Breaud on Fixed Velocity, Podium on Customer Conv., Downing on Digital Strategy | Daily Dealer Live
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Breaud on Fixed Velocity, Podium on Customer Conv., Downing on Digital Strategy | Daily Dealer Live
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
63:31
Brand
Buick GMC
Buick makes cars that feel nice and fancy, and GMC makes trucks and SUVs that are strong and tough. Both are part of the same company, General Motors.
Brand
Subaru
Subaru makes cars that are good for driving in all weather, especially on rough roads. They also market their cars as part of an active, outdoor lifestyle.
Concept
EV vehicle
An EV is a car that runs on electricity from batteries, not gasoline. It can be cheaper to run and better for the environment.
Brand
VinFast
VinFast is a car company from Vietnam that makes electric cars. They are trying to sell their cars in places like the U.S., Canada, and India.
Car
Chevrolet Cruze
The Chevrolet Cruze is a small car made by GM that’s known for being cheap to buy and run.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous German sports car that’s been made since the 1960s and is known for its speed and style.
Brand
BYD
BYD is a company from China that makes cars, especially electric ones. They are one of the biggest EV makers in the world.
Term
EV
An EV is a car that runs on electricity, using batteries you can charge at home or public stations. It doesn’t use gasoline and usually has lower running costs.
LIVE
We're doing better as a result of social media presence. It doesn't do those three things, then it's on the chopping block. It's in return on investment, discussion. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealor Live. I'm your host, CMDarkin.
Welcome to the space where automotive comes together to learn, to share, to grow, and most importantly, we come here to execute. Thanks for choosing to be here on this Friday, December 19th, coming to you live from Ziegler Studios. Today, we're hitting three pressure points in automotive. Fixed Ops execution, AI that actually converts an EV reality on the ground. We'll start with Kate Downing today on tech and process that drives efficiency. Then we'll swing over to podium on AI, talk about an open AI study that they do.
We did, which is unusual in all of automotive, and then we'll finish up with Lawrence on running a VinFaster rooftop and generating real demand in that world. But first, let's hit today's industry headlines.
First up today, the fallout from Tri-Color Holdings bankruptcy is escalating with, that's right, Tri-Color, with federal prosecutors now charging former CEO Daniel Chu and COO David Goodgame with what they describe as years of systemic fraud.
According to a recent unsealed indictment executives allegedly double pledged the same auto loans to multiple lenders and manipulated loan data so delinquent or charge off accounts appeared financeable, helping Tri-Color raise billions from banks and investors.
Two former finance executives have already pled guilty and prosecutors say leadership initially tried to brush the discrepancies as an administrative issue, before Chu allegedly withdrew more than $6 million
from the company, uh-oh, ahead of mass unpaid furloughs.
As a result, JP Morgan wrote off $170 million tied to Tri-Color in Q3 and is now reviewing its controls with CEO Jamie Diamond warning that the failure reflects how tax credit discipline has become, how lacks discipline has become over the past decade.
Interesting because we've seen a few of those failures in recent months.
Next up today, a group calling itself, quote, concerned Nissan dealers shared a new scathing letter with card dealership guy news.
The second we've received this year, the letter distributed anonymously, quote, in the interest of unity, Canada, and the protection of dealer principles, employees and their families.
Close quote targets Nissan won a simplified dealer incentive program that Nissan launched this past June dealers say the stair step program is doing the opposite of what was promised and actually paying less than prior programs while raising operating pressure.
The operators argue Nissan shrinking enterprise value isn't about market demand, but years of misaligned incentives and poor management decisions.
That ignore dealer profitability as a core brand asset.
And according to the letter Nissan one has made things worse, not better. Big picture here, well dealers are demanding two things, more realistic sales objectives and real below the line support that restores profitability.
Nissan told CDG news that it is quote evaluating changes to Nissan one aimed at continued resales sales gains and supporting dealer finance financials close quote, but the letter makes it clear that patience is running low.
Next up today, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa is putting the company into what investors are calling the quote emergency room.
A full review of its 14 brand portfolio as sale softening key markets and investor pressure builds one possible out one possible out being considered is brand closures or consolidation.
Reuters reports Filosa is reassessing which name plates are truly viable long term with year end US sales likely playing a big role in those decisions.
While attention is mostly on Stellantis's European brand Chrysler keeps coming up as a question mark with a 300 gone and the EV crossovers delayed the brand is effectively a minivan only operation for now.
Industry observers argue Stellantis may be spreading itself too thin Detroit free press analyst Mark fail on question whether Chrysler should remain a standalone brand at all and whether Stellantis really needs both alpha Romeo and Maserati.
CDG news will closely watch this as it develops and lastly today cars commerce has just announced a CEO change Tobias Hartman will step down step into the role on January 15, 2026.
Replacing Alex Vetter who's been with cars dot com since 1998 and has led the company as CEO since 2014 under Vetter's leadership cars dot com moved well beyond its classified roots and built a sass heavy platform through acquisitions like dealer inspire.
Accutrade in dealer club and Hartman comes from outside automotive most recently he ran scout 24 in Europe which owns.
Emot Scott 24 and before that held senior leadership roles at hello fresh and oversaw the eBay enterprise carve out experience centered in marketplaces subscriptions and platform economics but the transition won't be abrupt Vetter will remain on as an advisor through the end of next March giving Hartman time to get his footing during a period of real change in the dealer tech landscape we love to have the new CEO on we knew Vetter well.
And and it is definitely a change in a turning point a large auto adjacent company as we see that change happening anyway that's our wrap on today's industry news.
We started we started 10 minutes late and we did that because my laptop is we went into today's show completely just died 100% died so anybody who's curious everybody listening this on the podcast you couldn't care less but for our live audience they're like why did you start 10 minutes late that is the answer props to alien wear that makes a bullet proof laptop that help get me back up and running but I'm I'm moving fast now really so I'm going to show this baby.
It's showbiz hey football games are on right now at the Ziggler auto group our team we have two teams western michigan which is in our headquarters Michigan state which is just north of us they don't play today but western Michigan is on the football field and they're absolutely crushing it in their bowl game any bull games you're watching you leave the season.
You remember the movie coming to America that's the extent of my knowledge in the face.
