Page 30 – NextGear Capital

A Non-Traditional Road to a Sale for Independent Dealers

April 27, 2016July 15, 2021

Re-evaluating the Appraisal Phase

Looking for ways to find more inventory, or ways to get more customers through the door? This non-traditional road to sale for independent dealers may be just what you need! NextGear Capital recently hosted a webinar for independent dealers featuring Joe Lescota, a veteran of more than 25 years in the automotive industry, as the NIADA Director of Dealer Development. Through Lescota’s suggested detour in the road to sale, your dealership could see more business, more trade-ins and greater net-profit.

When evaluating the traditional road to a sale, Lescota found that most of the issues being faced by independent dealers are occurring in the appraisal step.

See the full webinar with Joe Lescota’s on the Non-Traditional Road to a Sale for Independent Dealers here.

Traditional Steps

1. Meeting and Greeting
2. Needs Determination
3. Selection
4. Feature Presentation
5. Demo Drive
6. Trial Close
7. Appraisal
8. Close
9. Finance
10. Delivery
11. Follow-Up

Make Appraisal Step-Two

So how do dealers get past this road block? Consider moving the appraisal step up to the second step in your selling process! Once a representative gathers information about the potential trade-in from the consumer, this information should be handed off to a manager to determine the value. This will allow the manager more time to gather better numbers for the appraisal. The manager can spend more time investigating and strategizing during the appraisal process, while the sales rep continues through the remaining steps in the sale – selection, demo drive, etc.

Understand the Appraisal You Present

Independent dealers also need to understand and adapt to today’s consumer. Most customers who have a trade, arrive with a value already in mind. Today’s consumer already has a pretty good idea of what the vehicle is worth through sites like AutoTrader and craigslist. Lescota says a typical used car dealer spends 18 hours online.

Make sure you do not lose your credibility with a customer because your sales rep cannot explain the process and reasons behind the trade-in price they are presenting. There should be no mystery as to why the number is what it is. In today’s market, transparency is key. Encourage potential buyers to do business with your dealership. Ultimately, providing information and making the trade process easy could make the customer more likely to commit and buy!

Going Beyond Your Average Automotive Finance Company

April 19, 2016July 19, 2021

Bayshore uses automotive finance company NextGear Capital

So you can harness the passion behind your dealership

At NextGear Capital, we are not just another automotive finance company, our support staff is helping dealerships harness and build upon the passion that drives a successful business. From the matchbox cars he owned as a child, to the cars he is selling on his lot today, Darren Vivolo, owner of Bayshore Automotive, has that passion. Like so many of us dream of doing, Darren has turned his childhood passion, into his profession and his customers can feel that excitement when they walk into Bayshore Automotive. Darren explained, “Every day I look forward to coming to work because I think – What am I going to create? What am I going to build? What am I going to buy? Every day is a new experience and it’s a lot of fun.”

Bayshore Automotive is every Jeep enthusiast’s dream. Located in Tampa, Florida, Darren and his staff are designing and building one of a kind Jeeps that have everything from custom matte paint jobs and embellished grills, to tubular doors or no doors at all! One look at Bayshore’s inventory is evidence that Jeep life is real, and it’s overtaking historic Ybor City.

Darren has been flooring vehicles with NextGear Capital for over two years and said, “Ever since I started with NextGear Capital, things have just been going up.” “I love the mobile app. It’s easier to floor and unfloor a car than it is to order a pizza. If I guy like me can do it, anybody can do it!” NextGear Capital goes beyond what you’d expect from an automotive finance company. We are consultative partners, and our business model places relationships and people first. We’re a proud partner to dealerships both big and small, because we know that regardless of the size or location of your lot, at the end of the day nothing drives business like the passion behind it.

