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Episode 255

Ron Dolan

Sailun Tire North America

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Ron Dolan is president of Sailun Tire North America, where he works with tire dealers on brand programs and supplier relationships. His work with value tire brands includes supporting counter staff and developing a strategy that gives dealers protected territories. He brings a supplier’s perspective on changing customer preferences and the pressures facing independent tire businesses.

In this episode…

Drivers are trying value tire brands to lower the cost of a new set, and Ron Dolan says customers who first bought on price are returning because of their experience with the tires. Mid-tier brands face pressure when their names are familiar to tire professionals but unknown to shoppers. For owners managing several locations, choosing a tire line means considering what customers recognize and what the team can confidently recommend.

Customers often rely on the shop to guide that decision. Ron describes how Sailun supports counter staff and uses dealer feedback to shape its programs, while online reviews increasingly influence purchases. He connects lasting supplier relationships to consistent service and honest communication, particularly when a delivery problem or another disruption affects the dealer.

National chains add another source of pressure for independent shops. Ron argues that focused local marketing and an owner’s involvement give dealers room to compete in their own communities. Supplier programs also affect their position. Sailun uses separate brands with distinct tread designs and protected territories to give dealers more control over pricing and the margins they earn.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[05:30] Why customers keep buying value tire brands

[07:35] Why mid-tier tire brands struggle with consumer recognition

[12:43] Supporting the counter staff who recommend your tires

[15:16] Building lasting business relationships through honest communication

[22:36] Taking calculated risks and learning from business failures

[28:41] Competing with national chains as an independent tire dealer

[38:34] Protecting dealer margins with exclusive territories

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“The first part is we have to get the tires on the shelf, and then we have to help the people sell them, make them leave so they can reorder them.”
“You know, it’s better to be respected than liked.”
“And sometimes you just got to take a chance and move.”
“What I’m saying is it’s not doomsday for the independent.”

Action Steps:

Review repeat purchases by location. Pull a sample of returning tire customers at each store and check whether they bought the same brand again. Compare results for the value tire brands you stock and ask staff what customers reported about the first set.
Prepare staff to explain an unfamiliar brand. Choose one tire line your stores stock and have each manager collect the questions customers ask about it. Send those questions to your supplier and use the answers in the next counter staff meeting.
Confirm territory protection before the next order. Get written clarification from each supplier on what its territory protection covers and which nearby dealers carry the same line. Use those terms when reviewing pricing and gross margin at each location.
Review local visibility store by store. Check the geographic reach of each location’s advertising and search for the tire brands your stores sell. Make each store’s tire offering easy to find on its location page and identify customer questions the page needs to answer.
Put a review date on the next business trial. Choose a single change to test, such as a different tire line at one location. Record the cost and target gross profit before launch, then set a date to review the results and decide whether to continue.

Transcript

00:00

Speaking to the owners that are listening to this right now, that it all rests on them. There could be a big conglomerate in your town, and you can still get noticeable market share in that same town. You still have to take some chances. That’s the key to life, right there. You’re going to fail. Get up fast and move forward again. It doesn’t matter.

00:21

Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host, and I have the great privilege of connecting the industry by interviewing the best people who work in tires and auto repair. This episode is powered by Tread Partners, the leader in paid search marketing, which includes Google Ads and LSAs for multi-location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com. Hey, folks! My guest today is Ron Dolan, president of Sailoon Tire North America. He was on the podcast three years ago in May of 2023 before we started publishing in video episode 87, we are now I think recording episode 257. I couldn’t be more excited to have him back. I consider him a friend. Ron, welcome back to the Gain Traction podcast.

01:12

Thanks, Mike. It last time it was you know basically what people told me my whole life. I’ve been faced for radio, so so in advance, I apologize to your listeners.

01:24

Well, I got that too, but you know, you were one of those people that encouraged us to do video, and it’s been great. I mean, we’ve had a good time. It just takes a little more effort, you know, and have to have the right parts in place. But when we when we started, we just did the whole you know audio thing, and now we’re here. But it’s it’s been a great addition, and we’ve we’ve taken it on the road.

