The EV Debacle at Dealerships
Episode 02
On today’s episode, I’m joined by the President of Foster Strategies Group, Laurie Foster.
Laurie is a legend in the automotive industry and works side-by-side with auto retailers and vendors to help them optimize company culture through leadership training, business and growth strategies, sales and team-building initiatives.
We discussed Used Car Week and our history together – but most importantly, we spoke about EVs! Laurie took me through some of the issues she sees in the automotive industry, as well as what she’s doing to fix them. She gives us her outlook on EVs, why we need more education around them at the dealership level and even what to expect in the future.
Episode Highlights
(0:00) – Introduction
(1:22) – Guest intro
(2:52) – Highlight/memory of Used Car Week
(4:50) – EV education, how organizations can prepare for the technology
(8:45) – What to expect from EVs in 2023, the dealer/owner POV
(10:39) – What Laurie is most excited about for next year
(11:45) – Episode wrap-up
Transcript
Elena: I have the absolute honor nay the privilege of being with the one and only Laurie Foster, president and CEO, how you feel today Laurie?
Laurie: Good. Had a great flight in and so excited to see you and watching everybody else traipsing by here.
Elena: Yes, we are again live Used Car Week San Diego 2022. So, I have, again the honor to have a little chat with you Laurie, you are legendary in automotive. And I’m just so happy that you’re spending some time with me today. So first for people who don’t know you in the industry, tell the listeners a little bit more about what you do and who you help.
Laurie: So great question and always great to see you and Elena and I have been around the world together so literally and we’re talking about our plans to do that again. So we take this show on the road everywhere but Laurie Foster with Foster Strategies. I started this company almost four years ago now to address the things in automotive that I saw undone. Leadership is a big struggle throughout automotive, whether it’s other modes of retail or our vendors, business strategy, growth strategy. If we haven’t been through turbulent, uneven unpredictable times before we should have the last few years so I hope people will make those decisions. Placement of people bringing in the right teams, getting their org chart straight, setting their business strategy sales in the right direction based on reality for their growth that they would like to achieve. And then I always use the words let’s go further faster. So that’s what we like to do.
Elena: And Lori has the best acronyms and catchy phrases I have to say because I religiously read all of your LinkedIn posts and they always have these really great just just catchy phrases and I’m a huge fan if you could not already tell so yes, she speaks in meme, another reason why I love Laurie so much. This is not your first Used Car Week, you’ve been coming to UCW way longer than I have but share really quickly one of your favorite use car week memories or or perhaps a highlight of UCW in general.
Laurie: I think we were talking about this a little bit earlier like the the energy that’s gotten built around this I love everything Cherokee Media does I’m not on the payroll there, although some people read my posts and think I am but I’m really heady on everything that they do because they attract the best crowds and what I was watching happen there was deals going down. And so I said to Bill directly Bill Zadeits if you don’t know him get to know him. He and Amanda Dunlap are in charge of all of this but I said, you need to stop giving this away to dealers and you need to start charging because I’m watching them make connections and they’re going to make a ton of money because the people that they want to talk to because we have a lot of dealers that are becoming interested in investing in some of the digital retailing tools, some of the fintech, all of the things that are out here and so I don’t know why we would need to give away a ticket at all – sorry, dealers, I’m spending your money. But I do that anyway every day. But so I think that was one of the most fascinating things is feeling the energy. The energy is just so different at UCW than most conferences where people kind of like scurry to the corners and have their little meetings here. It’s like people are collaborating. There’s a lot of good sense of community and a lot of innovation and so I’m here to you know, contribute but I’m here to learn a lot. My list is full.
Elena: And you say that modestly because she is doing a keynote, tomorrow 11:15am and it’s called powerful career strategies for leaders in automotive enterprises. Holy smokes. That is one heck of a of a title of of a program. So that leads me into I mean, this podcast is called EVs for Everyone. So we got to have a little bit of an EV slant in here. So we were chatting before we hit the record button about EV education. And this is I feel like it’s very much tied to what you do Laurie and that is change management, leadership, learning as leaders, all of the things leadership and the things that dealerships need to be thinking about. That’s a lead up to this question, which is, tell me your thoughts on EV education. We know that the consumer is like the last stop on the customer experience right like they’re the last ones to get the education. They’re maybe doing a lot of research online but they’re buying from a dealership and the dealer is a lot of times, sorry dealers, dropping the ball on a lot of the educational pieces, right? Because maybe there’s different parts of the team or not incentivized to do so. Walk me through your thoughts on how this is being handled now, is it being handled well? Is it being handled at all?
