Auto Tech Expert: Building a Marketplace for 30M Monthly Car Shoppers
发布时间 2024-08-29 09:00:33 来源
摘要
Welcome to the Car Dealership Guy Podcast. In this episode, I'm speaking with Matthew Crawford, Chief Product & Innovation ...
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中英文字稿 
At the end of the day, you take what consumers are dealing with and like proliferation of choice and trust and all this kind of stuff and it applies unilaterally everywhere. If we can do that in a way that does this and makes it simpler for tens of thousands of small business owners and millions and millions of consumers, that's a pretty motivating thing.
归根结底，消费者面临的问题，像选择过多和信任问题等等，普遍存在各个地方。如果我们能够找到一种方法，让这些问题变得简单，帮助成千上万的小企业主和数百万消费者，那将是非常激励人心的事情。
Today, I'm excited to speak with Matthew Crawford, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Cars Commerce. We discussed the new challenges presented by online car marketplaces and how dealers can gain the marketplace algorithm to unlock more sales plus much more.
今天，我很高兴与汽车商务公司的首席产品与创新官马修·克劳福德交流。我们讨论了在线汽车市场带来的新挑战，以及经销商如何利用市场算法来提高销售量等等。
A big thank you to our sponsors for making today's episode possible, dealer DMV, my very own car dealership by Industry Job Board and Cars Commerce. And now let's get into the show. Matthew Crawford on the CDG podcast. Matthew, welcome.
非常感谢我们的赞助商，感谢你们让今天的节目成为可能。特别感谢DMV车行，我自己的汽车经销商、工业招聘板以及汽车商务。现在让我们开始节目吧。这里是CDG播客的Matthew Crawford，Matthew，欢迎你。
Hey, thank you. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. Good to have you all, my friend. You are, you, well, you're the Product and Chief Innovation Officer at Cars.com but you, I like to say you hold the keys to the castle. So they're like, it's a little snary for everybody. Yeah, something like that.
嘿，谢谢你。很高兴能来这里。谢谢邀请我参加。我的朋友，很高兴见到你们。你是，嗯，你是Cars.com的产品和首席创新官，但我喜欢说你掌握了核心机密。所以，对大家来说这有点神秘。是的，大概就是这样。
How many visitors does cars.com see every month? About 30 million. So quite a few. Yeah. So your actions have some pretty big impacts out there in the world. We like to think we'll talk, we'll talk all about that. We'll talk about where marketplaces are headed, how things are changing for dealerships for shoppers. So it'll be, it'll be interesting.
cars.com 每个月有多少访问量？大约三千万。所以确实不少。对，你的行为在这个世界上有很大的影响。我们希望能讨论一下这一点，讨论一下市场的发展方向，探讨一下经销商和购物者的变化。所以这会很有意思。
Give us a quick overview about your background. How did you get to this position life? I have to imagine in first grade when they asked you, what do you want to do when you grow up? You didn't say, I want to be a Product and Chief Innovation Officer, but here we are now when you're doing a hell of a job at it. So tell us about your background.
请简要介绍一下你的背景。你是如何走到今天这个位置的？我想象一下在你一年级的时候，老师问你长大后想做什么，你可能不会说“我想成为产品和首席创新官”，但现在你确实做得非常棒。所以，给我们讲讲你的背景吧。
Yeah, so I just love building, you know, and I kind of want to attach myself to interesting problems to solve. So I've worked in a lot of different industries. I'm not kind of a traditional car guy, but I am somebody who loves to solve problems, especially for small businesses. So worked in tech at venture backed startups, all the way up to kind of publicly traded companies and found myself here in the position of cars really to solve a unique problem at a unique time for this industry.
对，我就是喜欢动手做东西，也喜欢解决一些有趣的问题。所以我在很多不同的行业都工作过。我并不是那种传统的汽车爱好者，但我是一个特别喜欢解决问题的人，尤其是为小企业解决问题。我曾在风投支持的初创公司以及上市公司工作过，现在我发现自己身处汽车行业，希望在这个特殊的时刻为这个行业解决一个独特的问题。
And so everything I've been focused on for my whole career has been about solving problems for small businesses and marrying that up with great consumer experiences. And I think we'll talk a little bit more about that here today, but kind of found myself here, falling in love with both the industry and the way that the operators in it are able to solve problems and get scrappy to do it. So I'm excited to kind of talk more about that.
我整个职业生涯的重点都是为小型企业解决问题，并将这些与出色的消费者体验结合起来。我想今天我们会更多地讨论这个话题。我发现自己深深爱上了这个行业，以及从业者们解决问题和灵活应对的方式。因此，我很期待进一步谈论这个话题。
I have to imagine that every single dealer or every single person listening to this, frankly, has either used a marketplace at some point in the shopping experience. Or if they're a dealer, they are customers of a marketplace or they have been, I mean, it's your tentacles are far and wide. What is the current state of marketplaces? Like, how do you see this? If I could get a sneak peek of your product roadmap, right? Like, where are we at today? Where are we headed?
