Auto Marketing Monday w/ Jeff Ramsey, Brian Kramer, and Dustin Clark | Daily Dealer Live
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Auto Marketing Monday w/ Jeff Ramsey, Brian Kramer, and Dustin Clark | Daily Dealer Live
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Term
U.S. tariffs
U.S. tariffs are extra taxes that the government puts on products coming from other countries, making it more expensive for companies like Honda to bring in parts.
Term
Nexperia chip shortage
The Nexperia chip shortage means there aren't enough computer chips available, which is causing problems for car manufacturers trying to make vehicles.
Brand
Acura
Acura is the luxury brand of Honda, making fancier cars with more features and better performance.
Brand
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is a famous car company from the UK that makes luxury sports cars. They're known for their stylish designs and fast performance, often seen in movies like James Bond.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a well-known car company from the United States that makes many types of vehicles, including trucks and cars. They're famous for models like the Ford F-150 truck and the Mustang sports car.
Brand
General Motors
General Motors, or GM, is a big car company in the U.S. that makes various vehicles under different brand names like Chevrolet and Cadillac. They are one of the largest car manufacturers in the world.
Term
Apple CarPlay Ultra
Apple CarPlay Ultra is a system that connects your iPhone to your car, letting you use apps and features from your phone on the car's screen. It makes it easier to access music, navigation, and other smartphone functions while driving.
Brand
Lexus
Lexus is a luxury car brand that is part of Toyota, making high-end vehicles like the RX and ES.
Brand
Subaru
Subaru is a car company from Japan that makes vehicles known for their all-wheel drive, like the Outback and Forester.
Term
Panoramic View Monitor system
The Panoramic View Monitor system is a feature that shows a wide view around the car to help drivers see better when parking.
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people like because it's dependable and saves on gas. It's been around for a long time, and sometimes there are safety recalls, which means the company asks owners to bring their cars in for fixes.
Part
18-inch alloy wheels
18-inch alloy wheels are special wheels made from a mix of metals that are lighter and look nicer than regular steel wheels.
Term
recall
A recall is when a car company asks people to bring their cars back to fix a problem that could be dangerous. They do this to keep everyone safe.
Company
CarMax
CarMax is a company that sells used cars and makes it easy to buy a car without negotiating prices. They have a lot of cars to choose from and buy cars from people too.
Company
Carvana
Carvana is a company that sells used cars online. You can buy a car from them without going to a dealership, and they even have machines that look like vending machines where you can pick up your car.
Concept
appraisal tools
Appraisal tools help car dealers figure out how much a car is worth. They look at lots of information to give a good price for buying or selling a vehicle.
Term
VHR
VHR means Vehicle History Report. It's a document that tells you what has happened to a car before you buy it, like if it was in an accident or how many owners it had.
Term
navigation
Navigation is a system in cars that helps you find directions using GPS. It tells you where to go and can show you traffic conditions.
Concept
cost of market
Cost of market is how much cars are generally selling for in a certain area. It helps sellers know what price to set for their cars to be competitive.
Car
Toyota Rav4S
The Toyota RAV4 is a small SUV that has a lot of room inside and is good on gas. People like it because it's practical for families and can handle different types of driving.
Term
power liftgate
A power liftgate is a feature that lets you open and close the back of your car automatically, which is really handy when your hands are full.
Car
Mercedes-Benz GLC
The Mercedes-Benz GLC is a fancy small SUV that is known for being comfortable and having lots of high-tech features. It's talked about because it can have some problems, especially with certain parts, so it's good to know what to look out for.
Term
MSRP
MSRP is the price that the car maker suggests for their vehicle. It's like a starting point, but dealers might sell it for more or less.
LIVE
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer Live!
I'm your host, Sam Dark and welcome to this space where automotive comes together to learn,
to grow, to share and thank you for choosing to be here on this Monday, November 10th.
Thinking about tomorrow. Happy Veterans Day everybody!
Tomorrow to those across automotive who served our country.
Thanks for your service and welcome to today.
Today is Marketing Monday, but before we dive into that, let's go into today's industry headlines.
First up today, Law Fontaine Chevrolet Buick GMC of St. Clair in Michigan is back open after state
officials temporarily suspended the dealership's license over vehicle titling violations related
to selling loaner vehicles as new. The dealership reopened last Wednesday after a one-day
suspension and received penalties including a $25,000 fine, extended state oversight through
December 2026 and mandatory staff training state officials told the Detroit News.
In a statement, Law Fontaine said the suspension was, quote,
administrative in nature, close quote, pointing to confusion between automaker program requirements
and what it called Michigan's, quote, outdated titling laws.
This is the second Law Fontaine store to face similar penalties.
Its Hyundai of Livonia location paid the same fine and served a one-day suspension
late last year. Bottom line here, well, both dealerships are open for business,
but Law Fontaine now faces closer scrutiny from state regulators
as Michigan seems to be tightening its enforcement on compliance.
And I know the Law Fontaine Group is a personal disclosure.
They're a great group. Ryan, the entire team there.
So props to them as they go through that, not a lot of fun.
Next up today in today's news, Honda's latest earnings show just how much pressure the
automaker is under from U.S. tariffs and the ongoing Nexperia chip shortage.
Net profit fell 37% in the first half of its fiscal year to about $2 billion,
with tariffs alone cutting off operating profit by more than a billion.
And chip complications are adding to the strain.
Honda has paused production at its plant in Mexico and adjusted output at several North
American facilities, a move that could affect more than 100,000 Honda and Acura vehicles,
this according to an internal memo obtained by CDG News.
The company has lowered its full-year profit outlook by nearly two-thirds,
but it says it hopes to restore production later in November.
Looking ahead, dealers may see more uneven inventory
and may want to plan around short-term gaps as the company works to stabilize output.
Crazy times. Chips? Chips?
Next up, Apple's growing presence in the auto world
is starting to make some automakers nervous.
And now Ford CEO Jim Farley is joining the pushback.
The Tension Center's on Apple CarPlay Ultra, the latest version of CarPlay,
that basically turns a car screen into a full iPhone mirror,
showing everything from apps to air conditioning and even driving modes.
So far, Aston Martin is the only brand fully on board.
But others, like Ford and General Motors,
are worried that Apple's deeper integration gives it way too much control
and too much access to valuable and monetizable driver and vehicle data.
Farley told the Verge,
he's not comfortable letting an outside brand dictate a vehicle's core functions,
saying, quote,
how far do you want the Apple brand to go?
Do you want the Apple brand to start the car?
Well, maybe the consumer does.
Big picture here, well,
Apple CarPlay Ultra blurs the line between car and smartphone
and that's forcing automakers to rethink
how much control they're willing to give up,
despite any consumer preferences.
And finally up today,
two big recall stories to watch this week,
starting with Toyota,
which is recalling just over 1 million vehicles across the Toyota,
Lexus and Subaru brands.
That recalls for rear camera failures.
The issue affects 39 different models with the Panoramic View Monitor system.
If a driver shifts into reverse within a few seconds of startup,
the camera image can freeze or go completely blank.
Dealers will fix it with a simple software update starting mid-December.
Meanwhile, Honda is recalling about 406,000 Civic models
from 2016 through 2021 tied to aftermarket 18-inch alloy wheels sold through dealers.
