International Truck Coronavirus Update 8

Welcome everybody to Service Drive Revolution, our Coronavirus International version episode. We have an exciting show for you today. We are going to talk about the books that we're reading which are going to be kind of fun. Fun to dig into. We also have a special guest today. William Roberts, but better known as Bill Roberts is here. And we're going to talk about indirect time and, and your P and L statement. But first, gentlemen, have you guys seen the Final Last Dance? And then did you see the Lance Armstrong, the intro to the Lance Armstrong?

I did not yet. I haven't finished up the Last Dance. I've been saving it. Like I really enjoy the episodes. I've been like saving myself, saving my time when the kids aren't around to bother me. I want to finish those episodes at that point because I really get emotionally invested in these things and the kids just don't give a shit. They don't care.

So for anybody who hasn't, hasn't seen him. ESPN did a 10 part series on the Bulls last run in. Was it 98 or what was the year?

98.

Yeah.

Look at that. Adam's got the hat. And they. What's interesting about it is that they kind of said at the beginning of the season that it was Phil's last season. Everybody's contracts were kind of coming up and the Bulls ownership kind of had resolved themselves to. They were going to start over after that season. So it's kind of an all or nothing because you're not going to get another chance at this. So it puts a little, a little extra drama on it that Phil Jackson, the coach, knows that he's gone after this year. And then a lot of the players said, well, Phil isn't coming back, we're not coming back. And then the drama unfolds and ensues and then they do a great job of going back in time to previous Bulls drama. And it's all behind the scenes. So you see, you're seeing stuff you never saw from a fan's point of view when it was originally going on. I don't know if any sports team has ever had that sort of impact on a sport, on society, on commerce. Right. Because of Air Jordan and the, the amount of money that he created for companies and just the NBA. Like David, David Stern says in there, like, we wouldn't be what we are if it wasn't for that team.

Well, it was also a start globally. Right. Like you just talked about. I think that's where a lot of the different, you know, companies saw sports as a marketing Avenue, especially with Nike and Gatorade. Right. And hitting that.

I don't know.

I remember as a kid watching, you know, a lot of the games with my dad, obviously from our last video. But that last, those last two episodes of Last Dance, man, that hit me. I remember the whole Utah Jazz fiasco going back and forth and that was nuts. But you always had it somewhere in your heart you knew they were going to come back and they were going to, they were going to get after it.

You forget how many game sevens there were like as great as the Bulls were. They. My, my grandfather used to say, my late grandfather used to say they're only doing that for, for the money because they sell more commercials if they go to a game seven.

But yeah, you forget how many game sevens there were. How many? All or nothing. Like take you, you know, you go home or you win.

Yep.

What number are you on, Jeremy? Because Jeremy's trying to savor it. He's. I just rationing it out.

Yeah.

Episode seven I finished with.

Now are you watching the, the, the 14 or the mature one?

The mature one.

It's, it's, it's funny. But they, they've had this footage from. For 20 years. And Jordan had first rider refusal, so he allowed the NBA to shoot all this behind the scenes stuff and he wouldn't agree to anybody making it into a documentary up until recently. And perfect timing for ESPN that they have this content during Corona because it's, you know, they're really good at making documentaries and it's timely, you know, because people are sitting at home with nothing to do and there's no sports on.

Yep.

So it lets you kind of go back in time and kind of like hearing like, you know how you'll hear a song and it takes you back in time and you remember this kind of did the same thing for me. Like it brought back memories of my grandfather and you know, being that, that white kid that can't jump, pretending like he's Michael on the, on the basketball court.

Right.

Come on, Chris. You, you owned a pair of Air Jordans, didn't you? At least one.

No.

Oh, I bought it. I bought a used pair right around that time. They're the red and white Air Jordans. Dude, I was washing those with a toothbrush probably like every other day.

No, bro, that was not in the budget when I was a kid. So my budget for tennis shoes and like, just imagine like, also like you're growing and I'd wear out a pair of tennis shoes like every three or four months. So it wasn't. I think the budget was $40 or something. Like the idea that shoes were a hundred dollars. Wasn't that. That was not in the. In the plan or the budget when I was growing up.

Well, it was crazy to see how expensive those shoes are going for. The pair that I got was used from a brother or my friend's brother for 40 bucks. Oh, God.

Another guy from Chicago here, our Zoom hacker.

I love all the Bulls and Jordan talk. I also did not own a pair of Jordans, but I liked other people that did. So, Adam, you. Because I have a feeling that you're sleep deprived with that.

So.

How do you make gold soup?

How do you make gold soup? Like, how do you cook it? Like the recipe for gold soup.

Yes.

I don't know, Jeremy.

I know you know this one.

I don't know. I don't know.

You put 24 carrots in it.

Oh, that's so funny. Hey, okay, the other. The other thing that we learned from the last dance, and I've been meaning. I've been so busy, but maybe later today I'm going to call my doctor and just tell him, you know, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Jordan would drink two beers and smoke a cigar before a game. He was smoking two or three cigars a day. Did you catch that, like, in the playoffs? He's like, well, I had two beers this morning and I only smoked one cigar. And then he goes out and scores 45 points. What's this one cigar a month joke my doctor's got me on?

