Covideo Contest Finalists Revealed, Sita on Videos Driving Performance | Daily Dealer Live

Hey

everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer Live. I'm your host,

Sam Darkin. Welcome to the space where automotive comes together to learn, to share, and listen.

Today, we are executing. Thanks for choosing to be here this Friday, January 16th. And coming

up today, we'll unveil the top four finalists of the first-ever car dealership guy dealer video

challenge brought to you by CoVideo. But first up today's industry headlines.

First up today, negative equity is growing in automotive. According to the latest data from

Edmunds, negative equity hit record levels at the end of 2025. Nearly 30% of trade-ins

on new vehicle purchases were upside down in Q4. That's the highest share since early 2021,

and the average amount owed on those underwater trades climbed past $7,200. That's the most Edmunds

has ever tracked. And on top of that, more than one in four upside down trade-ins carried at

least $10,000 in debt. And a lot of this traces back to pandemic era loans buyers paid higher

prices, had fewer leasing options, and locked in long terms. Now those loans are aging into a

market where depreciation has returned to normal. What's the big picture here? Well, more deals

will need careful structuring, cleaner appraisals, and direct equity conversations. Because rolling

big balances forward is getting harder to justify, and more importantly, harder to get approved with

partner lenders. Next up, a new study from the Savvy Dealer shows most dealership websites

aren't built for how shoppers are actually searching today, especially through AI search

tools like ChatGPT. Out of 100 dealer sites tested, 84 failed AI visibility outright,

scoring below a D-grade. The average score was just 34 out of 100, and only 14 sites scored high

enough to pass. The biggest issues are basic, but they are costly. Nearly half of all dealer

sites are, get this, actively blocking AI crawlers, the very thing you want catching info on your site.

And many others don't use structured data that helps AI understand inventory, location, hours,

or services. As a side editorial note, I spent time with dealer teamwork yesterday, Minnesota,

based on a meeting at one of our Hyundai stores going through that very problem. Bottom line here,

stores that audit their AI access settings, fix blocking issues, and invest in proper structured

data will be the ones showing up when the shoppers ask AI where to buy next. That's a fun exercise.

Ask AI where to buy, see if your store pops up. Next up today, first automotive entrepreneur,

Artem Bogoslavsky, purchased multiple dealerships in Gorham, New Hampshire from Summit Automotive

CEO Alex Gillett in a deal that closed on January 15. Summit operated the dealerships under its

Berlin City Auto Group arm, and just a day before that, Pierce Automotive Group bought a pair of

Lexus dealerships near San Diego, California, beautiful place in the world from Halo Motor Group.

But the biggest news is that Jeff Weiler Auto Family just bought itself a once in a generation

premium fortress. Weiler, one of the largest private dealership groups in the U.S.,

acquired Midwestern Auto Group's campus in a 14-brand deal expected to add 500 million in

annual revenue, a half a billion in one acquisition. All of the 14 brands acquired, including Ferrari,

Porsche, and others, will be renamed as the Weiler Collection. And don't forget, you can see this

deal announcement many more throughout the entire year by visiting the CDG Buysale Tracker

powered by the Presidio Group at cdgbuysale.com. There we go. I was wondering where the jingle

was. We cannot go this news point without having the jingle. And finally up today,

about two months after cutting 350 customer service jobs, CarMax has made another round of

layoffs. This time, roughly 230 employees from its home office and CarMax Auto Finance teams

while they were told they no longer need to report to work reports Virginia Business.

Most of the affected workers are salaried and CarMax says they'll be paid through January 31st

along with severance and access to career support and internal job postings. For context, CarMax has

been going through it lately. Weaker earnings and the surprising regsignation of former CEO

Bill Nash on December 1st, 2025 have driven the company to reorganize because the used car market

has become hyper competitive and the company's share in used vehicle retail has declined materially

as competitors price their inventory more aggressively. And that is a wrap on today's industry

headlines. Julie, today's the day. We've been talking about this for weeks. We've been talking

our dealer championship contest here. Today's the day we unveil our top four who will go into the

final round. The winner, the ultimate champion gets a cool trophy. I'm excited for this because I

want to see the trophy myself. A little bit of money. They get a thousand bucks cash,

but most importantly, they get a spot on the show in a future episode. We'll highlight their video,

share it with everybody out there. But today, by the way, yoga cars, thank you. Roll balances to low

money factory lease when available. Thanks for the comment. A reminder to all our audiences,

we're watching these videos as we're unveiling the winners as we're having today's conversations.

Our entire show is made better by your comments in the comments. You can go to any social media

platform where this is being live streamed across the social, the car dealership guys,

social media and post your comments. We'll bring them into today's show. Let's get into the unveil.

Joining us today, Margaret Hennie, vice president of marketing at co-video. Margaret, welcome to the

show. Guys, thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. So it's interesting. Let's step back

a minute and figure out how the heck this all started. So you and I, we do this show three

times a week and videos continually come up in the conversations as a separator between great

and mediocre dealerships, both in the service department and MPIs and in the sales departments

on the showroom floor. And it's interesting. I will get offline out of the show, people saying,

well, wait, I don't understand why you guys talk about this so much. Like doing videos is easy.

And of course the dealers that are doing it, they've got a process, they have a standard,

they're doing it great. And then I hear from other dealer groups. So they're like,

we've not even thought about this. We haven't even started. And so we wanted to shine the light on

this as a process of connecting to consumers because it is so efficient and effective and

share with everybody out there, best practices and listen to everybody watching. We hope you will

share clips that we share today of these four final videos across your network and have a

conversation behind why do videos work? Why are they so effective at communicating with consumers?

And then what the heck is going on? Why is it so hard to get salespeople, service folks and other

staff and dealerships to just do videos? So Margaret, you're with CoVideo. How long have

you been with CoVideo? Give us a little bit of background on you and what you do there at CoVideo.

Yeah, absolutely. Going on 10 years now. So almost a decade with CoVideo actually started

out in sales and then moved over to the marketing side of things. And that's what I've been doing

for about the past five years now. All right. So CoVideo is probably one of the biggest, if not

the biggest video delivery platforms in automotive. You integrate with many different platforms,

including CRMs. You have an affiliation with CDK as an example. It's a recent affiliation.