Automotive sales it's I'm not an expert I like it you're 100% you're 100% focused on the biz and you're like hey if it's if it's not an answer to where's biz then I'm not interested.
All right well hey as a reminder to everybody out there we're live streaming across all CDG social media platforms post your comments into the show today I just got that screen backup so anything posted from here on out I'll bring in the producers are welcome to bring in whatever they want that was posted prior to this but we're thrilled that we are here live yoga car says Sam from now on you need backup ready to swap and yoga cars you are correct I'm going to ask for two computers standing by so we can do that.
Quickly because we want to be I had to boot up the second one yeah I'd be on from my on from my iPhone which actually I think I could probably do so anyway we got a heck of a show today let's dive into it.
First up today Cape Downing CEO Williams auto group Kate welcome to the show okay thanks for having me hi thanks thanks for being here thanks for being on the show so we always ask everybody Kate first question up is house biz
part of that Kate tells a little bit about yourself and what you do out there.
Yeah well the best time to ask that question is December 19th right December's the best month of the year so this is not good today.
It might not ever be but yeah business is good we're tracking it all of our targets for new vehicle sales a little bit light on used but that's kind of the way that December goes I mean the OEMs are pushing everything so hard and rates and it's just a new car month.
We're having a really good month my role here as CEO I've been here for eight years also in charge of all of our marketing our IT I was I was laughing when your computer died and I was like.
Ouch only yeah you can have a computer die I was a hundred percent ready to go Kate and then everything I was like oh my goodness what just happened so.
So Kate I'm fascinated by your evolution into the COO so let's start there you are in the marketing world you say still are and you went from there into COO you've got two rooftops your Buick GMC and your Subaru how do you be how do you go from marketing to COO and automotive.
Yeah so I like to say that I am relentlessly curious and don't mind my own business sometimes and so with I see that there is something that I could possibly improve I am just willing to jump right in and fix it no matter what it is and.
Yeah and so the IT thing so I started here in marketing out used to work for their advertising agency as their account supervisor at the agency and then there was identified a need for somebody to be in house and prior to the agency I had worked at a media company I worked at the Charlotte Observer and so I had media company experience then I had advertising agency experience and I had always wanted to get on the brand side of things and so it was just this natural really nice.
Entry into brand side of things and started just with marketing heavily involved in digital marketing that's my background is an ad ops and so came in here and overhauled the marketing the website Google SEO and just identified some places were operationally we could be a little bit more effective and evolved into the COO role while retaining all of the advertising marketing digital background.
Capture day job as you went into the COO operations role all right here's my question before we go into what's the biggest thing you fixed as you came into this new role or what you're working on currently because we're going to do that just a second.
You mentioned something that's on every dealer's mind in December of 2025 December 19th whether they're selling a ton of cars whether not digital lead generation is top of mind for everyone marketing how you get that message out how do you connect with the car on car buyer online
with the vehicle you have on your lot in from your vantage point your experience what's the number one most effective digital lead generating tool and what do most people miss in automotive today when it comes to digital lead generation.
If I could answer that question I think I would be a billionaire right there is not one unfortunately that's that I think that's the truth the automotive shopping experience is so fragmented that everyone is shopping differently depending on geography where where your store is located who your target customers are are they digital savvy are they not and that varies every single customer who walks through the market.
Every single customer who walks into your store has a different path we did a fascinating study with Claire avoid that really just put to paper that that is the truth customers are shopping all of the third parties they are shopping multiple search engines they are shopping multiple brands multiple websites doing a lot of research before they finally make that decision to purchase and so I think is most important is to be there across the journey
from high funnel to low funnel to me that the brand it's their responsibility to sell the brand sell the car and it's our responsibility to sell by it at our dealership so once you've decided on a particular vehicle or even a segment I want to be there in front of your face when you're searching for that particular make model or even segment.
The fragmentation of these multiple channels you're talking about in your opinion is that healthy for the marketplace or do you see a narrowing it because with so many different routes that's tough for dealerships particularly single points two points multiple small smaller groups to cover all the different channels is it not it's very difficult so I prioritize the lower funnel because the higher funnel is so expensive and has a less ROI.
So I think as long as you're doing the best you can to cover and saturate that lower funnel being there in Google VLA is having a buttoned up Google my business making sure that you have adequate paid search spend your SEO makes sense retargeting excluding people who have converted just being really efficient at that lower funnel super important.
So in your world lower funnel what are maybe two or three of the top digital lead providers then I'm going to ask you something about Google and pricing yeah yeah VLA's do really well for us again clairvoy kind of prove that VLA's turn into car sales car gurus does pretty well for us as well both new and use which was a surprising part of the clairvoy study for me to see you know when you think third parties you think use cars and that's not 100% of the time you know people are
maybe they started shopping for use car maybe they're using those aggregate sites so that they can filter down the particular new vehicle that they want based on features.
So it's super important that your feed is up to date right like your features have to be accurate you need to make sure that everything is checked off because that's how shoppers are shopping they're filtering for everything that they want and your car needs to be there.
So if your car has a sunroof but sunroof is not checked off as a feature it's not going to show up.
So data hygiene and making sure that your feed is accurate super important data hygiene that's that's going indeed dooping your database making sure that it's all up to maybe a CDPs we've talked a lot about on the show of you.
Have you engaged in a CDP to clean up your data data lakes and whatnot to better market to your client base.
No, we have not gone down the CDP past.
I am staying on the sidelines until that can get a little bit more fleshed out.
I think it's the fun acronym.
I don't know that it's quite there yet.
It's a buzzword for me.
What's the bar?
What's the bar it needs to get past in order for it to be something you pull the trade around.
Advertiser agnostic.
I think that's part of the problem with some of the CDPs is you have to use their advertising in order to leverage the data.
And I just don't think that's fair. It's my data.
What you're selling should be a software solution that allows to layer on top of my data for me to use it as I see fit.
So I don't like that approach when they lock you into their advertising and then once you disengage with them you lose everything that you have cleansed with them.
What I think is more feasible and attractive is a DMS CRM combined solution that is able to show you your customers full path within your native systems rather than a CDP layering on top of it.
It's one of the reasons why we engaged with Techion and we're really excited to move forward with both their DMS and their CRM for their complete ARC platform.
