welcome to the show we hope you have a
blast what up
welcome to another episode of the dealer
talk podcast this is your host Herb
Anderson thank you so much for tuning in
today we're gonna have an amazing
conversation conversation that's very
relevant to the current situation we're
gonna be talking about how to leverage
your your database which is critically
important in these times you know
connecting with those customers that
have a relationship with you those
customers that have already said yes to
you and then most importantly we're
gonna talk about some of the things that
you need to be doing right now to make
sure that you're staying ahead of the
curve look I know that these are crazy
times I know that you know there's a lot
of uncertainty but this will pass and we
got to make sure that we're ready so
that when you know if your dealership is
shut down if you're not able to sell or
if you're you know just doing things by
appointment when things come back we're
gonna have that pent up demand and we
want to make sure that we that we don't
lose focus or that we stay the course so
I'm very very excited to to have this
conversation and to talk to our guest
for today so without further ado let's
get into it today on the podcast mister
guy super what's up sort of how are you
man I'm good I'm good I'm
down have been so I'm going a little
crazy here I'll pop that's - I do I do
have a six year old and she may appear
at any given time briefly so yeah I'm
sure all you guys are in the same boat
as well between the homeschooling and
you know not being able to go out to
restaurants and stuff and all those
things that happen and obviously the
effects on all both of our businesses
you know we're all together in
automotive and it's it it's tough but
there's a lot of things that we can be
doing right now even with limited staff
to make sure that we're still providing
a great experience to people who are
still in market and still learning
something but also retaining your owner
base and making sure we're getting
people into the service drive to keep
the bills to paid
right on man I love it so typically I
kick things off with with the back
running I want to do that you know just
so people get to know a little bit more
about what you're doing now and what
you've done in the past but it's just
it's just you know the last couple of
sessions I've been really started you
know been starting the these episodes
with more of what are you seeing out
there man what what you know from your
perspective how are things just high
level like what's what's your take on
everything so I'm gonna get into a
little bit of data I've got some visuals
I want to share in a minute but let me
give you just a real high level
perspective it's very obviously it's
very proportional and everybody even in
some of these hot spots are in different
you know at a different stage and in
hopefully a recovery but at the same
time there's so many unknowns that you
know you really got to have a plan that
this could last for 18 to 24 months
because the reality of it is things
aren't gonna change all that much even
coming out of recovery so you got to get
really good at your virtual showroom
you've got to get really good at
automation cuz you might have furloughed
staff you might not you might have had
to you know unfortunately you know let
some people go but you still gotta run
the business so you know your website
and your you know your your whole
virtual showroom with your hopefully
your your you know your roadster or your
modal or Darwin
whatever you're using there to be able
to people get to transact online stuff's
really critical
I see dealers I've had a couple of
conversations that said things to me
like hey by you know kind of by
happenstance you know we were looking
five years down the road and we really
got good at getting together a really
good virtual showroom strategy and you
know obviously not seeing this coming at
all so admitting to be like it it was
you know somewhat Blind Luck thinking
that far ahead but when I when I look at
that I think all of us really need to
say hey in the last two three weeks the
car business has changed by five plus
years and it's important to think that a
lot of the stuff that people had been
talking about and we were pushing back
on say it's gonna take a lot longer
before we get there we don't need to
worry about that right now
you need to worry about that right now
you need to be looking what what the
things you thought were gonna happen
five to ten years from now are here so
yeah dude I love that and I was I had a
session yesterday and one of the things
that the guests on that session talked
about which really got me thinking was
like you know I know that everybody's
concerned about the right now message
but it shouldn't be just now it should
be the message that you're gonna port
now but that's gonna extend beyond that
because everything's gonna be different
right and so I'm very excited for you
guys to be on you to have this
conversation so tell us a little bit
about you man like what what have you
done in the past what are you currently
doing you know there was a little bit of
a recap yeah I mean I'm a lifetime car
guy my first job was at a little used
car dealership and I was in high school
my buddy's dad owned it went on went to
college and then ended up got out and
went back in the car business and I was
on the retail side for a number of years
in a couple different places big Chevy
stores my last one you know it was a GSM
couple different roles F&I guy for a
long time so got a good feel for the the
industry that's really all I've ever
done went over to the vendor side with a
CRM company in oh five so it called Auto
base and experienced something similar
to this with the the last kind of you
know financial milk we had so I lived
through that
as a vendor and you know it was it was
tough but you can make it you know and