How many videos do you deliver regularly and how many dealerships do you do business with?

Just to give us a sense of scale. Sure. We work with 2,500 dealerships all over the U.S. and in

Canada as well. And every single year, 18 million videos are being delivered through video, right?

And how many dealerships did you say, dealer groups? 2,500. 2,500. So, and you were rattling off

how many dealerships there are across the country? About 17, 18,000. Yeah, right in there, 18,000.

So we still have some people dragging their feet. Come on, boy, guys. But as far as share goes,

you do business with a very large share of automotive out there. Absolutely. Yeah. And we're

really proud of a lot of the dealerships. We work with a lot of the folks who are top 25 dealer

groups. A lot of those folks are using co-video because it works and video works.

So before we see these four videos, Margaret, what do you look for in an effective consumer

communication? Whether it's somebody who's sent in a lead looking for more information on a vehicle,

whether it's maybe a technician trying to explain a repair, what are you looking for?

Yeah. First and foremost, almost always is going to be personalization. So,

hey, are we calling that that lead or that customer by name? Everyone loves the sound of

their own name, right? They want to know that they're being spoken to and that their needs are

being met and that they are heard. So trying to personalize it as much as possible, but also

injecting your own personality and self into that is really important. That authenticity comes

through and this is something I really like to coach people on because if they're a little bit

shy about being on video, they say, hey, Margaret, I can't do video like you. And I say, I don't want

you to do video like me. I want you to do video like you. That authenticity really comes through

and that's ultimately what builds a lot of trust. Oh, sorry, you look like you're going to say so.

What does authenticity mean in a video? How do I be my authentic self? People use authenticity

all the time and I, for the life of me, can't figure out what on earth that means when I'm

making a video for a customer. I think it takes a little bit of practice to kind of shake out the

cobwebs if you've never done it before. But I want you to think like you're talking to someone that

you're friends with, right? So not a casualness where it's, you know, maybe your best friend,

but an acquaintance, someone that you've known and you're just being genuine and warm in yourself.

And that also means that mistakes are totally fine. I think sometimes people think they're

making a commercial. You're not making a commercial. It doesn't need to be perfect.

Yeah, you don't need a script. You just need to flow. Exactly. And then that really kind of comes

through. And then of course, I always want people to give a really strong call to action so people

know what to do next. All right. Before we show our first video, tell us why is it that video

in 2026 January connects better with a consumer than a text message or an email or a phone call?

Why is the video so powerful today? Well, first off, I want to let you know that video is not

taking the place of those things, right? We're still making phone calls and leaving voicemails

and we're sending our videos through email and text. So this is about supplementing that outreach.

But if you think about when you are out in your daily life, people are in their phones,

they're scrolling, what are they doing? They're looking at videos, yeah, TikTok and Instagram

and Facebook and all the videos. Yeah, YouTube. It's the preferred medium for people today.

It's how they research. It's how they get entertainment. It's how they collect their

information. And so we want to speak their preferred language. And it's just because

it's so much more engaging and builds way more trust than just a standard text or text only email.

Yeah. And actually, there's some data behind showing that was we did our research showing

that people actually keep videos longer. So if maybe they don't watch the video initially or

maybe they watch it, they're more reticent to delete that than they are a text or an email.

They see it less like spam, particularly if it's personalized, right? Absolutely. And it's way more

shareable too. I mean, it's not uncommon for people to take co-videos and they'll say,

Hey, Margaret, I sent this to one person, but they've watched it five, 10 times. I'm like,

well, guess what? They probably sent it to their wife. They sent it to a friend or they sent it

to their kids. Check this out. This is the car I'm thinking about buying. It builds that excitement

way more shareable. Yeah. So Lauren Klein online, long time a viewer and contributor in the comments

says 100% on authenticity. It adds so much to that transparency and trust. And then she says,

it's all about making it easier to do business with us. And I think that's absolutely true.

So Margaret, are you ready? Should we go in? There are four videos. These are in no uncertain

order. I think let's show each video and then let's have a little bit of a conversation about

what are the strengths of each video, tips, what you would do. And then what we're going to do is

on our championship round, we're going to give them one final task each of the four and they're

going to make another video that they'll bring on our final show on our final round, January 30th.

It's a Friday and we'll crown the champion. So first up, let's go to suburban Buick GMC of Troy.

All right guys, this is Chris from suburban Buick GMC of Troy,

bringing you out the GMC Yukon with the AT4 package.

Under the hood, we've got the 5.3 liter V8 engine. It's also paired with the 10 speed transmission.

We've got the 20 inch all carbon flash wheels and then we've got the all terrain tires as well.

Okay family, now that we're actually driving the Yukon, you can really feel how

smooth the AT4 package is, especially with the air rides suspension. With the AT4 package,

you can really feel how solid and controlled it is. This package comes with the black

engine.

If you're interested in this GMC Yukon AT4, please feel free to reach me at this number so we can

schedule a test drive. All right, Margaret, give us some tips and then I've got to take here.

Yes, so I'll tell you a couple things he did really well. One, the fact that he is out there

doing it in not great weather, I think he's actually leveling up and saying, I'm here for you.

I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm trusting that guy. That's authentic, right? Yes, totally.

Totally authentic. He's not waiting for the perfect moment. He's going out and doing it.

I love that he shows his face and introduces himself. So many people want to hide behind the

camera, but the trust building happens when you get to see them, be your authentic self.

He knows his stuff. He had a lot of great information in there. I would say at a couple

of things. The music got a little bit loud and overpowered the audio of what he was saying,

and that's the most important thing is the narration. And then at the end, I'd like to hear

an even stronger call to action. Like, hey, this is a great car. It's flying off a lot.

If you are interested, call me. Text me. Make an appointment now.

Yeah. Yeah. Lauren Klein gives him props. He says, big props. He did it one-handed,

which is true. He was holding the umbrella with one hand and then showed with the other. So

very good comment. A couple of questions about the music because the music did overpower the

voice from online. YogaCar says, is music from the video or you added it for the show? No,

the music is from the video, but he had captions, which I really like the use of closed captions.