And from what I understand what I've seen that will kind of be almost what I'm calling a CDP light in which we can see our customers and their full journey across sales and service and everywhere that they've engaged with us.
What does that look like as compared to the tools you have right now everybody has a DMS everybody has a CRM you're talking about being able to see that full journey everybody sees.
The information coming into the CRM and then it pushes to the DMS at the point they buy or they become a serious lead.
How is how you're making a big transition DMS and CRM are huge lifts to make happen I know this is a CO we've done that in in acquisitions.
What what made you say this needs to happen now and what does that look like proactively.
Yeah, we went down the path of going all in with Cox automotive a couple years ago dealer track dealer dot com X time then solutions with the hope that the Cox umbrella would allow all of that data to talk to each other and give us that consolidated centralized consumer path.
But unfortunately it's not there yet I know that they're working on that and every year I feel like they talk about how retail 360 and deal central and deal 360 and all these really fun names are going to be that solution but it's been a few years since I've been hearing that and it's not there.
Today you can now you can look at one of our customers across any of the Cox platforms dealer track and solutions X time and they have completely different history they say that they match it on the back end but they don't.
So do you think part of their slowness to adopt I you know I've I've met with them I've seen what they've got coming up do you think part of the slowness to adopt is there's so many shiny AI and tech driven tools out there.
That some of these larger companies are wanting to be more deliberate in adopting that technology and making sure it works before they pull the trigger on it or do you think it's a failure to execute that's driving the problem.
I think what's limited them is the that they have acquired companies and bolted them on rather than built them from the ground up had they invested in R&D to build it from the ground up I think it would be it would have executed quicker and more seamless but the way from from my standpoint the way that I've seen it is that they buy a company and try to bolt it on to to their to their solution and that's exactly what we are trying not to do right that's why we engage with a single technology provider is.
Because we don't want to bolt on multiple softwares and so I feel like that's been their strategy acquire instead of build and I like that techie on has done the opposite and built from the ground up to enhance their own systems from within.
So the interesting to follow up with you and I'm going to throw a note out to Hannah when you do a fall call with you in about a year or so six months because from ICO role it's a huge lift to make the changer about to make.
And we move towards promises of greater things greener pastures greener grass on the other side sometimes the reality can be a bog that down so we love to pressure test what you're working towards hat when do you go live and what have been some of the challenges is you've looked at making that big change been that's a big lift.
Yeah it is it is it's March 17th I think it's 88 days not for you go on that far out yeah good for you.
Yes we made the commitment let's see like three months ago and I was like I'm not doing in Q4 not doing it in January February is even too soon March felt like the right time right get through Q4 get through year end and so we selected the middle of March
and we invested really early in getting all of our ducks in a row getting them everything that they needed well before deadline.
This week I actually received my logins to our sandbox site and that's not something that usually gets sent out to dealers until they're like 30 or 40 days prior.
I'm feeling really good feeling really prepared already on some training and yeah I mean the challenges communicating to your team the importance of getting this stuff done early.
I don't want to get up against a deadline deadlines are not the day that you should be submitting things and so that's been the most challenging.
Good for you it's interesting we've had Dennis Gingrich on this show before in other executive part of leaderships that have gone through this transition.
I'm going to ask you the question we asked him be just curious so invariably your current company is going to come back to you and try to keep your business.
The new company wants to keep you moving towards them is there anything that could happen during the transition that would make you say this is crazy we're not going to actually make the transition.
I don't even know if I want to think that I feel like we're I feel like it's like we're getting ready to wetting is coming up no no no by the way the answer is certainty right you got to be certain through a transition go go ahead I talked over you it's not about money.
No no it's okay even well you least had three years free I mean even if they gave it to us for free you can't save your save your way into success.
You just can't and if they're willing to do that also is not a good look.
No I am we're getting married March 17th.
I'm not canceling the wedding like it's all right.
We want we want pictures we want an update on how it went let's pivot back to advertising for just a hot minute.
So you mentioned hey it's the OEM's responsibility to handle high or the you know selling the brand the car.
I think you said it's the OEM's responsibility to sell the brand and then your responsibility to sell the car.
You represent two OEM's Buick GMC and Subaru who does the best at their job as you describe it in terms of selling the car.
I feel like we are really lucky we have two really good brands for different reasons but both of them I've been just really thrilled with the support that we get from the OEM.
Especially you know on the Subaru side of things you have all like the the comfy cushy love and dogs and it's a softer sell almost it's more about the lifestyle than the vehicle.
And Subaru I think also has a unique positioning in the market where they're pretty unique.
Whereas on the Buick GMC side it's a lot more about the car less about the lifestyle but they put forward a really nice product.
And so I would say both I really don't have complaints I feel very lucky because I know a lot of people who have OEM's but that they would not wholeheartedly say they think are doing a good job.
So as you look at going from the OEM message selling the brand to selling the car how does your approach to being out in social media and all these different channels differ Subaru to Buick GMC?
Yeah we on the Subaru side especially we try to put a lot of our personality and our community impact and mirror what Subaru is doing from a national perspective and bring it to the ground level here in Charlotte.
So they've done a really nice job of sort of laying groundwork for what that could look like in your community and we just take it to another level.
Being family owned and operated literally we are run fourth fifth generation here in Charlotte.
That is a huge differentiator.
You know I can see out our window one of the big publics is across the street right and so this market is very saturated with those big names and we're the locally family owned and operated and I think that is a huge advantage.
And it's something that we have worked into all of our branding how we've been here since 1937.
And we just really care about it sounds cliche but care about our customers care about the community we are really big into giving back time and money and we mean it when we when we say it.
And so that's the thing that I try to make come to life in our marketing is yes we have 0% yes we have the best brand but why buy from us.
Yeah that's awesome. So all right just a couple topics almost you know a super fast style here.
One you're part of CDG circles and this is the new group brought to you by you see the card dealership guy and the team.
You're in a group where you're able to get feedback you're able to share ideas you're able to kind of watch conversations about things all automotive.
You know all it part me and she's chair.
What does chair mean Kate.
So I talked to Alex about this and he was like you know we need leaders for the group CDG leaders.