you'll come out with some battle scars
but if you plan ahead and you really
execute and you know you'll make it and
you'll come out of it like a rocket
because a lot of people are gonna fail
and you don't want to be in that bucket
obviously so but been at a long time
with Dominion dealer solutions in a you
know selling equity products and things
like that but now it's all for last five
years and you know I we got a really
really cool marketing automation
platform that you know it takes all the
all the execution off the dealer you
know no more pulling levers pushing
buttons sending people to a school so
they can figure out how to use your new
you widget that you just signed up for
it's kind of turnkey and I really think
especially in times like now and there's
other vendors in us so a lot of
different options for you out there but
but the combination of that with with
your you know digital retailing platform
and a really tight website that's how
you can make things happen again with a
limited staff and and in uncertain times
you know to a certain extent button
right on
cool man hey I'm super excited to have
you on dude so let's let's kick things
off with with you know the conversation
about your data base right I think that
and I'm having that conversation with
the stores that I consult with a lot you
know right now more than ever
leveraging that your data base is
critical you know talking to those
customers that have a relationship with
you that purchase from you now continue
to say yes to you by servicing at your
stores on a regular basis and so what
are your thoughts on that right now more
than ever like I mean do you see that as
as maybe the the wafer for dealers too I
don't want to say you know leverage the
situation but it's you know now I feel
like now we have a reason to contact
these customers more than ever like we
actually have a reason to call them we
have a reason to get in touch with them
and I see a lot of dealers very hesitant
and scared to do that which is crazy to
me because we hit these customers up all
the time and we never have a reason to
contact them we're just tired trying to
tell them about the special in the deal
on the signal and now that we have a
reason
paalam were very very hesitant to do
that I mean are you seeing that like to
learn more about that I I see a lot of
that but you know and some of that is
fed from all the years that you know
dealers in general have just abused
their database you know they're
attacking it with these massive messages
to send it to everybody in the whole
database well right if they don't I
don't care you know that's just that
this if that's been a bad approach for
for 10 years but people even in today
today's date they're still continuing to
do that so I think that's where some of
that hesitation comes from but you still
need to communicate regularly with
people but it's got to be in an
individualized communication that makes
sense to where they're at in their life
cycle and it's got to have some content
in there that makes sense as well so if
they're if they're shopping for a Camry
why are you sending me a new lease
special on a Corolla I've never owned
one I've never even looked at one in
your website and I've never shopped on
one on a third-party site so why you
sending that to me now had we noticed
some shopping behavior or something and
would we it you know inject that type of
stuff into the communication sure but so
consistent communications are still
really important
it's got to be timely and you've got a
right now you got to moderate the
message a little bit you know so be do
be mindful of that we got to have a
little bit of empathy you know it all
says vendors when we're talking to our
customers and also the dealers when
they're when they're talking to their
customers so you know we need to soften
that content up a little bit but and do
things like highlighting some of the
community responsibilities that we all
have talking about that and and you know
pulling people together and I think
that's important right on man yeah so so
just to give you a little bit of
background being I work for a company
called geus marketing and they have a
owner communications program and I came
from so I came from Cox automotive I was
on an auto trader in the Kelley Blue
Book's Ida thing selling you know
third-party listings and then I went
there and dude that was a shift for that
was a complete shift for me just in how
how powerful your the database is
because when you think about it you said
you can send your database an email and
those customers that have a relationship
with you they'll consume that and that's
so cheap for that for the dealership you
know it so cost-effective and you can
actually measure that you can see how
impactful that is as far as driving
either service business or if you have
you know like the people that their
leases are about to expire or customers
and maybe have owned that car for five
years and haven't purchased in a while
and so you know you said something right
now about you you know it's not that you
want to masks communicate that's not the
thing right you have to do it right time
right message you know and segments that
audience within your own database so
right now with the current situation how
do you think that plays as far as or
what or better yet what what is the
strategy how would you how would you you
know would you still segment that out
like what would what would be your
suggestions for dealerships to leverage
their DMS right now it's it so let let
me wind it back just a little bit let's
talk about the different kind of data
that's out there right so you've got you
know you've got third-party data which
is you know things that you would you
know buy a conquest list or something
from axiom or or elevator some company
like that all based on collected data
from consumers who you know it's
questionable whether they have actually