NextGear Capital supports dealers worldwide with the buying power and flexibility they need. But our representatives are also taking the time to figure out what’s really driving their business. “NextGear is like having another staff of employees. They make it so simple, it allows me to do the things that I want to, which is be with my family.” Darren explained that his family is what matters most to him and they ultimately drive his business success at Bayshore Automotive. Darren is balancing multiple priorities in his life and when he is not customizing Jeeps with his team he spends his time on the ball fields with his kids. Darren is a father of four and manages to coach his kid’s baseball and soccer teams in the area, despite the challenging schedule of an independent dealer. NextGear Capital helps to make that possible through cutting-edge technology, industry expertise, and resources you won’t find anywhere else.

NextGear Capital Makes No Excuses

April 8, 2016July 19, 2021

Life can get busy. We all have priorities and expectations set upon us. When these expectations start to pile up, it’s easy to forget to think about others, and needs outside of our own.

Here at NextGear Capital, we strive to make time to give back and help our community. However, despite our best efforts, we all need a reminder when life gets hectic, to make giving back to our community a priority.

To keep serving our community as a top priority, NextGear Capital once again participated in a No Excuses campaign during the month of March.

No Excuses is meant to encourage Cox Automotive team members to avoid making excuses as to why they can’t volunteer or serve within their community. NextGear Capital, along with other Cox Automotive companies, participated in this initiative to make a difference.

At the NextGear Capital corporate office, we organized several different volunteer projects for team members and their families to get involved with throughout the month. Through those events, NextGear Capital team members contributed –

$3,600 for Special Olympics Indiana through the Polar Plunge

50 blankets made for Project Linus that will be donated to Camp Little Red Door

10,000 meals packed for Stop Hunger Now

48 pints of blood donated to the American Red Cross

278 dog and cat toys made out of donated t-shirts for the local Humane Society

$27,709.64 worth of coupons donated and sorted for military families living overseas

9,392 pounds of food inventoried and sorted for Gleaners Food Bank

Collectively, NextGear Capital team members volunteered more than 1,500 hours in the month of March for 80 different organizations, locally and across the nation.

NextGear Capital team members are proud to have the support of the local communities we live and work in, and there is no better way to show how grateful we are than by supporting those communities in return. Thanks to the team members and organizations that made No Excuses possible!

NextGear Capital Wins People’s Choice Award at Hackathon

March 4, 2016July 19, 2021

Demonstrating its commitment to new and innovative technology solutions, earlier this month Cox Enterprises hosted the first-ever all division Hackathon. This event brought together bright, imaginative minds from across the Cox Divisions to collaboratively use technology, transforming innovative ideas into working prototypes. Teams were encouraged to think outside of the box to generate new product ideas.

We are proud to share that NextGear Capital’s own “Team Beef” walked away with the People’s Choice Award for their prototype, HapTrends! The Hackathon included 19 teams, made up of roughly 140 total participants representing brands across Cox Enterprises, Cox Communications, Cox Media Group and Cox Automotive.

The Hackathon’s theme was “Smart ______.” and Team Beef chose the topic “Smart people,” focusing on employee engagement. HapTrends enables employers to measure the happiness and engagement of their team members by leveraging a richer employee profile coupled with dynamic happiness assessments.

HapTrends Screen Demonstration

Team Beef was inspired on their chosen topic after seeking some valuable advice. As other Hackathon teams broke into conference rooms to develop their “Smart” solutions within the 24 hour time limit, Team Beef hung back to chat with Ed Wagner, Director of Enterprise Architecture at Cox Enterprises, and Ed Smith, CTO at Cox Automotive. Team Beef interviewed Wagner and Smith about potential overarching themes to decide what would be a productive focus for not just one Cox brand, but for Cox Enterprises as a whole. They found that Wagner and Smith wanted to better understand and engage employees, ultimately increasing retention. Team Beef concluded that employee engagement is often discussed yet seldom measured, and set out to seize this opportunity with HapTrends!

Team Beef was the only team to initiate conversation like this, actively working to discover the needs of Cox Enterprises as a whole, rather than focusing on their NextGear Capital niche. This led to a project that everyone could relate to. Some great ideas were presented, but in the end, only four Cox Hackathon championship belts could be won – Best Overall, Product/ Business Innovation, Engineering Innovation and People’s Choice. All Hackathon attendees and participants voted for the People’s Choice award, validating HapTrends versatility across Cox Divisions.

