Business Innovators Radio - Revolutionizing Auto Dealership Marketing: An Interview with David Villa, Founder and CEO of the IPD Agency

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

In this episode of the TurboPassUSA podcast, host Marco Salinas sits down with David Villa, the founder and CEO of the IPD Agency, a marketing agency specializing in helping auto dealerships grow their businesses. With 28 years of industry experience, David shares his journey in the auto industry, from starting as a boutique agency to building a national presence. He discusses the evolution of the IPD Agency, which now offers a range of marketing services, including digital and traditional strategies, social media advertising, and a powerful business development center (BDC) program.David emphasizes the importance of perseverance in business and credits his faith for guiding him through challenging times. He candidly shares the struggles he faced early on and how he learned to strike a better balance between work and personal life. David also reveals an exciting new venture called DealerTech Global, a cutting-edge SaaS platform designed to revolutionize follow-up tools and help dealerships sell more cars and retain business.Listeners can expect to gain insights into the auto industry’s ever-changing landscape, hear success stories, and discover the strategies and tools that have propelled the IPD Agency and its clients to new heights. Whether you’re a seasoned auto dealership owner or someone interested in marketing and entrepreneurship, this episode offers valuable wisdom and inspiration from an industry leader.Don’t miss this engaging conversation between Marco Salinas and David Villa as they delve into the world of auto dealership marketing and uncover the secrets to success in a competitive industry. Tune in and get ready to be inspired!https://ipdagency.com/About the Show Sponsor:TurboPass provides instant proof of your customer’s income, residency, and identity, reducing fraud and contracts in transit (CIT). Learn how we can help your dealership close more deals faster and at less risk.Learn more at: https://www.turbopassreport.com/TurboPassUSA Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/turbopassusa-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/revolutionizing-auto-dealership-marketing-an-interview-with-david-villa-founder-and-ceo-of-the-ipd-agency

The TurboPass USA Podcast. Bringing you conversations with industry leaders and influencers. Welcome back to another episode of the TurboPass USA podcast. We have with us here today another fun, exciting conversation. Today's guest is Mr. David Villa, and David is the founder and CEO of the IPD agency. Got that right, right, David? Yes, sir. IPD agency. The IPD agency is a marketing agency that helps auto dealerships to grow their business. Now, we're going to have a cool fun conversation with David. He's going to tell us a little bit about what he's doing right

now. He's going to tell us a little bit about where he's been because he's not a newcomer. He's not a newcomer to the game and he's not new to the industry either. He's been around for a while and he knows his stuff. And so we love having people like him on the podcast so that we can kind of learn and talk to people like himself that have been around and actually have some real experience in the game. So let's get into that. David,

thank you so much for joining us today on the TurboPass USA podcast. Marker, I appreciate it, man. It's truly my honor, man. And love it. Love what you do. Thank you. Appreciate it. So one of the things that we were talking about was that you've been a podcaster.

You've been a long time podcaster. You've been around for a while, like I was mentioning. But what I always like to do on these, David, is I like to start off with like a 30-second elevator pitch. Give me, if you and I were going up in a big, long building in the elevator, and I said, hey, how you doing, brother? What do you do, man? Give us that. Give us that little 30-second intro about what you guys are doing right now and what you're all about. Absolutely.

30-second elevator pitch. We help dealers bring customers in their showroom and sell cars. Love this industry. Been doing it for 28 years. And there's never a dull moment in this industry. But, yeah, so we help dealers achieve their goals and their dreams and sell cars. And we do it in some pretty creative ways. I love that, man.

I love that. So you said 28 years. So what was the actual year that you got started with all this, David? Got started in actually 1994, 1994. And started as a kind of a boutique agency working right out of my house. and calling on local dealers in Florida. And we did that in 2004. We started IPD officially and went national and started working with dealerships across the nation.

