Dealer Tech Expert: How Car Buying is Evolving

We saw 92% of customers are asked to reenter all their info when they go into the store. There's a trust gap between the customer and the dealer that is still very, very real. If you're filling out the four square and we're right underneath it, I can show you exactly where the customer's range is mentally. That's pretty powerful stuff. The supply's back, so the competition's back. And they're going to have to drop that price to stay competitive.

我们发现有92%的客户在进入店铺时被要求重新填写所有信息。客户与经销商之间的信任鸿沟依然存在，非常明显。如果你正在填写四方格表，而我们就在附近，我可以准确地告诉你客户的心理预期。这非常有用。供应恢复了，所以竞争也随之而来。为了保持竞争力，他们不得不降低价格。

A big thank you to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. Upstart, car dealership guy, industry, job board and Cox automotive. And now let's get into the show. Chase Abbott on the CDG podcast. Chase, welcome. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. Good to have you on the pod finally. I'm curious. You're telling me right before this that you're a listener of the pod. What's your favorite episode? Can I ask? You know, I've the one I listened to. I thought the one was cool. The one I listened to the other night was the gentleman that was selling all of his cyber trunks on TikTok. I thought that was interesting.

非常感谢我们的赞助商，让今天的节目能够顺利进行。赞助商包括Upstart、汽车经销商、行业招聘板和Cox汽车。现在让我们进入节目吧。欢迎Chase Abbott来到CDG播客。Chase，欢迎你。谢谢你邀请我，非常感谢。终于能见到你上节目了，真高兴。我很好奇，你刚才告诉我你是这个播客的听众。可以问下你最喜欢的哪一期节目吗？我觉得我听过的那一期很酷，我前几天晚上听的是有位先生在TikTok上卖他的所有电子卡车的那一期，我觉得很有趣。

Right. And I thought that was a really cool story. So I did listen to a few last night kind of bounced around, but really good content and just a testament to you. I mean, you've blown this brand up. I mean, I started hearing about you a few months ago and was excited to get this opportunity in front of me. And you have a really great following. So, testament to you, man. I'm a researcher, man. Yeah, we're trying hard. Yeah, it's been, you know, it's been fun just bringing to kind of refreshing content of the industry.

对。我觉得那真的是个很酷的故事。所以昨晚我听了几个节目，有点来回跳着听，但内容真的很好，这绝对是你能力的证明。几个月前我才开始听说你，现在有机会面对面交流真的很兴奋。你有很多忠实的粉丝，这真是你的荣誉。我是个研究者，我们正在努力。这段时间真的是很有趣，能为这个行业带来一些新鲜的内容。

So that's our goal. So if anyone listening to this thinks they can be part of that goal, hit me out. You know, we're always looking for different types of stories. You mentioned the TikTok dealer. So George Saliba, phenomenal episode, phenomenal story. And I think again, very different, like it's a great learning opportunity for just lots of dealerships. Right. Just if anyone hasn't listened to that episode, George just really live streams or sorry, not like records his day to day and documents his just life at the dealership. And it's pretty unique because you think like someone would have done this already, right? Like you see all these shows on star on TV, like pawn stars and like it's like, it's almost like so obvious.

这就是我们的目标。所以，如果有人听到这个觉得自己可以成为这个目标的一部分，请联系我。你知道，我们总是在寻找不同类型的故事。你提到了TikTok经销商。George Saliba，那是个非常出色的一集，特别的故事。而且我想再说一次，非常不同，这对于很多经销商来说都是一个很好的学习机会。对吧。要是有谁还没听过那一集，George只是实况直播，哦不对，不是实况直播，是记录他在经销商处的日常生活。这非常独特，因为你会想，早该有人这么做了，对吗？就像你在电视上看到的那些节目，比如《当铺之星》，这种想法似乎显而易见。

It's like, wait, how has someone not done this? But he's done it very well and it's really caught on. So I'm glad you liked that one. I did. I think it's what interests me the most, just a level of progressivist with some of these dealers, you know, thinking outside of the box or looking at it with a fresh set of eyes, kind of like you just mentioned. And then why can't we replicate something that works so well over here for auto and just it's right there in front of our faces sometimes and we don't see it. So testament to that gentleman, that was a really, really cool deal.

就像，等等，怎么还没人做过这件事？但是他做得非常好，而且真的引起了很大的反响。所以我很高兴你也喜欢那个。我确实喜欢。我觉得这最吸引我的是，这些经销商中有一些人展现出一种进步主义的态度，懂得跳出框架，或者用全新的视角来看待问题，就像你刚提到的那样。然后，为什么我们不能复制这一在汽车行业中效果显著的方法呢？有时答案就在我们眼前，但我们却看不到。所以要向那位先生致敬，这是一个非常酷的交易。

And obviously he's moving. He's moving iron. So well, tell me about your past. You started at the dealership, right? Yeah. Yeah. I actually started the dealership when I was in high school. My brother sold cars there and I used to do dealer trade drives when I was 16, like as soon as I got my license, I was in a dealership. And we had that group at seven stores and so they needed kids to move cars around for them and I used to do that.

很显然，他在移动东西。他在移动汽车。好吧，那告诉我你的过去吧。你是从汽车经销商那里开始的，对吗？对的。对的。我其实是在高中的时候开始在经销商那儿工作的。我哥哥在那里卖车，而我在16岁刚拿到驾照的时候，就开始做经销商之间的车子调度工作。我们那个集团一共有七家店，所以他们需要些孩子帮忙把车子开来开去，我就做这些事。

So I was at the dealership at a very, very young age. And I remember being at the tower and I was 17 and guys are just hammering me with jokes and cracks and this is 2000, you know, 1996, right? And anyway, I could hold my own in the comebacks, right? On the wet side of the conversation. They always say, you sell cars one day. You're better than your brother.

所以，我在很小的时候就去过那家汽车经销商。我记得那时我17岁，站在塔楼上，大家不停地拿我开玩笑。那是1996年，对吧？不管怎样，我总能机智地反击，给出有趣的回应。他们总是说，你以后一定能卖车，而且比你哥哥卖得好。

And so years later, when I was in college, I went back to that store. The gentleman that was running that store was still working there. And that's kind of where I started my career and automotive. Well, I was going to school, I started selling cars. So 2003. And how did you, how did you get into that? Was there any family connection or was it just, you know, just to my brother had worked at that store and I had made a couple in road relationships with some of the managers at that store and actually were still there years later, which is kind of shocking to hear with based off the turnover rate right now and automotive.

所以，几年后，当我上大学时，我又回到了那家店。那位经营那家店的先生还在那儿工作。也正是在那里，我开始了我的汽车行业生涯。就在我上学的时候，我开始卖车。那是在2003年。你是怎么进入这个行业的？有没有家族关系，还是只是单纯的机缘巧合？其实是我哥哥曾在那家店工作，我也和店里的一些经理建立了关系，这些经理多年后还在店里工作。这在当前汽车行业高流动率的情况下，确实有些令人惊讶。

But when in there and asked for a job through that channel and I remember I sold 38 cars my first two months and they said to me, Hey, big guy, you can type. Why don't you be our internet manager? And I think that was the only prerequisite to be an internet manager in 2013. She needed to be able to type. And so we took an internet department doing five a month, you know, six months later, we were going 65 a month. And so kind of pioneered internet a little bit, if you will, back in the day with with that group and ended up running internet director for all the stores and then man, worked my way through the chairs and got a great education. New car manager, used car manager, F and I producer, F and I director and GSM was running a P and L when I was 24. And just love the car business, loved everything about it, minus the hours. But that's kind of what I did. My state at one store kind of learned the deal and got my education on retail car sales, which brings me to my next question.

