Kenny: Hello everyone, Kenny Atcheson here, founder of Dealer Profit Pros. On today’s call I am interviewing someone that is different…and that is meant as a compliment. If you have been following me or you are a consulting client, you 
know I am a fan of different. I like unique. I think it’s very important in today’s world as individuals are exposed to 2,000 advertising exposures per day per person. It’s good to stand out as an individual and as a business and this person that is on the call; he has a system and a tool that is based on analytics. It sounds like numbers, accounting, stats, exciting stuff to a marketing and numbers guy like myself, but some people might think, oh no accounting, numbers…boring.
Well I can tell you that this guy is anything other than boring. We had some great conversations when I met him down at the AutoStar Dealer Conference in Dallas and I enjoyed talking to him and I am glad to have him here today. I think you will get some great value out of this. The gentleman’s name is Scott Carlson, and he is the owner of AutoZoom. AutoZoom does scoring and buy-here-pay-here analytics and we’re going to ask him more about AutoZoom and the industry in general. He has over forty plus years in the industry. We’re also going to talk about some other things that probably won’t be mentioned in the same manner on his website or his company brochures and things like that. It’s something I noticed that we talked about in our discussion that he does in positioning, in marketing, and creating some fun around his product and his clients…and I think it’s great. So Scott are you there?
Scott: Yes I’m here.
Kenny: Okay, terrific! How are you?
Kenny: I am terrific as well. Scott I’m going to ask you some questions about AutoZoom like we talked about before; but first, I want to hear that story about Jeff Foxworthy and how he does the “you might be a redneck if . . .” jokes. I heard you do something similar with your “you might be a Zoomer if . . .” lines. Tell me a little bit more about that, how you came up with that idea, and how people are having fun with it. Tell the story of how you were down at some compliance meeting that might traditionally be not as exciting, and how you spiced it up.
Scott: Yeah, sure can. It just kind of hit me. I was trying to determine – you know, like when you’re in a room and trying to get somebody’s attention – what do these people care about? You know they care about what can help them. In fact, at some point or another, everybody listens to the same radio station: WIIFM. That stands for: “What’s In It For Me?” and it can happen when you’re trying to explain complex figures, analytics, scoring, and things like that and it just kind of goes over the top for most people. When they tune in to WIIFM, you’re about to lose them.
So, there I was in front of the room standing in front of a good-size group of people, and I thought: What’s the best way to get (and hold) their attention? And, then I decided to have some fun. I remembered being at a comedy club in Fort Worth, Texas, about 20 years ago watching a guy named Jeff Foxworthy. Jeff Foxworthy came to this local club, the Funny Bone, a number of times, probably a dozen times. I knew then what the rest of the world would soon know: he was (and is) one of the funniest guys on stage. He had a whole series of jokes about rednecks and he always kept his act clean. One of his lines went something like this: If your family tree doesn’t look like a fork, you might be a redneck! And then I got to thinking, those lines get and hold your attention quickly for two reasons. One, they’re obviously funny, and two; they create a sense of community and camaraderie. I thought: I don’t need to yell at these guys, I just need to talk to them about the pain they may be suffering through in the buy-here-pay-here business.
I have been in this business for over forty years and I can tell you I have struggled through some of the same pains and frustrations they have. I knew I could get their attention a la Jeff Foxworthy and came up with lines like:
- If you want to increase sales, you might want to be a Zoomer.
- If you’re afraid of your Credit Manager and that he or she might leave, you should be a Zoomer.
- If you feel like you’re too far removed from underwriting, you should be a Zoomer
- If your repo rate is higher than you’d like it to be you need to be a Zoomer.
Well, I started going through my list of “you might be” lines, and something interesting started to happen. These folks were there to learn about boring compliance and, the next thing you know some of them caught on and mouthed or even said out loud the punch line: you might need to be a Zoomer! They were really getting into it and it was quite fun. I have to tell you it was the most fun I have ever had introducing AutoZoom to people and you can bet I’m going to continue doing it. It got their attention. Here are a couple more:
- If you’re putting more and more money on the street as car costs are going up, and you need to adjust your underwriting but you don’t know how, you might need to be a Zoomer.
- If you’re a buy-here-pay-here or you’re a startup, or brand new to the business, or you just want to open more lots, you need to be a Zoomer.
- If you’re the person who has been in business for a long time but still you still don’t know what your winning underwriting formula is, you need to be a Zoomer.
So it just went on and on and on and we had a lot of fun with it.
Kenny: That’s great. I absolutely love that, love that story. You just mentioned something else that I didn’t hear the last time we spoke. You said something about asking your customers if they had Zoomed something. It’s become a verb, you’ve become a verb. It’s like Google! Google is the second biggest company on Earth. You’re like the Google of buy-here-pay-here dealers. I’m thinking: oh my gosh this company is a verb. I hope someday somebody will say: Did you Kenny that? The fact that you came out with Zoomer but your clients came up with, did you Zoom that? That’s fantastic that they came up with it because it shows that they’re really wrapped up in the process and they are a part of something. That’s important. In fact, you’ve turned your business name into a nickname (Zoomers) and an adjective (a Zoomer deal) as well as a verb!