And just kind of grown since then. And now we work with probably 400 dealerships from coast to coast and in Canada. And just loving it. But yeah, we've been doing it for 28 years. And it's been a fun ride. Yeah. And you guys are based out of where? based out of Tampa. Tampa, Florida. Okay, got you. So, so let's do this, David,

take me back to the glorious 90s, right? Yeah. Man, I'm really loving like, like, I've got, I've got teenagers and they're like obsessed with the 90s, man. I'm just loving every minute of them reliving, you know, the 90s because there were some cool stuff going on. We had some great music. The world was a little bit more normal back then, you know, in certain ways. In other ways, it was a little bit more hectic. But the 90s was a glorious time. How, take me back to that time period, how did you get involved in the auto industry? Do you have a, did you have like family members that were doing it? Like, how did you decide that that was something that you were going to do all the way back then when you first got started? Yeah. So my dad was in the,

I never been in the retail side of the business. And although, you know, if I can go back in that time frame, that might be something I would do because I, I, you know, I'm, I love the industry, been around it. But early in that industry, my father was, he's, he's, you know, he's, you know, he started and exited for automotive companies, most recently an automotive tech company that he sold a few years ago. So he started in the late 80s in the business. And so I started working with him in 92, 93, and then started an agency in 94. So kind of been around the business, was introduced through him, calling on local dealerships and just really met some cool people back then, you know, some guys that are still in the business today.

A lot of them were, you know, possibly owners now, you know, or maybe owners' kids as GMs back then and, you know, got into the business back in the 90s. And it was great. You know, I think, you know, it's a funny thing about the industry, even though we're in a digital world, in a lot of ways the industry hasn't changed. And, you know, in ways that I don't think it should change, right? This is an industry where I've always been fascinated about in the car business is that, you know, people really don't necessarily need a new car.

Someone told me a long time ago, unless their car explodes, you know, you really don't need a car. You kind of always want one. And so it's an industry where, you know, there's that leather smell, that new car smell, that new model, that new vehicle is always enticing. And, you know, it's just a fascinating industry. But yeah, I started back in the 90s, man. It was definitely an interesting time frame.

That is killer. All right, now let's fast forward a little bit to the early 2000. So you said 2004 was the point where IPD agency was kind of officially born, right? Talk to me a little bit about that. What drove you or led you to decide that in that year? Because even 2004 was, you know, that was a good while ago now. And again, this was kind of this coming of age period where the tech was starting to build up. A lot of that stuff was starting to get more normalized.

and, you know, we were starting to do more things on the internet. So was that kind of part of it? And tell us a little bit just kind of about how IPD was born. Yeah, it was, you know, one of the things that I learned early on in the car business. And this is not a, this is not a slight to dealers. It's they do, you know, even today, you know, with the best internet and BDCs and internet departments, e-commerce departments that are out there, there's still not a shortage of leads. So there's really not ever been, I think, a shortage of companies.

customers. You know, there's been this, there's this, they do well when they're, when they're in their process, right? Whether that's back in the day they were in their showroom or now, they're kind of in that, that tight funnel part where they're maybe right in their in their BDC and they're getting ready to come in. They do well with those customers. And I saw back in that time frame where, you know, there was a need for dealers to, or somebody to do work, you know, for work that the dealerships either didn't really know how to do weren't equipped to do or didn't do well. And because if, you know, I saw tremendous car people back then that if you got the customer to the showroom, they knew what to do with them. And so, you know, early on, you know, we, we started a BDC,

for instance, in 2006. That's way before. There's a song that says, I was country when country wasn't cool. We had a BDC when BDC wasn't cool. And we did it. out of, we didn't call it a BDC at first, we did it out of a need for, you know, with, with programs, you know, dealers telling us, well, yeah, we had some folks come in, but I don't know how many cars we sold or, you know, so we, we kind of saw the need where, hey, look, let us, let us control this narrative because we know these customers are responding. So, you know, so we kind of went that direction early on and then, you know, through some older technology like IVR and different things like that, that were out, you know, through automated phone systems and things. We, we used.