In addition to their conversation with Wagner and Smith, Team Beef felt inspired coming off the recent successful Innovation Days at NextGear Capital’s Corporate office. The energy and motivation built by the event’s production of innovative ideas put Team Beef in the right mindset to produce meaningful solutions at the Hackathon.

Member of Team Beef and NextGear Capital Product Manager, Blake Weishaar, was impressed by Cox Enterprises commitment to producing innovative technology solutions. “It was pretty incredible to see the effort and investment put into the Hackathon. With events like these, it’s very easy to see how much Cox values technology, and it’s incredibly exciting to know we’ve established ourselves as a leader across the entire organization,” said Weishaar.

Congratulations to Team Beef!

Jeff Lindholm, Development Manager – myNextGear
Blake Weishaar, Product Manager – myNextGear
Brandon Scolaro, Developer – Big Data
Austen Lacy – Developer – Ngen
Nick Taylor – User Experience Designer

More about HapTrends

HapTrends is a solution for measuring employee happiness. Through HapTrends, employees would each have a unique user profile built through survey engagement with additional supporting data drawn from LinkedIn to create user profiles. It would also work alongside “My Career Bio” and other Cox initiatives. The profiles would identify certain personality types for team members, and allow individuals to search a floor plan of their office space for specific personality qualities. Team Beef described HapTrends as a “Match.com” to help individuals better work with their peers. In addition to building better working relationships, HapTrends aims to “humanize” team members.

Staying Best-in-Class in the Automotive Floorplan Industry

February 17, 2016July 19, 2021

Accelerate 2016

To remain the industry’s leading automotive floorplan provider, NextGear Capital has to attract and retain top talent. A primary strategy supporting our ability to build the team of impressive, dedicated employees we have is investing in their advancement and growth. Employee engagement and development helps us build a team of local and remote support staff that are committed to your dealership’s growth and success.

Recently, many NextGear Capital team members spent their week gathered together for Accelerate 2016. This annual leadership conference is an opportunity for NextGear Capital employees from all over the country to come together and review the prior year’s accomplishments in addition to the coming year’s goals. The conference allows employees the opportunity to brainstorm new ways to work together in an effort to enhance the automotive floorplan services NextGear Capital is able to offer our dealers.

This year’s event consisted of sessions led by NextGear Capital and Cox Automotive leadership, in addition to automotive sales experts. These sessions focused on building relationships with dealers, driving value, selling excellence in the automotive floorplan industry and leveraging the resources of Cox Automotive.

The conference provided an opportunity for team members to see what Cox Automotive has in store for the coming year, and left many, including NextGear Capital corporate office Team Lead Andrew Ramey, optimistic for the future of our business. “It’s really inspirational to see all of our leaders up on stage talking about what a successful year we had in 2015, and how they plan to continue that momentum this year. There were so many wonderful speakers, not only from NextGear Capital, but also from other companies under the Cox Automotive umbrella. It is truly exciting to see what an advantage our company has because of the products and services we can offer our dealers as a part of the Cox Automotive brand!”

Being surrounded by top talent and celebrating the success of their peers brought many employees back to work feeling a heightened level of inspiration and engagement. Business Development Representative Michelle Spencer said, “the speakers showed us their vision and goals for 2016. It was very inspirational and shifted the gears for everyone who attended the conference.”

All in all, Accelerate 2016 was another huge win in the books for our company and the Community Events Team that puts it together. But more than that, the conference will be an even bigger win for the 20,000+ dealers that NextGear Capital serves annually as they directly benefit from the discussions and lessons learned.

Innovation Days

February 9, 2016July 19, 2021

Bringing New Ideas to Life at NextGear Capital

The energy was high at the second ever Innovation Days final presentations at NextGear Capital. Seats were full with around 100 spectators and participants, waiting to see what ideas their fellow NextGear Capital team members were able to put into concept.

Innovation Days is an event dedicated to bringing new ideas to life at NextGear Capital. From technology for dealers to technology to better acclimate new NextGear Capital employees, this event helps keep the company on the cutting-edge by bringing the Technology team and Business team together to develop new technology solutions.