但那时候我通过那个渠道去找工作，我记得在头两个月里卖了38辆车。他们对我说：“嘿，大个子，你会打字，为什么不做我们的互联网经理？” 我想那大概是2013年当互联网经理的唯一条件，就是要会打字。于是我们开始了一个每月只卖5辆车的互联网部门，六个月后，我们每个月能卖到65辆车。当时在那个团队中，我算是开创了互联网销售的一些先河，最终我负责所有店铺的互联网业务，然后一步步晋升，获得了很好的教育，当过新车经理、二手车经理、金融与保险（F&I）产品经理、F&I总监，24岁时成为了总经理，负责利润与损失（P&L）。我非常热爱汽车行业，喜欢其中的一切，除了一些工作时间之外。这就是我的经历，我留在一个店里学到了很多关于零售汽车销售的知识，这也引出了我的下一个问题。

Why did you leave the retail business and decide to go to the vendor side? I would tell you what, just blunt and honest truth. One of the big ones was the hours. I was a young manager. I was working 60, 70 hours a week. I had no family, had no kids. That was available for me to do. However, I was making pretty good money. I will tell you, but when you start dividing that by how many hours you worked, it's not so great. You know, and so that was part of my driver was like, Hey, I want to get this education. I didn't want to be a bouncy car guy. We had a lot of those people that had worked at 40 relationships in a year. I did not want to do that. And then, you know, I just, I thought there was a better way. I felt like there were different ways to approach, you know, making somebody work 70 hours a week. But it was just such a difference from any of the other brands or businesses that I ever worked in. And honestly, like, I didn't see how it scaled for me to have kids, which I wanted for me to have a wife, which I wanted. I didn't see it working. And so, um, honestly, man, I left the dealership, didn't tell a soul. Uh, you know, took my time, saved up some money, planned the exit and, and, and rolled out. Had nothing on the horizon, which is not like me. Uh, but then about a couple of months later, I saw it add in action was in career builder, uh, for Vin, Vin stickers, uh, which was the precursor to Vin solutions. And I didn't know anybody there either.

为什么你离开了零售行业，转去供应商那边发展？ 我会直接告诉你，坦诚地说，一个重要原因是工作时间。那时候我是一个年轻的经理，每周工作60到70个小时。我没有家庭，也没有孩子，当时我还可以这样做。虽然收入相当可观，但如果按工作小时数来算，感觉并不那么划算。这个原因之一让我想去接受教育，我不想成为那种一年内换40个工作关系的人。我觉得有更好的方法，不需要每周工作70小时。相比我曾经工作过的其他品牌或企业，这种工作模式差别很大。老实说，我看不到这样安排工作能让我有时间拥有我想要的家庭和孩子。所以，我悄悄离开了经销店，没有告诉任何人，花时间攒了一些钱，计划好了退出，然后离开了。当时我也没有什么明确的方向，这不像我的风格。但几个月后，我在Career Builder上看到一个招人的广告，是Vin Stickers，这是Vin Solutions的前身。我一个人也不认识，但就去尝试了。

Um, I just went in and applied, uh, had a good interview, got the job. They were going to take their inventory solution and kind of turn it into this CRM website lead management, this whole kind of dealership in a box. And I was excited by that prospect because I had used multiple tools in the dealership, none of which talk, especially back then. And I thought, Oh, this is a better way. Um, and so I got involved and that was one of the first sales guys at Vin and, and, um, you know, it was one of their top sales guys for a long time and then ended up being a director there and doing all that stuff before we got purchased by Cox in 2011. What was that like for you? The Cox thing, you know, at first, uh, I wasn't sure what, you know, what was going to happen. And obviously though, coming out of the startup, it had its problems too. I would tell you the biggest feel difference was with the prior regime versus Cox was, you know, building to exit versus building to sustain, I would say much different feel.

嗯，我就是进去申请了一下，嗯，面试表现不错，然后就拿到了这份工作。他们打算将他们的库存解决方案改造成一个CRM网站的潜在客户管理系统，也就是一种“一体化车行”解决方案。我对此非常兴奋，因为我在车行里用过各种各样的工具，特别是在那时候，这些工具之间都没有互通。我当时想，哦，这是一种更好的方法。于是我参与了进去，并成为Vin公司的首批销售人员之一，而且很长一段时间内都是他们的顶尖销售人员之一，最后还成为了那里的主管。我们在2011年被Cox公司收购。在被Cox收购这件事上，我最初并不确定会发生什么。不过，显然，作为一个创业公司，之前也有遇到一些问题。我觉得最大的区别在于，之前的管理层是为了退出而打造公司，而Cox则是为了持续发展，感觉非常不同。

Uh, you know, obviously those folks were wanting to try to sell that company, which they did and did a great job doing that. Uh, but short game versus long game, I think, but there was lots of changes. But I think the biggest thing was just more fairness was introduced and a real opportunity with Cox that I saw was that they just owned so many brands and things, all in automotive. And so, you know, you like working with one company, you have one org chart to kind of climb or, or, or company ladder, if you will, at Cox, there's multiple because we have all of these coming. We have the mobility division. We have the auctions to begin. We have the software division. We have auto trader Kelly Blue Book and all the consumer stuff. So there's a lot to do here, staying on a motive, but still really grow your career. So it's been great. They've been all fantastic.

呃，你知道，很显然那些人是想要卖掉那家公司，他们也确实做到了，并且做得很好。呃，但说到短期策略和长期策略，我觉得其中最大的变化是更加公平了。而我看到在Cox公司真正的机会是他们拥有很多品牌，全部都是汽车领域的。所以，在Cox工作，你不仅仅是在一个公司里爬升职位或者公司阶梯，而是有多个选择。我们有移动部门，有拍卖部门，还有软件部门，以及AutoTrader和Kelly Blue Book等面向消费者的业务。所以，这里的机会很多，既可以继续从事汽车行业，又能真正发展你的职业生涯。总的来说，一切都很棒，他们都非常出色。

For everyone listening, right? So Chase got on this podcast and I said, Chase, I'm really curious. You are overseeing all these products at Cox Automotive, right? Multi-billion dollar enterprise. And one of the big questions that lots of dealers have been talking about since the CDK outages is what's going to happen with, you know, dealership bundles or like the integrated products, right? Will that remain the trend? Will dealers and vendors continue pushing integrated ecosystem that are, you know, faster, easier to use, offer a better customer and dealership experience? Or will the pendulum swing back? Right? Will we go to this like, let's use a bunch of different boutique software and maybe try to connect them in different ways, but essentially the way we've done it.

大家在听，是吧？所以 Chase 参加了这个播客，我说，Chase，我很好奇。你负责管理 Cox Automotive 的所有这些产品，对吧？这是一个价值数十亿的大型企业。自从CDK停运之后，很多经销商都有一个大问题，那就是，关于经销商捆绑产品或整合产品的未来方向会是怎样的，对吧？这种趋势会继续吗？经销商和供应商会继续推动那些更快、更容易使用、能提供更好客户和经销商体验的整合系统吗？还是说，钟摆会摆回去？我们会不会回到以前的做法，使用一堆不同的精品软件，并尝试用不同的方式连接它们，但基本上还是按照以前的方式来做。

So just to repeat the question, as you earlier, off the record, it was, how are you handling that today? In store? Is that a question that's kind of coming up a lot for you with dealers? Yeah, it is. The whole I'm going to, you know, not put my nuts in one basket. I'm going to put them in multiple baskets. It's definitely a conversation that we're having. One of the things I feel pretty strongly about, though, is if you do the boutique pack, you can make it work. It's just the frustration day to day that you might experience by reentering information, duplicative data, reloads, really just clawing at the time.

好的，我重复一下刚刚的问题，正如你之前在非公开场合提到的，今天你是怎么处理这个问题的？在店里？这个问题经销商们经常问你吗？是的，经常问。很多人都说，不要把所有的鸡蛋放在一个篮子里，而是要分散风险。这确实是我们正在讨论的话题之一。不过，我非常坚信，如果你做精品包装，是可以成功的。只是你可能会每天为重新输入信息、重复数据、重新加载等等感到沮丧，这些确实会消耗大量时间。

Of a cardio and time kills card deals in my experience. And so, you know, I think that's the one strategy. The other strategy is the ecosystem piece where you're going to have a lot better success. I would think of having those, you know, that data move around those systems and have it integrated. And then the one key takeaway for me was really, look, I mean, you can go boutique at all you want. I mean, you have my great products. I just highly doubt that they're going to be spending as much on cybersecurity as a ecosystem would be. Because you got to think about the dollars and the resources available to that company.