Some of those wheels were shipped from a supplier in Italy,
missing critical steel inserts that keep the lug nuts tight.
Without them, the wheels can loosen or even detach while driving.
Honda will inspect and replace affected wheels and hubs at no cost.
Of course, with owner letters going out December 8th.
To find out more about these recalls,
head over to the CDG Recall Tracker powered by Busycar
at cdgrecalls.com to stay abreast on all recall activity within automotive.
And that's a wrap on today's industry news.
Julie, welcome back.
Happy to be here.
Do you want Apple CarPlay to start the car?
Hell yeah. I would love to have Apple CarPlay start the car.
I kind of do too. The only part I object to about Apple CarPlay is I do not like
when it's plugged into the car. I can't see my map on the phone.
I still want to see the map on the phone.
As soon as it gives that up and maybe it's a setting,
maybe I need to chat GPT and learn it, I want to be able to see it.
But I do get the play for data.
Data is ground zero for everything right now.
It's one of the most valuable, monetizable aspects of our industry.
The problem all these OEMs have is just Apple has perfected the user interface.
So it's obvious that consumers want that.
Yeah, Brian Benstock said it best several months ago.
He's like, hey, look, Apple knows what they're doing.
They've done it best. Let them do it.
But somebody's got to have a truce over the data piece.
Julie and our entire audience for those joining the livestream, of course,
we're live across all CDG social media platforms.
Post your comments. We'll bring them into today's show.
We're already active online.
Lauren Klein says OEMs should listen to their customers.
YogaCar says Honda Recall is a true recall.
Toyota is a software upgrade.
Fair. When the wheels could potentially fall off, that's a problem.
When the glitch in reverse can be served by the software update,
that is also a problem.
And then Scott Campagnolo says compliance is key.
So thanks for bringing the comments.
Also, let us know where you're watching today.
And if you have any shout-outs to vets there in advance of Tuesday's Veterans Day,
make that as well.
And Julie, today it's Marketing Monday for heaven's sakes.
We have Brian Kramer in the house today.
It's going to be an exciting conversation with him.
We had a little convo in the green room that was fun.
Began heating up even pre-show.
Plus, we've got two dealer guests with their perspectives
on all things marketing, digital leads, advertising,
going after that sometimes elusive, perfect digital lead customer.
Also, coming up this Friday to tease ahead later this week,
we've got Brian Benstock back on the show joining for a special announcement.
It's an industry first and he teased it last week.
900 service drive vehicle sales.
Brian Benstock and a few other industry partners will be on to announce that.
And Julie, finally up before we launch into our first guest, CDG Circles.
It is growing fast.
It's the dealer chats that are a modern dealer peer group.
The CDG Circles are open for enrollment right now.
Sign-ups, though, close at the end of November.
So whoever doesn't register won't be placed in a group until at least April,
2026.
That's a lot of wasted time, Julie, when it's all about execution.
Yeah, yeah.
And then PSI Max says rear cameras seem to be the new Takata,
referring to the big airbag recall way back when coming from Wooderville,
Washington.
Yep.
And Colin says, marketing Monday, but you are right.
Not as dangerous, but still a concern.
Well, let's launch into our show today.
Let's turn first up.
CMO of Orzman Automotive Group, Jeff Ramsey.
Jeff, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
How are we doing?
Jeff, you're back.
You've been on before.
Yeah?
Yes, sir.
We're excited to have you back.
Let's actually start with our signature question, which is, how's biz?
Business for Orzman, for Robert Orzman stores is great.
We just had, through October, we had our best October ever.
We had stores celebrate.
Our Honda store in Laurel had their best month ever in the history of the store.
We've had, we've looked at market share.
We're always reaching for the top.
And so when we have a Chevy store in Rockville and a Chevy store in Baltimore,
Outsell, a different competitor in Tyson's Corner, these are all big wins for us.
For us, here at Orzman, we're happy.
So, Jeff, let's pressure test that because it's easy to come on the show and say,
hey, we've had the best ever.
Is the best ever relative to everybody else or is it a personal best?
And what is it?
Units?
Is it net profit?
Is it advertising spend?
What is your definition of best ever on this November 10th of 2025?
Best ever is going to be sales volume for us.
So we're tracking each store where they're at in market share every single month.
And last month, we're comparing to their targets and where they were previously.
And on that report, there's a lot of green.
So for us, it's not just a fake best ever where everyone's trying to find something
to be excited about.
This is genuine best ever.
This is an exciting place to be.
Awesome.
All right.
So give us a couple takeaways for the dealer audience listening today.
In your role as CMO for Orsman, what's one or two things that have helped you have that
best ever in November when arguably there are some groups out there that are struggling
a little bit, particularly in the digital lead area?
Best ever for October.
I mean, for us, that's married to some of our lowest costs per sale.
So we're fine tuning all of our spend, each dealership's individual.
So when you're putting targets out there for cost per sale, dealer density in that
location makes a difference, general location, the OEM.
So right now, we're down $108 for the year on cost per sale, verse 2024.
So and we're doing that through our stores to a great job communicating what inventory
is coming in, the use car inventory that we have here is our vehicles that people want.
The future for, I hate to use the term like recession proof because I don't think we're
hitting a recession at all, but use cars, focus on use cars and you'll always be profitable.
And that's what we've done.
It's where this year we're up almost 50% just in use car volume, verse 2024.
So that's a substantial decrease in cost per sale.
And you actually shared with us in the green room that you've generated a $2.8 million
advertising savings by focusing on that cost per sale.
What's the number one area that has helped contributed to that advertising savings?
And yet it's interesting, some people say, hey, you can't save your way into sales.
You've proved that wrong, right?
By being more intentional on where you're putting your advertising money,
you're able to actually lower that cost per sale.
What's one area you're putting those dollars into that's more efficient, more effective?
I think it's efficiency.
We're finding the dollars where what we're spending money on, it's not just focusing on,
well, this gives us the most leads.
We're looking at what influences the most sale.
Influence of sale metrics are definitely different than just lead conversion.
So for us, it's not signing up for anything that's wasteful.
It's understanding all the products we have.
And for some stores, we're putting more money into it.
But the expectation is they sell more.
And there's monthly accountability that goes with that.
So really, it's understanding every store for where they are, for the cars they have coming.
Inventory plays one of the biggest roles in all of this.
If you're not fine-tuning the cars that you have coming, understanding them,
and even looking forward to the sales events and adjusting your spend there,
you're in some trouble.
So we try to look at all those details and make educated decisions to where we can lower our spend.
So you're coordinating with the used car director within the auto group on what acquisitions,
what vehicles you're purchasing, you're making decisions,
then you're advertising backward into that?
New cars is where we're focusing more on what's coming in.
Because we're well past COVID times, and there's some brands here where the OEM
puts out the allocations, and you just take everything.
And then there's some where you're really looking at what you're taking in,
what the pipeline is, and adjusting from there.
All right. So digital leads are important in today's world, right?
And there are some groups that would say, hey, today, we're increasing our lead count.
But actually, the efficiency of those leads is decreasing.
What are the top three digital lead sources for you today as you had this record month in October?
So our car gurus has been the most reactionary and a positive way.
