Customer JourneyCommentary & Insights

Your company’s story and messaging are the core of everything: it’s how you market, how you sell, and how you retain loyal customers. The story is the backbone of your company’s brand and should permeate every aspect of the business. That’s why rebranding your company is such a big project – it’s a chance to revisit the essence of the company and apply it to every part, big or small. Rebranding is a journey to take only if the name, logo, and tone of your brand no longer do your company justice. Whether it’s outdated or misaligned, the decision to rebrand should be intentional and purposeful.  The rebranding process takes time. Dedicating the proper resources and creating a robust timeline is the best way to ensure a frictionless process. Here are four things that helped our company manage our recent rebrand: Start with buy-in  Before beginning any process, it’s critical to get executive buy-in on the process. As mentioned, a rebrand is no joke, so making sure you’re aligned with the leadership of the company will set up the process for success as it becomes a company priority.  In addition to getting leadership buy-in, establish an internal committee responsible for providing feedback along the way. The committee should include different team leaders and members from various departments to keep the feedback as expansive as possible. You want different opinions and perspectives, so ensure the makeup of this committee serves that purpose. Keep the committee intimate and controlled; we found the sweet spot to be about 5-6 people representing different areas of the company.  Once you’re set on a final direction, employee buy-in will kick in. Prepare your team with the tools they need to understand and embrace the change.  Stick to a project plan Creating a master project plan is best practice as there are a lot of moving pieces in a rebrand. Start with a master list and break down tasks by department. Once tasks are assigned, you can rely on department heads to fill in specific details along the way. Use organizational software like Asana or monday.com to help organize the project.  It’s also helpful to create mini-deadlines to support the major deadlines. If you plan on launching your new brand on a specific day, make sure you create deadlines to hit certain milestones before launch day. This will break down the project into smaller, more achievable tasks.  Lastly, you will likely benefit from creating a phase 1 and phase 2 of the project. A rebrand is no small project, and it may be impossible to accomplish everything before launch day. Creating a phase 2 allows for more flexibility and can re-energize the teams heavily involved in the project.  Create a comms strategy  Aside from the master project plan, there should be a separate communications plan that maps out the messaging for each specific audience. How and when will you tell external stakeholders, journalists, enterprise partners, and clients about the rebrand? What does communication look like? Who will be handling this on behalf of the company?  It’s also critical to create an FAQ document for your clients and employees so you can answer any concerns or common questions that will arise.  We used the table below to help us prepare our comms strategy:  While it may seem unnatural, it’s important to make a big deal out of the rebrand, so it helps get your brand’s new story out. Be obsessive about it so the news can spread and you can feel good about the work you put in.  Setup a “war room” The rebrand doesn’t end on launch day. Once the news is out, you want to set up a post-launch execution room with your top players. There will be certain things you can’t set up before the news is out, so this dedicated time will let you focus on pushing live anything that couldn’t be set up pre-launch. You should have a running list of these items, so prepare a checklist prior to launch day, as launch day will be exhausting. Expect things to go wrong and be prepared to fix them. This time is dedicated to setup spillover, inbound questions and requests, and to head-off any mishaps.  Rebranding a company’s story, logo, design, and/or messaging is a big deal - so prepare for it. Be consistent and aggressive with aligning your team, departments, and all stakeholders around the change. And, of course, use the opportunity to create buzz and news about your company. This is your time to shine!