我想，每一个经销商或每一个听这种话题的人，都在购物过程中某个时候使用过电商平台。要是他们是经销商，他们自己也是这些平台的客户，或曾经是，也就是说，这些平台的触角非常广。那么，电商平台的现状如何呢？如果我能提前了解一下你们的产品路线图，那我们现在处于什么阶段？未来的趋势又是什么呢？
Yeah. So like, simplest way to think about it is, if you ever watched kind of the show Silicon Valley and there's the guy who's like, I put radio on the internet, right? Like all the marketplaces started kind of like, I took class by listing is I put them on the internet, right? And that's very much just a way to say like, what's out there? What's available? What's going on? And I think the arc of where we're headed is, if you look at omni-channel commerce, kind of across the internet and across online to offline, it's giving consumers choice of how they want to engage.
好的。最简单的理解方式是，如果你曾经看过《硅谷》这部剧，那里面有一个角色说“我把广播放在了网上”，对吧？所有的市场平台一开始都是这样：我把课程列表放到了网上。这其实就是在说：有什么课程？有哪些选择？有什么动向？我认为，我们的发展方向是，如果你看看全渠道的商务模式，不管是在线还是线下，都是在给消费者提供选择，让他们决定如何参与。
And so like, that's going to change in modalities. It's going to change in capabilities. But really, our job is kind of stay one step ahead of where the consumer is going, and then give dealers the tools to do the same thing. So help your smallest independent dealer operate and act as sophisticated as the biggest guy out there. And we can talk about as much as you want to, like what that means specifically. But that's really the arc of things is like, I'm looking through a newspaper and I'm seeing kind of what's out there all the way to now, I'm ready to make a decision online and I want to go through as much of that process as I can, get up to that point of making a transaction or a sale.
所以，这会在使用方式和能力上有所改变。但实际上，我们的工作就是比消费者预期的方向领先一步，然后为经销商提供相应的工具，让他们也能做到这一点。我们的目标是帮助最小的独立经销商能够像最大的公司那样高效和专业地运作。我们可以详细讨论这具体意味着什么。但整体上，这是一个转变的趋势：从看报纸了解信息，到现在准备在线上做出决策，并希望在网上尽可能多地完成交易或购买过程。
So yeah, I think it's one level deeper. Like what really matters nowadays when it comes to the shopping experience. And I think things have obviously changed a lot in the last couple of years when there was no inventory. Frankly, you had a ton of flexibility on prices and you were selling cars regardless of how well you were presenting them. I mean, your car was being sold today. Obviously, it's a much different landscape in just the current consumer environment today. Inventory has rebounded a ton, especially on the new side.
所以，是的，我觉得问题更加深入了一层。现在购物体验中真正重要的是什么。我认为显然，在过去几年里情况发生了很大变化，当时根本没有库存。说实话，你在价格上有很大的灵活性，而且无论你怎么展示汽车，都会卖出去。也就是说，你的车当天就能卖掉。显然，当今的消费环境大不相同。库存已大幅回升，尤其是新车方面。
So first things first, what really matters today from a shopper's perspective, what do they want to see on the marketplace or on the dealer's website, frankly? Yeah, a well-marchinedized vehicle, right, first and foremost. And I know that that sounds so simplistic, but it's like accurately represent your inventory, show your photos, make sure that people understand what they're buying, set their expectations appropriately, be price competitive. So do all those basics well. And then the second thing is people want to be treated fairly and treated well.
首先，从今天购物者的角度来看，什么是真正重要的？他们希望在市场或经销商的网站上看到什么？坦率地说，首先是一个信息完善的车辆。这听起来很简单，但关键在于准确地展示你的库存，显示清晰的照片，确保顾客了解他们要购买的东西，设定合理的预期，并具有竞争力的价格。做好这些基础工作。其次，人们希望得到公平和良好的对待。
So one of the huge things on our side is ratings or reviews. Like are you giving somebody a good experience? Are you reaching out to them in a timely manner when they come into your store? Do you honor what you said online? Is there consistency there? And really, even though the markets kind of rebounded, consumers are extremely price-sensitive right now, right? Everything's gotten more expensive, whether that's groceries, cars, financing, like whatever. People know that they're going to walk into a situation that's bordering on unaffordable. So within that, they're really looking for trust, right?
所以，对我们来说，评分或评价是非常重要的。比如，你是否给顾客提供了良好的体验？当他们进入你的店铺时，你是否及时与他们交流？你是否兑现了在线上承诺的内容？这些方面是否一致？而且，即使市场有所回暖，消费者现在仍然对价格非常敏感，对吧？所有东西都变得更贵了，不管是食品、汽车还是贷款，几乎所有东西都涨价了。人们知道他们将面临几乎难以负担的局面。因此，在这种情况下，他们非常注重信任，对吧？
Is this car going to be reliable? Can I trust you to take care of me? Can I make sure that I'm making a good decision? Because this is the second biggest purchase that I'm going to make. So in my mind, just really get those basics, right? Not only of just merchandising the car, but treating people well. And the rest will follow. That's easy to say, but there's a lot of sophistication in that.
这辆车会可靠吗？我能相信你们会照顾我吗？我能确定我做了一个明智的决定吗？因为这是我即将做的第二大笔花费。所以我认为，真的要把这些基本的东西做好。不仅是把车展示好，还要善待顾客。做到了这些，其他的自然就好了。说起来容易，但其中有很多细节需要注意。
So one thing that I used to love doing as a dealer is looking for ways to gain the algorithm on the marketplaces, right? And I don't mean to send like an unethical way. I mean, legitimately, there's a lot of things you can do to improve your performance and beat your competitors. And obviously, we're not talking about pricing, or misrepresenting your vehicle. You're in charge of these algorithms. So what are people doing out there? Or what are the best practices that people can do in order to have their listings show up at the top? Any clever tricks here that you can share with us?