When we, it's like, if you do the right things, you see that lead count and those call counts increase.
The website, our own websites continue to go up.
And then in third place, it comes down to another third party.
I'd like to say it's the service lane or something.
But it's continuing.
We're still improving those metrics.
It's going to be between cars.com and AutoTrader.
Okay. And you're not saying that just because we have cars.com up next, are you?
This is a literal question.
No, no, no. I didn't talk to anyone.
I don't pull any punches.
So you gave us what you see right now as your number one.
And you said, if you do the right things, what are the right things to generate those leads?
The right car, the right price, merchandise properly.
You need to look at what's going to sell in your market.
And so if you're just buying vehicles where it's like, I'm in this vehicle right,
it's probably because no one wants it.
If you can just run out to the auction and fill your inventory the next day,
you probably, those cars were available for a reason.
So Jeff, how are you making the decision about which vehicles are the right vehicle
for your marketplace?
What report are you going to?
Or what data point are you using to make that decision?
Use cars, trusting the stores.
On new cars, it's a complete collaboration of what's selling in the market.
What vehicles that we were able to be profitable on and turn the quickest.
But on the use side, we have an acquisition team.
We have buyers for the stores, the use car managers.
It's really, that comes down to in-store personnel.
Yeah.
So I'm going to put you on the spot here.
You've got multiple different OEMs.
What are the hottest OEMs that you see in terms of
leaning into that record month?
Honda is on fire.
Ford did great last month.
Toyota did exceptionally well.
I don't want to say any stores that did, that fell behind a little bit.
But Honda Toyota at Subaru did exceptionally well.
So it's interesting.
It's notable.
You're on the East Coast.
You're actually in the footprint of the government shutdown,
which we got some great news last night.
It seems like we might be headed towards a resolution there yet.
We're still seeing lines at TSA and it still is leading the headlines.
How did you out message the government shutdown and its economic impact on your
stores to achieve your best ever month?
I mean, that's impressive.
I think it's mindset, but it's also, and because as an executive team,
it was the market, we're not going to listen to the shutdown,
to the bad news, to everything negative.
We've structured it in a way where we can succeed in any market.
When you're growing unused cars, you can function in any market and do exceptionally well.
So for us, it's mindset and preparing throughout the entire year of adjusting quickly.
Now, leads were down last month.
I mean, our lead counts were down.
Our conversion rate for the group was the highest it's ever been.
So we saw our stores work to earn their sales and find success in October.
So if lead count was down, but conversion was up, what do you attribute that to?
Is that better training in the store?
Is that better quality of lead counts?
You listed your top three sources.
Yeah, I think it's a combination of everything.
I think that's people that's, it's having the right people.
The right, the used car piece was huge for it.
But I think it's an absolute combination of everything.
We all supported each other through that.
There's not like a simple quick fix where I was like, hey, on October 14th,
we said, hey, it's a little messy.
Let's shift here.
This was all month.
All right.
So I'm going to ask you a couple of kind of lightning round type questions here.
You're in a competitive Metro market.
We talked about government shutdowns and just how competitive the brands are used cars.
What's one piece of marketing in this past month that moved the needle most when you're
fighting for the same impressions as a 12 plus rooftop in the radius?
18 rooftops here.
One piece of marketing.
I came up wrong.
Sorry about that.
That's all right.
18, 18, 18.
All right.
With 18 locations here, one piece of marketing that continued to work was people wanted to
see the highest amount for their trade in.
Trying to stay competitive with CarMax and Carvana and everyone out there is,
for a dealer, it's a workout every day.
And so you can't have like your simple, we're going to put in this much of KBB on the site
or an AccuTrade.
But for us, it's getting the customers the answers they need.
And back then, it was as much for their vehicle and 90 days, no payments, things like that.
That held well with customers because we have so many customers looking forward to
90 days and no payments with the government uncertainty.
So strong use car valuations to that customer to compete with some of those others you talked
about. And then it's no payments or low interest rate is what's winning in the market.
What tool are you using to reach out to customers on the use car offers?
We had Frank Noxon last week and he talked about his tools based on his CarMax experience
based on his 17 plus year industry experience.
What tools are you using to reach out to customers on?
For use or for acquisition, Bite Size does a great job for us.
That product, it's a texting based product that that could be your customer see text more than
anything. They're going to look at the text where they answer their phones before they look at their
emails. So we've used that to interact with our customers and create the conversation.
Yeah, yeah, very good.
So inventory stable demand confidence is shaky. Which messaging converts better now?
I think you've actually answered this payment first trade value limited time
urgency credit accessibility is I think you sort of said, you know, zero or some time to
first payment given the government shutdowns. Anything else you want to say there in those
different categories about what's working well for you in October and into November?
No, I think it's getting customers real answers. You know, just saying hey, a $299 payment,
lease payment, you know, I'm not sure if that from a dealer standpoint blasting out like a
nationwide or you know, tier two OEM message. Yeah, it's not where our focus is. It's why do
business with us? Okay. All right, so here's a question we're going to ask a couple of our
guests today. If you had 10 grand today to allocate in your marketing message, in your digital lead
spend, and you needed to get the highest ROI today, where would you put that 10 grand?
10 grand. It's a great question. 10, I still believe you can reach more people if it's like
the shot in the arm, we need to we need to ignite things 10,000 on social targeted social through
video with with the correct message. We could hit a lot of people but the message has to be
correct. It has to be something worth talking to the dealer for not nothing generic. Okay,
give us an example of something worth talking to the dealer for. Well, if we need inventory, I mean,
that's it's kind of like where Carvana was stepping up so much. And they were starting to move ahead.
They were paying the most for vehicles. So if you're going to step up with a message that has
to be a generic, I'm sorry, it can't be a generic will give you 125%. You have show a couple of
real examples where it's this is what the other deals were offering. This is what we offered
real examples that pull people in and say we need your car. It needs to come from a genuine
standpoint that that resonates well with the customer. Interesting. And are you injecting
that through your your company social platforms? Are you having salespeople sales managers use
personal media as well? That'd be through our group platform. We don't we don't have anyone
individually in our stores with the individual following similar to Doug Horner, things like
that. You know, yeah, this would be from the group level. Okay. So how are your last last
question up? I would appreciate you being so transparent. This is actually I have two questions
left. So how are you training your teams to define value in a way that matches what today's
shoppers actually care about? So you talked about, you know, maybe your lead count is down,
but your conversions up so you're training your teams to help better convert on those
existing leads. How are you defining value in a way that matters to consumers?
We have them communicated through video. And so our current CRM is drive centric. And so within
drive centric, you it's in my opinion, one of the best CRMs out there to send video to communicate
video. So we're judging each day ranking not judging sounds ranking sounds more positive.
How many videos each store sends, you know, we want them to be at a certain percentage of the
total opportunities they had. So the focus being on how the message is communicated.
We control the tone in which it's communicated to the customer, and we'll even click through them
and show areas where they can improve. And I know video for videos for dealers is it's slowly
growing. But for us, we want to look at this every single day and give them ways they can improve.
Yeah, well, that's that's excellent. Jeff Ramsey, CMO of Orzman Auto Group.
Last up, what concerns you next when you think about the next three to six months?