Retail is NOT a physical location. RETAIL IS AN EXPERIENCE.  This statement may raise questions, prompt pushback, or lead to realizations. Retail across all industries began to shift long ago. We can credit or fault disruptors like Amazon for pushing the boundaries and expanding the concept of retail to include digital experiences. But even Amazon has blurred the line between physical and digital with pick-up/drop-off hot spots and a few retail store outlets. While I don't love the term "phygital," it conveys the idea that physical and digital are now blended and part of a single experience. Charles Dunstone, founder of Carphone Warehouse, stated that "the future of retail is the integration of internet and digital experiences and services with the retail network." This is an interesting perspective, but what does it mean for automotive retail? The industry was already experiencing a significant shift, which was further disrupted by the global pandemic. This disruption was compounded by a significant supply shortage that caused inventory issues. As a result, we are now facing fast-moving customer expectations and shifting business models in the industry. Despite the uncertain future, there are numerous paths to achieve greater value and opportunity. The questions become: what do we want to be, and how can we deliver it?  We must develop core capabilities to flex our muscles and future-proof our business. What could it look like? Sometimes it's easier to look outside of our own industry for examples and benchmarks to understand the actual experience and benefits without getting caught up in what can and can't be done in our own business. In the world of the Future of Retail, I would like to bring up Disney, perhaps surprisingly. Not the Disney store in your local mall, but the Disney Park in Orlando. If you've been there in the last 5-10 years, you've probably noticed the advancements in personalizing the entire experience. Here are a few highlights of what they provide (and the experiential capabilities): A personalized trip plan that's tailored to you and your family's needs and desires, created before you even depart for the trip Online and offline tools that work together to create a seamless experience The ability to meet the characters of your choice and highlight certain themes and areas of the park that are your favorites Suggestions on shows, pop-up meet-and-greets, and other immersive experiences to enhance the personalized engagement A connected bracelet is given or worn upon entry to the park to accommodate location-based services (tracking, payment, selected experiences) The ability to choose rides, preferred times of day, food selections, and other amenities in a planned and time-windowed preference Overall communication, alerts, and updates to facilitate the desired experience throughout the day. So, you say, that’s great, but what does that have to do with automotive retail or retail? I would suggest that this is exactly the future of the retail experience. Well, let’s break it down. It offers the basics of retail; goods and services available, shopping, buying, servicing, and experiences (that are very personalized). But it does it in a way that is so much more than transactional. This retail experience is: Personalized Needs-based Highly experiential Immersive Digital and Physical Supportive Memorable and ongoing (carries on after the original visit) Interactive …and extremely human-centric (despite all the bells and whistles, it is still focused on the people) Is there anything in the experience above that we think should not be possible or available in an auto retail experience? While the cost of Disney is getting extremely expensive, we still pay 10x-20x that amount for a vehicle transaction. Shouldn't acquiring a vehicle be as engaging, personalized, easy, delightful, memorable, and immersive as described by a customer? That's what we want in auto retail, yet we often fall short of these capabilities and benefits. While we may all agree that some or all of these elements would be desirable and beneficial, the challenge is in figuring out how to achieve them. So, what do we do? While recognizing the need for change and transformation is crucial, it's even more critical to determine how we can seize this opportunity and make it beneficial to our long-term success. How can we future-proof our business? I believe we need both a Mind Shift and a Business Shift. We cannot improve or achieve what we do not measure or set as objectives. The traditional measures of success in the automotive retail industry focus too heavily on transactional events. While sales, profits, and margins are important, the focus needs to be updated. To drive the necessary change and successful future business models in auto retail, we need a mindset shift. The following are some of the key areas where this shift is necessary: Experience-driven, not transaction driven Need Management over Lead Management Personalized, not mass marketed Customer-managed relationships (customer in control), not Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Human-centric, not Product-centric Omni-channel experiences, not one-channel events Human-centric, not product-centric Restructuring of Talent Management and compensation aimed at customers for life and experiences, not transactions. These may sound obvious, but without these as objectives, supported measurements, and infused into our business model and business processes, they do not happen. These must become our North Star view of success and capabilities. They also need measurement, training, focus, and ongoing innovation and support. Thus, next comes the business shift. We are witnessing numerous pilots and experiments in new retail storefronts and