On today’s show, we’re pleased to welcome back David Kain, auto industry expert, owner of Kain Automotive, and host of Kain and Company right here on CBT News.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Jim Fitzpatrick: Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me on another edition of CBT News today. I’m so excited to have the one and only David Kain with us. You know David Kain through so many different outlets, but certainly here at CBT News, so welcome onto the show, David.
David Kain: Thank you, Jim. I love being able to talk to you and I’m not too far from you today. I’m up here in Cummings, Georgia, so I should’ve just scooted down and made it to the studio but traffic in Georgia’s [crosstalk 00:00:39].
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I know. Yeah, five minutes or I say five miles, could be an hour and a half. It’s crazy. Well, let’s jump right in. You wrote an article on the winning automotive videos on Winning Automotive Video Strategies. Talk to us about that.
David Kain: Well, so what’s amazing is after all these years where video and YouTube has been just a real prevalent part of society and we’re all the time leveraging YouTube for engagement, and you don’t really have to be great on video to be famous these days. We’re finding that customers absolutely love watching car videos. And one of the best in the industry is a young man whose father’s a used car dealer and he goes by the handle of sobcal04 and years ago when he was just a young teenager, he said to his dad, I want to do some videos and I want to become like the Motor Trend or Car & Track of the YouTube Channel and he’s had over 600 million views and he’s rolling on.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Six hundred million, wow.
David Kain: [crosstalk] dealers is, there’s a lot of people out there that just absolutely are enamored with cars and particularly when they’re in the shopping process, they love to do it. So we’re really beating the drum loudly, Jim, that get into a video culture, your store and you’ll open the doors to a lot of opportunities.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, absolutely. There’s, there’s no question about it and it’s free. I mean, this isn’t something that that costs the dealer a ton of money, right?
David Kain: And the equipment, we all have it, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right, that’s right.
David Kain: We might leave our phone at home, but by golly we’re going to have our phone with us.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right. Boy, there’s no question about it. So what are the big advantages and what are the big benefits of video marketing for dealerships?
David Kain: Well, so I’ve read, whether this is accurate or not, that only 7% of how we communicate is with the words that we use. So if we just provided them the script of what we’re talking about today, people wouldn’t be engaged. But even if they hear your voice that adds 38% and your body language apparently gives you 55%, so now you got the whole package when you’re on video. The word voice and the body language, and then the car, which is really what they’re after and if you present it well, it’s a really winning combination.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, that’s for sure. Talk to us about the be-back video and the importance of a be-back video.
David Kain: Well as a veteran of the car industry, I knew you would appreciate that when we started selling cars as young as you and I are.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
David Kain: Remember we used to get fooled with the veteran salesperson. Say all you had to do a sprinkle a little be-back dust on them and then they’ll come back to buy the vehicle.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
David Kain: The modern day equivalent of that is if someone leaves the dealership and you know how it is sometimes they don’t buy the first time in. We like to email, text a video, reminding them of the car, reminding them who we are and it makes all the difference in the world to build an attraction back to the vehicle and of course to use a professional. So a good 60 second reminder, walk around with the key features that they expressed interest in and letting them see that you are the only one in the market that’s doing it will make a big difference.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure. I know you have a list of some things that dealers should consider when creating a video. Talk to us about those.
David Kain: Yeah, so first off, don’t bore me. What we’re learning, and you know this all too well in the media business, customers only have an attention span of so long. So if I were to send you a seven minute video, you would say, Oh, I’ll get to it, but if I send you a 60 second video, you’ll say, Oh, I can watch that right now. Yeah, so the length of the video is really important, particularly on the first occasion follow up if they’re looking for more details, you can go into that. Additionally, there’s three words that I learned from one of our highest volume video producing clients, the Don Ayres Honda store up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And we learned how to do video on a really cold day in Fort Wayne, one winter by walking around a chair in the showroom so that out of those humble beginnings years ago, they’d become really prolific in it.
David Kain: And they taught me recently the concept of car face in place. So 80% of the video should be the emphasis on the car, 10% on your face and 10% on your place. A lot of used cars in particular, people just don’t trust where they are. Are we on a gravel lot with chain link fence or are we at a beautiful facility like I met today? And that place becomes an attraction and that face helps to build trust and show what a nice person you are. But the car is the star. So car face and place really works.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And it’s the 80, 10, 10 rule basically.
David Kain: Yeah, Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, it makes sense. And of course the video with a call to action, right?
David Kain: Yeah. And you know, it’s so funny, we used to see those late night TV shows where the car sales person be out there with the phone number on there. I still think that’s a good idea at the end to say to make it easier, I’ll put my phone number on here for you to call me back. So we want to have that call to action. Give me a call back and I’ll reserve this for ya. Give me a call back and I’ll make arrangements. Email me back, text me back. We want to make sure that they know that they have to do something next. So I can show you a video, but selling is not telling. Selling is involving. So if I give you your next course of action, you might be rude and, and decided not to do it. But if I seem nice in the video compels you, it’s okay to ask for me to take the next actions,
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
David Kain: Make sure you stage the car well. One of the things that we find is so comical is the salesperson squeezing through the cars to show the side or you know, here’s the interior and you’re not explaining things. And probably the biggest crime is committed when we don’t know the product. So a real tell of that is, I’m just going to show you the car. I’m not going to talk about features not going to talk about the benefits.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
David Kain: But I think that’s where you and I would really enjoy video from the process standpoint at the store. You and I at the dealership, we relished when people embraced the car and learned about it as salespeople.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
David Kain: These product knowledge professionals.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
David Kain: Well each video, as you can imagine, a new vehicle sales person becomes the equivalent of a product knowledge expert with the volume of videos that their doing and on used vehicles where all the time saying, go walk the lot, go walk the lot.
