Glenn Pasch: Carvana - Love Them Or Hate Them? You Should Thank Them!

By: Michael Cirillo   |   12 May 2022
Glenn Pasch

Glenn Pasch is the CEO of PCG Digital, author, speaker, and one of the most reputable voices in the retail automotive industry when it comes to marketing management, leadership, and growth. In light of the recent Carvana announcements, there have been two narratives throughout the industry. Either you love them or you hate them.

In this episode of the Dealer Playbook, Michael and Glenn focus more on the expectations of customers that Carvana aimed to fix. Regardless of your feelings toward them as a company, there is much to observe and learn that can be directly applied to your dealership operations.


What Car Dealers Can Learn From Carvana: 

 

  • 01:59 - Over the last 2 years (through the pandemic), we've had to make a lot of changes in the automotive industry in how we interacted with car shoppers/buyers. A lot of it did depend on where you were located in the United States. I'm in New Jersey and we were totally on lockdown. So you could not go into a dealership. Parts of California, Florida, and parts of Georgia. It didn't matter. You could still go into the dealership and somewhat transact in the same manner that you had previously.
  • 02:52 - The transaction sped up, and dealers were willing to do more over the phone, by email, and via digital retailing tools. While it's easy to throw stones at companies like Carvana, the reality is that they helped facilitate the direction that car buyers were moving already. They just paid attention and tried to provide an experience to match. Regardless of feelings toward them, their actions created urgency for many dealerships to look deeply at their existing customer experience process and make tweaks.
  • 06:24 - The question is whether we are willing to constantly move forward by examining what we want our businesses to be? We have a tendency to make changes based on external factors. For example, what is the dealer down the street doing? What is Bob at my 20 groups doing? The magic happens when we decide what we want the customer to feel when working with us and work backward internally from there.
  • 07:42 - You can't knock Carvana for trying to market to customer pain points. Sure they are struggling right now, but their whole premise was going out and marketing that they provide a different, updated experience. The only reason to knock that is if you're so set in your ways that you're unwilling to make changes for yourself.
  • 09:11 - Dealers have everything they need to succeed at the game right now. Michael shares about UBER and how they re-processed existing tools and resources to provide a fresh, updated customer experience. The same option is available to dealers who are willing to think outside the box.
  • 11:45 - It's important to make a process that is scalable and repeatable.
  • 13:54 - Nothing is more scaleable than having no process at all. It just scales to nothing. But doing nothing is very repeatable.
  • 14:09 - the problem is that there are some in the retail auto industry who are focused on the short term when in reality, we need to be playing more of the long game.
  • 16:46 - Google's most recent customer data explains that car shoppers today (Gen Z/Millenial) are more likely to be loyal to the experience they receive over the product sold.

Listen to the full episode for even more insights and context about providing a killer customer car shopping/buying experience.

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Thanks, Glenn Pasch

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Michael: All right, gang. So just a few weeks ago, I'm sitting in Glen Lundy's office in Kentucky observing a debate about, is it people or is it the marketing or is it. The Carvana's of the world, like who's causing us all this grief. I mean, you got individuals like Ali Rita, who is selling a gazillion don't fact check the number, but he's selling a crap ton of vehicles, all on relationship, not really active on social.

[00:00:29] And then you've got the other side of the debate, which is like, ah, but our marketing sucks. And what about our website? And are we saying the right thing on social or what are we putting? None other person better to join me then the CEO of PCG digital, a good pallet DPB alum, Glenn Pash. Thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook

[00:00:48] Glenn: podcast.

[00:00:49] My absolute pleasure. I cannot wait to spend some time chatting with you. One of my favorite people in the world. That's you Glenn. Oh,

[00:00:57] Michael: shucks. Now I'm blushing for those that are listening only I'm blushing. Yes. Um, well, you know, I always enjoy. Chatting with you because you and I tend to follow a similar vein or thought process.

[00:01:12] However, you always, at least in my estimation have a much more, well thought out process than mine, but we at least kind of move in the same direction, which is why does any of this matter if we don't have a foundation in place? Like who cares? What Carvana is doing. If you have no desire to change anything internally for your own store, who cares if your competitor has better marketing, but doesn't have a process to match.