Your results may vary, Chris.

There you go. There's the disclaimer. Your results may vary. He's. He's got an athletic build and athleticism like no other.

You would describe my build as athletic. That's how you would describe my build, as athletic. If you. If you see me from across the room and you're like, that guy is athletic. That's how you would describe my build. You wouldn't say I'm skinny.

But you're not Jordan. Athletic.

If we are given two choices between skinny and athletic, Chris, yes, you are athletic.

I would have been. I would have. If I could have afforded the shoes. It was the shoes. Shoes that made. Made him so athletic. Right? That's been scientifically proven. Is that it was the Jordans that made you be able to jump. Because a lot of kids. A lot of kids would buy those shoes and all, like, the day before they couldn't slam dunk. And then they bought the shoes and they Were dunking.

Well, I think they had little springs in them too, right?

Something. That something made them $110.

Because it wasn't like even the. What was the Reebok one that had the pump?

Yeah, I remember.

That was 50 bucks.

Yep.

So it had all that high technology of the pump, and that was 50 bucks. So the Jordans had to have springs.

In them or rockets.

Oh, man. Good times.

I still to this day have never owned a pair of Jordans. I have a pair of.

What is it. What is it called? Off White. Off White or. No, no, it's the other brand. It's not Off White. Fear of God. I have a pair of Fear of God Jordans. Whenever I wear them, people are like, how did you get those? Like, this stylist gave them to me for a photo shoot. And I guess they're rare. Like, they didn't make very many. But those are the only Jordans that I have. They're Fear of God Jordans. They're red and black.

Then.

I've worn them twice.

I'm gonna have to check that out. I think I might have a friend. He's obsessed with Air Jordans and Michael Jordan.

The Fear of God ones.

That's great.

I'm gonna smoke three cigars a day until I learn how to jump like that.

How high does the rim have to be?

So, Fisher Price, Mr. Mr. William. William Roberts. Do you read a lot of books?

No, man.

I read a few war books. We Are Soldiers is a good one.

Ooh, you know, what's your favorite war.

There is no favorite war.

What's your favorite battle?

The one that We Are Soldiers at X Ray, the landing zone. X Ray were. They was surrounded by thousands of Vietnam enemy, and they had only one platoon. And they said.

They made a movie about it.

Mel Gibson. Right. I remember that one.

Yep.

Yeah, that one was good.

So what are. What are the top books that you would recommend? Mine, by the way, is the Battle of Midway. But what are the books that you would recommend?

But the one that I, in my younger days that I thought the most of was who Moved My Cheese?

Really and truly, that's not a war book.

I know.

It's like a cartoon character for change, but it works.

I mean, we're talking about cheese, but that was one of the first books I ever read that made sense to what I was doing.

Okay, but give me a couple war books. I want, like. I want real, like, the Band of Brothers. Band of Brothers.

That was a good book.

Can't think of the name of it. It's where they dropped a bomb on Nagasaki.

The Noah Gay.

The Flight of the Noyoge is what the book name is.

Awesome. I'm gonna check those out. I like. I like those kind of books because a lot of times they're heavy on strategy, and, you know, you got to make impossible decisions.

That, you know, the outcome is never clear.

Well, we've been doing this thing, if you. If you watch this, where we've been talking about books we're reading.

And. So what are you reading right now, Jeremy?

I'm reading Freakonomics. This is an older one, but this is a good book. I really like it because the author, he approaches problems from an economist perspective, but they're unconventional problems. Like, there was one like, why do drug dealers usually still live with their parents? And then so he went into that story about a student that embedded with. With a gang in New York over a period of time, and, like, he learned the whole business structure of how it worked and how basically.

That the. The drug enterprise. Or was it Chicago? I don't remember. Either way, it was. The whole enterprise is essentially a business with the guys at the bottom earning not that much money, but the. The bosses at the top were earning much more. So it's a whole business structure. And it's funny because after I finished reading it, you, Chris, you did that Business Outlaws podcast with Freeway Rick Ross.

Rick Ross, yeah.

And he went into how his structure worked and how he interviewed potential candidates and how his structure worked and his incentives and all that stuff, and I thought that was really interesting.

Yeah. You know, it ends up. If the product you're selling is addictive, business grows fast.

That is true. That is true.

If it's highly addictive. Did we talk on there about how you just give out free samples?

He did. He did talk about that.

It's crazy, right? The one in Freakonomics that. That really, like, made me see things a little different was the gamification one. And I think that was Chicago, where they. They gamified teachers on their students, and they paid them cash. And they found that in most situations where you do gamification, you pay cash. The cheating is about 15%.

Like, even school teachers would cheat for cash.

That was a good book.

Yeah, it's great.

They have a podcast, too. Did you know that, Jeremy?

I did not know that.

The guy actually has a podcast, so he's trying to relate to things that are more recent as well.

They also made the documentary.

Yeah.

Did they?

I didn't see the documentary.

It's a brand. It's a thing.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah, it's good. What are, what are you reading, Adam?

I just started reading, Sweetness, regarding Walter Payton. I figured. Yeah. So I'm, I'm at the, the entry levels, you know, just trying to keep the sports theme alive since we're still waiting.