根据我的经验，使用某种心率监控器和计时器可能是一个策略。而我认为另一种策略是建立一个生态系统，这样可以获得更好的成功，并且可以在不同系统之间流动和整合数据。对我而言，一个关键的启示是，虽然你可以选择精品产品，但我高度怀疑这些产品在网络安全上的投入能与一个生态系统相媲美。因为你必须考虑到公司可用的资金和资源。

I used to be a startup. I can tell you right now, when we were a startup, the biggest problem we had was cash flow. And so we had much bigger set up fees when we were a small company at VIN. Then we were more worried about the monthly MRR. Right now, I tell you, it's a complete opposite. We do a lot of zero set up fees, but we obviously focus on the MRR because you're going to pay that every single month. And so I think to me, the ecosystem is still the play. I just think the dollars that are thrown at that, you're going to be in a much better spot to protect your data, protect your customer, and then also not have to worry about, you know, as much about the API stuff and moving the data around and creating just daily fires for your employees.

我曾经是一家初创公司的老板。我可以告诉你，当我们还在初创阶段时，最大的麻烦就是现金流问题。所以那时我们在VIN公司初期收取的设置费用非常高，而我们更担心的是每月的经常性收入（MRR）。但现在情况完全相反了，我们很多项目都没有设置费用，但显然我们更关注的是MRR，因为每个月都要支付。对我来说，生态系统仍然是关键。我认为，如果你投入更多资金，你能更好地保护数据和客户，而且不需要过多担心API问题、数据迁移和员工处理日常琐事的问题。

And I say that to the core, time kills card deals. And we already have a problem with card deals taken too long. And so this is obviously a contentious point, but I think it's something that we really have to focus on to increase the customer experience in this industry. I mean, I see your point, right? Like obviously cyber security, right? You have bigger budgets. I think the question is, right? How and where are dealers going to hedge more in light of, you know, what lots of deals just experienced? Right. I mentioned on prior pods that I actually know some dealers that have multiple DMSs. Now they're big dealers, right? DMS system. So they're very big dealers, you know, over 10 rooftops and whatnot. In some cases over 15 or 20 even. But that's not like the common thing. It's obviously a lot costlier. It's more overhead to manage. That's probably even the bigger headache when it comes to the big systems.

我认为，从根本上来说，时间拖延对交易是有害的。而且我们已经面临交易时间过长的问题了。所以这显然是一个有争议的点，但我认为我们必须集中注意这一点，以提高这个行业的客户体验。我的意思是，我理解你的观点，网络安全显然是一个优先事项，你们有更大的预算。我认为现在的问题是，考虑到这么多交易所经历的问题，销售商该如何及在哪里进行更多对冲? 就像我之前在一些平台上提到的，我知道有些销售商使用了多个DMS系统。他们是大型销售商，拥有超过10个，甚至在某些情况下超过15或20个门店。但这并不是普遍现象，因为这明显更昂贵，需要管理的开销也更大。这可能是大型系统最大的麻烦。

Do you think that something like that would catch on in this environment? Or again, you represent, you know, deal track DMS and are you gung ho that? Hey, it's an isolated incident. And it won't meaningfully change to purchasing behavior in our industry. I don't think it will. I mean, obviously in pockets, it might. I think running one DMS is a lot. Running to. I would not want to be in that practice as a former dealership operator. But I get it. I get the why, right? Some people get a server based DMS and I have to worry about their internet.

你觉得在这种环境下那样的做法会流行起来吗？或者说，你代表的是Deal Track DMS，你是否热情地认为这只是一个孤立的事件，不会对我们行业的购买行为产生实质性的改变？我不认为它会产生大的影响。当然，在某些地方可能会有一些影响。我觉得运营一个DMS已经很多了，运营两个DMS更是会让人头疼。作为一个前汽车经销商操作员，我真不愿意那样做。但我能理解，为什么有些人会选择服务器版的DMS，他们不想担心网络问题。

There's reasons for everybody that has that, you know, that issue. But fundamentally, no, I don't think it'll change like at the macro, the buying level that we see or what they're actually focused on. I do think there will be a grain of salt though now and we'll have to answer a lot more obviously cyber security questions. And look, here's the other thing too. Like just, you know, zoom out, throw in my Cox badge to the side. The other thing you got to keep in mind is, is, you know, the bigger companies, they're going to be higher, you know, probability of target by some of these folks.

每个人都有自己特殊的原因，都会遇到那样的问题。但是，从根本上说，我不认为这会在我们所见的宏观层面或购买层面上发生变化，或他们真正关注的东西会改变。不过，现在确实得多加小心，我们得回答更多的网络安全问题。还有，退一步来说，把我在Cox的身份放一边，您还得记住，更大的公司往往更有可能成为这些人的目标。

Right. So you got to keep that in mind as well. Right. Just being a steward to the industry, right? I mean, who's going to target a garage bandless zero revenue? They're not going to pay the ransom. They don't have any money to pay it. And so you've got to think about that as well. However, I think, like I said before, I think this is somewhat of an anomaly. I hope it's an anomaly that we don't have a systemic thing here with this type of cyber security issues that we have. We just haven't had that in the past. And in that world, for sure, you know, one of everything and then APIs between them would be the play that I would run today just because we have to take some of the time out of these cardials because it's still killing some of the survey stuff that I'm seeing from consumers today with the experiences.

好的。所以你得记住这一点，对吧？作为行业的管理者，我的意思是，谁会盯上一个没有任何收入的车库乐队呢？他们不会支付赎金的，因为他们没有钱支付。所以你也得考虑这一点。然而，我认为，就像我之前说的，我认为这是一个异常情况。我希望这是一个异常情况，而不是我们在这类网络安全问题中存在的系统性问题。在过去，我们确实没有遇到过这种情况。在目前的情况下，API之间的集成是我今天会采用的方法，因为我们需要缩短这些流程的时间，因为我看到一些消费者体验的调查中，这些流程仍然在影响结果。

How involved and just like how technical are the conversations you're having with dealers today, right? Like versus like five years ago, even very, especially in the light of what's happened, you know, we're seeing a lot of, you know, security questions. What is Cox doing to protect the data, which we have given, you know, we spend an absorbent amount on that and we have conveyed back with our dealers how we handle that. And then look, you know, it's great to see the industry rise up in the CDK event and do some things to kind of help these dealers. You know, we did as well with a lot of dealers that we built shell accounts for and things like that to be able to keep their business afloat. So, you know, like I said, I think it's kind of an anomaly. And I hope it is, but I think that regardless, you know, we have a big gap in customer experience, you know, we saw 92% of customers are asked to reenter all their info when they go into the store. There's a trust gap between the customer and the dealer that is still very, very real. I mean, I get that obviously this is an impactful deal with what's what happened with the cybersecurity of it, but you can't just also put all your nuts in that basket as well. I think you've got a really diversify and claw back at the customer experience because it doesn't matter, you know, what kind of cybersecurity you have with your DFS and quit selling cars because everybody else is out experiencing you.

