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what sets your business apart in this competitive industry the the number one thing that makes us different is consistency the the funny thing about our business is is especially and and I don’t mean to be mean but we see this all the time is is you got guys that are in this business that will go out they’ll sell something they’ll make a couple hundred bucks and they’re done for the day right what we what we drive and and some of our guys only work two days three days a week four days a week

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but we drive consistent at the dealership level welcome to the ride and style podcast your turbocharged pit stop for automotive restyling buckle up with Jesse and [Music] Josh hey welcome to another episode of the ride in style podcast I’m your host Jesse Stoddard here with Josh pson this is episode 19 and today we have Rod Bennett of chrome enhancements as our guest Rod so thanks for being with us here today again Rod thanks uh thanks for joining it’s uh I’ve been wanting to have you on

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so I’m glad we finally got the schedules workout yeah glad to be here thanks for having me guys so let’s start from the beginning what was the first day you saw something Chrome oh wow that’s back it’s back in the uh 80s man it’s it’s all the way back at like 80 86 87 uh I I started with uh Auto Auto Trim Design out of Omaha and uh came on with them as a installer and back then they had the big wires that went on Buick you know the big plastic wires yeah was that was that

00:01:45 – 00:02:55
you bought those from Dayton Wire uh that was from a Calvin KT trading back in the day they still exist today they’re the ones that are in AutoZone and all over the place but okay yeah we we started there and and uh it uh it took off and uh I I was selling about $30,000 a month of plastic wires to dealers uh you know within a 200 mile range of of our office uh I I got so good at it that they would call me easy money because I’d go in and and I’d install like 20 sets in an hour and walk

00:02:20 – 00:03:33
out with $1,000 dollar and they just start calling me easy money oh man so you so what I love about that is now that with you have all these guys that do this you did it yeah I you were installer and sales I did it yeah and I I understand their pain too there were days I went out for 10 hours and didn’t sell a thing you know so I had those days but more more often than not we we had great days and it was fun yeah what other products did you do just was it just hubcaps and it was primarily back then it was just

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primarily hubcaps and we did uh some steel stainless steel um Buicks were big back then you know they had those pancake wheel wheel wheel covers on and so the dealers hated those things so I’d come in and you know I’d throw on those wires or even the the real Nic Las Sabers I’d throw on the stainless steel with the locks you know so nobody stole them you know and all that so doesn’t how much did a how much did a set cost back then oh 55 bucks for a set of uh hub caps and the stainless Steels were

00:03:29 – 00:04:32
like 65 bucks with locks o but I prefer not to do the stainless Steels because then you had to you had to basically unbolt and lock them on and and the other ones you just popped them off and popped those on put the put the GM logos on illegally and you were good to go I think statue of limitations are over so I think I can say that now 87 yeah you’re good okay good rod H how did you even get started in automotive like if you went way back even before that what got you the industry what what was

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the driving force for for you to make a decision to even get into this stuff yeah so I I had just got married and needed a needed a job um really and uh I had a bunch of friends that were in in the business they were stripers you know and I never had the talent to stripe I I couldn’t lay a straight stripe if if you paid me a million bucks no way I just don’t have that Talent so um there was some new stuff that they were looking at and they asked me if I wanted to give it a try and and that’s really how I got

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started but I’m like Josh you know I’m I’m not a big car guy um you know I’ll drive whatever you give me um it doesn’t matter I’ve driven all the cars you know that people love but to me just give me a Chevy or give me a Dodge truck or whatever and I’m good um so it’s it’s kind of it’s kind of weird that Josh and I are similar that way not a big car guy don’t go to car shows but care less so you but you you love the business side right love the business

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side yeah and I get a kick out of you know the guys that are just big huge you know Gearheads and that because I don’t get it but I get a kick out of them yeah no they’re all cute and sweet I have them on every once in a while every every every seems like every other show and I talk to them about it I kind of make fun of them a little bit but no it’s good they’re their hearts in the right place I guess so when did um so you worked for Auto Trim of Utah and then um I mean how long did you stay

00:05:34 – 00:06:43
there and what did you do after that yeah so I I worked at uh Auto Trim of Omaha not I’m sorry Utah not no that’s okay no no wor Curtis is gonna text me going dude he never worked for me sorry right right no yeah so um I worked there for maybe a couple years uh and and what ended up happening is we had a falling out uh and so I started my own business with with one of the other guys that work there called autographics who’s in business today um you know and doing very well um so I I did autographics for

00:06:08 – 00:07:01
about two three years but I just got got tired of the winters back then global warming hadn’t taken place so it snowed all the time right uh you know back in the 80s it was it was snowy here so uh you know I got tired of the winters and uh my wife at the time uh was working for a call center company and it was just getting started it was small and she said you know these guys are really smart I think they got something you should come over here and try it so for the winter I said I was going to go work

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there part-time and and give it a try and then I spent 21 years building call centers all around the world so oh my gosh I got out of I got out of this business for a little while yeah so tell us about the call center world what what is that you I mean if you don’t understand the call center world just I mean I believe it or not I actually interviewed for a call center job one time and I all they they wanted they were definitely going to hire me but I was at right at that last minute my boss

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my old boss called me back said Hey cuz they called him as a reference and he said you dude where are you trying to get job why don’t you just come back to work for me I was like oh okay so but I almost went to work at a call center for you J yeah Josh I don’t want to ruin your your dreams and all that but we would put we would do what we call the mirror test and if people could if the if the mirror fogged up if you put it next to their mouth we’d hire them I mean that’s that’s basically so

00:07:32 – 00:08:36
what you’re saying is I wasn’t the most qualified person it’s BEC it’s because I had a basically I had a a a blood and oxygen coming through and a heartbeat that they were willing to bring me on that that you’re you’re hired and it was funny because all the call centers were growing so fast that that really was if if you could breathe talk and and you seemed like you weren’t going to kill the other agents then then we’d hire you you know and and it it was it was an

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amazing business I I I have so many stories over 21 years and and the business that we were in we were in the direct response business so anything that you see on TV with an 800 number we handled it right so the calls would come to us and and when we uh when we started back in 91 we had one call center um and when I retired from the call center business in 2012 we had um over 55 call centers over 40,000 home agents we had the largest ivr platform on the planet uh we had the largest outbound call center group in

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the world I mean we we had in 21 years it just exploded so it was just a blur but in the uh in the meantime of all that we we would the direct response side if you ever watch TV at night from you know Howard Stern’s herbal exstasy to Taio to you name it whatever is on TV we would handle it it and what would end up happening is those call those call patterns were insane because you just never knew what was going to happen based on the media that you were running based on the circumstances that were

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happening in so it was a crazy business and what were you setting them up you were setting up an organizing call centers so you were were you also managing people and and and training and all that kind of stuff and scripting and everything everything yeah so so I was senior Vice President of Operations uh when when I retired um and basically it covered all of what you just said and you know it was it was a real trick because you you had 40,000 people who worked from home and then in those call centers I think we we had over 28,000

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people um in the call centers all around the world Philippines India Manila you you I mean you name it you know we had it there um and yeah trying to keep track of all that stuff and Route calls our our uh Network oper a center was like NASA I mean it there were the the we built the walls that had screens I can’t tell you how many television sets were combined to make these screens and you’d have all this monitoring up there so when you walked in it looked like you were walking into Houston and NASA um

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with everything that was going it unbelievable it’s just because because you were doing billions and billions of transactions whether they be a second or whether they be you know 30 minutes long we would we would take uh the voting for certain uh shows that are still on TV um where you know pick choose the person that you want to win this contest I still can’t talk about it because I’m on an NDA for Life n NDA for life so you know so hypothetically let’s say it’s American Idol or something like that and

00:10:54 – 00:11:58
you want and you want Jesse to win over rod you dial the 800 number your company keeps track of that kind stuff you’re oh yeah oh yeah funny story is is I used to I would get reports on the voting because it would come in that night and you’d have to wait a week right so I would always be sitting at home with my wife a week later and I knew what was going to happen and so she had no idea she had no idea I knew and so I would always pick the winners and she would be like you you have amazing you have

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amazing ways to to rate Talent rob you should really get a job in this space he said yeah I probably should but I’m too busy better yet you should be a judge on American Idol right Simon sitting next to rod and Rod’s like yeah I just I really just really like the way she sings knowing that she’s going to win oh my so so did you also have to fly all over the world and physically be in these offices in India and the Philippines and all over the place I mean that’s crazy amount of travel that

00:11:56 – 00:12:57
must have been yeah I did I was in Singapore a lot Philippines a lot India a lot uh Mexico a lot you know it was and it was all a blurry it was it really wasn’t any fun because you went there to work I mean you know yeah I went to Egypt and never saw anything you know I went to India and never saw anything went to the Philippines and nearly got killed once trying to get a knockoff purse for for my wife at the time um but you know that’s that’s about as much fun as as I had it was it was all work but

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you know it was it was cool to put together what we put together it was really unbelievable oh well I’m sure you didn’t stick out in India Egypt or Singapore I mean you’re like what 63 you know listen the Philippines is where it was at because they were so Americanized when you show up and you’re 6 foot three and a half I mean it’s like you are just like a superstar you’re a rock star you know they come running to you you know and it’s it’s hilarious oh my gosh I was G to ask have any of those

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skills transferred over into what you’re doing now or I mean I’m sure there’s got you learn so much right there’s got to be some things that you use or sales training or something yeah we were we were on a call this morning in fact uh we were talking about the initiatives for for this year and adjusting them and those types of things and we always have three initiatives we we never go any more than three initiatives and I was taught that as I was coming up in in the company that I worked for is is if if if

00:13:29 – 00:14:26
you get more than three then you have way too much going on and and you’re not going to be good at the three that you really should be focusing on so you know it’s things like that that I learned and and just the logistics of setting up call centers the operational side of things putting together things working as a team um you know you you can’t do that alone I mean you’re working with multiple different departments and multiple different personalities and some people have multiple different

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languages so you know got pretty good at speaking Indian English um which is not an easy thing to do you know the the international um lines get cut in the ocean and you’re on the phone with uh Indian technology people that really can’t speak the language and so you have to decipher what they’re saying and work with them to get it done it’s not easy wow yeah this guy writes a mean script too Jesse if you need him to write out a script like he helped us at Sema Pro like we make phone calls and try to help

00:14:31 – 00:15:27
people like well what can we do Rod’s like come on give me 10 minutes he just sits over his computer and then you got this professional script I’m like oh my goodness it’s like 18 it’s like you di midnight 1 1800 and hey welcome thank you for joining Sema Pro uh here’s our four benefits and we’d love for you to I’m like oh my gosh we got so we got so good at script writing that we would have at any given time four or five scripts that we would present through our CRM depending on where you called

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from so if we see that your Annie’s calling from Texas your Annie being your automatic number identifier right so we know that you’re calling from Texas we would have a different script for you than we would have for somebody who who’s dialing from North Dakota did you teach people how to use like you know maybe even do their dialect like Hey Y’all thanks for calling 800 oh yeah you know the good sellers could could adjust you know that we we had uh some Philippine and Indian folks that call

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themselves Cowboy um that was their name you know hey thanks for calling it’s his Cowboy you know they get that dialect down and and you’d never know you were talking to somebody in the Philippines all sudden you see New York come in or Jersey like what what do you want to buy hurry up oh that’s great so I tell tell Jesse the Amazon story if you would oh man when back in don’t quote me on this I think but it was back in 2008 um I was recruited by Amazon to come to work for them in Seattle I would

00:15:59 – 00:16:56
have been your neighbor probably still probably would have been your neighbor um and they uh they offered I I ended up they had a recruiter tracked me down went through the interview process and they um they hired me and gave me an offer um and I took it back to my wife and she said that she didn’t want to go to Seattle because it’s too rainy and that this Amazon company was too questionable because they just really haven’t figured out what they wanted to do and we’d be risking our career my

00:16:27 – 00:17:44
career and and obviously our family’s risk there so um you know fast forward that offer just just so you guys know that offer um included up to 300,000 shares of of stock options just at that point imagine imag I say now now here’s the here’s the crazy part the strike price if I remember right it was sub four it was $3.9 um when I want to make myself sick um I go back and I pull the number on just if I would have exercised those 300,000 shares today I wouldn’t be on this phone call I’d be on my yacht

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somewhere you know it’s crazy you said you’d be living next to Jesse no you’d be Jesse would be living in one of your neighborhoods maybe so oh oh you’re doing the math Jesse what is it well it no I just was pulling up today’s price it’s $180 a share right now what did you what could you have bought it got it for $392 and now and now that doesn’t include uh the the splits that happened so I think if I ran the numbers it was a 5,000 uh dollar increase from inception of the stock 5,800 or something like

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that so to do the math it’s astronomical and it’s and it’s it’s it just makes you sick so I don’t do it I don’t regret it though I don’t regret it you can’t look backwards you know and you don’t like talking about it so only only when I bring it up constantly whenever we’re in a group hey Rod tell them the Amazon story he’s like oh shut up Josh my stomach why don’t you just punch me I would probably be dead by now though when you think about it I’d

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probably be dead because of that growth that they had I mean you know these people that work for these companies the burnout is just insane and I just can’t even imagine what I was already on a high from you know Building 35 call centers at the time and we were still going so I was running a million miles an hour but man that that growth over you know 20 years probably would put me in the ground so probably a good thing that I didn’t do it so once you retired from the call centers what made you get back into

00:18:37 – 00:19:40
Chrome and cars I mean you’re not a Car Guy funny story so um I actually got into back into the car business in 2006 I retired from call center in 2012 and I I I’ll tell you why I got back in the business at that time um Cliff you know Cliff Bennett my cousin who now my stepbrother but that’s a story from another day um that’s weird but that’s that is weird but we we can talk about that another time we we have interviewed people from West Virginia so everybody understands my wife’s from

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West Virginia so she understands so we get it you just lost all your West Virginia listeners my one all one of them yeah it’s just Amanda’s Uncle he’ll stay tuned in it’s fine that’s awesome so uh Cliff was running our home agent business he had run call centers for me he’s a great relationship guy A A great sales guy and he he ran my Bowmont call center down in Texas for for a long time and then we transitioned over to home agent where we were growing those 40,000 home agents and what ended up happening

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is Cliff’s not a technology guy and so um the the home agent platform was full of technology so he just it was outgrowing him so uh I had to at some point I had to lay him off at 2006 and talk about bringing your cousin in and telling him he’s fired that that wasn’t very much fun but I what I told him is is hey C go out and find something that you want to do and I’ll invest in it he said so you know take a couple weeks go find something two weeks later he comes back in and he has these products for me

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and it’s it’s the same stuff you know it’s just an upgraded version of what I did in 80 whatever it was seven um he knew he but wait he knew what you did yeah he knew so he was he he actually worked back then in that so he went back into that field investigated what was available now and in 2006 you know was it was upgraded there there was a lot more things to do to cars and so he says that we’ve got this little niche product set of handles mirrors and grills and wheel skins he goes I think I can sell

00:20:42 – 00:21:45
these to dealers I said well what do you need he said well you know inventory is the problem I need 100 Grand said well we’ll we’ll make it happen so that was the start of chrome enhancements at that time we we invested $100,000 in inventory you know brought it in and he started selling it like crazy um then we brought on Sean who’s my other cousin he started selling it like crazy then we just started adding guys and what ended up happening is in 2008 that recession hit real hard and then everybody that

00:21:13 – 00:22:38
was in construction called us up and said hey we hear that you’re doing some product with this that or the other thing and so by 2012 when we sold the company to LKQ Keystone Automotive um we were we were in 43 States and we had 47 reps um at that time and it it was just it was overwhelming and I retired from call center on April 1 2012 and I sold the company to LKQ on April 1 2012 right there you go you go but but they convinced me to stay on yeah um you know and and then a year ago I bought it

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back from him so Jesse think of that he’s so they got so so it was pretty Recession Proof right oh it gets better when when it’s tough because they’re trying to move cars and the longer those cars sit there the more they want the uglier they are they want them out of their sight and so we convince them hey make them pretty and they’ll move and they do yeah so then in 2012 you became an employee for Keystone I did yep yeah doing the same thing using their money to grow and using their inventory to to

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grow which was much much better because I used to go to the Post Office box we we did payroll once a month it was on the 15th and so on the 14th I would go to the post office box I would get on my knees I would pray that there was enough money in that post office box to make payroll tomorrow yeah you know and this was a people would see this and this was an ongoing thing for months and and I had just gotten to the point where you know I can’t I can’t live this way because the payroll was huge I mean it

00:22:59 – 00:24:04
sure it was big and so um that’s when I talked with Mitch Nunes uh at at CCI Keystone and uh and he he said hey you know we’d love to have you and that’s that’s what ended up happening awesome and then you bought it back last year I did I bought it back last year what made you decide to do that well I had begged them to sell it to me for the last five years back to me for the last five years um and you know it was just one of those things where they’re a15 billion dollar company and

00:23:32 – 00:24:32
and we’re this small Niche business down here and you know you get caught up in all that corporate minutia and it’s very hard to grow and run a business because you know you you you want to buy a vehicle for a new person and you got to go through 35 layers of approvals and and and then it takes forever right it’s not like I can go down and buy a car right down here and get a guy started tomorrow um so it was it was getting very hard to work through that they were great don’t get me wrong LKQ and and Bob

00:24:02 – 00:25:05
re and those guys they were awesome um but it just got to be too much it got to be um overwhelming to not be able to move so for five years I begged him and then the one year I didn’t beg him they came to me and said hey we’re shutting you down I said don’t shut me down let me buy it back so they uh they did they they sold it to me and and now we’re back at it again I’m back to the post office praying he’s got the got the little pad at least put a pad down for your KN you know

00:24:34 – 00:25:34
right mailman doesn’t drive over it go ahead Jesse I was just going to ask you know uh what are some of the toughest challenges that you faced in this industry and you’re coming from another industry so I’m I’m curious your perspective and like what are the big challenges and how did you overcome them yeah that that’s a good question Jesse um you know for for most people in the call center business it was retained people in this business it is it isn’t that because the people that we have

00:25:03 – 00:26:21
very loyal um that’s one of the things I love about the business that I I have is is these people have been with me and we’ve been together for years all dating all the way back to 2006 um you know so the the retention issue isn’t a problem the supply chain is the problem you know so you get these P parts and they become real hot and so you sell through them very quickly and if you need more of those parts it’s on a Long Boat from China or Taiwan right uh and so you’re basically sitting there

00:25:43 – 00:26:42
with the ability to sell ancillary products but you need this product to fulfill the package and some people won’t do the car unless you have the full package so you’re losing out on revenue and and that’s not the biggest thing for me is losing out on Topline revenue is not a big concern it’s about feeding those families um and giving them what they need to to provide a living for those guys so the biggest issue for me today is supply chain now when the ship the cargo ship hit the

00:26:12 – 00:27:14
bridge in Baltimore the other day huge problem for me huge problem for me because oh yeah my main supplier brings their product in through the Baltimore channel so you know immediately you get on the phone what does this mean well you know we’re going to have to reroute to New Jersey or New York um we were talking about rerouting through Texas um you know so you don’t know how long that’s going to take so you you kind of say well it’s the seventh busiest Harbor in the United States seventh or ninth

00:26:43 – 00:27:39
one of the two um they’re going to get that ship out of the way and they’re gonna they’re going to figure it out and they’re going to move that stuff because the United States itself can’t afford to have that Port shut down for any you know extended length of time but those are the issues that you deal with you know Co you know was another one that you know you hate to say that felter word but that’s another thing that you’re like okay for three months we were dead in the water you know and you

00:27:11 – 00:28:13
try to pay your people you try to keep you know and then you know Federal programs you got to Chase and they’re difficult to understand Josh you know that you did it too it’s like those are the those are the biggest challenges the funnest part is is is taking and doing product development and and the sales part of it and getting people familiar with the product and once they get familiar with it and they see that their cars move fast it’s it’s just real simple it’s a real simple business model

00:27:42 – 00:28:43
how how has what how’s the product changed since ‘ 06 oh man unb back then you were doing almost all Chrome right yeah unbelievable now it it here’s what I’ve seen and I even I stayed in touch with the business when I was in call center because I had friends that were in it but what you see is Chrome black chrome black chrome black right that’s the way it’s happened since ‘ 84 and it’s gone through that cycle probably three or four times we are definitely in a black uh Blackout um you know world

00:28:12 – 00:29:14
right now where you know everybody wants black there are some there are some states and cities that are are more Chrome but uh you know a lot of black and I give credit to you know Naji and kby over trim illusion uh what they’ve manufactured on the black side unbelievable um you know and the product quality unbelievable so we’re we’re putting their stuff on new cars now and new car packages where we used to just focused on used we were 100% used for a long time and and our ratios are are

00:28:43 – 00:29:41
really changing because the quality of product uh that match the OEM packages so you know you got Honda who has a OEM package and and it’s all blackout and they can’t get enough of them dealers are trading for ,000 to get those paying $1,000 to get those vehicles that have the blackout and we tell them you don’t need to do that hold on a second we can we can do that package for you right here right now without you having to spend $1,000 doll on a dealer trade and will’ll save you

00:29:12 – 00:30:11
half the money yeah you know and it’s it’s an easy sell and they can mark it up they mark it up new car and on new car it’s easily financed in because on a new car you can it’s lower interest rate you can Finance right in the deal whereas a used car that’s going on to you know the bottom line of that car it’s it’s a little harder to pass it on to the customer without uh raising the rate or putting it a denim in the window so so do you see that Trend I mean what would be the ideal percentage new versus

00:29:42 – 00:30:57
Ed for your team well it right now it’s it’s probably 8515 I’d like I’d like 85 85% used that’s correct so I I’d like to get that 6040 new um and the reason for it is is if you develop new car packages you can always go to the used car lots and you’ll have that package if if you’re developing for used cars you can’t always go to new cars because they change they change the you know body style etc etc so if we focus on new new development and new sales then the you

00:30:19 – 00:31:13
side is just gravy yeah yeah because if you come out with like this brand new Ford it’s good not only for the four years that it’s still a new car that new model but then it’s a good used car for another four years so that same skew can carry for eight years instead of maybe just four that’s right and in some cases when you look at some of the parts like door handles um they don’t change those the design of the car might change but a lot of times they keep the design of the door handle the same so then I don’t

00:30:47 – 00:31:39
have to remanufacture that door handle that might span a cover of of 12 Years um because the oems do that because they’re sourcing it makes sense for them and the body style didn’t require it you know but as these cars get more you know the electric cars and and those things and they’re getting more like futuristic then then yeah it’s it’s going to mean that we’re going to have to do more development and Manufacturing well before Jesse ask you a question all right Pop Quiz here we go we always put

00:31:13 – 00:32:06
a guest on the spot sometimes name me two of your top SKS what’s the part number wouldn’t wouldn’t be able to tell you I really wouldn’t be able to tell you Jesse it’s going to be let’s see if I can get my camera to do it the thumbs down no you got an 8649 or something here’s what I’ll tell you a 68135 BLK um fits a Chevy and that’s the part number I always use when I’m using an example and I need a part number so that’s really that’s really the only part

00:31:39 – 00:32:36
number that that I’m good at that counts that counts you get the thumbs up that counts but but here here’s what I’ll tell you I can tell I can tell you the gross margin that every one of my sales people bring to the bottom line and and for me that’s the most important things CU I got to pay the bills and I got to make payrolls so see I can’t do that but I can tell you partner so that tells how good uh you know things I’m running so Rod um what uh speaking of which what sets your business uh part in this

00:32:08 – 00:33:08
competitive industry what makes you guys different and and what do you pride yourself on yeah so good question Jesse the the number one thing that makes us different is consistency the funny thing about our business is is especially and and I don’t mean to be mean but we see this all the time is is you got guys that are in business that will go out they’ll sell something they’ll make a couple hundred bucks and they’re done for the day right they they go to the bar they they who knows what they do but they

00:32:38 – 00:33:33
they’ve made their money they go home what we what we drive and and some of our guys only work two days three days a week four days a week but we drive consistency at the dealership level if we’re there Tuesday at nine o’clock guess what next Tuesday at n9ine o’clock guess where we’re gonna be following Tuesday at nine o’clock guess where we’re gonna be um you know we stress that and even if they don’t make nine at least it’s Tuesday morning you know that they’re there so our customers have the

00:33:05 – 00:33:52
confidence in us that we’re going to be there and that’s the number one differentiator with us because if we’re putting Parts on their car and something happens to those parts they need to know that they can reach out to us and we’ll fix it right because that’s the number one thing with dealers is is I don’t know if I can trust you and I don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow so I’m not buying right so that’s the number one thing the second thing is is is we

00:33:28 – 00:34:31
strategically partner um with you know key people like trimol usion is the most aggressive U Manufacturing Company in our space right now so we have a really really solid relationship with those guys um we feel like they’re part of our family you know we we talk every day they’re part of our meetings we’re part of their meetings we help them with development ideas we test products for them and we do the same thing for LKQ Keystone and and others but they’re more of a family and they’re more aggressive

00:34:00 – 00:34:59
everybody else taking a little bit more time to develop from start to finish it might be 18 months to get a skew from somebody with Naji and Kobe it might be four to six months that’s how fast they’re moving um and so you know that’s a differentiator for us is as we position ourselves with the more aggressive more strategic people in the industry so that we can stay on top of it and it also allows us with our buying power we are the largest directed dealer distributor of of these products so with

00:34:29 – 00:35:23
our buying power it allows us to do some strategic things that maybe the competition doesn’t have that opportunity and it it’s it’s just by because we do so much volume that we get that um so it’s like we’re Starbucks and but you know you got all these other coffee shops out there that make a good living in that but with when you’re Starbucks you know you you usually get what you want and you get it at better pricing right yeah what I love what I love about their business Jesse it’s

00:34:57 – 00:35:59
like um it’s the old school 1950s milk route right it’s the guy who brings up his little carton when he puts four glasses and he goes Mrs Jones do you want five next you know next week yes please and next week they bring five but they’re there every week consistent and they build these relationships these M use car Manders some of them have a a a leash long enough where that the Ed car manager just trusts them yeah go take care of what you need done and they just sends them an invoice you know that’s

00:35:28 – 00:36:30
the relationships they build where they’re almost part of the dealership and I mean it’s a home run where do you see the business going in the next few years obviously you talked about new car but what anything else yeah so you know the new car side of things you know with cars act that you’re very familiar with you know the the fni companies are going to have a harder and harder time selling Vapor to Consumers and getting away with it um and so you know we see the hard products that we’re developing and that

00:35:58 – 00:36:56
that we you know we can put together they match OEM packages that already exist today so we see that that growth is is really going to happen there and that the fnii companies will recognize that we’ve had fni companies reach out to us in the past I think that in the near very near future we’re gonna we’re going to see a lot more of that so that’s that that’s really the biggest issue right now is is how are what is it going to look like in the fnii area in the next five years for dealerships and

00:36:27 – 00:37:23
how are going to be able to monetize because they’re not making very much money especially now postco now things are getting more back to normal inventory are back up again they’re not going to make as much per copy and so they got to find other ways to make money yeah well and our industry has it because we actually you know have what’s called A Hard ad so and Jesse I don’t know how familiar you are with this so so you know you understand this in the fni business some of our listeners may

00:36:55 – 00:37:51
not but in the fnii you have these products that they sell but they’re all cancelable so if you buy a warranty or Gap or anything like that and you decide no I don’t want this you just cancel it and that that profit goes right out the window whereas if you finance a hard ad or something that they put on the car and you finance it you can’t cancel that I mean the dealership gets their profit and we as the third party accessory get our profit and the dealership and the cuss R has to buy it you know you wanted

00:37:23 – 00:38:19
it you can’t just take a couch back after you buy it and sit on it for 60 days you know so uh you know and the cars Act is really helping us because they’re cracking down like uh like Rod said on fni so that kudos to you guys for really jumping in there and being part of that team the fnii department go ahead Jesse Rod I had a I wanted to go back actually just for a minute we were talking about the relationships that you guys built in the dealerships and that to me is very it’s a fascinating topic

00:37:51 – 00:38:52
first of all I have a couple questions but mainly I want to know how how did you establish that to begin with cuz that’s actually harder than it sounds and uh and then do you think that it’s going to change with how things are changing in the industry or is it always going to be the the the main stay of the business and the best strategy that you know that what did Josh say that the Milkman business yeah you know that’s a good question Jesse so really it comes down to you have to make a cold call right

00:38:22 – 00:39:24
you walk into the dealership and it’s cold and and they don’t they may know you they may not you know from a brand perspective they may have heard of you um but if they don’t know you then you have to develop that relationship and I’ve got I got to tell you I’ve got some of the best guys in the in the world I believe at developing relationships in less than 10 minutes you know Cliff Bennett um he he can he can be your best friend in five and I got a story I’ll tell you about that one um but uh you

00:38:52 – 00:39:59
know Mike zemer Jim Nelson um you know uh Matt shamley these these guys can go in and can talk to a dealer and can get them to say yes on the first stop without them knowing anything about you or your business right that’s that is the key is to have when we we get new people we we bring experienced people in and relationship builders in with them so that it’s it’s not so hard on them and you develop that now the strategies that we have now is we’re we’re much more into social media we’re you know we

00:39:27 – 00:40:31
we will they will see our brand on a Facebook before we go in and see them on a cold call so we’ve got a process that that we’ve built that that we get in front of these um buying customers before we ever send a person in so that that helps too so there there are strategies like that but that really is the key real quick tell you a quick story about building relationship because I think it’s it’s funny one for one and it’s it’s it’s it just shows you the key to it is uh I a a

00:39:58 – 00:41:02
software company called Balo autoare and it was a configurator um where the fni Departments could click on a product and it would go on the vehicle and and the customer could see it and say yeah I want to buy that right that’s what valo autoare was and so we we went to Nada a couple times and Reynolds and Reynolds had a company called um add-on Auto and it kind of did the same thing but theirs was kind of you know old school and didn’t look as pretty as ours ours so every year at NADA all the dealers loved

00:40:30 – 00:41:42
to look at ours because ours was appolis and theirs was old school um and so one day at in NDA um Bob Brockman uh who owned Reynolds and Reynolds at the time the largest tax evader in human in in US history who’s now deceased but uh he walked by our our uh our booth and he just absolutely started going crazy on the head of mergers and Acquisitions that he was walking uh next to and Saidi can’t you told me there was nobody else in this business that doing this to make a long story short they invited us down

00:41:05 – 00:42:17
uh to Texas we walk in um and uh and cliff goes up and he hi Mr Brockman he goes it’s a pleasure to meet you I know so much about you you’ve built an incredible company um I’m just glad to be here and he goes Cliff don’t call me Mr Brockman call me Bob right then I follow up I say Bob nice to meet you uh you know heard a lot about you so glad that you guys had us down and he and he stops with a serious face and he says never call me Bob you call me Mr Brockman right right Cliff has the

00:41:42 – 00:42:41
ability he’s got it you know he’s just a likable guy they they they can see it he’s got a big heart he wears on his chest and the guy knew that I was there to take his money and I eventually did but at the end of the day I called him Mr Brockman all the way through that proc process of selling the company and and he and Cliff always got to call him Bob that’s awesome that’s awesome that’s great uh what do you think uh is going to happen in the aftermarket automotive industry it’s

00:42:12 – 00:43:25
changing uh what do we should we be looking for what’s your crystal ball tell you uh sky’s the limit I mean when you when you read all the SEMA reports and all the analytics out there about the industry is um it it’s going to grow and the beauty of it is is the oems are are actually because of everything they’ve got going on they’re actually pulling back on some of their models and and their trim designs and uh you know so the oems are going to back off which means it opens up a lot of doors for us

00:42:47 – 00:43:56
to pursue those those you know different trims and trim styles that that the dealers are going to say we used to be able to order this vehicle with this color of mirror cap on it or whatever door handle it’s not available anymore right yeah well don’t worry we’ve got it you know let us take care of it for you so you know in my industry I look at it like this is a great thing and I think for the overall industry not just just my Niche business is um I think the future’s got a lot of potential uh on it

00:43:22 – 00:44:37
and as Technologies grow uh I think that it just opens up a lot of doors you know the key is is is you know our industry is aging so you know my bigger concern is is is how are we going to support uh the dealerships the retail public when our industry is aging out I’m 58 you know and I don’t have anybody uh familywise that’s going to take over this business you know um so what do you do what do you do you know and and so I I think that we as an industry need to focus more on getting young people involved

00:44:00 – 00:45:20
teaching them our business um getting them excited about the business and and I think if we do some of that then I think that overall the industry the aftermarket industry will do well yeah I agree very good I I we would be remiss to not mention that Mr Rod Bennett was 2021 right SEMA uh so you were Sema Pro person of the year was yeah 2021 uh funny story Maybe you can tell us how you accepted that uh award see so so all I I think all of the the hard um bad decisions while traveling around the world caught up

00:44:39 – 00:45:40
with me um back there in 2021 and and I had some health issues that I had to address um and so uh Josh was kind enough to call me up and say hey you you won this award can you can you take it mobile and I said sure and so yeah we did it over over the phone and it was exciting I I the funny thing was is is it actually worked out better because I was sitting in my dad’s house and and my dad my dad just passed away but he he would when I would go over there the number one thing he didn’t say how’s the

00:45:11 – 00:46:09
family how’s the kids how’s my grandkids it’s how’s the business going what’s new in the business you know and uh so I’m sitting in his in his uh living room and Josh calls and my dad’s like what’s going on he says Josh just told me I want see person of the year and my dad’s like you know he can barely walk he like jumps out of his rocking chair and he’s doing this you know yeah son way to go you know so it was yeah it was awesome it was an exciting thing and I I was

00:45:40 – 00:46:37
very grateful for that Josh and well you had you I don’t you couldn’t see ITC well we were on FaceTime but uh yeah he had a standing ovation at the reception uh but little you know it wasn’t as good as if you were in person but it’s still awesome that you know better to win the award and not be there versus never win the award and be there all the time right that’s right so tell us a little bit um as we’re finishing up here about your experience with Pro and should people join in join or should they even

00:46:09 – 00:47:13
run for the select committee tell them a little bit about your experience absolutely I I tell you I I joined Pro thinking I’ll try this out you know just to see and I wanted to network a little bit with the other people in the industry uh and it it really surprised me uh I will say this about the first 3 four months I’m like I don’t know if I got myself into something that I really want to be part of uh but you know honestly and again I’m not knocking Pro of the past but you know we needed to

