From the Showroom to SaaS: Reinventing the Exotic Car Market with Chris Barta

0:28Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. for cars priced over$100 ,000. Now, today, FarNation will talk about scaling tactical fleets, spotting the gap from brickyard and mortar to SaaS, building buzz, playing the long game, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Chris and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

1:10Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic, all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Chris, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, thanks for having me. Fire Nation, good to talk to you guys. Becoming successful here, I'll tell you this, doesn't matter what you did yesterday, it's what you're doing today.

1:49And also, nobody cares what you did yesterday. It's all about what's going on now. That's why I'm happy to be here. And we're talking about from showroom to SaaS, reinventing the exotic car market. And I want to talk about the sales floor to$500 million. What mindset shifts helped you rise to the top of the exotic car sales world, even though you had zero, and I mean zero, prior experience? You know, for me, it was all about the people. I just wanted to help. You know, a lot of dealers are, you know, what's it take to do it today? You know, selling what's on the lot. I was always good at following up.

2:26And if they were rich and successful, I would just call them forever. And I always wanted to help them find the right car. That was just my style. Call them forever. I mean, Fire Nation, why would you stop contacting a good prospect unless they tell you, never call me again or I will arrest you? At that point, maybe you slow down to once a month, but never stop. Why would you ever stop? You know, I would always, I would get their driver's license before a test drive. I'd look it up on Zillow. If it was a million dollar house, I would call them forever. And the cool thing about exotic cars is most people will take that call.

3:03It's always an entertaining call. Oh, I love it. I want to talk about scaling a tactical fleet. I mean, what were the key moves that allowed you to disrupt the industry and actually grow into the nation's largest pre-owned exotic dealership? You know, and the intention wasn't even really to disrupt. I just wanted to see if you could make a pre-owned car dealership cool. I've seen some cool brands like Andy Frisella with First Form. He made protein cool. I've seen some people take a dentist office and make it a cool place to get your teeth cleaned. And I was just wondering, I was like, can you do that with used cars?

3:40Can you build a brand and a place and an experience that's just a little bit different and a little more fun? So we kind of got rid of the suits. We got rid of the stuffy environment. We were just really laid back. We had good inventory. Our building was very cool. It was kind of like a WeWork type vibe. And, you know, we had a full bar in there and TVs. You could watch the game. And it just kind of turned out to be a big, really cool experience for people. And then once they kind of gathered into it, we started to grow. We started with, you know, a little 30 ,000 square foot sublease. And the next thing you know, we had 100 ,000 square foot behemoth in Dallas, a store in Beverly Hills, and a store in Charlotte, North Carolina.

4:16So we were kind of the first to go coast to coast with used cars. I think a lot of people miss ever spotting the gap. So I want to know, how did you recognize the problem in the high-end auto market that giants like AutoTrader, car gurus, they weren't solving it, they couldn't solve it, but you saw the gap, you stepped into it. How did you do it? You know, I don't think I would have seen it if I wasn't selling cars for 15 years. I started when I was 28, like you said, with no experience at all, kind of learned the game, worked for a big company, you know, as part of that culture and all the good and bad that came with it.

4:52And then as time went by, you know, I started really kind of looking at these websites and I was like, man, these websites came out, some of them when I was a kid, you know, autotrader.com, cars.com, Cargoo were kind of around the tech bubble. And you have to be on these platforms to sell the cars because you never know where the guy's coming from. So I started really kind of diving into them. And I was like, man, these are, great for a normal car like a Ford Focus or a Chevy Trailblazer, but you're looking for a Lambo and Ferrari. You kind of want a different experience. So it's kind of like a tactical fleet meets the internet.

5:26I just love real world situations. Give us one of your favorite stories of when you were maybe following up with somebody forever. They were giving you the time of day from time to time, but then finally they just said, all right, now's the time, Chris. You're my guy because you've been there for me. Give me one of those stories. What's one of your favorite, but get specific too. What was the car? What was the experience? Here is a good don't judge a book by its cover story. This guy pulls up and I'll try to keep it short. This guy pulls up one day and I'm standing out front because all the good leads come in the front door.