01:44

Yeah, congratulations to the success of the podcast. It’s you know we everybody that’s in the tire business or automotive probably more than just tires, automotive business. You know we all very much are passionate about this business. So to have somebody like yourself that’s committing to the industry because I think everybody would agree we all learn from these podcasts from our sometimes competitors sometimes tire dealers you have some really interesting guests on so thank you for what you yeah thank

02:16

you I appreciate it yeah you know it’s it’s interesting how we’ve steered it we’ve I don’t know you you just start, you know, and you don’t know which way it’s going to go. But our audience is tire dealers and um and shop owners, operators, executives in the business. And so when I travel, it’s interesting. But I always hear from somebody walk up, and you know when you do this, you’re doing it in a bubble, so you don’t really know who’s listening. You just see sometimes some data, but when you get somebody says, “Hey, I listen every week,” you almost want to hug them, like, “Hey, I’m good to meet you,” you know, yeah, because they know they know you, but you don’t know them, and they always ask them what they like about it, and they tell me they say, “You know, I like it when you have tire people on because I always get a nugget from them,” and so we really try to steer it to where you know we get folks like yourselves that are on the you know the supply side in tires, and then primarily we try to get dealers because dealers like to hear from their peers, and you know, or people that are operating the stores.

03:12

Absolutely, I mean, I would think you know from their perspective, that’s the most valuable advice they can get. Someone that’s living what they do every day is gonna is gonna give them the most you know gold nuggets as we talk about and and hopefully the perspective they get from people like myself on the supply side is understanding kind of what we go through how we think about things and I think that can also help them understand our side of it and that will help them make decisions as well. So,

03:43

100%. And we don’t really, you know, it’s interesting. You you you see a lot of these podcasts out there, and including ours in the beginning. You know, we we took a lot of random guests in regards to just even vendors to the industry. But what we noticed is that there’s a lot of people don’t really care to hear about a lot of different vendors. But when it comes to tire side or supply side, like you guys, they do want to know their options. I mean, they’re already you’re already in their space. It’s not a big change for them to say, “Hey, I might want to consider another brand, or I might want to consider a private label, or I want to do you know whatever it may be there,” because that’s already in the lane. But when you’re asking them to listen to a video and think about changing a software. I mean, that just becomes like, man, that’s not why I tuned in, you know. But you, you guys are directly involved. Salus directly involved in the tire, you know, supply side. They want to know. They they need to know. Well, this is what

04:34

I always talk to our salespeople about. You know, especially some of the younger ones when they go in and they’re they’re meeting somebody for the first time. I go, hey, relax. They buy tires every day and sell them, and you sell tires. Don’t worry, you’re not walking in like you say selling something that is that they may think about. You know, 2% of the time they think about tires 95% of their day. So exactly,

04:59

and that’s. That’s a good segue into the you know our conversation today because I wanna I wanna refresh people. I cheated a little bit. I actually went back and listened to our some of our podcasts so that I would know where we came from. But we when we talked three years ago, you guys were 12th in in regards to tire company size, where are you ranked today?

05:24

Yeah, so we’re 10th largest today. So we’ve we’ve moved up two spots globally.

05:30

Yep.

05:30

You know that’s that’s driven by the flight to value. I mean, we we believe that at Salen we we do a great job executing and delivering on our promise of being the easiest to do business with, but we have a lot of tailwinds right now. I mean, they with the overall economy, the the products that we build are getting better all the time. So when people try them, they initially were trying them, and I think I said this in the first time we spoke a few years ago: is they try things based on price, but now they’re coming back to them from the experience that they have. Regardless, if they were trying to save money on that purchase, and maybe they have more money for the next purchase, they’re still staying with with us because it delivers a great amount of value, and that’s why we call the tier in, we don’t call it tier four, tier three. We say that we’re in the value tier. We we really believe that it delivers a ton of value, and and over time that’s going to win. And we’re not the only ones. Like there’s a lot of great companies in the value tier. We believe that we’re the best in the value tier of what we’re delivering. Obviously, I’m biased. I work for for Salen, but but there’s a lot of great companies, and and we’re us and a few others. I think are doing a really good job.

06:52

Well, you guys have a great reputation out there. I see it, I hear about it, but I do think. I mean, the tailwinds. Let’s talk about that a little bit because industry as a whole, where are the you know the I mean the tier ones right now because the people are shifting. Obviously, the economy is tough. World economy is tough. People are looking for value and they want it. Everybody’s always worried about safety, right? So I mean, you got to have a good product, but I think that says a lot about you guys. You you’re putting a product out there, and let’s say you got them originally because of the value price. But if they’re if you’re starting to see them come back, you know you did something right, and that’s that’s refreshing. And you know that they feel like, hey, I got the quality too.

