The Entrepreneurs Radio Show 019_Chris Riley

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW

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Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur‟s Radio Show Page 1 of 22

EPISODE #19: CHRIS RILEY

Intro: You‟re listening to Diamonds in Your Own Backyard, the business owner‟s guide to success,

inspiration, and community. Where each week you will hear fellow business owners share their

inspirational stories, strategies and moments of clarity that help them find success. And now here is

your host Travis Lane Jenkins and Sandra Champlain.

Chris Riley

Travis: Hey, it‟s Travis Lane Jenkins.

Sandra: And this is Sandra Champlain and we welcome you to Diamonds in your own backyard. Hello

my friend.

Travis: How are you?

Sandra: I am great.

Travis: Yeah. What‟s going on?

Sandra: Well today I find myself planning the menu for my upcoming race but you know and some

people might know, not know that provide hospitality for race car team across the country and so I have

a race this coming week at Road Atlanta. So my day is preparing for that today.

Travis: Sounds fun.

Sandra: Oh, it is fun.

Travis: The race not the preparing.

Sandra: Yes, when are you going to come to a race by the way?

Travis: Well, I was thinking of coming to one earlier this year, but you and your mother had felt that

there was an ideal one that I should attend. Which race was that?

Sandra: Well, I was thinking maybe Daytona or Sebring.

Travis: Yeah, well you know I‟m a car nut so whichever when you tell me I need to be, I am going to be

there.




Sandra: Lucky for you you‟re a car nut as we have a pretty great guest today at the show, who also is a

car nut. Can I introduce him?

Travis: Yes, please do.

Sandra: Wonderful, well today we have Chris Riley. Chris is someone I have met through racing. He

owns Riley Racing, and he, his wife, and his two sons are crew, owners, and the sons are the drivers of

the race team. I have had many occasions to be with him and his family, and he is just wonderful. He is

the owner, we have been in Connecticut, and he owns Stanford Volvo, Riley Mazda, and just a year

and a half ago he opened a used car store where he sells and services used cars. So, I would like to

introduce to you and our listening audience Chris Riley. Hi Chris.

Travis: Hi Chris.

Chris: Hi Sandra, hi Travis how are you today?

Travis: Excellent. How about you?

Chris: Good.

Travis: Nice to meet you.

Chris: Nice to meet you too.

Travis: Let me get out of the way here I know Sandra is excited to ask you some questions. I have my

own set of questions but let me back out of the way and let Sandra get going I normally dominate the

conversation.

Sandra: Normally he does. Yes. Well, I think one question because we know each other but maybe not

all that well. But how in the world did you get into the car business. I mean were you a young man, kid,

who always loved cars. If you could you just tell us a little bit about how you got even into your

businesses.

Chris: I was a young man that hated school and my father had a car dealership that he started back in

1959 and I couldn‟t wait to go to work for him. I couldn‟t take to school, I hated school and so I thought

that I can always fall back on my father‟s business. So that‟s how it started.

Sandra: Wow.

Travis: And so your dad had a dealership?




Chris: Yes. He actually works for Sears and Roebuck in the early 50‟s and they were sent in all over

the eastern part of the United States so he left Sears and Roebuck and went to a car business in

Stanford, he partnered up with a gentlemen that owned it and they packed it until the son. And the son

got out of the business my father bought them out and he had imported lines. He had the Reno, Fuzo,

Volvo, and Triumph and Roller cars and really cheap back which was owned by Willy.

Travis: Right.

Chris: And so I used to hang around there when I was 15, 16 years old. I like the cars and I couldn‟t

wait to get in to that business. As a matter of fact I was fixing cars in the teachers‟ parking lot in high

school for grades.

Sandra: Oh, that‟s brilliant.

Chris: And my wife kept telling my kids, you can‟t tell them, these kids you can‟t talk about the stuff like

30 years old. I had to keep my mouth shut for quite some time. But it‟s so funny because they bump in

the people who knew me and said huh, you are Chris Riley‟s son, we knew him from this and that and

back and forth.

Travis: Your wife was saying you couldn‟t tell your kids about your chequered history.

Chris: Yeah, because we want them to go to school and do well.

Travis: Right, right, right, too funny. I have a son, in our past I was a terrible student and I wanted to try

and keep that from my son so that he didn‟t use that as an excuse to do the same, right?

Chris: Yeah. That is why I don‟t buy a motorcycle, because I don‟t want them to ride motorcycles.

Travis: Me too. So you just started working there and then overtime you just gradually took over the

place.

Chris: My father‟s stereo was that you do every job in the dealership and you sweep the floor all the

way to the top 1. So that is what I did, I was put in the shack and I did all the jobs that the other guys in

the shop didn‟t want to do. So they basically turned me over to the service manager, says “Here is the

boss‟ son, used him any way you want.”

Travis: I like that mentality.

Chris: And I did but I learned a lot. I learned to bump about people, employees, how to work with them.

It paid off in the long run one. When my father got sick maybe 80‟s right after I computerized the place

and that‟s what kind of the beginning and the end for him because he didn‟t want me to get into

computers.




Travis: Right.

