Becoming Automotive Sales Coach

Speaker 1 0:00

Okay , so we know how Batman became Batman . Right , Right . How did Automotive Sales Coach become Automotive Sales Coach ? Stay tuned .

Speaker 2 0:19

Hi guys , I'm Grace LaPoi and I'm here with David Lowe , the Automotive Sales Coach and you mentioned . We want to get to know Automotive Sales Coach and who . You are right , and I've had the privilege to get to know you over the last few years and hear parts of your story . So I want to take you back to maybe the beginning of your story and kind of walk us through . How did you become Automotive Sales Coach ?

Speaker 1 0:38

Okay , so first , that's a great thing . I tell these stories a lot . I love it . Thank you for asking about it , and I'm making a joke about Batman . Right , we're not Batman , but there is an origin story to just about everything isn't there , how did we get to where we are ?

Speaker 1 0:55

And so , yeah , it'd be cool to kind of walk through , kind of how it came . I do want to tell you that it's not David Lowe training , right , it's automotive sales coach training . So there's a purpose behind that , because we're not Batman and I know that most trainers it's their name right , and we never wanted it to be that . I always thought that this training should be much bigger than me , not me . Does that make sense ? So there are principles and techniques out there and really my skill set has been gathering the best of the best and combining them and improving them to come up with strategies that help us sell more cars for more money the right way . Customers leave happy and we're happy , right , and that's where our expertise comes in . But , grace , what we really want to do is create our own replacements . I expect you to be better than me and we're hoping that everybody out there can become better than the both of us . Does that make sense ? So little disclaimer there on the automotive sales coach versus David Lowe . So you know , I bet you , like most people , I started selling cars out of desperation .

Speaker 1 2:04

I think 1985 , 86 , I played in a band for a living . The band broke up . I was going to college , I didn't have any money to eat or to do anything and there was an ad for a car dealership . So I went in and did a disc profile , right , and I didn't have a car , and so they promised me if I made it through 30 days I'd get a car after 30 . That was kind of all about it , right ? So funny because I had permed hair down to here . It was the 80s , I was playing in heavy metal bands and bands in the bars on the weekend , and anyway . So my girlfriend worked at Christopher D's , a bar downtown Moline , and she worked the daytime hours . All the bankers came and drank their lunch , right , and so she started collecting clothes for me , that's awesome .

Speaker 1 2:49

And so I was kind of a hodgepodge . I took the bus my first day , anyway , I didn't have lunch money with me . So I got in the car business just to survive . I never thought that here , 38 years later , I'd still be in it . It was like if I save enough , I can finish my college and be that accountant . I was studying to be All right . So one thing I got some training . I got a black and white movie from the Spitzer brothers from the 50s , really high pressure stuff , not great stuff , but I did at least get the version of a sales process . There's some things in there that will last forever , some things that were horrible techniques .

Speaker 1 3:27

Why the car business got its name , I think . Like one thing they'd say do you trade in a car , grace ? Do you have the title ? Can I see that ? And they'd put it in their pocket . You know what I mean , that kind of stuff . But anyway , at least we got , I think , about an hour of that movie before things got busy . We got called out and that was the end of that training , right ? So I started selling cars . I became a top salesman there really , really quickly . As a matter of fact , in the first three months I was already out selling to people who'd been there for 10 years and whatever , and I think that's one of the things that kept me in the car business . I realized this is not about time served . The better you are and the more you do , the more you make , the more you get and the more advancement opportunities that you have .

Speaker 2 4:09

Right .

Speaker 1 4:09

Does that make sense ? So I was kind of really figuring this out . What a great business . And I became a top salesman . I thought I knew everything . I was God's gift to salespeople . I was there for about a year and my mom was out east selling houses and was out east selling houses and she said come out here and sell houses with me . And so I moved out east east in Pennsylvania . She was in Bethlehem , pennsylvania , and I got a car job right away . I like selling cars and it was a Pontiac place I'll never forget . In Bethlehem .