immersive design, as demonstrated by Porsche. We are also observing new sales and demand management models, such as regional warehousing and agency sales models. Additionally, we are seeing a greater influx of technology beyond traditional dealer management systems. As a dealer, it can be more effective to start with the customer and their current and future needs, rather than simply implementing massive business model shifts and new technologies. Customers desire mobility, personalized offerings that meet their journey needs, and an easy, trustworthy, and accessible process that fits their schedule and preferred channel. Therefore, to truly understand the customer, we must capture all relevant data and insights possible, to be agile and flexible in assessing and executing against their needs. Although dealers currently possess a lot of data, we lack a clear and visible view into one customer, one journey, with multiple needs. Furthermore, our current business model and capabilities do not make it easy for us to proactively respond and offer solutions to those customer needs. Unless the customer engages us, we typically do not discover and meet their needs until it is too late. Assuming that our goal and North Star is to enhance the customer experience beyond the basic transactional model of today, we need to align our data and insights, metrics and measures of success, people and training, processes and workflows, and tools and enablers to support that target operating model. Currently, a sequential, transactional, one-way experience is the norm, and trying to restructure outcomes from within that framework is ineffective. Instead, we must change the operating model and framework to align with the new definition of success. This is a simple concept, but not easy to execute. It requires clear goals, alignment, and an agile, ever-transforming process. Some of the key business shifts will include: More insightful use of data Processes and workflows focused on experience, not transactions New key metrics and objectives instilled and measured Talent Management and Reward structure in line with the objectives Building of agile capabilities aimed at customer experience and mobility access for customer A defined Target Operating Model to address the “to be” state …there is much more to continually do, but it does start with getting a clear vision of “your customer experience” and how you can deliver against that. Just start, and keep going. Never stop. Customers evolve. Their expectations grow. The industry of mobility is continuously transforming. We must continue to become “platforms of mobility access meeting customer needs wherever, and however, their personal journey requires it.” Steve Jobs said, “you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward for the technology.” I fully agree but would only add: “Start with defining your customer experience North Star, then build out the tools and processes to support it.” And never stop. The timing and delivery of your customer’s experience will be an ever-lasting, continuous journey, and one built as an enterprise capability (a muscle you can flex), not as a project, one-time program, or technology.

CEO of FIXED OPS DIGITAL The Start "I grew up in Southwest Minnesota. No one lives there because, well, it's way too cold."  Owen grew up in a small town, "just 14,000 people," he shares.  He went to college in his hometown. "My focus in college was actually financial planning; I thought I was going to be either a financial planner or a stockbroker, you know, something in the financial sector. "  Owen, however, also really enjoyed marketing.  Having a conversation with Owen Moon about the automotive industry is like getting into a fast car and just accelerating. A fast-talking, quick-thinking, honest CEO, Owen is very open about who he is, the challenges he has faced, and how he plans on launching over any obstacles that come his way.  "As I got out of college, and I started to look at opportunities, I realized that being in financial planning, you know, selling money, felt a little limiting." Owen Moon: I needed to let my creative side go, and I got lucky enough to end up with an advertising agency that was fully focused on automotive. Being a small-town kid who had never owned a new car, it was just great.   Owen's first brand-new car came shortly after starting his automotive career. It was a white Chevy Tahoe, "I loved that truck. I absolutely loved that truck," Owen smiled. "I was fortunate enough to be in the dealerships, sitting with the owners and general managers, working with high-level executives every day. I became a sponge and was absorbing everything around me, learning the industry from the inside out."   The Foundation “This is my 23rd year in the business, working with Dealerships.” Owen Moon: I was purely focused on helping my clients when I got introduced to my Business Partners. We had a discussion about how we could take some of the strategies that we've seen work on the sales side and move them to the service side of the business. FIXED OPS DIGITAL was born.  Owen Moon: Most of the service marketing that you'd see out there was email or direct mail campaigns, and a lot of it was retention-based marketing where dealerships target people in their DMS, their past customers. What wasn't being addressed was the online service customer. These customers are done with their warranty and are searching for great value and great service. We realized that there was an opportunity for us to move in that direction.  The Wins   "I had to learn how to be a CEO." Owen Moon:   I feel like I'm growing every day. When it started out, it was just four of us, and we all were kind of splitting up duties. Then, as we grew, we started to add personnel, and we began creating departments. My role has drastically changed in a lot of ways. "Today, I'm more focused on partnerships and working with the OEMs to help move us forward as a company."    “It wasn't always easy.”  Owen Moon:  Our industry experienced a lot of challenges during the recession. I had a full-service agency back then, and we were doing a lot of TV, Radio, and Print Ads. I had a major Group out in Hawaii and was traveling a lot, working with really big marketing budgets. I was meeting with all the publishers and media stations, and then that all came to an end. All of a sudden, I found myself working with smaller franchise and independent dealerships throughout South Dakota.   "I love the dealers out here. They are so great, real car guys but just a whole different game." Owen Moon: Being a CEO is a different challenge. People need to evolve, you need to take chances, and you need to avoid being comfortable. As you're growing in your career, you're gonna have to do a lot of different things. Not all of them will be what you want to do, but they are necessary, and they need to get done. I have a lot of conversations with different industry friends, and I'm still learning from everyone I meet. I like having conversations about our industry. I like speaking with high-level executives from other groups, OEMs, and vendors. What also keeps me grounded is that I have a lot of people on my team who are talented and have a lot of experience, but still come to me for advice. They want to do a good job. They want to represent our company well. I still feel like I operate on both sides of the business. I am paving the trail for myself within this role but also in the trenches with my team.  I am giving them advice, something I never had. I had to make mistakes on my own.  Trust me, I made a lot of mistakes, and there have also been those times when I thrived and made the right decisions. I learned from every one of those experiences, good and bad.   The Future As we progress into 2023, we're focused on continuing with our partnerships from an OEM level. We will continue to create integrated partnerships, looking at what we can do to help our dealerships with all of their fixed operations profit centers.  "We want to connect." This past year we were able to implement some interesting features and benefits with our software to help customers easily find services during inclement weather. We want to ensure that we are able to bring connectivity through other areas of our partners' business. We want to engage within the industry and vendor spaces.   Owen is gifted, but beyond that, he understands our industry. He has put the work in, gained real experience, and integrated fully into the dealer environment. We look forward to Owen’s 2023, his contributions and watching his story develop further.

Co-Founder and CEO of RevolutionParts The Start "I was always intrigued by the States."  Originally from Egypt, Ibrahim’s family moved to Zambia when he was six months old. He attended a British international school and grew up in a multicultural environment. With many of his classmates originally from South Africa and the UK, the default choice for college was not necessarily the US.   Ibrahim Mesbah: I loved Michael Jackson. American Nightrider was one of my favorite things to watch growing up. I was drawn to the States and decided to pursue an education in engineering there. I fell in love with the country and all the opportunities, so I ended up staying. It was quite a cultural change. Ibrahim didn't grow up in the capital of Zambia, Lusaka, “I was in a smaller city called Ndola,” he shared, “it was very sheltered, very close-knit. I had never seen a phone booth before." Ibrahim Mesbah: I remember being at the airport. I was trying to make a phone call, and yeah, there was a lot of learning very quickly right when I first moved here. The Foundations  "We left PayPal to start RevolutionParts." Ibrahim Mesbah: We started RevolutionParts about nine years ago. My co-founder, Andreas, and I worked at PayPal for about five years. At the time, PayPal was an eBay company.  We had the opportunity to work with the eBay team and had a growing passion for marketplaces, payments, and e-commerce. One of our mutual friends worked locally in Phoenix at a car dealership. We were struck by how hard it was for our friends to run a successful online business for parts and accessories.  That piqued our curiosity, and as we dug in, we saw it as an opportunity to take our passion for e-commerce and payments and marketplaces and bring a more modern consumer perspective to the automotive industry and solve some of those challenges. The Wins "We bootstrapped 10 million dollars."  Ibrahim Mesbah: We found about seven or eight companies in the space, but many of those solutions lacked what you'd expect from a modern e-commerce platform.  “We knew that we could do better.”  Ibrahim and his co-founder felt that the industry was under-served. They recognized the opportunity to take their passion into a big industry, “as we researched automotive, we just learned more about how big the industry actually is,” he says: “we wanted to make an impact.” Ibrahim Mesbah: It's a big challenge to take a lot of the disparate systems and data that make up the parts catalog, distributor pricing, and inventory at the dealer and distributor level and build that up to a compelling e-commerce experience. We couldn't solve all the challenges at once, but we started by solving one of them: how do we help you price competitively? It used to take about six months to get prices updated online. It's tough to run a competitive online business if you don't have up-to-date pricing. So we started solving smaller challenges like that first. Our business began to grow, and we realized we could do much more in the space. We learned a lot about the industry.  “We were software guys; now, we just love the industry.”  It's very fulfilling to see the impact that we can have, helping our dealers and OEM partners to easily sell online. However, there are a lot of challenges that we haven't solved, so even though it's been nine years, it feels like we're just getting started.  "Our platform powers over $625 million a year in OEM parts sales online."  It's a pretty narrow niche. But, when you look at how much OEM parts and accessories are sold online, we believe we can grow that piece of the pie and continue to drive more sales for our partners. Automotive has unique nuances, and relationships still go a long way in the industry. So the first few years, we just served one automaker. After that, it was a little bit easier to get access to data and start to help their dealers, so we could prove the model and expand nationally.  "We now power more sales than anybody else in the industry in the US for online retail OEM part sales."  The first few years of their business were spent focused on serving one automaker. It became easier to access data and start to help their dealers. RevolutionParts was able to prove their model and expand nationally.  Ibrahim Mesbah: There are new challenges with supply chain issues and COVID around finding inventory and setting better expectations. The model is changing quite a bit, too, because automakers are looking at how to reduce friction and provide a better experience to their end buyer, but, of course, there are franchise laws that come into play here. Trying to navigate all that, we feel fortunate that we have a seat at the table and could be part of that solution. We didn't realize how big the industry was and how many opportunities there were, right? "We try to ruthlessly prioritize the things we're going to work on." “There are many things we could work on and problems we could solve,” Ibrahim smiles. “I wish we could move faster. There is always an opportunity to make an even bigger impact.” Ibrahim Mesbah: Initially, we were very market driven. We were smaller, and we partnered with many early adopters in the industry willing to take a chance with a small company. As a result, we got to deeply understand our customer’s day-to-day and where we can add value.  Understanding what those customers largely drove the most impactful thing we could do. We bootstrapped our business for the first six or seven years with $10 million. We had to make every dollar stretch and manage our resources incredibly effectively. So privatization is important to us. We must be careful how and where we spend our time and resources.  There's no shortage of tasks because there are a lot of opportunities and ways to contribute and add value. We manage our resources and focus by considering our different teams and understanding the Northstar metric for each team. We want to enable and empower our engineering and product team. It's up to them to consider all the different opportunities we can think of to improve the shopping experience and conversions, for example, and take a couple of bets, as long as what drives the most impact and the customers' voices is part of the equation.  "Our dealers have a really good sense of what matters." RevolutionParts understand that dealers are fully in-tune with their operations. “We understand that and work to prioritize a roadmap where there's typically one big rock that that team is driving towards every quarter,” Ibrahim says.  The Future Ibrahim Mesbah: Our core business is helping franchise dealers sell parts online. The end customer we are targeting is the consumer, people who work on their own cars or do their own repairs. They can go online, find a genuine part, place an order, and get it delivered to a nearby dealership.  The change we are seeing is that many insurance companies and reconditioning centers are struggling to find inventory for OEM parts. What they're interested in is whether we can help them solve this problem. We have a network of about 2,000 dealership partners here in the U.S., and we can help find the inventory. We're doing a couple of pilots right now that we're pretty excited about: working with those larger wholesale buyers and giving them a way to easily tap into our network of dealers and locate inventory.  Our goals this year are to continue to strengthen our online retail footprint.  E-commerce is growing, and we believe we're in a bit of a recession or a slowdown this year. With interest rates rising, people will hold on to their cars for a little longer. This should bode well for our industry and our dealers. If people hold onto their cars longer, there will be more investment in maintaining them.  "So we're excited about being part of that and helping double down on our current core business and enabling our dealers to sell even more online."  Our future gross lever is taking this pilot we're working on right now, productizing it, and launching it this year. This solution enables bigger wholesale buyers to source parts from our network of dealers, OEM parts specifically.  The third focus area for the year, our three pillars, is removing friction from the experience. Our customers are short-staffed. How do we help with automation and integration so that day-to-day, our platform is even easier to use? Enabling them to do more with less.  Ibrahim’s humble approach is in stark contrast to what you may expect a CEO of a wildly successful business to be like. Measured and thoughtful, he and the team clearly approach problem-solving with the long-term game in mind. We look forward to what RevolutionParts has in store for the industry this year.