Chris: But he was smart enough and wise enough to know that, that was the right direction to go and

he could see that I was nearly pushing to do that. The good thing about it, he backed out of it and then

he got very, very sick about two years after that. That kind of ended him for the business, he was not

involved in the way he did this anymore and I kind of take over from there.

Travis: How many different makes in or types of cars do you guys sell now?

Chris: All over the years they kind of left the country, Reno left. Fuzo left. Triumph left. Rover left.

Willy‟s Jeep got bought up by Chrysler, so we just built a new facility down on the street back in the

early 70‟s for Volvo alone. And we were one of the first exclusive dealerships in the United States

when there wasn‟t really exclusive. Everybody had two or multi faceted dealership and then in 2007 I

opened up Riley Mazda and we have those two franchises.

Travis: What have you found over the years is the key to running, and this is a very broad question and

we can niche it down from there. But what did you feel like you figure out over all of these years is the

most important element to running and operating a successful business?

Chris: I am not so big like some other car dealership that have 60, 70 cars with dealership. I only have

2 unused cars store but my father taught me to be there 7 days a week and that‟s how I works 7 days a

week. I work until 12, 1 o‟clock in the morning. I work after, I went to college, I came back and I

changed my clothes and I worked on cars and so all kinds of hours. And luckily, I would spend with

some of the girls on the class, like I cheat off them so I can get my grades.

Travis: Just a hard work?

Chris: I‟m sorry?

Travis: I‟m sorry I didn‟t mean to step on you there so you attributing it just a hard work and drive?

Chris: Paying attention. I have some of my friends that opened up businesses that figure that once you

turn the key on the door, you hire a bunch of managers and employees you can go on vacation and

walk away from that you can‟t do that. You need to pay attention to all the facts especially in the used

car or new car business there‟s so many ways to steal money from this place. So I attributed to a lot of

hard work, paying attention and hiring the right people. I find that it takes ten to twenty people that I

interview before I really find a good, loyal, caring employee.

Travis: Right, right. First and foremost I agree with you, you‟ve got to get the right people in the right

position. I know from running my own business for 22 years that getting the wrong person and the

person at wrong position can have long term lasting negative effect in your business. I will give you an




example; you take a guy that is not a people person. A natural left brainer that‟s more of a numbers

counter computer type guy and put him in a role where he‟s constantly dealing with customers. I think

you are begging for problems, what‟s your view on that.

Chris: My father like I said before made me do all the positions. I was part manager, I was a salesman,

I was a mechanic, I turned wrenches, I was a service manager. I did all of the jobs so when I interview

somebody I know what it takes to do that job. I know what kind of person I‟m looking for to do that job. I

got a pretty good sense of it that person right there, right making it go.

Travis: Well, it‟s easy because you are the owner you can hold all of those positions and do a more of

adequate job in everyone of those positions. But a person that deals with customers on a regular basis

and without using a specific name I had this recently someone that is a very intelligent, sharp person in

my business but he does not have a good people skills and he would inflame situations when there

wasn‟t even anything to inflame. And so customers would start getting aggravated or frustrated just

because of his choice of words or the way that he goes about dealing with things. And ultimately that

was my responsibility because I let the guy hold that position. Is that an issue with you or is that just

something that you learned to put the right person and the right position early on.

Chris: I don‟t know if anybody is quite as good at doing that. If I hire somebody new and I know what I

expect out of that person I‟m here every day, I‟m paying attention of that person. I‟m asking questions

of whatever the manager of that department or he is the manager I‟m asking him key questions and I

know what the answer should be before that person is telling me. So I kind of keep an eye on it. I did

have one person I thought was so valuable everything except his people skills and that person went to

Disneyland to learn.

Travis: Yeah, now he went to what?

Chris: Disneyland. We sent him to Disneyland to learn some people skills.

Sandra: Did he really?

Travis: Oh, oh, oh, okay.

Sandra: Wow.

Travis: Well, those guys are brilliant at the way they run their business. Have you studied at the things

that they do at their business.

Chris: Oh no, I haven‟t but Volvo had this opportunity for us to send some people there that‟s why I

took advantage of it.




Travis: Oh yeah, Disneyland is unbelievable. The training that they put their people through and the

way that they upsell and treat their guest, yeah, interesting.

Chris: Yeah, pretty good experience for him.

Travis: Yeah, yeah. Now I‟ve always wondered from a business standpoint how a car dealership

makes their money because from my perspective in never owning, or operating, or running one, or

seeing the balance sheet. When you look at 5 acres of concrete parking lot and you look at all these

cars and these buildings and all of the things here, my head I‟m adding up operating it overhead

expenses. And it just seems like it would be a very, very high volume low margin business, am I right?

Chris: It is, as a matter of fact the car manufacturers obviously watching to sell the whole bunch of new

cars. And you cannot sell new cars in any kind of volume if you are trying to make money on the cars.

My new car department in front run red all the time, if you don‟t run red and lose money on cars then

you cannot get ahead. Hopefully, you can make the money on the trade, or some financing, and then

you also make it in the service department or the parts department but you are going to run red to sell

new cars.

Travis: Yeah, it‟s a commodity business and so when someone or at least the new cars is part of the

business is a commodity business right?

Chris: Yeah.