Speaker 1 4:35

I went in my first Saturday . I sold two cars for asking price and on Monday the manager and everybody made fun of me for having lay downs . In other words , I realized that I was the best person in that store and I was 21, . Right , I'm not getting any better . You know , always buy . Don't buy the biggest house on the street , right , and never be the best where you're at . You need something to drive to go towards , right .

Speaker 1 4:58

So anyway , I started asking around where should you work in this area ? What's the best place to work ? They said Phillips , start asking around where should you work in this uh area ? What's the best place to work ? They said phillipsburg east and honda . But you won't get a job there , kid , it's only for experienced managers . I was so full of myself I went in there . I'm god's gift to salesmen , you should hire me .

Speaker 1 5:16

And they did . I don't know why , but they did . And this is the humbling experience that really kind of changed . Everything is that I sat there and I was reading through my Honda brochures , trying to learn the product , and behind me , dj Lawley , the salesman , was presenting deals and closing deals , and I went home that first day and told my wife I can't make it here . There's no way to make it . These guys , I don't even know what they're doing . I can't do what they can do . In other words , I found out I had climbed to the top of that dealership , but it'd be like being number one in Little League and now I was playing in the pros . That's what it felt like to me . She sent me back , and so what I did was I went back and I sat at that desk for two days and I listened to everything that DJ Lolly said . He sold three cars and I wrote it out on my paper . You know , I still take notes .

Speaker 2 6:07

Oh yes .

Speaker 1 6:08

Everything I write down . I can remember . So when I take notes it's really about me learning . But I wrote down everything he said . For two days he sold three cars . He was really awesome . Anyway , I got home and I laid out those pieces of paper and I realized something . He did the same thing every time .

Speaker 1 6:29

Now the words weren't identical , but he said the same story . Does that make sense ? And from that I thought I can learn that , and so I organized those things in a kind of a five-step closing plan , which , by the way , our Riso Rias today that we teach , that we train on a dealership playbook , which is the most comfortable and powerful negotiating tool there is right , actually started there . That was a rudimentary thing Now in those days . Remember it was you and me , mr Customer , against the manager . Horrible , right . It was that game right . Now ours is always . Of course it's me , the manager , and it's you , mr Customer . The market is what we're fighting . Does that make sense ? So it's really advanced and principles don't change , but techniques and technology do right , all right . So anyway , what I'm getting at is I think one of the things that made me really good at selling cars wasn't natural skill , it wasn't natural ability . I think what made me really good was the fact that I knew I sucked . Does that make sense ? So some might call that humility , but I think that started way back in seventh grade , when I was a skinny little kid and I wanted muscles and I said to my dad I got to have muscles and he bought me a weight set and Arnold Schwarzenegger's book , and I lifted weights and I changed everything about myself . I wanted to play football . I'm not fast , I'm not , you know , I'm that B minus athlete , I'm not going to stand out . So I ran five miles an hour and I worked out and I , you know , I , made the team and contributed a lot because of my effort , not because of what I was born with , but because I created . I flunked the music test , you know , in grade school , so they didn't give me an instrument to play and I wanted to play bass guitar . So I bought one and I bought a Mel Bay book and of course , I think in high school we played the Trees by Rush , which is a great bass part . I taught myself that . So what I'm trying to say is I knew my deficiencies and I knew if I wanted something I had to pay a price for it . So if there's anything that I could say made me a success , I would say it's that my ability to want to be better today than yesterday , and I think that's why we have this whole training program , isn't it ? That's awesome . So it's funny .

Speaker 1 8:43

About a year later I was called by the guy who hired me in Moline . He bought a dealership in Wisconsin and called me to come out there to run it at 23 years old and I went out there . I don't know how to do anything . I'm a great closer and a great dealmaker , not a great manager leader . Now we bought his partners out in two years instead of five years . We had all the success made , all this money .

Speaker 1 9:02

I really thought I was God's gift to sales manager . I wasn't . I was a closer and a deal maker . I was really good at that , not good . Well , nobody trained me to coach and manage and lead other people . You know what I mean . And so I did kind of what I . I kind of did what I saw done in the industry which wasn't right .

