Beyond The First Pencil
Beyond The First Pencil is where dealership operations meet financial reality.
Hosted by Kathi Kruse, of Kruse Control and Automotive CFO-To-Go™, this podcast is for dealers, OEMs, GMs, and controllers who want more than surface-level advice. You’ll get straight talk on financial statements, internal controls, cash flow, and the operational gaps that quietly erode profit.
From gross to net, from process to profit, each episode delivers real-world insights on how dealerships actually make money… and where they lose it.
Because selling cars is one thing. Keeping the profit is another.
Beyond The First Pencil
Are Dealers Wasting Time on TikTok While Sales Suffer?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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Do short skirts equal leads?
Does hiring actors to pretend they’re employees send the right message to car buyers?
Does anyone else think this trend is not worthwhile? (ie: Does it pencil??)
Kathi and Mike discuss the poorly-conceived trend of dealers posting on TikTok and Instagram going for “viral” clicks (while likely not considering important business metrics that are always crucial to any marketing campaign).
Tim Bartz “The Ford Video Guy” does it right. We’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it. Tim simply provides quality information for car shoppers that translates to sales.
Dealer Marketing Magazine has reinvented itself and the first issue includes Kathi’s insights for beginners who want to use AI for marketing.
Music segment:
Olympics: French metal! Gojira (please excuse the nonsense commentary spoken over their performance)
Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True
Song: Red Shoes
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Got a question? Email either of us!
Kathi: kathi@krusecontrolinc.com
Mike: mikethecarguy@outlook.com