Travis: So if you can buy a top of the line Mazda model at your store for say 20,000 then or down the

street thing back for 20,000 and they‟re going to get it for 19, 009 at your store, right?

Chris: Well, the misconception really is that 20% mark up for used cars, maybe Rolls Royce has 20%

but Volvo‟s and Mazda‟s and cars of these price categories do not have 20%. And as time has been

going on for the last 20 years the manufacturers keep producing or keep unfolding the price of new cars

by reducing the margin that the dealers have. So that‟s the big problem because we don‟t have that

kind of percentage that people think.

Travis: What‟s the incentive of a dealer to continue because there‟s got to be a consistent profitability

or they are going to lose dealers, right?

Chris: Correct. And if I sell a hundred cars in a year or sell a thousand cars in a year then the hundred

cars a year I am only going to have maybe 50 of those customers coming in to buy service and parts

and if they get in a crash, they need crash parts and so forth. But if I sell a thousand cars and I increase

my percentages of getting financing, of selling their used cars in trade and make some money and also

that my service department will be larger and taking care of more people. I get paid warranty price the




same as the customers walk through the door, the retail warranty is the same. I don‟t care if the cars

are under warranty or the customers or retail customers I get the same price you made the one.

Travis: Ah, okay. And so if the person buys the car from your dealership then they are much more

likely to come back and have a service there.

Chris: Correct.

Travis: Ah, okay, okay.

Chris: If allowed to sell in the area I mean there‟s no restriction that you can‟t sell out of that certain

area that would be price trade restriction but we can sell them. We do sell cars in Vermont and

Colorado, it just happens to be that I have the right one that somebody is looking for or it was rare.

Travis: Right.

Chris: But I will never see that customer or service.

Travis: Right, where the real money is.

Chris: Yes.

Travis: So it‟s a front end back end model make virtually nothing on the front end except for financing

or add on, right?

Chris: Yes.

Travis: And then they back end everything that could potentially happen.

Chris: Every once in a while you get real rare car that you can sell from least price I‟ve never sold the

car. My life is over list price or MSRP on the car I don‟t think that‟s nice to gauge people with 5,000

premium or thousand dollar premiums so every once in a while you get lucky on that.

Travis: You said, or maybe I understood you wrong, we were talking before. Did you own an exotic car

dealership or was it used exotics or what?

Chris: Early on, my father, my brother, and myself started the company where we are buying

commercial real estate he suggested because Stanford is growing so fast and he told me to buy real

estate. So I started buying these buildings and I took one of my buildings and I opened up a used car

building where I would store maybe 10 cars in the show room, exotic cars plus some outside. I sell

Volvo‟s, Mercedes bench, Ferrari‟s, Porsche‟s and Lamborghinis. I did it to kind of have some fun; the

car business sometimes gets boring you‟re selling the same old thing. I had a manager that likes to go




to Barrett Jackson and a lot of auctions, put of a lot of cars and I paid him to go buy his cars so he had

a great time doing that.

Sandra: I have a question Chris.

Chris: Sure.

Sandra: I‟m just thinking when I bought my last car, I was frightened, I was frightened to go to

dealership because it‟s always scary thoughts about car dealers trying to rip you off. First, two things, I

believe your sons work with you, right?

Chris: Correct, both Jamison and AJ do.

Sandra: Yeah, and Travis you will get the chance to meet them I think probably in spring. They are

really extraordinary man, really, really great and it‟s just you think of the picture and what‟s mind often

of buying a car and what you can expect. I think, your dad, did he teach you integrity, did he teach you

proper service. I mean I just can‟t imagine ever walking into a car dealer that you‟ve created, you have

your sons there getting anything other than great customer service.

Chris: Well, I‟m sorry to say there are some dealerships out there that do that to customers, they take

advantage of them any which way they can. But I was not brought up to do with that way, my father

always taught me to take care of the people in the back which is the service department and they will

buy a car from you in the front. Pretty much that works I have a bunch of loyal customers. I also have

customers that don‟t care, they love my service department but when it comes to buying a new car it

comes down to price only. So you have to take that in consideration only. I don‟t sell as many cars as I

do because I charge too much on the new car rent. Very competitive somewhat under competitive I

guess and I sell a lot of cars.

Travis: When you say you are very competitive and under competitive what do you mean, explain that

to me.

Chris: Well, there is a factor, invoice factor let‟s say and that‟s where we all kind of sell cars as start

from and sometimes I go below that invoice factor that depends on how many cars I have in stock at

that time. From the time, in the wait there as when I get loaded up with cars then there‟s not too many

customers so that‟s kind of the better time to get deals from the dealerships rather than what you make

thinking in the middle of the summer time.

Travis: Right, right, right. Interesting.

Chris: So many factors, willing to come on up with a price of the car at the time.




Travis: I thought there was a back end incentive deals that when you move so many units and when

you sell below invoice there‟s back end money for the dealers to make.

Chris: Manufacturers do come up with those first step programs they all have all kinds of different,

sometimes they offer the cash to the public, sometimes they offer the cash to the dealership, and that‟s

the way to obviously get the volume going for those cars. But it‟s a funny thing you can‟t keep any

secret from the public, sometimes the public comes to me and tells me about the rebates before I even

get the rebates on the email from the manufacturer.

Sandra: Wow.