What are you thinking about and working to solve so that you can continue your winning trend?
I'm always, you know, AI is in the back of my head, constantly. And I think, you know, AI is a
suitcase, suitcase term, you know, a lot fits into it. A lot of general vague things fit into it.
And, you know, and I think AI for the informed car dealer is it's going to be what sets them apart
in the next three to six months, one or two years, you know, probably within the next year.
It's for the uninformed car dealer that gets taken advantage of. I do think there'll be a
lot of them. It's going to be the biggest waste of spend that they have. You know, so right now,
what I'm trying to find is the correct AI that can help. We always want to create the best
experience for our customers. Okay, so I lied to you, it's not your last question then. So in your
estimation to this point, because I agree with you, it's a gold rush of AI right now. And in the
gold rush of back in the 1800s, everybody came in and they just dug wherever they could. And
most people got nothing. And the people who are well informed, educated, they struck gold.
What in your estimation is the AI that's working best today?
I think there's more AI working in the service lanes that does well than on the sales side.
You know, I don't have a great AI that I'm excited for yet. There's somewhere I've seen
where it's like lightly touching on creating conversations with customers, but they want real
answers. So like if a customer feels like they're talking to a bot, they start to pull back a
little bit. So when they ask that question where it's like, I thought I was talking to a human,
I thought I was going to get a real answer and it says, oh, give me your information,
someone real is going to call you, someone else is going to call you and they pull back.
It breaks it up. So, you know, and that's what I'm really excited for is if a third party,
a car guru is an auto trader, a car stack on whoever calls me and says, Jeff, we have a product
that's going to schedule the appointments of your leads and we believe in it and trust it.
Like that note, I'm here to listen, like tell me how it works. But until then, I'm concerned.
Don't you appreciate the companies that are exercising a little bit of discipline before
they come out and say that who want to say, hey, you know what, we want to get this right before
we come to you and we say, hey, it's ready for prime time and it will do everything you want.
Because you and I both get hit up every single day with those companies are like, hey, it does
everything. Well, does it really, does it really? Yeah. Right. No, and they, it's like the sales
person's more excited that they could like slap the AI powered by AI thing. Yeah. On end, it's
like, well, how does it work? Yeah, no idea. And so, you know, we need to have that informed
discussion. But really, I'm still convinced like a lot of these products that are powered by AI,
the same product they were selling is just they found out it was like this small machine learning
base that they could adjust. But I would say there's some really impressive stuff out there.
So I think about there's some service recall stuff. We've talked about that and we've used
that busy cars and some others. There's also some interesting voice AI that actually elicits
that seems to get human emotion when it's having a conversation. But I think you're right. It's a
gold rush to not only find the right AI, but as as dealers for us to figure out which one is the
best. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Thanks for sharing your perspectives. We'll
be excited to have you back to hear about more winning months, but congrats on your record
breaking month this past October. Excellent. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks.
All right, Yuli, let's talk stream companies. Be first to market with Retail Ready from Stream
Companies, the proprietary platform that gets custom design compliance specials live on your
site within four hours. Learn how at streamcompanies.com, streamcompanies.com. Of course,
you can scan the QR code there off to the side if you're watching it after the fact.
You can go to the show notes and click the link there. We appreciate Stream Companies for sponsoring
today's content and supporting the conversations we've had today, including that cool one right now,
Yuli, with Jeff Ramsey of Oarsman and hearing how they're winning in today's market
and admittedly a challenging market. I mean, they're on the East Coast. They're hearing all
the things that bleed. So thanks, Stream Companies, for supporting today's comment. And by the way,
speaking of content, that conversation with Nilo's Fixed Ops director last week, that was a fun
conversation last Friday. I loved talking about Fixed Ops, about how they're focusing on days
to front line for used inventory. Totally an entire team. Yep, totally. And his entire team
are absolutely on it. And speaking of content and Fixed Ops, there's ton of demand for that
content, ton of demand for Fixed Ops Friday. We're going to continue that tradition. And then
Yuli, you and I noticed last week, CDG launched a newsletter called the Fixed Ops Pulse. If you
want to subscribe, you can go to dealershipguy.com to receive the newsletter weekly. It comes out
every Wednesday. So there's no good reason to miss that content. And I'm sure some of what
totally shared with us will be there, as well as a ton of other research that our
incredible team is doing here at CDG. So all right, should we dive into our next conversation?
Next up today, EVP Dealer Growth and Success at Cars Commerce, Brian Kramer. Brian, welcome.
Thanks for having me back on the show. We're excited to have you back. Hey, what are you feeling
in the TSA world? You travel a ton. Are you seeing delays, Brian?
Yeah, but I'm always feeling delays. I mean, there's always like, it seems like there's always a flat
tire or there's something going on. There's always something else to do. So I've gotten
pretty conditioned to it. But I will say, based on that conversation that was just going on with
Jeff, we work pretty closely with the Orisman Group and I'll back up everything that he's saying. I
couldn't agree with him more, but the way that they've shifted from auction purchases to purchasing
from consumers is one of the most impressive, you know, kind of increases I've seen. And there,
to your point, in the most, I would consider that the most competitive market. There's probably,
you know, Iron Sharpen's iron, the dealers in that market are as good as anywhere
that they're competing with. So it's not as if they get some competitive advantage. I mean,
they're all great dealers. Yeah. So when you think about it, Brian, before we ask you the
How's Biz question, we got to pull that thread. A record month last month, a tough month for many
dealer groups. What do you attribute as the top one, two, three things working with them that led
to that success? Well, you know, Jeff said it probably better than I can, but I would say that
they're focused on sourcing the right inventory. And I, you know, he mentioned it, and you were
pulling on the thread, but I can't emphasize it enough. It's a lot easier. I realized this when
I was in retail at the end. You don't have to worry about aging if you source the right cars.
You don't have to worry about repricing cars so often. If you're, you know, all the different
things that you're advertising costs per vehicle retail, like he just said, is not as much when
you're sourcing the right cars. It all comes back in my world to sourcing the right inventory and
sourcing as much inventory as you can, appraising as much inventory as you can. And when you do that,
you can wholesale probably more than you should because, you know, which is what Carvan and Carmax
do. You know, they wholesale after the cars they source and they just keep the cars they know they're
going to retail. They've got historical data. They know those cars drive VDPs, those cars drive
activity, and it just makes everybody's life a lot easier. Yeah. I noticed something he said,
and I don't know if it was intentional or not, but he talked about, he said, you know, when we use,
when we used to compete against Carmax and we used to compete against Carvana as if Carmax and
Carvanas value or their, their, their bids out in the marketplace versus his are less competitive.
When you really focus on that as an acquisition stream, do you think you out compete those two?
Yes. And I picked up on that as well. And he also said they used to be the best price, right?
And they used to have the most competitive price. Yeah. What do you think of that?