opted in you've got some second and
first party data which is things that
the dealer has collected for part data
that's in in the CRM and then you've got
zero party data which is people who have
actually given you their information so
with all the things happening with third
party data with CCPA with you know we
all have heard about you know iPhones
blocking a lot of these things and just
it's going away so my recommendation is
you jump ship off that earlier rather
than later and just understand that that
that that stuff's not gonna be valuable
and and we we watch you know like
engagement rates and deliverability and
things like that and like for especially
with like third-party data it's like
toxic waste in your database
you will get blocked especially if
you're trying to send emails out of your
CRM system they're never getting
anywhere if you think they're getting
into a gmail account it's not happening
right understanding that right now it's
time to focus on the first party and
zero party data which is what you have
in your DMS system all your owners and
your service customers and and your CRM
you can't forget about that too because
as a replacement for that third party
data that you really shouldn't
necessarily rely on for four additional
prospecting what are you doing with your
unsold leads
that's your new conquest list oh I like
that yes I like that a lot so so what
would you say like go back a certain
amount of time like I don't know six
months back or something like that like
how would you like what would be the
strategy there so we we look we have a
code but we use a lot of data models and
things like that to figure out when we
should go back after those people just
based on what kind of content they
clicked on inside of our ecosystem and
the website and compare that to a you
know a million other people that did
similar things and that will give us
some timing and and content
recommendations for those consumers but
as a general rule you know when I was in
retail if somebody sent in a lead or a
form or something like that or even
walked in the door and then you never
heard from again didn't answer your
phone calls didn't answer your emails
most people give up on those in a week
maybe two weeks so but a lot of those
people have didn't buy and they just got
busy and then they don't hear from you
again but they hear from somebody else
and that's the person they end up going
and buying from so if you're not getting
back with them in you know 30 30 to 60
days and and hit them one more time or
90 to 120 days again it you're missing
out on a lot of cool conquest business
now my recommendation though is to get
software that will take that up up a
step higher and say hey we had this
person that came in didn't buy anything
and now all of a sudden they clicked on
some of your communications and they
clicked on like a couple CTAs like value
my trade or something like that yeah
right that kind of stuff that shit that
tells you they're preparing
CEDA purchase has just gone through the
roof and you gotta get raped back in
front of them but you can't do that
stuff manually unless you want to hire
you know a hundred people and and you
know CSV files and stuff from it just
doesn't work so yeah I know I like that
a lot and let me you know just kind of
you know elaborate this thought here but
so we talked a lot about or we did what
I you know maybe just because of my my
my vendor been a chrome but there
there's a lot of conversations about the
purchasing journey right but when it
comes to the ownership journey which
really should be something that we're
focusing on more because that customer
once they own that car that's not the
end of the transaction that's the
beginning right that customer you know
is going to have that vehicle for for a
lengthy period of time and during that
time they're gonna go through these
different stages and during that is an
opportunity for the dealer to really
retain that customer right and keep that
customer more for life so as we you know
obviously in the current situation that
we are right now do you think that
that's still it's is it relevant more
now than ever should we be really paying
attention to how worse
you know those customers that were
already purchase from us and segmenting
that out or do you think that a more
just general approach just because the
message is pretty much applicable for
all like what would you know when it
comes to your your data how would you
how would you present that message you
know it's more important now than ever
and I have something to show you here a
quick visual just to scroll through a
few of the things that we found on a
study that we did if you if you wouldn't
mind a yeah
Experian and rx a into this because we
wanted it to not be hey outsells telling
you what what's reality is no we have
third-party verification from two
massive data companies that were in this
with us so you know what we did is we
looked at a whole bunch of dealers a
tons of consumer you know tons 5.6
million of them 18 million vehicle
transactions and we did the study for
over three and
years so this is this is a massive study
and here's some of the here's some of
the metrics and they're actually quite
shocking so people who do it just what
you said and have a strong life cycle
strategy that they're communicating with
those customers you know at with
individualized communications over that
entire journey and that journey may
bounce around you know you'd not
everyone go directly from a I just
bought to I'm in mid ownership and I
never come back until I buy a new car if
they buy a car for theirs there's their
kid who's going to college you know all
those things they still happen in there
so everyone's unique and everyone's
different so retention is huge
loyalty rate increased by forty nine
percent service visits across all life
stages because we're not leaving those