Chris: All the rebates go everything goes to upfront with people right off the top.

Travis: The overhead expenses trying drill into, again the profitability. When I look at the way that I run

my business is my fixed overhead expenses. I look at rent and utilities; I look at all those things. I just

don‟t see how selling 20 cars through dealership in having this gigantic lot with all these overhead

expenses is a business models that you can sustain. It seems like it would be an extremely labour

intensive business model so maybe that‟s one of the reason why you need to stay so involved and

have to manage all the things yourself, right?

Chris: I do, I have to watch everything all the time. Back when my father suggested that we start

buying all these real estate companies, we also put a plan to in fact to pay off all these properties. And

all of my properties are all paid off; in fact they almost owned one whole side of the street and on the

Myrtle Avenue that I have the dealership on. So when times get tough I know that I can change the

rent, I own all the properties I don‟t have to have rent. I also have taken a lot of cash, I‟m very

unorthodox on the car business, very. Most places are not run this way. I also take my cash and my

brother‟s cash and we loaned it to the company and we actually own all of our used cars and a lot of

new cars also with very little floor planning which means that money is all savings for us rather than we

pay any kind of interests, any bank or for the floor planning, or real estate or anything I do it myself and

I keep all the interest.

Travis: That makes sense because I have a friend that own a car lot and so I knew about floor plans,

for those of you don‟t know floor plan is basically a credit line where you can buy maybe of 4 or 5

million dollar floor plan, and you have 5 million dollars worth of cars set in your lot and you‟re not paying

an interest on that 5 million dollars. Is that a good way to explain that?

Chris: Correct, correct.

Travis: Yeah. So you are not paying the chop on your money there and also leasing, buying your

property and then leasing it to yourself or to your corporation, right?




Chris: Correct. That‟s what we do.

Travis: And that‟s a tactic that I‟ve done and I‟m surprised that hardly anyone else does it so I‟m glad

that you brought that up. This is good to a lot of business owners. I‟ll tell you what I do with mine and

see if it mirrors some of what you did with yours. So when my business started first growing we have a

need for an office. The office that we were in was so small and so I thought, well, I‟ll get a $50,000 loan

and just put an addition on my house because nobody needed to come to my house. And so I added

2,000 sq. foot on to my house because I‟m in construction or was on construction at the time, still am I,

although I am not active in it. I added 2,000 square foot I leased a thousand of square foot to my

company. The note at that time it only cost me 600 dollars a month and I immediately turned around

leased it to my business for 12,000 a month.

Chris: Yes.

Travis: And so I had a positive 600 dollars coming in with a 2,000 square foot addition to my house. So

my house is from 4,000 square foot to 6,000 square foot. Four years later I did the same thing with the

piece of property we grew out of the office there at the house and so I acquire the piece of property for

90,000. Turned around and charge my company for 5,000 a month. I had a 4500 dollar positive cash

flow a month just on that piece of property. It does several things; it gives you passive income

personally. It allows you to build equity in a piece of property and that‟s an incredible way to really build

sizable wealth. Could you agree with that?

Chris: Oh yes, definitely.

Travis: If things ever do get tight, then you can forgive 2 or 3 months note if you have to.

Chris: Yes, and you‟re not in the mercy of the bank it‟s going to come in and foreclose on you.

Travis: Yeah, right. This is a method that you can rent and repeat and get larger and larger and larger

just as long as you can keep your debt ratio down low. And other things are cash flow on your lifestyle,

right?

Chris: Correct. The ego probably has a lot to do with a lot of businesses and business people. I don‟t

have a big ego neither my brother. We are both conservative people, we are not really greedy. We trust

each other and that the works are great that we keep this low profile. All of my friends are up on party

and spend their money on new cars and stuff. I was driving old used cars that I‟ve fixed up and put my

money on the bank and buying properties. Today they look at me and said, “Wow you are lucky” and I

said, “I wasn‟t lucky that was a lot of hard work.”

Travis: Exactly. Good planning and a lot of hard work.




Chris: Yes.

Travis: Do you find ways to facilitate your lifestyle through your business legally, of course legally.

Chris: That‟s what Riley Racing is all about.

Travis: Right.

Chris: Get a little bit of money from Mazda through advertising money to advertising Riley Mazda on

the side of the car but it‟s really not enough money to go racing. I don‟t really want to spend a lot of

money go on racing because they are in their last 4, 5 years cash is king and when Ford decided to sell

Volvo to this company that purchase it now, that was 2 and a half years ago in the right, in the middle of

financial stuff. They pulled the rug out of my floor planning and said you‟re not Ford anymore and that‟s

what I‟m doing with my floor plan so you better go find the bank of your floor plan. Your 9 to 10 million

dollars with the cars imagine two and a half years ago trying to find a bank that will lend you 9 to 10

million dollars of car dealership when Volvo business wasn‟t even sure where they were going, the Ford

was trying to sell them. It was not really a pretty sight for a lot of Volvo dealers out there. And Wells

Fargo only actually at the time came along and that‟s who I requested, I filled up the application and

they said, “Men, you are no brain I can‟t believe it.” Well, look who were hook up now for floor planning.

Travis: So that‟s the floor plan for your new cars and then you just underwrite the use ones out of the

pocket.