你现在与经销商的对话有多深入和技术性呢？比如说，与五年前相比特别是在当前情况下的差别很大。我们看到很多安全方面的问题，Cox做了什么来保护数据？我们在这方面投入了大量资源，并向我们的经销商传达了我们的处理方式。此外，很高兴看到业界在CDK事件中提升，采取一些措施帮助这些经销商。我们为一些经销商建立了虚拟账户，这样他们的业务才能继续运营。正如我所说，这是一个异常情况，我希望它是，但无论如何，我们在客户体验上存在很大差距。我们发现92%的客户在进店时需要重新输入所有信息。客户和经销商之间仍然存在很大的信任鸿沟。这次的网络安全事件很有影响力，但不能只注重这一个方面。我认为，你真的需要多样化并改善客户体验，因为无论你的网络安全有多强，如果客户体验不够好，最终还是会失去客户。

This episode is brought to you by my very own car dealership guy, industry job board. CDG jobs is revolutionizing how talent connects with top automotive companies. Here's a shocker. We're not using any fancy technology or AI. We literally built a simple HTML job board. That's it. But it works really, really well. And the best part, it's completely free for CDG listeners to post and fill positions at their firm. So I'm sure you're wondering what sets us apart. Well, when companies hire through CDG jobs, they're choosing from a pool of the most informed candidates in the industry. Don't wait. Whether you're hiring or seeking a new opportunity, visit CDG jobs.com today or click the link in the show notes below. That's CDG jobs.com.

本期内容由我自己的汽车销售行业招聘网站CDG Jobs赞助。CDG Jobs正在革新人才与顶级汽车公司之间的连接方式。让你意想不到的是，我们并没有使用任何花哨的技术或人工智能。我们只是建立了一个简单的HTML招聘网站，仅此而已。但它运作得非常好。最棒的是，CDG的听众可以完全免费在该网站发布和填补职位空缺。 你可能会想，是什么让我们与众不同呢？当企业通过CDG Jobs招聘时，他们选择的是业内最有见识的候选人。所以，不要犹豫，无论你是需要招聘还是寻找新机会，立刻访问CDGJobs.com，或者点击下面的节目链接。网址是CDGJobs.com。

You know, I tweeted, I tweeted like a year ago that diversification is just growing as a theme in the world, but also in automotive in a big way. And the reason I tweeted out at the time was because I saw that dealers are suddenly looking into like power sport dealerships. They're looking at, you know, new F&I products, right? Like all these different, like, you know, I interviewed one dealer that is in the, you know, investing record amounts in their body shops, collision centers, like dealers, the industry, right, having witnessed what we, you know, we've experienced over the last four years, everyone is sort of like, okay, the future and present is just so unpredictable, right? Like add the CDC outages on top. And everyone is just focused on, and not just on technology, but under operations, right? How can I diversify my business more? Right. And if I'm a franchise dealer, I'm looking to, and looking to grow, I'm looking to acquire other types of brands, right? Maybe I had all my eggs in the Stellantis basket. And now I'm, you know, in deep doo doo.

你知道吗，我大约一年前在推特上发了一条推文，内容是关于世界以及尤其是汽车行业的多样化趋势正在不断增长。我当时发这条推文的原因是因为我看到经销商们突然开始关注像动力运动经销店这样的领域。他们在研究新的金融与保险产品，对吧？我采访了一位经销商，他们正在他们的车身修理厂和碰撞中心进行创纪录的投资。整个行业，在过去四年经历了很多事情后，都在思考未来和现在是如此不可预测，加上疾病控制与预防中心的停摆。所有人不仅仅是在关注技术，还在关注运营上——我该怎样多样化我的业务。如果我是一个特许经销商，并且希望增长，我会考虑收购其他类型的品牌。可能我以前把所有的鸡蛋都放在Stellantis这一个篮子里，现在我就会陷入困境。

And look, this too shall pass, right? Like things, you know, it's cyclical. But the point is, like, I think that's the kind of overarching theme, right? I'm seeing independent dealers suddenly saying, hey, I want to look into buying a franchise. So everyone is sort of haves their diversification hat on, which I think is a healthy, is a healthy thing for the industry. But it's very real. And I just don't remember seeing that prior to the last couple of years. Like you saw independent dealers that just did the independent thing for 20 years. And suddenly they're, you know, looking for a franchise. It's like things have changed. I think it's for the better, though. You too. Yeah. And I was just going to add on that real quick. You've seen we've done that internally with Cox Auto and standing up the mobility division years ago and placing some bets there on things like rideshare and heavy fleet services and, you know, mobile fleets and things like that are going to need servicing. They're going to need, you know, different things like we have a guy that does tree trimming after natural disasters all across the globe, him trying to get service on 18 trucks in 18 different states is like next to impossible. And so, you know, there's a lot of things that we're doing on the mobility side as well. So there's a lot of diversification going on, even internally where I'm at as well. So I think you're dead on that that's a trend we've definitely seen, especially the last five years or so.

好吧，你看，这一切也都会过去，对吗？事情都是周期性的。但重点是，我觉得这是一个总体的主题，对吧？我看到一些独立经销商突然说，嘿，我想考虑买个特许经营权。所以大家都在尝试多元化，我认为这对行业来说是件好事。这确实是一个现象，而且我不记得在过去几年之前看到过这种情况。过去你会看到那些独立经销商可能二十年都在做独立的事情，而现在他们突然开始寻找特许经营权。事情确实变了，不过我觉得这是朝好的方向发展，不是吗？对，我也正想补充一下，你看，我们公司内部，比如Cox汽车，几年前就设立了移动出行部门，并在拼车和重型车队服务等领域进行了一些投资。比如移动车队，这类服务总是有需求。我们有一个员工在全球各地自然灾害后进行树木修剪工作，他需要在18个州为18辆货车找到服务，这几乎是不可能的。所以，你看，我们在移动出行方面也在做很多事情。所以，不仅在整个行业，连我们内部也在进行多元化。我觉得你说的很对，这绝对是我们在过去五年中看到的一种趋势。

So I want to ask you about, so you mentioned this term API, which I have to imagine some people listening are not familiar with. And so what did I do as you were speaking? I pulled up Chad GPT and I said, give me a simple analogy or definition for what an API means, right? Chad GPT spits out API is essentially a list of lists, a set of operations that developers can use in the technology. And then it says basically what it says is like, think of this like a menu in a restaurant, right? You're a developer. You have a menu that provides a list of dishes that you can order alongside a description of each dish. So I thought that was a pretty neat analogy because again, I was looking for a really simple way. And you mentioned the term API. I'm curious to know, given you are such a big ecosystem in the industry, you know, practically every dealer listening to this is using at least one, if not multiple, Cox on the motor products that you likely oversee. When you say API, how do you connect with other tools in industry? Like how do you make this work for the dealers? If it's not a Cox product, when you say API, like give us a little overview into that world and how you kind of handle that day to day with dealers.

好的，我想请教一下，你刚才提到了API这个术语，我想很多听众可能不太熟悉这个概念。那么当你在讲的时候我做了什么呢？我打开了Chad GPT，说：“给我一个简单的类比或定义，解释什么是API。”Chad GPT给出的解释基本上是这样的：API本质上是一系列操作，开发人员可以在技术中使用这些操作。然后它又补充了一下，可以把它想象成餐厅的菜单。你是一个开发人员，你有一份菜单，上面列出了可以点的菜以及每道菜的描述。我觉得这个类比非常不错，因为它非常简单明了。 你提到了API，作为一个在行业中有巨大生态系统的公司，几乎所有的经销商都有使用至少一个乃至多个Cox Motor的产品。当你提到API时，你是如何与行业中的其他工具连接的？你是如何让这些API为经销商服务的？如果某个产品不是Cox的产品，当你说API时，能否给我们一个概述，介绍一下你是如何在日常工作中处理与经销商的API互动的？

Yeah, sure. So, you know, some dealers may not come fully into the ecosystem. So they're going to have APIs, you know, they're going to need and they might have a homegrown solution, you know, that they want to integrate in with their current Cox stack. That could be a startup garage band type of deal that does not have APIs yet. Therefore, you know, the integration you can really stand up is a host, what we call a hostile integration, which is a screen scrape of the existing tool and bringing it over into based off of that. And then you have all these different levels of certification. So some of the DMS is you've got RCI, you've got three PA with Reynolds, you've got our excuse me with CDK.