The question I have on music and captions, and you would know this using your technology or similar,

is it easy to do that? When I'm thinking about a customer response to a lead,

it's got to be scalable, right? As a salesperson, I have to be able to go out, record that,

put it together quickly, and then send it in fast enough fashion that I can do multiple of

them a day. How long do you think a video like that takes? And we'll ask him when he comes on

the show. But yeah, for that one, it took probably a little bit longer because it does have that

level of polish and he's meshed in all those clips together. I think he's doing the most for a

competition, which is great. But I also want people to know it doesn't, you can do that in one take.

You can do a walk around in an intro and it can still be incredibly effective. So I don't want

people to feel intimidated by that. But one thing that's really cool is we're actually adding AI

music for CoVideo here coming up really soon. And it's actually going to change the tone for you,

like automatically love level. So that way it's not getting in the way of that audio and that

voiceover. So we're excited about that. That's smart. And when you're creating video, you got to be

cognizant of copyright rules and laws too, right? So I would assume that most platforms

that push out through CRM's CoVideo and others are going to allow you to select music that's

okay to use. I like the music. I think it's baby. It creates a fine tone to it. Yeah. And it makes

you smile. It makes me smile when I hear it. And but that's, but that's Julie take away props to

Yeah, 100%. It was the weather, the fact that so many people create these fake barriers of like,

Oh, I can't do it right now. I'll wait for the sun to come out this that no, you have a customer,

you need to connect with them, go outside rain or shine. And to your point, the fact that it was

raining or it's snowing and made it even better because it's like, this is how much I want to

connect with you. I'm outside. Here's the truck. It's a beauty. Let's go. My only critique was

again, just the level of that volume, but everything else I thought was great.

Colin online says, Chris knows how to play ball and Jay makes a great point online. He says,

you know, you can pick up a low quality, a low cost, but quality wireless mic set for your phone

for under $100. It's a great investment for any sales rep for video. And talk to us about that,

Margaret. The value of having really good audio is high, right? Audio is a difference maker in

any video because it connects. Absolutely. You've got to be able to hear what you're saying. It has

to be clear. Your message is one of the most important things. So that comment, they're exactly

right. You can buy something real cheap. Just clip it on your shirt right here and that'll connect

to your phone. But also there are some cool tools, usually with platforms out there like CoVideo,

where we've got background noise reduction that's helping do some of that work for you.

Yeah. And also almost everyone has AirPods now. You can use what you update. You can use your

AirPods as the mic. So yeah, yep, yep. But as long as you go through some sort of filtering

software after, which I think CoVideo and similar platforms would have where it will filter out the

background noise because AirPods without that additional enhancement probably don't sound great.

Do they, Margaret? Well usually you want to say there's just a little toggle on that says,

hey yeah, reduce that background noise and that's going to happen for you. That's incredibly important

if you're out on a busy lot or in the service drive where things get really noisy. So it really

comes in handy there. I recommend people use it. Yeah. All right. Our second finalist, and again

these are in no uncertain order, comes from a place that makes me super happy because today

it is snowing in the footprint here in the upper Midwest where it is cold as all get out. So let's

turn to Airstream of South Florida with a vehicle arm. Hey everyone, welcome to Airstream of South

Florida. Today we are giving you a quick tour of the all new 2026 Airstream Interstate 19x

LE Outland Edition. This isn't just any class B, it's a special collector's edition. And what makes

it even more exciting is that this right here is number eight of only 30 being made. If you're

craving rugged capability, elevated comfort and electric innovation, this is the rig that checks

off every box. Built on the Mercedes Benz all-wheel drive chassis with all-terrain tires and

upgraded suspension, the 19xC is ready to take you off the beaten path in serious style. With up to

5,000 pounds of towing capacity and flexible cargo space, it's perfect for your toys, tools, and

trail ready gear. Inside is sleek and functional with ultra leather seating, a full galley and

smart use of space, but one of our favorite features, the sound system. Airstream partnered

with Focal, a world-renowned audio brand to create a high fidelity surround sound experience.

With premium speakers and an integrated subwoofer, your road trip playlist, podcast, or movie night

will sound crisp, clear, and full of depth, just like you're in a luxury studio. You're also powered

by Airstream's E1 package, complete with Volta Lithium Solar and an advanced energy management

system for off-grid freedom without compromise. So if you're ready to elevate your adventure game,

the 2026 Interstate Outland is waiting. Come experience it in person right here at Airstream

of South Florida, and remember, adventure sounds way better in an Airstream. Lauren's a pro. I love

Lauren. She's a co-video user and she just kills it every single time. I'll jump in and say some

of the stuff if you don't mind. I think she did really well. So first off, pro tip, if you're

either inside or outside in decent weather, so smart to have the trunk up, the doors open. It

makes that walk around really easy and smooth for you to do. So you're not opening and closing doors.

You see it and you're like, oh, wow, look at that. That thing is fully loaded. So you get excited

right away. She goes and actually does these walkarounds and then we'll use our voiceover to

do the narration afterwards and then shares this out with everybody on her team so that they can use

it. And that is a great way to do some personalization at scale. So she kills it. So is that,

Lauren Klein does ask online. She says, is that an AI speaker? So is that an AI voice or is that

her voice? It's not. It is Lauren's voice. Lauren is a pro. She knows her stuff. She loves going out

there and doing it. So she does the walk around. She does the narration through co-video afterwards

and you've got that feature for you. And then she shares that with everybody on her team so that

they've got that right there at their fingertips. And so now if a lead comes in, they can send that

out automatically. So that's an alternate way to having the individual sales consultant send it out.

You can have them kind of prepackaged for each vehicle and send them out that way.

CDG's own Michelle says, my birthday's coming up. Adding that to my wish list. Evan Wright says,

what's up, Sam? What's up, Evan? Thanks for watching. So he's a Ziggler, one of our own here at

Ziggler. So all right, cool video. Julian, any thoughts on that besides the warm weather? I want

one of those bales. Like that is cool. Really cool. So it automatically makes the video a little bit

better. But no, 100% spot on the fact that the doors are open. You can see all the goodies.

That's, it was almost the one shot. Yeah, it's almost the one shot where it's just walking around.

And this just goes to the point again, you don't need to overcomplicate it. You don't need two people.

You don't need a tripod. Shoot the video. And then if you don't have the ability to do the audio

right there, go back and do the voiceover because that's super compelling. And if I'm in the market

for that, I'm watching that video over and over again. I'm sending that to my wife. I'm sending

that to my friends. Check out this cool thing I want to buy. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, all right.