The Chicago sp. Them alive.

Well, you know, hey, we're right now for the NHL, trying to see if we're gonna do what, 24 teams in playoffs. Yeah.

You know what I didn't see on that chart when they announced that yesterday? What, the LA Kings.

Yeah. But Blackhawks might be on there probably.

But.

Yeah. So, Sweetness, I'm just starting off right now kind of how he grew up. So I really kind of, I'm really interested into seeing somebody so great on and off the court or off the field, you know, and he was just always hearing around when I, when I was growing up from my parents that he had no reason, he had no reason but to just stop by and say hi to people that were just while they're driving by. He never had that. He had a Persona about him, but he never let that, you know, get in the way of things. So he'd stop by at any random person on the road just to see how their day was. And it's kind of interesting just to see in the light of how he was raised with, you know, his family being so poor down and down in the south and just kind of growing out to, to over adapt and overcome out of, you know, things that he could control versus what things that he couldn't control. Right. There's a lot of racism from when he was growing up and in their area, I believe in Mississippi. So that was really kind of interesting. I'm at that portion, but it's really. He's had a portion where they're talking about high school sports and football. And he wasn't overall the biggest kind of guy, but a lot of it was due to his coaching. And right now I'm at a point where they're talking about his brother. His brother is very athletic, but there's something about Walter that coaches saw in him that was just a little bit different. I think when we talk about, you know, managing and looking and going forward to this new norm, it's going to be that little differentiation, a differentiator and doing things just a little bit different that we can truly succeed and improve, you know, our overall performance out there at our dealerships as well. But. And of course, you know, Peyton, my newly born daughter, is a week old. Her name Is Peyton. So this kind of.

Did you name her after Sweetness?

No. No. I can't go on record in saying. But when I was pulling my arms.

Okay, so you know I'm a trained interrogator, right? Yes.

Yes.

I, I, I'm certified as an interrogator. And you just lied.

Hey, you just did three different things that told me that you lied. So why, why can't you go on record? What does that mean?

I was told that we cannot name her after. Well, it should not be totally related to Walter Payton.

So who told you this?

Who told you this?

My. My significant other.

So you. Hold on. So we named her Peyton.

This is confusing.

Okay, so it's either between. So she's gonna watch us someday. So it's between Peyton and Charlotte. Right. But we wanted to see when she was born, is it Peyton or Charlotte? Like, definitely. You know, the two nurses in the room, One spelled it with an A, one spelled it with E, like Peyton Manning. And so it's 50. 50. When she came out, she definitely came out as a Peyton. And if I'm gonna spell it, you know, the right way, it's gonna be with an A. Walt. Walter Payton. So, yeah, there is a slight.

So you spelt hers with an E? No, with an A. Oh, so you spell He's. Okay, so it's the same. You're reading a book about it.

Well, and I'm a bad.

So she's clearly. So her nickname is gonna be Sweetness?

Sure.

It needs to be.

Right?

Now, what's cuter than a little girl that looks like you and her nickname, Sweetness?

Well, last night she wasn't so sweet. Very little.

Wow.

Yeah. But give her, Give her a couple weeks. She's just.

No, she's, she's, she's, like.

Just a couple days ago, I was inside this, like, warm oven. I didn't have to do anything. Now I gotta work. I got this. Bright, like.

Oh, yeah. No, she's sweet. She's a sweetheart. But, yeah, we're excited. So Peyton's gonna be a little sweetheart for sure. So it's exciting. But, yeah, that's, that's my little story, and I'm sticking to it.

I like, I like Peyton. It's better than naming her Ditka.

Yeah, that would be so good.

Or the fridge.

Or McMahon. You can name. You can name a girl McMahon, right? That's not, that's not as cute as Peyton. I think Peyton's cute.

Yeah, well, she's a. She's a feisty little one. And she's gonna Be tough for sure. So.

Yeah, well, yeah, it's. I don't know. I don't understand why you want. Why your wife wants to hide that from the world. And it's clear as day. I don't even have to. I don't even have to. I don't even have to be a detective. And it's clear as day. The book you're reading is, you know.

Right.

Jeremy. Did you have to connect a lot of dots there?

It wasn't a really big illogical step for me. No.

Yeah.

I was just hoping it wasn't Peyton Manning.

Because what's more concerning is that you think we're not smart enough to figure that out.

Like, he's just covering his bases, that's all.

Just gotta cover him.

Yeah, but we gotta bring your wife on here and talk to her about this, because this doesn't make sense. So this. I've gone back to this book. There's probably. So this is Michael Craig Martin's on being an artist.

The reason why I went back to this book is because I've been going really deep into Joseph Albert's Yale class on color. By the way, this has nothing to do with anything that you guys are going to be interested in, but I'm telling you what I'm reading. Joseph Albers, who's a famous artist, taught at Yale for a couple years on about color. He had these crazy concepts. He did. And he. And they made these two books that are like collector's items. They're like a thousand bucks for him on color. And I have those books, and I've been reading them again because just his philosophy, like, it crosses over. Michael, who's one of my favorite artists, took that class at Yale, and he ended up being the professor of Damien Hirst. Later on in England, he taught Damien Hirst. And so he goes into, in detail here what he learned in the class. So now that I've read the book, I'm going back to this to go through it again. But that's what I'm doing. Probably, like I said, of no interest.