当然可以。你知道，有些经销商可能不会完全进入生态系统。所以他们会有一些API，他们需要这些API，可能还会有一些自制的解决方案，他们想要集成到目前的Cox技术栈中。这可能是那种车库创业型的小公司，还没有API。因此，能够真正实现的集成方式叫做“敌对集成”（hostile integration），也就是对现有工具进行屏幕抓取，并基于此进行整合。另外，还有不同级别的认证要求。一些DMS（数据管理系统）有RCI认证，Reynolds有3PA认证，CDK也有自己的认证。

And so you've got kind of these set ways that you can integrate, meaning what do you need? Do you need vehicle info? Yes, I need the VIN, I need the model number, I need, you know, the stock, I need all these things to flow over. And so what that does, I always kind of use the analogy of like a loading dock. Like if you have an API, you can back your truck up to our loading dock and we will load everything that you get through your API, which is a negotiation on what that is. I will say, we are very Switzerland at Cox with who we API with. We want the API with just about everybody because we find that if we don't, it causes problems, right?

所以，你可以按照既定的方式进行集成。意思是你需要什么？你需要车辆信息吗？是的，我需要车辆识别码（VIN）、型号、库存等所有这些信息。所以，这就像一个装卸平台一样。如果你有一个API，你可以把卡车倒到我们的装卸平台，我们会通过API加载你所需要的一切，具体内容我们可以协商。我得说，Cox公司在API集成方面非常中立。我们希望与几乎所有人进行API集成，因为我们发现如果不这么做，会引发很多问题。

If they want to stay on VIN solutions, but they need to integrate with this company and we tell them, no, there's a strong chance they might leave VIN. God, and why do you say that? Like from a cost perspective, an experience perspective, what makes a better experience? Cost experience, time integration, day to day brain damage that these folks are experiencing by it. Like I said, like the re-entering the info, I say that people don't really understand the multitude that that can, the effect that that can have, especially on a high volume store, you know, when you're doing it every single day, seller experience drops, they're pissed because they have to enter the stuff in again. And then the customer experience drops because of that. And it's just kind of a domino snowball effect a little bit. I would say, yeah, it's painful day to day when you don't have the APIs to help you.

如果他们想继续使用VIN解决方案，但是需要与这家公司进行集成，而我们告诉他们不行，那么他们很可能会离开VIN。天啊，你为什么这么说？从成本角度、体验角度来说，什么能带来更好的体验呢？成本体验、时间集成、日常工作中他们所经历的脑力损耗。就像我说的，重新输入信息的时候，人们其实并不真正理解这样做会带来的多种影响，尤其对于那些高流量的店铺来说，每天都要重复操作，会让销售体验下降，因为他们会因为要再次输入信息而感到不满。然后客户的体验也会因此下降，这就是一种连锁反应。我觉得，当你没有API来帮助你时，这确实在日常操作中带来很多痛苦。

Okay. So tell me what else dealers are talking about on the street level. Like are dealers asking you about AI? Is that like a real active conversation or is that kind of like a social media thing? Oh, no, it's a real conversation. The difference, I guess what I would say about AI today, there's just so many flavors out there, man. It is hard to, like everything gets like, it's like the buzzword. So I think a lot of people get locked into it. But I mean, if you really think about it, there's all these different types of AI. You've got virtual assistants and like chatbots that are going to take over conversations and use AI to go back. You've got generative AI, which salespeople are using to generate email responses to make them sound better. We've got machine learning. We have predictive insights with things like buying signals that we have at Cox Auto, which is based on all the first party data we have.

好的。那么告诉我经销商在实际市场上还有在谈论什么话题。比如说，经销商们有没有跟你聊过人工智能（AI）？这是一个真正热议的话题，还是仅仅在社交媒体上比较火？哦，不，这确实是一个热议话题。我觉得现在关于人工智能的情况是，它的种类实在太多了，很难一一区分。人工智能已经成为一个流行词汇，很多人对此非常关注。但如果你仔细想想，人工智能有很多不同的类型。你有像虚拟助手和聊天机器人这样的技术，它们会接管对话，并使用AI进行互动。你还有生成式AI，销售人员用它来生成电子邮件回复，让内容听起来更好。我们还有机器学习。此外，还有基于像我们Cox Auto拥有的第一方数据的购买信号预测等预测性洞察。

So there is just a ton of different flavors of it. I think that sometimes it just gets called all AI. I would consider it more of a category than an actual one product. And so we have seen tremendous success with our AI type products that use that customer behavior. I'm a big relevancy guy when it comes to customer experience through the digital path. So you can scale it. The problem is, is it's really hard to scale if you don't have the data.

所以这种技术有很多不同的变种。我觉得有时候大家只是把它统称为人工智能。我更倾向于把它看作一个类别，而不是某个具体的产品。我们已经在利用这种分析客户行为的人工智能产品上取得了巨大成功。我非常重视在数字化路径中提供相关的客户体验。所以这种技术是可以扩展的。问题在于，如果你没有足够的数据，要扩展它就非常困难。

And that's something I love selling Cox Auto was we have 82 million unique visitors a month. And that's what, you know, that's our sizzle. We comb that first party data from AutoTrader, I'm Kelly Blue Book, and from dealer.com. And we take those insights and all the breadcrumb trails that those customers are leaving behind and then resurface them back up into the deal scenario to help dealers make decisions or do something differently than they would have otherwise with that customer or with that next run or that next turn because of the first party data.

我特别喜欢出售Cox Auto的一点是，我们每月有8200万独特访客。这个数字就是我们的亮点。我们利用来自AutoTrader、Kelly Blue Book和dealer.com的第一方数据，分析出客户留下的各种信息和线索，然后把这些洞察重新呈现给经销商，帮助他们做出更好的决策，或者让他们在与客户互动时采取不同的措施，或者在下一轮销售中做出不同的调整。这个过程中，第一方数据起到了关键作用。

This episode is brought to you by Upstart. Upstart partners with dealers to digitize and connect their online in store and financing process to create the car buying experience today's customers expect. Backed by trusted OEMs, Upstart helps dealers sell more cars efficiently, speeding up processes to boost profits and enhance customer satisfaction. With integrated finance capabilities powered by AI technology, Upstart's connected platform enables consumers to shop from anywhere, then seamlessly transition in store and complete the deal digitally, creating a hassle free purchase path that benefits both dealers and buyers.

本集节目由Upstart赞助。Upstart与汽车经销商合作，帮助他们将线上和线下销售以及金融流程数字化和连接起来，为当今的顾客创造理想的购车体验。Upstart得到知名汽车制造商（OEMs）的支持，帮助经销商更有效地卖出更多汽车，加快流程以提升利润并增强客户满意度。借助人工智能技术提供一体化的金融服务，Upstart的互联平台让消费者可以随时随地购物，然后无缝衔接至店内并完成数字化交易，创造出对经销商和买家都有利的无忧购买路径。

For a brighter car buying future, visit Upstart dot com slash dealers. That's Upstart dot com slash dealers or click the link in the show notes below. How are you integrating right? I would say as differently, where are you seeing dealers most interested in automating things or leveraging new technologies within their systems or are they just generally just curious about it? How actionable is it that today within your products and systems, is there a specific piece of technology tool or system that dealers are really excited about and leveraging more than they have historically, anything specific there? Yeah, I would tell you a couple of days. One is our predictive insights with our buying signals at Cox.

为了一个更加光明的购车未来，请访问 Upstart.com/dealers 或点击下面的节目备注中的链接。你如何有效地融入这个过程呢？我的意思是说，情况有何不同？你看到的经销商对自动化或在他们的系统中利用新技术的兴趣点主要有哪些？或者说他们只是普遍对此感到好奇？目前在你的产品和系统中，这些技术有多大的可操作性？是否有特定的技术工具或系统让经销商特别感兴趣，并且比以往更多地加以利用？有什么具体的例子吗？对，我可以告诉你几天前的情况。首先是我们在Cox使用的购买信号预测分析。

So one thing we work on a lot is how many active customers in your database of customers are actively shopping online and that we know about. We tag those folks and we can tell if you're back on the website looking or what's going on with that consumer and then reverse engineer the lead conversion or the cardio or the payments or the financial, whatever it is to try to give them insights into what's going on with that consumer. And I would think the difference is at scale. There's a lot of companies that can go give you AI insights into a consumer. My question back to them would be do they own the data? How timely is the data?