consumers in this big black hole thirty
one percent increase so this is just
some of the stuff that we saw and this
one I really love the incremental value
because when you when you're able to
retain that many more people you make
more money on people that come back the
second car they pay you more they give
you better CSI SSI scores or just a
better consumer and that's where there's
incremental growth even with sales
coming down and especially with kovat
hitting us so let's talk about that for
a second because the other thing that
you know it comes to mind right now and
maybe not so much applicable in the
current situation but since you're here
and you guys are experts at this I
wanted to just kind of get your
perspective just in general but we spend
a lot of time in the industry chasing
that new buyer right that new customer I
think an ad ace that show it's either
five or six hundred dollars per
acquisition for a new customer that's a
lot of money man you need to get a new
customer in the door but do you think
that we have that backwards man do you
think that we should be more focused on
our on our data on our database on those
unload on that repeat business on
building that loyalty because not only
what you sat in what the stats show that
that customer
gonna buy again and they're gonna buy
for their family and all those things
but what about referral business and you
know telling their friend and all that
stuff I mean in again it's so cheap and
what's the you know there's no more
effect no there's not a better or more
effective marketing strategy than
word-of-mouth right I mean there's just
there's not so what do you think about
them and do you think that we need to
kind of look at that differently just as
a whole in the industry it in in times
like right now you know well obviously
we need to make decisions about expenses
and people are concerned about cash well
I guarantee you know we've as a industry
spent and in my mind wasted a lot of
money doing you know bidding up
ourselves in our own group on Adwords
and buying third-party Conquest lists
that really have a lot of junk data and
I'm sending money on things when times
are great that's what happens though you
know when when everything's funny when
you're making money the opposite is true
right so you end up getting a big swell
in them in the marketing budget because
you're profitable you sell more cars and
things are getting great and and getting
better but what you need to look at now
is ways to be creative create
efficiencies in your spend and in your
execution still keep all your channels
up and running so there's still a spot
for direct mail there's there's
definitely a spot for social or email
because it's free you know and you but
you need some way to say hey here's all
these consumers that I have engaged on
email which is I'm not I'm not gonna
waste my money on direct mail and send
to those people why would i but you
that's really hard to figure out
manually the second one is with social
you know I don't Facebook spends pretty
inexpensive but it's kind of hard to
execute you need a team of people to
typically to do it well so to find
something that'll help you automate that
as well
and all those things are really
important because if with engaged
consumers I've got another visual to I
can show you really quick yeah that that
I'd like to share hang on this is we're
getting a little into the wee
into our back-end of our platform here
but what this is showing you is so
nationally across the country these are
the engagement rates that we're seeing
with our communications and you can see
there you know we had that significant
drop you know as we got into March and
they started to get really really ugly
so these are people with a propellor
relatively high propensity to purchase
score which means they were probably
going to buy earlier on in the in the
year and then as things got bad we saw a
dip now the good news is we're now
seeing an uptick on this and it varies
by by region if I pulled this up and
changed it for instance to the Northeast
which you know we all know has been has
been a challenge you know there's a much
more significant impact when we go down
here but another great sign we're seeing
recovering right now you know even in
New York which is a hot spot and that's
why I'm saying don't let this people get
you got to stay calm and you got a plan
that you're gonna come out of this and
hopefully hopefully we're out of it
really soon but if you clip too much
stuff and you and you you know fire a
bunch of vendors and put yourself in a
really bad spot your competitors are
gonna eat you for breakfast when we get
out I mean I think that that's when it's
probably one of the hardest things to do
because what happens is you know I you
know even myself you know as a marketer
we get into this panic mode state and
then it's very hard to make decisions
right and typically when you're in that
place you you just lack perspective
there's just no other way to say it
so I think that that's that's that's
right on and we have to you know what
you're gonna have some some vendors that
you probably should clip I find out
which which you're gonna know really
quickly who the vendors are that are a
true partner with you and are gonna
going to do things like provide you with
more products and services right now
even if it's through the end of the year
or something just to help you get
through this and maybe help you save
some of your expenses you smarter about
your spend and your mail things like
that you know people that you want to
stick with because they're gonna they're
gonna continue to do things and
you know add more functionality that can
help you and you know help us all get
through this right on you know now and
you said something right now that I
wanted to to kind of elaborate and
hopefully you could tell me or tell us a
little bit more about outsell and kind