所以，作为一个销售人员，我过去很喜欢做的一件事就是寻找方法在市场平台上的算法中占据优势，对吧？我不是指那些不道德的手段，而是合法的，有很多方法可以提高你的表现，击败竞争对手。当然，这里我们不谈价格战或者虚假描述你的商品。你掌控这些算法。那么，人们都在做些什么呢？或者，有哪些最佳做法可以让他们的商品列表在搜索结果中排到前面呢？有没有什么聪明的技巧可以分享给我们？
Sure. Yeah. So we put a lot of emphasis on like, we have a thing called a dealer experience report. And so you can basically see how our consumer is talking about you in the market. How are they rating you, right? How you treat them in the store? Did you respond to their lead in a timely manner? We factor all that stuff into our algorithm. So it's really easy to kind of say, just drop your price, right? Like, look at your competitive set, look at your inventory, and just hit that rock bottom price, and you're going to get more leads. Okay, there's truth in that.
当然。是的，所以我们非常重视一个叫做“经销商体验报告”的东西。通过这个报告，你基本上可以看到我们的消费者在市场上是如何谈论你的。他们是如何评价你的，对吗？他们在店里的待遇怎么样？你是否及时回应了他们的询问？我们把所有这些因素纳入我们的算法。因此，说“降低价格”其实是很容易的，比如查看你的竞争对手，看看你的库存，然后设定一个最低价，这样你就会获得更多的潜在客户。好吧，这的确有道理。
But we've tried to design an algorithm that kind of takes your whole experience and bakes it into the way that you're going to get ranked. So at the end of the day, price the vehicle in a fair way. We have price badges on our site, right? Is this a hot car? Is it in demand? You'll be able to know that one of your listing inventory on cars.com. Is it a great deal, good deal? That's based on dynamic demand index and pricing index that we have on the site. Two of those things are like really going to drive interest.
但是我们试图设计一种算法，将你整体的体验纳入排名方式中。最终，这样可以确保车辆以公平的价格出售。我们网站上有价格标签，对吧？这辆车是不是热门的？是否有需求？你将能够在cars.com上看到你的车辆库存状态。这是一个划算的交易吗？好交易吗？这些都是基于我们网站上的动态需求指数和定价指数。这两点真的会推动关注度。
And then the third piece is consumer experience, right? Like, if you're not treating people well, and that comes through in the way that you're showing up on the site, you're going to get penalized for it.
然后第三部分是消费者体验，对吧？就是说，如果你对待顾客不好，这会反映在你网站的表现上，你会因此受到惩罚。
And then the fourth thing is like, if you've got inventory and metal that you need to move, make sure that you're like promoting that as effectively as possible.
然后第四点是，如果你有库存和金属需要处理，确保你尽可能有效地推广它们。
People don't know what they want. We have a lot of dealers who are kind of like, well, I'm going to put 10 of my cars on the site, but I'm not going to put these other 10 on the site.
人们不知道自己想要什么。我们有很多经销商，他们有点像这样：我会把我的10辆车放在网站上，但另外10辆车我就不放上去了。
And at the end of the day, you're presupposing what's going to drive demand and interest or what's not. And a lot of times these consumers, 80% of the time, they don't know exactly what they're looking for.
归根结底，你在预设什么会驱动需求和兴趣，或者什么不会。而很多时候，这些消费者有80%的时间并不确切地知道自己在寻找什么。
New, used, price point, all the things that we presuppose that they do actually don't.
新旧、价格点，这些我们假设它们会实际起作用的东西其实并没有。
And so put as much inventory on the site as you possibly can, which sounds like it's on our self-interest, but basically consumers are coming to us out of a place of, I want you to be the market equalizer.
尽可能多地在网站上上传库存，看似是为了我们自身的利益，但实际上消费者来找我们，是希望我们成为市场的均衡者。
So if you're kind of misrepresenting a piece of the market or only a segment of the market, then they're not going to have that trust. And they're going to just keep looking, keep looking, keep looking, and dealers want consumers to make a decision.
所以，如果你有点误导了市场的一部分或者仅仅是市场的一个片段，消费者就不会信任你。而他们会继续寻找、继续寻找、继续寻找，而经销商则希望消费者能够做出决定。
A few things that are pretty basic. Again, like there's not a silver bullet, but it's like pretty basic.
有几件事其实挺基础的。再说一次，并没有什么灵丹妙药，但这些都是很基本的。
What about not basic? Like, have you seen any dealers do any like badass things that you're like, well, this maybe requires a bit more investment on anything like that?
那么，不是普通的呢？比如，你有没有见过一些销售做过一些非常了不起的事情，让你觉得这可能需要更多的投入？
Yeah. So like there's a couple of things that we think are really impactful whenever dealers do it and embrace it. One is, tell your salespeople and their expertise.
好的。有几件事我们认为一旦经销商采用并接受，会非常有影响力。其中之一是，让销售人员展示他们的专业知识。
So I integrate that into the experience. If consumers pay to a salesperson at the time that they're interested in a vehicle, they're three times more likely to close on a car. So it's like increases your close rate substantially, but that takes a lot of effort on the dealer's part.
