Question for GMs, General Sales Managers, and Sales Managers

[KianT]

Hi everyone, hope you're having a great Sunday so far. I wanted to ask anyone who is a GM, General Sales Manager, or Sales Manager a question as a vendor. What is the best way to reach you?

I've been reaching out via email because I'm sure you receive a lot of calls and are focused on sales. My goal is not to be a nuisance, because what we do really does help, so I want to know your perspective on it being on the other end. I also reach out more on Mondays since it's the slowest day.

 

[Todd Thompson]

Not sure there really is a 'good' way. You have to understand, if you are at all a visible dealer/auto group, you get about a billion emails, calls, linkedin etc. etc. And everybody's solution is going to solve some problem (imaginary or real), far as the rep is concerned.

Myself, rightfully or wrongfully, I simply block most of the emails from external trying to change my life for $XXX per rooftop.

Many are form/salesforce generated emails that by simply reading you know they have no idea what it is your dealer/group is all about.

What about a trade show. Then at least they are asking for it.

 

[KianT]

Not sure there really is a 'good' way. You have to understand, if you are at all a visible dealer/auto group, you get about a billion emails, calls, linkedin etc. etc. And everybody's solution is going to solve some problem (imaginary or real), far as the rep is concerned.

Myself, rightfully or wrongfully, I simply block most of the emails from external trying to change my life for $XXX per rooftop.

Many are form/salesforce generated emails that by simply reading you know they have no idea what it is your dealer/group is all about.

What about a trade show. Then at least they are asking for it.

Hi Todd, thanks for the insight. You are correct in that dealerships receive a ton of inbound contact, and it makes sense for them to really focus on the ones from customers. I remember this from my first job at a dealership.

Trade shows are an interesting option. It makes sense considering it's more of an "appropriate" setting, but considering what we offer is a low cost/no set up tool, my goal personally with outreach is just to make sure dealerships know we exist.

Also Todd, I promise I'm not looking for any kind of sale but if you could share your thoughts on what I'm working on I'd really appreciate it. Just your thoughts because the last thing I want to do is work on something dealerships don't even find value in.

What we're working on is a way to create great listing descriptions quickly and consistently. I've always noticed the descriptions on dealer listings are either 1. Blocks of car specs with commas 2. An afterthought 3. Have typos. Is there a reason for this? When I worked at a dealership we just didn't have enough time to type out a personalized description for each car or enough skilled writers to write a good description. Do you think dealerships would find value in a solution to this?

Really appreciate it if I could have your thoughts!

 

[DrewAment]

Ninjas - Why it is Time to Stop Ignoring Vendors

Why it’s Time to Stop Ignoring Vendors I get it: sales calls are annoying. They are intrusive and constant, so why is it time to stop ignoring them? Because vendors are highly trained and are up to date on current tech and trends. It never hurts to learn what your competition is doing or how...

forum.dealerrefresh.com

^^ My thoughts

 

[KianT]

Ninjas - Why it is Time to Stop Ignoring Vendors

Why it’s Time to Stop Ignoring Vendors I get it: sales calls are annoying. They are intrusive and constant, so why is it time to stop ignoring them? Because vendors are highly trained and are up to date on current tech and trends. It never hurts to learn what your competition is doing or how...

forum.dealerrefresh.com

^^ My thoughts

Thank you for that Drew! Super valuable information. I've elected to use email so that the people I contact can check when they have the time because I used to work at a dealership and know the time constraints. However no one wants to read a page long email, I wish I could dive deep into why the product works, my background, etc. but think I should leave that for an email post reply.

Also considering our product is very straight forward both in it's usage and concept, I would say it doesn't even require a meeting but more so up to the dealership to think if they need it or not. We make the description part of car listings actually good vs an afterthought. Listing photos get love but descriptions don't. Thinking of sending before and after photos of dealer listing's descriptions to contacts with a very brief email.

Do you think a "to the point" email would be a good way to email (to respect the contacts time)? And definitely considering the trade shows.

 

[Todd Thompson]

Hi Todd, thanks for the insight. You are correct in that dealerships receive a ton of inbound contact, and it makes sense for them to really focus on the ones from customers. I remember this from my first job at a dealership.

Trade shows are an interesting option. It makes sense considering it's more of an "appropriate" setting, but considering what we offer is a low cost/no set up tool, my goal personally with outreach is just to make sure dealerships know we exist.

Also Todd, I promise I'm not looking for any kind of sale but if you could share your thoughts on what I'm working on I'd really appreciate it. Just your thoughts because the last thing I want to do is work on something dealerships don't even find value in.