6:00He's driving a not so nice pickup truck. He's smoking a cigarette and he's wearing scrubs for some reason. And he walks right up to me and he's like, what's the most badass convertible you have. And his pickup truck's probably worth about 15 grand. And I was like, it's the Supersports Bentley convertible. He's like, do you have one? I was like, I just got one in. It's down the street. He's like, can we go look at it? And he just had so much confidence that I was like, I'm going for this one. Drive him down the street. I find the car and he's like, it's not for me. It's for my girlfriend's dad.

6:32And usually if it's not the decision maker, it's going to be a problem. So I was like, okay, well, let me get your number. And he's like, get it cleaned up and then call me. So I got it cleaned up, you know, a week later, I call him, hey, I got that super sports. So just trying to get my girlfriend's dad by there. And then, you know, another week goes by, hey, just checking in. And then one day he shows up again. He's like, you still got that super sports. I was like, I do. It's sitting on the showroom floor. He's like, my girlfriend's dad wants you to pull it in front of his house. And he's going to pick a car.

7:00He's either going to pick this or a DBS convertible. And I'm like, okay, thinking in my head, give me the address and I'll tell you if I'm going over there. So anyway, he's like, yeah, can you be at this place at this time? I was like, sure. And I go to Zillow. I type in the address. It's a$26 million house. So I'm like, all right, I'm going. He's either going to rob me in broad daylight or this is real. So I do a drive by, you know, I'm like, okay, this is a real house. It's got a baseball field in the back and a, you know, a pond in the front and we're going for it. And I pull in and there's the Aston Martin sales guy and there's the kid with his scrubs on and cigarettes.

7:40And this is months later from the time I met him. And then lo and behold, the guy ends up, he's an oil and gas billionaire. You know, you've never heard of him. You've heard of him now, but back then he was nowhere to be found. And I let him take the Bentley. You know, I took his Maserati, drove it back to the dealership to get a trade value so the other sales guy couldn't get his hands on it. and I came back and he wrote me a check for a couple hundred grand in front of his house. It was the craziest thing ever. And that was just follow up. Don't judge a book by its cover and you never know. Oh man, Fire Nation, I love stories like this and we have more cool things to talk about coming up when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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10:40These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All right, Chris, we're back, And I want to talk about from brick and mortar to SaaS. A lot of people can't make that transition. I mean, what challenges did you face? What breakthroughs drove you from dealership success to tech innovation? You know, I'm going through them now. So I've been thinking about this project for six years. I've been really into it for two years. And I'm not a developer. You know, I'm not the software guy. I'm the car sales guy.

11:13So I've seen people take swings at it who don't know anything about car sales, who are good developers. and that doesn't usually go well. But the problem I'm facing is I have all these ideas in my head and I'm trying to have someone else develop it for me. So I'm kind of like, I'm not the painter, but I'm trying to direct the painter. Hey, can you do a red line over there? No, not over there. And the other thing I'm really learning is in the car business, you get a lot in some inventory and then you're off to the races. We were selling cars. We didn't even have paperwork. So if you wanted to buy a car, I was typing it up on an editable PDF.

11:48In the SaaS world, you're like, hey, can you put a button over there? He's like, yeah, it's going to take me six weeks. Hey, can we do this? Yeah, we can do that. It's going to take six months. I'm like, oh man, this is a different play. By the way, that guy's going out of business because AI is going to be able to do that in six seconds, in 60 seconds. So good luck, buddy. You're off to the races. But I wanted to talk about building buzz, Chris. How are you specifically using content? How are you using merch, live streams, influencer partnerships to launch Design Auto with maximum impact? You know, when we did Tactical Fleet, this was 2017, and the internet, Instagram was kind of a thing.

