Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick, powered by CBT News

How Dealers Win Q4 with Fixed Ops, Omnichannel, and Fewer Vendors

• Jim Fitzpatrick • Season 1 • Episode 22

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We share a practical playbook for finishing 2025 strong by centering retention, cleaning first-party data, and tightening vendor stacks to cut waste and lift ROAS. We also dig into affordability messaging, mobile service as a differentiator, and omnichannel moves that connect sales and service with one voice.

• affordability pressure shaping offers and lease strategy
• customer retention through fixed ops and off-brand service
• gaps in OEM programs and how to close them
• prioritising customer-pay work in bays
• brand loyalty vs dealer loyalty and group-level data sharing
• cleaning first-party data and reducing vendor access
• consolidating partners to stop ad waste and mixed messages
• dynamic budgeting across Google, Meta, CTV, TikTok, Amazon
• mobile service as a loyalty and acquisition lever
• building in-house marketing capability and governance
• three levers for Q4: fixed ops, affordability, data discipline


Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick is powered by CBT News, your go-to source for the latest news, trends, and insights in retail automotive. Subscribe for more interviews with top industry leaders, dealership innovators, and experts shaping the future of automotive.

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Announcer:

You're watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick. Thanks so much for joining me on another edition of Inside Automotive right here at the CBT Automotive Network. We are joined by Mr. John Fitzpatrick, who is the CEO of Force Marketing. You've seen him here before on CBT News. John, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to uh join us. It's always great catching up.

John Fitzpatrick:

Absolutely.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. And uh but but really you are uh your your company and you you're just like always going, going, going. You guys are on fire, you've just landed some huge deals, which we may talk about today. But uh you you guys handle some 1,500 rooftops now?

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, about that. Wow. And 14 uh OEM partnerships through the certified program.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic. Great. That's a big part of the business.

John Fitzpatrick:

It is.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So let's talk about um here we are, you know, going into the or really we're into the last quarter of 2025. Every dealer out there trying to figure out how do we finish the year strong. Uh I know the EVs 12% last month, you know, which which really kind of gave everybody a jolt, no pun intended. Um but uh but but that was a good thing, you know. And I I think it opened a lot of people's eyes as to the fact that, oh, people may might may want EVs, you know, even though the we know the $7,500 has gone away since September 30th. But so there's a lot to talk about, a lot to catch up on. But what are you asking your clients and telling your clients to focus on as we go into these the last three months of 2025?

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, it's a great question. You know, it it's rooted in the the- you know the brilliance is in the basics. It's we're kind of there uh in many ways in auto. Uh again, with all the uncertainties, the tariffs, the different inventory levels, the you know, customer buying habits, you know, whether or not they can afford affordability is still a major, major, major topic. You know, in all of our ads, we're really trying to promote price and and incentives as helping them drive down the affordability topic because that's definitely in the hearts and minds of customers, right? Uh, which goes hand in hand with customer retention. So you know, having a strong fixed ops department, making sure that every customer that comes in that maybe doesn't buy because maybe they don't think that they can afford, well, let's fix up the car that they're in and keep that business it at the dealership. Right. Um, it's so important for dealers to make sure that they've got a fine-tuned, you know, customer lifetime, lifecycle management process. Right. Um, oftentimes what we have found uh is that the OEM programs are great, uh, but there's a lot of holes in them. They're not really going after everybody that that the dealer should be going after to bring them back in in service.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So what do you mean by that?

John Fitzpatrick:

So there's a big opportunity there. So I'll give you an example. So there's a lot of the uh programs don't go after the off-brand vehicles that you sold. Right, right. So let's say you're a Toyota dealer, right? But you sold a Kia out of your used car lot, right? Well, do you want to service that Kia?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, of course. Of course, of course.