Well, I like that as a process. You can pre-record those, share it with your team and then the team

can send it out if there's a fear of creating your own video. And we're going to talk a little

bit about that in a minute, what might be driving some hesitancy of salespeople and service folks

creating a video. But next up, again, no uncertain order, third finalist from Benzo Bush Motors,

which we had on the show here last week, was a Mercedes-Benz service NPI. Let's go there now.

Hello. Thank you for choosing Benzo Bush Mercedes-Benz. My name is Jason. You're certified

Mercedes-Benz technician and I'm the one that's been working on your car today.

Today, I performed a 80,000 mile or eight-year service. That service consisted of a few things,

starting off with the engine oil and filter change, replacing of your brake fluid. Your

brake fluid reservoir is located underneath of here, replacing both of your front wiper blades,

as well as both of your AC cabin filters. You have a dust filter located underneath of here

and your main cabin filter located underneath of the glove box. In addition to that, I topped

off some of your fluids under the hood, like your coolant and your washer fluid, which you have

right over here. I also corrected your vehicle's tire pressure. Very important to note that during

the spring, summer and fall, Mercedes-Benz recommends 32 psi in all of your tires. During the winter

time, we highly recommend increase your tire pressures by three or four psi. So with that being

said, I put 36 psi in all of your tires just for the winter time. I also performed an overall

vehicle multipoint inspection, which consisted of inspecting your engine compartment,

as well as the undercarriage. And I'm happy to say that your car is in excellent condition.

Once again, that goes for your engine compartment and undercarriage, including things like your

suspension components, drive train components, etc. I found no leaks, nothing broken or out of place.

In regards to all of your vehicle's brake pads, rotors and tires, I'm also happy to report that

they're in excellent condition. In regards to your tires and brakes, they all actually measure

at 50% of their lifespan left, which may not sound like a lot, but that is extremely healthy.

So you will not have to worry about tires and brakes for an extremely long time.

Other than that, that actually concludes the service and the multipoint inspection.

After this video is completed, I'll be sending your vehicle out for a car wash,

and your advisor will contact you when your vehicle is ready for pickup. And I'll also be cleaning

your engine compartment. Obviously, this is my favorite part. And here's the after. Thank you very

much. Have a great day. I mean, David is a pro. He is telling me stuff I didn't know. You know,

I'm like, he is educating me and giving like incredible tips. He's being very, very thorough.

I love the before and after. I thought that was so smart. And he props to him because he gave a

very specific call to action or what happened next. Like, hey, one of our service providers

is going to be reaching out to you when it's done. So you're not just like, hey, cool,

thanks for sending this. What's next? He tells you exactly what to expect next. So great job.

So what would you say to a service technician that sees this and is like, I would love to be

able to do that and deliver that value to my clients, but I don't like, I don't speak well.

I don't, you know, I'm uncomfortable being on camera. Like of the least customer facing position

in many dealerships, it's a technician, right? And it is a little bit of an uncomfortable position

to all of a sudden beyond video. Where do you get training to do this? Because he did an awesome

job and we saw many similar videos. It takes training to do this, right? Yeah, exactly. Well,

I think what's important is what we're doing right now. We're showing what does good look like,

you know? And it does take a little practice, but I also want to soothe their concerns and be like,

hey, you are the expert in what you're doing. You know your stuff in and out. Yeah. It doesn't

have to be totally perfect. You noticed that video was a little bit shaky. I'd love to see him reduce

that, that shake just a little bit through stabilization, but overall that doesn't matter

to me as that customer. I got an awesome experience. I feel like they were being incredibly

transparent and like I'm in really, really good hands with them. So just to get, I always want

impress upon people. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's going to take a couple times to get a little

bit more comfortable, but he gets to even be behind the camera. Doesn't even have to show his face

and it's still very, very authentic. So here's one of the parts I love about this video. So how

many times have any of us weather changes? It either gets colder or warmer. That tire light comes on

and you're like, what am I supposed to put my tires to? And you're sitting in front of the tire

machine at the gas station trying to fill your tires or take pressure out. I love that he gives you

the pressure and then the season. Yes. And I'm going to keep that video if I'm a consumer and I'm

going to go back to it. And what great advertisement for the dealership to have a consumer go back to

that over and over again. A couple great comments online. And Dancy, I agree with this. Dancy says

the last one just need a little bit of stabilization. We made that point. Gimbal goes a long way in

producing a quality video. However, I would say that even a little bit of destabilizing,

I think that goes to the effective service. And I think it's okay. Totally. I think it's okay.

David Cerquera, who was on the show says, be yourself as customers are not expecting actors.

I think that awesome authenticity goes a long way to creating that connection and credibility.

One thing I did notice and I love with this and it's Mercedes Benz, the best or nothing. We have

a Benz store. The facility around it is gorgeous. And you see a clean space where that video is being

filmed and it also increases credibility in what's being shared with that. So

how did he do the before and after clean and dirty? Did he re-hoist it again after it was

cleaned? Because that is a little bit of work, I would say. I don't know exactly. I think what he

probably did. So he probably did the walk around first, paused his video. So he's not doing a totally

new clip. He's just pausing it and then restarting it when he's ready to do that next, that big before

and after reveal. But that was just so smart. That is something I actually haven't seen before. I

thought it was really clever and so fun from the customer's perspective. I'm like, oh, that looks

so great. How satisfying. Yeah. I love it. It's pulling on my OCD too. And Sam, I wonder if customers

notice how clean the shop is because I mean, we're car guys, we're the professionals, so we notice a

clean shop. But the hood, to me the whole time, I'm like, man, those leaves are bugging me. So

when he cleans it, that's why I wrote to the producers. I'm like, make sure this plays all

the way out because to me, that's the best part. I also love a clean bill of health. It doesn't

always need to be selling, right? This needs to be informative and transparent. I have your back.

Here's what I did. This is why. So we're educating the customer. Again, we're the professionals. The

customer is not. So it's a tremendous amount of value. I think it builds a lot of trust and

you did a fantastic job. Yeah. All right. Let's go finally up. Cavender Cadillac. This is a pre

appointment sales. A little bit more production on this one, but let's go there. Cavender Cadillac.