And I immediately raised my hand and he called me he's like why do you want to be a group leader group chair.
And I was like I don't know in school whenever you had a group project and they're like who wants to be speaker.
You're the person. We don't have problems by the way.
You said that in the very beginning that's how you became see over these these two stores.
So so well for those that aren't in a circle but are kind of having that experience of interacting with the team and watching conversations.
Like maybe just give us a sentence or two about what it means to be part of the group and what you're getting from it if anything and you can be honest.
Yeah it's an invaluable resource.
I'm in a COO Pro exec group with others and very similar roles to myself and I feel like we are so well matched.
We had an amazing kickoff call we all introduced ourselves.
What's on top of mind and it was just like I want to talk to you more about that.
I want to talk to you more about that. We were just all speaking the same exact language going through really similar successes and issues.
And so we had a great kickoff call I'm looking forward to connecting with everybody once a month at minimum.
And then the WhatsApp that we have access to and just the quick chat.
I mean it's invaluable to be able to open up my phone and fire off a quick text.
Hey has anybody ever worked with X Y and Z and within five minutes thing being didn't you get responses back?
It's just an incredible resource that is the power of the room exactly.
Yeah so the groups are technically closed but if you know somebody you can probably get your way in and it has been fun to watch that grow over time.
Last topic because I know we got to go producers again they're always on me but they're like we got to go it's not their fault my computer failed but easy doesn't right.
So you not only are you making this transition to tech you're also being forward thinking you've adopted Numa across your organization you brought into service sales parts.
Yeah maybe give us a brief behind the scenes picture and what made you see value in that and what's it doing and then how long have you had it and has there been an economic impact to this point.
Yeah Numa we've had for three years I can wholeheartedly say it's probably the only vendor that comes to mind when somebody says who would you recommend without pause.
Interesting.
I wouldn't recommend anybody else without pause I'd recommend but with pause Numa has been incredible for us both on a employee efficiency side and also customer satisfaction side.
We initially engaged with them because we had a gap in staffing in our phone handling department and so we needed something to help us in the interim.
And we have since in the past three years obviously staffed back up but continued to lean on Numa and really have just enjoyed the partnership.
They're one of the few that do what they say they're going to do listen to dealer feedback and don't have hiccups their app works seamlessly the website works seamlessly it just works and it has helped us immensely with customer customers asking for updates.
It's also helped us with after hours if somebody calls in after hours my fixed ops manager he just doesn't have a life for whatever reason he gets it on his phone and he'll come to here and open up the gate for somebody like an at night.
So we've we've gained those incremental you know after hours body or work both body shop service and parts are all using it and customers love it.
Let's face it nobody likes to talk on the phone so the texting interaction between advisors and customers has just been a home run.
I love it and you know what's cool is you've got your marketing background you've got your advertising background you're going and delivering value to your group in all these other areas you're being curious and then you're being very laser focused on implementing solutions and problems I got to ask you one last question and I know I've said this already you're a woman in a senior executive level position.
You you see the problems and you run towards solving them. We need we need more of everybody women everybody in automotive because we become better.
What would you say to someone else who's a salesperson who's a GM that wants to get into executive leadership who's a woman about following your path at any major obstacles you've faced in that this male dominated industry any advice you'd give.
I am just really thankful I have two older brothers and my dad owned an independent shop and my dad never treated me differently.
It doesn't matter that I was a girl he still made me change oil at 12 like it doesn't matter.
So for me I've heard that so often people are like wow woman in automotive I like to forget sometimes I am just another person in the room and I work for an incredible group that does not treat anyone differently based on male female anything like that.
You earn your place at the table regardless and so I would just say don't let it hold you back I think that some of the we get in our own way sometimes and I just have never felt that way and I tell my daughter all the time you can do absolutely anything girls can do anything.
And I appreciate you taking the answer sometimes uncomfortable definitely uncomfortable for me to ask but you're providing a path for a lot of people in automotive to get into leadership roles and and obviously you're making great waves at the group you're at and providing high value Kate downing CEO Williams auto group
Thanks for being on the show today sharing your perspectives.
Talk to you guys in April.
Yeah yeah we'll see you back Hannah make sure we get her back on we need to hear about this this transition just like we did with Dennis and see if yeah the marriage ends up going as well as we said.
Dave Rogers thank you by the way he says online Sam you can extend today's podcast you have my permission so Dave producers Dave's got my back so thank you.
Let's talk over fuel before we go to our next guest days episode is brought to you by over fuel most dealership websites suck slow clunky and hated by both shoppers and Google well over fuel cracked the code lightning gas lightning fast AI powered sites
a track built to attract convert and dominate every search experience over fuel scan the QR code to learn more you click the link in the show notes we appreciate over fuel for sponsoring today's content including the fasting perspectives that Kate shared I love her journey from advertising into executive leadership and she truly
by every measure is a problem solver and just fiercely moving towards implementing those solutions to problems next guest up today.
Usually we're going to keep the momentum here let's go be let's go Joven senior director of product at podium and Liam VP customer success at podium welcome to the show.
Thanks for having us going.
I'm glad you're here do you have extra laptops does anyone have an extra laptop just in case this happens again at least it didn't happen on air.
Yeah that's true that is true I we appreciate that all right so let's get into this house biz and as part of that just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do in the world at podium.
I can I can start nice to meet everybody and thanks for having us where we love your show I run the dealership success organization here.
Yeah business is great we've had honestly our best year ever in podium history which is which is really exciting.
A third of dealers and our own podium got thousands and thousands and thousands on our AI which is really exciting.
And yeah as Javon will talk we just launched our service and sales AI complete offering which is which is really exciting.
So yeah business is fantastic.
Well and oh go ahead sorry.
Yeah go for it yeah just think thanks for having me on tube I'm Javon senior director of product.
I lead our AI product teams that's both for automotive and the other platform teams building Jerry for dealerships and then the AI teams building the core technology entities.
Thanks for taking the time.
So who is Jerry before I ask you to open the AI question.
And what is Jerry doing right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm asking a bunch of answering a lot of questions right now and then you know driving a bunch of traffic into dealership showrooms.
I mean he's he's he's he's he's on top of all the leads and you know things like that but.