This is the second Innovations Days, but the first time the event was open to all NextGear Capital employees as an opportunity to identify pain points in their daily processes, and develop and present innovative solutions. Tiffany Coulter, Director of Floorplan Services proposed an idea during Innovation Days and was excited about what this event could do for the company and for dealers. “NextGear Capital has some really innovative people here. Putting all these heads together can only benefit our dealers!” said Tiffany.

The Technology team was happy to see 52 amazing ideas submitted from NextGear Capital team members over the two weeks span. Of those ideas, about 20 were pitched for creation. Following pitches, teams broke from their normal work for about two days to focus on bringing these innovative ideas to life.

Each team had 5-7 minutes to present their final work. Presentations ranged from early-stage prototypes to fully-developed solutions. These solutions focused on ways to improve the work NextGear Capital employees do on a daily basis, as well as technology solutions that can be utilized by dealers, auctions and the entire automotive industry. It is likely that a number of these solutions will be seen into fruition in 2016.

Tiffany explained what this event offers to NextGear Capital employees, saying, “Innovation Days made it possible for everyone to be involved. It allowed those who deal with problems and issues to be a part of the solution.” Employees are excited to have this new touch point, working together to identify and ease day-to-day pain points and striving for continuous improvement here at NextGear Capital.

NextGear Capital Employees Give Back

November 12, 2015July 19, 2021

CANStruction volunteers in green matching shirts work together to build structures out of canned goods

With Thanksgiving around the corner, the holiday season is officially upon us. For many, this is truly the most wonderful time of the year. It means spending time with friends and family, giving and receiving gifts and sharing meals with the ones we love.

However, the holiday season brings with it much colder weather here in Indiana. With temperatures regularly dropping below freezing, the snow and ice are here to stay for the next few months. Being outside for more than a few minutes can become an unbearable task.

And while not a pretty fact, there are hundreds in our community who have nowhere to go during this season to escape the brutal temperatures. Indiana’s homeless population is primarily comprised of veterans, senior citizens, mentally ill, disabled, and even children. They are people like you and me who simply want to get back on their feet and support themselves and their families.

For some here at NextGear Capital, they just couldn’t sit by knowing a way had to exist in which they could directly help these individuals.

In March, a few employees began meeting twice a week during their lunch breaks to knit and crochet scarves and hats for the homeless. Thus, the NextGear Capital Knitting and Crochet Circle was created.

CRblog1 — Right to Left: Robyn Taylor (leader of group) along with Tiffany Coulter and James Kubecki knit hats during their lunch break.

Since then, many have joined this movement. Over 25 employees, in addition to family and friends of NextGear Capital team members, began to help knit and crochet items for our community’s homeless residents. For some, this was the first time they had ever picked up knitting or crochet needles, but they took time out of their busy lives to learn a skill that would make a positive impact on those less fortunate.

In total, the group has logged over 500 volunteer hours this year to make not only hats and scarves, but blankets, gloves and other needed items.

CRblog2 — Members of the Knitting and Crochet Circle show off some of the items they have made this year.

On October 24, the group’s hard work paid off as they spent the afternoon in Tent City passing out the 60 items they had worked hard to make this year. Additionally, they passed out snacks, water and toiletries that were donated by other NextGear Capital employees. Their contributions will help make the winter months a little easier for those who do not have a permanent home or are turned away from a full shelter.

CRblog3 — Members of the Knitting and Crochet Circle pass out items to those in Tent City, a small homeless camp in Indianapolis.

So while giving thanks, we also encourage you to give back to those who may not have a home or a warm meal. Commit to supporting the homeless in your own community this holiday season, even if it’s just a small gesture. This is truly what being thankful and giving is about.

Using Data to Drive Business

November 6, 2015July 19, 2021

Here’s the most obvious statement you’ve ever heard. The internet and e-commerce have forever changed the world we live in, and our professional networks have expanded beyond the people we meet and shake hands with.