12:29But you weren't selling stuff on there. It was more pictures and, you know, motivational stuff. So I took Instagram back then. I just was like, I'm just going to blast cars on here all day long. One, so people can see what we got for inventory. Two, so the guy who invested in my company knows I'm actually at work. And then just kind of got steam. And I was like, okay, let's take everything you did back then and we're going to do it again on this project. So I've been really going after the car influencers. I love the merch. You know, you send someone a free hat and it doesn't matter who, if it's a billionaire or the guy next door, he's going to wear the hat.

13:03And he's going to tag you and stuff. And it's like, it's crazy just kind of the response you get from something free. So I'm really going for social media. You know, if I can get one video to get a million views, there you go. as opposed to a billboard on the tollway that a handful of people even resonate with. So I'm just kind of retracing the steps we took back then, but going more hardcore on the internet. Give me one of your favorite examples of some success you've had in this area of building Buzz. If you don't want to use specific names or scenarios, that's fine. But just give us at least a general overview if you can't, just so we can kind of understand what successes you've had and how you've done it.

13:40you know when we were first getting started this young guy hit us up and was like i really cars are my passion like they all say i'm really good at car videos and this was back in the day when you kind of just walked around a car with your iphone and that's that was the video this guy made these cinematic like james bond type looking crazy videos where he was like is this is a movie or is this a car dealership? So I called him up and I was like, Hey, I got this new project. It's called design auto. You know, it's cars a hundred grand and up. And he's like, I don't really do that. And he's actually doing his own software.

14:17He's like, I sell this software now. He's like, but for you, I'll do it. I was like, all right, you know, let me know when you're ready. And I just kind of let him stew on it. And he came up with this. If you go click on my Instagram page or design autos, Instagram page, you can see the video. It's the first one that's pinned. It's the coolest, most futuristic type video where there's cars swirling by and there's all this AI-looking chat and it's me talking for a minute and a half like a commercial. So that's probably the thing I'm most proud of. And then when I turned it on on June 4th, back to all the people you meet over the years in your Rolodex doing this, I sent it to everyone.

14:54Jamie Foxx, Scott Disick, all these rich and famous guys in Dallas, Dez Bryant. And I was like, can you just please repost this? and like 95 % of them did. And it just got up to a hundred. Yeah, they were just like, yeah, sure. Cause you know, it takes the tap of a button and you know, you can change somebody's life. So, you know, Richard Rawlings, the gas monkey guy. He reposted it. It was really cool, man. It was kind of a cool experience. Gary Owen, the comedian who I've met a couple of times, reposted it and like, that's not even his style. There's a car at speed. So it was cool, man. Yeah.

15:28So that's probably my most proudest moment. Chris, let's talk about playing the long game. What can entrepreneurs learn from your approach? Your approach that involved patience, pivoting, and then of course, thriving under pressure in both sales and business. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, when I did Tactical Fleet, I had a business partner, Jason. This is kind of my own project. And it was good to have him with Tactical Fleet because people would come in and, you know, when you start a business, everyone's an expert. You know what should do? Have you guys thought about? And I was like, yeah, maybe we should do that.

16:02Yeah, let's try that. What if we do that? And I was like going down all these paths. Is it a car rental business? Is it a subscription model? You know, because that was the stuff people were asking for, which none of that worked. And Jason was just like, we just sell cars. We just buy cars and we sell cars. And we stuck with that. And we really never went outside the sandbox. And it worked out really well. What I like about the software game is, okay, it's a listing platform for cars,$100 ,000 and up. Boom. Okay, what else is it? Well, what if it's a sell your car feature where, you know, the guy's not interested in buying anything, he just wants to sell his car, and I can shoot it out to all those dealers.

16:38Okay, now there's value for the dealer, and it gets the guy on my website. And I'm also thinking, okay, no one's really tackled the AI inbox on the auto world yet. You can do it on almost any other product except for cars. So what if you could log in at 1130 at night. Hey, does this car have two keys? And someone's writing back, yes. Do you have the window sticker? Here you go. Can you sell it for 200? No, but I'd sell it for 205. Here's a link to the credit app. I like that you can pivot a lot faster in software versus brick and mortar. You know, you got your five-year lease, you got your build out, you got your inventory, you got your employees.