我们经常做的一件事是分析在客户数据库中有多少活跃客户正在在线购物，并且我们知道他们的活跃情况。我们对这些顾客进行标记，可以判断他们是否再次访问网站，以及他们的行为动态。然后我们会逆向分析这些顾客的线索转化情况、支付情况或任何相关的财务行为，从而提供有关该消费者的洞察。我认为区别在于规模。很多公司都可以提供消费者的人工智能洞察，但我的问题是，他们是否拥有这些数据？这些数据的时效性如何？

The first party thing and what you saw with privacy tracking with Google is going to really change the game on third party cookies. It's already started to in January. They started with 1% of the database which is millions of people. Yeah, what do you mean by that? Can you clarify that? You know, Google calls it privacy tracking. Google Chrome is by far the most used web browser out there. And basically it's kind of the stock prices, a plumbing a bit on third party cookies just because folks can buy that data, third party and then inject it into a tool and then make insights or conclusions about what's going on with the buyer out there.

第一方数据跟踪以及你在谷歌的隐私跟踪中看到的东西，真的会改变第三方Cookies的游戏规则。今年一月份已经开始了。他们从1%的数据库，也就是数百万用户，开始。你是什么意思？能解释下吗？你知道，谷歌称之为隐私跟踪。谷歌Chrome是目前使用最广泛的浏览器。基本上，由于用户可以购买第三方数据并将其注入工具，进而对买家的行为作出洞察或结论，所以第三方Cookies方面的股票价格有些下跌。

And some of those were great. They worked. They're fine. However, there are some that aren't timely. That data may be two months old and you call back to sell them a car and then I bought one last week. What are you talking about? And so I think that there's definitely some questionable data that you can come through. But we are seeing at a brand scale, you know, dealers wanting to use that. I think the difference is what your takes your first question. If it's not automated, it's tough.

其中一些非常不错，效果很好，都运作正常。但有些就不太及时。那些数据可能已经有两个月了，而当你打电话试图卖车时，客户可能会说“我上周刚买了一辆车，你在说什么呢？” 所以我认为其中肯定有一些数据是值得怀疑的。但我们确实看到，在品牌层面，经销商希望使用这些数据。我认为这就是你的第一个问题的不同之处。如果不是自动化的，那就很难办。

If it's not automated, it's tough with a dealership because you've got to make sure that that thing's on autopilot, surfacing up areas where they need to get involved. But we've seen some really tremendous things with AI and knowing where to switch cars, where to, you know, take the payment. What do we do with cash down? Do we go stretch this customer again? It's a really cool things that we're doing with that, with that first party data. So. And within what systems are you doing now?

如果没有自动化，对于经销商来说就很难管理，因为你必须确保整个过程处于自动控制状态，能够及时发现需要参与的环节。但我们已经看到了一些依靠AI实现的非常出色的功能，比如知道什么时候换车、什么时候收付款。对于现金支付，我们该怎么处理？是否需要再次延长客户付款期限？我们在使用这些一手数据方面做了一些非常酷的事情。那么，你现在用的是哪些系统呢？

So we have a new system that came out last year. It's called Deal Pulse, which is part of a new UI UX we're working on called Deal Central. And so we asked the dealers, like, look, we've done AI for a while. Like, I can tell you right now with about 85% certainty what make they're going to buy. I can tell you with about 60, 50, 60% certainty, what model they're going to buy. Because you have the information from auto trader and all these other sites. All these other sites and how many things that they've looked at.

我们去年推出了一个新系统，叫做Deal Pulse。这是我们正在开发的新用户界面和用户体验的一部分，称为Deal Central。于是，我们问经销商们：“看，我已经搞人工智能有一段时间了。现在我可以大约85%的把握告诉你他们会买什么品牌。而且，我可以有大约50%到60%的把握告诉你他们会买什么型号。因为你有来自Auto Trader和其他所有网站的信息，包括他们浏览了多少东西。”

Now, Deal Pulse is a little different. Deal Pulse was kind of my, you know, maybe, if you will, because I'm an old desk manager. So we asked the dealers, what, hey, what do you want enough about your consumer if they were to leave you a trail of breadcrumbs? Which ones are those breadcrumbs which you pick up? What would they have to do with? Shocker, all the top four answers were. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You want to say, well, you said the first, I mean, first of all, it was payment, but payment can afford.

现在，Deal Pulse 有点不同。Deal Pulse 有点像我的……你知道的，也许吧，因为我之前是个老台面经理。所以我们问了一下经销商，嘿，你们想知道什么，关于你的消费者，如果他们给你留下一些线索？哪些线索是你希望能拾起的？那些线索与什么有关？令人惊讶的是，所有的前四个答案都是。等等，等等，等等，等等。你想说什么？首先，这是关于付款的，但付款能负担得起。

I was going to, I was actually going to leave with down payment. That's it, one of the four. It's the four square. It is literally the four square. It is payment trade, APR and cash down. And so I was leveraging the survey results that we got back out of the Coxer is like, oh my God, this is so like classic dealer. But, wait, but that's actually kind of cool. Right? Because it's just like, it's just like human nature. Like don't complicate it. Like that's exactly what people want. It's worked for decades.

我本来打算付定金的。就是这样，四个中的一个。这就是所谓的“四方格”。它确实就是四个方面：付款、换车、年利率和首付。所以，我在利用我们从Coxer那边得到的调查结果，心想，天哪，这简直太经典的经销商了。但，等等，这其实还挺酷的，对吧？因为这就像人的本性一样，不要复杂化，这正是人们想要的，而且这套方法已经行之有效几十年了。

Now you just, you can digitize it, which is great. Like it's still the same, it's still the same information at the end of the day, you know? That's right. And it's, let's just say it's very transactional based, right? And so, you know, how am I going to put a card deal together? Yes or no? And so we have what we've done with deal policies, really cool stuff. So, you know, the customer simmits a lead, right? And they put in everything that they want you to see to the penny, to the dollar down APR. This is what I submitted. Blah, blah, blah. However, you know, these customers are clicking thousands of URLs. They're figuring payments. They're in digital retailing tools like we have with accelerated costs, figuring out payments, changing cash down, changing trade in amounts. All of this stuff and their own confidence while they're in the tool, right? They're not interacting with anybody but the tool. And so we take those insights, we distill them down and we put them in aggregate form. So when a customer comes in and deals central, we actually have the four square there showing what the customer submitted. And then right underneath that, we have what the actual range was of that customer shopping behavior, which is really cool stuff. So I can see 450 was the payment. But I can also tell you that they looked at payments all the way down to 380, all the way up to 520, right? I can also tell you that they've said zero down to me three turns I've taken on this customer. They have no money down. So then why did they figure payments with $500 down 37 times? Are these tools integrated into like all your products, certain products, right? If I'm listening to this, I'm like, okay, I want to try that or I want access to that information for a fresh customer that's, you know, coming up into my dealership. Like how do I get access to this? So I deal central lives across a few different products. It's been solutions CRM. It's accelerating. Like I mentioned, the digital retailing tool. And then we also have some integrations with the mandates. I guess you would say to use the full stack with our F&I products with digital contracting and then compliance around the F&I stuff to make sure you obviously don't go to jail. But those are the pieces that kind of move as a former F&I producer. I didn't know that was a real thing until I got an F&I, but turns out it is. And so yeah, so it moves the customer kind of through the buying process from first click all the way to sold and delivered and think of it more of a digital process, bringing all these things in. And really what we're trying to do is make a desk manager or GM, whoever's working the deal, you know, do something different than they would have otherwise based off the data. And I need to get that to you in an instant. I can't, you're not going to go look for it. I know I sit on that desk. Can I, but if you're filling out the four square and right underneath it, I can show you exactly where the customer's range is mentally. It's pretty powerful stuff.