Hey, Mr. Jones, it's Taylor over at Cavender Cadillac. I know we talked about surprising

your wife with a new vehicle and I think I have the perfect one. So this is the 2025 Escalade IQ

in our black cherry color. And let me tell you five reasons why I know she'll love this vehicle.

First, who doesn't love a frunk? I love it. This is actually the longest range electric vehicle

that Cadillac makes. And I know when we talked earlier, you said that y'all love to take those

road trips with you and the kids and never seen before 55 inch infotainment screen where the

passenger can actually watch their favorite shows. And that's you, Mr. Jones and three rows of seats

with a ton of space, which will minimize fighting during those road trips and zero to 60 and 4.7

seconds. Mr. Jones, I think this is the perfect vehicle to surprise Mrs. Jones with. I'll see

you later this afternoon for your appointment here at the store and I can't wait for you to

test drive this vehicle. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to give me a call or email me.

Margaret is selling her butt off. I am blown away. Like, obviously, this is a she really went

all out for the competition. So again, this doesn't have to be what your videos look like every single

day high production value, high production value, put a lot of thought and a lot of effort, different

camera angles, clearly using some stock footage that's available to her as well as her own.

But the level of personalization and, you know, just in terms of, you know, she listened to what

the customer is looking for. I'm like, can I be Mrs. Jones? So really tapping through what was

important to them, you know, of course, confirming next step. There is no way Mr. Jones does not

show up to that appointment. He shows. And by the way, he keeps that video and she instantly has

credibility for other options. He's going to be if he ends up saying I need to look at other cars

or I need to like, you know, I haven't found the right one, he's going to be waiting for that next

video or the next two or three video options. He's not going to just go away and purchase

another vehicle from another person. That is connection at its at its utmost. How long do

you think it takes to create something with that level of production value? Because that

truly is high value. She really, really thought through this. So not just the filming. So she

probably thought about what she was going to say, the timing for each of the scenes, changing the

humor angle, and then doing some editing afterwards. I mean, this probably took her an hour or more,

at least I would say, you know, whereas, you know, and ultimately what is it, you know, a two minute

video. And that's a sweet spot is actually below two minutes. So somewhere between 45 seconds and

like a minute and a half is really ideal. But like I said, for something like this, where

she's confirming the appointment, she's like, Hey, I really want to sell this. If she just

knocked it out of the park, and she's so warm, like I'm like, seems so loved to buy a car from

Taylor. Yeah, and a frunk. I didn't even know what a front was to be honest with you until

she opened that up and showed us. So it's educational as well that that display screen.

She just, she did a nice job. Paul Salisman says online personalized,

fast moving, compelling to watch. She keeps it moving and gets attention with those great edits.

And to your point, we don't need to have all the great edits to get it. So those are our four

finalists. We're going to give them a final task. Everybody's going to come on the show January 30th

Friday with their final video. And we're going to actually talk to each one of these creators,

understand what their process is, how often they do this, what the result is,

does it help sales? Does it help service? What is the net impact? So be ready with all of your,

all of your questions because we're going to get a talk to every single one of these.

But before we go, I want to go to the other side just a little bit. We had a ton of video

submissions. So we saw videos that ran the entire gambit and many of you sent in videos

we just couldn't bring into the final four, even though they were awesome.

But I also noticed a couple of things and I'm going to, I'm going to just call it out here.

We saw several videos of a salesperson who obviously is probably very good at selling,

who was monotone, drone, boring. Like if I got the video, I'd be like, I'm not,

I'm not that interested and excited. Why is it sometimes so tough for an individual salesperson's

personality to transfer onto that video? And we saw it in many of those video submissions,

if you recall. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good question. I think it's hard to say why for every

person. But I would say the main thing that's probably holding them back is they want to be

perfect. They don't want to make a mistake. They don't want to say something and be like,

oh, that's not what I mean and have to over correct themselves. So I just want people to

feel a little bit more loose to be who they are. And if you stumble over your words, that's totally

fine. Like in fact, like that's great. It lets you know there is a real person on the other end

of this. It's, it actually can work in your advantage. Margar, I have a theory. Yes. Do you want to

know my theory after we watched all of them? And by the way, we had videos from Canada. We had

international videos. It was awesome how much content we created. In fact, maybe we'll find a

place where we could deposit them all just so people could see them all. I think there are

dealerships where videos are not normalized. And so a salesperson walking out and taking a video

of themself in front of a car, I heard in some of those videos nerves and I heard fear of being

judged or scrutinized by other salespeople. And here's what I'm going to say. We've got to find

a way in automotive if we're going to connect with consumers online and we've got to. We've got to

normalize salespeople with an iPhone or a camera of some sort and a mic standing in front of a car

and doing a walk around or a product demo or an invitation that has to be as normal as I used to

sell Saturn's back in the nineties and we had that stupid demo car and we would go beat the car up.

We had to walk around it, jump on it, beat the panels up and you felt ridiculous in the moment

doing it, but it worked in connecting the customer to the value prop of that vehicle.

We've got to normalize taking videos and automotive for this to work, Barbara.

Totally. Well, and just like good on you for the people who are out there and doing it and

the folks who are not in the arena and by, I mean like not going up there and doing that.

Bernay Brown. Yeah, exactly. I love Bernay Brown. You don't get to criticize if you're not in the

arena, right? So if you're not willing to do it, you know, keep that to yourself, but everybody

else, good for you for putting yourself out there and for being vulnerable and trying something

different. Yeah. Yeah. Paul Salisman says online, would it make sense for a dealership to have a

production person that assists salespeople, does the edits, et cetera? Fick should always use the

tech because of credibility. I agree with that. And I think what's your take? Should you have a

designated individual or is the salesperson doing it or the tech uploading it into the

technology that delivers the video enough? Hey, would that be a dream world? Yeah, for sure. That

would be amazing to have on hand and they could go out and do a lot of those walk-arounds for you,

then you're doing the personalization at the beginning with like an intro, but I don't think

it's a necessity by any stretch of imagination. And in fact, there's even more trust that's built

when things are a little bit more raw, when things are really, really perfect.