07:35

Yeah, like you know, you talk about leading brands or tier one, they’re fine. Like they’re they’re they’re you know it’s they’re the news I think is more dramatic than it has to be, yeah they’re they’re feeling pressure for sure, but there’s a lot they’re pretty stable with a little bit of a dip based on economic conditions, but there is a buyer for there’s like like in all segments of the world. There’s someone that wants that Louis Vuitton purse, and there’s somebody that wants the purse that looks the same. That might be Kirkland brand at Costco, as an example. I don’t know if Kirkland even makes purses, but you might you you get my point. The so I think it’s the messy middle is what I would call it that has been really the most under pressure because someone very smart said to me years ago. It was a throwaway sentence. They said, “There’s brands you know in the tire business, and there’s brands you don’t know.” That’s how the public views it. We talk in tiers in the tire business: tier one, tier two, tier three, tier four. But the reality is, is I’ve heard of Michelin, and I haven’t heard of anybody else as an example. So, or I’ve heard of you know the two or when we did an unaided study a few years ago, and it was like three or four brands people would mention, and then they didn’t recognize anybody else. And there were some companies in that tier two space that spend millions of dollars on marketing, have been around for 4050 years, but because people don’t think about tires every day, because they’re such a great product that once you put them on, it’s kind of a set it and forget

09:12

Yeah,

09:13

that most people don’t even know what’s on their car. If I was to go out and poll my staff here in the office today and said, “Hey, without looking, what do you have on your? I bet you 30 40% don’t even know what brand they have on. Like I think you’re right.

09:28

I like the way you called it the messy middle because what’s that little cliche in this industry too? Tires aren’t bought; they’re sold because you go to a tire dealer a lot of times and people really they don’t they at the time they need tires, they’re concerned, right? And they’re making that decision at that moment. They want a good value. They want a good price. They want something that’s going to last, etc., etc., safe for their family or wife, whatever. But a lot of them go into that tire dealer that they trust, that local guy, and they say, “What do?”. Recommend, and that’s the guy that they trust. And you know, if he’s got a good relationship with you guys, or he likes your your tires, he gets very few complaints, etc., and he’s making good money. That’s the one he’s going to recommend because he knows who to take care of his business because he knows they’re going to be happy at the end of the day.

10:19

Correct, and that’s why I say that the middle part there, the tier two, tier three, or that combination, is the part where it’s it’s the most most pressure right now.

10:29

Yeah,

10:30

because shockingly, and I won’t name any particular brands in the tier two. I’m not trying to be disparaging to them. There’s some amazing products in tier two. I can just tell you ones that all of us know in the tire business that are listening to this podcast. Ones that would pop up the the public doesn’t know those names. I couldn’t believe it the other day. There’s an Italian brand that we all know very well that everybody in the tire business would name as a brand off the top of their head. And I was literally in a shop yesterday, getting my winter tires put on, and obviously I’m listening to the counter people, you know, because like that’s the a tire guy’s dream as a supplier to listen to this how what they sell, how what they’re pitching, why they’re pitching, what they’re doing is you learn a ton sitting there getting your own tires put on, and he said the Italian brand’s name, and then he had to spell it, and he had to repeat it three times. And this brand starts with P, and everybody on this call knows who I’m talking about. But the public, this person, the public had never heard of that brand, which blew my mind.

11:36

Wow! You haven’t heard that brand.

11:38

They haven’t heard of that brand. They haven’t heard of a lot of other tier two.

11:43

Oh, 100%.

11:44

Yes. So, so that just shows you that you know public don’t think about tires, which you know, and and yeah, does it hurt my feelings a bit because I love this industry so much? Yeah, but I can’t tell you what kind of brake pads I have on my car. I don’t know the I. And if you ask me to name brake pad companies, I could name two off the top my head.

12:03

Yeah,

12:03

like so, and I know brake pads is even probably more of a unknown purchase than tires because at least tires you can see the label on the outside. But my point is, it’s not much different than a brake pad as far as the public’s concerned.

12:18

Yeah,

12:19

and yeah, there’s two or 3% of the population that are enthusiasts that probably know more about tires than I do, and there’s another five or 6% that are mechanically inclined, and and they, you know. But if you say the majority of the public doesn’t know brands or even cares cares to, then how do you make a difference in the marketplace? And well, that’s my

12:43

question to you. How do you guys look at? How do you guys go to market then? What’s the strategy?

12:47

It’s it’s to create raving fans of the counter people. The first part is we have to get the tires on the shelf, and then we have to help the people sell them, make them leave so they can reorder them. And so we engage a ton with the counter people. Very all the marketing we do for the most parts B 2b and giving them products they want, listening to the customer. So you don’t have this size. You you don’t like. It’s it’s basically let your customers build your program and how you do what you do. It’s it’s not rocket science. And then the new stage is obviously making sure that when someone ChatGPT is a salon or looks at reviews online, that we show up in a good way there, which has been a newer thing in the last three or four years. Because before it literally was 80% counter person, and now it’s counter person slash your digital presence, and we’re paying more attention to that.