Chris: Correct.

Travis: Right, right. So talking about living through your business although I gave some examples with

rental property and acquiring property, there‟s a whole lot of different way, are you comfortable talking

about with the different ways that you use your business to live through it that is purely above board

and the government is fine with it. Can you tell us some of those strategies that you have done in your

own business?

Chris: Yeah, I really don‟t do a lot. I mean I am very comfortable talking about it because The IRS has

audited me quite a few times especially right after my father got out of the business. He got a TCMP

which is illegal these days but that‟s why they find out total gross of the money and how it filters down

to everybody‟s fingers. They actually did that about a year. It cost me quite a bit of money to do that.

So, I am not afraid talking about it, I really, the racing team is about the only thing that I do that I enjoy.

The business helps pay for it, and its advertising for the business.

Travis: Well, I‟m quick to add legally on there because so many people think and I have talked about

this with a lot of people one on one so I see their eyes. They think that there is something illegal about it

and living through your business when you have a good tax man and a good legal guy you can seek




their counsel. They are not going to come up with this idea for you but they will tell you whether you‟re

telling the line or not. I‟ll tell you one of mine, I love Lambhourginis, I love exotic cars. Any expense like

that I‟ve also a lot of hot rods. I run this through his expensive business because they attract attention,

they‟re great marketing pieces, it initiates conversation with lots of people gets attention.

Chris: Yes, yes, definitely.

Travis: it‟s just a great tool to position my business so anything that you are passionate about,

travelling. I try to schedule as much fun around my travels while I‟m doing business at the same time

whenever possible. That entire travelling thing is a business expense. I think that‟s where when you

take 2, 3, 4, 5 of the strategies and you lay them back to back, you‟re living vicariously through your

business and so therefore all your taxed money can actually go in a bank account and can be your

retirement and your rainy day fund, right?

Chris: Correct, correct. I mean I did it with racing and I‟m doing it with property.

Travis: Yeah, yeah. So how did you get in to racing, can you tell us a little bit about that because that‟s

something that really interests me.

Chris: Well, I got into racing back in the early 70‟s, I bought a formula car with a blown engine and I

wanted to rebuild it but my father had me work in 7 days a week and he just figured that was going

back to my closet so he really fought it both my mother and my father. He did everything in his power

not to let me go racing. I was married to at a time and I have a marriage and a business and a racing

there was no time for the racing so I sold the car then 70‟s and then the mid 90, 94, 5. My second wife

knew I was really into racing and she brought me a Skip fiver 3 day school to go and learn about racing.

I said you don‟t know what you did, you sure you want to give me this and she said nah, I do, I know

who you are and I‟m ready for it. She also was attracted and she watches and so forth and that launch

my racing career at this point, I actually, I drive a rear drive mini cooper in a NCCA National Racing and

my sons both do the Pro racing with the Mazda and Grand Am.

Travis: Explain these two what‟s the difference of this two.

Chris: Club racing is an amateur racing in NCCA, it‟s not pro racing, and it‟s not televised you don‟t win

any money you just win a trophy and stuff. And the Pro racing and Grand Am is the full blown business

where you can win quite a bit of money if you get to the front. Televised.

Travis: This is track type racing not quarter of a mile street stuff. Right?

Chris: Yes, correct. We are like the road racing. Grand-Am is the road racing part of Nascar. Nascar is

the roundly round racing and grand am is a road racing and that‟s what we like turning left and right

going off and downhill and so forth.




Travis: Oh, yeah, yeah. I do too. I‟ve even raced some sports bike in a road racing stuff too. Let‟s go

back to business, knowing that the people that are listening are all business owners, let me let you take

the wheel figuratively speaking and if you‟re going to tell business owners the top 3 things that they

should focus on in having a consistently successful business no matter what‟s going on with the

economy. What would you say those top 3 things are?

Chris: Be prepared to work a lot of hours to pay attention to your business. Make sure you get the right

employees in place and the third thing would be, take care of your customers needs whatever they may

be.

Travis: Right. I believe Dean Jackson is the one that coined that before the unit the daring and the after

unit before is how people find you. The daring is what happens in the buying process in the after unit is

typically what you do after they‟ve given you their money and they‟ve gone away. Do you guys do

anything once they paid you what do you do to instill that relationship or deepen that relationship so

that they‟re extremely loyal to you guys?

Chris: We keep track of the customers we send them out mailers to reminding them about service that

they need. We also send out happy birthdays and anniversary when you purchase your new car out of

these customers. We kind of work on the 10-80-10 theories that I use there‟s probably 10% of the

customers that is going to love you all the time no matter what you do. Probably 8, 10% they‟re going to

hate you no matter what you do. And then there‟s 80% in the middle falls to the ones that I really work

on all of the time trying to keep those people moving towards 10% that loves me all the time. I

remember years ago I want to get in shingles doing it too. I tried to please everybody that walks through

my doors, everybody. And I found out I couldn‟t do that. If the service is a thousand dollars and they are

complaining about their service still I gave it to them. It still didn‟t please them because they have to

bring the car to me, or it was a rainy day that they throttled it. It was always something so I learned a

long time ago that you just can‟t please everybody. I live in Sherifield County where there‟s a lot of rich

people and the income level was very high here. The reason why they have it because their intelligent

people are not willing to take part with it quite so easily so really have to take care of those people and

treat them like they are extra special people which are what they are.