I'll bet you one dollar ($1.00) you have this issue, too. When you're shopping at the market and see a food product that's "non-GMO," don't you stop and think about it? Follow my logic here, please. If it's "non-GMO," that means it's "natural," right? I mean, if it's not genetically modified, it's natural? So, if it's natural, that indicates it's "real food." So, they didn't insert not-real food into my food. Amiright? So, why do they feel the need to tell me that my food is made up of one hundred (100%) percent food? Why can't they just leave that off the labeling? Am I missing something here? I just want true and genuine food. Likewise, shoppers want a "genuine" dealership, not an artificial corporate one with no personality and a queue for everything. How do you translate this to action, so the customers feel what you are about? Let's just take one step today, and here it is: Respond to your online complaints like a human (and definitely not a robot) and invite the customers into the store to get their problem resolved. You cannot resolve these issues by communicating through postings on websites. All too often, I see dealers have "robo-responses" posted by real people telling the customers that the dealership is "sorry for their experience" and then offering nothing to the customer. Zero, zip, nada. What function is that fulfilling exactly? How does that help either the dealership or the customer? Even worse, I was recently at a dealership group in New England whose policy was to post something which said, "Please email xxxx@dealership.com and tell me your concerns." This was posted after the customers had just spilled their guts telling the dealership, and elaborating to the public, the very nature of the problems. At best, it appeared the dealership was insincere. The issue here is not just a reputational one. When potential buyers are scouring the internet, looking for where to purchase, they read these reviews to determine the genuine nature of the dealership. You really can tell the culture of a store by how its employees respond. So, responding to these reviews will help you sell units, too. I've seen it happen over and over again. Beyond this, an even better practice is when you have earned the right to ask the customer to "update" their review after you have fixed their problem. Here's what those updates should look like. And these are posted from the internet: "Previously, in a letter, I complimented the salesman yet slammed the dealership, which, in hindsight, was unfair since I never met Mr. Kline. After reading my letter, Mr. Kline was concerned enough about my feelings and thoughts about his dealership to invite me into his office and explain why I was so distressed. We listed my complaints and found that some were just anger on my part and unwarranted, yet some were justifiable. He fixed the ones that were justified. I guess the point I am trying to make is that he didn't have to do that. The owner of a corporation took the time to satisfy the concerns of one individual. I think that was great, and he'll have my business for life. Most times, you can get the help you need from the managers, and I'm not saying everyone should be running to the owner with every problem. It's just nice to know that Mr. Kline's door is always open. Thank you." Here's another: "At first, when I got the response back from Tom Kline, I did not respond back. I felt why bother if that is how his employees treat customers. I am sure it is the same way. Well, Mr. Kline kept calling, trying to settle this matter. Finally, he got a hold of my daughter, and we agreed to meet with him. I really did not want to, but my daughter said that it wouldn't hurt anything. I have to say that today I met with Tom Kline, and he was much different than what I accepted. He apologized, listened (truly listened to what I had to say and how I felt). He fixed the problem. I was so far off in my judgment about him, and I am glad that I listened to my daughter. I just knew that I would never use the dealership again for anything, but after dealing with Mr. Tom Kline, I have changed my mind. Thank you very much for your assistance and truly listening." Finally: "First, I want to thank Mr. Kline for his response. I was indeed contacted by Mr. Kline today and have set up a meeting with him soon. I must say any company that will take the time to not only listen to a customer but agrees to make it right is a place I want to do business with. I have never seen an organization except for the military to respond and address a problem so quickly. I look forward to working with Mr. Kline in fixing some concerns I have." There's nothing magical here, just good, old fashioned work. Fixing these complaints is money in the bank. And if you are