2023 Service Coaching Truths Reviving Dealers' Bottom Lines | SDR #271

Welcome, everybody, to the big show. Today we are going to talk about our highlights of 2023 and some highlights from others in 2023.

Talk about the difference in opinion of customer service between myself and Chris Joan.

Huge difference. Night.

Christian tells an incredible holiday joke and much, much more. Coming up on this edition of Service Driver re.

We just went to the Raiders game. So we saw the Raiders in Vegas at Allegiant Stadium. Second year. We did.

Didn't disappoint. Did you enjoy the game? No. Why not?

Cause you didn't have a horse in the race. Is that part of it?

What do you. What was your impression of the game?

Oh, I thought it was fun. I was into it.

Yeah. Why?

I think that.

Anytime you see the Chiefs play, I think it's kind of exciting. I got some pretty good players on that team, and I thought the Raiders made a respectable go of it. They lost, but it was fun to watch. I enjoyed it.

And the food was pretty good.

The meat, specifically, what was the meat? That brisket. It was like a saucy brisket.

Have you ever been to the South?

Yeah.

You think that brisket was good? That rubber?

Yeah. Loved it.

You know when you see a semi and the tread comes off the tire?

That brisket was closer to that.

There was nobody that's been to the state of Texas, Carolina, St. Louis, like. No, not even Illinois that had anything to do with that brisket.

Okay. I ate it and I liked it.

Okay, well, that's great.

I also like brisket.

My expectations of brisket must be different. Yeah, I would say I'm a connoisseur when it comes to barbecue. My favorite thing is brisket. So that was a.

See, like a soft, flavorful brisket.

What did you think about the hamburgers?

I didn't have one.

Yeah. You know why?

Because they didn't have any?

No, because they came out as we were leaving. Oh.

So this is the difference between the two of us is I didn't know what the menu was supposed to be.

And what was the purpose of. What was the purpose of us going to that game? So we got a suite at the stadium. What was. There were two things that were supposed to happen.

Luis was supposed to have a good time.

Okay. So he's. He's part of my family and also very responsible for building this library.

Yes.

Okay. So did he have a good time?

I thought he looked like he was having a good time.

Oh, really?

No.

You think that them going up two touchdowns and then losing in the end was a.

You.

He looked like he was How. You left early, by the way. I think.

Yeah. Three minutes to go.

Yeah. So you left early. So you think that he had a good time losing?

Maybe not the first.

Think about the amount of money that was spent for him not to have a good time. Like have the best seat in the house for not a good time for a loss. Let's put you as close to the action as possible. So you cannot have a good time. Okay. What was the other reason?

That was really the main one.

You're real perceptive.

Yeah. Coach Hoagie, I wish I could go.

Through life being as happy as you are. Whatever. Okay, so Coach Hoagie. Yeah. The Chiefs. Right. So how did that go? What was the. When we. When we bought that suite, what was the. What was the thing that they were supposed to do for us?

Lettuce on the field.

Yeah. Did that happen?

No.

No, that didn't happen. So it's not just the brisket. And then did I know you were sitting in a nice, comfortable seat, but did I ever have a place to sit down the whole time?

No. I should have given you my chair.

I stood up the whole time. There was nowhere for me to sit. Even though we told people that were coming that they didn't have a seat that were standing only we put stuff on people's chair. On chairs to hold them for Hoagie, and people still sat there.

I wasn't one of the people, was I?

No, those seats weren't. They were.

They looked open when I sat.

See, I thought that a Chiefs fan should kind of be in the back.

Right? Yeah. Yeah.

So. No, I would never do it again.

Okay.

Ever again.

I had a terrible perception change.

Yeah. But I wish I had your disposition. I wish I had a naturally positive outlook on things.

Yeah.

It's funny because, like, it's a really expensive torture chamber.

Yeah.

And especially the fact that they just lose. Like you're trying to do something for somebody, and then at the end, everybody's got their head down. Like, it's just. I mean, being a Raiders fan is like being a Seahawks fan.

No, it's like being a Bears fan, too. So I get it.

It's a huge disappointment, which was weird.

That the Bears won to watch.

How much money have we spent? Don't say the number. How much money have we spent with the NFL this year?