[00:01:40] So I want to get into this with you. What should we be thinking about? And I mean, by the way, I know you're speaking at digital dealer and that's coming up, does this, does this tie into what you're going to be talking about at digital dealer?

[00:01:52] Glenn: Yeah, a little bit. I think that what I'm speaking about at digital dealer is this idea of over the past.

[00:01:59] Two years, two and a half years now, we had to make a lot of changes in the automotive industry of how we interacted with our customers. A lot of it did depend on where you were located in the United States. I'm in New Jersey and we were totally on lockdown. So you could not go into a dealership. Parts of California, Florida, parts of Georgia.

[00:02:22] It didn't matter. You could still go into the dealership and somewhat transact in the same manner that you had previously. Right. But there were, there were changes that you had to make. Some of them you were forced to make, whether you liked it or not, but actually it was better for the customer. And Al your thinking on the other side of this, as we are back to a whatever sense of normalcy you want to say, have we gone back words?

[00:02:52] Did we forget all of those good things that happen for the customer? The transaction sped up, you were willing to do more over the phone, over email, over a, if you had a digital retailing tool or piece of technology you, you had to, and it worked and you made money sometimes more money. And now all of a sudden.

[00:03:12] Are you thinking, well, that's great. Now I that's a foundation I can move forward on or is it, oh, thank God. It's over. I'm going back to what I used to do. So, and to your point, I think we tend to throw stones at other people, be at the Carvana's or the dealer down the street or whatever it is. Ultimately you pose the, the absolute best question is, are you going to change?

[00:03:37] Does that really matter? Are you willing to learn from Carvana forget what, uh, what you think of them? What are they doing? And do you want to apply some of that to your business? And if you do okay, if you don't then why is it even taking up any space in your mind? If you're not going to look at it, inspect it and, or potentially change something.

[00:03:58] You said

[00:03:58] Michael: it a couple of times and it makes me think, you said kind of this return to normal. And I was thinking about this the other day. What even is normal anymore. Like do, and do I want to return to it or have we passed this, this threshold where by things, but the new normal is now where, and what I mean by that is dealers are going to have less inventory.

[00:04:22] Maybe this was the catalyst for smaller floor plans, or, you know, um, more of an emphasis on service departments or whatever it might be, who I really. Am I latching on too much to the idea of what I look like. Did we all just become our parents over COVID Glen? That's what I want. You know, none of these young gen Z or whatever.

[00:04:47] Um, do I want to, do I want to return to that or should I be embracing the new

[00:04:52] Glenn: norm? Well, I think it, it's a great conversation piece. If someone really wants to sit down for a moment and think about it because every generation where the previous generation has that moment of things have changed and back in my day, and you know, all of that, but the reality is we have moved forward.

[00:05:12] We're always moving forward. So. This, you know, right. This last two years, we had change. You could go back to when stock market crashed in 2000 or previously, or 2008 or whatever it was, you could say, oh my God, that changed interest rates were up when we had to deal with that at one time, every, every era, every, you know, you can look at any timeframe and say, that was great.

[00:05:40] That was bad. We changed. The question really is what's happening in front of us, right? Your your point, maybe this is when the, the manufacturer says we don't need ground stock of sixty, ninety, a hundred twenty days. 30 is good enough because then maybe I don't have to incentivize, you know, stair-step programs to move metal and dealers are saying, well, I have to lose money on the front end.

[00:06:05] But if I get, if I just sell my cars, I get money from the manufacturer. So I, when, when all of a sudden everyone says, maybe we don't have to do that anymore. Let's look at less staffing. Do we need all of the people? Do we need more people in our, in our dealership, you know, where we actually understaffed and selling in spite of ourselves.

[00:06:24] So everything is an evolution we're constantly moving forward. The question really is, are you willing to look at everything through the lens of what you want your business to be? We have a tendency to make changes or. I think we should make changes based on external influences the dealer down the streets doing X, I should do X Bob at my 20 group.

[00:06:47] Does X, I need to do this instead of really saying, what do I want my customers to feel when they're done and work backwards? That's what I think you were. If you work backwards, then you always have that anchor, that all decisions can go

[00:07:05] Michael: through. Interesting to that point. It makes me think about the challenge we have in this industry, the shiny object syndrome or the buzz word, you know, whatever and how we are still putting a lot of faith, hoping that something else will solve problems for us.