Laurie: So okay, here we go. So, one of the things that we talked about a lot from my company is better together right, and transforming automotive partnerships and dealers and vendors understanding each other better. Same thing happens internally at the dealerships and from the manufacturers to the dealership. So right now we’re in a position where a lot of material is out there, but it’s not landing on the people that have to execute. And so there’s a huge opportunity here because we want to raise awareness for our not just our dealers, they have the awareness of the bulletins and they know what capital improvements they need to make. But we have GMs, we have GSMs as we have fixed ops directors, we have sales managers, salespeople, they all need to be informed respectfully of what’s going on in advance. So without this awareness, what happens we know what sneaks in whenever people aren’t certain about something, it’s fear, fear, uncertainty, skepticism, cynicism, even why are we spending so much money, it’s never going to happen, kind of like the interwebs it was never going to happen. And so now we have a huge opportunity. So if I were the manufacturers, I would be saying like you’ve got to get more education out there and make sure it’s going through the dealerships. If you own a dealership you got to make sure your people are feeling safe and secure with a career that’s going to be predicated on not just combustible engines, but that’s going to have alternative fuels. First and foremost EVs, and then we’ve got marketing to the public to do so we’ve got to start normalizing this conversation. Be excited about it because your customers are walking in the door and they’re asking about it. And they’re asking the very people who are skeptical and cynical because your own people could be turning your customers off. So imagine that it’s the first time that you walk into a dealership and you want to talk about EVs. And people are like, you know, that’s not really going to happen or it’s going to be a big waste of money and all of that and where are you going to go if you need a car? Are you going back there for an EV? Yes or no? The answer is clearly no, because they sold you on the fact that they’re not sold. So yeah, I would just say really ramp up the education assume that people aren’t getting it. Assume that there’s fear. Assume that there’s not a lot of education, but then like, what’s the purpose behind it? How is it going to impact the business? So I would start there, which is really penetrating and permeating those messages through.
Elena: I think you’re 100% right. Because there is there is a lot of fear of the unknown. And as much as we you know, we’re in the industry. We go to all these conferences and we hear about all the advances in electrification and everything. And it’s like, if I was a, you know, owner of 20 stores, I’m really awesome at selling cars. I’m the owner of 20 stores, and I have all franchises. What would you say to me, not cautionary tales, but what are some headwinds, would you warn me of what are we facing in 2023 coming up?
Laurie: Yeah, it’s gonna happen fast, and it’s going to happen exponentially faster. Like it’s sort of like when you’re falling free falling, you’re just going to go, it’s going to go faster and faster. So to owners, you’re an owner of a 20 stores? Nice job it’s been like six months. I had no idea. But that’s amazing. You know, I have plenty of friends in that situation. I would say number one, as much as you might want to think Oh, great. I’ve got this. I’ve had plenty of people say once you enter this arena, it’s so different. It’s so different. It’s the facilities. The facility changes. The work that needs to get done for the consumer, the consumer questions, the fear, and the buying process is different. So as an owner, I would think about it like I’m opening a new business. I’m not just now extending this out. And I was talking to one manufacturer that said something similar, it’s like it’s not just like, Oh, we’re selling cars. And now we’re selling cars that happen to be electric, no EVs are totally different animals, different needs altogether. And also, right now, your consumers have a lot of fear, fuel scarcity, you know, fuel, safety, security, all of that. And so we’ve got to really be the so as an owner, we’ve got to think about it like I just bought a golf course. Not like I bought a different type of car. I just bought a golf course. How do I run this business?
Elena: And then really quickly to wrap up here because I knew our conversation was going to be amazing. What you’re excited about most for next year in 2023?
Laurie: It’s not a big secret, but I’m going more into helping more people with their talent needs. There’s like a trifecta of talent, leadership and then careers – like how do we like roll all of that up into better people, like finding better companies for them? Because I’m always trying to boost performance and help companies go further faster. Same thing, I want people to go further faster too. And so I think marrying that up. My phone is ringing off the wall with people wanting those things. And so I’m really excited to explore more in the people arenas, which is really my heart and soul. All of the business strategy. I’ll keep doing but I think that, especially with unemployment, it’s going to creep back up a little tiny bit again, and we’ve seen quite a bit of layoffs in the news. And so it’s going to be more important for companies and the people going to work for them to be more judicious, strategic and planful and that’s what my presentation is going to be on tomorrow.
Elena: By the way, I will be in the front row cheering you on. Because I’m a super fan. But thank you, Laurie. This is amazing.
Laurie: It’s my pleasure. Always.