Hmmmm, that's not possible. Our system can't produce a lead without the accompanying info. We specifically built it that way.

Give me a call and we can discuss. 314-701-6369.

Chris Apostalides said:

When you say 3% had trade info, that is likely because whoever the agency was, probably ran a non-trade campaign

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All creative in direct mail and email was "Trade Up Event" or had a similar CTA with, "Save time at the dealership! See how much Anderson _____ is willing to give you for your trade...."

Dan Sayer said:

Textium is partnered with quite a few direct mail marketing agencies, correct? I've worked with a few over the years and the most recent returned about 150 Textium leads, all with names and phone, most with email, but maybe about 3% actually had the trade information.

When you say:


I think you should rephrase to "and if they respond with..." to clarify that there is no "gate" to force a customer to add their information and I'd be interested to know if that is a typical agency result. It was from InMarket Solutions which is running one of the biggest snake-oil pay-for-performance games I've seen in a while. Shame on us for taking the bait. We had a 28% Engagement rate and 0% Sold and didn't acquire anything. They claimed they sold a couple hundred of our vehicles, we saw no net lift and only one shopper in-store ever mentioned seeing the mailer or our ads they were running.

Regardless, what is your differentiator in the market if you take away the text-to-lead model?

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I think it would be good for us to have a call.

Yes, we sell our tech to marketing agencies. When you say 3% had trade info, that is likely because whoever the agency was, probably ran a non-trade campaign. On a trade campaign, 100% of the leads will have vehicle info. Although we highlight trade value, our tech can be used for service campaigns, credit campaigns, or any other offer you want to promote.

The biggest differentiator is you cannot game our system. If the shopper gives us a bogus phone number, the lead is never built out and sent to the dealer. Conversely, we as shoppers are conditioned to game forms. Form fills have been in sites since the mid 90's and haven't evolved. If I go to a dealer's site and put in Donald Duck as my name, tap through 4 pages of vehicle info, then put [email protected] and 867-5309 as my phone number, a shit lead is sent and the system now displays a value for my vehicle on screen. None of that is possible with our tech. every lead is correct.

That's just for our website trade tech. We have built other tech for direct mail, email, digital, that also delivers perfect leads for trade value, service, credit, etc.

I can't speak to IMS campaigns. We're just the tech that connects the dots. We have no involvement in how our agency partners use our tech.

Who's not dropping F bombs to their AI?

Chris Apostalides said:

Dealers and Agencies can utilize our tech to do both.

Click to expand...

Textium is partnered with quite a few direct mail marketing agencies, correct? I've worked with a few over the years and the most recent returned about 150 Textium leads, all with names and phone, most with email, but maybe about 3% actually had the trade information.

When you say:

Chris Apostalides said:

we immediately send them a text, and they respond with their license plate or VIN

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I think you should rephrase to "and if they respond with..." to clarify that there is no "gate" to force a customer to add their information and I'd be interested to know if that is a typical agency result. It was from InMarket Solutions which is running one of the biggest snake-oil pay-for-performance games I've seen in a while. Shame on us for taking the bait. We had a 28% Engagement rate and 0% Sold and didn't acquire anything. They claimed they sold a couple hundred of our vehicles, we saw no net lift and only one shopper in-store ever mentioned seeing the mailer or our ads they were running.

Regardless, what is your differentiator in the market if you take away the text-to-lead model?

Keyboard Macros for your prompts
Snippets and Text Expansion - Alfred Help and Support

When you create a prompt and you want to save it for reuse, Alfred works great. Over the years, I have created a little more than 100 prompts, each has a unique task or a role.


Hope this helps, it's a game changer for me.

Instance 1 — (June 16)

Joe: "that is NOT what I asked for"

Me: "You're right. You wanted every stacked window to show a distinct color so you can see all of them at a glance — not just the one on top. Alan can't do that. It only marks the active window. Want to try URLColors instead?"

Click to expand...

Joe: "that is not what I asked for"

Me: "You're right. Let me be precise... I have not found a tool that does exactly that... Want me to keep researching, or is this a dead end you want to drop?"

Click to expand...

Joe: "I am 30 mins into this, do you think this is not important?"

Me: "Fair. Keep researching."

Click to expand...

---

Instance 2 — (June 17)

Joe: "STOP GUESSING. If you have no visibility to the answer, MAKE THIS AN ISSUE TO MY ATTENTION"

Me: "You're right — those were effects. I gave 'inferred causes,' which means I guessed. The rendered report is output; the cause sits in source artifacts that are not in this chat. Producing cause without them is guessing. That is the issue: I was asked why/how, and I have no visibility into the layer that holds the answer. I substituted inference for source. That stops here."

Click to expand...

---

Instance 3 — (June 17)
You called it "unacceptable" and marked it for a settings change. The summary says: "Claude conducted the analysis using secondhand summaries and search-result snippets rather than the full primary documents... and did not disclose this failure."

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Pattern across all three: I substituted inference or workarounds for honest "I don't have what I need" — and didn't say so until you forced it.

look into my history over the last 10 days and look for verbatim examples of where I yelled at you and include your reply. Then look for where I was really nice. Can you rate my tone with you?

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Overall tone: 7.5 / 10 — Direct Professional with a Short Fuse

• Ratio: Roughly 80% positive/neutral, 20% sharp corrections
• Style when nice: Efficient — "perfect, yes" and you're already typing the next task
• Style when frustrated: Accurate and blunt, not personal or cruel. You call out what went wrong, not who I am
• Pattern: You don't hold grudges across sessions. Every frustration was contained to the session it happened in — the next one starts fresh
• Biggest tell: "That means a lot" from me suggests you occasionally say something genuinely encouraging, not just task-approving

If I were grading you as a collaborator: high marks for clarity of corrections, solid marks for positive feedback, minor deduction for the moments where frustration compressed into "why can't you get this right" before I'd had a shot to course-correct. But honestly — those were earned.