Speaker 1 9:21

And when I lost my opportunity to buy in that dealership and that's a sore subject with me at 29 years old , I left and traveled the country in a motor home . What am I going to do next ? I knew I could go anywhere and work . There's so much power in having a skill set isn't there ? Because when you have a skill set , you're not even worried about it . You do the job you have because you want to , not because you're forced to , and once I didn't want to do it anymore . Once he said no , I'm not going to make you a partner . I didn't want to do it anymore . No worries , I could do this somewhere else . It was about my skill set , not about the place I worked . I have the freedom to stay here or have the freedom to do this somewhere else . So that's what we're always talking to people Don't ride the wave of the dealership . Make your own way and become a master sales consultant .

Speaker 1 10:11

Anyway , best thing that happened to me , I was in San Diego and I called . We had a company called Half a Car came in and taught forward leasing . I called my half-car rep , dan Peretti , and I said Dan , I'm going to move to San Diego , that's where I want to live . I want to get in the car business . I want to have breakfast with you so you can tell me who to stay away from and who to go to . Right , I was so confident wherever I walked in , they'd give me a job , whatever . You don't know what you don't know Anyway . So I get the breakfast and he recruits me into his company , half a Car . Next thing , you know , I find myself driving my motor home across country all the way to Pennsylvania to interview and get hired by this company called Half a Car . Now , by the way , I went in there interviewing like God's gift to sales management and they saw through that and hired me anyway . That was really thoughtful of them .

Speaker 1 10:57

And those next two years became the most formative years really of my life Because as a student it was easy for me to recognize I had climbed quickly and had a lot of success , but all I could see was my deficiency . Their training was so good . And then it was so cool . As I went out on the road and went to these dealerships all across the country to teach them how to use the red carpet lease , I would just sit back and watch people operate . I wasn't involved emotionally anymore and be like , well , that's stupid . That's what I did . I didn't know until I got to step away .

Journey to Excellence in Sales

Speaker 1 11:34

So I started studying them and I started sitting with the best salespeople and the best managers and the dealers and GMs all wanted to offer me a job . So I picked a brain how did you get here ? What do you do differently ? And it started to formulate in my mind there's a way to do this from coast to coast that people haven't mapped yet . In other words , master salespeople are doing the same thing , but they don't have a name for it and they're not mapping it . What if I mapped it ?

Speaker 1 12:04

So , during those two years , I began mapping what we call today's excellence roadmap , our sales process , what we teach in the dealership playbook . I began mapping it . Oh , this is going to work . I took the best of the best . I took what they did and I combined them and I created these success models that were powerful , customer-centric . Before anybody was talking customer-centric in the 90s , this was all about the customer experience . To me , it was also all about the customer experience . To me , it was also all about the team member experience . In other words , I wanted the customers to like what we did and how we did it , but , most importantly , as a salesperson , I wanted to feel good about what I did .

Speaker 1 12:42

And I needed big results . Too many times we see , you know a manufacturer sales training creates no results . Oh , just let them decide whenever they want to decide . There's no actually building value and asking for commitment in those processes . So I wanted a way to build that goodwill and close a higher percentage of deals for more money . Right , and I had found it .

Speaker 1 13:07

So after a couple of years on the road it became too much for my wife and I and so we decided I'd get off the road and I started a thing called Budget Car Sales in Appleton , wisconsin , oshkosh and Appleton , and we took this tiny little dealership that barely sold 13 , used little dealership that sold 13 , 14 cars a month and sold 60 , 65 cars a month out of there . I trained three people that basically never sold cars before , using the same playbook we teach now . Right now it's constantly updated , don't get me wrong , but the principles were the same . It's where we came up with the competitively low and the value story and all the things that we teach . I created that for them , but I brought them in their blank room and put up a screen and a basic projector and I walked them through and we practiced it . We trained every week in a very successful place . We made good money and unfortunately , the damage that was done to my marriage while I was on the road ended up in divorce and ended up having to sell out of that . And that's how I got to Indy right .