17:15That one you need to come up with the plan and then go execute. software, it's kind of like, let's just go and see what path we lead down. But as an entrepreneur, man, you got to have kind of aggressive patience. Don't be too quick to jump. You know, I stayed there for almost seven years before I left. And there was just kind of time, you know, with my family and my life where it's like, all right, I got a couple more runs in me and it's probably time to go. But I also miss it at the same time. And you kind of look back and you're like, man, should I not have pivoted? Should I just stay the course?

17:47And, you know, Those are the things that are always going to cross your mind. Totally. And you know, listen, the reality is luck is where effort meets opportunity. And you were putting in the effort, the opportunities came and you jumped all in. So Chris, we talked about a lot of cool things today. I just want you to give Fire Nation the one key takeaway you want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today. What's that one thing? Man, figure out what it is and just do it really well. My background was marketing. You know, I got an MBA in brand management. And, you know, the next thing I know, I'm selling cars because I needed a job.

18:23And my dad, who's a doctor, is looking at me. He's like, have you ever thought about going in the military? Because he was like, I don't think I raised a car salesman. And I took a job selling cars. And I got really good at it. You know, I didn't follow Bentley and Rolls Royce to kind of train you in the way they want you to talk to people. I didn't really do any of that. I just kind of went with what was in my heart and kind of what was in my gut. and then I got good at it and I just, you know, if somebody needed something, I just did it. And my first instinct is always yes and, you know, we'll figure it out later.

18:53And then when we started Tactical Fleet and people were asking for a lot of favors out of the gates because we were the new kids on the block, I said yes to everything. As long as it didn't cost me too much money and I could afford it, sure, you want that? No problem. We'll do that. We'll do that. And then you just kind of got to go for it. And then you can't listen to kind of what people are going to say because, you know, they're going to come at you with all these like, have you thought about and you sure, you know, it seems like you kind of spent a lot on this website and what happened, you know, and you just got to be like, all right, this is what I'm doing.

19:22And then get it, get it done to the best of your ability. And then, and then figure out how it scales, you know, if it's one dealership and that's what you want to do. And your son, like when we started tactical fleet, I thought that was going to be, if I could make more money working there than I did at my previous sales job, I was like, that's a win. I didn't think, I didn't think somebody would buy this. You know what I mean? I thought my son would work there one day people buy stuff like that and then uh you know then you you kind of hit a point in your life when it comes to success it's like okay cool i got some money what else can i do okay cool let's get in shape okay how's my wife and kids and like how do you manage all of that because not a lot not a lot of guys can do that a lot of people can go finance a lambo for 180 months but there's a lot of guys that have a good family life you know they're physically fit they're making money they're not, you know, cheating and lying and stealing.

20:13So that's kind of my, that's kind of like what I like to see coming to the world. Wow. Well, that's one heck of a way to end an episode. I mean, thank you for breaking that down for us, Chris. Super inspiring. And if Fire Nation's resonating with this and wants to connect with you, what is your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah. If you want to hit me up directly, cpbarda at TikTok or Instagram. If you want to follow Design Auto, I'd love to have you. It's underscore design underscore auto on Instagram. That's the handle I could get or design auto on TikTok. And man, if you send in a lead or if you send in, you know, a question, I'm going to write back, you know, until it gets too big and I can't, but for now that you're talking to me.

20:51Yeah. I mean, fire nation, he's got some cool stuff going on. Definitely go check it out. Cause you know that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CB and JLD today. So keep up that heat and for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Chris and the search bar. And the show notes page will pop up with, again, links to everything he has, social media handles, et cetera. Chris, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side.

21:23Thanks, JLD. I appreciate it. That was fun. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to Chris for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on fire. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest. And I'll catch you there. We're on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software.

21:58Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic, all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more.