13:44

Yeah,

13:45

and then we just keep trying to to execute. You know, we’re we don’t have domestic warehousing here, so we are overseas plants for the most part. We have we have a plant in Mexico now, so we are more localized, but overall, majority of our business still comes from overseas. So we have to execute on that container direct business that we do, and that’s where the separation from us and other competitors can happen. We’ve had a tough year this year. Everybody has. It’s been very ups, a lot of ups and downs with the wars and freight, and

14:22

yeah,

14:23

it’s not as bad as COVID, but it’s a it’s a COVID junior, I’d call this year.

14:27

Oh, really?

14:28

Yeah, and but we’ve we believe we’ve done a good job overall comparatively to our competitive set that operate the same way. And yeah, Mike, you know what? It’s it’s not about being revolutionary, like in I believe in the tire business. It’s those golden rules, you know, treating people how they want to be treated,

14:51

yeah,

14:52

and doing it year after year the same way, and being predictable and listening to the customers, and like it’s. All things, and you know, if people are listening, wow, this guy is so profound. Yeah, I’m not profound. It’s it does it is common sense. It’s just it the the tough part is to continually year after year execute on those promises. That that is the hard part.

15:16

I love I love your attitude about that because I I think you know one of the it’s it’s not revolutionary, right? I mean, there are revolutionary things that do happen in our industry, but things are typically slow. So at the end of the day, it is a commodity. And when you’re selling a commodity, in my humble opinion, the the rest comes down to the people and the service, and what do you do, and how do you present? You know how do you take care of the customer with that product, and making sure that they get what they need, and and being upfront with them. I mean, you know, if you’re going to have a delivery problem, don’t BS them, just tell them. And and people, you know, I think you you’ve always impressed me because you you’re you’re no nonsense kind of guy, you don’t want to. And I think we talked about this last time, but we’re just talking about sales approach with people and just being brutally honest. And the next thing you find out in life, it takes a little bit as a young man. But you and I aren’t young anymore, so it’s like now you see the reward of being brutally honest. And now you got relationships that last 2025 years. Why? Because they know Ron’s going to tell them the truth.

16:24

Again, it’s again back to those golden rules. Would you want somebody to withhold from you? Would they? Would you want somebody to know something that they could give you a heads up on or tell you now? Right. And you know, there’s. It’s funny. Another. You know, you through life you get these throwaway sentences. I think the most influential advice I’ve been ever given is people just saying sentences and they don’t think it’s that impactful. But those are the ones I seem to remember. You know, it’s better to be respected than liked. You know, someone just said that one day, and I and I remember driving home and really really pondering on what that means, and yeah, when we’re all younger, we want to be liked, right? We want to we want people to think highly of us, and we think that’s through just being nice and and making people feel good. That’s how, at least, at least sorry, at least how that’s how I was when I was younger. And as I’m aging. I’m realizing now, though, no, it to to show someone respect is actually to tell them something they don’t want to hear sometimes, and that’s that’s how to and and they’ll respect me in return by doing that. And yeah, maybe we don’t have a great conversation that day, or maybe they come off and they’re like, “Oh, that was a little blunt,” but I think over time they’re gonna they’re gonna appreciate that that visibility or whatever I brought up in that conversation.

17:48

Well, there’s something about there’s something about the word respect that is almost better than being liked because, and I’m not saying that obviously it’s important to be liked. I think to some degree, but when you’re respected, there’s more. I don’t even know if this is the right word, but there’s more virtue involved. Like is like can be easier than respect. Respect you get because I feel like you did something that earned it, or and it’s well,

18:16

and sometimes it comes through harder harder actions.

18:18

That’s that’s it. That’s it. And then then with respect, it typically seems to be more trust because that guy may not I might not like his personality, but he doesn’t BS me, you know what I’m saying, or something along those lines. So I don’t know. It’s a it’s it’s a it’s a that’s a great thing to contemplate, but I haven’t chewed on that one, liked or respected, but I get where you’re coming from. I like I like what you’re saying there, because you know, kind of got that philosophy too. No like and trust, but respect is. It seems like no like and respect was almost better than or no no and no respect and trust is is how you get the trust is is respect. Yeah,

19:02

and if we think about people in our lives, right, that we depend on, like that people like, okay, I gotta this person’s, I’m in a tough situation. I need advice, or I need. It’s not necessarily the warm and fuzzy people that you go to all the time, right? I can think about in my own life, like the my trusted people, and it’s not because they’re the warmest or the smiley or the most extroverted people. Sometimes they’re not because I know I’m going to get the real deal. At least their at least their perception of what the real deal is. I know, and again, that’s how that’s why I trust them. Right? It’s not necessarily because they’re the most likable.