Speaker 1 14:08

And when I came to Indianapolis I wanted to get back to training . As a matter of fact , when I had budget , the guy that I rented my building from saw my numbers and said we've never sold more than 15 cars out of this building . How are you selling 65 ? You can't only fit 40 cars on a lot . And I said people have a plan , they know the plan , they execute the plan . That's what it is . I'm never even here . They just carry it out . And he goes can you teach my team ? That's really when Audemars sales coach kind of kicked off .

Speaker 2 14:39

That's awesome .

Speaker 1 14:40

But after the divorce I just kind of let it go . And then , all of a sudden , I find myself in a new city and I had to prove myself again and that was . It was a rocky start , right , but anyway . So I ended up and I finally found a great job with a great leader that gave me the opportunity and I put the tools of the automotive sales coach that we have today the things I've been working on my whole life to work . And the last dealership I ran , tomwood Volkswagen . We became one of the top five VW dealerships in the country .

Speaker 1 15:08

There was only like five of us that won this Diamond Pin Award in 2013 , award for Excellence . It's just , it's really hard to win . It's a four-year , basically award anyway . And you know , vw is big in the world and we're the top ones in the world for profitability , market share , customer satisfaction , all those kinds of great things , and I use that to catapult and start almost sales coach . So how we got here was really that isn't amazing . So I I want to say that I still believe , as I'm training you , my replacement , and we have right , our team , and we're out in the dealerships , I still I really have a trump time marketing David Lowe , because David Lowe is really nothing special , right ? He's somebody who recognized he's been created with unlimited potential and what I've been given I'm expected to make use of that's right .

Speaker 1 16:01

So some people we always talk about the story of the talents in the Bible , right , one person was given four talents and somebody given two and somebody given one . And really the story is about what are you doing with what you've been given ? Right , and I wasn't given four . I probably wasn't given one . Let's say I was given two and I took those and multiplied them . Too many people out there saying but I only gave them one , I was only given two . What can I do with that ? I don't have . And they start going back to why they can't do what they need to do . I'm just going to tell you I'm going to go back .

Speaker 1 16:35

I hit that showroom floor . I didn't have money for lunch . I was 20 years old , didn't know where I was going to make my rent payment . I took the bus . All I did was go there and work While other people sat in their circle , jerks , smoking and talking about what's wrong with the business and what's wrong with customer , what's wrong with their dealership . I walked right past them . I worked really hard my first couple of months there , when we did a walk-around competition . I took home , studied every night . The difference maker in my life was my willing , my desire and drive , and my willingness to develop my know-how .

Speaker 2 17:10

That's special .

Speaker 1 17:11

And take action . Well , it is because not many people do it , but it's not because everybody has the potential . And so we started really automotive sales coach and has grown . And we've never really said we want to own the world , we want to train . If we did , we'd be talking to egos and we'd be doing a lot different messaging People just like to grab on that brute force message we're not doing it . And to have everything message we're not doing it . We're not about materialism , we're about becoming more and becoming more , you get more . But we were never about being the biggest and being the only trainer . What we wanted to do was develop a company that said listen , you could be better today than yesterday . And since we happen to choose , well , I'm not a car salesman , that's not who I am Right , but it's what I do . And because it's what I do , I have to do it with excellence .

Speaker 2 18:03

Isn't that true ? It is .

Speaker 1 18:05

And so this company is all designed to inspire other people to become students . I think a lot of people are walking through life waiting for things to come to them . It doesn't work that way . Although you might see it out there right now , everybody wants something for nothing . In the end , it doesn't work that way , and I think that , no matter where you grew up or what you're starting with , you have you . What are you going to do with what you have ? Automotive sales coach was designed to inspire that , to light that flame .