Travis: Right. I think it‟s the value of proposition and so and people with money didn‟t get to have

money without being intelligent with that money, right?

Chris: Correct.

Travis: There is this misconception that rich people will pay 2 dollars for an orange when there‟s the

same orange for a dollar down the street, that‟s not true.

Chris: I don‟t see that.




Travis: Yeah, rich people want a good deal just like everybody else.

Chris: Then that‟s how come they have money?

Travis: That‟s right but there is a caveat to that. In my experience if you can give an intelligent

argument as to why they should give 2 dollars for that orange instead of a dollar and it makes sense.

And it eliminates risk, it comes with a guarantee, and there‟s accountability with it, they will pay that

extra money but there has to be a valid reason for that. One of the things that we‟ve done is we use a

consumer guide that educates them. As an example in my construction business and this is something

that we do for a lot of businesses that we set systems up. I will use my construction business as an

example so it has four or five sections to it. One is the 13th questions that you must ask all contractors

before hiring anyone to work in your home. The 4 most common bait and switches, the 7 items to

include in every agreement, and the 5 most common rip offs. So it really comes from a multiple of

directions and what it does is that does kind of a sorting and sifting for our business. It takes the super,

super price sensitive people that will never going to buy from us. It makes them go away and then it

makes a high value client that want quality, trust and all of these other things that come with it to raise

their hands and ask them to come out and see them. I think there is an element of that that can work in

your business although the rules change slightly with yours because of the commodity issue. Does this

make sense?

Chris: It does make sense.

Travis: You can make this argument for your service department, right?

Chris: Yes.

Travis: Where it would be harder to make this argument for your car, for selling a new car. Right?

Chris: Well, but buying a new car or any car really is 50% the car my opinion is 50% is going to stand

behind it. Because it‟s a brand new car there‟s a warranty for a reason and something may go wrong

and you going to need the back end to take care of you.

Travis: Chris, you want 20,000 for this car I‟ll get it for 19,900 down the street how do you argue with

that.

Chris: I don‟t argue with that, I have to sit here and understand that do I really believe that person can

buy that car for 19,000. First of all, I wouldn‟t have quoted 20 if you could buy it at 19. We keep our ears

to the ground every single day, every week and we pay attention and take input, watch the internet and

so forth, I don‟t think I will quote a thousand dollars spread in first place.




Travis: Let‟s say it is 19,900 just a hundred dollars difference because I think people do try to get you

even a hundred dollars.

Chris: I‟ve had people look with the 6 million dollar bone set at the end of the year argue over 25

dollars.

Travis: My point is let‟s say there‟s a 500 dollar difference if you can change the discussion from what

they get when they buy their car from you versus what they get down the street. It‟s very easy to bridge

the gap on that hundred dollar or that 500 dollar difference. Does that make sense?

Chris: That makes perfect sense unfortunately it doesn‟t really work that way, like I said before they are

really price conscious and they even want to meet that price or beat it.

Travis: Right, right. I know that argument or that position works on service because service cannot be

commoditized, right?

Chris: Correct, correct.

Travis: Whereas the car is commoditized so I hear words that that‟s the element, that‟s the problem

there. I think if someone bought at my dealership maybe one thing I would do to take them off the

commoditized argument is maybe give them some high level special VIP treatment that you can‟t get if

you don‟t buy your car there. Is there a possibility to do something like that?

Chris: They already expect that, that it comes with it or they‟re not going to buy the car from you

anyway.

Travis: I‟ve taken out the page out of a Disney book; if you pay an extra dollar you can go and stand in

a shorter line. It‟s brilliant.

Chris: I like that; they want it quick, cheap, done right the first time, everybody‟s got to have a smile.

That‟s what they expect every single product.

Travis: Right, right.

Sandra: Chris, I also like that you are paying attention to what the competitors are doing. I think as a

business owner it‟s easy to be so wrapped up in our day to day affairs that we are not keeping an eye

on what everybody else is doing.

Travis: Right.

Sandra: It sounds like you‟re very valuable to them.




Chris: I‟ve learned that if you don‟t tell the customers the right price the first time. You are not going to

see them on the second time they won‟t answer your call on a follow up, so you need to quote

everything right the first time.

Travis: I just wonder there‟s a way that you can change, and of course I know that obviously you are

extremely successful and done a lot of things right. I would want to uneven the playing field in trying to

find something above and beyond that they could get to take it to another whole level because you are

fighting a very fight there.

Chris: That‟s true. If I said that you could come buy a brand new Volvo and get a free flat screen TV,

that‟s not going to make any difference.

Travis: Yeah.

Chris: Because the person will go out and buy the flat screen if they wanted it in the first place. I guess

some kind of unique of them in the Springfield County and people are intelligent they have the money

to do what they want to do. The only thing that‟s difference between me and the next guy is that I‟m

fairly owned and operated there are 6 Riley in here almost every single day you can talk to one of them

if they have an issue. Go to your local car dealer and walk in the front door and ask to speak to the

owner. I bet she is not there, I bet she is farther, even Brazil or wherever they go because most of them

do not spend as much time as I do with the dealership. So my difference is that I am here every day. I

talk to my customers. I have a lady the other day that came in and say I want to speak to the owner. It‟s

funny that I think how these people can think that the owner is going to be here at their beck and call,

but we are. In the frontline here from another race track, my sons and my brother or his sons are all

here. So you can talk to a Riley and I think that‟s the difference.

