In the customer-service industry which, make no mistake, is the business I’m in (one that just happens to be located in the automotive space), I’ve learned this truism.  If you can have a sales and training meeting that goes to the core of what it takes to move the metal, to sell the product, and it’s one in which any customer wouldn’t have a problem or feel uncomfortable sitting in on it, you’re doing it right.  That’s not something you can say about every sales/customer service process training, in any field, retail automotive or otherwise.

I recently went to one such meeting. Of course, it wasn’t anything like this:

 

It was like this. You can click on the screen grab here, and tell me if a customer would have a problem, or feel uncomfortable, in earshot of these ideas:

(sorry, everyone, this was once a hyperlinked image to extensive notes [https://storify.com/Josh23Friedman/notes-from-uaamg] but Storify is no more… here’s the next best thing: https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&q=UAAMG&src=typd or for more information, you can travel backwards in time, and follow these instructions: https://www.poynter.org/news/storify-shutting-down-what-should-you-do-your-old-stories)

Speaking of meet-ups and meetings, one barometer of our nation’s economic mood may be the National Auto Dealers Association meeting.  If so, the annual event finishing up this weekend must mean that things are really great.  Who says?  Why, of course, my favorite contrarian, Peter De Lorenzo, as written January 19, 2015, in Autoextremist.com:

“Oh well, on to NADA where the booze will be flowing and the “hail-fellow-well-met” posturing will be insufferable. It’s a known fact that when business is good, NADA is a party and everybody is glad-handing and backslapping their way through the four days calling each other geniuses and/or best friends, or both. (Well, almost everybody anyway, for the manufacturers and dealers not bathing in the good times it can get contentious and downright u-g-l-y.)

“I don’t mean to throw a wet blanket on the orgy of champagne and canapés out in San Francisco, but it is my duty to remind everyone out there of the giant unseen force in the room, and that is the fact that this business never stays this hot forever. And now, going into the sixth year of rejuvenation and resurrection, we’re a lot closer to another downturn than we are to new records.

“Just a cold, clear thought that deserves mention on this January day.

“But for now, carry on. It’s what this business does best anyway.”

Ouch! So what of this habit we have as social beings to glad-hand and backslap?

 

Some interesting facts about the Laurel and Hardy classic, “Sons of the Desert,” via Turner Classic Movies:

Sons of the Desert co-star Charley Chase (1893-1940) was a comedy star in his own right. After a brief career in vaudeville, he moved to supporting parts in films starring Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, and others. He joined the Hal Roach Studios as a director until Roach realized what a great comic performer he had on his roster. Between 1924 and 1929 he starred in nearly 200 two-reelers, most of them directed by Leo McCarey, who would later become famous for such acclaimed comedies as Duck Soup (1933) and The Awful Truth(1937). He continued to appear in shorts in the sound era, and directed some of the earliest Three Stooges movies. His death of a heart attack at the age of 46 has been attributed to his alcoholism.

Charley Chase’s younger brother, Jimmy Parrott, was also a comedy actor, gag writer and director. He directed The Music Box and at least 20 other Laurel and Hardy pictures, as well as close to three dozen featuring his brother. Parrott was a drug addict and, like Chase, died of a heart attack at the age 40 in 1939.

Charley Chase and Mae Busch, who plays his sister in Sons of the Desert, appeared in several Keystone comedies for Mack Sennett in the early days of silents.

Sons of the Desert screenwriter Frank Craven is best known for appearing as the pipe-smoking Stage Manager narrator in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, both on stage and on screen. He also co-authored (with Wilder) the 1940 film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

 

Sit back and enjoy. Our feature presentation is about to begin (colorized and subtitled in Danish):

 

I’m not much of a reader; I’m a skimmer and a scanner. I like magazines and articles with lots of visuals. But there’s a permanence about books that still makes the task of authorship an acheivement I greatly respect and admire. Knowing I’ll never, ever write a book, I’m damned lucky to have wound up in these pages:

Velocity Overdrive: The Road to Reinvention by Dale Pollak is the third book in the Velocity series that lays out Dale’s vision of a new marketplace efficiency that is transforming the world of car sales, largely replacing the tradition of wheeling and dealing, hassling and haggling due to the economics of transparency in a digital age.

The section I’m in discusses a continuing controversy over the tactics of one advertising vendor (Truecar.com) that came to a head several years ago, and our dealership’s view that it was more an opportunity than a problem.

That index above is a Who’s Who of some of the top digital marketers in automotive.  And me.  I’m still a Zelig-like character in this world.