But that's where I'm at, the interrelations of color. You're learning, like, what colors to use and when and what they mean. Like, I don't know anything about being an artist, so I don't know how to do any of that.

Man.

So, okay, so he. He starts off, he talks about the color red.

So you. If I put. If I, you know, put up red right now. Well, I don't know. This back here is kind of red.

Well, it gives the example if you put the Coca Cola logo up for people and then later ask them which color red is a Coca Cola color. Most people get it wrong. Your perception of color has so much to do with the lighting, your previous experiences, the context of what it's on. So if it's on aluminum versus canvas, and so you're per. Everybody perceives color differently. And then he shows these tricks how when you layer different colors together, they look completely different than what they really are. So he can make. He can make three colors look like two. There's all kinds of things that happen, because the way we process things isn't. Isn't what it really is.

So it's fascinating.

But I'm writing this book, this book on leadership, right? So I'm actually finishing the course that we're gonna put up for all the managers on leadership. And one of the things that I have a hard time with when I'm teaching leadership is this idea that there's laws of leadership. Like, that leadership is so simple that if you do a B happens. It isn't like that. Leadership is more like martial arts. It's a practice. It's an art. So it's a high art, right? Like, when somebody's a good leader and you go to their business and the customer service is amazing, and the food's amazing, that's high art. That doesn't happen by accident. There's no, like, do this. This happens. It's practice. It's feedback loops. It's trial and error. It's constant improvement. The people that you have matter and their view on things and their context and how you train them. And, like, it's a complicated thing that. So I'm calling it the Dharma of leadership, not the laws. And I make that point up front that these things are things to be practiced. And, you know, everybody always has a question, like, can you. Can you train leadership? Like, are you born a leader, Adam? Are you born a leader, or can you learn to be a leader?

I think you can learn to be a leader in most cases, right?

Some people are a little further ahead.

But, yeah, I like that point, though. I really do. I think that's important. It's always practicing. You always have to practice. There's always different people. You know, Billy talked about who moved my cheese. It's simple. But you always have to continuously practice all those different leadership skills. I don't think anybody truly, like, 100% masters it, because you'll always be faced with something slightly, a little bit different. They're like, Okay. I think this is similar to what I came across before, but it might be totally different.

Well, yeah, and so that goes back to the Joseph Albert thing of the color red. Right. So also, like, maybe I'm a really good leader at running a dealership, but then you go say, hey, Kris, go run a pharmaceutical company. The lighting's different. The context is different, the way the financial statements work. Like, I remember when I was buying a dealership when I was younger, going around to banks, trying to get a loan to buy a dealership, and they would look at the financials, they go like, this doesn't make sense. And to them, they've been looking at software, pharmaceutical bars, restaurants, in automotive or transportation. Like, let's say you sell 25 international trucks in a month at a dealership, and the average price is 100 grand. The margins are tiny, but margins in pharmaceutical are like 60%. They can't get over the fact that you'd move $100,000 and only make five. Right. So the context is different in different businesses. And so I was going back to that to try to come back to the leadership training when I was writing it, because I want to be able to articulate that point, that leadership is a craft that you practice and you're constantly getting better at. You never arrive. You never put. Like you were just saying, you never put your feet up on the desk, and you're like, I won. I'm just a badass leader no matter what, in any situation. Like, you want me to go coach a basketball team? Yeah, I'm a natural leader, but I'm going to have to learn some stuff because it's a completely different. Yeah, I got these punk kids coming out of college that are making $5 million a year. It's a lot different than managing a service advisor. They got an agent. They. They think that they should be starting, right? Like, they're on their phones texting. They go, I got. I'm a brand. I got to be on Instagram. Right. That's totally different than managing a shop with technicians. And so, yeah, so that. That's actually why I was going back to that, because I was trying to figure out a way to articulate that in the training that is like, hey, this is something that even if you're not good today, if you practice and you learn and you make it a journey, not a destination, you can become a good leader over time.

It's crucial.

I just went on a. I'm sorry, I went on a rant, but that was awesome. I get excited about this kind of stuff, Jeremy, I like to get you excited, Chris. Jeremy's like, yeah, I'm great. You're excited. Okay. Could you move on to the next real quick?

Real quick.

How are you doing with Pet the Dog?

You're writing that book too, as well, right?

Yeah. So I got off of that for the leadership thing, but I wrote two new chapters that segue it. So if I could sit. If I could sit for a week, I could. I could finish it. It's close. It's good. I got some good stories in there. Are you more excited about Pet the Dog or Leadership?

Honestly, both. But I've got. I've got all these books that I need to, like, read.

You can throw that. That one. That one's a paperweight. You haven't read those?

I just got them. I just got them finally in the mail. You know, since we were starting this and I have all this time, you know, I just figured I'd just start reading.

Read the. Read the yellow one. That. Yeah, read the yellow one. That one's good.

I'm gonna start reading it to Peyton, you know, so to start learning at a young age. Gotta start him young.