所以，我把这个融入到体验中。如果消费者在对车辆感兴趣时付钱给销售员，他们成交购车的可能性会提高三倍。这大大提高了成交率，但这也需要经销商付出很多努力。
I have to maintain who my salespeople are, what are the areas of expertise? I want to like get consumers to actually match with that person. So that's one, right? Like represent your sales force and their expertise effectively on the marketplace.
我需要明确我的销售人员是谁，他们的专业领域是什么？我想让消费者真正匹配到合适的人选。所以，首先，要在市场上有效展示你的销售团队和他们的专业技能。
And then I would say kind of the second thing that, you know, is maybe a little bit of a less talked about piece is be participating in things like, I want to acquire all the inventory that I can, right? Like as a dealer, that may sound antithetical, but we have a lot of trading capabilities.
然后，我会说第二个事情，可能不太被人提起的是：参与一些活动，比如我想获得所有可以得到的库存，对吧？作为一个经销商，这可能听起来有点自相矛盾，但我们有很多交易能力。
And a lot of times consumers are just trying to understand like, what's my car worth? And if you can open up that conversation and authenticate with the consumer, hey, guess what? If they're getting rid of a vehicle, they need to buy one as well.
很多时候，消费者只是想知道“我的车值多少钱”。如果你能与消费者展开这个对话并建立信任，看看，这样一来，如果他们要卖车，他们也需要买一辆新车。
And if you can be that place that takes that car from that consumer, your ability to then engage in a conversation about a sale goes up exponentially. And like, a lot of times people are not connecting those two things.
如果你能成为那个从消费者手中接过车子的地方，那么你与他们就销售进行对话的机会就会大幅增加。而且，很多时候，人们并没有把这两件事情联系起来。
You just looked at it as you're here to buy, oh, and maybe you have a trade in you probably have a trade in. But if you inverse that, there's something there too.
你就是像在这里买东西一样看待它，哦，也许你有一个可以用来交易的东西，你可能真的有一个可以用来交易的东西。但如果你反过来看，也有一些不同的意义。
And I think those are two things that are a little bit untapped in the market right now, because it does require more effort.
我认为这两点在当前市场上还有点未被充分利用，因为它们确实需要更多的努力。
Yeah, it expands your surface area as well, because you're able, like you said, to get in front of more consumers.
是的，这也能增加你的曝光度，因为正如你所说的，你能够接触到更多的消费者。
I used to have, I started this obsession with studying VDPs. So for anyone that's not familiar with the term, like a vehicle detail page, right? It's just pretty much fancy term for the page where you actually see a vehicle on a marketplace or a dealer's website.
我以前对研究VDP有着痴迷。对于不熟悉这个词的人来说，VDP指的是“车辆详情页”，实际上就是你在市场或经销商网站上看到车辆的那个页面的一个比较高级的说法。
But I remember when I saw Carvana start adding those cards every three or four cars, do you know what I'm talking about? We're like on pictures, they would put like suddenly an ad. And I was like, these guys are slick. I like that because it's like, give such a captive audience at that moment.
但我记得，当时看到Carvana每三四辆车就加一个广告，你知道我在说什么吗？就是他们在图片中突然插入一个广告。我当时就想，这些人真聪明。我喜欢这种方式，因为它抓住了观众的注意力。
Right? It's like, it's like a podcast ad in the middle. I mean, it's no different. Like the person is already in the groove and it's like, boom, hit him with a car, boom.
对吧？就像在播客中间插播广告一样。我是说，这没什么不同。本来听众已经进入状态了，然后突然来个广告，嗖地一下打断了他，嗖的一下。
So I thought that was pretty slick. I have to imagine that impacts conversion pretty well. Totally.
所以我觉得这真的很聪明。我认为这对转化率会有很大影响。完全同意。
Yeah. And there's a lot of things like that. So like, we're always, you know, we have media products that basically are like contextual advertising that dealers can participate in.
是的。还有很多类似的事情。比如说，我们总是有一些媒体产品，基本上就像是上下文广告，供经销商参与。
Like, I want to boost this vehicle. And like, but only with these types of people who are looking for these types of things. And that works extremely well, right?
就像，我想推广这辆车。而且，只针对那些在寻找这种东西的人。这种方法效果非常好，对吧？
Or if you're, like you said, looking at photos of a car, if you're looking at inventory, maybe you're interested in something similar to that, even if it's at the same dealership.
或者，就像你说的，如果你在看汽车的照片，如果你在查看库存，也许你对类似的其他汽车感兴趣，即使这些车在同一家车行。
Again, this is like, consumers end up in a place not necessarily out of perfect intention. Sometimes they just end up there.
再说一次，消费者并不总是出于明确的意图而来到某个地方。有时候他们只是碰巧到了那里而已。
And then you need to then educate them. Vehicle buying has like a bifurcative funnel, meaning like you start thinking, you know what you want. And then you realize everything that's out there. And then you basically start researching again. And then you make a decision. So like, as a dealer, if you're not there at each of those moments in time, you're missing out in somebody else's. So you've got to be in the middle of that mix. 100%. Every purchase I made recently, I didn't even know what I wanted. I thought I barely thought I did, but I didn't know what I wanted. People know more about those socks that they buy than about the cars that they're looking at. Sometimes you got to meet people where they are.