现在你只需要把它数字化，这真的很棒。毕竟，信息还是一样的，对吧？是的，并且它主要是基于交易的。那么，我该如何把一个卡片交易整合在一起？是或不是？我们在交易政策上做了很多很酷的东西。例如，客户提交了一个需求，他们输入了各种信息，精确到每分钱，每美元的APR，这就是他们提交的内容。但这些客户点击了成千上万个链接，他们在使用数字零售工具，比如我们的加速成本工具，来计算付款，改变现金首付，调整以旧换新的金额。这都是他们自己在工具中操作的，没有与任何人互动。 我们把这些洞察力提炼出来并汇总，以便当客户进入交易中心时，我们实际上会有一个四方框，显示客户提交的内容。并且在它下面，我们有显示客户购物行为的实际范围，这真的很酷。所以我可以看到支付金额是450，但我也可以告诉你，他们查看的支付金额范围是从380到520。我还可以告诉你，他们对我说的每次都说是零首付，而我与这个客户交易的三次过程中，他们实际上是没有首付的。那么，为什么他们37次计算支付时是以500美元首付计算的呢？ 这些工具是否整合在所有产品中或某些产品中？如果我是听众，我想试试这个功能，或者想获取关于即将到来的新客户的信息，比如如何获取？ 交易中心涵盖了一些不同的产品，比如在解决方案CRM中，如我提到的加速数字零售工具中。另外，我们还与F&I产品中的数字合同和合规方面进行了集成，以确保你不会因为违背合规而进监狱。 这就像是把客户从第一次点击一直到交易成功交付的全过程数字化。我们真正的目标是让桌面管理员或总经理，或是处理交易的人，根据数据做出不同于以往的决定。我需要立即把这些信息传递给你，因为你不可能去找这些信息。我知道我也坐在那个桌子上。如果你在填写四方框，而我在下面展示客户的心理支付范围，这真的会非常有用。

I can back into that and make a deal happen. You see yourself spending another decade with Cox on motive? Yes. Damn. Straight to the point. No flop. Yeah. It's been a fantastic company, man. I cannot. Look, I can't, let me say this. I was a real low bar buddy and Cox, I don't know that I could get above that bar anywhere else. But I mean that they've been fantastic. And look, there are different kinds of companies that no, no companies in my experience, there's less than 3% to give you a stat, less than 3% make it to make it to fourth generation. You know, the first one builds it. The second one maintains it. The third generation sells it. Yeah. It's like that, you know, that inheritance stat that I mentioned on previous podcast, right, which is like most families lose all the wealth. It's a little bit of different from this context, but most families lose all the wealth by like the third or fourth generation. Yes. But less than, like I said, they're less than 3% make it to actual fourth. So 97% of folks are out and Cox is in its fourth generation.

我可以回头来达成交易。你觉得自己还能在Cox公司再待十年吗？可以。哇，说话真直接，毫不含糊。是的，Cox是一个很棒的公司，伙计。我不能，我是说，我不能，这样说吧，我过去的起点很低，Cox帮助我提升了很多，否则在其他地方我不知道能不能达到这个标准。公司确实很棒。你看，各种公司各有不同，根据我的经验，不到3%的公司能传承到第四代。第一代建立公司，第二代维持公司，第三代卖掉公司。对了，就像我在之前的播客提到的继承统计数据一样，大多数家族在第三或第四代就失去了所有财富。是的，但不到3%的公司能实际传到第四代。所以97%的公司坚持不到第四代，而Cox已经是第四代了。

And look, they've got the money thing figured out, you know, they're privately held company, which is rare, I think to be this size and be private. And they look, they want you to be a good human. They want you to go do charity work and they need it to the core. And they want you to go be a better citizen. They want you to improve civilization, those types of things. They want you to do right at work and do all that stuff too. And they're going to, they make very smart bets. However, money isn't everything. It is a big chunk, but there's also all this other stuff around being a good human, being nice to one another, working together on a common goal. And it's just so, it was just so foreign to me, man.

你看，他们已经把钱的问题解决了。你知道，他们是一家私人持有的公司，这么大规模还保持私有是很罕见的。还有，他们希望你成为一个好人。他们希望你去做慈善工作，这是真正发自内心的需要。他们希望你成为一个更好的公民，提升文明素质，诸如此类的事情。他们希望你在工作中也表现得正直，做好一切该做的事。而且，他们会做非常聪明的投资。然而，钱不是一切。虽然钱占了很大一部分，但也有很多其他的东西，比如成为一个好人，彼此友善，共同为了一个目标而努力。这对我来说真的太陌生了，兄弟。

Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, dude, you're like a dealer working Bell to know you come into an environment where, you know, I don't know what it's like in the office, but, you know, to give you like a physical, like real world analogy, I mean, you got kombucha from the, you know, instead of tap water. That's right. In the kitchen, right? So it's like on Tatte, right there. I can imagine it's a little culture shock. Yeah. Look, I, the same reason I didn't want to leave the car business, I didn't want to be one of those bouncy car guys that was always the dealership's problem and not mine.

是啊，我正想说呢，兄弟，你就像一个在Bell工作的经销商，你进入了一个新的环境，我不知道办公室里具体是什么样的情况，但是，就像给你一个真实世界的类比，你明白吗，在厨房里你喝的不是自来水，而是康普茶。没错，就在那里。我可以想象这对你来说有点文化冲击。对，听着，我当初不想离开汽车行业的原因之一就是我不想成为那种总是为经销商带来问题的跳槽车商，不想让这些问题变成我的问题。

You're not a bouncy. I'll give you credit on that. All right. That's why that's why I asked you that decade question because you've, you know, you've been pretty consistent. Yeah. No, I, I, and they take care of me and, and man, I laid on the line for them. I worked my tail off to try to, to try to get the message out there.

你不是个浮躁的人。这一点我要给你点赞。好吧。这就是为什么我问你那个关于十年的问题，因为你一直都比较稳定。是的，我明白，而且他们也照顾我。我为他们付出了一切。我拼命工作，努力传递信息。

And I think, you know, I've had a, a advantage being at Cox because I said in all the chairs on the retail side of the conversation. So some executives, if I said to them, Hey, a sled just pulled up outside, they might think Santa has arrived. I would just tell you that it's a wholesale piece, because they don't necessarily know the language of the retail car business. And I think that's really helped me in my career being able to set and all the chairs and then kind of pitch that back against whatever product we might be making or working on and say, Hey, you know, when I was sitting in the chair, this is how we did it. That might help some insights and get that product a little bit, you know, better to come out first run.

我觉得，我在Cox（科克斯公司）工作有一个优势，因为我在零售业务的对话中担任了所有的角色。有些高管如果我跟他们说，"外面来了一辆雪橇"，他们可能会以为圣诞老人来了。而我会告诉他们那是一个批发车辆，因为他们不一定了解汽车零售业务的专业术语。我认为，这种经历在我的职业生涯中帮助很大。因为我能够从各个角色的角度去看待问题，然后把这些经验反馈到我们正在开发的产品上。我会说，“当我在这个角色时，我们是这样做的。”这种方法可以提供一些见解，帮助产品在首次推出时更成功。

So, what do you think now kind of you've, you've been through several tech cycles here in this industry. What's the next cycle for us here, right? Next kind of two, three years with dealership, dealership technology. I have to imagine that you're pretty embedded into these product meetings. What can you share with us, right? Like where are we heading? And as a dealer, like what should I expect? What's going to change? I think you're going to see a lot more with AI, obviously, gen AIs big right now. We're working a lot on gen AI salespeople are using it to write templates better, email responses better. There's a mall reference like, God, they owe me so much with reference letters. Don't tell anybody, but they do.