[00:07:27] But to your point, what do I want the customer to feel and work backwards from there? And that's what. Uber did. That's what Airbnb did. That's what Tesla has done. Probably

[00:07:42] Glenn: Carvana. Yeah. And they marketed to all those pain points and frustrations that people had and said, yes, I don't like that. And they offered something different or the perception of something different because.

[00:07:56] Is every Carvana customer or room customer happy. No, they're struggling, but they, their, their whole premise was going out to market to say, we're different. We want you to feel this way. So what do we have to do? And so, so when you work backwards and you say, Here's how I want them to feel, okay, this is what we have to do.

[00:08:17] My, my employees have to do this to make them feel that way. And then we build a process so we can repeat it and do it all the time. And then we go find the people that fit the process to deliver. And then we get the tech to help the customer and help my team. Right. That all those decisions are, should I do?

[00:08:34] So Bob has a great idea. He uses X product and you say, well, that sounds great. And then you come back and you say, well, What do I really need to change something? If I do, is it an addition? Is it a replacement? What is it? Right. But you have this thought, well thought out plan that you can constantly look at.

[00:08:55] And then I think you're, it's easier to be adaptable to these changes because you have this anchor now, again, you're not maybe saying LA LA LA fingers in your ears. This is the only way it is, but at least you have something to compare it to when having a discussion about change.

[00:09:11] Michael: Yeah. Let's use Uber. I mean, I don't want everyone to hate the podcast that we've said Carvana 10 times in the last five minutes.

[00:09:20] Right. Look, if you did that, you listening, if you had done what they did, guess what you'd be hated right now by the others. You're like the bulls-eye would be on your back, but it makes me think about, well, what did they all do then? Um, cause you're talking, you're talking about this internal process, which we need to get to, but the first thing that comes to my mind is, you know, if you look at Uber or Airbnb, they didn't create something new.

[00:09:45] They repackaged many existing assets. Into a modern, much more scalable process. They didn't invent the internet. They didn't invent smartphones. They didn't invent payment processing. They didn't invent ride sharing taxis on and on and on maps. They assembled all of those already existing assets into something that made much more sense to the audience that they were paying attention to.

[00:10:14] And that's available to everybody. And it comes down to process. We would hate Uber right now. And it probably a similar way that Carvana has taken a lot of heat. If their process sucked, they feel calm on

[00:10:29] Glenn: the top level. Oh, and that's what, and it's a perfect analogy because what they did was. Whatever the, the, the instigation or, or where that idea started or formulated, but it was a frustration point for someone, someone was frustrated and said, why can't this be better?

[00:10:52] Why can't this be easier? Why is this always a struggle? And I don't like it, but I have to, there has to be a better way. Right? That's the conversation that started. And then that then to your point is they went out and said, okay, What do I need to solve this? Or what does solving it? Look in my mind or what's my wishlist of things.

[00:11:12] Well, what if I could just type in my phone and somebody showed up and I didn't have to wait. Great. Then you say, well, great, well, we have phones, but no, I don't need to invent a phone. What else? What, what, what tools like the Avengers? What do we have to assemble to have.

[00:11:28] Michael: Somebody got teenage kids. Oh

[00:11:31] Glenn: yes.

[00:11:33] Michael: But you're right. Yeah. It makes absolute sense. And so that all has to be met with process to your point. I mean, none of this makes sense if you can't sustain.

[00:11:45] Glenn: It has to be repeatable. And that's the point is that, uh, I've, I've shared this story before I was in the restaurant industry for a long time. And I worked at this was way back in the eighties before, you know, smartphones and social media.

[00:11:57] So you relied on word of mouth. And you relied on a review from the New York times in New York city to validate this was a great place to go. Right. But the owner would say, it doesn't matter if we can't deliver it every day, because there are so many places to get a great steak or great seafood. So he said, you know, we have to deliver that experience that surrounds the food.

[00:12:20] Yes, the food has to be good, but he said it's, it's, what's around it. And we have to work hard that every time someone comes here, we give them that same experience where it's constantly getting better, but it's, it's repeatable so that if they come back a second time, a third time, a fourth time, or recommend someone to come in, the person goes, you were right.