然后你需要对他们进行教育。买车就像一个分叉的漏斗，意思是你一开始以为自己知道自己想要什么，然后你发现外面有很多选择，然后你基本上又开始重新研究，最后你做出决定。所以，作为一个经销商，如果你在每个关键时刻都没有出现，那么你就会被别的经销商抢走生意。所以你必须全程参与。百分之百的参与。我最近买的每一件东西，我一开始都不知道自己到底想要什么。我以为我知道，但其实并不知道。人们对他们买的袜子了解得比他们看中的车还多。有时候你得要迎合他们的实际情况。
This episode is brought to you by dealer DMV. And today's climate, you probably find your dealership selling more and more vehicles out of state. More sales, always a good thing. But then comes time to title and register and everyone knows out of state title link is a major headache. It does not have to be this way. Our friends at dealer DMV have created a program called dealer 50, a revolutionary approach to 50 state titleing. With dealer 50, your dealership now has 24 seven portal access to calculations, pre filled forms, checklist, inquiries, plus white glove processing and specialist support. You can even acquire duplicate titles in all 50 states directly through the dealer 50 platform. And the best part, it's DMS integrated. Visit dealer 50.com. That's d l r five zero.com to learn more about this game changing solution from dealer DMV or click the link in the show notes below.
此节目由DMV经销商赞助。在当今的市场环境中，你可能会发现你的经销商越来越多地将车辆卖到外州。销售增加总是一件好事。然而，当涉及到车辆过户和登记时，大家都知道，处理外州车辆过户是个大难题。不过，不必再担心了。我们的朋友DMV经销商推出了一个名为dealer 50的项目，这是一种革新性的50州过户解决方案。通过dealer 50，你的经销商现在可以24/7访问计算器、预填表格、清单、查询，以及白手套流程服务和专家支持。你甚至可以通过dealer 50平台直接在所有50个州获取重复的车辆拥有权证书。最棒的是，这一切都与DMS系统集成。访问dealer50.com（即d l r 5 0.com）了解更多关于DMV经销商这款改变游戏规则的解决方案，或者点击下方节目说明中的链接。
So you mentioned making the process easier, more simple. And I told you that, you know, if I was going to fly on the wall and I could see your product roadmap, it would be really cool to see kind of how you think about the future. But here's my big picture question. Are we going to a place and what would be there soon where you just we just spoke about knowing what we want versus not knowing what we're consumers actually have an AI agent, whether it be on cars.com, whether it be on the dealer's website or both, where it simply says, Hey, here's who I am. Find me the car I want. And I'm not talking about, you know, I'm not talking about those kind of funnels or polls like I have a family I need for like something that's way more sophisticated that, you know, an AI agent that maybe scans all of your social media from the past 10 years, you know, something like that, are we moving to that state where it's just going to be completely frictionless? Is that really going to happen? And when is that? What's your thoughts?
所以你提到让这个过程更简单、更容易。我跟你说过，如果我能像墙上的一只苍蝇一样，看到你们的产品路线图，那就太酷了，可以了解你们是怎么规划未来的。但我的主要问题是：我们是不是正在走向一种只需表达需求而无需细节描述的状态？也就是说，无论是在cars.com还是在经销商的网站上，消费者都会有一个AI助手，只需告诉它“这是我的情况，帮我找辆适合我的车”。我不是说那种简单的调查问答，比如“我有个家庭，需要一辆大车”，而是更高级的AI助手，甚至可以扫描你过去十年的社交媒体内容。我们是不是正在走向这种完全无摩擦的状态？这真的会发生吗？什么时候会实现？你怎么看？
Yeah, you know, I don't want to give like a non-answer here, but like my answer would be like, yeah, absolutely. Like in my mind, things are going to evolve in two paths. One, it's going to be like a reductionist path, basically people who know generally what they want and they're kind of reducing from there, maybe increasing a little bit and reducing again. And then there's people who are kind of like, it's my first time buying or I just had a kid, I'm entering unknown territory. Right. And that's I think where what you're describing will really help. And I think that it's going to be on two horizons. One is kind of like in the next 12 to 18 months and the things that are already happening, which will help people through the process, right? Like, what's a safe car or I need to put two car seats in this and like, you know, helping based on cues and context clues to then narrow your assortment, sit down.
是的，我明白，我不想给一个模棱两可的回答，但我的回答是绝对的。在我看来，事情将会沿着两条路径发展。第一条路径是简化的路径，基本上是那些大致知道自己想要什么的人，他们会先缩小范围，也许再扩大一点，然后再缩小范围。第二条路径是对于那些第一次购买或者刚有孩子的人来说，他们进入了未知领域。我觉得你描述的情况在这里会非常有帮助。我认为会有两个时间跨度，一是接下来的12到18个月，已经在发生的事情会帮助人们完成这个过程，比如选择一个安全的车，或者需要放两个儿童座椅的车，这些基于提示和上下文线索来缩小选择范围，然后坐下来做决定。
And then I think, you know, in the more three to five year horizon, it starts to plug in all the stuff you're talking about, right? And and this gets to like consumer trust, right? Like, hey, who are you, right? Tell me more about yourself. Usually like, okay, like, I'm this guy, here's my, you know, Instagram account, here's my Twitter, you know, whatever, then like, go take a look at all that data. And then you tell me what you think about myself and you hold a mirror up and say, these are the cars that match your personality or match your needs day or look like the things that other people like you are driving. And I think there's a way to build that knowledge graph in a way that, you know, builds on consumer trust. But I think we're going to progress through this linearly in my mind.