of what their philosophies and
strategies are for this but you know the
whole concept of omni-channel and you
kind of described it or the way that I
that I what I consider omni-channel to
be when you when you included social and
mail into the mix right and so a lot of
times when you have is let's let's just
talk about Direct Mail for a second a
lot a lot of times when you talk to
dealers about Direct Mail it's just a
media like on it doesn't work and it's
like yeah but come on let's let's just
slow that down for a second why does it
work how are you doing it if you're
doing it like you did it back in you
know 1995 where you're buying 20,000
lists and just spray and pray then yeah
you're right it absolutely does not work
but we forget that there's a digital
component to Direct Mail and that's the
data you can still you know get the data
and used the the the the digitization if
you will to come up with the data that's
that's gonna be better it's going to be
less people it's going to be targeted
and effective and I guarantee you you're
gonna see different results right and
then you combine that with social and
now you're hitting customers let's say
that you have your automated system
that's doing the the segmented
communications and now that customer
sees you on their social media channel
with the same message with the same look
right you know with we're just it kind
of goes from one platform to the next or
from one channel to the next and it
looks the same and then they you know if
you're doing text messaging then they
get that and then your BDC is calling
that customer with the same message you
know what I mean and then they get a
direct mail piece towards the end of
that you know what I mean just to have
that physical piece at their house and
then and Dannic becomes really really
effective I mean you guys see that -
like what what is your philosophy or
strategies when it comes to that so you
you hit the nail around the head I mean
that that is the way we look at it you
know the the biggest thing is we want to
have brand
brand consistent and dealer consistent
communications across all those channels
when it's when it's needed but not too
much less water okay number one now when
you start thinking about social and
Direct Mail you know our approach is
number one we talked about this a little
bit at nata but we don't know we don't
own printers so we don't mark up our
direct mail because our goal is to help
the dealer not spend more on direct mail
to spend less so we didn't want a
conflict of interest so we don't mark it
up it's it's 38 cents a piece or 58
cents a piece for a bigger one and the
reason why we do that is because for us
Direct Mail is a very small component we
kind of call it like smart mail because
if we can get somebody engaged on email
and or social I might not even sound
emitted directly one unless it's like
you said to push them over the edge at
the very end yeah so we try and make
really smart decisions about expensive
you know expensive marketing whenever we
can and we're able to do that because of
the volume of data that we have in all
these consumers you know so we can make
much more targeted much more smart in
smarter conditions whether it's which
channel are they most likely to to
respond to us on which which channel do
they did not pay attention to what type
of content do they like you know what do
they click it what we can get down to
ven's I mean if they're looking at two
or three different bins on the site and
they're doin shopping and they're due
for an oil change we will inject will
insert vehicle recommendations with the
VINs we saw shopping behavior into their
service or matter so stuff like that
that's what gets people to feel like
well this these guys really know who I
up this is really great that's who I'm
gonna buy a car from yeah absolutely and
then you know what is the alternative a
lot of a lot of the decision makers that
I talk to it's like all it's all digital
well aren't you doing in essence what we
did in the past where you know like when
you were just doing direct mail or you
were just doing the newspaper like
customers today are in multiple channels
right and you have to be there to you
know I mean and I think that we missed
that we missed that piece right so yeah
man
right so kind of moving things along I
wanted to kind of take the the second
half of the show here to talk about some
of the things that dealers definitely
need to be doing and again I mentioned
this earlier on in the episode but you
know I really had kind of an aha moment
yesterday when when when I heard that
comment of hey we can't just be focused
on the message now because this can be
over in a month you know I mean so you
have to think about the the change now
but how that's going to change the
consumer and more importantly how your
message is going to be able to make
sense now but you're also going to be
able to extend that and you talked about
three points in particular that are must
right now so I kind of wanted to maybe
take the the second half of this deal to
to kind of expand and elaborate on those
sure so you know I mean look that even
when we do come out of this I personally
I feel like the industry has changed
permanently you know when I told you hey
we jumped five years in two weeks or ten
years in two weeks and a lot of those
things are not coming back you know
you're in the past you know that your
building was the most important asset
that you had you had a fancy service
drive and served you know Starbucks
coffee and all these things and you know
yeah that's still great but you know it
you're gonna have people behind
Plexiglas you know in the in the service
drive and a lot of human interaction and
people want to get in and get out of
there you know as fast as they can into
a car that's been sanitized stuff like
that I mean that's gonna be with us for