[00:12:38] That was a great experience. Versus are you kidding me? That was horrible. Don't ever recommend restaurants. So that idea of how do we do that for our dealers? How can we create this experience around the vehicle? Because the vehicle is the vehicle, but around it, how can we take from other industries?

[00:12:55] Things that made us happy when we got our reservation from a hotel or we bought something or we went somewhere and it was a great experience. How do we go, well, what did they do? And can I do it here to help my customers feel that same way about interacting with my dealers?

[00:13:13] Michael: You know what makes me think of the experience I had purchasing our Hyundai Palisade love the vehicle.

[00:13:20] What I mean, like they've thought of everything for families. Um, without us having to suffer the shame of driving, what I call the Bradley assault vehicle, AKA minivan. Right. Um, they thought of everything, smooth vehicle, um, entertainment throughout just like. The process of purchasing that vehicle sucked so bad, so, so bad, nothing is more repeatable than not having a process to begin with.

[00:13:54] Nothing stands out more than delivering on an exceptional process and moving into this day and age. I'd love your thoughts, but I mean, we can't afford to have a bad process. We can't afford to have a scalable. Piss poor process.

[00:14:09] Glenn: Well, I'll push back a little bit because there potentially can be some misguided thought around this.

[00:14:21] I agree with you, but there will be some people who are focused on very short-term. I sold the car. They're not coming back for three or four or five years. The danger is you don't know at any given time, if this person, uh, has a following of thousands and thousands of people are, is very influential in, in your market.

[00:14:43] That one bad review may, could potentially influence, but you know, why would you only want to sell one car versus retaining that person long-term so they don't think of anyone else to service their car, buy a vehicle from that, you know, in a person's mind you become their dental. There doctor, you know, you don't change your dentist every three years, unless of course there's a major, you just go to your dentist unless, right.

[00:15:08] Right. So, so I, I, I can understand sometimes why the bad processes or they rely so much on personality of the salesperson or the, you know, that that individual gives, does a great job versus. I can put most people into this process and I train them and they can deliver a great experience. Yes, those people who are just exceptional, they just have a knack.

[00:15:33] Well, there'll be excellent. But I want the bulk of my people to deliver a great experience to my people and that takes work. And that is something that should be repeatable because it's, even if it's not, let's take a take, look at it a little differently. Forget the customer from. We're not the customer who wants to be frustrated as a worker, as an employee coming in every day.

[00:15:57] And I don't know what's right or what's wrong, or it changes if Michael's running the dealership today as the general manager or Glenn's doing it today. Cause Glen does it differently than, or on the flip side, if I'm a manager and I have 12 salespeople and everybody does it differently, how the hell am I going to keep tracking?

[00:16:13] 12 different processes. How can I get them better at their perf? That to me is a very frustrating work environment. So again, we tend to think about it always for the customer, but we should also be thinking about it for our employees to create an environment where they. Understand that every day, what my job is not to figure it out.

[00:16:34] You just come in, play the game. There's going to be somebody watching me helping me succeed, but I know what I'm doing. Nobody's going to work in a place where every day it's like spin the wheel and let's see what changes.

[00:16:46] Michael: Um, you made me think of some data that Google shared, um, about how today's car shoppers.

[00:16:56] Specific to, I want to say gen Z in particular, maybe some gray area with millennial, but if you look at these two segments that have a higher likelihood of lifetime value than some of it, the aging segments, um, they were pointing out how these shoppers are less likely to be loyal to a particular brand and more loyal to an experience.

[00:17:22] Glenn: Absolutely. I think we all are. I think we all are even, even the aging segment. You know, if you think about it, I go to you go to a certain restaurant over and over and over again. If I came to, you know, you came here, I'm going to take you to a restaurant that the experience is great. And I, and it's dependable.

[00:17:42] And I think we liked that. Yes, there's some people that. You know, are loyal to a brand, but I don't think that's, I don't think that really changes. I think there's a, I think there's always a small group of people that are loyal to the. Until you disappoint them. I think more people, I think we love to segment people and say, they're this, or they're more than that.

[00:18:04] That's like saying, oh, millennials are lazy or gen Z is lazy. And you know what? I bet you there's tons of gen Z. People who get offended at that because they are hard working and they don't want to be, you know, and seen as lazy. So I think everybody wants a good experience. I don't, I don't think anybody who would be is loyal to a brand.