You know, sometimes like, I don't mind someone get out there, especially for a used vehicle

and call out, here's what's great about it, but here's some imperfections. You know, that is even

more trust building and real to me. So I'm okay with that. All right, before we let you go and

we're about to go over on time, I know the producer is going to be like, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Two more videos. I want to show you from the service department because we got to that. I was

like, wow, this is educational. Let's go to Toyota of Nashua with a service follow-up. Today, we'll

be taking care of you with blue boil and filter service, tire rotation, all-wheel drive service,

transmission service, along with a complete video inspection. Your lights are in good working

condition. I did notice your rear wiper was not clearing very well. We'll be recommending

replacement of that wiper insert. Moving to the front of the vehicle, state inspection is up to

date. Also, there's the front wipers were not clearing very well, so I'll be recommending

replacement of those wiper inserts. Your battery did fail testing, so I will be recommending

replacement of that today. I did check and adjust your fluids to include topping off the

washer fluid. We will be taking care of your engine oil today. I do want to show you your cabin

air filter. I did not remove it from the air box because there is a large rodent nest up on top.

Check that out. So if I do remove that filter, that nest will drop down into the blower motor,

which is below it here. So I'm recommending replacement of the filter as well as some

time to clean that blower motor out once all that debris falls in. Your engine air filter is

starting to get dirty, so I'll be recommending replacement of that today as well. Serpent

Genebel is in good condition. No cracks. At this time, I'm going to pause the video and lift the

vehicle. Starting with the passenger's front tire tread depth measurement, 10-30 seconds,

passenger's rear 10-30 seconds, over to the driver's rear 10-30 seconds, and the driver's front

is 10-30 seconds for brake measurement. All right, producer, they did a good job. We can

pull that. So I love the rodent nest because that's something that is common. We see it in the

Midwest every now and again, and it's a tough sell to the consumer unless they can actually see it.

And he so matter-of-factly goes right by it, and that rodent could create other problems

eating through wires and up costing a wiring harness. And its ultimate credibility, that video

of it, that the consumer then can go back and watch over and over again if they need to, right,

Margaret? You got it. He's doing something amazing that my friend and colleague, Olivia,

called out to me that they say and talk about in journalism and media called Say Dog, See Dog.

So in journalism and media, when you say dog, you're showing a dog. When he's talking about

these things, he is showing them every little bit of that. And so he's narrating it. It all makes

sense. The trust building, I mean, hey, you're believing your own eyes because he's showing

you every little bit of it. Very thorough, great job. You get that video once. You're never going

to go anywhere else. Eager K says good and very detailed video, and he's 100% right. All right,

let's go one more because we're running to time. McGovern Auto Group with a service vehicle

via video inspection. Good afternoon, Eric, and the technician working on your Sienna today.

Brought the vehicle in the shop. You had multiple warning lights on your hybrid system.

Hooked up the scan tool to perform a health check. The scan tool could not communicate with your

engine ECU, which is this thing right here. Everything else communicated normally. The

codes in the hybrid system were for no communication with this ECU. This ECU controls your engine.

It looks like what happened is

someone jumped started the battery under the hood on this port. I love this.

If you look closely at this bracket, there's some scrap marks.

They probably use this as a ground, and this is attached to the engine ECU,

and that caused the engine ECU to get fried. I did check for power and ground at your connector

here. You have good power and ground, but there's no communication with this engine ECU.

So we're going to have to replace that. Also going to have to replace your battery. It's

extremely weak, so we're going to recommend that. Engine filter and cabin filter look.

All right, we can go from there. If you've never done a brake fluid.

So Margaret, the consequences of a bad battery jump, a lot of people may not see that. It fried

an expensive component that repair bills not going to be cheap, but he did a great job educating

the consumer. The level of expertise that is coming through in this just makes you feel like,

wow, I get it, because there's always that barrier in automotive and sales and in service,

where we're trying to get through that wall of trust. Automatically, people have their guard up,

so we've got to overcome that. He's doing an incredible job doing this, being very thorough.

I also really love that he says why they came in. So just again, like, hey, I'm calling the customer

by name. Here's why you brought it in. I understand that and this is what's going on. Killer job.

So props to our four finalists. We'll be reaching out to you. Suburban BOGMC of Troy,

Airstream of South Florida, Benzel Bush, and Cavender Cadillac. You'll be competing for the

ultimate trophy of winner of the first ever car dealership guy video competition.

$1,000 cash trophy, but you'll also have an appearance at that final video.

January 30th, we're excited to have everybody back. And Margot Henney, Vice President,

Marketing at CoVideo. Thanks for being on the show today, sharing your perspectives and

really teaching us what it takes to create a great video to connect with consumers. And the

call to action to our audience out there, whether it's CoVideo, whether it's another video delivery

system, get outside your comfort zone and creating these videos in service and sales and everywhere

to connect better with the consumer in this video driven world. Margot, thanks for being on

the show today. Thanks for having me guys. We'll see you soon. Thanks, Margaret.

That was fun. Yeah, I love it. I hope this gets clipped up and shared with dealerships all across

the country as people see the difference that that video can make. But before we go to our final

guest today, let's talk Experian. Today's episode is brought to you by Experian. Nearly 90% of

dealers say fraud is rising and 75% say it's already impacting operations. Stop it fast with

Experian Automotive Fraud Protect. Quickly validate customer identities and documents with zero

disruption to your sales flow or to the customer journey. Learn more by clicking the link in the

show notes below. And you can also, as always this way, click the QR code for more information.

But props to Experian for supporting today's content, including this cool conversation on all

things dealer video brought to you by Co-Video. Thanks, Experian. All right, let's turn to Nino

Sita. He's a return guest on the show. General Manager of Lindsay CDJR Nino. Welcome to the show.