Yeah I mean I think you know we're really excited to talk about you know how we've been working with dealerships recently and some of the advances we've made on and Jerry.
Well and let's go into first of all open AI is the company that owns chat GPT.
Many of us remember as we were creeping out of COVID opening chat GPT for the first time and just being astonished at how well it took questions and answered and provided feedback.
Open AI did a case study on podium and this is unusual because open AI doesn't typically do case studies on companies and certainly not not a motive.
What's up with that what what was the case study and what did it come back.
What did open AI come back and say about podium and your technology with Jerry.
Yeah that's what caught our attention to I mean open AI is really selective about who they feature.
I mean our case study is sitting right next to Walt Disney, T-Mobile, Instacart, just these massive consumer brands.
So for them to put an automotive software company in that lineup tells you that this is.
That this they see this is like the proving ground for AI scale and I think it makes sense.
I mean you have automotive retail which is some of the most complex customer interactions out there.
I mean these are high value interactions emotional purchases.
There's regulatory requirements you have all these legacy systems that don't talk to each other like it was just talking about it the previous section.
And and the thinking is if AI can work here it can work anywhere.
And and behind the scenes what's happening on our side is as AI is just advancing incredibly fast.
We have a couple of skunk works teams we would like to call them that are just testing these new models and in a lot of cases they're testing the new models months before they publicly release.
We've been testing open AI's voice technology for almost a year before before launch and you know voice is a whole different challenge that then text which we can get into.
But yeah here I mean the main thing is that we really got open AI's attention you know customers are treating Jerry like a real person.
I mean we hear stories all the time customers will walk into a showroom ask the receptionist like hey Jerry here I've been texting him about my trade in.
And the receptionist is like kind of confused like there's no Jerry on staff and you know the customer just talking to a person.
But that's when you know the technologies there I mean when open AI publishes a case study they're validating a couple of things.
One they're validating whether we're building on the most advanced foundation available that's number one and then number two is that we actually know how to deploy it at scale and production across thousands of rooftops.
So yeah the other piece is really how we deploy it.
I mean we built this trainer agent system where dealers can coach Jerry now using natural language so you can just type like something like hey Jerry be more aggressive on price quotes for trust.
I love this.
I love this by the way.
So it's interesting we've talked on the show a lot about AI and about technology some of it delivers this promise some of it is a shiny tool that's just not ready for show time.
And we talked with Kate a little bit about that like do you think some of the legacy DMS providers some of the other large companies and automotive or so to adapt because they just want to make sure it's right.
As dealers are considering what AI to implement into their operations what are a few tips that you would give about look for this avoid that like if I'm in search of of AI gold that truly helps me deliver a better experience to my customers what do I need to watch out for be careful for and run towards.
Yeah I'm having to answer that I think two things really I think the first is do you have that combination of the whole platform I think you know trying to do hey I'll just do sales over here I'll just do texting or I'll just do voice I think that's that's one really big challenge.
And I'll also say I'll see you Eric says a lot AI is the worst it has ever been right now so you really want to pick a partner who can keep up.
Because yeah our Jerry version to it's Javanan team of fundamentally rebuilt the thing over the past two years multiple multiple times and to your point on you know some of the legacy organizations.
There might be on the first version of AI six months from now and by the time that happens it's already too late it's already a model that's that's way outdated so I think I think that's a really really critical part is do you pick the vendor who can keep up with with the speed which AI is going right now.
Okay so there are a gazillion AI companies how do we find that vendor is it well capitalization is an experience I mean you're going to say it's whoever open AI decides to study yeah I'm not biased at all but what I'll tell you you know podium we do have the deep automotive experience we have a third of dealers on our platform but we really all this technology first it's not just open AI you know Google are an investor Nvidia the largest AI company in in the world like a trillion dollars.
Something or other market cap they mentioned us in their press release and open AI is just the latest example of that so I think that that really is what what makes podium unique is that we are this dealership expert that also is a technology first company.
All right yeah yeah no no bias yoga cars a frequent listener by the way Hannah whoever handles the NADA invites yoga cars is earned an invite we got to make sure yoga cars on the list so AI IQ doubles every eight months is the quote their AI IQ doubles every eight months true or false and I'm going to ask you about how a Jerry has changed over the last eight months go ahead.
I mean it's getting it's getting really advanced I mean with with GPT 5.2 it's it's in like the 150 range of IQ I think is kind of what people are pegging it out so it's a great question I mean there's a lot of noise in the market and and what I what I think you know and when I think about just to the other question I think dealers you know we sit in half of my time is spending the time with the innovation team.
The other half is inside of dealerships and when I talk to dealers are looking for a few things they're looking for vertical expertise it's number one generic AI tools don't understand automotive they don't know what a DMS is what F and I means what why service and sales need to be connected.
So you want a partner that you know speaks your language understands workflow and then the second piece is they they need the technical depth and so like to that point.
If if your vendor isn't rebuilding their product every six months they're literally falling behind exponentially because it's growing so quickly.
And then I think the third piece that is really standing out to me especially lately is is kind of this proven scale to Liam's point about thousands and thousands of locations on this I mean this isn't something you just want to be the guinea pig on and you need a partner who's deployed this in production at scale with with real results.
All right so Jerry is your AI and I want to talk about how Jim's train and work with it you're really expanding with AI now the role of a general manager but before we do that what are some of the biggest advancements Jerry has made over the last six months let's say for maybe somebody who looked at the technology a year ago but it hasn't updated what what are some of the biggest capabilities or or evolutions.
Absolutely I mean number one I mean Jerry.
So Jerry's our AI agent and and the the actual training part is one of the biggest breakthroughs so a GM now how a GM trains is natural language so you literally just talk to it like you coach a new employee so GM can can type in like always mention our free loner car program when booking service appointments and Jerry just adapt.
Or or like be more direct on pricing for trucks if someone asks about pricing give them a range right away or stop saying I apologize so much just just solve the problem like it takes it takes about a minute or two to make the changes but there's no engineers involved there's no tickets there's no like reaching out to your vendor for support no waiting you know for weeks to like retrain the AI so you compare that to traditional AI where you need to collect examples retrain the models.