those that were prevalent in other industries. We brought them into the auto industry and into our marketing and, you know, just really use that to bring that customer into us representing the dealership and then kind of brought them into the store. So early on, we mixed our marketing with a BDC and kind of did the work for the dealer. And we still do that today. It's a huge part. And of course, we've added a lot of layers since then. But, you know, and we started, you know, we started, disbanded our outside team in 2008. We were going face to face and, you know, we realized that this is, this is an industry where people buy things from people. Sometimes they've never met. And so, you know, we work with dealers that are less than a mile away

from us and in some cases have never been in their showroom. And so, you know, we started going national and really kind of putting together. So yeah, in 2008, you know, we disbanded our outside team. And we were calling on dealers locally. And, you know, we realized that, you know, that we, and we do business even today with dealers that are less than a mile away from our office. And have yet, in some cases, and not even visited their showroom. You know, so back in that time frame, we realized, you know, going national was really where we were headed and started, you know, cold calling. I was, you know, something interesting in other industries there. I saw success.

and I've always been in sales and done a lot of sales training, realized there was a lot of success and inside sales. So we took that method and we literally cold called dealers even to this day. And I think that that's something that a lot of people don't do in the auto industry. I know there's a lot to do. But we took that method and I think we pretty much perfected that. So, you know, we went that direction and started building our team nationally from 2004 on. Gotcha.

Got you. So let's get into that a little bit further. Can you describe maybe some of the key marketing services that you guys are providing for dealerships? Get into some of the little nitty gritty details and maybe some projects or examples of what you guys are up to. Yeah. So we started as a, in 2004, we started as a direct mail company. That was what we started doing back in that. day. And, you know, it was, we were a dime a dozen in some ways because there was a lot of competition

out there. And that was the days where every dealer, you know, did direct mail. And we, we've evolved over, you know, somewhere around 2010, 11, 12 in that time frame, we started, you know, adding elements of digital components to our product. And today, so fast forward today. And we have a main program we do, what we call a hybrid that has an element of basically a lot of traditional and digital mixed. So we're helping dealers on, of course, Facebook, Instagram. We do a lot of TikTok events. We've jumped out ahead in the last year and a half in that space. We do a lot of digital retargeting.

And, of course, again, it's all anchored by, I think, one element that, you know, that's still to this day is our claim to fame. and that's the BDC that does all the heavy lifting for the dealership. And then, of course, we have a virtual business development center as well that we offer, you know, to a select group of dealer clients. And we're in a 13,000 square foot office here and everybody's housed in here in this office. So there's no remote work. So we're still old school when it comes to to that. But we find that it, you know, that it keeps our clients happy.

Yeah, absolutely. Man, that's really impressive. I really like that a lot. Now, one of the things, David, that you had, that I know about you, we've been friends on Facebook for a while, and it used to do a lot of Facebook lives. And I would see you kind of going around and hanging out with your sales team and the guys were there and they're, you know, dialing for dollars and, you know, signing people up and doing all kinds of cool stuff. But one thing that you've always been very upfront about is you really integrate your faith into your business.

You don't, you don't shy away from that. You don't try to hide that. Have you always been that way, David, is that something that's always been important to you? And then, and then transition that over to how you're able to do that. How are you able to mix business with faith like that as a key component of what you guys are doing over there? Yeah. So, number one, let me just kind of touch on something you said in the beginning of the question. You know, we, we still do that with regards to, I'm still out there with the sales team. We, we don't do it on Facebook live anymore, but we, you know, we do showcase it a lot. We're posted on Instagram and stories and things like that, but mainly, you know, that, I love that. So I'm, I'm the CEO here, but I'm a sales guy. I'm a marketing guy.