Let's. We should. We should start talking to Mr. Roberts here.

He's having too much fun.

Hey, Billy.

I've ate up too much of the. Too much of the energy in the room.

Enjoying the conversation.

Teach us something, Billy.

Billy, tell us about indirect time.

Indirect time is a thing that has to be managed very well because indirect time is basically lost revenue or potential net profit. You take an average of $135 an hour. Labor rate every minute that is booked.

Indirect is $2 and 25 cent.

You take five minutes and it's $11.25. So.

You got to manage indirect time. And there's several ways of managing it. One is having a good service advisor team or good management team that goes out, finds it where it keeps the shop busy, where we don't have indirect time. Most of our mechanical shops, truck shops, are hourly based, not commission based. If it was commission based, you wouldn't have a problem. You wouldn't have indirect time. Because nobody wants to stand around, not get paid. But an hourly shop, if they don't have a ticket in front of them on repair order, then they gotta be doing something else or standing around. So it's a part of management to keep that up. There's two ways of checking indirect, and the way I've always did it is you take what we call. What I used to call in my days is Production is the hours that's put on a repair order, and what is sold off the repair order is what you hold the technician accountable for. That is his ability to perform his job based on the time you allow him to do it. The other part of it is hours worked versus hours billed. The difference between the two numbers is now the management is in part of that scenario, and we have a great tech team, but a poor management team, then your indirect time will probably go up. So every month, when your P and L comes out, it should be a separate line. You should be able to determine it. And a lot of shops will take line or a repair op based on your DMS system. And if a custom. If a technician doesn't have anything to do or you're putting in paint in the shop or fixing a tool, whatever.

You just got a humanitarian story for you.

Killing us.

I was walking down the street the other day, and I saw a homeless guy, and I thought that I'd share a bag of chips with him. He pushed me away and told me to get my own bag.

You should have got your own bag.

Hey, Christian.

Yeah?

Christian.

Since you're from our area, you know, the good area, can you admit on air that Portillo's is better than in and out? I just wanted. I wanted to drive that point because you've had both.

Oh, wow. That's a. That's a. That's a weird exit off the freeway.

So you want to compare a burger, a simple burger joint to Portillo's. It has, like, five different menus, 27 different lines to wait in.

I didn't say it was fair.

And it's.

No, you could go to that section. That section.

Like, you can have 25 different meals.

From Portillo's, like the buffet Bellagio, and.

Then you can have a chocolate shake at the end and a piece of cake.

Yeah, I'm gonna go.

Jeremy, have you had In N Out burger?

I ate it right next to you.

Oh, that's right. When you were out here.

It's so good. It's not a fair question. I'm still gonna go with Portillo's. But In N Out Burger, no slouch. I'll say that.

As long as we admit together that Portillo's is better. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Christian. I'm taking us out of the conversation. But it was important to me that we talked.

Mr. Roberts was talking about the silent killer, indirect time.

What do you. What do you think, Bill? What do you think? The average shop is out there for proficiency.

I'm gonna say in the mid-80s for proficiency. The average shop, if you took. Put them all together and what do.

You think the average shop has? How many technicians?

It vary in my area. Varies greatly from six technicians up to 18, 19 technicians. I mean, varies greatly.

What would the average be like 11, 12?

I'd say nine. Eight. Nine. Yeah.

Okay, we'll say, let's say 10, so we can do easy math. So if they're, if they're 20, they're losing 20%.

So they're losing 20%. And you got, you got 10 technicians. So that's 400 hours. If they were running at 100%, that's 400 hours a week, right?

Yep.

And so if you take two hours time, each one of them. So what is that? 20, 20 hours a week they were losing.

Yep.

And then the average effective labor, it's 100 bucks.

So quick it does. So what is that? So how much is that a week? In indirect.

We. 220 times 10 is 200 hours. So.

Of indirect.

So times 100 bucks, what is it.

$2,000.

So in a month's time, it's 8,000 bucks.

Yeah. That's pretty generous. I think you can. A lot of shops will realize more than that.

Well, you just double it, right, if you're at 60%.

Yep.

He's. Now it's 16,000amonth.

And that's a silent, like you said before, the silent code. I'm afraid that a lot of management managers doesn't look at it close enough. They think it's a necessary evil. It is, but we gotta manage it. I mean, like in today's times, the shops are slow. We should be doing things in indirect that give our customer a better experience with our dealership doing that type of stuff during indirect. But as the economy improves like it is now, then we really have to pay attention to our indirect because now's the time to get that customer satisfied and get them in and out. I've heard a comment, a couple comments over the years that, well, we'll just let the technician stay on the job until the end of the day because we don't have nothing for him. No, that's not necessarily the right management skill. Right management skills. Get the job done as quick as you can, get the customer back up and running on the road, and maybe something will come in. Or I'll bring something in later on the day.

Yeah, yeah, and turn that one around really quick. That comes in. Right. I'd rather have a guy standing ready to diagnose right away. Than have him buried on a job.

But.

So you said, you said something I think that that is very insightful, but you kind of ran by it, is that if a shop isn't efficient and they have a lot, a lot of indirect time.

Would. Would you be.

Would you be safe in assuming that their systems aren't that good?