然后我想，在未来三到五年的时间里，它会开始整合你所谈论的所有东西，对吧？这就涉及到消费者信任的问题了，比如说：“嘿，你是谁？告诉我更多关于你自己的事情。”通常情况下，人们会说：“好的，我是某某，这是我的Instagram账号，这是我的Twitter账号，不管是什么，你可以去看看所有这些数据。” 然后你告诉我你对我的看法，你给我一个镜子，说：“这些车符合你的个性或者满足你的需求，看起来像是其他和你类似的人开的东西。” 我认为可以用一种方式来构建这种知识图谱，来增强消费者信任。但在我看来，这个过程会是线性的。
Like, you don't just jump from today, you're on a site, you're putting filters and you're finding a car to magic, right? And like, we go over here and suddenly like, a bot is just telling you, you should buy this thing. You know, and I think it's just going to be a progression that's pretty linear. But it will happen. Like, I'm sitting here saying, for sure, that modality will occur. But I think it's just going to be a little bit slow. Like we're all aware of the $1 Tahoe, you know, fiasco that happened kind of with the chatbot saying like, yeah, I'll commit to that. So I think we've learned some lessons as like how to not do this, which is going to teach us how to go forward. Fortunately, that wasn't us.
比如说，今天你不是一下子就从一个网站上开始设置筛选条件，然后找到一辆车，然后突然间魔法发生，对吧？而且我们走到这边，突然一个机器人告诉你，"你应该买这个东西。" 我认为这将是一个相当线性的进程，但它会发生。我可以肯定地说，这种模式将会出现。不过，我认为这个过程会有点慢。大家都知道那个1美元卖泰霍（Tahoe）的闹剧，那是因为聊天机器人说"对，我会这样做"。所以我觉得我们已经学到了如何不去做的教训，这将指导我们如何前进。幸运的是，那件事不是我们干的。
But you know, now break it down one step further, other than like product identification, right, finding the car on one, where do you see the biggest impact with the shopping experience? Given AI, like where is the biggest impact going to be? Is it the financing, the trade-in altogether, or is it product identification? Indeed, what do you think? Yeah, I do think first and foremost, product identification, that's where people are most confused, right? Like, what does this trim level mean? I didn't even know that manufacturer existed, right? That's a new problem, right? People now are kind of like, wait, UID, what is that? Right? Like I didn't even, I wasn't even aware of this in my consideration, so I need to build my dreams. What is this?
你知道吗，现在我们把问题再细化一步，除了产品识别之外，比如找到合适的汽车，你认为在购物体验中最大的影响在哪里？考虑到人工智能，最大的影响会在哪？是融资、旧车置换还是产品识别？你怎么看？
是的，我确实认为首先是产品识别，这是人们最困惑的地方，对吧？比如说，这个配置级别是什么意思？我甚至不知道这个制造商存在，这是一个新问题。现在人们会有点困惑，比如UID（用户识别码）是什么？对吧？我甚至没把它列入我的考虑范围，所以我需要构建我的梦想。这到底是什么？
Yeah, yeah, right. And like, but really, you've kind of entered this new realm, right, where people don't even understand what they're reducing from. So like, they're overwhelmed. And you really have to say, okay, AI, I think can really help with that. It's very good at taking massive sets of data and normalizing it down and kind of saying like, here's a general picture. And now you start to understand that picture. Once you succeed at that, I think you move on to the next things that are more sophisticated, right? You say, can I trust this? Is this really a good financing and interest rate? Is this really a good value for my trade in? And you know, crunching all of that data and saying like, yes, this is actually a trustworthy value that we're putting on this car, and you should continue on that process.
对，对，说得没错。实际上，你已经进入了一个新的领域，在这个领域里，人们甚至不明白他们要简化什么，所以他们感到不堪重负。你真的需要说，好的，人工智能（AI）可以在这方面提供很大的帮助。它非常擅长处理大量数据并将其规范化，然后告诉你一个大致的图景。你开始理解这个图景后，我觉得你才能进行更复杂的事情。你会问，我能信任这些信息吗？这是一个好的融资和利率吗？这是一个公平的交易价值吗？然后，通过处理所有这些数据，人工智能会告诉你，是的，这实际上是我们给这辆车定的一个可信的价值，你可以继续这个过程。
If you think about like where maybe like airline sites are today, they have a lot of like, you should buy now indicators related to what their predicting prices may do. We're building a lot of that same logic into the way that we think about algorithmic predictions of price and value and things like that, that then help you say, is it the right time? What's going to happen in the market? But I do think you have to start with the real basics. Yeah. And it's like, you start with the basics though, right? Like where you're like, don't overwhelm people with too much information about stuff they don't know about. And then we've all the way to telling them like, buy this now. Like, well, I don't even know what you're talking about. You have to build that credibility first. You know, I always found those optimizations so fascinating because we used to call it at my prior company. We have quite a few engineers and we used to call it like to expedify our pages.