[00:18:24] And saying, yeah, I'm going to keep that brand and have a horrible experience every single time, because I'm loyal to the brand. I think, I don't know. I'm older. I, I go for experience so well, you look good. Oh, thank

[00:18:38] Michael: you. We, you know, it's funny actually though, because I think about my grandparents, Italian immigrants could barely speak English.

[00:18:48] Uh, like, well, and by barely speak English, I had an I, if I heard my name, I would look at them and smile kind of a thing. Right. Um, but they shopped religiously at Sears and that could be perceived as loyalty to the brand or the company. But I think it really just had to do with the experience. They knew it.

[00:19:11] Other Italians that work there that could speak to them in their native language. And so to your point, you're right. I think isn't that an interesting caution that we should have when looking at data to understand what the actual driver of the loyalty is versus a blanket statement like. Almost led everyone astray by saying that this likely to,

[00:19:34] Glenn: no, I don't think even if you know me though, I'm talking about, but think about it Sears back in the day, back in the day we shopped at Sears because it was dependable, good solid products for a reasonable price.

[00:19:50] But again, it didn't matter if you had, if you went in there and salespeople were rude, you'd go find somewhere else. Why there were other options to go to. But it was always see. And then what happened with Sears is the quality went down, the staffing and service went down and people said, okay, I'm out. I don't care.

[00:20:09] I've been, and you've probably heard people said, well, I shopped at Sears for years and they've gone downhill. So I'm no longer going because of that. So I think all of that and I, and, and going back to that idea of process, if you're seen as a dealership, Creates a good buying experience, not shopping experience, right?

[00:20:33] Cause shopping's fun. Test driving, clicking the buttons, looking at the car. But once I go, that's what I want. If there are ways that you can get me out of there faster and easier with less friction, less time in between for whatever. And again, there's always extreme someone who's listening is going to say, well, what about the person with the bad credit or it doesn't not talking about that.

[00:20:56] I focus on the middle 60 all the time, build your process for the middle 60. You're going to have 10 people that. You know, speed out because they have great credit, everything. They bring everything and dah, dah, dah, and they're out. And then you have the other bottom 20% where it's a struggle. First time they didn't know, they forgot something, but I want to the middle 60 people, 60% of people, can we speed up that process?

[00:21:20] Where's that friction. And now there's technology to do that. There are strategies to do that, and that's the experience. So if people are sharing that, that was easy. That was easy. I liked it. They took care of me. They listened to me. Right. Just like the food was great. The service was great. All of that, that you talk about in a restaurant, why can't we have that?

[00:21:43] So that way other people come in and say, well, great. If this was easy, because you're comparing it to maybe, maybe a frustrating experience the last time where someone goes, oh, got to go through this again. And someone says, no, go to Michael's store. He's great. Ask for Michael. He'll take care of you and you're going home.

[00:22:01] With that hope of experience because the car either you buying the same car, cause you like that brand, or you read about that car, you did some research about the car. Now it's like, okay, I got to go deal with people. Why can't we have people excited about going to the dealership with the same enthusiasm as I can't wait to go to this restaurant and have dinner.

[00:22:21] Cause I know the experience around the food is going to be great. I'm going to have a great time. We just.

[00:22:28] Michael: Yeah. And there's nothing worse. It's like Murphy's law, there's nothing worse than referring somebody to a restaurant and then them having a crappy experience at that restaurant because it makes you feel like an idiot.

[00:22:39] And then you're less likely to make any referrals about anything ever again, because you're like, oh man, every time I do, they always reach out

[00:22:49] Glenn: or whatever. And again, th the. You have to understand, sometimes again, people will perceive these conversations of, uh, you know, they don't understand, you know, dealers or the majority of dealers do a great job and their focus is doing a great job and they want to take care of the customers.

[00:23:08] It's a business. One of my clients said that the best D you know, running a dealership, general manager, high level, it's a, it's a, it's a business of distractions. There's always something going on. Something that you have to attend to the best operators are the ones that have the processes in place where it isn't optional.