And that's my, that's my deal. I said, I don't sit in my office. I'm out in the sales room. But so, number one, that still goes on. And I just believe in that energy, bringing that, you know, my team is real, real big on that. And I think it helps them. I'll get involved in calls every day. I take TOs, you know, every day at the end of we TO 100% of our deals. Matter of fact, it's a policy we have. But with regards to faith, you know, so, you know, I've been in ministry, more traditional ministry for years. So I've always had that element in my life. I did not always, and everyone that worked for me knew that. I did not always integrate it the same way we do in the more recent years where we've, you know, we've, you know, we've, kind of shifted. And now, you know, we do a lot of other things out of this office that are faith-based that are helping other businesses, Christian business owners and businesses and people just kind of find their way. And it's just something that's developed. And so I haven't always done it that way, but that's kind of the direction that we've headed over the last few years. And it's a

huge part of what we do. And it's really brought in some very cool people to our organization as well and open up some doors where people have come in for that culture specifically, not for the money, although the money follows. Sure. And so yeah, so it's, but yeah, it's a huge part of who we are and what we do. That's awesome, man. I really like that and really admire that about you for, for, you know, just not being ashamed to show what you're about, you know. And I think that's, that's another component of running a business is kind of, hey, what is it that makes us unique, right? What is it that we do differently? And I think in many ways, that's part of what you and your business are about, you know, so being able to just kind of do that in a bold kind of a way,

that's just become part of your, you know, almost like your USP in a sense, right? Your unique selling proposition. So more power to you on that. Now, this may tie into it to this, David, it may not, but a lot of times business owners and businesses go through tough times, right? I think a lot of people don't fully understand or comprehend the challenges of running a small business, right? Having to make payroll and having to pay for the big lease and, you know, and all these different kind of things. And a lot of times when things don't go right, that's where we do a lot of times tend to find ourselves asking for help, you know, from a higher power. And so perhaps that's part of your journey.

Perhaps it's not. But can you talk to me just a little bit about handling failures or setbacks? I think every successful business owner that I've ever met has definitely had their fair share of it. Is there anything that you can kind of share in regards to anything like that that you you've gone through and kind of how you've been able to overcome that. Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So 100% tied to my faith and that's a huge part of it. I'll say this about I'm 100% in agreement that, you know, I've set under and went to see and I've been, I'm friends with a lot of

people that we all know, you know, some big names and some folks that we all know. And, you know, I've, you know, I've heard of a lot of people talk about their success. And the one thing that escapes a lot of times the workshops or the boot camps or the things that we attend are how I got there. It's like, you know, hey, follow me, you know, and buy this and what have you and, you know, get my book. And that's all well and good, you know. But the reality is if you, if you can think of three, five, how many ever successful people that you know, there's, there's one thing that every one of them had in common with you and I. And that's, they wanted to quit multiple times. There's no doubt about it. And the second thing, I think they had in common, if they're still around,

if they have any measure of success, they didn't. You know, so there's, there's, I think that and therein lies, if you can get that out of them, that's the value. That's, that's the secret because, you know, perseverance is really where it's at. And, you know, I'll just give you one, one quick example over the last, you know, three years. I mean, it's been, you know, I mean, been a wild ride. Anybody that says it hasn't been, you know, would be lying. And, you know, it's just been up and down. And on one side, there's on the auto side, on the retail side, there's been, you know, during the COVID timeframes and inventory shortages and things like that, there's been record years. There's been record profits. There's been, then there's been famine. Well, then sometimes on

the vendor side, it was not really matched up with those things. So for instance, you know, when the dealerships were selling everything they can get their hands on and making all the money, sometimes the vendors were left, you know, wondering, hey, what's, what's going on with us? Because they didn't really need the vendors the same way. And so, you know, it was kind of an up and down at different times. And I'll tell you, so something that I really think my faith came in and argues the word blueprint. You know, I, to be honest with you, no one had experience that you couldn't really sit under anyone that said, hey, I've been through this before and this is what I've done. You know, and I'll tell you, you know, God has. So, so using that as an example,

I, you know, I went to prayer man and went to say, hey, what do we do here? What, what's the blueprint? Because I don't have it. And there were times where, you know, some really strategic ideas and things came out of, you know, some leadership and things like that. And I really, and so we developed kind of a blueprint. And that's probably where this whole, the most recent, like, launch of like faith-based leadership and selling and building. has come out of, really. I was in Starbucks drive-thru. I'll tell you this, you know, this is a pretty interesting story about a year and a half ago. It was, you know, everything was starting to kind of clear out of COVID, but Starbucks was still kind of, you know, hit or miss.