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, and we know that if we do service that Kia, we have we have set we're seven times more likely to buy a Toyota the next time that Kia driver wants the next car. Yeah. Right? And so of course we want that business. These programs, again, while great, we're not telling them to turn them off. There's just a lot of holes of opportunity. Right. Um, there's the customer pay versus warranty pay conversation. We know the customer pay is a lot more profitable for the dealer, right? We want to focus on that. If we're gonna put a unit up uh and take time in the service bay, don't we want that to be the most profitable unit? Don't we want it to be the one that helps us hit our president's goals and you know all of our achieve all of our metrics so that we're in great standing with the OEM? Of course we do. And so our product sort of wraps around that OEM product so that there's nothing falling through the cracks when it comes to retention. It's a very, very important piece of their marketing. Um we know the trade-in quality can be you know significant if done right. Uh you you've preached that for years uh on the service side of the business. And so now you've got you've got an inventory component. Um that absolutely leads a lot of our discussions because even the dealers that believe that, hey, look, I'm writing, we have dealers writing 300 ROs a day. 56 bays, right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Nice.

John Fitzpatrick:

They have opportunities. Right. When you're putting you know high volume units in operation, right, you have to be even better on the retention side. And so whether you're a small dealer and you're not pumping out the volume, uh, you know very much so that you need you know the the the your absorption rate to be high and your service department to be running running strong, but the the big dealers do too. And when we look at brand loyalty, what we're seeing is that not only has brand loyalty been on a decline, it's kind of steadied out at like 50%, right? But you're seeing dealer loyalty is below that. And so there's an opportunity for the dealer to make sure that they're keeping their customers loyal. Yep and then as these dealer groups have gotten bigger and bigger, I want them loyal to my family of brands. I no longer offer five different OEM you know nameplates. I've got 35. Right to know that how many stores have gone from five to 20 stores in the last five years.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right. You got something for everyone in the family.

John Fitzpatrick:

That's right. And so we we want to keep all of them, so that's really utilizing the first party data, understanding where the customer is, meeting them where they are, having a personal communication with them that recognizes we know you're driving a Toyota because we sold it to you, but we also know that you're looking for a BMW right now. By the way, we have a BMW store. Yeah. And that was that wasn't the case seven years ago when you bought that Toyota. That's right. That sort of conversation, using data across different uh dealership platforms, very, very important. So these are the kind of conversations we're having right now. It's really fine too. But if I if I had to put it into one category for Q4, uh it would absolutely be customer retention.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, okay. Um from the looks of my mailbox when I go to it every day, uh dealers are still, local dealers are still challenged in the data that they've got and how to manage it and keep it clean, right? Because I'm getting, you know, uh offers from my BMW dealership that I purchased the vehicle from eight years ago, sold the car four years ago, and they're asking if I would like to come in and have my you know my my my BMW service. Yep. Haven't owned a BMW in four years, okay? So things like that that still exist.

John Fitzpatrick:

Big time. It's a major problem.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It really is.

John Fitzpatrick:

We've got we've got a dirty data problem in auto, and then on top of that, we have way too many vendors with their hands inside of the first party data.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

John Fitzpatrick:

That is a major problem. That's right. In fact, so much so if I look at our two of our bigger wins, and a lot of these groups don't really like to you know share you know these RFP processes, so I'll leave the nameplates out. But we've got a 60 plus store group that we that we we just brought on, and a 35 plus group. So about a hundred stores and two groups, and and the commonality of those two groups coming aboard to us was we need to limit our vendors, we need to limit the amount of people that have their hands in the data cookie jar, if you will. Um and we've strategically partnered up with folks that do a really good job in data management, that are connected in terms of the data pipes to our audience IQ customer data platform, that we can use their data in a in a in a in first and foremost, clean it and then make sure we're driving personalization and all these communication touch points that we're having with them. And that no one else, or at least we're policing very strongly who else is putting you know those proverbial hands in the cookie jar. Right. Right? But it's because that's a big problem. There's too many vendors firing off messages in all of these different categories.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right, right. But isn't it isn't it needed? Like if if in in the event I'm a dealer, I've got vendors in there, aren't they in there for a purpose or a reason? Or are you saying that there's vendors in there that have no business even really being in there?

John Fitzpatrick:

I I I believe that there are vendors in there that have no business being in there. I believe also that there are vendors that can do a lot of those things, right? So it's almost like pick a winner and see how much they can do.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Rather than five different marketing companies, one just handles my email, one handles my Conquest email. Okay, so just an email right there. Yeah. You got two different vendors. I mean, right? Then you've got the OEM that's gonna say, well, we'll take care of your, you know, a segment of the There's just so much opportunity to create a better customer experience, like you just said, we're gonna go to the code.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Or to screw it up.

