社区中的声誉，因为他们的工作做得很出色。所以我为你感到兴奋。

Appreciate that. All right. So before we wrap up, what's the I see some is that a book of Elon Musk in a background or is that a picture? What is that? I'm a big Elon Musk fan optimism pessimism that we're going to make it happen. You know, I just it's good. I like it. I like it. Yeah. Elon, Elon is a follower of cardio show guys. So we have, we have him in our corner. Good stuff.

我很感激。好的，在我们结束之前，我看到背景里有一本书还是一张照片？那是一本关于埃隆·马斯克的书吗？还是一张照片？那是什么？我是埃隆·马斯克的铁粉，无论是乐观还是悲观，我都相信我们会成功。你知道，我觉得这很好，我喜欢，我喜欢。是的，埃隆也是我们节目的粉丝，所以我们得到了他的支持。不错的事。

All right, Dennis. Really appreciate you coming on. This was really insightful. So we'll have to do it again at some point. Wish you wish you the best of luck. Seems like you're running a tight chip over there. Likewise. Thanks for having me. And it was great having a conversation with him. Keep on doing what you're doing. It's great for the industry and the community. Thank you.

好的，Dennis。非常感谢你能来参与。这次交流非常有启发性。以后我们一定要再找机会聊聊。祝你一切顺利。看起来你那边管理得井井有条。我也是，非常感谢邀请。我也很高兴能和他交流。继续保持你在做的事情，这对行业和社区都非常有益。谢谢。

All right. 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.

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