19:40

That is such a great example. I’ll tell on myself a little bit here. I’m Catholic, so we go to confession, and you get friends, and they go, “Man, I don’t go to that guy. He’s too tough, or he’s. I just, you know, that you could pick somebody that’s just a little more gentle on your whatever.” I said, “I go to him for for the exact reason you say, yeah, because he’ll give it to.”. Me straight about my problem, you know, and that’s what I want to know. I mean, you know, if you want to get better, you got to take the, you got to take somebody’s going to just punch you right in the face and tell you exactly your problem instead of soft pedaling sometimes. And I’m that guy. I I I like people. I really like people that tell me just the way it is, even if I know that I might not like, I’ve already, I’ve already put it in my head. I’m, I, you know, I got anxiety about the answer, but I still want to hear it. If that makes sense, and it’s almost like I already know, I already know the truth about myself, but I know this guy’s going to tell me he’s not going to back away.

20:37

Yeah, no, totally, I totally agree. It’s and it’s something that I think it changes through your life, like this conversation I’m right now, would be very different. I think when I was 25, or how I viewed the world, it just it’s funny how you evolve and and and change. It just yeah, that’s the fascinating part about this journey. Is is yes, am I the core same dude I was at 12 years old. Yeah, like you know what I mean. I have my disposition that really hasn’t changed much, but but it is funny as you age and to just how your perspectives change, and you have and you have children, and you see the world through them, and it’s just yeah, it’s being a human is we’re very lucky to have have all of us to have this journey of these ups and downs and these lessons. I I think it’s it’s cool how you can keep learning, and I imagine that this will happen continue till I’m suck my last breath. Like my perspective now at 50 probably will be a little different at 75, right? Like and and that’s exciting to me that that that that there’s potential for that.

21:46

100%. It’s interesting because you know some people would think that this podcast is a little odd for being a tire industry podcast and what we’re talking about. But what I’ve learned is, for all the young guys listening to us, this is a very great conversation that you can, you you’ve got to be willing to take a hard look at yourself, but also be willing to know that you’re going to change, and and that’s okay, and and you’re going to have regrets, and that’s okay. I I like to say this, you know, in the Frank Sinatra song, I did it my way. Regrets I had a few. If you didn’t have a lot of regrets, you probably didn’t. You didn’t learn a lot. You know, I feel like you you’ve got to have enough regrets in there. I’m not saying you got to have a a truckload of them, but there’s got to be enough regrets that if you didn’t have any regrets, I don’t know if you advanced. If that makes sense.

22:36

Yeah, and maybe we and maybe for a business context, we could say set of regrets, we get to say like like failures or or a strategy that you thought was the right thing to do and it didn’t work out. That you know this is something too we can bring back to say learn and and kind of our philosophy as a company. We do take chances too. We think of we we try things and we take as much data as we can before we make before we press go, but we’re okay with being like, okay, that didn’t work. Like, I think you have to have a combination of being, you know, being humble and being like, hey, we’re not the smartest people on the planet, and we’re but we’re going to try things, and I think that’s been part of our success is that we’re not as conservative as other companies on some of the things we’ve we’ve attempted to do. So if we’re giving advice to young people on the call, it would be like, yeah, be well thought out. They, you know, look at all the angles that you can, but move, do something.

23:40

Yeah,

23:41

like just do it. Don’t don’t have the

23:43

paralysis of analysis.

23:44

Yes, yes, and that’s what I notice with a lot of people, young and old, is that it’s this overthinking and overthinking, and the world’s passing them by. You know, I I meet hundreds and 1000s of people a year. I’m so fortunate to, you know, the amount of travel I do the amount of things I get to see, and I meet so many people that if they did, I always say if they did an IQ test, they’d make me look like very bad. Like they’re much, much. You can see that they’re just much brighter. Their brain fires much faster, and then you look at some of those great minds, and they haven’t done anything because they’re too busy spinning in their own over and out, like overdoing it. And sometimes you just got to take a chance and move. And I think the people that do that over time will have greater success. And even over the people that may be much smarter, much faster.