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, and then think about the ad waste.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. Think about the ad waste. I was thinking the same thing every every time I open up an envelope. Right. Not only am I, you know, upset that I'm still getting this, and it's like these guys don't know me, although they're probably patting themselves on the back to say we know all of our customers and we're reaching out to them, well, you're not, but also the money involved. That's right. In the in the printing and the postage.

John Fitzpatrick:

We we still have it for us the same two things we started with almost two decades ago, which was can we help dealers decrease their advertising expense as one of their three big biggest expenses, right? Right. You've always preached this. They've got people, inventory, and marketing. Well, can we help them drive down their marketing by being more efficient? Yeah. We could 20 years ago, we definitely can now.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Right? And then the second one that if we do that, we drive a more personalized conversation with all of the folks inside of their database, will that create a better customer experience? Of course it will. Yeah. And so those two things are still driving all of our innovation, everything that we're doing, all of our dealership conversations. And we sit down with our dealer groups and and look at them and say, look, we've got this vendor over here, they're doing a very unique thing. There are times you say, you know what? Keep them focused on that particular area of the business, they're doing a really good job. Their return on ad spend is fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Oftentimes, though, you see that there are just far too many vendors. And what dealer groups particularly have found themselves doing, they're not managing their marketing or ad expense. They're managing their vendors. Because that's become a task in and of itself. Yeah, for sure. And so as I look forward and as I look for our business, how do how do we continue to drive value into the auto space? It's helping dealers shrink the world. Right. Right. And also have a better customer experience, you know, as a benefactor of being more strategic, more aligned with your data, less vendors that are operating.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Is this the byproduct of different management teams coming into dealerships? Obviously, we still suffer from a big turnover in the industry. And I, as a GM, come in, take over. I got my guy for this, I got my guy for that, I got this company I've worked with in the past, let them come in. Meanwhile, the last generation of companies that the last general manager brought to the table, or maybe even the dealer principal, maybe the store was sold. So now you've got kind of this quilt effect of all of these different vendors. Sometimes the dealer doesn't even know about all of the vendors that that store has. That's correct. If I'm a dealer and I have uh 25 stores, it's almost impossible for me to know intimately what's going on in on that level with 25 rooftops. That's right. So they're counting on 25 different GMs.

John Fitzpatrick:

And they want them to be held accountable to their PL, right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Drive your property manager. Here's the other thing: the consolidation, the M&A activity. Yeah. Right? You buy a store, it's not going to be top on the list to say, let's have them migrate to our DMS system and our CRM system and all of our different ad packages and everything like that. And so that gets put off and put off while they're running the store and that that's an issue. There's certifications, right? Every OEM has got a list, a short list, right? Maybe 10 vendors, 15 vendors on there, right? Well, those are not all the same across the actors, right? Look, there's you know, I think there's 25 programs out there, maybe 22 programs. We're on 14 of them. Okay. We're not on all of them. There's very few vendors, if any, at this point, that are on every single one.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

John Fitzpatrick:

So then that's a creates a little bit of a problem, right? Because if you're very focused on being on program and having your co-op seamless, you might think about things a certain way. Right. So there's reasons why.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

John Fitzpatrick:

But what we're finding is the most uh sophisticated dealers that are like, all right, no more noise. We got to shrink the world. Who can handle the data first and foremost the most effectively? Because that is the most important thing. Right. What you just described of stop sending messages to my physical mailbox or my virtual mailbox on a unit that I sold back to you three years ago. Stop doing that. It's very, very frustrating. Right. And every time you do it, you're just lower than you're ever going to earn my business. That's right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. And it's always it always starts out by saying, you know, as a as a uh valued customer of ours. You know what I mean? Well, actually, I'm not that valued because-

John Fitzpatrick:

And that's what everybody thinks, right? And so that that the data component, understanding how to use it, understanding how to operate in a in an omnichannel world where the customer is so fluid. Oh, yeah. I just had a great conversation with the folks over at TikTok. They're finally figuring some things out in their platform for scalability. We're excited about where that could go. Folks at Amazon are doing some incredible things. Watch out, Amazon. Here's another, you know, huge category for them to figure out a way to dominate. Yeah. Uh, right. And and and then just there's so many other vendors, right? Connected TV continues to be a great place to put your ad dollars. Dealers for years have grown their businesses on site, sound and motion, right? With jingles and on every single, you know, programming in a hyper-local marketplace. CTV brings an incredible opportunity to connect with customers that are shopping on their uh, you know, on all the devices in their household. Um there's just so many very strategic data-driven ways to reach the customer as you're sort of setting up your dealer group for not only a strong closing Q4, but what does 26 look like? 27, maybe you're aggressive, you're buying stores, you want to think about this thing. You know, we'd love an opportunity, or folks like us, and there are a few out there uh that are that are that that have a customer data platform that have stayed vertical specific, that are really dedicated in driving a better customer experience. But I will say one of the things that continues to be a differentiator for us, particularly, is our our knowledge and our expertise on the on the service side of the business, on the fixed op side, and having one conversation with the customer, right? Not two, not one on the variable side and one on the fixed side. That's gotta be one conversation. The dealer knows it as I mean the customer knows it as one, it should always be one. Right. Uh and so that's a big that's a big opportunity.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, you it's funny, I'm I'm going back, I guess almost five years now that you uh that you were you sat here at CBT News announcing the acquisition of GSM Gulf State's marketing, which was a big deal. Um and uh and I think you guys just hit the gas pedal ever since that point with marketing for fixed ops departments, right?

John Fitzpatrick:

That's exactly right. Yeah, they we knew we had to build or buy a fixed ops product. Yeah. So when that opportunity came about from the Friedkin Family, we the reason we jumped all over it is again, it was already on our roadmap. We've got to build this thing, and we felt like it was a perfect fit. I think we just felt like we were too far behind. You know, and here's an opportunity to buy a tech stack that created Toyota Care, right? So huge opportunity for us to your point. We not even look back for a second. Right. Most of our clients are on some level of that product. Uh we're winning deals because of that product. We're winning RFP opportunities on the variable ops side that didn't even have fixed ops in the conversation in the RFP. Yeah. But we're winning the RFP because we have that as an hey, there's more value we can bring to the table. Sure, kind of. Our number one focus is how much value can we bring to these dealer groups. We're not just an agency or a tech partner. We want to really help drive value, drive meaningful business decisions. Um and and and that's that's what we've stayed true to.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's great. That's great. Um this is kind of a a side question here, and I don't know that you know or would really have too much data on it. But well, I interviewed so many fixed ops directors that are now into mobile service, as you know. Some some have got 40 and 50 trucks on the road. It's been in just an incredible thing. Ford, as you know, has gotten behind mobile service. Is that- has that changed anything with regard to the marketing of a dealer that has made a commitment in the area of mobile service? And what is your take on that?

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, not yet, and it should.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

John Fitzpatrick:

Right? I I mean, to me it makes total sense.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

John Fitzpatrick:

Why would I go to the dealership? Uh by the way, I think it's a differentiator, too, right?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I do too. I do too.

John Fitzpatrick:

Jiffy Lube's still in the business, but you know, ABC Toyota and where you bought the car from is is gonna say, I'm gonna come to your car and your house and service it or your work and service it. Isn't that a key differentiator for customer loyalty at the dealer level?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Which by the way, we've got to be careful because I think there is an ABC Toyota.

John Fitzpatrick:

Is there an ABC Toyota?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I was told that one time because I often use it. Any town, too.

John Fitzpatrick:

There's probably any town too-

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Anytown Toyota, right?

John Fitzpatrick:

No, but a good friend of mine, Amit, is is running Kirby. They're doing a great job in this area. They've got most of the GM business, if not all of the GM business. They're pushing it in a really big way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's great.

John Fitzpatrick:

Um and and I had had a conversation with him recently. It's like there's dealers jumping aboard on this left and right. There's still some hesitancy.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I know Amit, he's a good guy.