Hey, guys. Thanks for having me again. Nino, thanks for being back. First off,

House Biz. And then for the part of our audience that isn't familiar, wasn't watching you before,

what do you do in the world? I sell Christchadodge D. Bram in Manassas, Virginia. We were in the

Northeast Business Center and we just closed the year second in the state of Virginia. We were the

number one certified store within two regions and top seven in the country. Beautiful. That's

awesome. So you've been on the show before. You actually talked video to you just happened to be

on the show when we announced the top four videos. What do you think of this whole video thing, the

videos we saw and then the act of creating a video for sales and or service? That last video,

the production was insane. I mean, that's something I've never seen before. The service videos are

where it's at and the texts that are jumping on this bandwagon, they're seeing the ASM

somewhere work for them. When you have that transparency and the MPI being done as meticulously

and it's just educational as they were doing it, that's the way the business is going. As

Margaret said, everybody spends so much time on their phone watching videos and you capture

their attention and you sell more work and you sell more cars and you make more money when you

do it 100% of the time. So what's your standard in your dealership there? You've seen a huge increase

in the units you sell. Do you have a benchmark or do you have a standard within Lindsay CDJR as it

relates to video creation and service and sales? In sales, it's 100%. If you don't send videos,

you don't get leads. It's that simple. We sent, we recorded over a thousand videos last month.

One roughly about a thousand total leads. Everybody gets a video for a phone up, for

internet lead, even for walk-ins that didn't buy CSI follow-up, appointment confirmation.

If we could shoot a video, we'd do it and it's impactful. We closed 36% of our phone-ups last

month, 14.8% of internet leads. When you start looking at that as an average and you look at

what you're doing now, my only difference versus what you do if you're not sending videos is the

video. Yeah. So talk to us about your DMS and your CRM. Do you send it through the CRM?

So we're e-leads dealers, so we have that fluid compatibility with co-video. So it's all right

there in the text box when you're sending an email. The way it integrates with co-video is

absolutely fantastic. So when you came aboard Lindsay CDJR, they weren't doing videos. Talk to

us a little bit. Was there a pain process from before to now? And how did you overcome the

salesperson reticence to doing and creating this and sending it? So I have been with co-video

since I was a VP of another group back in 2019. So when I came to the Lindsay group, I brought a

good number of sales managers and sales people with me. So they knew the Nino process and they

bought in because they saw how much it impacted their paycheck and how much money they made.

You know, the ones that were here, I mean, it is like steer in the Titanic to a certain degree,

but as soon as they start seeing the other guys closing more and selling more cars and making

more money, everybody comes to work every day to make more money. I mean, I don't know what I have

to do. If I see the results, that's the buy-in. The text is a little bit harder. So like,

we're 100% in videos and sales every single month. We've been tackling service the last

probably three months or so. And we sent about 170 videos on a 450 RO account. So about 30%.

We'll get to 100% by the end of the year. But you know, when you have some of these guys that

have been doing this for a long time and they don't want to be on camera, they don't want to

talk to a customer about a car. But then they see some of the guys that have bought in and

their upsells going up and their hours per RO going up. You know, everybody wants to make more money.

You're a general manager and you know those numbers instantly. Like you had those to instant

recall. Why do you know the numbers? Why are you bothering yourself with that little detail?

Well, because I mean, I personally sent like 71 videos last month myself. Like,

so I'll take I'll take uncontacted in the CRM over 10 days. And I'll send them in a video. I'll shoot

a generic video. Hey, you're still on the market. I want to help you buy a car. Let me get personally

involved above your trade. I'll help you with the rate. Interesting. That's my customer. That's

my contact rate is the strongest in my group because it just takes that little nudge and I'm

a salesperson. I got a fancy title. Just the salesperson, you know, so when a customer goes,

oh my goodness, the general manager reached out to me. Yeah, it's a huge response rate, you know.

But yeah, I stay on top because I it's my paycheck. Actually, I would imagine the 100%

rate on the sales floor is because you did it first. You set the standard and you know exactly

how to do it. Yeah, so yeah. So just out of curiosity, since we've talked all video today,

we won't get away from it. We'll lean into this. You're a GM. You decide to go out and create a

video that you send to select customers. Is it on your iPhone that you go out and create this?

Do you have a mic? Do you walk out on the lot? Where are you? Give us your process as you do

this as a leader. So it makes me smile. I look at my report from last month. My top three out of

five in my store and videos sent and viewed were sales managers. So these guys, we have really

nice Logitech, you know, that's the camera, PC cameras, they pull the car up on a BDP, they pull

a worksheet up on another screen, they have their face right in the middle, and they go through

the car, they go through the iPad, they go through the car facts, then they present the numbers

transparent right on the other side, send the customer the link, and the view rate is over and

over and over again, because like, oh, yeah, that matches up my sales tax, my zip code. When I send

a video, I like, if I'm sending a video on my store like nudging the customer if they're still in

the market, I put my website up, and then I put my Google review page up on the other side. We have

over 7,000 Google reviews at a 4.6 rating. So I talk about why you want to do business with me in my

store and with the Lindsey Group. It's because we take care of customers as a transparent buying

experience. And we're a top volume dealer. And I go through all of that. And, you know, the sweet

spot is about a minute and a half. But they're doing that video at your desk, then you're not out on

the lot, you're doing it at your desk. Yeah, when I do my desk, but like, I'm, I'm probably one of

the biggest Hellcat dealerships in the country. I love buying these specialty cars. My showroom

right now probably has a million dollars of Hellcat sitting out there. So I love taking those

videos for customers. I personally own, you know, between two Hellcats, a Viper, a TRX myself. So

like, I like talking horsepower. So we got, we got a lead on a cool car. I'll grab the salesperson

out there. I have them recording you want to walk around. Because I just like talking about the

cool cars. So you talked about the challenge with technicians sometimes if they don't want to be on

camera, they're not used to it. It's not what they signed up for. How are you training them to do

that? Like who's training on, like we saw, we saw three really good examples of technician walk

rounds. And there was a lot of detailed information on that. And it takes a little bit of organization

in your head to like, pull that off. Is there, who handles the training on that? So my service

director, Mike, you know, he has a contest every week where he picks the best video of the text.

And we'll just randomly, you know, spiff him, buy him lunch, you know, just to get them, you know,

somewhat excited and engaged. But it is such a learning curve because we're all salespeople

are actors. Like we can get on camera, we can get on stage and we just can start going.

Tech start like that. They don't want like, then I'm okay. Even like someone's videos,

you'll see the technicians face, we're just fine. You know, the car is the star. You know,

I'm okay as long as you're just go on over, start small, right? Let's start up with an MPI.

It's so great to send a green MPI video. Hey, you're doing a great job taking care of your car.

Here's your undercarriage. Here's your tires about 50%, brakes about 50%.