24:42

Well, that’s great you say that. I try to tell my kids. Look, I’ve always tried to tell my kids this: don’t be afraid to fail. You’ve got to be able to get back up and move forward. That’s the key to life, right there. I mean, it’s just you’re going to fail. Get. Up fast and move forward again. It doesn’t matter, and you will figure it out. It’s just like a little kid’s skin in their knee or hands or whatever when they fall down. As an adult, it’s it gets to where you’re trying things and you’re going to make decisions on your best data, and it’s not going to work out. My mentor, one of my mentors, was my uncle. He’s been passed away probably 14 years now. He was 84 when he passed, so he’d be way up there now. But he, I think he was about 70, and I was talking to him one time, and I was getting so much of that wisdom from him, I could just feel it. You know what I mean? And I was just like, God, I wish I said this to him. I wish I could take what’s in your head and just stick it here, you know. And he goes, yeah, I wish it was that easy. He goes, but you’re gonna have to go through your own experiences, and you’re gonna have to make your own, you know, judgment calls. And he said, but the number one thing is do your homework, make your decision. If it fails, cut it off, move forward. He goes, don’t let the disease eat you up. He goes, this is what happens with people in business. He goes. They let pride get in, and they keep trying to drive that round peg through a square hole, and it’s not going to work. And he said, and just starts eating their arm up. And he said, just move on. It’s all in the numbers. It’s in the data. Don’t be emotionally attached. And it it made me. It was a very callous conversation, but it made me grow up a lot. If that makes sense.

26:20

Yeah. And Mike, now I’m going to be a big caveat here. So Ron Dolan goes to sleep every night, and no one owes me any money personally, right? So I do. I have a lot of responsibility at Ceylon, obviously, and I have a stressful job like everybody else. But to speaking to the owners that are listening to this right now, that you know, it all rests on them. That if if you know if the money doesn’t come in, people don’t get paid. You know it, or you know the money is owed to them. So I do think there’s another level of of stress that I haven’t experienced in my career. You know, so easy for me to say, oh, be a risk taker. Be a risk taker. I get that the stakes can be higher, you know, for these. This is for people personally, right? These are their if they have three, four shops, or they have 150 shops. But I think the advice still applies. It’s like you still have to take some chances because you will not be nearly successful by being ultra conservative. I think that I think that’s the message. But oh yeah, it’s not it’s not lost on me that there’s people that different level of of stress or responsibility on their shoulders that maybe I haven’t walked a mile in their shoes. To so I might be. I just want to say that out loud that I no, and

27:43

and and and I I can speak from experience. I’ve had my own operations, and I know the stress level. And I’ve had not in this industry, but I’ve had and I’ve had a lot of entrepreneurs around me in my family. I’ve seen the stress, yeah. But at the same time, I’ve also seen the rewards of risk taking, and I’ve seen a lot of pain by not taking certain risk. Yeah, and I think certain people. I’ll just say this too. I think certain people have a a good sixth sense of knowing when to take risk and when not. And you ever look at those people? My my uncle being an example, but I think they learn from mistakes and they learn how to make decisions and they know how to move forward through a mistake and and make it work. And so, anyway, it’s a it’s a very interesting conversation, and I think it applies to just about any industry. But I think it’s a great conversation to have with the president of a company as credible as you guys and at Saint Lune. And I’ve enjoyed talking about it,

28:41

yeah. Great. The yeah. So, but back to kind of kind of back to business. Yeah, this the industry is is is is changing a lot. I think you know in the next few years, I think everybody’s talking about this. Nothing new, but the consolidation in our industry is real. It happened in other industries, you know, first I would say. But it is definitely happening. We’ve heard all the big announcements in the last six months with Maevis’s acquisitions and big brand and buying Bell Tire and and and different different things like that. So I think that’s going to change the industry. I think it’s going to create opportunities still for independent companies. Independent companies still are majority by a long shot of the market. So as much as we see these massive announcements, I think we all have to take a breath too and say, “Hey, there’s still a huge, huge, huge market for the independent tire dealer, and what can you do in your local market to keep winning?” There’s a lot of a lot of things that you can do. So, I’ll give you an example, Mike, of. Yes, a couple weeks ago, I dropped off a carpet to be cleaned in my local town, an area carpet, and I picked it up and I started asking the guy. So I’m I’m I’m a bit of a business nerd, meaning like I’m just curious about business in general. You know, I love tires, but I’m I love business too, and overall. So I asked guy how long you been in business? Family run business, 50 years. One location in our town that’s got 150,000 people in it. And I said, “Oh, do your kids work here? Yeah, they work here. Oh, that’s nice. You have a succession plan? No, no, I don’t want them. I don’t want them in this business. I hope they do something else. They work here. Why they’re going to university? But I hope that they’ll do something else. I said, “Why?” I said, “Like his his place.” I went and when I picked up my carpet, there was 6070 carpets there to be cleaned. He does about four or five grand a day out of this place in carpet cleaning. Like it didn’t seem. And he said, “Well, you know, Home Depot and these other giants, you know, they also do carpet cleaning, and they have a bigger marketing spend. And he had a bit of a pessimistic attitude that he’s basically going to get snuffed out by these larger players. And I don’t agree with him. And why I bring the story up is I think the independent shop in town that’s been there for 40 years with AI and digital advertising that you can do locally. I think the advantage actually is on the smaller shop in that town that they can equalize their visibility because they can focus. Home Depot, as an example, or think of a massive chain and the tire business, has to market nationally and has to and where this one particular store, in this case, a carpet guy in my town, all he has to worry about is my town.