Yeah.

Like, you know, we have the saying how we do anything's how we do everything. So you could imagine that if the, if the most important part of the business is the shop, because that's what we're selling is time, and if that is inefficient and it's not important enough to us to focus on and figure that out, to work on it until we figure it out, then you can make the assumption that the customer experience the receivable. There's just inefficiencies everywhere. If you're not focused on the one thing that's the most important thing, because let's face it, you never get that time back.

That's right.

Time is a resource that is gone. Never get it back.

It's a block of ice. It's going to last for eight to 10 hours and then it's gone. You can't. Can get it back.

Yep.

And so if that, if it's not important enough to make that a priority and to figure that out and work on it until you get to 100% and maybe, maybe even higher, then you probably are giving up inefficiencies in other parts of the business. Which I think is what we all see. Right. How we do anything is how we do everything.

And so there's.

Just to tie off.

Of that because I know, Billy, you and I have gone on some dealer visits ourselves. And when we look at indirect time and we look and we show service management teams that 8 to $10,000, the best thing that we can show them or educate them on is when we talk about their systems or inefficiencies. Guess what? To improve on those inefficiencies, it doesn't cost anything. It might just be a process, gap analysis and trying to improve some of those little inefficiencies on just how we do this. Like you just said, how we do anything, right? How we do everything is how we do anything. A little vice versa. But that's where we see a lot of things that we just change a little bit here, a little bit there. It goes directly to the bottom line and we improve on that and it doesn't cost anything. Majority of the time. Just getting the start does not Cost anything.

Having all the jobs ready at the beginning of the morning shift, have them laid out ready to go for the technician. Instead of having them stand around waiting for you to give them a job, but put it in place for them. Stuff like that. Just a small things. If you can save 1 10th a day for all your technicians, say 10 technicians, be more efficient every day. Start with something small. You can't start with, we're gonna go from 70 or 60%, we're gonna go to 90, let's go from 70 to 75. Then let's go from 75 to 80 and work up slowly. Let's make it a tangible goal that can be done. And simple as having a janitor pick up the drain pans and dump them instead of a technician. Technician only makes the company money when he's in that bay doing work on customer vehicles, not paying the shop, not working on tools, not running up to the parts counter. And that's one of the biggest things that back in my day, we didn't even think about a back parts counter. But once we proved it, I put a time clock at the parts counter. So every time my technicians went to that parts counter, they punched the time clock and when they got done, they punched off. And then I used that to show how viable it would be for tech for a parts guy to be walking up, down the floor. And it worked.

Yeah. Make it a priority. Like a lot of, A lot of people listening to this are super talented. The thing is, is make it a priority.

Absolutely.

Okay, then what, what, what are your thoughts on the P and L? The financial.

The P and L.

There'S controllables on the P and L, what we call below the line. And there's non controllables. The controllables. It's not a whole lot you can do. That's your rent, your, your electric bills and your fixed costs. It's not much you can do. But the non control, I mean the controllables are your comebacks, your, your tool purchases that you had it planned for.

Bonuses and stuff like that. You need to really look at every line on your P and L monthly. And really, if you don't understand it, go to your dealer, principal, go to your CFO and understand what makes that number you, you cannot control it if you don't know what's involved in it. So you really. Each line, every P and L is a little different. They kind of name things differently. So if you don't understand it, ask that question. The only bad question is a question you don't Ask. And once you determine what's in that P and L, what's on that line, then see if you could improve it. Can you do something with it? Because that's direct profit, loss, whatever that is. Sometimes it is what it is, but you need to understand it. Watch your variables. If you had a budget, you accounted for this, and it's way off the budget. Let's dig in deep and figure out why. Did we make a mistake during our budget plan or did we. Something occurred. This was in our control, but we let it get out of control. It's very important. We have to review it.

I think, too, it's important how you frame it when you're asking, like you said. And a lot of times if you go to your office manager or your general manager, dealer, and you say, hey, I'm trying to learn financials and understand them, will you mentor me? Always goes over way better than what's in here. What's this?

Absolutely.

Because an office manager kind of takes that as like, oh, you're poking around in my backyard and you're questioning things instead of, you know, flipping it and saying, hey, teach me, I want to learn. Come at it a little more, you know, with some humility. And the spirit of I want to learn and get better will always get you further than what's this?

Right. And they always hold you, they hold the service managers accountable for the net profit. So you, if you're going to be accountable for something, you got to know what's going on and you do have to ask the questions.

Yeah, for sure. That's good. I like that. I talked to you, you know, Billy, I talked to a guy who runs a. He's the fixed ops director of a group of a bunch of dealerships. And he didn't, he didn't know his nets are gross for the, for the group. Because I don't see the financial. They don't care about that. And I said, I'm going to tell you one thing. First of all, we can't do business together because that's how I grade our success is your bottom line and the customer experience. But second of all, stop telling yourself they don't care. Because I've never been in a general manager or dealer's office where the financial isn't within arm's length of where they are. And even though you're not seeing it.

When they see that number and it's bad, they see your face.