Way too much.

Never again. I'm out of that game.

I was just talking about that last night. Is that. No, let's not do that anymore.

The only game that I semi enjoyed, and even that Was miserable. Was the one Seahawks with my cousins and the Seahawks and I don't even know that I would do that again. I'm over it.

Okay.

It was terrible. He didn't. They didn't even give us field passes.

Like, they have a little CSI thing and I, like, I. I told Missy. You better let me answer that because I'm going to blow him up.

That's great.

Yeah.

Five hours I stood there.

Don't forget the drive.

Didn't sit down once.

Oh, my gosh.

It was great. Wanna ask me about anything else?

Holy cow.

Well, you did. You did. You did get a new gift, didn't you?

Has nothing to do with the NFL.

It's called changing the subject.

Yeah. I got a electric bike. So the idea was for the lake for the summer. I wanted bikes up there, you know, but there's no way. You're right. I'm not even going up there until summer. So they're P51s is the name of the brand. They made me an honorary member of the race team. Whatever that means. I don't know how you got that.

That's kind of neat.

They gave me a ton of swag. They're really nice. Been riding them. They're really fun.

You should come. This your first time with an electric bike?

Yes.

Okay. I've never ridden one before.

So what happened? There's two things. One is you just have a button and it's basically a motorcycle.

Or there might as well not be pedals. Right, Right.

But then you also have pedals. And when you pedal, it's like you're the bionic man.

Oh. That. You just go, go, go.

You just got way more leverage than you would naturally. So the thing has five speeds. Zero is no help. One, there's a lot of help. And then five is. I've actually never ridden it in five.

I just.

Yeah. In my neighborhood.

Yeah. I don't trust anybody at the drivers in your neighborhood or any other neighborhood. They're great.

We do it late or early, like.

Yeah.

When there aren't that many people around.

Well, I definitely, you know, because we spent a lot of time walking at that lake. What an awesome area to ride a bike. Kind of like the ups and the downs and just kind of cruising around the lake. I think that would be a beautiful ride. So I'm excited for you to take those bad boys up there.

Yeah. So they have, like, a pretty good range. You could go around the lake like three times.

Yeah.

And it's. I think it's eight miles around that lake.

Okay.

I did it once when I was a kid on, like, my little GT bike, but on those. It'd be fun because some of those hills.

Well, I remember running some of them. They were serious business, and I think it's. I don't know about you. I think it's harder to bike up hills than run up hills.

Yeah.

It's really challenging, but it's good for you at the same time. Well, I'm glad.

You excited about coming back to the lake this summer and doing some jet skiing.

Yeah.

Trying to hit me again. Trying to run me over.

I. I think we might have said a Guinness Book of World records.

Oh, here's a story we didn't tell about that. About Thanksgiving and you saying the prayer.

Oh, yeah. So what did you expect was gonna happen?

You were gonna go through every ingredient? Because then. Because God, the knower of all things, doesn't know what's in stuffing or gravy.

Yes. I thought. I thought I'd throw you a little curveball.

You were pretty quick.

Yeah. And I gave a little bit of thought to what I said.

It was great. Yeah, it was fun.

22Nd prayer at the most.

So everyone got seven pies. The whole thing was just over the top. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun, though. You know, the high.

You know, pies in my freezer.

I believe that.

Do you want one?

No. But do you know what the highlight of the dinner was?

The wine.

Oh, that was pretty good too. I had some wine.

I know that's the only way to get you to drink wine is to get the good stuff.

It's like the third time I drank this year.

Some people are a cheap date.

Yeah.

That's a really expensive date. Oh, but you start at Caymus and go up. Cayman is like. If Camus is your house wine, you're. You're Jeff Bezos. I'm so bougie. That's great.

But. Yeah.

Expensive tennis shoes and wine taste.

But I think if. If Missy opened up a restaurant and served that cornbread, the restaurant would be full.

Oh, yeah. That's my favorite.

It was my favorite.

Green chili cornbread stuffing is the best.

It was the best that I've ever had. It was so amazing.

It's great. That was really fun, though.

Yeah.

Way more fun than the Raiders.

It was more fun. Clearly, there's a difference.