Like, well, I took it as their culture has already accepted the fact that they're not the best end
user on every single vehicle, which is the truth. And not everybody does that. So I used to be out
of that impression. Well, they're just going to, they're paying super money. I don't know how they're
doing it, but now that I've got the dad and we analyze it, yeah, zero to three year old vehicles
with 25 to 55,000 miles, it's a dog fight and they're going to go on, but they're not necessarily
the best end user on all those cars. And depending on where it's at in the quarter, when their earnings
are coming up, same thing with Carmax, you can see, you know, we see it with AccuTrade, where a lot
of times we're three, $4,000 higher than them, but everybody just assumes that a lot of people
don't even put it in the system because they're like, well, you already get the Carmax price
match. Yeah, but you're better off just selling it to them and just handing over their lunch money
when I don't think that's the case. And if it's your franchise, especially, you're the best end
user for it, you know, you can certify it, you're going to turn that, that's going to turn it in
half the time. There's so many competitive advantages. You've got captive financing in many cases on
CPO that those other, you know, even take them out of the equation, all the other big independent
dealers and there's a ton being sold. I think that a lot of times franchise dealers, if they don't
have all the data, don't get as aggressive as maybe they should. And I think that as he's talking
about the use car business, the use car business, and there's other examples like Oresman, Andy
Moore, which is coming on shortly. And a lot of the other ones in the DC market are experiencing
record market share on their new car business because they got so strong at use cars.
Yeah. And you know, it's interesting, there's a sale made every day, right? And we sell ourselves.
Part of this use car acquisition game is a little bit of belief and mindset, right? So
Caravana, CarMax, to your point, there are dealers that have really become competitive with them.
They've got to watch the data continually and understand it and react to it rather than say,
oh, they have, you know, to your point, they're paying stupid money, right? How do we shift?
Hey, where's the data coming from that helps support that, Brian? And then if you're a use car
manager, a dealer in a use car or in a dealer group right now, how do you make sure that your
mindset matches what they're actually doing and that you're as competitive every day
in competing with that, Brian? So here's the way that I look at it. Every single time that somebody
sells a car to CarMax, let's say, Max Offer, Max Offer is paying that dealer $500. Plus they're
paying transport, they're picking it up, they're running it through the auction, and they're doing
all these other things with it. So on average, they're making $1,700 to $2,000 more than most
dealers would say that crazy number was. And that's just the math. And they're going to do that 300,000
times this year. That's how many cars are going to get sold to Max Offer. So they look at bigger
data sets. And a lot of the appraisal tools, well, you know, the competitive sets that are
calculated with it, they're all different. There's no two appraisal tools that are the same. I know
that with AccuTrade, I know how we built those. And I know that it's got, from what I understand,
the most dealers and website URLs that we scrape in order to get that competitive set,
because it obviously costs you more the more robust that is. But if you think about it, a lot of the
appraisal tools don't have CarMax, Carvana, Echo Park, things like that in their competitive sets.
When you remove those, and they're only selling low mileage, clean VHR, the right equipment,
panel roof, big wheels, navigation, you take those out of the competitive set. And those two
entities we're talking about are going to sell about 2 million cars this year.
So if you take all those out, that really, that can make a 102%
cost of market become 94% very quickly when you add all those other cars back into the set.
Yeah. So you're not in the right cost of market at that point. You don't have enough,
big enough, broad enough data set to be able to price it correctly.
Correct. And in many cases, by that limited data set, everybody says, well,
it's just easier if I just sell it to them, because they're not playing with a level playing.
Wait, so which data sets include Carvana, CarMax, and which don't?
AccuTrade does. Vincue does. Viato does not.
Okay. Well, mic drop then, I guess, right? So, all right, let's go here. How's biz, Brian?
And what the heck is up with Carson? Who is Carson? What is Carson?
So, wait, I gotta ask this question. How does Viato not include the,
and I don't know this, this is an honest question. So you just said something,
you know, you exclude a Viato. They're a huge aggregator of used car information. How do they
not include that? I'll bite. I didn't realize this for a long time. Well, they count,
in their competitive set, as anybody's on a Cox product, which used to be, you know,
every single deal in the country. But now, if you're not on Viato, Auto Trader, or
what's the other big one that I'm missing here,
Dealtrack. If you're not in one of those, then it's not going to show up in the competitive set.
So obviously, Carvana is not on those products. Hendrix not on those products.
Sonics not on those products. But maybe they might be advertised, or dealer.com. That's
the one I'm thinking of. So they used to have crazy reach, but now is this industry because
we're fragmented. There's different ways to grab this data. And I think that, you know, with AI,
it's going to get more interesting in terms of that. Whoever has the most accurate competitive
set data, it's just like controlling the narrative of the media. You can make it look however you
want it to look. Sure. So it was fascinating. When you made that comment, I heard a car drive
by. I don't know if that was in Uli's background or not, but it was like you could hear a dog
barking, a child crying, somebody screaming in the background. So listen, in fairness,
we're going to invite Cox on. Viato's got to give a reply to that because that's a big statement to
make and have go and answer it. I'd be curious. I didn't know that, right? We're a user of Viato.
It's a great product. But it does sort of make sense. The bigger the data set, particularly
when you're competing against those two entities, you've got to have access to that information.
So Brian, we'll bring them on and get their response on that if it makes sense. But all
right, let's go to the house. We'll have the time that the next podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Who knows?
Maybe it will. So all right, let's go to the, let's go to the house biz and then who the heck is
Carson house biz? So, so I, well, I'm talking to people out the business and the other sound
just like Jeff and Morris men did or the polar opposite. Yeah. And I think it's really just
a tale of two cities and the ones that are still 60, 70% heavy at the auction are struggling.
They're fighting with it. And it's not necessarily because they're not as good operationally.
They're just, well, I mean, I guess you are, if you're not sourcing enough consumer cars, but
if you don't have the right inventory, you're not driving enough VDPs and you've got to have
those VDP vehicles to switch to the other cars that are less desirable. You know, because obviously,
20% of your inventory on average is going to drive 80% of your VDPs like the Pareto principle.
So if you're not sourcing that, or if you're able to source 60, 70% highly desirable cars,
it makes everything go and, you know, running downhill a lot easier. You don't have to spend
as much money on marketing. You don't have to get as strategic, spending hours analyzing everything
because you've got momentum. It's like the difference between being a Toyota dealer versus
a Nissan dealer right now. It's not that one is that much better than the other, but
there's one that's, you know, got a lot more momentum and it's not as challenging as the other is.
Yep. Okay. Carson, what's Carson? So Carson is our new AI platform.
By the way, when we were hearing Jeff talk earlier, I was like, oh boy, I knew you were
going to share this about Carson and we just talked about how it's great when companies exercise
discipline before they come to market with an AI tool. And I knew you were going to bring this up.
This is cars.com's AI tool, right? And is it ready for prime time? Are you ready to say,
hey, this works and achieves and accomplishes everything that dealers are looking for with
this tool? Yes, I'm glad you set it up like that. Because I've been chomping at the bid. I'm an early
adopter and I have been, you know, in all these meetings, all these calls, what's taking so long,
that everybody wants this, let's accelerate this. And we've got some brilliant people that
work for us, you know, some former Amazon and, you know, a lot of really high tech pedigree that
have been making sure that it's right. And, you know, I was saying, I think you're trying to make
sure that it's almost too right, but it's just right. And it's like Goldilocks effect now.