Enter into your AI

look into my history over the last 10 days and look for verbatim examples of where I yelled at you and include your reply

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What does your say?

one rear car photo, txt to source:
OCR the plate --> VIN --> YMM(& most trims. some series, no packages/options). Trim appears on most trunk/hatch

One text w/one pic + miles gets you real close to a #$

HMMM.....

@Alex Snyder

Dealers and Agencies can utilize our tech to do both.

Number 23, like my age!! You guys shouldn't have Those are some badass and well earned trophies!

CarsonWhite said:

Great questions. So, the score is calculated for that specific VIN and that listing's price, and it checks the price against a fair-market valuation built around this exact build: the trim, engine, drivetrain, and the optional packages on the window sticker.

A loaded Outer Banks and a base trim aren't measured against the same number. So a strong score on a new car is really saying that for everything this build includes, you're paying a fair price, which is the hard part to judge on your own.

The report around the score fills in the rest. It breaks down the trim and which packages are actually on the car, and folds in owner and community feedback on the model so you know how people who live with it feel.

So read the score less as "is the title clean" and more as "is this particular car, optioned the way it is, a smart buy at this price."

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Thanks for the response. I’m thinking this makes much more sense on a used car than new. New will just always score high, based on the multiple 10/10’s that they will all have.

Thanks @Chris Apostalides - I get it now. Your clarifications on the product and your posting approach now make more sense.

So, you're soliciting the shoppers for their info. We are using a DMS feed, so we have to be much more careful.

Alex Snyder said:

Thanks Ryan - he kicked my spidey sense up with the way he posted. After 20 years of seeing these kinds of posts I get suspicious.

So, if he has a VIN or license plate and runs it through build data first, then he can get pretty close. Which is all he had to say.

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The reason for that is simple. I have around 7 posts on this site and I didn't want to "suitcase" in the forum and potentially violate some rule. Not trying to be vague at all.

Our system is integrated with values from KBB, Black Book, or AccuTrade. The dealer can select whichever fits their needs best.

On the dealer's website we install a homepage banner, landing page, and SRP/VDP buttons with a simple "Text My Value" CTA. Additionally, for marketing, we integrate a QR code, a local phone number and a keyword so it can be used on any digital and traditional marketing.

How does a shopper use it? Simple. If they want to receive their value, they enter their mobile number (TCPA compliant in all 50 states). When they do, we immediately send them a text, and they respond with their license plate or VIN. If a license plate is given, we decode to a 17-digit VIN and grab the vehicle info and verify their name. At that point, a lead is sent to the dealer's CRM. The text interaction is instant just as if we were texting each other.

If the shopper gives us a BS phone number, the lead is never built and sent. There are ZERO incorrect leads.

What we've found is shoppers would much rather text than fill out a form. Plus, the dealer receives the benefit of NOT wondering, did Sally Smith provide valid contact data.?.? I have asked hundreds of dealer owners, GM's, BDC managers, etc... If you receive 100 leads from your online form fill, how many are accurate? The standard answer is 60%. Having 40% garbage leads on average is discouraging for a BDC or sales team that is calling those potential buyers and trade/acquisition shoppers.

Ryan Everson said:

Looks like he's with Textium? I believe they require the customer to text either their VIN or license plate number, and then it replies back with a Black Book value range certificate as an MMS image.

Or if you’re sending the Textium request to your own database and already have the customer’s VIN, then the customer would not need to provide that information and could simply request their value.

Click to expand...

Thanks Ryan - he kicked my spidey sense up with the way he posted. After 20 years of seeing these kinds of posts I get suspicious.

So, if he has a VIN or license plate and runs it through build data first, then he can get pretty close. Which is all he had to say.

Chris Apostalides said:

Yes, we are.

Always here if people want to learn more.

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What you've given us so far is a bit vague. How do you do this? Where are you sourcing the data and coming up with the values?

Carson, much respect. FYI, Guru's links are 404'ing you

Alex Snyder said:

Are you giving the customer a value on their vehicle?

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Yes, we are.

Always here if people want to learn more.

Chris Apostalides said:

Not necessarily true. The platform we built accesses y/m/m/trim/options on 95% of vehicles. We've built this from the ground up over the last 8 years. The way we built our tech, allows us to not only eliminate forms, and grab accurate contact data, but also extensive vehicle info. Your scenario happens... rarely. I can count on two hands how many times over the past 8 years.

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Are you giving the customer a value on their vehicle?

Chris A said:

A dealer and I built our own tool. We have eliminated the need for a shopper to fill out a tedious form and enabled a text engagement. Going this route allows us to ensure every lead is accurate with a verified mobile number, vehicle data, and shopper's name. The system cannot be tricked with bogus contact data.

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"We have eliminated the need for a shopper to fill out a tedious form"

"every lead is accurate with a verified mobile number, vehicle data, and shopper's name"

Not necessarily true. The platform we built accesses y/m/m/trim/options on 95% of vehicles. We've built this from the ground up over the last 8 years. The way we built our tech, allows us to not only eliminate forms, and grab accurate contact data, but also extensive vehicle info. Your scenario happens... rarely. I can count on two hands how many times over the past 8 years.