Our social network isn’t our friends from school or work; it’s a chronological history of ALL people with whom we’ve connected, dating back to grade school! An auto dealer in Miami sells cars to customers in Dallas. Financial institutions in the United States lend money to businesses in Tokyo! You get the drift.

Through each connection, each “like,” and each transaction, data is constantly collected and stored in volumes beyond comprehension. This ongoing event has turned data into, arguably, the most valuable commodity on Earth.

So, how do you use this data to benefit your business? How do you avoid being overwhelmed in a sea of information?

Here are three questions to ask yourself to sharpen your focus on EFFECTIVELY mining this enormous data landfill

What metrics matter most to my business and why?
It’s imperative you understand how you measure success within your business. Without a clear GOAL, you’ll be lost chasing data that has little or no impact.

Will data analysis generate more revenue for my business, or reduce expenses?
Stay committed to data and analysis tools that solve these 2 problems. If you can’t, objectively state that your analysis/tools help you grow revenue, or operate more efficiently, odds are you don’t need them.

Is my data analysis process REPEATABLE?
Find what works and do it again and again. Ensure you evaluate your data analysis/tools effectiveness with a consistent level of frequency. Remember, what works today, likely won’t impact tomorrow.

Meet NextGear Capital – John Wick

November 4, 2015July 19, 2021

The formation of Cox Automotive, coupled with the growth of NextGear Capital, continues to generate new and exciting opportunities to serve our customers. This requires a focused approach to the evaluation and development of our strategic initiatives and corporate development. That’s why NextGear Capital is fortunate to have an individual on our leadership team who can shift our focus to different opportunities that bring greater value to our customers.

Get acquainted with NextGear Capital’s Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel, John Wick!

Title: Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel

Years with NextGear Capital: 10

Education: B.A. in Political Science – IUPUI; Doctor of Jurisprudence – Indiana University Law

What do you enjoy most about NextGear Capital? NextGear Capital’s ability to maintain the culture and entrepreneurial spirit of a small company while being part of a large organization.

Random Fact: I have been booking my own travel since 2005 when Patty Turner booked me into a Travel Lodge in Phoenix that rented rooms by the hour. The room was also in the basement. With eye level windows.

Favorite car tunes: Back in Black by ACDC

Meet NextGear Capital – Dave Horan

October 27, 2015July 19, 2021

First and foremost, NextGear Capital is a finance company. As such, it’s important that we have people in leadership roles that can guide our company’s financial strategy. And for 10 years, Dave Horan’s financial leadership has been instrumental in the growth of NextGear Capital. What makes Dave truly stand out is his ability to keep calm in the midst of ensuring the company’s necessary monetary resources throughout times of tremendous growth. Without Dave’s ability to effectively navigate this landscape, NextGear Capital would not be where it is today. It is for this reason that he was recently named a finalist for the Indianapolis Business Journal CFO of the Year Award.

So read on and get to know NextGear Capital CFO (and 2015 Indianapolis Business Journal CFO of the Year Award finalist) Dave Horan!

Title: Chief Financial Officer

Years with NextGear Capital: 10

Education: B.S. in Business, Masters of Professional Accountancy – Indiana University

Family: Wife of 24 years – Lisa; Children – Rachel (19), Joshua (15) and Aaron (11)

What do you enjoy most about NextGear Capital? I was around at the start of one of our predecessor companies. We started with a hard working, employee-focused, family feel. As difficult as that family feel is to maintain as we grow, I would like to believe NextGear Capital encourages that same culture, which is one that is embraced by Cox Automotive. I enjoy, more than anything, watching the extraordinary growth of all of our employees.

Random Fact: I have 6 brothers and no sisters. Having 7 boys could be a bit confusing for my parents, so 6 of 7 is my official designation. For those that recognize that reference, “live long and prosper.”

Favorite car tunes: I am very much an alternative/hard rock kind of guy, but you shouldn’t be surprised if a little Eminem gets mixed in there.

For those who wonder what Dave looks like without his mustache, here’s a throwback to him in middle school, being a trend setter with his feathered hair.