And so we're also going to give the consumers the choice. So we're not going to shove it down their
throat and say, hey, like EVs, right? You've got to, you know, you're just going to search
everything with AI now. So we're giving them the choice and 15% of them are choosing so far to do
contextual search, where they can do long tail keywords searches. And part of the issue that,
you know, as we were building this is how do you measure it? How do you, how do you
demonstrate and quantify the value to the dealers? Yeah, right? Because you got to have
to score KPIs and you run through Google Analytics for, but there's a few different
and that's, that's probably another show, but you've got AI overviews now. You've got
generative search chat, GPT, you know, it's like 30, 40% of the searches. AI overviews are like 70%
of the Google searches. So the only show one answer. So how do you show up in those answers?
Yeah. And I'll tell you, it's a combination of, and we, this, this, this Carson is not just one
dimensional. It connects to our dealer, rater, user generated contents, we've got, you know,
23 years of reviews, 15 million automotive reviews. So now Reddit dealer, rater are becoming a lot
stronger as it relates to search. But the other thing that, that is high, you know,
I think it's going to be one of the most talked about things. It's just not widely talked about
now is, is your website built in schema? Is it talking to the bots? They say by this time next
year, 60% of all web traffic, it's 30% now will be bots. So are you make, are you providing an
effortless experience for these AI agents and these bots to find your information, your inventory,
your Google business profile, your merchandising text? So we've got a generation on that on
AccuTrade to build SEO enhancement. Now we've got to build schema enhancement.
So you talk about Google Analytics and Google search, isn't chat GPT search equally, if not
more important as we think about the future? And how do, how does what you're doing impact
chat GPT and other AI search? So cars.com and, you know, dealer inspired websites
were, you know, automotive schema with Google was, was actually born a dealer inspired Naperville
is where they came up with it back when, you know, Joe Chur was in the early days of dealer
inspired. So it's already been architected like that. But now it's a matter of how do we take
that across the entire platform into, into everything we do to make it more appealing.
And what we've seen is on these early search results, because you never know what's going to
happen. Yeah, but the lead count is up, I think 70%. The conversions up 30%. I mean, the performance
on these and the 15% of the clients that are choosing to do it this way. It's, you know,
well, the submission rate, the conversion rate, every single metric that we see is amplified
much further beyond our expectations. When you say clients doing it this way,
you're talking about using Carson, right? Using Carson. So Carson's on the cars.com sign.
So what's the user experience like using Carson?
It's very much like Gemini or chat GPT. So they can, instead of, instead of using filters,
it's great question, like the drop down, I want to 2022 or whatever.
You just type in, I'm looking for 2022 to 2024 Toyota RAV4s, you know, between 15,000 and 35,000
miles. You don't have to put, you know, what packages is an XLE, XLE premium. You don't need
to know that I want Apple CarPlay. I want navigation. I want heated seats. And I want a power lift
gate today or in yesterday's world, that's hard, you know, with the way the build sheet that is
to do the Vindicoting. But with Carson, it's not hard because it can just query and search
and do things in an exponential way that wasn't possible, you know, months ago.
So a couple of questions, transitioning back a little bit from that, you know, in the prior
discussion, we talked about digital lead conversion, right? So digital leads are up,
and this is a question we get a lot online. We're getting a few versions of it right now.
Digital leads are up. You mentioned bots and things like that. Digital leads are up,
but conversion for many dealers are down right now. What are some concrete takeaways from today,
from this conversation, November 2025, that dealers could implement to increase that conversion
rate and get a record month like we just heard about that everybody's trying to get, Brian?
I would say the number one thing is to, which Jeff just said, give somebody a number. They
want their question answered. And if you don't answer the question specifically on the trade,
they're going to go somewhere else. And that's where we see a huge drop off is if you're not
answering that question, and I don't know when it's happened in like the last year where the
trade-in has become the first point of entry, you know, they're looking at CTV, then they percolate
down to marketplaces, then they're, you know, going to the dealer's website, and then they're
going through that experience. You've got the client at the bottom of the funnel. There's two
things that are the highest intent, credit app, trade appraisal. And if you let them bounce and
you don't answer their question, they're going to one of your competitors who's going to do,
it sounds like, you know, like what Orzman's doing. And then what did he say that he, and I agree with
everything he said and strategy. He goes, and then I would take those and I would remarket them,
which is exactly what I would do on like our car social product. And I would hit it at a high
frequency with video with a meaningful message is what he said. And then that's totally on point
that has a click through that goes to a landing where they can actually get that information.
They're going to get it. They're not going to get the equivalent of what he said with AI. Hey,
when can you come in? Or we can appraise your car. Right. Yeah. And after they go through all,
and so that disconnect might be the biggest friction point in digital lead acquisition
and conversion in automotive today. Well, think about this. There's like what 20, you know, we
have been setting records recently with 28 to 30 million unique visitors a month on our site.
And, you know, this AI thing is going to catapult us past that. If you take a look at
Carvan, I think there are 22 million unique visitors. You know, we're at 28 to 30. So that's how
many people are bouncing from somebody. I mean, they go there for one thing, right? And the car
car max thing is like 16 or 18 million. So if they're only going there to get their trade value,
that's how many people are trying to figure out what their trade's worth.
Yeah. Yeah. And why do you think so many dealers are afraid to allow that process to complete
or bring the customer in online? Why are so many dealers getting that wrong, Brian?
So I asked that in every 20 group, and I get three answers. One of them is I want to see if I can,
you know, I don't want to leave any money on the table and, you know, see if there's any profit.
One, the customers aren't going to tell us the truth and they're not going to tell us every
scratch, dent, ding, whatever, but they also don't tell those competitors that. And like
Frank Knox said, they're confident that once the customer comes in, they're going to get an
active appraisal with the client present. And the dealers that aren't doing that aren't as confident
putting a number on the car because they're not as confident on the intake being inspected correctly,
100% of the time, 100% of the customers like their FNI departments operate.
And then the third one is they're not quite sure on what the value is, right? And there's a lot
of cars that are outliers, current model year vehicles, things that are out of their comfort
zone, or they just are unwilling to change. But those two, you know, Carmich's Carbon are going
to source 2 million cars this year from consumers. There's only 15 million floating around. They're
going to go into franchise dealers. So that's like 13 to 15%. They're only going to sell
3% of the cars. So with that in inverse, they're definitely sourcing their unfair share.
And there's nothing, Orzman is a perfect example, and Andy Moore as well, they're doing exactly
that and getting their unfair share. So it's interesting. And this is one of the reasons
why Frank was like, Hey, you need to talk to Brian, because I think you have an interesting
opinion on this. With all these different groups, including Carbon and CarMax going out and getting
super aggressive on the private acquisition on putting dollar trade appraisals out in the
marketplace. And then there's a process to help the customer back down once we talk to them,
I suppose. Do you think that private marketplace acquisition is becoming overinflated as a result?
Because you're getting that CarMax Carvana and then a bunch of private offers from groups,
like, is it overinflated or could it become just by the competition?
