Former Subaru CEO Reveals Why Automakers and Dealers Must Collaborate

Mike Jackson, who was CEO and automation for a long time, had a phrase that there's a battle for talent and capital at auto retail. Why do you think that other manufacturers don't view the retailer as a partner? Why do you think they view them a little bit as almost in the way between them and the true vehicle owner? I understand Alan's question, which is like, what leads other potential automakers to not go in that direction? If you look at the brands that have great relationships with the retailers and you can look at the JD power, an NAD8 Attitude Survey, for example, Subaru Toyota and Lexus Honda at the top. There's a reason for that. One retail actually said this to me one time, we were arguing over something, I don't remember what it was, he said, listen, we know as a retail organization, we can't do everything that you ask us to do. And we also know you can't do everything that we ask you to do. But by having this give and take, you can kind of create that.

Mike Jackson曾担任首席执行官和自动化领导者很长时间，他常说在汽车零售业中存在人才和资本的争夺。你认为为什么其他制造商不把零售商视为合作伙伴？为什么他们认为零售商有点像是他们和真正车主之间的障碍？我理解Alan的提问，他想知道为什么其他潜在的汽车制造商不走这种合作的道路。如果你看看那些与零售商关系良好的品牌，比如Subaru、Toyota、Lexus和Honda，你可以参考JD Power和NAD8的态度调查，它们都位居前列，这是有原因的。有一次，一个零售商对我说，我们在争论什么，我已经记不清了，他说，听着，作为一个零售组织，我们知道我们不能完成你要求我们做的一切。同样，我们也知道你不能完成我们要求你做的一切。但是通过这种互相的妥协和配合，你可以很好地创建一个合作关系。

You're from Philadelphia, you go, see, there's a guy named Sunny Hill, who has a radio show around here, Alan, called The Living Room. So I adopted The Living Room. We want to make a living room conversation, just like we're having here today. With our retailers, when our retailer advisory board came in or we went out to regional meetings and met with them, this is the living room. Tell us what's on your mind. What can we do? And then we would take notes and we would decide, we can do this, let's go back and do it, try to meet the retailers where they were. Because again, we want their attitude to be correct, because remember, as I said earlier, what's the goal of our business? Fundamentally, it's to get a loyal customer. We want customer loyalty, we want customer retention. If we can keep our customer retention loyalty high, then we don't have to worry about requesting as much. The customers will see the value that we're providing and the retails are providing.

你来自费城，你知道，这里有位名叫Sunny Hill的家伙，他有一个叫做“The Living Room”的电台节目，Alan。所以我借用了这个概念，叫它“The Living Room”。我们想要一种客厅对话的氛围，就像我们今天在这里的对话一样。每当我们的零售商顾问委员会来访或者我们去参加地区会议时，这就是我们的客厅。告诉我们你们的想法，我们能做些什么？然后我们会记录下来，决定我们可以做到的事情，并付诸行动，努力去迎合零售商的需求。因为我们希望他们的态度是积极的，记住，正如我之前所说的，我们业务的目标是什么？最根本的，是获得忠实客户。我们希望客户忠诚，希望客户保留率高。如果我们能保持高的客户忠诚度和保留率，那么就不需要过多操心需求问题。客户会看到我们和零售商提供的价值。

That's why it's great when you go into a super retailer and say, salesperson's been there for 15, 20 years. That customer has now been through three or four car buying cycles with that customer. And they know that customer. There's a relationship there. And this business, it really is all about the relationship. That's really the key. Fundamentally, it's about creating a loyal customer. And if we can create the loyal customer, but we can't do it ourselves, we have to have the retailer. You're creating a loyal customer because you show the retailer that you care about their success. They're loyal to us. Yes. They're willing to write that check, to spend time in the community, to invest now for a better future because they have confidence that your way is a good way. Yeah. So it's not always about dollars and cents, right? We have an obligation to help our local communities to become better places. That's why we try to say to our retailers, it's more than about selling car. Anybody can sell a car. There's 32 brands out there, and we're way more manufacturers that are out there that want to sell somebody a car. But not every one of them wants a relationship with the customer. And that's where we come in. We want that relationship with that customer. And that's why we always say, you're more than a typical car dealer. You're a super retailer.

这就是为什么当你走进一个超级零售商行时，会觉得特别好，因为销售人员在那里已经工作了15年、20年。那个顾客已经在那个销售员手里买过三四次车了。他们彼此非常熟悉，建立了关系。在这个行业中，关系非常重要。这真的是关键。最根本的是，要培养忠实的顾客。而如果想要培养忠实的顾客，我们不能单靠自己完成，必须依靠零售商。你培养了一批忠实的顾客，因为你让零售商看到你在乎他们的成功。他们对我们忠诚。是的。他们愿意签支票，花时间融入社区，为了更美好的未来而投资，因为他们相信你的方式是正确的。所以，不总是关于金钱对吧？我们有义务帮助我们当地的社区变得更好。这就是为什么我们总是对我们的零售商说，卖车不仅仅是卖车。任何人都能卖车，有32个品牌，还有更多的制造商想卖车给别人。但是，并不是每一个人都想和顾客建立关系。这就是我们的作用所在。我们想要和顾客建立关系。这就是为什么我们总是说，你不仅仅是一个普通的汽车经销商，你是一个超级零售商。