Digital Dealer - July 2018 - 28

C O V E R S TORY ( Continued from pg. 27)

QUESTION: Thank you for agreeing
to this interview, Kevin. This will be
our second interview with you; the
first was in 2010. As an eCommerce
director, what major changes have you
noticed in digital marketing since your
last interview with us? What was it like
then, how is it today?
ANSWER: When I first came
onboard, I was managing small teams
of people at each store to work our
internet opportunities, while only a
small portion of our overall marketing
budget was dedicated to digital. Fast
forward to today, every sales rep works
internet opportunities, and each sales
rep and sales manager is trained in how
to work with internet opportunities
and digital marketing. It is an all-hands
effort, now.
The other big change is that more
than half of our marketing budget
is dedicated to digital. I used to be a
single-person operation, and I now
have a full department. We even have
an internal studio and a video team: a
director, a producer, someone to do all
the graphics. Video is a key element of
what we're doing digitally.
QUESTION: It sounds like you have
an agency in-house. How many people
are on the team?
ANSWER: We do. We have seven
people in our eCommerce department.
In addition, at each one of our
dealerships, we have an internet team
leader, who is our key contact with that
store.
QUESTION: As a former Naval
officer who served in combat, you must
have strong opinions about leadership.
What traits does a true leader exhibit,
and can leadership be learned?
ANSWER: It can be learned. I
learned several things about leadership
as a Naval officer. Number one, take
care of your people. Number two is
to lead by example. Number three,
be decisive. You also have to be
courageous.
The Jeff Wyler Automotive Family
was a great fit for me because they are

28

J U LY 2 0 1 8

not afraid to fail. They always had this
culture of being progressive. As an
organization, we are willing to push the
limits to find better customer-facing
solutions, which enable us to be the
best in our market. And it takes a lot of
courage to do that, and I'm proud to be
part of that culture.
QUESTION: So, you believe
leadership can be learned?
ANSWER: I do. In fact, we have a
full-time leadership trainer in-house
here. That's a key difference. The
reality in automotive is that most
people are promoted to sales manager
positions because they were great at
selling cars. That doesn't necessarily
mean the same person is going to be
a great leader or a great manager. So,
we make best efforts to empower our
people and give them the tools and
training they need to succeed as good
leaders. Training is a core value and a
differentiator for us.
QUESTION: This kind of feeds
into my next question. What is your
management philosophy?
ANSWER: My management
approach is simple. To be successful,
you must help those around you to
succeed. It's a selfless approach to
management. In automotive, I'm all
about "Don't tell, sell." Rather than
telling someone what to do, I believe in
taking the time to educate our teams,
all the way down to the salesperson
level, on why we are doing things.
When they understand and believe in
what we're doing, you're in the best
position to succeed. I think a lot of
dealerships don't give their people
the benefit of fully understanding
why they're doing things. We do. We
just came out of sales training the last
couple of days and we shared exactly
what we're doing and why and make
them part of the process. Having clear
goals and direction is why we're one of
the Top 50.
QUESTION: You're a strong
advocate for disrupting the industry
with strong leadership. What

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

suggestions do you have for creating
change in the marketplace?
ANSWER: It is highly competitive
in this industry because there is always
another dealer ready to take you on.
More important, today, there are more
and more outside disruptors who
want to come in and take a piece of
our market. We, as dealers, cannot be
afraid to test new concepts.
Unfortunately, the biggest critics
to change in our industry are often
our fellow dealers, which has allowed
outside disruptors to move in. I would
say, stop being so cynical, be willing
to make aggressive changes, and
take a look back at every successful
traditional retailer that has gone
bankrupt. You hear these famous
stories about how Blockbuster failed, or
Polaroid failed, whatever the case may
be. The key thing they share across the
board is that they were too stubborn
and arrogant to recognize they were
failing to keep up with modern-day
consumers' expectations. We cannot
repeat that mistake.
QUESTION: That's very on-point
today. Do you think it's changing, as
new generations come on-board?
ANSWER: It's getting better.
You asked earlier about the biggest
changes in automotive since our
last interview in 2010. Hands down,
the biggest change is the advent of
mobile. I can tell you today that your
average dealership website is between
60 to 70% of the shoppers visiting
from a mobile device. And for those
who are currently shopping for a car,
we're seeing between 70 and 78%
of those shoppers are mobile. That
means everything a smart dealer does
today should start by looking at the
smartphone first. What is the size of
your message? How fast is that content
loading? These are key elements in
meeting their expectations where
they're shopping.
The second biggest change is the
transition from how early shoppers
online were primarily conducting
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - July 2018