You know, I'm sure, I don't know if you drink Starbucks. I like it every day. And I was in a line with my wife and it was on a Saturday. I mean, there were 20 cars in line. So there was no shortage of a demand for coffee. Like, everybody in that line wanted coffee. And I get up to the, to the ordering box. and there's a list of like their store hours.

It was like a Monday through Sunday type deal. Only two days, Marco had hours of operation. It said 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. So that means they weren't even going to open in the morning. And then the rest of the days had TBD. And I looked at my wife and I said, they got all the money in the world. And they can't solve this problem.

They don't know what to do right now because it's a personnel problem and what have you. And that's where I knew that there's a blueprint out there that had to come from, somebody else. And that's, you know, so I think that, you know, faith played a big part in that and really getting some wisdom that I didn't have. That's a great story, David. Yeah. And you bring up some, some really cool points. And sometimes, you know, I mean, our minds are, are, you know, they have finite limitations, right? And so what's, what's wrong with reaching, you know, for a higher power for inspiration, guidance, you know, what may be? So I think, that was a really smart and strategic move on your part to,

in a way, you're kind of surrendering, right? You're saying, I don't have all the answers. And sometimes I do need to be able to get help. And that shows humility, which is a really great quality for a leader. So I really admire you for that, David.

Can you talk a little bit about, we're getting close to winding down. Talk to me about how you balance your busy work and your business world that you're in and your personal life. You know, obviously running a business can be very demanding, right? How do you strike a balance between your professional world and your personal life? And then, you know, what do you typically do in your downtime? Yeah.

I didn't always get that right. So, you know, I three children, they're all in their, from 20, 23 almost to almost 29 or to 29. So they're that 20th range, all married now. But, you know, when they're two older kids were younger, you know, I, missed games and I did you know I was building the business and I didn't handle it right I was a I was a workaholic and you know I would work until 10 o'clock at night and so I didn't do it right it almost cost me my marriage you know it costs a lot of problems and um you know I um so you know I had a early on you know 2013 or so I had a you know really a come to Jesus so to speak you know my wife

and I you know it almost cost my marriage and and I had to really evaluate some things and so I got it right today I'm totally different. So from that time frame on, I started, you know, I started really, you know, valuing the time outside of work and realize that, you know, there's a scripture that says what profits a man to gain the world, to lose his soul, right? To lose what really matters, I guess, is the key there. And so I, you know, it's at six o'clock. I mean, I'm pretty much done. And I mean, I'm in the auto business. So me, my clients can reach me if there's things I need to do. obviously I'm available, but I stop work. My team stops. We got really militant about it. Say,

hey, go home. Spend time with your family. We have the ability for them to earn four-day work weeks, you know, hitting certain marks and have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. They already have Saturday and Sunday off. And, you know, so those types of things just really became important to me. I watched. And here's the craziest thing, but I thought it would hurt me. It actually excelled our business. And, you know, we did. far better in the last 10 years than we did than we were doing then. And on my downtime, you know, I, you know, my wife and I spend a lot of time together. So I'm really big on that. I spend a lot time with family, you know, weekends. I'm at church. And, you know, and I do have a lot of downtime as

well. You know, I'm really, you know, I value rest, you know, because, you know, I would work, I would burn the candle at both ends. And, you know, there was the energy to do that. But, you know, I don't do that like I used to. And so there's a lot of things that I value. And rest is one of those things as well. And one other thing I'll tell you that I do, because I don't know if we'll be able to get it in, something I've developed over the last eight years

is a morning routine, just really just dedicated to a morning routine, starting my day off, you know, right. You know, because everything else, the rest of the day is going to be built upon that. So, you know, I'm really big on that as well. No, I love that. That is great, man.