David Kain: Well, go video the lot. Get to know these vehicles.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
David Kain: When you’re on the phone, when you’re walking around the lot, you’re going to be an expert.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s exactly right. And you say enjoy the process.
David Kain: Yeah, and you have the funny thing of it is a, I can send you an email with all kinds of glowing words and really make a big difference, but it’s fun and we do this in classes all the time. I’ll do it today at this dealership when we get on video we animate. We might be bashful, we might be shy, but most of our true personality tends to come through and if we make it enjoyable, the customer feeds off of that.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, for sure. And I’m focused on the customer is another rule.
David Kain: The funny thing of it is dealerships are habitually efficiency experts. How can we just get one video for each car and that way we don’t have, you know, the sales people out there walking around them.
David Kain: Well there are two really critical points here. Number one, the product knowledge really improves when we do that and we’re presenting it live to that customer. And when I’m able to say Mr. Fitzpatrick, this is the vehicle that you expressed interest in online. I was so excited about it. I wanted to go out and show it to you as opposed to hi, if you receiving this video, you’ve expressed interest in a.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
David Kain: And that just that templated mentality is really hurting us.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. That’s when AI works against you right?
David Kain: It sure does.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You say don’t be the stereotypical loud talking car guy.
David Kain: Yeah. And you know sometimes that’s hard to suppress if you’ve got an excitable guy. The truth of the matter is, I love the CEO of YouTube where she says that people go to YouTube for texture, not Polish. So late night, you know TV, you have the, the showman, the PT Barnum out there.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
David Kain: Presenting, talking it up. What we’re finding is the more genuine when you are, if you’re an introvert doing an introvert type video,
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
David Kain: You’re an extrovert, be yourself. Just try to tone it down a bit and don’t be that stereotypical car guy.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right. So those were great tips and dealers need to look more into this. If you’re not into video, then certainly this is an area that you’re really need to focus on for the balance of 2019 and beyond. David, talk to us about your 15th annual Clients and Friends Digital Success workshop. 15th annual. I can’t believe I’m saying that. Wow.
David Kain: Yeah, no kidding.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I remember when you had the first one.
David Kain: I know, It’s crazy. So it’s, it’s one of those events to where it’s very intimate. We invite about 75 people to our Lexington downtown, 21c Museum Hotel. So it’s a wonderful backdrop.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, the venue is great.
David Kain: Yeah. We bring in these expert presenters in all walks of the digital sales industry. We have CRM providers that we hand select. We have digital marketing including your son’s company, a force marketing, and we’re going to have an expert presenting from there. We also will have video experts, we’ll have our own team of trainers will be presenting and for the fun of it, we have this vendor shark tank where they have to come up with something new or interesting that is going to be in a competition against four other vendors and the audience gets to vote on that.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow. That’s pretty cool.
David Kain: That’s really fun. We’ve got a shark shaped trophy that’s a lot of fun. So that’s always really good. And we have a vendor showcase and the vendor showcase allows our clients to be able to talk and walk around and interact with the companies that we recommend they use each and every day.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow that’s great.
David Kain: So it’s a wonderful learning experience. It’s November 12th through the 14th and it’s in Lexington as I mentioned. Give it a try and we also, we’ll provide a link with the CBT news discounts so that people truly friends and family.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. This, this is an event that’s like no other because of the intimacy of it was only 75 attendees. You know, it’s kind of the difference between going to a private school where there’s like 15 kids in the class or go to a public school with this 38 kids in the class. You just get that much more attention don’t ya?
David Kain: You do and the nice thing of this is when the speakers finished talking, they’re in a position where the learners can go up, the attendees can go out and actually spend time with them. And the other concert with 500 or a convention with 500 or a thousand people, you’re never going to get that intimate.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Not at all. Nope. Yeah. For the, for dealers that are watching and managers and such, you know this, this really is a world class event, although it is just down to 75 people, which is awesome. So I highly recommend that you find time in your schedule to get to this event. It’s not something that you want to miss. It’s going to just put more money in your pocket. The very day after you leave the event. So you know, kudos to you 15 years in a row, you’re not going to cover off the ball, David, and we’re proud of the job you’re doing. And thanks so much for all the great content that you provide to our viewers every week on your show.
David Kain: You’re sure welcome Jim. And it’s a pleasure to work with the professionals in your team. Thank you so much.
Jim Fitzpatrick: We appreciate those comments. So good luck to you there in Cumming, Georgia, and we’ll catch up with you next time.
David Kain: Very good. See ya.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Take care.
Speaker 1: CBT automotive network, the number one most watched network in retail automotive. This has been a JBF business media production.