It you know wait weeks it is just night and day so that's the biggest the advancement that's that's one of the biggest events we've made the other one is unifying sales and service so Jerry V1 was mostly sales focused Jerry V2 now bring sales and service together into one platform so the customer asks about service and mentions release ending Jerry knows their you know vehicle history can like transition to talking about their next car and that connectivity didn't exist before.
The second piece that we've been working on is voice AI and we've been working on this for a couple of years and and just now feel confident it's ready voices.
10x more complex than text and you need like sub two second response times otherwise it feels awkward yet to handle like interruptions background noise accents and we're finally cracking that we finally crack that so so those are the few pieces of the trainer agent what we call it voice AI unifying all of this together and the the last piece I'll say is just connecting that context over over the channel so if you text on Monday and call on Wednesday Jerry had the full
context and you're never you're never repeating yourself and most systems can't do this because they're layering AI on kind of these disconnected systems but yeah I mean the truth is is we're rebuilding Jerry fundamentally every six months because they're underlying technology.
I'll also add one more thing that yeah at the end of the day all this technology is great if it performs I think audience Jerry version one was was really known in the market as you know the best converting AI I met with one of our large 50 location groups who we moved to Jerry
version to and it was awesome because that literally that conversion rates had taken a step change so like at the end of the day it sells more cars it sets more appointments and all the technology stuff is fancy and cool and exciting but it really does convert even better than what was already what we think is the best converting one of the market.
So so it's interesting you bring up the fragmentation thing and we talked a lot about this on the show automotive is awful because we're so fragmented customer will come in for a service appointment we talk about this.
While they're waiting they're getting an MPI an hour into their appointment the supposed to be 20 minutes then they get a happy birthday text then they get an offer for a vehicle trade in.
So you're saying your intent is to bring all that together if so how does Jerry interact and work with the DMS and the CRM which are already the the systems that are kind of the backbone of any dealership operations.
Yeah absolutely that's that's definitely one of the main things that we think about is is the is bringing all this back back together I mean the fragmentation like you said is brutal and it's honestly one of the hardest technical problems we've had to solve.
The reality that we're seeing is dealerships are running on like something sometimes like 10 15 different software systems that don't talk to each other so you like you said you've got your DMS your CRM your service scheduler your parts inventory F and I tools none of them.
We're really ready for tool yeah all yeah 100 exactly so how we handle it is you know we build native integrations with the major DMS is you know your CDK rental dealer track all that everything and then for service we integrate you know with with the service service side next time other service management tools.
But here's the key difference in our approach is we're not just layering the AI on top of your existing phone system or text platform we built our own communications infrastructure for the ground up.
So we are the phone system we are the text platform so when a customer contacts you call text web form Facebook message Instagram it all comes into podium so Jerry has full context across every channel then Jerry just writes that data back into your different systems DMS and CRM and so then a customer can like text in about service.
And Jerry is you know checking the service history in your DMS sees you know what's due based on mileage can look at available slots in the service scheduler book the appointment and then write that appointment back into the DMS service advisor sees it in their system just like any other appointment.
And so there's not that manual entry the duplicate work and yeah the MPI example you mentioned to me right now most dealerships the service advisor.
And you know text the customer calls them customer responds advisors manually updating the DMS so with Jerry what something that we're you know forward looking really excited about is you know Jerry will you know automatically text the customer with findings customer
response you know trying to crack the status update question on the service service lane so we've got something cooking up there that we're pretty excited about.
You foresee a day where some of these AI technologies maybe with a one developed by podium will actually take over the CRM and the DMS functionality or are you staying in that lane of hey we're supporting it and providing bidirectional push pull.
Yeah I think we have customers ask us that sometimes I think listen right now we know that what matters the most to our customers is integrating with all their existing systems and you know it's really hard to say where the next five years will go in AI I'll say even knowing what the next six months will go is pretty incredible pretty hard to guess.
Yeah and then I would ask as we wrap up are there any DMS CRM providers that are better to work with in terms of being forward thinking and helping implement the AI technology and are there any that are tougher and you can pass if you want because that is a land mine of a question but it'd be fun for our audience to hear the answer to if you're willing to give it.
Yeah I mean yeah it's a good question. I think you know I'll be honest I try not to call out you know specific vendors publicly because we work with all of them but I will say there's definitely a spectrum you know some providers have built modern APIs and make integration relatively straightforward and others are working with legacy architecture that's like you know 20 plus years old and that's harder but what I've learned it's less about you know which system and more about the specific dealership setup so we've had dealerships
in the same CMS where you know one takes a few days to integrate and the another takes a couple of weeks and that's just because of how they've customized things over the years and so the forward thinking ones and this isn't really about brand it's more about the mindset or are the ones who understand the data needs to flow their investing in APIs they're thinking about how the systems talk to each other they see integration as a feature not like a burden right and then the tougher ones are the ones that were you know we're built in an era where you know they assume they'd be the only system you ever need
and everything just stays locked in into that ecosystem but look I mean we've we've integrated with pretty much everything at this point even the tough ones we figure out it might just take a little longer I'll tell you I think the future is what Brian Benstock painted the picture recently on a show he said he brought vendors together and he's asked him to work super well together to provide that great experience to customers
a car dealership guy you see himself says we're getting into an era where you're going to see less vendors there's going to be better integrations and they'll provide a better service go forward we'd love to have you back at some point to talk about how a GM can make monitor Jerry because today we don't have time because of my laptop failures my tech failure I want Jerry on my laptop so he can get me all restarted up and running for the next show Joven Melinda's Joven Melinda's senior director product at podium and Liam go lightly VP customer success podium
thank you both for being on the show and sharing all the evolution and AI tech at podium thanks for having us thanks guys thank you that was fun and I'll tell you that the social media world is a light and I apologize Lauren Klein says they know who they are referencing those who work better and those who don't and then we have a ton if you want to go on the social media site and see all the comments and feedback on Kate's set segment there was some great feedback on there but