Funny that you left early. You thought everybody was gonna, like, they were gonna leave in a good mood after they were up that much.

Yeah. So for me, because. And I'm surprised that you don't see it. Like this, too. But as a Bears fan, that's totally par for the course. I wouldn't leave angry from the Bears game because that's what I would expect. And just like the Raiders and the Bears, the Seahawks, they're on the same group of. They're probably the most creative in the NFL at losing.

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't. I don't really see it that way.

What's the key to happiness, Chris?

They don't. They don't. They don't think like we think.

Oh. But I'm not gonna let them ruin my mood.

I actually just made a video for the library channel today talking about the key to happiness and being a Seahawks fan. And then maybe I should find something else to do with my Sundays.

So the control that you have, no.

Control over their tackling, their play calling. None of it.

But you can whittle instead of watching.

Football or write or paint or ride an electric bike.

Whatever. That's funny. Want to hear a holiday joke? Yeah. And I think it's gonna be near and dear to your heart because it start off with.

I was walking to work.

No.

What did. What did Santa get? The naughty soccer announcer.

What?

Col.

Is that pretty good?

That was good. I was. I was.

Yeah.

I was wondering if it was something to do with that. That's pretty good.

Yeah. Whenever. That's funny. Whenever. Foot.

I wish you could open your Christmas gift on the show, but the way that we tape it wouldn't work out because.

Yeah, it's too soon.

I think that I'm also really excited about your Christmas gift this year because I think there's no way in a billion years you would guess what it was going to be.

I already know what it is.

How? Missy told you.

You just know things.

There's no way. You know this.

There's a cricket in here or something.

Okay.

What should we talk about today?

2023 year in review. So first, let's start with our local.

Thoughts on our stuff.

Okay.

So I think our Top Dog event was an evolution and the best. The most intimate.

That it's ever been.

Really good word.

Which is kind of where we're headed as a company. Right. And so I think that that was a tremendous success. I think the way that our team has evolved and we executed on that was the best. Least friction, highest level of execution as far as the experience for our guests.

Yeah. And there was the intimate. Such a great word because we literally, like, shared this, which I think a lot of us in this. In this library feel like this, there's a pieces of us in here. And sharing that with the clients was the coolest part.

I think that. And we, I think we were thinking this way and, and we've been telling everybody that even though there's news about electric cars and Tesla and all this other stuff, that the industry is going to shift to fixed stops with the, you know, negative equity that most people have and what they're driving every, you know, the interest rates sort of. It's a perfect storm that fixed ops for, for the foreseeable future is going to be the star of the show.

Yeah.

I think we've seen the highest S Pops, which is service and parts profitability that we've seen and it will only get better. We're getting the same sort of results that most people wouldn't believe.

Yep.

So when we talk about the. I, I saw somebody's thing the other.

Day.

That they were, they were talking about the increase in ELR for their clients. It's a software company.

$9.

Not even close to what we're doing.

$4.

No, it was like it was more than that, but it's not. Not even close.

And once again, they don't talk about profit.

So, you know, it's easy to pump up hours per row. It's easy to pump up an effective labor rate. But if it doesn't go to the bottom line for not. And I think we, we've never had the balance and understanding with our coaches, with, with our, you know, I think we're in the best spot that we've ever been that.

Side of things, I guess.

Yeah, I would say it was, it was a record number of record months for our clients, which I've never seen. You know, it's very normal that we'd have a record month from a client. But this year, your amount of clients that had record months and I wonder if maybe that is, you know, a shift that we do too internally when it comes to our clients and talking to them about, you know, their investments and you know, because they make a huge investment in training and coaching for their fixed ops departments. But one of my favorite things that we do, and I don't know if you and I have talked about this very much, but the ROI calculator.

Yeah. Where nobody else wants to think that way. If you're a vendor doing advisor training or you're doing software, whatever it is, you don't want to be held accountable for the profitability.

Not very regular.

I believe we are the only company out there.

Yeah. We don't want to Talk about increase in sales or increasing gross. We're going to talk about net profit. Yeah.

You can increase gross and your net can go down. I see it in 20 groups all the time, where the average in the 20 group is up so much in sales, up so much in gross, and the profits are down overall.