Sandra: I love that you can talk to a Riley. Chris, I have a question because I know you are from a

different category you‟re from the races. Our show, we talk and we get in touch with people on their

passions and I know racing is a big part to your life. Can you maybe talk a little bit about the difference

it makes being at the race track and being involved in racing and having your family there. As far as

being a whole human being but if it‟s just all work, work, work, work, work may not be some fun. What

it‟s like being at the race track with your family and all that.

Chris: Most great to state that they all come and they are all interested. We have never taken a

vacation without my kids since they were born, we always off until 18, 19, 20 years old they start

wandering a little bit away, but my wife goes to the race track. In fact, there was a magazine she did an

article about how do you stand on the race track and watch your children. They‟re probably 16, 18, 19

years old at the time, how can you watch them go on the track when you know they‟re getting into

accidents. Both of them, each had big wreck and I was in there, she was there. And this woman that

wrote the article was very interested on how she can do that. And she feels like, I feel like I have an




umbilical cord that goes around the track. So she paces a lot when she watches her children on the

track not so much with me, because you can get another husband.

Sandra: I know it‟s not true unlike you. But I know your family, I just don‟t even know how to phrase into

words but I know who you are in the race track. What a giving, loving, you always have a smile on your

face. You‟ve always come across who cares, who‟s got integrity. You believe in family, you‟ve got a

wonderful family. I mean most family I see around, they‟re fighting and I‟m sure some of that might go

on within yours but I really think you and your wife have created such a wonderful family and who you

are being at the races I think is who you are being in your business. I think that is just a wonderful

asset.

Chris: That‟s what we tried to encourage, and that‟s what we hope customers see that we are down to

earth people. Not the big bad car dealership that just going to try and take advantage of you. Everybody

needs a car, everybody needs the transportation. So we‟re there to make a family operation, we say it‟s

a Riley family of cars hoping that people will see the difference.

Sandra: Yeah, and what do you love about being on the race car.

Chris: I love it. I love the thrill in going as fast as I can and going to its limit. I chose the mini cooper

because it‟s quite easy to take a big old mustang with a V8 and go fast. But it‟s hard to take a small car

with a little engine and make that go fast. My car is a 36 horse power mini cooper that‟s a 160 horse

power that little engine and it‟s a hand grenade waiting to go off. I love all the competitiveness and

trying to figure out ways in making that little thing go faster.

Travis: What drive?

Chris: I‟m sorry?

Travis: From what drive?

Chris: Actually I turned that engine 90 degrees and it‟s a rear wheel drive car one of the few in this

country it‟s a 1960‟s Austin Cooper.

Travis: Oh, okay. Interesting. The angle that we were talking about taking the business away from the

commodity, you did do that and you did that by personalizing it. Right?

Chris: Correct.

Travis: I bought a lot of cars, and you are right. You never can walk in and deal with the owner face to

face. It‟s naive to believe that believe he‟d be anywhere around much less talk to him.

Chris: Or have the patience to talk to you, that‟s right.




Travis: Yeah, yeah, right. I knew there is a key there somewhere to your success taking it from that

commodity. It sounds to me I don‟t know you, I‟ve never met you until this conversation but it sounds

like you take that same approach and live it in your personal life. And I think that is what Sandra at is

there seems to be some incredible balance between personal, and professional and family and all of

those other things. I believe that balance is a constant struggle for all of business owners because we

are so busy working, right?

Chris: Correct. It‟s very hard.

Travis: Have you always had that down path?

Chris: Yeah, most of the time. I mean my father did it his way back when I was working for him. I kind

of used some of his things and change some of the things my way and I did very successful doing that.

Travis: Interesting.

Sandra: Yeah. Balance is important I mean you get really burnt out really fast from just work. So finding

a passion and then like you said Travis I think that‟s pretty insightful, tying your passions, right in with

your business.

Travis: Yeah, yeah.

Sandra: You got to have some fun too.

Chris: I have some old cars down the street in one of my buildings, I sleep down there an hour a day,

half hour a day if I can, tinker with them, I like old English cars and that‟s what I like tinkering with trying

to keep the sanity.

Travis: Right, right, the old school stuff.

Chris: Yes.

Sandra: Chris, what have we miss, once again we have a wonderful audience listening, is there

anything else if you have a magic wand you would like to share with people.

Chris: Wow. That‟s a tough one.

Sandra: Yeah, might be. And it doesn‟t have to be because you‟ve given so much gold in this

conversation and I‟m left a big smile on my face too.

Chris: I‟m still hoping I would hit that big lottery number the 200 million or so.

Sandra: And what would you do with that.




Chris: I would go racing at the top level of Grand Am.

Travis: Right.

Chris: Probably give some to my family that needs it, if I‟m fortunate to be that rich at that time.