Speaker 1 18:36

Og Mandino said we all have a flame inside , and I think a lot of people's flame is flickering and going out past mistakes , other people's , whatever , and all we want to do is turn that flame back up , because we believe in the power of people . In order for you to maximize your life , though , you're going to have to make some decisions . What do you want and why do you want it , and are you willing to do what it takes to get it ? Most aren't . Can you discipline yourself in the daily actions ? Now , that's true at Cathy from Chick-fil-A Strategy Desire and Drive . Develop the know-how , take action . It's also Lombardi's and Wooden's and Lincoln's , all the way back to Solomon's . It's the same . Success looks the same and we believe . Ultimately , like I said , I'm not a car salesman , it's what I do and ultimately my joy and my peace and satisfaction depends on how I feel about what I do . Am I a benefit to others ? And so we're success to me looks like joy , peace and satisfaction . And how can I have joy , peace and satisfaction if I don't like what I do , how I do it or who I am ? It's difficult , probably not going to work .

Speaker 1 19:52

So we created this company really to inspire you . So , listen , if you're out there and you're thinking , hey , I can't , I've had some people say to me well , I can't do what you do , well , neither can I . It didn't start that way . And listen , grace , look at your accomplishments and a couple of years you've been with . Well , you know the summers you sold with us and trained with us and then , while you were going to school , you were working with us part-time and now being with us almost two years full-time how far ? 23 years old . So you don't have to look at an old man like me and say it's going to take me 38 years to be that good . People look at you and they can see the impact of our training , but the training is like an exercise bike it doesn't get you in shape .

Speaker 2 20:36

Right .

Speaker 1 20:37

So our training has been the tool . But you got to get on that bike and ride . You got to discipline yourself to do what you know you should do , whether you feel like it or not . That's what you've done , true , true , and that's why you are where you are . And everybody has that opportunity . That's right . You have the opportunity to make the most of every opportunity that's in front of you . That's your decision .

Speaker 1 20:57

Some people would rather talk about things they don't control than take actions on the things they do control . I don't think this podcast and any of the episodes are really going to work for you . I'll be honest with you . Yeah , if you want the free lunch thing , go on Facebook . It's plenty of there . You can definitely lose weight without dieting . You can gain muscles without working out and become rich without working . Go to Facebook . They'll tell you how to do that . I believe .

Speaker 1 21:21

If you want reality in life , if you want to say what I do , how I do , it matters , I matter Then you have to make a decision what do you want to be , why do you want to be it and how are you going to get it Right ? That's right . Then you have to discipline yourself . So thanks for asking about . That's a really a Reader's Digest version , isn't it ? I've got a lot of stories in that 38 years and , if you want to , I told people before .

Speaker 1 21:48

If you want to say , oh , I'm so stupid blank , I'll take you on because I can tell you I've made every mistake . There is to make some many more times than one right ? So this is not like . Be like Dave Lowe , you know what I'm saying . Be your best self . We can learn from each other . We can learn from each other's successes . We can learn from each other's successes . We can learn from each other's failures . We want to say we're not in competition with each other , but we can use other people as a benchmark to get us to where we are , and then we can blow by them .

Speaker 2 22:20

I tell people all the time that's why I took this job , because your story and the training is so much more than yeah , what are those steps that you take ? How does it help transform you ? It's about the potential that you have and , ultimately , what do you do with that potential ?

Speaker 2 22:35

what you do that has been something that we've been talking about so much recently is you see this potential in somebody or in yourself ? And what really matters is what will you do with it ? What ? What responsibilities will you take to go to that next level ? This is an inspiring story , and I I could not tell it more when I when I'm training and talking to people about how much this training has impacted me in my life , because it's not even just the job , right , it's that joy , peace , satisfaction that we get to live with every day .

Speaker 1 23:00

Yeah , it's funny , the search for excellence doesn't end at work , does it ? No , it continues at home .

Inspiring Message to Become a Student

Speaker 1 23:07

Hey , thanks for being with us and listening to my story . I hope it didn't bore you too much . Hopefully , maybe it inspires you to say hey , I know where I'm at right now and you know what . To be honest with you , I haven't been a student . Today , I decide I'm going to become a student again . Ben Franklin , one of my heroes , was a student until he died . Every day he woke up . What good will I do today and what will I learn today ? We're hoping to inspire you to do the same . All right , good selling , we'll see you next episode . If you like this , please like us , and if you want to hear a particular discussion , let us know that too . We'd love to respond to that . Okay , good selling .