那么，你现在怎么看呢？你在这个行业里经历了好几个科技周期。你觉得我们接下来的周期会是什么样的？未来两到三年内，特别是与经销商技术有关的。我猜想你应该深入参与了这些产品会议。能和我们分享些什么吗？比如说我们会朝什么方向发展？作为一个经销商，我应该期待什么？有哪些变化？我认为你会看到更多的人工智能应用，很明显，生成式人工智能现在非常火热。我们在这方面做了很多工作，比如销售人员正在使用生成式人工智能来编写更好的模板和邮件回复。他们的一个典型例子是：“天啊，他们欠我太多参考信了。”这点别告诉别人，但事实如此。

And so I feel like that's going to be an even bigger thing. What I think you're going to see is a better, a more of a palette for it for from the dealers, right? Because I think historically, you know, most of the dealerships and I don't want to stereotype here, but there's a lot of them that I call dinosaurs that just laggard behind. They don't want to evolve. And I just went through this. I was in the market for a reactor for nine months, calling around to Ford stores all across the country, putting my sales, you know, game on the line and trying to find a car.

所以我觉得这将会是一件更大的事情。我认为你会看到的是经销商对此更感兴趣、更愿意接受。因为从历史上看，大多数经销商——我不想以偏概全，但有许多我称之为“恐龙”的经销商，他们总是滞后，不愿意进步。我的亲身经历是，我花了九个月时间在全国各地的福特店寻找一辆车，我一直在努力推销自己，试图找到合适的车型。

And I will tell you that the old come on down and just bring your trade is aligned and well. And that's firsthand data as I was trying to buy a truck for a very long time. And so I had just went through that. I finally got one, but I just went through that old process and I would say some stores who were progressive, some stores, they, you know, didn't like the price of the truck. They called me back later when they dropped it. Some stores I entered in stuff, never heard back from them again.

我告诉你们，现在那种“来吧，带上你的车来换购”的套路还是很盛行的，这是我亲身体验到的，因为我一直在想买一辆新卡车。我终于买到了一辆，但那整个过程真的让我大开眼界。有些店比较进步，他们确实跟上了这个套路；有些店对卡车的价格不满意，后来降价了还给我打电话；还有些店我联系了之后就再也没听到他们的消息。

Some stores I connected with never followed back up with any kind of thing with, you know, another run at me because it's just, you know, always tell myself, but it's not a no voices and no right now. That's sales, man. And so I felt great experiences and really bad ones. And so that just echoed to me, there's going to be more laggards. I think a lot of these dealers are on gross highs because of the demand and supply issue that we've had. And I think they're going to be slowly relinquished that, you know, they were dropping four or five pounders on everybody.

一些我联系过的店铺，从未主动跟进过任何事情，你懂的，再次尝试联系我，因为我总是对自己说，这不是拒绝，只是暂时的沉默。这就是销售嘛。所以我有过很好的经验，也有过非常糟糕的经历。因此，这让我认识到未来还会有更多的滞后者。我认为很多经销商之所以能取得高利润，是因为我们遇到了供需问题。我认为他们逐渐会放弃那种做法，以前他们可是给每个人都加价四五磅。

And I remember every webinar I did before COVID, Joe was about margin compression on new cars. You know, and I think there's going to be a little bit of a wrestle there with how much they want to relinquish the gross. But eventually, you know, the supplies back, so the competition's back and they're going to have to, you know, drop that price to stay competitive, I think, in the long game.

在疫情前，我记得每次做在线研讨会时，话题都是关于新车的利润率压缩。你知道，我觉得在他们愿意放弃多少毛利这一点上，会有些挣扎。但是最终，供应恢复了，竞争也回来了，我认为从长远来看，他们必须降价才能保持竞争力。

All the webinars I did were about margin compression. Right. Volume's definitely taking a hit now and spoke with some, I spoke to some other large dealers with, you know, lots and lots of rooftops. And it's the sentiments changing a little bit. I wasn't as positive as it was six months ago. So you know, we'll see, we'll see how that plays out. You know, the industry is resilient as we know, but you can mess with mother nature and just market forces. So you know, TBD, but it's definitely changing a lot.

我做的所有网络研讨会都是关于利润压缩的。是的，现在销量确实受到了影响，我还与一些拥有众多展厅的大经销商交流了一下。现在的情绪有些变化，没有六个月前那么乐观了。所以我们得看情况如何发展。我们都知道这个行业有韧性，但你不能随意挑战市场规律。所以结果有待观察，但显然变化很大。

Before we wrap up, if anyone would like to get in touch with you or learn just more about your solutions, what you do, we will throw a couple of links in the show notes below. But if they'd like to get in touch with you, what's the best way? Probably through email and that'd just be my chase.avidentcocksautoinc.com and they can email me there and I'll make sure I follow up. The sales person in me will not let anyone go unfollowed up with. So I'll make sure I get back to everybody, but I appreciate that opportunity.

在结束之前，如果有人想联系你或者了解更多关于你的解决方案和工作，我们会在下面的节目备注中提供几个链接。如果他们想直接联系你，最好的方式是什么？可能通过电子邮件最好，我的邮箱是chase.avidentcocksautoinc.com，他们可以给我发邮件，我会确保回复。作为销售人员，我不会让任何一个人没有得到回应。所以我会确保回复每一个人。感谢这个机会。

Well, we'll add that in the show notes as well. Chase, any closing thoughts for a wrap up? I would say thank you to folks like you that are trying to give a kind of non-biased third party view of what's going on in the industry. There's a lot of hard sales pitching out there and you know, we do this and they don't. I think dealers just getting called every day by every vendor trying to sell their stand. One more car, one more car, so you gotta stop. And so I think it's- Or worse, or worse, coming in and knocking on your office door. Yeah, without an appointment. Yeah, right.

好吧，我们也会在节目备注中添加这些内容。Chase，有什么收尾的想法吗？我想说，感谢像你这样的人，试图提供一种客观的第三方视角，来了解行业内发生的事情。外面有太多的强硬销售推销，你知道的，我们这么做，他们不这么做。我认为经销商每天都会接到各种供应商的电话，试图推销他们的产品。一辆车又一辆车，所以你得停一下。有时候更糟，有时候他们还会不请自来，直接敲你办公室的门。是啊，没有预约就来了。对吧。

And I get it going hard in the pain, but we gotta be a little bit more tactful. That's why I tell my team, we're not selling aluminum siding here. Okay, we don't have any building customers. We have 18,000. Okay, we gotta be much more tactful on how we show up. These guys are getting called every day and I know that it's nice to get called every day. Like how are you going to stand out as a lot of the stuff I talk about with my sales team? Well, when we were growing and we're still in a very, very small facility, there was no, you know, there was no gatekeeping to office. Right? Like it was, it was such a small facility to extend that like literally anyone could walk in at that time. And so, you know, people just knocking on the eyes like, come on, like, come on, you know, I'm doing something like please don't, you know, that changed over time.

我理解你们在工作中拼尽全力，但我们需要更加机智一些。这就是为什么我告诉我的团队，我们不是在卖铝制壁板。我们没有任何建筑客户，但是我们有18,000个客户。我们需要更加谨慎地展示自己。这些人每天都会接到电话，我知道每天接到电话很好。但是你怎么才能脱颖而出呢？这是我经常和我的销售团队讨论的事情。我们刚开始的时候，还是在一个非常小的办公室。没有任何把守办公室的措施，那个时候，任何人都可以进来。所以常有人来敲门，我只能说：“拜托，我正在做事，请不要打扰。” 随着时间的推移，这种情况发生了变化。

Chase Abbott, thanks for coming on the pod. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for coming on, man. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It's been great. All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.

Chase Abbott，感谢你来参加我们的节目，非常享受这次谈话。谢谢你来，兄弟。非常感谢邀请我来，这次经历很棒。 好了，希望大家喜欢这一集。请给我们的播客打个评分，考虑订阅我们的节目，并查看节目说明里的相关链接。感谢大家的收听，我们下次再见。