let's go to our final guest today Lawrence Brode dealer principal at autos of forne a vin fast dealer Lawrence welcome to the show thank you for having me Lawrence welcome we got to start off with our conventional or traditional question here house biz while you're answering just tell us a little bit about yourself give us some background business is great we're up year over year right now I've been in business for about three years right now at my forney location so it's up year over year but obviously slope going down
in this fourth quarter has been we're down about 18% right now and pre on obviously we're we're up huge and new just because we just became a vinfas dealer in the fourth quarter so we're doing great on those things so looking forward to 2026 what is a vinfas dealer I got to ask what is vinfas vinfas is a great manufacturer that gave me an opportunity to push their brand in the United States market and we're doing a great job in the Texas area
okay you know the vehicle is a great cheap lease payment things that people are looking for in the market right everybody's looking for that less than $500 a month card note right now with average payments being $800 a month so it's definitely it's an EV vehicle it's different technology is great the support behind them is great right now it's just they're not big yet in the United States they're building the Philippines right I think if I remember right that is correct and also they're doing really well with the
Canada market and also to India market tariffs are they a factor for you none right now none right now they're taking everything on their back and this one is with it right you you got to ask about the tiktok and then it's all you you're on social media we did the background there's a great
tiktok out there you're standing on the lot waiting for that vinfas card to return on a test drive you forgot to get the drivers license you forgot to get any type of ID on the person and four hours later it's still in the wind
did you get that car back that actually wasn't a vinfas that was actually a portion of 11 but we did okay good good thank you car x first GPS and every unit so that was
huge for you there you go who's the GPS provider car rx okay very good props on that props to them probably as
essence we were both not super familiar with it what what surprised you the most about owning an
operating of vinfas rooftop compared to like you know the legacy ohms so vinfas is actually my first
manufacture I was a pre-owned dealer I'm having a pre on side of the operation I took a chance trying to get into
Mitsubishi took a chance trying to get in the Nissan everybody was stalling no open points things like that so vinfas took a
chance with me vinfas came to a location that I've already owned and we opened up and it's been it's been great it's been
nothing but success force that's great where are you currently focusing most of your leadership attention right now so
we are focusing on the vinfas brand right now but pre-owned we can't get away from it's been a
brand but a force for a very long time fix stops as well we're turning right now we're doing about 150 cars a
month on the pre-owned side so on the vinfas side we're doing about 10 per month not many we're we're
keeping just 20 in stock so we really don't have that much there's only two models so it's not huge right now in
America right there coming into a position strategy that on the used cars everywhere we're sourcing
car washes auctions you name it service drive kvb well we hear a lot about people setting up you know
individual dedicated buying centers is that do you have a team dedicated to buying these cars off the
street or are you just you know we have a buying center that buys that auction and off the street
so let's talk about that how's that how's that look what's that walk us through yeah so right now
I have a team of about 12 bars that sets up they buy everyday Monday through Friday because
well I'm a big hostella as well so we typically buy anywhere from 35 to 50 cars a day and we determine
whether or not we're going to host out that unit right then right then or we determine whether
or not we're going to retail that unit 35 to 50 cars a day I mean you're writing all for some
everything like you said wholesale retail it doesn't matter it no matter if it's a $500 car or
$200,000 car we're buying it so for a dealership that's looking to get into that and set up a
dedicated buy center I mean it sounds like you're doing some nice volume for yourself what what are
some pitfalls they should look for you know when looking to set this up man volume is going to overturn
everything right sometimes you think you bought a car and then you're going to make all the money
and sometimes you buy a car and it's a loss that you thought you were going to make the money sometimes
you feel you overpaying that car brought the most money right so it's just the best strategy obviously
as you have to determine what's going to be your extra strategy for the vehicle right so once you
figure those things out then you could determine how you can get rid of your vehicles yeah I mean
we talk about it all the time on the show right that intentionality I guess that makes the most
sense and something like this you need to know where your exit is and you know we do that well
all types of acquisition what's the most important decision or strategy you've implemented recently
that's driven growth or performance right now on the pre on side the best thing that we've
doing right now is is fixed right so what we're looking for is if we can get a vehicle fixed within
three days to get it on the lot that vehicle we want to retail right if that's something that we
can't if we can't do that right then and there then we're looking that we're looking for the next
extra strategy whether it's ACV auction whether it's upside whether it's smart auction man
home whatever it is we're looking to figure out where is it going to bring the most the most money
and three days seems to be the gold standard for everyone right I mean that's where we all
want our cars up front lined photo ready to rip but what what type of technology are you using in
a house to achieve that podium is one Liam actually just came in from Utah this past week and he was
here on Monday so podium is one Jerry and Sophia is doing great job for me so I'll report back to you
guys in quarter two let you know how that goes Jerry has a partner Sophia tell us yeah yeah so I have
Sophia at one of my other locations because I have three locations so you got to keep them straight
right yeah that's right because I don't want them going in asking for Jerry at every one of them so
Jerry Sophia had my green door location that's funny competition we know you don't have much
seed time in the new car world but just curious in vinfast how does a vinfast customer differ from
you know the the used car many empire that you've carved out for yourself big difference right because
a vinfast customer one what I've studied so far about 70% of the EV buyers are not coming out of an EV
right they're they're actually in a gas vehicle right now maybe they work from home they don't
work far they're trying to figure out what is EV all about so a lot of it is product knowledge right a
lot of it is testing testing out the features driving it seeing what it's like what it looks like in
the garage what's the feel behind it how does the charge work it's more questions being asked on
that aspect of it then hey this is the vehicle that I'm looking for right that customer maybe shopping
a Tesla maybe shopping a river any maybe shopping a poster and for myself people that's a huge
adjustment for them because they're looking they're coming from selling like we just had a
Porsche 911 stolen versus you know a Chevrolet cruise right so product knowledge is huge when it comes
in the EV world I'm not taking that away from any other brand as well but the longevity is already
there and with vinfast that's not here yet in America so we're looking to build that now we talked
about this on Wednesday I believe our first guest was talking about the test drive and set up
to the sale has to be totally different for an EV buyer because you really don't see or feel
the value and differentiation are you doing anything differently you know with your EV customers