not going to repair your customers' problems, the government will. Regulatory actions almost always start with unsatisfied customer complaints. Look at the recent regulatory actions against dealers resulting from upset and unresolved customer issues: Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Napleton Automotive $10 million Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Passport Automotive $3.380 million Commonwealth of Massachusetts Jaffarians Ongoing State of California Paul Blanco $27.5 million So, you can sell more units, have happier customers (who will continue to patronize your dealership), and avoid lawsuits and regulatory issues by controlling your online customer issues. By managing and overseeing these internet complaints, you are minimizing your risks and increasing your revenues. Now, that's a non-GMO deal if I've ever heard one!

"It's all about ensuring that JM&A Group stays ahead of the competition, specifically in the F&I Product space."  The  MAPConnected Vehicle Service and Warranty Lifecycle Summit 2022  is approaching. A collaborative conversation, led by some of the most brilliant minds in the industry, will be hosted by the Westin Southfield Detroit on the 25th - 26th of October. We had the opportunity to sit with Josh Bass, Vice President of Innovation at  JM&A Group .  The Automotive Industry: A Transformation  Josh has had an exciting career, "most of my roles have centered around strategy and product innovation," he shares. Josh has spent most of his career at the front and center of emerging ideas and innovations. He started in the dotcom space and the e-commerce world "when everything was moving from brick and mortar to online retailing," Josh says. "I have seen the evolution and innovation that took place there and then spent many years in the energy industry." Terms like customer centricity and the evolution of home-based technologies were becoming prominent. Josh was fortunate to be involved in roles focusing on leveraging emerging technologies and trends to shape strategy and product innovation. In 2012, Josh continued his career by joining JM Family Enterprises, an $18 billion privately held company based in Deerfield Beach, Florida and parent company to JM&A Group, as Director, Sales Planning, then Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation and subsequently, VP of Corporate Enterprise Strategy. Continuing his role as an agent for change, Josh became Vice President: Innovation, a new role within JM&A Group, a leader in the F&I industry for more than 40 years. In his new role, he is focused on combining the synergies of marketing and product development, "ultimately, it is about listening to our dealers and customers to leverage intelligence in the right way in order to provide great products and a great experience for our dealers," Josh says.  "It's all about ensuring that JM&A Group stays ahead of the competition, specifically in the F&I Product space," Josh says. "Most importantly, we focus on how our product helps dealers with their performance and, in turn, supports the end-user buying the product."  Predicting and Building for the Future "I think on a personal level, you've got to be curious, and you've got to be trying to connect the dots of things happening both within and outside your industry," he shares. However, Josh adds that an additional layer of sensibility is required. "I think where you can get caught up or trapped if you're looking way too far out and not being sensible about what's manageable and doable today." Josh cites bridging emerging trends with current trends as a critical factor in identifying how you can make things actionable in the present. However, he explains that a balance needs to be found, "not dreaming too far into the future and not being myopic and missing out on what's happening in your industry today." Connecting Marketing and Product Development for a Competitive Advantage "It's about the voice of the customer and our dealers." Listening to the dealers and the customers to fully understand their insights is vital when crafting products.  "Collaborating with our dealers to make sure that we're providing products and services as well as branding that is going to help them progress in ultimately understanding the customers' needs" is essential, Josh says. JM&A Group is committed to helping our dealer partners understand their customers better. Josh explains that leveraging consumer insights helps dealers effectively sell F&I products and brings a level of sophistication to the overall buying experience.  