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, he's a great guy, he's running a good company, but um, but I think it's just been a little slow, but that doesn't mean that that's not where the train's headed.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right. Right? So it's just it would be a differentiator for me in buying the car. For sure. In other words, if a Ford, if I'm going to a Ford store, they have got uh mobile service and and uh and either A, if I go to another Ford store and they say, Yeah, we're we haven't done that yet, I'm going back to the first store, or even if I go to another brand, I go to a Chevy and they say, Yeah, we don't we don't we don't do mobile service, that's a huge advan- you know advantage that that dealership's got, not to mention how it's not that how how bad is it to have that mobile service truck pull up to a neighborhood.

John Fitzpatrick:

With the branding element on it

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Exactly, where people are going, they're coming out to service your vehicle? You gotta be kidding me. Yeah. I mean, you've got now uh the attention of all of those neighbors thinking, how come we don't have this for sure. You know?

John Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So it's interesting. I I would think that those you're we'll probably see that more um in incorporated into the marketing of the dealership, right?

John Fitzpatrick:

It should be- if they have it, you should be talking about it, right? There should be some version of, you know, you know, we always talked about the customer bill of rights kind of thing where it's like if you buy from this group, these are things you can expect.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Right? That's right. And they're differentiated from anywhere else that you might buy, that would be a big one.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

John Fitzpatrick:

Right? And and so leaning into it into the messaging when you're trying to get that, you know, that 2% of the market to sway your way, you know, that's a that's a great one.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. Um, I've spoken to a number of GMs that have said, you know, over the years, because marketing has gotten so sophisticated, I come from the days that we had a full page ad and we had a great TV spot and a radio spot. Maybe we even had a-

John Fitzpatrick:

Life was so simple back then.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Maybe we even had a radio remote, and you old timers know what I'm talking about at the dealership on Saturday. But things have changed substantially, and uh you can hold your emails, I get it. But um, but nevertheless, it seems as though you almost need somebody now, as GMs have told me, on the payroll in the dealership, working with the vendors, because we're we're car guys, we're car gals. We don't know all of these different different uh uh different levels of marketing and all of these things that obviously you know and the other marketing companies know and the experts know. We're not experts in marketing, right? However, we are commissioned as general managers and managers of stores to almost be experts and know what to ask of our vendors and what not to ask and what to expect of them and who's doing what. And then to your point, you've got so many people, you know, with their hands uh making in the soup, so to speak, that, or so many chefs in the kitchen that you're like, Well, I don't know how to manage that. You know, you have any recommendations for dealers that go, ah, when it comes to my marketing, I've got so many different people.

John Fitzpatrick:

Look, I think there's a reason why there's there's economies of scale, there's a reason why all of the publics and all of the major groups have full in-house marketing teams.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right to work, to work with.

John Fitzpatrick:

They might not actually be pulling the levers, but to your point, yeah, they are managing the vendors and they're doing it, they're doing a good job, right? Right. And they're really analytical, they they they they're great to work with. Yeah. Um, and that's where we can really help a dealer- I mean, I think there's a reason why most of our 1,500 dealers come, there's a parent company organization, and uh, you know, and they're part of a 30-store group or a even a hundred-store group, is because they've got those team of folks, of marketing folks, that take it off the GM's plate, even the service manager's plate, yeah, to some degree, and say, hey, we're gonna manage this partner and uh and then report back to you on the things you need to know, and you report back to us, and that is absolutely very, very helpful in the process. It creates speed.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. The average dealer, I think today they say owns two dealerships. Um, they're not the big conglomerates, although they get all the fanfare and you know what have you. But the average dealer out there owns two dealerships. They don't necessarily-

John Fitzpatrick:

If you have two dealerships, you should have at least one person that's managing the marketing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's handling them one. For sure. That's important to the two. And then the one person has got to be very well versed on all of these different vendors that are out there. It's not just a question of sending the logo over anymore. I mean, it's it's it's really they've got to be, they've got to be dialed in with everything that's going on. They do. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It's incredible. So if I'm a dealer and I say, John, we want to close 2025 strong, and you've mentioned a few of them already today, but what what are the one or two things that I really need to be laser focused on to get the dollars, to get the units too, over the curb. You touched on on fixed ops, that's obviously gonna help my bottom line.