a while so when I really think about
that and then I think about the
proportional changes depending where
you're located and as your market gets
maybe locked down and and you experience
that what are what are the really
critical things so you can operate your
business obviously outside of your
accounting software and all those all
those things but that allow you to
continue to keep customers engaged drive
traffic back to your website you know
get people to do some of this retailing
online maybe not all of it but a good
portion of it and continue to keep your
baseball and those three things are
mainly encapsulated with a really good
software provider there's
I'm out there that can automate your
marketing and engage the consumers a
website that's really clean and simple
and doesn't have guerrillas on it and
stuff like that I mean a lot of white
space and just simple communications
easy to click CTAs that type of stuff
and an integrated digital retailing
platform now that the I say integrated
because mul I'm back to speak for all of
them but most of the digital retailing
platforms out there are either a subset
of the dealer's website or you know some
in their own ecosystem but connected to
the site with links and things like that
but what they lack is the rails to get
the right people on to those sites and
on to the right locations in those sites
and that completes the circle back to
the software that you use as a dealer
that understands each one of them
individually and when they're in the
right spot that they're they're ready to
buy a car they're ready to schedule
service we get them to the right place
really quickly and really effectively
without any human interaction so that's
to me that's why those three are like
for right now if you're gonna do
something get that done and figure it
out and if you need help there's
consultants out there that can help you
with that yeah I know I love that man
and let's I want to peel the layers here
a little bit and let's start with the
automated system when you talk about
automated marketing right what are you
referring to and what and you know like
a platform that does it you know are you
talking about AI are you talking about
like you know let's let's expand on that
a little bit yeah I mean there when you
think about marketing automation
everyone I try not to throw AiAi around
a ton because it's become this kind of
buzzword where all of a sudden
everybody's got it when you know you
really don't I mean II I is such a broad
spectrum I mean you know some people you
say hey I and they think oh my Alexa box
in my house that's AI or they think oh
uh you know a predictive model that I
happen to have that's AI so it you know
it's it's such a great space but the
reality is AI allows you in in a general
sense to make much better decisions
as a marketer so having really high
quality data and a large volume above it
like you saw with our study you know
with 318 million transactions if you got
that much data you really can make
predictions that are in some cases
wildly accurate about what that consumer
needs and what what what their life's
you know what that buying process is
gonna look like and and or where they're
at in their lifecycle currently sure
based on all that data that you have you
you can layer things in so you layer in
DMS data we you know you know what you
know a lot of the things about the last
transaction and the last car that they
purchased you know things like the last
two cars they bought they sent in their
internet lead in and it took them 60
days before they actually transacted so
you have to you've got to have all that
stuff if you're gonna have an automated
platform that makes smart decisions
versus sending in the wrong things to
people because automation that's
incorrect in that great either so right
yeah you bring up a great point because
that's that's one of the things when
when you hear AI or even out of you know
something that's automated is like well
those those there tends to be room for
error right and I think now more than
ever if you're not paying attention to
to the experience you need to because
your customers are gonna have very low
tolerance right in the current in the
current landscape of today and so yeah
you're gonna be really careful with that
but at the same time like you said you
can't we're just at a place in the
industry and just in general and that
just is not just automotive but you
can't have that's not something that's
manually done effectively right there's
just too much there's there's got to be
a way there's too many channels there's
just too much too much data there's too
much information there's gotta be a way
to do that effectively and just kind of
put it on a I don't wanna see a timer
but you know what I mean just like right
ahead with the timer comment because you
can't do any of that stuff that I just
talked about without software you can't
now you can you
calendar-based marketing but that is the
people's tolerance for you sending
things that are based on days since this
happened has decreased dramatically they
don't like that stuff they'll see why
they sent it to me and your unsubscribe
so now you got to change these people
with expensive direct mail or maybe on
social but you just lost your free
channel of communication with them so
you you know that you you can't do it
manually
you just can't you've got a partner a
vendor you got to have data scientists
that are in the background looking at
this stuff and and that's how you make
it happen and that's how you
differentiate yourself from all the
people who are still doing the manual
stuff so yeah no I agree
what about digital retailing man what
are you guys seeing out there like
here's my thought with that whole deal
like and I've said this already on
multiple sessions obviously this season
because with everything that's going on
I feel like everybody's like okay we