32:04

Yeah, to

32:04

be seen. So, and and the other advantage that he has is that he loves that company, and it’s his company. And a lot of these huge chains, although they have some fantastic managers and great employees, I think we’d all agree that an owner is just going to work that little bit extra harder harder than than an employee in most cases. There’s exceptions to that rule, obviously. So, so my my kind of not advice because I think that’d be presumptuous, but something I’ve noticed is I think that the independent tire shop really doesn’t need to be worried. They just need to maybe think differently. Maybe these kids that are coming up their succession plans, you know, send them to marketing to school, get their skills up in these areas of digital marketing and and and things like that, and I think that they could survive and thrive actually in a in a consolidated market.

33:11

I’m so glad you said that because I I I couldn’t agree more with you. I see a lot of let’s say it’s the first generation guy, and he may have a little bit of a negative attitude about where things could go, but given the right optimism for the second or third generation, some of these stores that have been around multi generation, man, that second or third generation, if they’re serious and they’re not just there to collect a paycheck, those guys, the ones I’ve met, and and some of them had on this podcast. Man, they bring such a new bucket of ideas that man, that the future looks extraordinarily bright for them. You know, and um, and I get excited about seeing them take that new energy, like, and they they get it. They, I think, I think we underestimate the next generation. I think a lot of them do see the opportunity of saying, “Yeah, you know.” To your point, the big brand they have to they they can’t fight that individual war as well as you can, or that individual battle is a better way of saying it. That individual battle and your local right there, it’s a whole nother ball game for you you as a local, and you’ve got distinct advantages that you don’t think you do because you’re looking at the big giant, but he really looking at you specifically.

34:29

And and that’s my my point isn’t that that the big brand model is not going to be super successful, and you’re going to keep seeing them buy up and get bigger and bigger. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is it’s not doomsday for the independent. It’s it’s you can there could be a a big conglomerate in your town, and you can still get noticeable market share in that same town. It’s not like you’re going to get snuffed out. If if you want to be snuffed out, you can be, and that’s also an option. As well, so there’s, but I just think that it’s it’s this has to be said.

35:05

You could parallel it, and this may be a bad example, but I’m going to use it. You could parallel it to the restaurant industry. How many restaurateurs could be, you know, doomsday with so many big chains, and you got chains at every level of quality. I mean, you know, you’ve got your Morton Steakhouses, and then you’ve got your all the way down to McDonald’s in a sense in the subway. But I know so many people, including myself, that when I travel, I don’t eat at chains,

35:35

right?

35:36

You know, I don’t. I look specifically for the local flavor and the local owner, etc. And I even do that primarily in my home community. I mean that, and it’s there’s a difference in quality, and I don’t mind paying for

35:50

There’s also a difference in interest from the people that work at those places too. The rest, the you know, many times you’ll find at a local restaurant that the chef will come out. That’s probably maybe an owner or part owner. How was your meal? You know, there’s just there’s a there’s different things that happen at these privately owned restaurants that don’t happen in your big chains. And by the way, there’s some amazing big chains as we know. You mentioned one area off the top that that do it right. That also do it right. Yes, but but it is different. It is different than the the the restaurant that’s been in the community for 45 years. That the the grandson now runs it, and had they have pictures on the wall of the Italian parents that founded the restaurant or grandparents, and there’s history, and there’s a vibe, and and yeah, so different strokes for different folks, by the way, too, right? So maybe somebody wants to go into McDonald’s because they know that their Big Mac is going to be the same and very Ontario as it is in you know somewhere in in the southern U.S. is going to be exact same, and and that’s valuable to somebody. And some people want something different. So I just don’t think it’s doomsday. I

37:09

agree

37:10

for either for either channel. I think. And what you’re saying,

37:14

what you’re saying is there’s market share for both, and it’s going to be there. And I that’s that’s I’m I’m I’m totally agreeing with you there, and I don’t think it’s not a zero sum here. That’s the thing,

37:24

correct?