What we're working on is a way to create great listing descriptions quickly and consistently. I've always noticed the descriptions on dealer listings are either 1. Blocks of car specs with commas 2. An afterthought 3. Have typos. Is there a reason for this? When I worked at a dealership we just didn't have enough time to type out a personalized description for each car or enough skilled writers to write a good description. Do you think dealerships would find value in a solution to this?

Really appreciate it if I could have your thoughts!

HI, I'm sure you are hoping to do the same thing most are... use chatgpt to write car descriptions? As an independent business, I'd say that is too simple and can be easily replicated. We do our own inhouse dev and that is the direction we are going in. Easy to do, integrate using their API. It's a decent idea that doesn't warrant any real money when a dealer can at least go to chatgpt, put in a short year/make/model description and have it write it, then copy and paste.

That what you are looking to do?

 

[KianT]

HI, I'm sure you are hoping to do the same thing most are... use chatgpt to write car descriptions? As an independent business, I'd say that is too simple and can be easily replicated. We do our own inhouse dev and that is the direction we are going in. Easy to do, integrate using their API. It's a decent idea that doesn't warrant any real money when a dealer can at least go to chatgpt, put in a short year/make/model description and have it write it, then copy and paste.

That what you are looking to do?

Hi Todd, you're a smart guy. Yes that's exactly it. And I agree with you. It isn't some kind of defensible, super unique idea situation but we created a super simple user interface that makes it so that any employee could easily use it immediately. There are dealerships that could do what you're saying but I'm not sure how many actually know what to do or how to prompt. So we just make it all even easier. If a dealership cares about that, we provide value.

That's also why we've priced it very well, the value comes in convenience. The ultimate goal with it isn't to be a specified version of chatgpt but rather to use it as an "in" product. To learn about more problems dealerships have and then build solutions for those problems. I'm passionate about cars and love everything around cars. So I want to build solutions in that industry.

Even if we can use this simple product to help a % of dealerships create great descriptions consistently, I'm happy because we can build off that. Do you think that's possible? Now that you know the product, do you think trade show is still the best option? And please let me know what you think are the biggest challenges in the industry that would warrant real money.

 

[Todd Thompson]

My personal opinion... you don't have the right workflow for such a thing because you aren't aware of how the auto syndication plumbing works. I'm going to guess you haven't worked at a dealership in a role like that (used car manager) for example.

Your initial question was how should you go about contacting people. My response (maybe an autoshow), was because a huge amount of people with no car experience and what they think is a good idea suck up a lot of time pushing a product no one really is looking for.

You see everyone tries to dream up something the car industry could use because few industries actually spend any money other then automotive. For example... you aren't building this type of thing for any other industry like plumbers etc. If you did get a dealer or two it will be a small store and will be short lived.

I think its great working on ideas. I do it every day in my role. Its what makes my career rewarding for me. So I totally get it.

Here is a great example of an idea I developed/coded that won the GM Innovation Award:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiiEXdCra58


Identifying what is really the issue before you do anything and its looking like AI is the most 'hyped' tech this year. Machine Learning was last year.

I don't think what you are suggesting is it in its present form. But that is purely my opinion and if I was a genius, I'd be retired already. So take it as a few suggestions to consider and not negative at all.

 

[KianT]

You're correct, my role was not a used car manager and the workflow should 100% be problem -> solution, not the other way around. Wish I could watch the video you linked but your playback settings disable it.

I really do think listing descriptions suck at the moment, and do think generative AI helps solve that, it's just a case of it being distributed and deployed where it can make a difference. Now whether dealerships care enough about that to solve it on their own, let alone pay for it is a totally other question. It's the MOST important question.

Your suggestions and thoughts are extremely valuable because at the end of the day you're someone embedded in the industry. I'll absolutely consider your words and make a decision. No negativity perceived, only learning and evaluating. I appreciate it!

 

[Todd Thompson]

You're correct, my role was not a used car manager and the workflow should 100% be problem -> solution, not the other way around. Wish I could watch the video you linked but your playback settings disable it.

I really do think listing descriptions suck at the moment, and do think generative AI helps solve that, it's just a case of it being distributed and deployed where it can make a difference. Now whether dealerships care enough about that to solve it on their own, let alone pay for it is a totally other question. It's the MOST important question.

Your suggestions and thoughts are extremely valuable because at the end of the day you're someone embedded in the industry. I'll absolutely consider your words and make a decision. No negativity perceived, only learning and evaluating. I appreciate it!

just have to click on the actual 'watch on youtube link'. but here is a round about:

GM Innovation Award

steeleauto.com