I also got a chance earlier this year to write an endorsement for a textbook-style survey of the field I’m in, authored by a very knowlegeable practitioner, Brian Pasch:

 

Mastering Automotive Digital Marketing: Volume One by Brian Pasch is a comprehensive survey designed to train dealerships in the rigors of a relatively new role in dealerships, the marketing manager, that’s similar, but not the same, as a sales manager or an internet sales manager or an internet manager.  A must-read if you’re in this business.  Or if you want to be in this business.  Or, like me, if you want to figure out this business you’re in.

I’m a blog writer, not a book writer. I can live vicariously through others’ authorship. So, what else is on the family bookshelf, you ask?

 

The Kissing Sailor by Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi tells my mom’s story of VJ Day and the photograph that everyone knows, and the search for the identity of the sailor and the nurse over the next 70 years.

A Guide to NIH Grant Programs by Samuel M. Schwartz and Mischa E. Friedman is a book co-written by my dad, who spent close to 20 years at the National Institutes of Health.  Equally dry as a book about digital marketing, unless you are a scientific researcher.  Then, you’d want to read the book that Science reviewed as “…lucid and straightforward. This authoritative and clearly written book should be in libraries or departmental reading rooms wherever NIH-supported research is done.”

A more thrilling and compelling read on scientific research for the non-scientist would be Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William Broad, three top reporters for the New York Times.  It’s a thorough look back at the formerly top-secret history of biowarfare,from the War on Terror and the anthrax scare, back to the Cold War era, where the laboratories of Fort Detrick, Maryland, played a prominent role.  This is where my dad was employed before his years at NIH, from the 1950s to the 1970s.

My mom may have grown up in New York, but she was a refugee from Europe at age 14.  The town of Wiener Neustadt, outside Vienna, held a remarkable reunion with its survivors in 1995, chronicled by one in this remarkable and well-told first-person account, Reluctant Return: A Survivor’s Journey to an Austrian Town by David Weiss.  My mom did not go back with this group, but her oldest sister did.

Speaking of World War II refugees, the “University in exile” provided an unusally rich environment for learning within the New School for Social Research.  Shown above is my mom’s original script from her class in the New School’s Dramatic Workshop production in 1948.

Am I well read?  I haven’t read anything by Jerzy Kozinski, but Blind Date is also there on the bookshelf, waiting for me, like Charlie the Tuna, “to show Starkist my good taste.” Hopefully I can ease into it by viewing Being There on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Hurry Up, American, and Spit by Pearl Bailey is my kind of book.  Each chapter is three paragraphs in length, on average.  I’ve read a few of these… paragraphs.

Naked City by Weegee (Arthur Fellig) is truly a classic. A great collection by the master of mid-century tabloid photojournalism.

This one I did read.  The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Escaped Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton gives me pride in my Austria-Hungarian roots.  While I’m on a family history binge, it’s a profile of nine remarkable Hungarian escapees, from movie makers Michael Curtis and Alexander Korda to photographers Robert Capa and Andre Kertesz to scientists Edward Teller and John von Neumann.  And I’m going to finally watch Casablanca some time this week.

 

The New Architecture and the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius is all words, hardly any pictures.  I’ll never read it. I did check out the reviews on Amazon.com. Which says this is a must-read for any and all lovers of art and architecture, like me.

Admittedly, I’ll never write a book myself — but I might just read another one today, if I get similarly inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

#TBT: Before New Car Mark, before Mike the Car Guy, before Used Car Ricky, there was Certified Used Car Josh, I suppose.

(Clip from a half-hour cable infomercial we started running back in 2004.)

by Joshua Michael Friedman

It’s been a bad summer for good news.

For a die-hard media consumer (news junkie, pop culture addict) like myself, it’s been more tempting to unplug than to add to the social media chatter — I’ve found I’m less engaged online and more hesitant than ever to share an opinion, whether it’s Ebola, ISIS, Boku Haram, Gaza, Furguson, Ray Rice or the sad death of Robin Williams.

I haven’t been tagged for an ice-bucket challenge.

I haven’t written any blog posts.

I haven’t kept my commitment to stay 100% positive, either, although I still maintain this is a worthwhile goal.

I haven’t written a word about enlightened customer service in the automotive sector this past summer, save for an inspired live-tweet session at Dealer Think Tank.

Which is why I’ve come to admire my 25-year-old son’s work for Photowings.org, a foundation dedicated to the support of photojournalism, as a positive force in a dangerous world.