Absolutely. Today's DMS system, dealer management system, are so easy to build a dashboard where you can see this immediately and watch it daily. And a lot of it work. Back in my days, we had to do reports and you kept them and piled up on your desk. But today is so easier to set to get someone to help you set up a report that you can monitor on a daily basis. And it will really help manage your departments.

What are the things that they should be looking at daily? What would you put on that dashboard? What are the big ones that come to mind?

Labor sold outside purchases.

Part sales, hours.

Of technicians worked.

Indirect hours.

You get down to gross profit for the day of a closed ticket. But systems are so different now. Some you got to post them, some close immediately. So that's not real good. On a daily basis. You really need to see.

Your appointments. How many appointments you got coming in, what's scheduled, what's not scheduled.

Your daily totals for the month, a month to a day total, how you're growing every month. Because if you got a budget, you got to break it down in days.

You.

You need to try to stay in a steady climb instead of you going up a little bit and all. Once you got a climb a big hill at the end. And that's what people did in my day. They held tickets to the end of the month and then you had a great day. Two days at the last of the month. But we need to be consistent. Them jobs need to be closed on a regular basis. So you need to look at that. Your outstanding labor, you whip, you rip out, you whip hours, whip parts, stuff like that. Build it to what you think is right. Really determines on what you want to see on a daily basis. You're going to see it monthly anyway, but you need. It needs to work for you. I can go in and say this is what I see, but it may be a little different than what you want to see. So you need to build it to what you want to see. But take some advice from other service managers. What they see, you may see the benefit in your screen.

Yeah, it's good. That's great. That's awesome. Adam or Jeremy want to add anything to that before we wrap up?

I think Billy said it right. Perfect. I mean, doing all those, you know, little things can add up to high dollar. You know, of not only gaining efficiencies, but also the. The mindset of understanding what's going on as a broad operational standpoint of all the different lines of the business within the dealer. Right. I like the portion about talking about part sales and not only the labor. Sales, parts and service, I mean goes hand in hand and that's something that needs to continue to grow within our service network. I think we all grow and get better together on those type of aspects. But understanding the financials and where it's going and what levers to pull is huge. That's. That's what I'll end with. Go ahead, Jeremy.

Sorry.

Oh, it's okay, Adam. It's okay.

I know you're tired while you're thinking about that. Jeremy, the point too to that is not waiting until the end of the month to look right. Like Billy's point is like look every day because you know you're looking in the rear view mirror if you're looking at it a month because behind get in front of it and be looking at it every day.

Very true. I really liked how you mentioned appointments, Billy.

A lot of dealerships that I visited that I've talked to, they don't really ever mention appointments, but you need to have a system for appointments that are coming in a way, for scheduling them. You can use360, I think that's great for appointments, but whatever system you have, make sure you're using it and scheduling that work inside so that your advisors understand the workload for the day, your technicians understand the workload for the day. I think indirect. Managing indirect time is just so critical because like we mentioned earlier, your margin on new cars or new trucks is like 5%, 10%, something like that, but your margin on labor is 70%. That's a really huge. Service departments will keep carry dealerships through this time if, if you can schedule work incorrectly, if you can manage your workload. Service departments make the money. Parts departments make the money. As far as I'm concerned, sales is. Sales is important, but it's parts and services that are going to get us through this, that are going to make the real money for dealerships. And that comes back to managing that indirect and making sure that you keep that shop full and that your technicians are billing the work, that they billing the time that they work.

It's.

It's so critical. So I'm glad that you brought that up. Billy. Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Good. Great. Great show you guys. That was fun.

Excellent. Sorry, Sorry about the in and out comment, Chris. I just. I just really. I had to talk about that, bro.

I don't like you. You think there's some weird loyalty to in and out with me?

Yes, I think so. I think so. You brought it up on the first episode.

No.

It was a valid question.

Yeah, I'm not.

In and out is a good place to eat.

It's a great burger.

I've never. The only time I've ever had Portillo's is for lunch. And really, the only thing there that I like is the garbage salad, which is kind of like a tossed salad. In and out's more of an evening thing most of the time.

I know you and Christian have, like, some spicy Italian thing with a bunch of peppers on it and all that.

But the combo.

I find that I go back to work after that, and I need to take a nap.

Oh, geez.

And it's gotta be. You gotta have the gravy in it and everything like that. I just gained nine pounds.

Taku. Yeah? You gotta have it wet to dip the whole sandwich, man.

Yeah.

What do they dip it in?

It's like a grape jus.

It's the au jus sauce.

Yeah.

The whole sandwich?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can get it lightly dipped or full dunked. It's perfect.

Yeah. Full duck. Cut it with a knife and fork.

Doesn't all the peppers and all that stuff fall out?

Hey, that's not really a problem. You do.

Not a problem. You're eating it with a fork anyway.

You're eating a garbage salad, man. It's just. This is just more meat.

Yeah. You know what, Jeremy? I'm sorry. You brought it up, Sue.

Hey, one little fun fact. I don't think you guys noticed. Billy's actually from Chicago as well. The only problem with him is he's a Cubs fan.

Yep.

Sunny side Avenue in Clark.

Do me a favor, Jeremy, when we get off this, go on Amazon. Have you heard of Amazon? They sell books.

I've heard.