Yeah. Because they just spent their way into it. Yep. So, yeah, we want to. We want to become business people.

I would say we. We have the best roster of clients that we've ever had. Just talent and.

Well, I think two things. We're more effective, but also we're attracting a better client.

Yeah.

We're. The way that we're doing things.

I think we're a little pickier.

Yeah.

And then the thing that they're. That they all are really, really good at is that speed and execution part.

And I think we have a lot of decisions to make about how big we want to be in that side of the business, too. Like how, you know, I think we'll only get pickier next year.

Yeah. I agree with you.

There will be a point, which is great, because the people that we're working with want to actually, you know, they're engaged. They want to make a difference.

That's right.

They're not indifferent. They're not looking, you know, just for a magic pill sort of thing.

I definitely think this was. It was a great year. And I think it's just setting us up for 20, 24.

I also can't believe how fast it went by.

I agree with that, too.

Like, I feel like it was just my birthday a minute ago.

Right. And now it's.

My birthday's in January. Yeah.

It's a month.

I want to be 79 or something.

Oh, really? Why did I think it was 60?

Can you imagine? Yeah.

I think that the thing that's great is thinking about what, you know, 40 years ago, what 60 looked like versus what we're gonna look like when we're 60. Big difference. And activity wise, too.

I think we'll still be. We'll still be kicking.

Titanium hip.

I. I want to go. I really, really do think that by the time that I'm ready for titanium stuff, like, I want to go cyborg style. Like, I'm ready for robotness in my body.

Kind of like the E Bike.

E Bike Terminator.

Like, you. You just go to move your arm and it.

What could possibly go wrong? All right, so you want to talk about the. The biggest stories of 2023?

All right.

So Ford had a recall.

Yeah.

They sure did. I. I just Saw when a. I didn't print this as part of the news, but just came across Honda hopping on the bandwagon a little bit. 300,000 cars getting recalled because of seat belt issues. So I see those recall notices all the time.

I think too like a big part of this year was navigating the shortage of texts and I think that only gets worse.

Yep. Well, there was shortages everywhere. Shortage of text, shortage of parts.

Yeah.

You know, shortage of work.

Yeah, it was a shortage of enthusiasm.

Definitely a shortage of enthusiasm for the industry. All right, so the number one industry news 2023 according to publication called the Curbside Classic, which I really liked this, they did really good synopsis of each of the ratings. But their number one bit of news was that the Tesla Model Y became the best selling car in the world.

1. I didn't know that. 2. Holy cow.

That's the SUV, right? Yeah, the little SUV.

Yeah, the little SUV.

Why do you think that is?

Well, this article blames a lot of it on how many they sell in China.

So what did, what was I saying, like seven, eight years ago? When did nada tell me I couldn't talk about Tesla?

It was like 2013.

Okay, so 45 years ago I was saying.

That it isn't.

The decline of sales, it's going to get gm, Ford and Chrysler, it's the market share that Tesla is. When Tesla is making 2 million cars, their market share shrinkage will go into their profitability.

Oh yeah, right.

So just think like if a service department is 20% net to gross and your sales drop 20%, your overhead isn't going to drop 20%. So their deals with the UAW, their costs in a lot of situations have gone up, not down, but their volume is going to go down. They're losing market share and it would appear that they're misstepping in what they think consumers want.

Agreed.

So that's, that's the, that's the impossible thing to navigate for them.

Yeah, I think that, I mean they're faced with the, with a dilemma. I think that Tesla's got such a head start on them, it's going to be tough to get into the market. They're going to take some lumps to get in it if they want to.

They're so far and when you talk about self driving and AI and all that, they're in a different league.

That's right.

It's almost like they're, they're.

They'Re left with the scraps. Is it?

Yeah. Which to your point, they can't Profitably run a car company with the scraps.

And if he does a car that's 29,000 or whatever it is, game the.

Model 2, it's, it's a done deal. It's just a matter of when the release is.

But how many of those can he make?

It's a really good question.

You know the, the Model 3 they make, they make like 8 or 9,000 a week out of the, out of the one plant.

So you multiply it over 52 weeks, it's quite a few cars.

But this is an additional model, right?