[00:23:30] It isn't optional based on Michael's here today. Glen's here tomorrow and things change. Personality can change, but the process shouldn't change because that builds consistency of comfort for the employees who then can deliver it, that comfort to. The customer, right? So that's really the job of when you're dealing with this is how do we just refine our process is constantly looking at that, as we said, you know, people and then processes and yes, your product, but it's the performance piece of looking back and inspecting and saying, are we delivering on what we thought?

[00:24:08] How can we tweak it? How can we refine it? How can we keep getting better at it over and over and over again? And that just takes work. And that's what makes. Dealerships at what's makes consistency in terms of experience. And I think all dealers want it. It's just not easy. And it's it's takes work and it's not pretty, it's not sexy and it's not going to happen in a day.

[00:24:31] It takes I'm. It could take years for you to really get it all set and then it runs. But people don't want to hear that sometimes because they're looking for either a quick way or quick fix or whatever it is. It, you listen, you've, you've had your business for how long?

[00:24:48] Michael: Uh, this is my 20th year.

[00:24:52] Glenn: So with flex dealer, how long has 20?

[00:24:55] Since I was six. Okay. So think about it. You and I talked about this not too long ago. You finally feel like it's running over the last few years. You got it to a point where. It's running consistently the way you want. And it feels like you can, you know, you're coaching and the people are there and they're right.

[00:25:15] They know what they're doing because it took off. So think about that years of frustration, trying, testing, falling, whatever. Now you feel okay to a pillow. Exactly. Exactly. We've all had those, you know, it's, it's feeling as if okay. Now it's where now I can really start stepping on the gas and running, right.

[00:25:42] That takes time and it takes work. And again, there's, there's so much pressure in dealerships with 30 day sales cycles involved in all of that. And again, I do not want anyone to sit here and think, oh, it's easy with Glen saying, I know I talked to dealer. It is not running a business. I run mine too. It's not easy, but you have to at least have to think that the process.

[00:26:07] Is your structure. The process is will gives people confidence to be able to run, because I know what I'm doing. I know what to expect. There's nothing this customer could ask me that I don't have an answer to. I know what to do. I can get this done. I know who to go to that's that allows you to be comforted.

[00:26:26] And, and grounded versus stressed because again, no one wants to work in a stressful environment, not right. Stress from busy or competitive. I'm talking about stress of every day. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. No, one's here to help me. And I'm just hope I'm not going to get yelled at right. Not a good

[00:26:45] Michael: place, which is real.

[00:26:46] And I've, I've known people in that situation and they're a basket case, you know, it makes me think of. If the objective is long-term business being be in business a long time, you're going to exist anyways. So really what it comes down to is your level of willingness and belief that doing what your talking about Glen is in fact, the right thing to do it.

[00:27:15] Do I believe that this is the right thing to do? If yes, I'm going to be in business anyways, and I'm planning on being in business anyways, I might as well start working on. Or iterating upon it, if I don't believe it's the right thing to do. And I just want to keep trying to buy my way out of operational inefficiency.

[00:27:33] Like Dan, our pal, Dan Moore talks about then salute mazeltov, that's your deal, but it's going to be a painful road. But, but I guess what I'm trying to say is if you're planning on being in business and existing, anyway, you might as well do what you believe. And, and what is the right thing to do? Well, it's really the bottom line for

[00:27:57] Glenn: me.

[00:27:57] I think that it, and it can be sometimes hard because depending on where you came from in your journey, meaning I may have worked for somebody that was chaotic and that's what I think is, right. Right. So that's my, that's the, my model of what I worked with. You know, you could say that, you know, you could have family, right?

[00:28:20] If parents bicker and argue and whatever it is, Someone growing up will say, well, that's what a married couple we should do. Right. So it's, it is what your what's your frame of references, but there are more and more successful dealers that you could at least ask the question of saying, is there a better way?

[00:28:42] And I think going back to what you were, we talked about earlier, If we're always moving forward, are you a perennial student? Are you constantly asking the questions even just to confirm that what you're doing is, is correct for you? That's as valuable as trying to think. Well, do I have to go out and find something new?

[00:29:01] No, just keep asking questions of how can I refine this? Could we get better at this? Could we make this smoother? Could we trim here? What is my retention for what do right. What motivates my, my employees, right. You know, five years ago, may not today or. Michael you've worked for me for seven years. Well, what motivated you when you came here may not motivate you now because you're married and have kids and you need something different than I just want to make money.