The E.V. Customer: Dealers need to be ready to answer sophisticated questions There are, of course, similarities between the traditional buying experience, those purchasing I.C.E. vehicles, and those purchasing EVs. "They are ultimately still buying a vehicle, but there are differences for sure," Josh shares. "We have seen that they tend to be a more sophisticated buyer, that typically has done more research prior to their purchase; EV customers ask more questions."  EV customers want to understand how the battery will maintain its health over time. In addition, they want to know how and where they will charge their vehicles. New technology within the vehicle, such as dashboard information relating to the car's performance, is another aspect that dealers need to be equipped to answer.  JM&A Group focuses on helping dealers create a compelling sales experience through the recent launch of their EV+ Protect™ brand.  "One of the reasons we launched the EV+ Protect™ brand is because we want to make sure that when customers come in to buy a new vehicle, they understand how to protect it and have the peace of mind that they have the coverage to prepare them for the road ahead."  JM&A Group has been providing service and maintenance F&I products to dealers for many years now and prides itself on listening to its dealers. Josh explains that collaboration with dealers allows for opportunities to be realized, "we understand that there is an opportunity to have a comprehensive brand that supports and covers our products." He goes on to share that "helping our dealers and their customers understand the buying experience to include a tailored set of products that are specific for a unique technology."  Inviting Change through Exceptional Relationship Management "We develop strong relationships with our dealers and maintain continuous dialogue," Josh explains. "Ultimately, we consult with our dealers to ensure that when emerging technologies and processes change within the dealership, we are right there to support them " he says.  "EVs are the next piece in the line of evolution in our industry." "Dealers have always been good at adapting to change in the industry, and JM&A Group is there to ensure that they are getting what they need in terms of product, insight, training and perspective on how to adapt to the changes." It all comes back to the relationships between JM&A Group and its dealers and customers. JM&A Group also used dealer feedback to create and launch a new EV warranty product under the  EV+ Protect™ brand. "We believe we have the most comprehensive and unique F&I warranty product on the market today," says Josh. The product provides comprehensive coverage for used vehicles. "Customers buying any EV vehicle can be provided comprehensive coverage for the vehicle as well as protection for the battery for the duration of that warranty period."  A Culture of Innovation "It is a continuation of our corporate culture to find new ways of doing business," Josh smiles as he answers what excites him most. "For us to be innovative in the market, and particularly to remain ahead of the curve relative to our competition while ultimately providing innovative products and services for our dealers, is the most exciting part." JM&A Group is committed to trying new things. "Part of innovation requires you to be able to try things that may be new to a market or new to the customer," says Josh, "some things are going to be successful, but there might be times where we don't do as well as we thought." Overall, JM&A Group has a deep commitment to learning from those experiences to convert them to success in the future, the freedom to create, and the byproduct of true innovation and, ultimately, learning.  In terms of launching the EV+ Protect™ brand, the team, through its field team, has made it accessible to dealers to gain a complete understanding of EV F&I products. "We can promote products and the brand. In addition, we have point-of-sale materials and information for customers during the buying experience." The MAPconnected Vehicle Service and Warranty Lifecycle Summit "We're going to be discussing the performance of EVs as well as the vehicle's impacts on claims considerations that you have to take in terms of pricing F&I products. These aspects will also impact product design and marketing, ultimately selling F&I to the buyer."  Josh will be teamed up with James Davies from J.D. Power, who will have unique insights and data perspectives on EV technologies currently operating in the market. "We are looking forward to also hearing the perspectives of the audience and participants, having a great dialogue around these topics," which will make it an engaging session. Join Josh in the interactive session, "Right-Sizing Extended Electric Vehicle Warranty And CPO Policies"  MAPConnected Vehicle Service and Warranty Lifecycle Summit  at the Westin Southfield Detroit on October 25th and 26th.  www.mapconnected.com