John Fitzpatrick:

Make sure that's dialed in. So that's number one. Number two is gonna be make sure you're you have an you have an affordability message in all of your markets. Okay. Okay? Yeah. Because that resonates with that. That resonates, right? So you know how much lease penetration do you have is gonna be an important metric to look at, right? We know that the the the lease buyer in an affordability driven marketplace, they're gonna lean into that. Okay, because right, it's oftentimes less expensive on a lease than on a purchase. Right. And so, you know, maybe you got to drum some of that lease conversation back up, both on your site but in your messaging. Yeah. Um, you know, and then third, I would just make sure that you know you really take a hard look, Q4 is a great time to do it, in in not just- I love bringing this up. Bring up your your even if it's an Excel spreadsheet of all the money going out in advertising and marketing. First notice how long that is and how many different line items there are. Then the second thing is how, if you look month over month over month, just like the same three months, was your Google ad spend the exact same meta, the exact same, you know, dealer.com, whatever, maybe that's gonna be the same because it's your website or something. Sure, sure. Uh, you know, your third party leads, right? Are they all the exact same? And then ask yourself, was the marketplace the exact same, or will it be, you think, in October as it was in June? Yeah. If the answer is no, it's a different marketplace and there's different dynamics, yeah. Well then why is the spend the exact same? Okay, I gotcha. Right? You should follow? Yeah, of course. Where I'm going there?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You can't just set and forget it.

John Fitzpatrick:

That doesn't make sense to me. Right. How could it just be 10 grand a month in Google? Right. That's just it. That's just what we spend. Right. Well, Google is is based on intent. People going in, typing in, I'm interested in something. That fluctuates.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, it's dynamic. It's-

John Fitzpatrick:

Right, it's not it's a dynamic, it's a moving number, it should be a variable. By the way, they should all be variable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Based on the data points brought back to say, what does our marketplace look like? You show me someone that's got a changing number, just take the spreadsheet. If I the first thing I look at is, oh, those are changing numbers. They're doing something. Right? That tells me right off the bat they're doing something that the next guy is not. Right. And that's where you could start that process. Once you go down this rabbit hole, you will start to realize where your ROAS return on ad spend really is. Right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

John Fitzpatrick:

Right. And you know, Brian Pash does a good job at highlighting this in the market in our space. Yeah. He's got an event coming up. Eric Mercado, one of our VPs, is speaking at it down in Palm Beach area. Uh he does a great job. Unbelievable. And he's really focused on all of these metrics and and bringing attention to them. Um I think we're actually down there talking about on the fixed op side, actually. Um if that's something that resonates with you, and and if not, you can't make it down there, I would tap us. Because we can we can stay focused in one key area and then grow with a group. That's one of the things that we've built in our family of brands. We've got we drive automotive, we've got force marketing, and we've got Gulf States Marketing known as GSM. Any of those doors you can walk into for a very specific reason on how we can help your dealer group. And then once you're inside the house, if you need the other tools in the toolbox, great, they're there for you. And if you don't, that's okay too. We're gonna do what you're- what you need us to do. We'll constantly show you areas of opportunity and we will test you, right? To say, hey, you gotta understand this is an opportunity here, right? Right? But if you tell us, hey, you know what, there's not spend for that, or we don't believe in that, that's fine too. Right. It's still our job to showcase you in a proactive way. Right. It's another topic. There's all too often just too many partners that are just, you know, what do you want to do this month? Sitting back. And they just get very, very frustrated with that. That's right. That should not be the case. It should be here's what the data says you should do this month. Right. You want to do it or not? Right. Right. And if not, what part of the strategy do you like and what part of the strategy do you not like? Because this is what we see. Yeah, of course. Right. And that should be in advance of the month, by the way, around the fifth of the month. So, anyways, there's a lot of opportunities there. That's what I would be looking at. Long answer to your question on the one, two, three, but this is the time to be looking at your partners. Yeah. And are they the right partners for 2026?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I was just gonna say, lining those guys up, lining them up for great, great. John Fitzpatrick, president CEO of Force Marketing. Thank you so much for stopping by. It's always great. It's always great seeing you. Yeah. So uh yeah, special treat from me.

John Fitzpatrick:

It's fun.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

All right, take care.

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