A YouTube discussion (posted by Chris Collins) arguing that dealerships should move their top salespeople into service-advisor roles because service will remain the durable profit and relationship center as car sales move online. Speakers cite industry uncertainty for new-car sales (direct-to-consumer trends, EVs, inventory/interest-rate pressures) but assert vehicles still need service, so dealerships should redeploy top-selling employees to build customer relationships, manage portfolios, and act as concierges handling both service and purchases. The clip ends with promotional CTAs (subscribe, phone line, offers site).
Questions this video answers
August 2, 2023.
8333-ASK SDR (8333-275 737) as stated: 'call 8333-ASK SDR'.
offers.chriscollinsInc.com
Chapters
Can we get to the main topic? Because I'm excited about this.
It's an incendiary.
Move your top salesperson to your service department. What? Tomorrow walk out and go, tom, you're moving to service. You're going from being a salesperson to an advisor.
Crazy pants.
Why is it crazy pants?
Because they're the salesperson.
Listen, did you see the Berkshire Hathaway, the three hour Warren Q and A with Warren and Charlie Munger?
Yeah.
So they were asked something about the car business. Now Berkshire Hathaway owns. They bought van tile.
Yes. They got a bunch of dealerships.
They got a bunch of dealerships. High performing dealerships. Van tile, you know, knows how to sell cars. Right.
And so they, they're familiar with our business. It's not, they're vested in it. They have, they have a, a mark, you know, they have a share of the market when it comes to it. So they are posed with the question, what, what is, what is going to happen with the car business? Where is the car business headed? And Buffett says, I know where Apple's going to be in five or 10 years. I have no idea where the car business is going to be in five or 10 years. Which is true. We don't know where the sales department in the car business is going to be in five to 10 years, which.
Is what everybody thinks about when they hear the word car business.
So we don't know. We know that Tesla is going to direct to consumer. We know that the manufacturers want to do that. We know they're going to want to do it more than ever now. The dealers are going to be pushing back on inventory levels. Interest rates are up there. You know, car sales are going to slow down. Used cars are, are going to see some sort of correction the other way in, in value. We know all of that is going to happen. The Fed is going to force that on the marketplace no matter what because they want inflation to come down. Cars are a huge part of the economy and they're, they're big numbers. Here's the other thing that we know. It doesn't matter if it's gas, it doesn't matter if it's electric. They break. They also need tires and brakes and other things. Service isn't going anywhere.
Captive audience.
So I don't know. You're right, Mr. Buffett. I don't know where the new car department's going to be in five or 10 years. I do know that the service department is going to be in demand, is going to be the main profit center of the dealership in the heart and soul. And so move your top salesperson to the service department now. And let me go through the lists, the reasons why.
And. And just before you do that, just a guess here, but I'm going to ask this anyway. Which service departments will be the ones that win?
The ones that have the technicians.
Oh, okay. Just checking.
We better start.
We.
We better learn how to grow them, train them, like cloning, make them like it.
Yep. Attracting new people to the business, all that stuff.
Top salesperson.
You were in sales. What is the. What is the real value of a good salesperson?
Okay, so I hope I get this right, but I'm gonna say in our terms, the ability to collect customers.
Yeah. Relationships. They have equity in the marketplace because they have relationships. And if they're your top salesperson, they have a lot of repeat referrals. Right. A lot of people are coming back to them over and over again. They've been around for. For a while. Right. So they have relationships. What's the number one thing that you need in service?
Ability to build a relationship and trust.
Yep. So that's an easy. That's an easy thing to get your head around. Right. The next one I have is, in business, you constantly want to do an inventory of where your leverage is and what assets you have to put that leverage behind. Right. Your biggest leverage in the future is going to be the service department and your relationships with your customers. If they can go directly on the Internet and buy a vehicle, it's the after relationship, because the vehicle purchases more now, becoming less and less personal and more of a transaction.
Right.
It's more of a. Hey, I built it online and I ordered it, versus I'm going to go down and see my buddy Christian.
I was going to say, I think that's been happening for. For a long time, even excluding the electric thing.
So I want to put my leverage right in my assets, in position strategically to have the best chance of total world domination, in a sense. So the people that have the relationships that are the best salespeople, my best talent. I want to move to the. The service department because that's where the future is.
That's why the pitcher doesn't back clean up.
Yeah.
Most of the time those salespeople are better at relationships. They're better at sales.
They're. They're probably better at running a team of technicians. Yeah.
They just don't know it yet. Right.
Yeah. But I would say. I would say a lot of those salespeople would have better relationships with the technicians than the advisors that are duds.
Mm.
Right.
That are sent. Easy, Easy. Yes.
Okay. And the. The last one that I have on my. On my list, which I think brings this awful circle and makes one. One very.
Cohesive point.
They can still sell cars.
Make it easier for them to sell cars.
Yeah.
If it's easy for the customer to buy a car online, make it easy for them to sell a customer a car. And they can still write service. But I would say the future is those. The most talent. Those salespeople are going to have a portfolio of customers that they're going to manage, and they're going to handle service. They're going to handle the car purchase. They're going to, you know, they're going to be like a concierge more than anything else.
That's so smart. And what a great opportunity for a salesperson.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's better hours. It's the best of both worlds, but with better hours. Right. No Saturdays till midnight and all that other stuff. Right.
So which. Nobody wants to do that anymore anyways.
Yeah.
Thanks so much for watching this clip.
Of Service Driver 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 to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll.