如果你想象一下现在的航空公司网站，它们通常会有很多“现在购买”的标识，提示你预计价格可能会发生的变化。我们正在将类似的逻辑构建到我们对于价格和价值的算法预测中，这样可以帮助你判断是否是购买的合适时机，市场可能会发生什么。不过，我认为你得从基础开始。没错，就像你说的，你得从基础开始，不要用他们不了解的信息把人搞得一头雾水。我们总是一步步地告诉他们“现在买这个”，但是他们可能连你在说什么都不知道。你首先得建立这种可信度。我一直觉得那些优化很吸引人，因为我以前的公司也有很多工程师，我们过去常常称这种优化为“加速页面”。
And so, you know, you'd put on, hey, here's how many, I mean, the basics are like, how many people are viewing this product? How many people click saved? Yeah, yeah, scary. Exactly. Great scarcity. But man, airlines have just done such a freaking good job at these things. I mean, at this point, they're selling you the air you breathe, right? Like, what's in this? When do I go and book a flight? And it's like, do you want this one or, or the, oh, by the way, you can go more basic than that. Oh, and by the way, you cannot pick your seat.
所以，你知道，你会看到这样的信息，比如，有多少人在浏览这个产品？有多少人点击了“保存”？对，对，制造紧迫感。就是这样。没错。航空公司在这方面做得真的太好了。我是说，他们现在几乎连你呼吸的空气都要卖给你了。就像是，你什么时候去订机票？然后他们会问你想订这个航班还是那个航班。哦，顺便说一下，你可以选择更基本的票。哦，还有，你不能选择座位。
And if you want to sit five rows, you know, closer, you're going to have to pay extra. But the seats the same, it's gotten so they've optimized the space so freaking well. It's truly a masterclass in just conversion optimization. Totally. Yeah. And I think you can take it too far, right? Like, do you start charging subscriptions to unlock features on a car? And then somebody else will come along and say, well, we're going to standardize that and consumers need to understand those things, right? Like, this is the complexity that the market's kind of layering on all of this stuff. They're like, we're trying to peel back as a marketplace.
如果你想坐得靠前五排，就得额外付费。尽管座位本身没什么区别，但空间优化得非常好，简直是空间利用的典范。但我觉得有时候这种做法会过于极端。比如，你会不会开始对解锁汽车上的某些功能收费呢？然后就会有另一家公司出来说，我们要把这些功能标准化。消费者需要明白这些变化。这就是市场上渐渐增加的复杂性，而我们作为一个市场正在努力简化这些东西。
And it's just going to get worse, right? Option set is not going to reduce suddenly. Just going to continue to explode. And so for us, it's like, simplify down those basics, right? Like, demystify that stuff, make it easy for consumers to trust what they're seeing. And then all those other things start to follow, right? Like that stuff becomes a natural follow on motion. If you do those basics well, how are you avoiding falling into a trap of, you know, focusing on the wrong technology, right?
情况只会变得更糟，对吧？选择项不可能突然减少，只会继续爆炸式增长。所以对我们来说，应该简化那些基础，对吧？去除神秘感，让消费者更容易信任他们看到的东西。然后，其他事情就会顺理成章地跟上来，对吧？如果你把这些基本的事情做好，如何避免陷入关注错误技术的陷阱呢？
Like you saw Mark Zuckerberg, one of the most impressive founders, entrepreneurs ever invested tens of billions in the metaverse. And he sort of pivoted in the span of like six months or so, 12 months, whatever time you want to put on it, completely pivoted. And metaverse is kind of, you don't really hear much about it anymore. And again, he's just one example, right? So if he can make a mistake like that, I mean, anyone can make a mistake like that. So how are you, how are you able to kind of steer the ship and focus on the things that matter? How are you really managing to that?
就像你看到的马克·扎克伯格一样，他是有史以来最令人印象深刻的创始人和企业家之一，曾经在元宇宙上投资了数百亿美元。他差不多在六个月或十二个月的时间内就完全转向了，而现在你几乎听不到关于元宇宙的消息了。他只是一个例子，对吧？如果他能犯这样的错误，任何人都可能犯这样的错误。那么你是如何掌舵并专注于重要的事情的？你是如何真正管理这件事的？
Yeah. So a couple of things that are interesting here and maybe the dealer community, it's, you know, we're running dozens or hundreds of experiments all the time. And so really it's about reducing the cost of failure and letting consumers give us the feedback on what's working and what's not and just iterating really, really quickly. Part of that's just a constraint of we don't have tens of billions of dollars to throw at the metaverse and try to build metaverse based showrooms or whatever random idea that we think might be kind of cool in a moment.
好的，这里有几件有趣的事情，也许会引起经销商社区的兴趣。我们一直在进行数十甚至数百个实验，真正的目的是降低失败的成本，并让消费者反馈哪些东西有效、哪些无效，然后迅速迭代。其中一部分原因是我们没有数百亿美元来随便投入元宇宙，试图建立基于元宇宙的展厅或其他任何我们觉得一时兴起的酷炫想法。
But part of it is just rigor around what the consumer drive where you go next and us throwing ideas out there that are a little bit ahead of where they might be at a point in time and then learning from that really, really quickly. And if you do that enough times at a high enough velocity against a core strategy, right? Like, you know, the problems you're trying to solve, you mitigate the risk of just taking a wildly wrong direction and driving down at 100 miles an hour. So that's kind of our philosophy. And the other thing I would say is be willing to make mistakes, right? Like part of my job inherently is to try things, mess up, learn quickly from them.