Yeah. So I assume that they're probably gonna, well, they have that big giga plant that they did down in Texas, so maybe that's just gonna be a Model 2 plant. It'd be interesting. So the second.

Biggest piece of automotive news also includes Teslas that they, they unseated. Toyota is the number one selling car brand in California, which totally makes sense because everywhere I turn I see a Tesla on the road out here.

Yeah.

And, and Toyota had a decades long lead over everybody. Not even close. Like if you kind of see this graph right here. So Tesla is the black one, but look at the gap between the gray and the pink here. And maybe who's gray? Gray is.

I think it's Honda.

Yeah. So gray is Honda.

So Honda, the Toyota. We'll put this graph up on YouTube. But the, the pink is pretty. It's a little wiggly, but it's still, you know, in the same area. And then the Tesla just comes straight up out of nowhere.

Yeah. And that's just since 2017. But look at what they did from quarter one 21 to now. Yeah, I mean just an amazing growth rate.

No marketing, no dealerships.

So interesting. So number three also includes Toyota and Tesla. But it was the, the agreement that the, that Toyota was going to access the, the EV network of Tesla was number three.

So they only have Tesla. Toyota right now only has one electric model.

It was interesting driving to Vegas. How many cars were Tesla's going to Vegas?

Yeah. So Missy didn't catch it, but there's a lot of supercharging stations on the way.

No, we saw a few. And they have restaurants.

The ones next to malls make the most sense to me because it takes an hour. So how about giving somebody something to do? Makes perfect sense. Lunch, whatever it is. But yeah. So there's several strategic stop stations on the way to Vegas.

Meanwhile, I drove Winston in and the check engine light came on.

Did it go off?

No. Appointment Tuesday.

Okay, so you don't want to Take that back to Vegas when we go back.

If we drive. We drive the Tesla, I think.

Yeah.

Just to see. I just want to experience it.

When I drove to Vegas with my Tesla a few years ago, I was surprised. It was easy. Next story is they call this. This is number four. But the little big three, which I thought was kind of cute. But the little big three, as in.

Ford, GM, and Stellantis, which is.

So the market share that the big three have, 39.7%, which is.

It used to be, what, 70.

70 or 80% at one time.

They've really, really cut it into market share.

And do you see a scenario where that turns around?

No.

Yeah, me neither.

Not that I can tell.

Train has left the station.

Yeah, a little bit. So the one thing I thought was really interesting, though. So in terms of market share between gm, Ford and Stellantis, Stellantis has the lowest market share at 10.2%. But ironically. I don't know exactly what this means, but Stellantis profits.

For the first half of 2023 were more than GM and Ford combined. They did 12 billion in profit, and GM and Ford did 8.7 billion in profit.

I think that they're gonna end up.

Merging.

All three of them.

Two of them, at least.

Oh, that'd be interesting. I think Ford stands on its own, actually.

I think Ford.

Will reach a point where they don't.

Interesting.

Why does the Detroit Lions win a Super Bowl?

Well, I mean, I don't think it happens this year for the Lions, but you could realistically see that they might be within a few years away from at least getting to the game. That's the next level is that Ford ditched their electric initiative after, like, committing dealers to all the infrastructure changes and everything like that. But they now are putting a big focus on hybrids. So that was the next piece of news, which I thought it was interesting to quit halfway through. You know, I see a lot of those Mach Es on the road. Do you? Those like the Mustang ones. So maybe they just do better out here than they do other places. I'd be curious to hear from the Ford listeners if they sell a lot of those Mach E things. And I thought the marketing was great on the F150 Lightning.

Well, I wanted my mom to get one.

Right. So she said no. Right.

Yeah. So they ended up getting a Dodge.

They got a Ram truck.

Or they don't think it's a Ram. It's called. It's. Yeah, it's the truck. I don't know, but it's some Sort of package.

Oh, okay.

What is the six? Starts with an L or something.

Laramie. Yeah, it's a Ram. Laramie. So Laramie's usually has really nice interiors. And it's got the big screen, I'm going to guess in the middle. Have you seen it?

I'm not.

Not yet.

But super did not want the Ford, like. And he had a Ford F150.

But.

It wouldn't pull the boat.