Well, I would say that the auction is kind of shifting to this, right? And this is like a
more of a real time proxy of what people are willing to pay. See, we've had a kind of a,
you know, information asymmetry, where everybody didn't have the same amount of information kind
of like when I was in the 90s, when they didn't know consumers didn't know what an invoice was,
right? Yeah, yeah, before your car or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Or Edmonds or any of that
stuff. But it's fascinating to me as I look around on this, you know, and just to iterate
again with Jeff said, Jeff was saying, well, they're not the best on every single vehicle and
George O'Connor is brilliant, who is the use car director for that group. But as I'm talking to him,
there's a lot of vehicles where they're much lower. Now, what vehicles are they going to
be lower on? They're going to be lower on cars with bad car facts, wrong color, wrong equipment,
multiple VHR issues. Then, you know, like a GLC Mercedes that has two wheel drive, no panel
roof, no heated seats, and the small screen, the ones that they put into loaner car service.
Those are the ones and the difference in the MSRP doesn't justify it when it's coming back out.
Alexis RX with no nav, no equipment versus one that's got all the Levinson and stuff that's
Pearl White versus San Beige. It's they're two totally different cars that have different turn
rates. Carbon and car max don't pay average money for those non average cars or cars that are above
average miles. So the one thing I would challenge every dealer when you get all these car max price
matches or they saw this on Carvana, ask yourself how many times have you seen a one or two year
old or three year old car with 70,000 miles that didn't that was like rental car equipment level
that was an ideal color where you had to match the price and you never you won't be able to find
one because they don't they're much lower than most dealers are in those cars. So they pay up on
certain cars and not the other. Yeah, based on data, which they've got the data. Yeah. Yeah.
Fascinating. Where did they get it, Sam? I'm not going to tell. I'm not going to say I'm not going
to because we got to get it. We got to let them respond. We got to let them. No, no, no, no, no.
I'm saying they got it from the dealers. They're going to bounce off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On their
car for the first party data. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're getting it from the source wherever that
source is. So all right, very cool. EVP dealer growth and success at Cars Commerce. Thanks for
the fascinating conversation. Brian Kramer. Thanks for joining the show today. Thanks for having me on.
Thanks. That was fun. You can't listen. I didn't know that, right? I didn't know.
I didn't know where you could. Yeah, I didn't know. So it's cool. It's fun conversation we're
having today. So yeah, giddy up. All right, let's go. Let's turn now to CMO Andy Moore Auto Group,
Dustin Clark. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Dustin, are we having fun yet?
We're having lots of fun. I'm expecting you to tell us you had a record
month last month. So and you'll give us the key on it. So how's it going? I don't know if I'll
give you the key, but this is good. This is good. And you know, from my viewpoint, looking at leads,
kind of tracking them across the 12 rooftops, making sure that we're optimizing and, you know,
constantly staying active and staying after it. November's good so far. I'm pleased we've been
involved so far. So that's good. Awesome. All right. So talk to us about, we asked everybody,
we asked the prior guests, including Brian, digital leads. They're up, conversion is low,
or down for a lot of groups. What is your best digital lead source? If you had 10 grand to invest
today, additionally, what are your top three digital lead sources today? I mean, that's what I spend
the vast majority of my time always trying to figure out. And between Google, between Facebook,
and our social channels, testing a few things here and there, I have a secret spreadsheet that I call
Third Party Fight Club that I'm always using. Can you share your screen with us? No, I will not
share that with you. But looking at, you know, how are those results comparing? And that's, you
know, that's the million dollar question. I mean, I used to joke when I was in the agency world,
when I got the really hard question of like, if I could figure that out, I probably wouldn't be
working in the agency world. But, you know, figuring out that idea of where is our best
dollar spent? You know, it's a, it's a nuanced puzzle because we've got different brands,
we've got different rooftop sizes. So my, you know, if, if I had to make a gut check,
I'm probably going with my old standards and saying, I think we can do this across
digital channels that drive towards our websites. So our Google and our Facebook spend. But it's
not always the case. Sometimes it's a little bit nuanced when we're talking about things from
dealership dealership. Yeah, is there an OEM where your dollar spent is better returned digitally,
back to either your website or one of the traditional lead providers?
Who's your top two? Who's your bottom two?
I mean, I don't want to say the bottom two, but I mean, the top two are the ones we're always
talking about, right? We always know Toyota and Honda do really well in this market,
as well as our, you know, traditional OEMs that are here in the States. So your Fords and your
Chevy's like to see, you know, those leads numbers are always a little bit more fun to look at.
When you can see the brand affinity that happens in the Midwest for those American brands,
as well as the idea of just the brand loyalty and the product quality that you see of like a Toyota
or Honda. Very good. Very good. What technologies, we've heard a lot about AI in technologies on
today's show. What tools or technologies have most improved the accuracy or speed of not only
reporting, but just lead generation? Is there anything you're excited about or you're interested in?
Yeah, you know, the AI conversation that's been going on is one that really interests me quite a
bit, not just from the, you know, external marketing or like the customer facing marketing
side of things, but also like, where can AI help us in the back end of the house? And, you know,
not just from a marketing standpoint, but obviously service and BDC and lots of different elements
there. So that's a, that's an area that I spent a lot of time thinking through as well.
What's your answer? What's my answer? Man. Right now, I think I kind of agree with what Jeff said
a little bit that I'm still a little bit of a customer facing. Yeah, it's a gold rush. I'm a
little tentative, but I'm testing, right? And as a data driven marketer, you know, Brian mentioned
Google Analytics, like Google Analytics is probably the first thing I open every single day. So I'm
constantly looking at what's going on with our channels, with our tech platforms and testing,
optimizing when you have the advantage of, you know, working at a great group with a bunch of
great GMs that are successful, then it's not about like, hey, we got to save the day. It's,
we got to make this work even better than it already is. So tell us, you're, you have purview
over a large group, right? You have multiple rooftops, 12 plus rooftops, right? And you're
in charge of, or you have kind of that, that, I mean, you're the chief marketing officer,
you have that, that charge. What, what does your day look like? Like for those auto groups that
don't have a head of marketing, you know, you've got general managers, I assume those general
managers are in charge of stores and they're making a lot of decisions as far as ad spend. OEMs are
different, right? How do you bring, how do you herd all that? I want to say herd the cats,
but I'm not going to say that, but how do you bring everybody together? What is your day look
like? And how do you get alignment on how you'll spend those resources? There's, there's not enough
time in the day, but a lot of it is just through collaborative communication. And the way that
I always try to approach every day is that, Hey, my job is to be the marketing expert. And the team
knows at this point that I'm a really data driven marketer. I really like getting into the numbers,
but I've also been around long enough to know that their gut feel as the car guys, as the
relationship driven people on the front end, it's not just science. And it's, it's not just,
you know, the feel. It's, it's a merry of those two things. It's a marriage of those two things.
So what do you say to a, what do you say to a general manager? What's the most important data
point or what's the most important metric as a data driven marketer working with GMs? What,
what do you go to fastest? It depends on how they feel, right? If they're, if they're like,
man, I don't know if we got enough ups this month so far, then I start digging into, okay, well,
how does this look month over month? How does it look year over year? How are we comparing it to
like minded stores, ones in the same area? If they're like, Hey, I feel like we've got lots of
opportunities, but maybe we're not closing as much as we want. Then it's starting to dig into, okay,
what are our conversion rates look like? What is our, what are our processes look like? Do we have
a miss there? How are things feeling? You know, the things that are within my control that there's
a lot that they're doing so, so well across all the stores. The idea of the right vehicles and
the right price, you know, I'm trying to help them solve, are we getting the right leads?