need the widget let's do it sort of sort
of you know sort of a thought but then
that's it they just put the widget up
there and they that's not that's not
gonna work like that you know what I
mean you gotta think about how that's
going to impact your process and then
you got to think about how you
communicate how are you going to teach
your customers what this widget is
supposed to do to begin with you have to
have a message you have to educate the
consumer and then the other thing that I
see a lot of is that the you know even
the dealers are looking at this like oh
we're gonna sell our car online but then
they expect the customer to still come
into the dealership and so there's a
conflict there of you know what I mean
so and even the wording on their website
is like buy online but then you want the
customer to come in I don't you know any
mean so I don't know what are your and
what happens there that's why I'm saying
that it's that circle that I just
described earlier I won't get back into
it but if you have somebody who goes in
and clicks that buy online and then they
end up somewhere where it's like hey you
I still need to go to the store I don't
do that you know they're gonna bounce
they're gone
and you're not you're not getting back
so you that it's got to be a really
tight process in that circle between
your retail your digital retailer your
website and your automate marketing
automation platform to try to bring the
rails back there
and you gotta have that process knocked
out and you also got to get creative I
mean we're talking to a lot of a lot of
our you know bigger groups and some of
our smaller stores that are really ahead
of things and getting a lot of best
practices and we're trying to share that
with people around the country but doing
things like you know remote test drives
you know people if people want to want
to literally want to want to look at a
car that there
I got a dealer's right here in town in
Minneapolis they're driving them over to
their house social distance no
contacting giving them letting them keep
the car overnight things like that and
then doing the whole transaction online
and then delivering the vehicle to them
at their house so thinking about how
that's gonna work you know at your store
in finding really creative ways to make
the make this kind of difficult time to
buy a car a lot easier and the same goes
with service I think you get you get
some of that stuff figured out as well
as how it affects things like your F&I
process that you have and your you know
your service lane things like you did
it's complicated but you can be done and
yeah you saw software for a lot of it
you know in that in that circle it makes
some of the process stuff in the store a
lot easier to focus on so well and then
you have to think about what now it the
expectation for consumers moving forward
because if you didn't now then they know
that it can be done and so you know and
that's where the where the shift is
going to occur I think you know what I
mean so I don't I don't I get a little
something I get hesitant but I get a
little I don't really understand the
concept fully when I hear this like the
industry has been changed forever in
that sense is like from this point
moving forward so much and then the
respect that it's it's it's it's that
much of a difference other than the
stuff that we're doing right now to
combat the situation is going to become
or theirs is gonna evolve into some sort
of process changes within the store and
how we service cars how we buy cars at
that yeah I agree I mean it's not like
we just took a neutron bomb and blew up
the whole retail X you know on site
experience that's what I'm saying but
some of these things are not coming back
and we just got ever you got to realize
that you're gonna have to do more of
this stuff like you like you mentioned
that consumer that hey I really liked
having I buying a Tesla online and
having it drive to my house by itself
and show up in my driveway I mean that's
pretty cool so you know things like
they're gonna become more apparent yeah
and then the last thing that you
mentioned which which I definitely
wanted to cover here as you talked about
the the virtual showroom right and I
think that that's critically important
because the one thing and I just I just
did a session that dropped this past
Tuesday with the founder of three to
twenty one eight three two one ignition
a new website company that that I'm I
was really impressed with but the one
thing that's constant right now is your
website and it doesn't matter if you
shut down your website is still up right
and I'm seeing it's just crazy to me
that as I as I do research and I stand I
look at dealerships I go to their
websites and it's the same exact
messaging it's the same exact layout
that it was before all of this happened
and so why why why do you think we're
doing that we're not we're not thinking
about you know website traffic being up
we're not thinking about people being at
home and going to your virtual showroom
and we're not conveying that message
we're not making the customers feel safe
we're not telling them what we're doing
that's different I mean do you agree
with that strategy should we just ignore
it or do we need to or does it make
sense for us to adjust our virtual
presence I you know a couple things on
the websites I mean I still blows me
away that I still see you know inventory
I'll go into a web dealer website and
look through the photos of some of the
cars and you know it'll be June and they
had a picture of a car with snow on it
that that you can't do that anymore you
gotta be you got to be more focused on
what is that what does this stuff look
like from the outside into the to the
consumer you got to do more things with
video get creative with video on the
cars you're gonna have to walk people
through the interiors of the car so they
can see it stock imagery is not gonna
work anymore you know you
hopefully you have I've seen a lot of
people with it you know the green
screens and stuff like that they just
have not
out cars photos on their sites that are
just blow your mind you know and that
kind of stuff I think those are some of
the easier things that you can do to
make that you know that experience
better but in a you also got to get away
with just focusing on well look at all
these VDP views that I drove from you
know X Y Z is that there's a lot more to
it than just dumping people onto V DPS
so get a stick experience sure yeah
there's there's the I I know and that's
a great point that you bring up because
a lot of the times you know one of the
things that I that I do for dealers is
you know I I inspect their digital
marketing right and one of the things
that we look at are their their goals
that are in their Google Analytics sure
and you would dude it's crazy how many
of them don't have that set up and it's
like what are you measuring here you
don't even know what you're looking at
you know what's the goal so you know
what I mean if you're not having those
conversations and you're not setting
that up then then you can't track
anything you know II mean so I know it's
hard but you got you got to have you
know that you got to have that third
party out there holding people
accountable for the money that you're
spending with them and also it sure I
mean it's just stuff that if I was a
general manager or a sales manager or
whoever I was in the story is that's
things I want to see because I want to
see trends and I want to look at what's
been happening over our net got quarter
yeah for sure dude this has been awesome
man I really appreciate you coming on
thanks for sharing all this dude it's
you know it couldn't come at a better
time I wanted to give you guys a little
bit of time here to talk to us about
outsell tell us what you guys do how do
you help dealers and how can people get
in touch with you maybe do a demo like
you know give us give us some
information there yeah so um I'll just
tell you a little bit about what we're
doing now so it I was talking about best
practices and things you'll see us if
you follow us on on LinkedIn or in the
social channels you know we're trying to
put out a bunch of best practices in in
you know industry information a lot of
the data analytics type things that
we're seeing which I give you a little
bit of a flash of there and try and
share that with a broader community we
think that's really
right now we we when this thing started
to happen mid-march we started up what
we call our customer strike force which
is a group inside of our company and we
meet we meet every day and a little
scrum meeting and then once a week to
talk about it and we you know what this
has been going on how we can how we can
do a better job with our internal and
our external customers and that's really
important so everything that we do is
focused on improving their ability to
perform in a remote world so that's what
we've been up to lately now the product
itself
it's a marketing automation customer
engagement a platform where we're
focused on three main channels which
would be email social and direct mail
with the goal of creating a full
experience for that consumer throughout
their lifecycle and utilizing AI to make
all those decisions about what type of
content and what type of copy and what
type of channel we should be
communicating with these consumers
across where they're most likely to
engage to help us to drive you know sell
some service sell some more cars and and
and keep and retain people which is a
huge place so the beauty of it is I
mentioned it earlier it's fully
automated so it literally is turnkey you
can turn it on we work in the background
but there's also a ton of consumer
insights inside the product there's the
ability to do on-demand campaigns with
four clicks and the best part is though
when you look at email as a channel that
you want to be focused on and look at
looking at I want I want to work that
zero party and first party data that's
to my DMS and my CRM don't you can't do
that through your CRM you have to find
somebody who is gonna have good
deliverability otherwise you're not
making it any of the Inbox
and that's one of our specialties so at
a high level those are some of the
things we do feel free to go to our
website there's a lot of fantastic
information on there as well as some of
that co vid strikeforce info that we've
been publishing and we got a blog with
some great stuff in it as well if you
want to take a peek at that yeah so make
sure to connect with with guy go to the
outsell website we're going to put all
that information in the show notes - so
you can go there just you know click
right into it what about a demo if
somebody wants to do a demo of your
guys's product so a couple different
ways you can obviously can call us you
can hit me or any of our any people and
you bust up on LinkedIn we're pretty
active on there all of our infos on our
website as well and there's a button we
literally click I want to do a demo and
we'll get you know we'll get back to you
within usually 15-20 minutes so that's
awesome yeah man thank you again so much
I really appreciate the information this
has been awesome thanks for taking the
time I know that things are crazy right
now so I really appreciate you coming on
here that's all the time we have folks
if you have any questions or you know
you want to get in touch with guide out
sale please go to the show notes there's
going to be information there it's gonna
take you right to where you need to go
if you like this podcast if you like
this episode please please share it
people can take this information back to
the dealership and implement in their
day to day guys super everybody that's
all we have and as usual we'll talk
later might help you fix it no we did
not set the bar no we're just trying to