Oh. So that. Yeah, I think that the Rams needed something. The Rams are really good at pulling stuff.

It could yank that thing out.

Yep. So that'll do it. Especially. They got the Hemi, but no interested.

Like the thing would. Would power their house in a snowstorm. Like, I thought there were so many benefits to it and they wouldn't even consider it.

Yeah. I was hooked on that lightning after they had that. The commercial about that crazy rain or snow in Houston and that you could power the house off the truck. I was like, what a great idea that is. But it just never took. The trucks are just even now, I think, still sitting on lots they can't sell them.

I think people just wouldn't even consider him.

Yeah. Number seven is the bow out of a lot of US and European brands in China. And that China. This is. I'm combining two. But China is going to become the world's number one auto exporter in 2023.

And like, so VW, for instance, just stopped going to China. And China has the most drivers of anyone in the world. So it's the biggest automotive market. But China now is exporting. I couldn't name one Chinese brand.

There's one, I think maybe one that starts with like. It's like Byz or something like that. I'm trying to look and see.

Yeah. The one that Warren Buffett invested in.

Oh, yeah.

Rest in peace. To his. To Charlie. Charlie. 99 years old. I didn't even know it was until a few months ago.

Couldn't make it to 100.

Left everybody in suspense. But that's. That's all the news. Oh, except this one thing that I've got and we've done this before, and it's one of my favorite things to make you guess on. There's a lot of things I like to make you guess on, but this. The most stolen cars and trucks and.

SUVs in America wasn't the top Hyundai.

No. What I know.

What is it?

You want to start at the top or do you want me to do a little suspense with the list?

What's up to you. So could you tell me where Hyundai is.

Yeah, there's several Hyundai's on this list.

Oh, it's by model.

And previously Hyundai wasn't on the list at all, so they cracked into it in serious mode. Okay, so number 10, I remember this from last year. It was on the top 10 list, and it surprised me a little bit. Honda CRV.

Number nine. A little surprising. GMC Sierra. So a lot of trucks on this list. Number eight, I think makes sense just because the sheer volume of the car in the United States is the Toyota Camry. And then we start to have fun. Kia Optima, Hyundai Elantra.

And that's number six. And there's another Hyundai on here, Hyundai Sonata.

And that does it for the Hyundai Kia models that you could steal with a USB port.

What number are we on?

We're down to number four.

All right, so I'm gonna have you guess it is a Honda model Civic. Try one more time. Close.

Accord.

So that's number four is the Honda Accord. The easiest to steal are the ones from the 90s.

So 1997 is the most common one. Okay. And number three, also a Honda. You might have already said it once.

Civic.

Civics. Number three.

Also the ones from the 90s.

And then number two, F150.

I would have never guessed that.

All right, so there's only one left. You want to take a guess of that?

Ford Taurus.

No, but that's funny.

I remember those Tauruses. So funny. All right. Nope, it's a truck.

Silverado. Oh, I guessed it.

You did.

So people are stealing more trucks.

The number one stolen truck in America is the Chevrolet Silverado. And the most stolen single vehicle model year was the 2004 Silverado.

That's great. Well, I will say, just thinking about 2023, we are very grateful to you for, you know, being with us and coming along.

We are are open to feedback. We're thinking about what we're going to do with SDR in the future and.

You know, kind of having that conversation. So, you know, let us know what you would like to hear more of or any ideas that you have. Also remember that we do answer your questions every Friday. The number is 8333 Ask SDR. That's 8333 Ask SDR. And if we answer your question, we do send you a pretty good swag.

And to the one viewer listener that suggested that we turn this into a burlesque show.

Noted, that would be great.

Yeah.

How do we do that?

I don't know, but it's gonna involve us having different clothes?

Us?

Yeah.

No, wouldn't.

We're not. We're not, though.

We wouldn't be the burlesque.

No. We would be the commentators, Narrators. Right.

Okay.

So we wouldn't be that work.

We wouldn't be the performers. We would be doing play by play on the last. To watch us do that.

There'S gotta be one person out there. There.

Let us know in the comments.

Thank you. And we look forward to spending time with you again. We'll see you next time on Service Driver Revolution. Thanks so much for watching this episode of Service Drive Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video sa.