Digital Dealer - October 2017 - 23

any changes, look for things that
are out of order, hazards in the
workplace, that sort of stuff. We use
KPA, where they do walk-throughs
and educate our people as far as
best practices in each department.
So, a collision center employee, for
example, has different standards
than what a technician has, which
is different than what an office
person or a sales person has.
Everybody gets specific training
based on their position.

COULD YOU TALK ABOUT
YOUR REAL DEAL ADVANTAGE PROGRAM? We picked

up that idea from another dealer
in our 20 Group. We modified it
to what we call the Real Deal. It's
trying to be more transparent with
the customer. We have a small
booklet put together with all the
information we have on the car
they're purchasing. Included in
the booklet is AutoCheck/CarFax.
That the car wasn't in an accident,
but if it was in an accident, at least
they get prior knowledge of that.
We show the repair orders and the
work that was done in our shop.
We give them a 90-day-3,000-mile
powertrain warranty on the vehicle.
We give them a full tank of gas. In
the state of Wisconsin, you have
to do a 156-point inspection on all
of our vehicles we put on the lot.
It's something we present to our
customers as a step-up from just
a normal used car, trying to build
confidence in the vehicle. It's not a
certified car but it's not just a plain
old used car, either. We tried to
do the extra steps on it, to make it
more transparent, more believable.
That they are getting a good value
for what they're spending their
money on. It makes it that much
more transparent if they're able to
see the CarFax, if they're able to see
what you did to it before it was put
on the lot. To be honest, we spend a
lot of money fixing up our vehicles
and it should be something we're
proud of. We're spending roughly
$800 on each car, a $1,000 on each

truck. So, we're spending a fair
amount of money and we ought to
be patting ourselves on the back by
saying, well, this is everything we
did to your car. It's peace of mind
for the customer. They know if
you put new tires on or new brake
pads on or whatever, so they know
they've got 40,000 miles before
tires and brakes have to be replaced
again.
YOUR DEALERSHIP IS IN
GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN, A
MODEST-SIZED CITY BUT
STILL ICONIC AND HOME TO
THE WORLD-RENOWNED NFL
PACKERS. HOW DOES YOUR
BUSINESS SERVE THE LOCAL
COMMUNITY? This is a small

town, comparatively speaking. It's
certainly the smallest in the NFL
by a long shot. It has what I would
like to call small-town charm, as
opposed to the big city, which has
its advantages, too. The dealers in
our town are all heavily involved
in the things that are important to
them. You can't donate to absolutely everything. We try to direct
most of our donations to disadvantaged youth Like the Girls and
Boys Clubs, we're big sponsors in
that. We're also a big sponsor of a
local organization called Rawhide,
which is for young men, teenagers,
typically from a fatherless family
that haven't had a whole lot of
direction and they're caught up
in the court system. The young
men fall between the cracks and
Rawhide provides a place to try and
get re-established without going to
prison. We've been involved with
these organizations for ten-fifteen
years. We're also involved with the
fundraising through the different
schools, with the programs through
Ford and Lincoln. We've also been
involved with our local Y.M.C.A.
and Salvation Army in their building expansions. Another one is
City Stadium Automotive. We help
sponsor with our fellow competitors in Green Bay an automotive
program at the public high schools.

We pay to set up a garage in one of
the schools and the students actually get automotive training, with the
goal of leading them into a career
in automotive servicing.
The greatest opportunity that
exists and I think this is true of
any industry is where will the next
generation of employees come
from? Where do we go to find the
technical skills and the knowledge
we need to work in a dealership?
You can't just hire Joe Schmo off
the road anymore. You're looking
for a specific skill set and that has
to be developed at a high school or
a technical school level or even the
university level and I think it's very
difficult to find people today. Our
biggest opportunity is finding good
people, no matter what position
it's for.
FINAL QUESTION, YOU'VE
BEEN SELLING CARS FOR
MORE THAN THREE DECADES. THAT'S A LONG TIME
FOR A CAREER. WHAT DO
YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE
BUSINESS? Our customers. You

meet people from every walk of life.
At some point, the vast majority of
people have to buy a car, trade in
a car so you eventually get to meet
people from every sort of background imaginable. It's fun to talk
to them because everyone has an
interesting story to tell. So, I would
say the most interesting part of our
day is just going down to the Sales
department and talking to customers. One of the key things we do is
Mike, Dan, and I shake hands with
every customer when they're picking up their vehicle. It gives them a
chance to meet the actual owner of
the car dealership and they know if
they have a problem they can just
pick up a phone and call one of us.
In the process of telling them that,
you get to hear their stories and
how many cars they bought from
us, what they do for a living, just all
kinds of fun stuff. The customers
make the business fun. ■

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

OCTOBER 2017

23
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - October 2017