Are we at the right channels? Are we talking to customers with the right message? Are we
reaching them at the right time? You're kind of marketing all across the, you know, the funnel,
as it were, so that we're not just gobbling up demand at the end. But if we're gobbling up the
bottom of the funnel, are we filling in the opportunities further up, you know, so that
15 days from now and 30 days from now, there's also a lead rate coming in by car.
So you are Dustin, part of CDG Circles. We've talked about that. The application process
ends the end of this month. Yeah. Tell us about your experience with that group and, and, you know,
what are some of the things you've gleaned from that, if anything? Well, I just signed up. So I
actually haven't been, I haven't been in a group yet, but I will tell you the reason why I signed up
was because of the, the group think that happens at that level, right? That the conversations
around, Hey, how is business? What are we doing? How are we reacting to market pressures to news?
You know, the idea of, you know, the chip shortage that came up lately, that was that started
email threads and text threads with my agency partners internally with our GMs. But, you know,
I'm just, I'm just one person. We've got a great marketing team here, but I love the idea of getting
multiple perspectives. Again, that's kind of back to the data guy, right? But my numbers won't
tell me one thing, but hearing those different stories is where, you know, ideas on how to tweak
the system and make it even more optimized come from. So how is the chip shortage and what not
impacting buy, sell and, and, and ad spend at your. Well, it's, it's funny because it, you know,
it happens, the news happens so fast these days, as the new think about like it came out, it's like,
what are we going to do about it? And then a couple of days later, it's like, well, this might
actually get fixed. And, but I also think about that. I try to always wear my consumer hat as well
and think, okay, if they're hearing this news, what is going on and how can we capitalize that if
they're starting to hear that production might be impacted? Do we have the right type of used
inventory? Do we have the right type of marketing in place that's saying, hey, don't, don't worry
about these pressures. We've got a way to get you into the type of vehicle that you want. I think
that's important consideration as well. Yeah. And, and, and where would you see, that is a fascinating
question in, in, in something like the chip shortage as a marketer. Where do you see that
opportunity? Yeah, I think it's, to me, it's like, did our, as the news comes out daily, did our
daily lead volume get impacted? You know, like, what's the, the, the sales cycle look like? Does it,
does it lengthen because of that news? Those are the type of signals that I'm kind of looking at
to say, like, are we, are we having the type of steady performance that we are used to seeing?
Or is there some type of disruption there? Yeah. Which OEM excites you most about their ad campaign
and aligning with them, you know, and partnering with them in ad spend? Which, which one do you
think is most trending right now in automotive? So you have Chevy, Ford, Buick, GMC, Honda, Toyota,
Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, Nissan, you've got many different brands. Yeah, I don't, I don't want to
make any of them mad, but I love the approach that Toyota's taken to the NFL this year, right?
Like that extra branding. Hey, you know, America is a, a sports country and Indiana is a sports
town. I've been telling lots of people it's really, it's fun to be an Indiana sports fan right now
with your basketball though. Oh, that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, but the Indiana Hoosiers
are like football. It's like, this is a once in a lifetime thing. So I think to enjoy that as a
fellow Hoosier grad and fan has been great. I think our basketball is going to be okay too. The
love, I love seeing that like national marketplace advertising from Toyota around the NFL. That's
been nice for sure. Yeah. Well, Dustin Clark, CMO, Andy Moore auto group. It's been a pleasure
having you on the show, sharing your perspectives and all things digital lead generation marketing
and just what it means to kind of bring a group together and making ad spend decisions. So thanks
for being on the show. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Thanks. Appreciate you being here.
I'm fascinated by that role of CMO. So in our group, there's not necessarily one person. All the
GMs have have responsibility and purview and you know, getting everyone aligned on that type
of a decision. That's a big task. That's no small task. Huge. Yeah, huge, but you can probably
quantify that savings. Like we talked about at the beginning of the show, if you can kind of compare
and cross reference all of the data there, there's there's a lot to learn to 2 million bucks,
2 million bucks. 2.8. Yeah, 2.8. Almost 3 million. Maybe by the end of the year, he'll surpass
he'll surpass 3 million bucks. So yeah. All right. So everybody, all of our loyal daily dealer
live audience, we appreciate you joining the show today. A couple of really good comments just as we
wrap up here. Yoga Cars comes comes in says regarding data sets, how do you fix inflated
prices by dealers that add on products and clauses on used cars? We might bring that into the
conversation next time. Yoga Cars says, don't disregard Google just yet. Apple just signed a
deal with Google for custom 1.2T parameter Gemini AI model for Series Spring 2026. It's a billion
bucks a year. So that's interesting. We'll follow that as an evolution. Lauren Klein sooner or later,
there will be an AI that will do all the leg work for your shopper and tell them exactly where to go,
what to pay. We'll be getting AI leads from AI personal shoppers. I actually look forward to
that moment, right? So then the question is how in automotive do we capitalize on it? Yep. Yoga
Cars, the market will correct its sale itself. And then of course, Yoga Cars says the most
important metric in all automotive is the sale, obviously. So yeah, and then just as a reminder
on Friday show, we've got a big show come up. Brian Benstock with a big announcement. Love
to have you back for that to our daily dealer live audience. Thanks for watching daily
dealer live where you break down the biggest moves in the auto car business as they happen.
Don't forget, as always, we're here every Monday. We'll be back Wednesday,
1pm Eastern and Friday. So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe, turn on those
notifications so you never, ever, ever miss a beat. We'll see you next episode, everybody.
Thanks for being here. Thanks guys.
About this episode
Marketing Monday brings insights from industry leaders Jeff Ramsey, Brian Kramer, and Dustin Clark, discussing the latest automotive news and trends. Key topics include the challenges faced by dealerships due to vehicle titling violations, Honda's profit drop amid tariffs and chip shortages, and the implications of Apple's CarPlay Ultra on automakers. The episode dives into effective marketing strategies, the importance of digital leads, and how to optimize advertising spend. Guests share their experiences with inventory management and the evolving landscape of automotive marketing, highlighting the need for data-driven decisions.
Original notes
Today's show features:
Jeff Ramsey, CMO of Ourisman Auto Group
Brian Kramer, EVP, Dealer Growth & Success at Cars Commerce
Dustin Clark, CMO of Andy Mohr Auto Group
This episode is brought to you by:
Stream Companies – A full-service, fully integrated, tech-enabled advertising agency that drives measurable results through performance marketing, creative and content development, and proprietary AdTech solutions. Our innovative platforms, including the Retail Ready platform and Integrated Marketing Cloud, empower brands to optimize performance and accelerate growth. To learn more, visit https://www.streamcompanies.com/
CDG Circles – A modern peer group for auto dealers. Private dealer chats. Real insights — confidential, compliant, no travel required. Visit https://cdgcircles.com/ to learn more.
Car Dealership Guy is back with our second annual NADA Party—happening in Las Vegas on Thursday, February 5th. It’s the hottest ticket at NADA 2026. Spots are limited and unfortunately we can't invite everyone —so RSVP today at https://carguymedia.com/cdglive and we hope to see you in Vegas!
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