When you start getting like some of those diagnostic videos, those are awesome. You just

got to make sure they don't go too much in detail because sometimes these guys will just start going

on and on and on. Yeah. Yeah. So Dave Thomas from CDK came in the comments and says, that's

quite a personal garage. Nice, nice collection there. So props to you on that. So let's, let's

transition just gently away and talk CPOs for a minute. Your goal is top five CPO in the nation

in 2026. You're already crushing it in the CPO world. What are two or three levels you're pulling

in the CPO world to have the success and the results you're getting? You know, it's my best sales

people and they go over a used car walk around is they first read the I packet, they go through

the service receipts and I got this one guy CJ, he will literally do a walk around, go, hey,

it's got brand new front brakes. See these tires, it's still got the little nipples on,

it's still got brand new tires, air filter's been replaced, cabin filter's been replaced.

As you're doing the walk around, he's being transparent. Like I probably sell 35, 40 CPO a

month off site delivery, you know. So I want to be transparent about the car. If there's a

nick or a dent, you know, once again, I try to sell a really quality product and I try to make

it as perfect as possible but it's still a pre-owned car. So we're really transparent about

the walk around. We go through I packet religiously. I mean, every customer gets an I packet and we go

through the car facts and we try to do it all fluidly through that one minute 45 video. So

the I packet you mentioned is it's kind of a history file on the vehicle, right? That's

a I packet is a company that will deliver basically a history. Maybe tell everybody what I packet is.

So I packet will deliver the customer their original options list, the MSRP. It will go through a

brochure telling you about the hot, the hot buns on the car. It has a car facts and then my favorite

is it integrates directly with your DMS and shows a copy of the service receipt. So it shows that

the car's been certified. Oil's been changed, wipers been replaced, air filter's been replaced

and it goes through a line by line by line just to give the customer the most transparent

mind experience buying a pre-owned car because, you know, that people are scared. I mean, there's

some dealerships that still does do business the wrong way. They don't fix the cars, right? They

sell cars with brakes at 230 seconds, barely passing safety inspection. So the first time

the customer gets their first roll change, they get with a hefty bill and it's good to tell the

consumer that, go, hey, if you're shopping my car versus another car, ask for the service records.

If they don't give you a multi-point, won't give you what they spent on the car,

there holds something back from you, right?

Interesting. Yeah. So Joseph Anderson comes into the comments online, says,

my grandmother lives in the DMV area and purchased a Pacifica from Lindsay. They're amazing. She

won't service anywhere else. So props from a buyer on a customer out there, presumably in the auto

industry as well. So talk to us a little bit about F&I in your world and let's stay on the video

topic. Do you do anything with video with your F&I managers? So, yeah, Mike. So like I said,

we do a lot of off-site deliveries. We're shipping the car or one of my guys is driving the car out.

We're really doing a lot more of the virtual. Everybody has an iPad. We're doing a FaceTime

walk around with a digital presentation with the menu right there. I've got a fantastic F&I team.

We want to sell the car protected as possible. So we really focus on product penetration more

than anything and going through the customer with the customer line by line, virtually,

if they're not in the store. And you'll be surprised as a product you can sell even on a cash

deal that's going across the country as long as you show value and you have fair pricing.

And these guys are extremely knowledgeable and they know, you know, the ins and outs of the cars

and, you know, things break. I mean, that's why you want the car protected.

Khalid Isaac online says, love, iPad. Also, if you change the price of the unit, the customer

gets notified. So you do the video, you send the video out, they've reviewed it, and then they get

updates as they go on and on and on. So tell us what's one video habit you'd mandate in every

dealership tomorrow if you're running a 10 store group. So if you, it's probably what you've already

mandated, right? 100% utilization and sales. So the car is the star and it's always that's for

sales and service. My really good salespeople have gotten to the point where they use a gimbal.

They have their little picture in the corner of the car on the big part of the screen,

they're using both cameras and every car has to have a video walker.

Introduction videos are great. I've seen some fantastically just edited and production quality

introduction videos of the store. But like, you can tell it's the same video going in every customer.

Make it personal, ask open any questions. Because, you know, the biggest thing with my

first video is I want to response back from the customer and of course have the call to action.

So, you know, read the lead, answer questions, ask questions,

the car is the star and ask for the appointment. And that's, that's, man,

if you could do that 100% of the time in every store, we'd sell, you know, 25 million cars a month,

you know. A lot of comments in the text chain saying you are a great general manager who is

active and who's setting the standard, but not also not not just asking people to do things you

wouldn't do, but being a leader by doing it first. And I got to tell you, I think that's a

big difference maker in your world versus a lot out there. There are too many that kind of stand

back and say, you know what, I can't do this or I won't do that. And that's a difference maker in

technology. It's like, if we want to win in technology, whether it's AI, whether it's tech,

whether it's video, whatever, as a general manager leader, you've got to understand it and learn it

first in order to be able to demonstrate it and be it later on down the road. Any final thoughts,

Nino? We appreciate you being on the show today. No, thank you so much for having me on again,

guys. And if you're not shooting videos in your store, just try it. And like, it's tough the

first time, it's scary the first time. And then you can do a certain point where it's like, if you

don't do it, you're like, man, I'm not doing the right thing. And I promise you, do it for a month,

do it habitually 100% of the time. Don't be perfect. I say, I'm a lot when I'm watching my

shooting. They're like, oh, we're human. We make mistakes. We're not perfect. And people,

when they see that on the other end of the camera, like, man, I'm going to buy from a normal guy.

Khalid Isaac says, leading from the front, which you absolutely are, Nino Cida,

general manager, Lindsay CDJR. Thanks for being back on the show as a repeat guest. We appreciate

you being on. Thanks for sharing your perspectives on all things video and how you're crushing it

in your world today. Thank you for being on today. Thank you so much. And hey, as a reminder to

everybody out there, January 30th, that will be our championship round. See the four winners from

today as they compete for that crown, the thousand bucks, and their opportunity to be on the show

today. Yuli, thanks for being on. It's a heck of a lot of fun to review all those videos. Yes.

It was awesome. The moment we've been waiting for. All right. To everybody out there, thanks for

watching Daily Dealer Live, 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 and subscribe, turn on those notifications so you never ever miss a beat.

And we'll see you next episode, everybody. Thanks for being here. Thanks guys.

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