And I really appreciate everything you shared and just, you know, being so transparent and honest. What does the future look like for David Villa and your IPD agency? What do you guys, you guys got any cool stuff that y'all are working on or, you know, what are your goals or aspirations for the future? Yeah, absolutely. We have something real exciting. It's happening as we speak. We launched a, we're a hub company. We launched a spoke company IPD did called Dealer Tech Global, and it is launching officially this month.

So we've been developing a SaaS product and we are taking it to market and we're going to be talking about it here within the next 15 to 30 days and brought in an ex dealer to partner with us and some ex car guys. are coming in. So we've been working on this for January. It was January 1st. We started it. So the product's ready. But yeah, it's going to be some really big things. And our goal is to, you know, to put a thousand rooftops on the product, God willing, within the next couple of years. And, but that's, that's coming around the bend here as we speak. Yeah. Are you able to give a little hint of what, what that platform is going to accomplish or maybe just a little teaser on something like that? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a follow. It's a, it's an extreme follow up tool that is, that is tied to, um, social media. It's tied to inventory. It's, uh, there's a lot of

cool things that, um, that it, that it does. Um, it's, it's designed to, to help dealers. We've, we've, you know, we have, I guess I said, we had a dealer that's a partner in it that help develop it from that side. Of course, our, us from the vendor side. And then we have a software programmer, um, That's a partner in it as well. That's going to be our CTO. So we've built it with the right players intact. And so it's, it's, it's, it's very cool. It does a lot of, a lot of cool stuff.

But it, you know, it's going to help dealers sell cars and retain business. And a lot of AI attached to it as well. And so some really sophisticated stuff that's, that's, that's, that's part of it. So I'm excited about it. Sounds very exciting, my friend. Is there kind of a sweet spot, David, that your agency looks for with, with auto dealers? Is there a revenue kind of sweet spot? Or are you pretty much just kind of open to talking to any auto dealership? What is your, what do you, who do you guys try to kind of hone in on for

the proper prospect? Yeah. So we, I mean, we, we do work with all size dealerships. I mean, we work with some of the largest dealers, you know, in respected makes across the country. We have a, the hybrid programs are claimed to fame, so to speak. It's our big program. That primarily is going to be, you know, in bigger dealerships, maybe the 200 cars up, 150 car up dealerships, you know. And then we have, but we have different packages, you know, with social media and even with smart mail and things like that that that we do. But we work with dealerships, you know, ranging from 30, 40 cars a month on up to, you know, 1,000 plus cars a month. And so, but we, so we really don't have a sweet spot. We, we do work. I would say our sweet spot, if there is one with

IPD is just the dealer that's looking to take market share in that plus up conquest business going after that business, which is really every dealer. But we typically work with dealers that are a little more aggressive, you know, a little more. I hate to say it this way, but probably, you know, there's 16,000, I think, 700 plus dealers in the U.S. franchise dealerships, maybe 3,000, let's call them car guys. Hey, you know, do use that term car guys out there. We work with a lot of car guys still and with our specific programs. Yeah, got it.

Okay, very, very good stuff. If someone's listening or watching this podcast, David, and they want to learn more about you, they want to, you know, talk to you guys or your team about potentially working with you. What's the best way to reach you? You know, they can reach out directly to me if they're watching this. And you can just email me at David at IPD agency.com. And I'll address them directly. And that way, it's just a easy way if they want to email me and then we can connect and

talk further. Sure. Yeah. And maybe they can mention that they saw or heard you on the Turbo Pass podcast. And I'm sure you'll take extra good care of them. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's fantastic.

I'm going to make sure we add that as well to the show notes to, David. So that'll be in there. We're going to send this out all over the place. So hopefully it'll get picked up by someone that's, you know, potentially interested. But either way, we really appreciate your time today. Lots of great information, really cool story that you have. And thank you so very much, David, for your time and joining us today on the TurboPass podcast. It's been my pleasure, Marco. Thank you for having me.

All right, brother. Have a good one. You too. And that does it, guys, for another episode of the TurboPass USA podcast. We will catch you here next time. Thank you for listening to the TurboPass USA podcast. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visit turbopassusa.com forward slash podcast.