This summer, Michael’s work took him to Guatemala, where he shot and edited this amazing profile of photographer James Whitlow Delano — it’s a great work about making great work, and if you need 10 minutes to reaffirm your faith in the power of good people and good things, click on it now:

 

Michael’s camera work and editing are equally awesome.  Here’s a few random screen grabs, if you don’t want to dig into the video immediately:

 

When I heard about the death of Robin Williams, this summer, I immediately thought of his 25-year-old daughter, Zelda, and the cruelty of social media.  Why did it strike so close to home?  My son, having lived in San Francisco for eight years, and she, do know many of the same people; I recalled he has been over to their house before. Although I don’t know him from Adam, it was like he was an acquaintance, too. And this: I, too, know what it’s like to lose someone close, at 25, to drug addiction and suicide, although in my case, it was a peer rather than a parent.

And it is with that experience in mind, from which I’ve come to understand how one is forever changed by it, so that I can say I share, quite deeply, the opinions forcefully expressed — and rapidly shouted down during this negative summer — Henry Rollins had the wisdom to say what it is to be a parent.  He spoke to my values:

http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/08/21/henry-rollins-fuck-suicide?showFullText=true

http://www.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2014/08/25/henry-rollins-more-thoughts-on-suicide

So, yes, a difficult summer to stay positive.  Which brings to mind a turning point in the birth of the Hardcore movement, my first exposure to the ideals that would sustain me in a completely different walk of life, ideas that sustained and gave voice to people I’ve known and been inspired by, like Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye: it may have began with the discovery by the Bad Brains of the works of Napoleon Hill. http://waxpoetics.com/features/articles/bad-brains-came-with-extraordinary-positivity/

25 years later, I am re-dedicating myself to the power of positive thinking.

by Joshua Michael Friedman

 

It’s been a long, prolific career for Martin Scorcese.  The sheer power of his storytelling, in crime biopics, contemporary dramas and period pieces (from Mean Streets to Taxi Driver, to Goodfellas and Casino, from the Color of Money to the Gangs of New York, to the Age of Innocence and Shutter Island, from the King of Comedy to Key Largo) is unrivaled.  I find myself drawn with fascination to Henry Hill’s and Lefty Rosenthal’s real-life underworld histories as sidebars to the acting, writing and directing showcases that inform their filmed stories.

But the larceny and substance abuse reenacted on the big screen in Wolf of Wall Street I think to be visceral and revolting in ways not shared by the entertainment of Scorcese’s other crime films.  I find the real story purely negative — and its filmed version irrelavent.

Perhaps through some fault of the storytelling, Jordan Belfort’s life is not outsized by his own written words, this hit film or his equally enriching career in motivational speaking.  This is what I believe to be true and real about Jordan Belfort:

10 Reasons the Real-Life “Wolf of Wall Street” Is a Schmuck Who Shouldn’t Be Glamorized

An Open Letter to the Makers of The Wolf of Wall Street, and the Wolf Himself

Digital Dealer, for a decade, has been the twice-yearly meet-up of internet sales practictioners in the car business.  One part teach-in and one part vendor expo, it’s a valuably immersive learning environment.  Although it still claims to the the largest conference in the industry, today it represents one of many choices for peer-to-peer networking and education (some more vendor-centric, some more dealer-centric): Driving Sales Executive Summit, Dealer Think Tank, GM eSummit, Google’s Digital Summit at Mountain View, AutoCon, Unfair Advantage Automotive Mastermind, Internet 20 Group, etc.

As disgusted as I am about the real-life toll taken by life-savings swindlers and practicing addicts, I am equally disgusted by an auditorium of “progressive” car dealers delivering a standing ovation after a spellbinding speech from the likes of JB, no less in the symbolic backdrop of the city of Vegas.  I can’t think of a more damaging impact on our collective reputation.

 

 

by Joshua Michael Friedman

This one has been hanging around for the past month, and I’ve been meaning to share it.  Another 100% 90-day customer satisfaction score blend.  Blended, because it’s an aggregate of seven questions on the purchase-and-delivery survey:

How satisfied were you that you were treated in a professional and courteous manner?

How satisfied were you with the sales consultant’s willingness to take the time necessary to thoroughly understand your vehicle needs?

How satisfied were you with the sales consultant’s knowledge of GM vehicles?

Were you offered an orientation tour of the dealership, including the service department?

How satisfied were you with the explanation of your vehicle’s features and operations?

Based on your overall purchase/lease and delivery experience, how satisfied are you with the dealership?

Based on your overall purchase/lease and delivery experience, would you recommend this dealership?

Not sure why the use of underscore for the conjunction; it tends to draw one’s attention and places unnecessary emphasis — the last two questions serve to summarize the requested information and are traditionally considered the most important in the inexact science of indexing a customer’s satisfaction.

Anyway, the photo above is my score for May, 2014, showing customers purchasing in January, February and March, surveyed through April and reported for a 90-day rolling average, and a corresponding 12 months of purchasers surveyed for the 12-month rolling average.