Type in. Type in In N Out Burger and see how many books come up written about In N Out Burger. And then do the same thing for Portillo's. And.

Zero. I bet zero Dick Portillo wrote a book.

That is how we determine the best restaurant ever is the amount of books that we read about it.

Well, let's just say about In N Out. Like, how many were written about. Not the guy, you know, doing some PR campaign, trying to avoid taxes in Florida.

Because, you know, he did that too, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He's been.

Why are people from. From Chicago so crooked?

It's. It's an art. We have to be this way.

It started in the 20s, man.

It's what our stereotype is. How would we. We have to make sure that we're fulfilling our expectations here.

You're not letting anybody down.

Do you know why they call it the Windy City?

Yeah, because that wind coming off the lake Goes through your soul, like, piercing. Like, I've never been colder in my life. Like you're, you're, you're. Whatever you call them. Your little, your little chestnuts disappear up into your throat. Like you have seven layers on and you're just like. It's like a knife. And then you walk inside and then you got to take off all seven layers and then go back outside. You got to put all seven layers back.

Yeah, that.

Why do they call it the Windy City?

That's all the politics. Everything sways back and forth.

That's really what it is.

On that note, we will see you guys all next time on Service Revolution.

Thanks, everybody.

I mean, doing all those, you know, little things can add up to high dollar. You know, of not only gaining efficiencies, but also the mindset of understanding what's going on as a broad operational state standpoint of all the different lines of the business within the dealer. Right. I like the portion about talking about part sales and not only the labor, sales, parts and service, I mean, goes hand in hand. And that's something that needs to continue to grow within our, our service network. I think we all grow and get better together on those type of aspects. But understanding the financials and where it's going and what levers to pull is huge. That's. That's what I'll end with. Go ahead, Jeremy.

Sorry.

Oh, it's okay, Adam. It's okay.

I know you're tired while you're thinking about that. Jeremy. The point too to that is not waiting until the end of the month to look. Right. Like Billy's point is like, look every day because you know you're looking in the rear view mirror. If you're looking at it a month behind, get in front of it and be looking at it every day.

Very true.

I really liked how you mentioned appointments, Billy.

A lot of dealerships that I visited that I've talked to, they don't really ever mention appointments. But you need to have a system for appointments that are coming in a way for scheduling them. You can use360. I think that's great for appointments, but whatever system you have, make sure you're using it and scheduling that work in so that your advisors understand the workload for the day, your technicians understand the workload for the day. I think managing indirect time is just so critical because like we mentioned earlier, your margin on new cars or new trucks is like 5%, 10%, something like that, but your margin on labor is 70%. That's a really huge service departments Will carry dealerships through this time. If you can schedule work incorrectly, if you can manage your workload, Service departments make the money. Parts departments make the money. As far as I'm concerned, Sales is. Sales is important, but it's parts and services that are going to get us through this, that are going to make the real money for dealerships. And that comes back to managing that indirect and making sure that you keep that shop full and that your technicians are billing the work, that they. Billing the time that they work. It's. It's so critical. So I'm glad that you brought that up, Billy. Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Good. Great. Great show, you guys. That was fun.

Excellent. Sorry. Sorry about the in and out comment, Chris. I just. I just really. I had to talk about that, bro.

I don't like you. You think there's some weird loyalty to in and out with me?

Yes, I think so. I think so. You brought it up on the first episode.

It was a valid question.

Yeah, I'm not.

In and out is a good. Is a good place to eat.

It's a great burger.

I've never. The only time I've ever had Portillo's is for lunch. And really, the only thing there that I like is the garbage salad, which is kind of like a tossed salad. In and out is more of an evening thing most of the time.

I know you and Christian have, like, some spicy Italian thing with a bunch of peppers on it and all that.

But the combo.

I find that I go back to work after that and I need to take a nap.

Oh, geez.

And it's gotta be dipped. You gotta have the gravy in it and everything like that. I just gained nine pounds.

Talking about. Yeah, you gotta have it wet to dip the whole sandwich, man.

What do they dip it in?

It's like a gravy.

It's the au jus sauce.

Yeah.

The whole sandwich.

Yeah. You can get it lightly dipped or full dunked.

It's full duck with a. Cut it with a knife and fork.

Doesn't all the peppers and all that stuff fall out?

Hey, that's not really a problem. You do.

Not a problem. You're eating it with a fork anyway.

You're eating a garbage salad, man. It's just. This is just more meat.

Yeah. You know what, Jeremy? I'm sorry. You brought it up, Sue.

Hey, one little fun fact. I don't think you guys noticed. Billy's actually from Chicago as well. The only problem with him is he's a Cubs fan.

Yeah.

Sunnyside Avenue and Clark.

Do me a favor, Jeremy, when we get off this go on Amazon. Have you heard of Amazon? They sell books.

I've heard.

Type in. Type in in and Out Burger and see how many books come up written about in and Out Burger. And then do the same thing for Portillo's.

And.

Zero. I bet zero.

Dick Portillo wrote a book.

That is how we determine the best restaurant ever is the amount of books that we read about it.

Well, let's. Let's just say about In n Out. Like how many were written about, not the guy you know, doing some PR campaign.