Scott: Well, Kenny, I’ll share something else with you about how AutoZoom got started. I started an indirect lending company with my background in buy-here pay-here. I built my indirect lending company along the same worn path as all good old corporate (and boring) companies have in the past. I was stodgy in my mentality. I wasn’t really a marketing guy and I became just as bored as my company was boring. So, I left the indirect lending company.
I had been out of that venture for maybe five years when I decided to start doing consulting work with car dealers. It didn’t take long to figure out there was a real need for standardization in the underwriting process and the scoring system, especially if you could do it online. I knew such a process would help a lot of guys. And so I went down that path of developing it.
I formed a new company, Auto Loan Technologies, and started building a client base. We often referred to ourselves as ALT or, like in our web address autoloantech.com, as simply Auto Loan Tech. It’s no wonder that people were confused about our name. Even our own clients, some who had been with us two or three years, would ask, “Now, what’s the name of your company?”
I knew it was a terrible name; we needed an identity. So I hired a marketing firm. They helped me identify and create all the white boards and language. I spent three days telling them about us and what we do. They then came up with AutoZoom as a brand and a name. That name captured the essence of what we did with the auto industry: speed and zoom.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I didn’t come up with that on my own.
Kenny: Well, you know what, that’s alright. There are no original thoughts anymore. Everybody borrows something from somewhere else, or adds to it. So, because you were sharp enough to hire somebody to help you come up with something cool, you’re still the one who is ultimately responsible.
Scott: And when you hear it one time you won’t forget it so . . .
Kenny: That’s right. That’s great. It’s a lot easier and a lot more exciting than whatever else . . .
Scott: ..than Auto Loan Technologies.
Kenny: Yeah, that’s actually kind of boring. I’m so glad you came up with Zoom. Your customers are more than just numbers. You’ve done what I think other people can and should do: create a following, a fan base. When I bring up “fan base,” people automatically think social media and sure, that can play a role, but it’s not all there is. You created a fan base and a community around your product and service. Your clients can go to a dealer convention for example, and when they mingle I have no doubt you’ll hear things like, “Did you Zoom that?”
Scott: Right, it needs to be easy to say and easy to remember.
Kenny: Right, for their own benefit and for yours. When one person asks another: Are you a Zoomer, it either signals an immediate association (if the answer is yes) or it opens up a discussion (if the answer is What’s that?). You’ve now turned a happy customer into your best sales person. Happy customers can create a cult-like following; just ask Apple.
Scott: And like you said earlier, it’s got to be fun. You need to have some fun.
Kenny: Yes you do. I think I mentioned this to you before, Lady Gaga calls her fans Little Monsters. Doesn’t sound like a compliment but they love it. They absolutely love it. So, if you can create that same thing with your name and brand, I think that’s terrific. It’s like being part of a fraternity, part of the “in crowd.”
One last thing and then I will ask you more about AutoZoom specifically. This Zoomer thing, how do you define a Zoomer? Can you give me a definitive statement on what the Zoomer is?
Scott: A Zoomer is anyone who utilizes our system. It’s anyone who is contacting us for support or asking us to review their data. A Zoomer relies and depends on us to be a part of their team to support them. We interact with each other. That’s a Zoomer.
Kenny: Okay, alright. I thought you might have a crazy explanation like: An open-minded, achievement-oriented dealer looking for growth . . .
Scott: Well, yeah if you want to get into that. Typically, a Zoomer refers to a dealer or someone who is in the auto dealership business. It is somebody who has at least a hundred active accounts on the books (receivables). They are not stodgy or stagnant; they want to grow their business. Even if they’re small, they recognize they can benefit from AutoZoom – especially if they are a start-up.
Some who are new to this business have tried to figure out buy-here pay-here and underwriting on their own. Trying to learn the math and match the right risk of money to the right risk of customer while competing head-to-head with other dealers can be an extremely expensive learning curve.
Zoomers can be anyone from a single individual starting up to a small dealer to a dealership chain. Our largest client has 17 locations. My own family has been in the business since 1969. They started with $500 of borrowed money and today they finance about 300,000 customers utilizing their own company money. They got into scoring business and became Zoomers nine years ago; they wouldn’t think about being without the system.
Kenny: That’s great, a terrific story. It’s good when it works out with family. I think you know what I mean.
Scott: Yeah. I think we all do.
Kenny: So, let me ask you a few more specific questions about AutoZoom or just the analytics in general. Can AutoZoom predict which customers will pay slow or default completely and when? Can it do that?
…continue to AutoZoom interview part 2 – click here