I finally got a less than perfect score from an April, 2014, purchaser, which brought my June, 2014, 90-day rolling average down to a 95% top-box score.  Still respectable.  My record stands at five months of purchasers in a row who responded to the survey scoring me perfectly.  No one’s perfect.

by Joshua Michael Friedman

I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by @LawsonOwen — the topic, implementing a business development center (BDC), i.e. call center, where you have specialists in a dealership for on-ramp activities (inbound calls, lead-response processes and outbound calling throughout the relationship cycle).  Specialization and technology within the auto dealership continue to re-shape tradtional roles and departmental structures.  That said, unless you can put up with slouches, everyone at the dealership has to make it their priority to provide awesome customer contact, as in being a player/manager, and actually step up to the plate.

Pete Rose not only taught the next generation how-to, once he became a manager.  He stayed in the lineup, got on base and put runs on the board every way he could.  I can’t recite Lawson’s analogy word-for-word, but made it clear that in the auto business, a manager doesn’t sit behind a desk and tell people what to do or say (manage a desk) — he or she gets in the game, and he/she has to account for his/her performance, one-on-one, with customers.  Just saying.

As a matter of fact, I’m certain, the sales meeting — once the hallowed domain of the sales manager and the obligatory motivational speech — is highly over-rated.  Myself, I’ve learned I’m much more effective with sales people, one-on-one.

I come from a long line of managers.

My grandfather had to start over when the depression dashed his hopes of entrepreneurship and became a highly sucessful, highly respected agent for Metropolitan Life and devoted his senior years to benevolent organizations, known by his integrity and descretion in matters of charity.

My father was a research scientist in defense department labs, but rose to senior levels within the National Institutes of Health, known for his ethics and respect for the discipline of science in the review and award of research funds, no matter how politicized the environment.

I’ve got a younger cousin managing on a much more visible stage, known for his wit, intellect, calm under pressure and ability to relate to younger players.  Not precisely a player/manager — twenty years as a catcher takes a toll on the body — but as close as you’re going see to a player/manager in uniform, at least this year, in baseball.

(see: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/07/tigers-led-by-cool-calm-and-collected-brad-ausmus/)

 

So what’s with all of the sport/car-business analogy?  Last week, I finally watched Moneyball — loved it — so I know why the Internet side of the auto business could relate, inviting Billy Beane to keynote the Driving Sales Exec Summit in 2012.  The tools of technology and their true believers bringing an aging, tradition-bound business kicking and screaming into the 21st century, for starters.  If they just let us show them how it will work, it will work wonders!  And by virtue of Truth, with a capital “T,” therein lies life’s deeper meanings.

 

 

 

I’d be the first to tell you that sports metaphors are just that: metaphors.  Many a lazy sales manager has filled a motivational sales meeting with grafted content from the game of the week.  But I also grew up in a family where said father and grandfather worshipped the Red Sox, and baseball was an excellent way to make conversation that bridged a myriad of generation gaps — as with my own son, a bay-area tatooed vegan who’s allegiance to the San Francisco Giants is unshakable, there’s more life lessons on the road ahead to be modulated by sport.

by Joshua Michael Friedman

It can happen again and again.

 

90-day rolling average of customers purchasing in November, December and January, surveyed through February, reported in March (highest possible Top Box score, 100%; highest possible Index score, 4.00)

 

 

 

Followed by: 90-day rolling average of customers purchasing in December, January and February, surveyed through March, reported in April (highest possible Top Box score, 100%; highest possible Index score, 4.00)

by Joshua Michael Friedman

 

There I am.

by Joshua Michael Friedman

 

I love to take photos (and these are some of my travel photos, from Montreal and the lake region north of Milan) but that’s not, strictly speaking, on topic for this blog.  Sure, it’s Sunday, and I’d much rather share an artifact from a non-obiligated sphere of interest.  Normally, upon waking and shaking out the cobwebs, my Sunday is also a day of work.  It’s the best time to respond to the 24/7 requests that come in — both as a matter of respect for my clients own time, and to gain advantage over my competition.  Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today.

However, tomorrow (Monday), I’m in class.  I won’t be at the dealership to continue a conversation that I start today (Sunday).  So I won’t be — what I value above all — truly helpful by reaching out today.

Just one of the many incremental changes going on in my professional life.  It’s not a one-man effort to serve our customers online any longer.  My role is to be just as helpful to my coworkers as I have been to our shoppers, in getting them confident and productive in representing our business online.

Today, I’m experiencing that stunning glimpse of the obvious: I can’t do this all by myself.

 

by Joshua Michael Friedman