[00:29:29] So all of it, but I think ultimately the best performers in any industry are always asking questions and looking, and just always looking at what they're doing through the eye of, can we get better at it? Can we get, make it easier, faster, smoother for everyone in.

[00:29:50] Michael: Man, very thought provoking stuff, which is always the case.

[00:29:53] When you chat with someone like Glenn Pash, man, how can those listening get in touch with you?

[00:29:59] Glenn: Uh, you can find me in a couple places, usually Twitter, LinkedIn, or where I hang out the most and it's just Glen Pash. My name, uh, PCG digital.com is our website. Uh, Glenn patch.com is also my website, or you can also listen to my podcast.

[00:30:16] The you're in charge. Now what podcasts you can find me there as well,

[00:30:21] Michael: specifically episode a one, one and 50.

[00:30:26] Glenn: I think you were one, you were definitely one. Well, no, I think you were, you were the first guest. I think I did my opening one by myself and said, I think I need people. Uh, so yes, you were definitely the first and then you, you came on again and we have to have you on, uh, in the future.

[00:30:42] Well,

[00:30:42] Michael: tell me just before we close, tell me a little bit about DMAC. When is it? How, how do we get involved and how can those, uh, listening take advantage?

[00:30:51] Glenn: Thank you. Yeah, the digital marketing strategies conference is in may. This is may right now, May 22nd through the 24th. Some tickets still are available, so please make sure you come.

[00:31:01] It is. It's a phenomenal experience because it's not a conference per se, with in, in the fact that I would say like it's a trade show or whatever else, it's more the fact that it is a three-day conversation where it's very intimate, very small. And what we end up doing is we. We'll talk to people. We will.

[00:31:26] I have no idea. What's beeping here.

[00:31:28] Michael: I'm going to say is Domino's calling you back to

[00:31:30] Glenn: verify your soundbite. I have no idea why this isn't talking or whatever. Um, but anyway, we'll throw my phone in the garbage in a minute. Um, so anyway, it's a three-day conversation. So you have access to the speakers because we've all been at conferences where the speakers up there.

[00:31:48] We may be able to grab him for one minute afterwards and say, thank you. This was great. You can see them over the course of three days, having dinner, you know, sitting in other workshops, having conversations. So it's much more thoughtful, much more, uh, networking and, and the vendors who are there, they're the owners or the creators of the product.

[00:32:07] So that's great. As well as the dealers and work there, we're always trying to tackle themes that are other people may or may not be talking about. Uh, so it's a lot of fun. It's a great location. Napa valley, California. Uh, can't go wrong there. So thank you for asking. So again, digital marketing strategies.org to go get a ticket, please make sure you come and Michael's going to be here.

[00:32:30] He's going to be there too.

[00:32:31] Michael: So we'll Hey, at time recording month of may, I will be at this upcoming one. Um, but if they, if they go to, I mean, this is something you do every year, right?

[00:32:40] Glenn: Yes. Every year. And usually. And then in the fall we do another conference. It is now called the modern retailing conference.

[00:32:48] It used to be called the automotive analytics and attribution summit, but we thought that was wordy. So now I know people used to call it the ASCE conference. So we said we didn't have to change the name. So now modern retailing conference is going to cover a lot more aspects of the, uh, the dealership experience beyond just marketing the HR sales process, um, to create.

[00:33:11] To definitely marketing, but also, um, you know, these other areas fixed ops that a lot of times don't get the attention they need at these types

[00:33:20] Michael: of. Fantastic. So for those of you listening in the year 2033, don't fret, you can go to both of those websites, you will see in

[00:33:31] Glenn: agent your head and I'm thinking it'll just pop up digitally in front of you because we'll all be in the metaverse by that.

[00:33:37] Michael: Yeah. Yeah. You know, we're in the metaverse right now. We're just not avatars of ourselves, but

[00:33:45] Glenn: that's a different type of Joe for a different day folks.

[00:34:01] Michael: I'm Michael Cirillo and you've been listening to the dealer playbook podcast. If you haven't. Please click the subscribe button wherever you're listening. Right now, leave a rating or review and share it with a colleague. Thanks for listening.