37:25

And I think I think if you’ve been in the battle a while, like the rug company, for instance, he he probably didn’t be. He he just you know it’s a grind probably at times, and he looks up and he goes, “What do I got here?” You know, and these guys are pounding on me or whatever. But you you’re looking at it going, “Hey, dude, you got 60 orders here. You know, like yeah, it’s just

37:44

it’s just to me. It’s just reason why I brought the carpet guy because I think he he’s a good comparable to how how some independent tire dealers are probably feeling.

37:53

Yeah,

37:53

um, and I just my I’m not trying to be a you know a ray of sunshine here and everything’s perfect and oh Ron

38:00

Dolan! Look at him. He’s a he thinks everything’s perfect. Yeah, no.

38:04

Yeah, no. I’m saying that it’s just there’s an argument. There’s an argument for

38:09

I know. I know. And but I appreciate. I think it’s interesting to have this conversation with you as the as the leader of a major, you know, supply chain tire company, and and and for dealers to hear you like this. I think it’s uh, I think it’s very warm, and I appreciate you being just forthright like this. I think it’s been a healthy conversation. And Ron, I always enjoy talking to you. I probably talk. We could probably turn this into a two-hour podcast. But

38:34

well, anyways, I I hope that it was worthwhile listening for the people listening. And and we’re again, thank you to everybody that’s listening to this that does business with us. We we’re we’re here because of you, and for the people in the future that we’ll do business with, we are open to those to talk. Even we do have exclusive territories, protected territories, territories through our multi-brand strategy, we have. So, if you give us a call to do business with us, some cases we have already a commitment in your area. But please don’t assume that we have that. That’s happening. Let’s have conversations, and we can either direct you to somebody that we deal with, or we can deal with you directly ourselves. But please, we are open for business. If we say no, it’s because we’re protecting people and sticking to the thing that I talked about. Start doing the same thing year after year, right? And so, anyways, I just want to leave it with that, just to thank the. Do

39:38

you want to mention some of your brands?

39:40

Yeah. So obviously, Ceylon brand is our flagship brand. We have a brand called Black Hawk, and we have three or four other brands as well in the marketplace that we we give. and And our multi brand strategy is is to give people protection in their territory. So. In your little town in Canada, U.S. or Mexico, you can carry one of our brands and not be pigeonholed to somebody else carrying the same brand, and and and them dictating your margin. So, if you can upsell our product and make a ton of money doing it, we hope that happens, and we we do care a lot about our dealers’ profit. At the end of the day, we build a great quality product, but if you can’t make money selling our product, you’re not going to carry it. So our that’s why we have a multi-brand strategy, and we spend a lot of money. And I think I said this in the first podcast: we make sure that they’re not carbon copies of each other. So if if you were to go into a showroom and see a Ceylon, and you went to another showroom and saw Black Hawk as an example, they look completely different, and they’re not just a different name on a on the same you know tread design. So so we we take a lot of pride in that. Takes a lot of effort. I can tell you that our factory probably wants to choke me sometimes with the complexity that we that we make happen at our factory because it’s obviously easier, Mike, to make one brand, one one tread design,

41:16

and just relabel it. Yeah, we

41:18

think that’s where we add value to the marketplace, so that’s awesome. But yeah, I just again thanks everybody for for what they do for everybody that works at Salem. So we really appreciate it,

41:31

Ron. It’s always an honor. I appreciate you being here.

41:34

Thanks, Mike.

41:34

Hey, folks, Mike Edge here with the Gain Traction Podcast. Real quick, we get a lot of people ask us. They know Gain Traction, but who who’s Tread Partners? Well, Tread Partners is our parent company, and they’re a marketing agency dedicated strictly to tire and automotive repair shops, anywhere from five locations all the way up to hundreds of locations. In primarily one field that is always a pain for most people is paid search or PPC or Google Ads. We see enormous amount of waste in it, and we see inefficient spend in it. If you want to know if you’re doing well or not, give us a call. We’ll help you. We’ll audit your account. We’ll look under the hood and tell you if you’re doing things the right way or the wrong way, and help you optimize that spend. You can reach me, and I’ll direct you in the right direction at Mike at TreadPartners.com, or feel free to go to TreadPartners.com, the website. To all our listeners. Thank you for being part of Gain Traction. If you’d like to find more podcasts like this, visit gaintractionpodcast.com. If you’d like to make a guest recommendation, please email me at [email protected]. This episode has been powered by Tread Partners, the leader in paid search marketing such as Google Ads and LSAs, so multi location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. We will see you here next time on the Gain Traction Podcast.

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1 In this episode…

2 Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

3 Resources mentioned in this episode:

4 Quotable Moments:

5 Action Steps: