Digital Dealer - January 2019 - 17

time, I want you coming in 20 times.
The other part of our marketing
strategy is we do a lot of charitable
work. We partner with civic and
charitable organizations in Cincinnati
because we believe it's important to
give back to the community. That
value was instilled in me from a very
young age by my parents. When you
give back, not only is it the right thing
to do, it shows the community you are
more than a car dealership; you are
part of the fabric of the community.
We go way beyond just sponsoring
Little League teams and are involved
in a broad spectrum of charities.
There's a diverse group of people here
in the Cincinnati area, and I might not
be sponsoring an event at the exact
time they're ready to buy their next
car, but I want them to remember us
the next time they get in the mood to
buy a car.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you
utilize data analytics in your decisionmaking?
DAN: NCM's tool axcessa helps.
It doesn't make the decisions for us,
but we benefit from the data it gives
us. Going back to the sports analogy,
you don't stare at the scoreboard and
wonder why the scoreboard is showing
that number. You want to see how
that number got there. Whether it's
the website or the financial statement
or the CRM tool or the DMS, the
numbers are the end-result of the
process.
I'm a process guy and like processes
that are measurable because you can
then change the process and see a
different result. You kind of reverseengineer it until you get the result you
want. You implement a process to see
if you're right or not-and most of the
time you're wrong. That's okay, as long
as you're willing to stick with it and
go back to it. The data is important,
but it's not more important than the
process.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How
important is social media to your

dealership's business model?
DAN: As another great part of
Performance Automotive Network,
we have a digital marketing team.
We have a staff of people who are
way smarter than I am, and they
speak in languages to each other
in something I hope to one day
understand in terms of a lot of the
metrics. They are not only watching
what's being said out there on social
media but also promoting what the
dealership is doing across platforms
and then they're measuring. Whether
it's Facebook, Yelp, DealerRater, the
Better Business Bureau, whatever...
all these different places where we
are not reactive. We're trying to stay
ahead of it.
The best part about it from a
financial standpoint is that you can
leverage that technology at what I
consider to be reasonable rates and
do some cool things. We've run paid
ad campaigns on Facebook for both
sales and service. You can target those
campaigns to certain customers and
see if it worked or not. Social media
is not just for the social aspects, it's
become part of our marketing, and a
bigger and bigger part of it, as well.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What single
piece of technology makes the greatest
difference to your dealership?
DAN: I would say the cellphone.
It's not merely a phone. There's so
much you can do with a cell phone,
and, as we know, there's an app
for everything. It's the most vital
piece of technology, not just from
our standpoint, but also from the
consumer's standpoint. That's how
they search you out. That's how
they interact with you. That's how
they chat with you and set a service
appointment. A cell phone would be
the one piece of technology that would
be hard for us to do without.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What are
the biggest challenges facing retail
automotive in, say, the next ten years?
DAN: I really think it goes back

to your statement about value for
consumers. An automobile dealership
that cannot provide value is going to
be a dinosaur. I'm a big reader, and
one of the books that really affected
me was Simon Sinek's book "Start
with Why." He has one of the most
famous TED Talks on YouTube.
Sinek introduced the business
leadership concept of three concentric
circles. The largest circle is what
you do. In the case of Performance
Lexus, what we do is sell and
service automobiles. That's a fairly
replaceable skill. We're in King's
AutoMall here in Cincinnati, with 17
or 18 other dealerships that sell and
service automobiles.
The second circle that's inside of
that and is just a little smaller is how
you do it. That can be your policies,
procedures, and processes; it's the
first way in which you differentiate
yourself from the competition.
The smallest circle in the center
is why. In our case, why does
Performance Lexus or any business
exist? The dealerships that can't
figure out their 'why' are not going
to be relevant in ten years. They're
either going to get bought and sold to
somebody who does know the 'why' or
they're going to go away.
The why behind Performance Lexus
is we're in business to provide the
greatest sales and service ownership
experience that the customer has
ever had in his or her life. It's rather
audacious, perhaps, but that's why
we're here.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Final
question: what one word or phrase
best describes you?
DAN: Discipline. Over time, I've
cultivated a tremendous level of
discipline. I wake up the same time
every day, go through my work
out every day, and so on. I'm very
disciplined. ■

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

JANUARY 2019

17
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Digital Dealer - January 2019

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