at vinfast you know maybe give them a little more seat time really get them acclimated to the product
yeah so right now what we're doing is we're doing a two day test drive window on the vin fastest
so what we do is we typically we allow them to take the vehicle for two days as long as they're
taking a grip on a payment the number anything like that that we can't complete a sale if it's
something that they fit that they see fits their driving habits then we'll then we'll complete the
sale that's very interesting so you take a verbal commitment or do you get the customer papered
up essentially no we'll go eight through eight through why right we won't we won't finish the
until they they figure out that this is the vehicle that they want that this will work by the way
you will see tick-tock video I think there's got to be there's got to be it's it's not going to be
hey I promise to bring it back in three days and thanks for letting me drive the car and if it is
I would like your address I'll be there soon no it's not off the tick-tock video okay we definitely
got to do everything we basically papered up we agree we're ready to do business we're just
making sure that the customer is confirmed and he's ready to go that's awesome hey I have a
I have a question Lawrence when you think about VINFAST you think about the EV technology we talked
with a political pundit and then at EV advocate in the world it VINFAST is EV right it's an EV
vehicle that is do you think some of the X US technology out there is better than what we see in
the US so we think about BYD we talked a lot about that in China and and how they're flooding the
marketplace globally with that technology do you think US EVs are at risk by better technology
they're China or you know is VINFAST is a better tech than what we see in Tesla what's your
perspective on that selling a manufactured outside the US EV product I can say that the technology
is great that the smart driving the advanced technology that they do have is is special right
it's unique what the one of the things that I can say is a struggle right now on the VINFAST side
is obviously the over the area updates right those are things that they're working on as a
manufacturer to get better and better over time obviously it's a long distance to the
Philippines and when Al Gore created the internet he didn't lay enough wire between there right no
no obviously and I mean even people that's looking to become a VINFAST dealer right those are
some of the things from your infrastructure right that you have to have Wi-Fi and your Wi-Fi have
to be great you know what I mean so that's some of the things that you know that we struggle that we
we've learned and we we've now conquered right so Lauren Lauren Klein one of our longtime listeners
we appreciate her being on she's got a spot at the show if she wants one Lauren she says three
night puppy dog who doesn't want to keep it at that point that's a fair point every parent has
gotten suckered into a dog on a loner situation I know I did as well so a true story I think that's
a great strategy to give customers the chance to drive it how do you fix the Wi-Fi and the over
the air update what what are you telling VINFAST to do to fix that problem well it's nothing that I
can actually do for VINFAST right I mean the over the area updates take take time right but
one of the things that happened the week of the Wi-Fi one vehicle can take up to six hours right the
stronger Wi-Fi you can get it done within 30 minutes right so that was one of the struggles that we
that we had to overcome right because we like hey there's no way that we're going to be able to fix
20 vehicles that just arrived you know with six hours a piece when we got people want to go test
drives and all the lights on how are we giving the customer a good experience so that was one of the
things that we had to learn and that we overcame but yeah you'd be surprised some people say
that they want an EV and they think they they can take the the eco let's say for instance the
VFA eco that's 250 miles range and they work 50 miles away from home and then they're like hey
I don't think this is going to work you know what I mean so yeah it is it's different parameters so
yeah for sure there's been there's been times where our customers say I'm in and there's been times
where they say yeah I can't do it well Lawrence we absolutely appreciate you coming on the daily
deal live to share your perspectives dealer principle at autos of 40 and then fast appreciate you
joining the show being here today thank you yeah thank you guys have them thanks Lawrence that's
a fun fun segment Laura Klein says we'll definitely see you at an ADA and I did just get a text from
Yoshi card dealership guys like stop giving out the invites because there's limited space you know
if I can't give those out I'm going to start handing out CDG circles somewhere so I got to have
some control with my laptop dying you a good show we're back Monday then all right and you know
what we have coming up Monday Ziggler auto group we've got our head of security carry on Thomas
she's going to come share some tips and strategies for not losing that car including VIN fast props
to Western Michigan they just beat one their game 41 6 against Kennesaw State a lot of great football
coming up this weekend so wherever you are wherever you are we hope you enjoy it
Lauren Klein says I already got mine fine you CC to all of our listeners thanks for watching
the daily deal live today thanks for sticking around with us as we went along where we break down
the biggest moves in the car business as they happen don't forget we're here live every Monday
Wednesday Friday 1 p.m. Eastern so if this is your world hit like hit subscribe as always turn
on those notifications so you never ever miss be and we'll see you next episode thanks everybody thanks
About this episode
A dynamic discussion unfolds as industry leaders tackle key automotive challenges, including fixed operations, digital strategies, and the impact of AI. Kate Downing shares insights on digital lead generation and the importance of data hygiene, while podium representatives discuss their groundbreaking AI, Jerry, which enhances customer interactions across sales and service. Lawrence Brode, a VinFast dealer, highlights the unique customer experience in the EV market and the challenges of integrating new technologies. The episode is packed with practical advice and real-world applications that can benefit dealers navigating today's automotive landscape.
Original notes
Today's show features:
- Lawrence Breaud, Dealer Principal at Autos of Forney/VinFast
- Jiovan Melendez, Sr. Director, Product at Podium
- Liam Golightley, VP, Customer Success at Podium
- Kate Downing, COO of Williams Auto Group
This episode is brought to you by:
Overfuel – Dealers: You’re torching $30 of every $100 in marketing spend when your site flunks Google’s basic performance test. Why keep using outdated website technology that's killing your profits? Overfuel is the new technical standard in automotive websites, proven to grow sales by 30%+. Whether you need more revenue or better support, they’ve got you covered. Go to https://overfuel.com/ and use code CDG500 in the comment box for $500 OFF.
Podium – Podium is redefining how dealerships engage and convert customers by acting as a fully trained, fully coachable AI team member available 24/7. Dealers can customize Jerry to follow their exact playbooks, speak in their brand voice, and drive more appointments and revenue. Learn more at https://www.podium.com/car-dealership-guy
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!
--
Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff:
CDG News ➤ https://news.dealershipguy.com/
CDG Jobs ➤ https://jobs.dealershipguy.com/
CDG Recruiting ➤ https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/
My Socials:
X ➤ https://www.twitter.com/GuyDealership
Instagram ➤ https://www.instagram.com/cardealershipguy/
TikTok ➤ https://www.tiktok.com/@guydealership
LinkedIn ➤ https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy/
Threads ➤ https://www.threads.net/@cardealershipguy
Facebook ➤ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683
Everything else ➤ dealershipguy.com
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Car Dealership Guy
0:00
63:31