Travis: Listen, I want to jump in, we are near in the mark, we needed to do some housekeeping. One

of the things that I have been wanting to talk about and I haven‟t talk to you about this Sandra. But you

know how I like to surprise you into things, right?

Sandra: Yes.

Travis: Just trying to get you back for a couple of several episodes back you pull fast ones on me so I

figure it it‟s my turn to pull a couple of fast ones on you in a fun way, in a fun way.

Sandra: okay, okay.

Travis: One of the things that I wanted to talk about is our objective with the show is to provide a

community inside support towards business owners because both me and you are passionate about

business owners and they‟re really becoming a dying breed for several reasons for the economy, for

changing business models for everything. We talk about this for many different angles every show and

so what I would like to do is we want this message, this show this to many people as possible. We don‟t

have anything to sell anything in this show it‟s just more of how to and support. I want to start doing a

promotion to where everybody, all of our listeners that will hit like and share on the Facebook. What I

would like to do is I would like to give away a 30 minute one on one consultation we‟ll have a drawing,

the consultation can either be with, we‟ll let the person did win, choose whether they want a

consultation with me for their business for 30 minutes. Or you want a consultation with you on the

things that your specialty, I know your book We Don’t Die just came out and there‟s a lot of people that

are dealing with pain and suffering, they come from grief, grief of losing somebody, of losing your job,

or just changes. So what do you think of that idea?

Sandra: I think it‟s great, and you know what Travis there‟s going to be some people that want to talk

both of us so we each offer our own flare.

Travis: What I would like to do is by hitting share and like on Facebook, what it does, spread a

message on each show. And for each time that it happens we produce about 2 shows a week. What

we‟ll do is we‟ll give them 5 chances for a share and 1 chance for a like and then we‟ll just put them on

a drawing and have that drawing once a month.

Sandra: I think that‟s wonderful, I‟m in.

http://amzn.to/12GxnJY




Travis: You were expecting something more sneaky than that, would you?

Sandra: I was. Chris, I had mention in one of our last shows, Travis made a joke about “worst and all”, I

said, “If you want to see Travis‟ worst just go to travisandsandra.com and scroll down on his picture”

and he wasn‟t prepared for that so that‟s what he is referring to and so, I thought that‟ being repeated.

Travis: yeah.

Sandra: Travis, I don‟t want to miss out, I want to make our listeners can do a little more research on

Chris Riley, and if it‟s okay I„d love to share that you can go to rileyracing.com and see Chris‟ race car

and his sons and his beautiful wife Jen and Riley spells R-I-L-E-Y rileyracing.com and those

dealerships he owns are stanfordvolvo.com and rileymazda.com. Did I miss any Chris?

Chris: And rileycars.com which is the used car store.

Sandra: Yeah.

Chris: Dot com.

Sandra: Yeah and thank you so much for being so generous with us today.

Chris: Thank you it was fun.

Sandra: Lots of fun.

Travis: Chris, we appreciate you taken the time to share some of your keys to success in your

business. I did not ask you, how long you have been an owner for the dealership?

Chris: Probably since around 1990.

Travis: Okay, 22 years.

Sandra: That‟s great.

Travis: Wow.

Sandra: Wow.

Travis: Chris, how old are you?

Chris: 61.

Travis: Oh, okay.




Chris: I‟ve offered my handful of cheese to other people with my pay check but nobody wants to take it.

Travis: Nobody, nobody is brave enough huh?

Chris: No, or dumb enough I don‟t know.

End of Interview

Travis: Right, not even, right, right. Well Listen, I believe that we have covered everything for today.

Sandra what do you have you say?

Sandra: I think it‟s just wonderful, I think what‟s important for all of us is do not just be entertained and

inspired by something that you‟ve heard today but actually to take a new action or have a new game

plan and look at what are your passions and find a way to squeeze it into your business life and to

really take the information that we brought today on the show and use it in your life, so I challenge you

to do that. Take one step today that you wouldn‟t normally do after being on our show today.

Travis: I agree with you. So each show, my objective, this is what I hope for you, is each show you

take away one or even two pieces of information that changes the trajectory of your life, of your

business. And just put you on the path, and maybe all you need is just a couple of nuggets from people

that have been down that road before you. And take it and apply it in your business. As you get down,

one month, one year, five years on the road the difference is drastic in your life and in your business.

So that‟s our goal is that you pick up something from every episode.

My quote for today is Patience, persistence and perspiration making unbeatable combination for

success. Again, I want to remind you each time you click share, like our Facebook page we‟ll put you

on the drawing five chances for the sharing and one for the like. That‟s really all I have for today as

usual I want to keep an eye out for you so I‟ll be watching for you on the next episode. Sandra?

Sandra: Yeah, just thank you for your time and invite you to be part of our community at

travisandsandra.com, put your name and your email address, we‟ll keep you up to date and feel free to

ask us some questions and join in on the community, we are definitely here for your success. Thanks

for being here.

Travis: All right. Bye.

Sandra: Bye.




How We Can Help You

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Travis Lane Jenkins

Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist

Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show

“Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

http://www.rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com/biz-accelerator

http://theentrepreneursradioshow.com/

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The Entrepreneurs Radio Show 019_Chris Riley

Small Business & Entrepreneurship