00:46:40 – 00:47:38
take a step forward on initiatives and things like that versus just talking about old times and what we’ve done in the past and and and and there were a lot of good things done so I don’t I don’t want to criticize that but we needed to take steps forward and you know Josh when you were chair and and Kobe chairel you know a lot of new programs come up our uh you asked me to be part of the membership team and Kevin and I led the membership team and you know we grew that membership team you

00:47:09 – 00:48:17
know substantially over over a period of a year and a half and what I would say is is I met unbelievable people uh that I learned a ton and you know at 58 I’m like I I I can’t learn anymore but I keep learning and you know just un believably good people that that want to grow their businesses that want to be part of something uh that’s the place to be in in in the restyling industry you you you must be a pro member you know I I did step down because I bought this business back and there’s a lot so I

00:47:43 – 00:48:48
wasn’t able to give the time but I’m still part of pro I’m still part of SEMA um and I still you know follow the events and everything else so um yeah it’s uh it’s it’s an amazing thing well you’ll be happy to know thanks a lot to you that we finally got over that hump and we’re now we’re at the 300 plus member Mark CU I mean I remember when Rod was taking over membership we had to build back to plus 200 and and then we’re plus 250 it’s like uh but we now

00:48:15 – 00:49:09
have eclipsed the 300 plus Mark so thanks a lot to your hard work and Kevin you guys did an awesome job but I mean listen Pro for 30 years has done a great job but you have to change with the times you have to be relevant EV and it’s more about what does the industry or whatever our members need um and that’s why guys like you know Rod has always been instrumental to that because he brings a fresh perspective plus you know his non Amazon perspective but his call center perspective that he can

00:48:42 – 00:49:44
bring to the table too makes a makes it great so thank you for your your support in that area uh I’ll let Jesse ask his you know usual final question or unless you had unless you had 10 more no just just a little bit more um rod what what are you most excited about right now in your business and and what are you looking forward to doing um what am I most excited about um just all the future opportunities that we’ve got going um we’ve got we’ve got a lot of things going right now that I can’t get

00:49:13 – 00:50:18
into too much but um we’re looking at how to best position ourselves to grow our business and to provide a better product and service to our customers uh and so we we have in the next year we have some really cool things that are in line that we’ve been working on for couple even you know going back pre buying the business back some initiatives that we were working on that that now that that we own the business and we don’t have to get permission to do anything you know if we make a bad

00:49:46 – 00:50:55
decision we pay for it um you know now we can move a lot faster uh we can we can be strategic uh beyond what we were before that’s what excites me and and having the incredible team that that we have I mean really there isn’t when I look at our entire infrastructure there is not a person in our team that I would say they’re you know they’re a d player you know we’ll let them on the bus but really you know we hope they fall out the back um you know we don’t have any of those you know so you know we we’ve

00:50:21 – 00:51:34
got unbeliev um that very loyal yeah I just uh one more question is uh how do people get a hold of you uh what’s your website where where do you want people to go if they have questions for you yeah um go to www Chrome enhancements. it’s a long one uh but it’s worth it uh one of the things that we’ve updated our our website just recently uh is we do offer free packages to uh customers uh and you know we’ll come out we’ll put it on all for free just to show uh show you that it works

00:51:00 – 00:52:08
uh and that that that vehicle will move faster than any other vehicle you got on the lot so uh come out see us there uh you can always reach out to me um at in Omaha 8776 4999 uh love to talk even if you just want to talk about business in general or or network I’m always available I I love to talk to new people and and uh you know pro pro taught me that Pro you know Pro taught me that it’s important to Network and and to find out what’s going on because what what’s happening in Seattle is different than what’s

00:51:34 – 00:52:31
happening in Omaha and different than what’s happening in Baltimore so you know it’s always fun to talk to different people well thanks again for being on brother you are a good man a great leader great guy a great team and it’s a lot of fun to be around so if I ever go to the Philippines guess who I’m taking Jesse I’m taking the guy that I that looks like the Rockstar compared to me that’s what I’m taking and I know where to get you a knockoff purse so that’s oh without dying awesome awesome

00:52:02 – 00:53:02
thanks bro thanks for having me guys it was it’s been a fun I appreciate it thanks ra and there you have it another high octane episode of the ride and style podcast reved up and ready to go your hosts Jesse Stoddard and Josh pson shifted your Automotive game into overdrive if you’re hungry for more insights Trends and game game changing interviews from the automotive restyling Universe don’t forget to hit subscribe and leave a glowing review we’d also love for you to share this podcast with

00:52:35 – 00:53:30
your Gearheads installers and auto lovers Network because remember knowledge is power but shared knowledge turbocharges the whole industry for more expert resources to supercharge your business cruise on over to autostyle marketing.com your One-Stop shop for Everything Automotive marketing until next time keep those Wheels spinning and your pass ignited thank you for riding in style with us see you on the next lap