但其中一部分是严格遵循消费者的需求，决定接下来要走的方向，同时我们也会提出一些超前的想法，并从中快速学习。如果你在一个核心战略下，以足够快的速度多次这样做，就能降低走错方向的风险而导致严重的后果。这就是我们的理念。另外，我觉得还要敢于犯错。我的工作本质上就是尝试事情、犯错，并从中快速学习。
And I think that we're trying to make those mistakes before our dealers do. So it's kind of like, let us do the learning for you. And then if it's on your website or on the site, know that we are in the background trying to optimize for you as best as we can every single day. So we're making your business more efficient. So it's like, let us do the learning for you a little bit as maybe the moral of that story. All right.
我的理解是，我们在努力在我们的经销商犯错之前先犯错，有点像是“让我们为你学习”。如果这是在你的网站上，或者说在现场，知道我们每天都在后台尽最大努力优化，为你提高业务效率。所以可以说，这个故事的寓意就是“让我们为你学习”。
So speaking of technology at a dealership, so I had this idea, and I wanted to run it by you, right? But we had wanted to invest a lot in virtual reality on premises or some form of being able to show a car in a very rich technologically driven environment. By the way, some dealers have done stuff like this. But here, here was my idea, telling your thoughts, I was thinking of some company that has access to inventory.
说到经销商的技术，我有个想法，想跟你讨论一下。我们想在店内投资大量的虚拟现实技术，或者用某种高科技手段展示汽车。顺便提一下，一些经销商已经在做类似的事情。但是，我的这个想法是这样的，听听你的意见：我在想找一家能接触到库存的公司。
So you're a great example, right? Or it can even be the dealer, but someone would have to supply it on the back end. But basically doing something where dealers are equipped with these like the meta Ray band glasses. So like whatever, for anyone that's not familiar, like Facebook, meta, right? They have these Ray band glasses that are, you know, they have like cameras and now men, it's pretty slick.
所以你是一个很好的例子，对吧？或者即便是经销商也可以，但需要有人在幕后提供支持。基本上是让经销商配备像Meta的Ray-Ban眼镜这样的设备。对于那些不熟悉的人来说，Meta（就是Facebook）现在有这些Ray-Ban眼镜，里面有摄像头，很厉害的。
But just imagine like a huge, a huge friction point for consumers when they're on the lot is actually knowing what car they're looking at, having all the details and blah, blah, blah. Now imagine if as a dealer, I stock like 20 of these and a customer comes in a lot, I handle the glasses and they go on to the lot and tells them the information on every single car. Just like right then and there, how badass would that be? I love it. Let's do it. So that was my, that was my little secret idea that I just, to thousands of people in the world. And hopefully someone makes it happen. Because I think that's pretty badass.
但你想象一下，当消费者在车场上时，一个巨大的摩擦点实际上是他们不知道自己正在看什么车，缺乏所有细节信息等等。现在，设想作为一个经销商，我存有20辆这样的车，然后一个顾客进来，我递给他们一副眼镜，他们戴上眼镜后，便能立即获得每辆车的信息。这是多么酷的一件事啊！我爱这个点子，让我们来做吧。这就是我的一个小秘密想法，现在已经告诉了全世界成千上万的人。希望有人能实现它，因为我觉得这真的非常赞。
And I just figured, Hey, it's like such a good opportunity to leverage tech, to make to solve a problem and to do it very easily. 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.
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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.
最棒的是，CDG 的听众可以完全免费地在他们公司发布和填补职位。所以，我确信你在想我们有什么与众不同的地方。当公司通过 CDG Jobs 招聘时，他们选择的是业内最了解情况的候选人。无论你是在招聘还是寻找新机会，今天就访问 CDGjobs.com，或者点击下面节目说明中的链接。就是这个网站：CDGjobs.com。
What do you see today as the biggest opportunities with marketplace moving forward? Like how is, how is it going to evolve? Whether it's integrating more of the purchase process to the marketplace or not? But what are the biggest opportunities right now? Yeah, well, I think you nailed the first one. It's like, pull as much of the process into the marketplace as possible and create a standard experience that consumers can do.
你认为未来市场的最大机会是什么？它将如何发展？比如，是不是会将更多购买流程整合到市场中？目前最大的机会是什么？对，我认为你说的第一个观点很对，就是尽可能将整个流程都放到市场上，创造一个标准化的用户体验。
I want consistency as a consumer. I want to know, I'm browsing against all of this assortment. I can get financing across a spectrum of vehicles. I can have my trade in. That's logged against any car that I'm looking at, know my equity, all that stuff. And that's a lot of work. Step one is do those things, do those basics.
作为消费者，我希望能够有一致性的体验。我希望在浏览各种各样的产品时，知道自己可以为各种车型获得融资。我可以用自己的旧车做换购，并且随时了解自己汽车的价值、所有的这些信息。做到这些已经是一个巨大的工程。第一步就是完成这些基本操作。
Think the next piece is connecting that online to offline experience in a way that empowers dealers to do a better job. It's like, if we've tossed you a lead into your CRM and one of your salespeople responds to that in two minutes and another one takes three days and you're like, why is my clothes rate suck? It's like, well, we should actually be helping you to understand that and helping you to coach up your team on the ground to do a better job.
我认为接下来的任务是将线上体验与线下体验结合起来，以便让经销商能更好地工作。就像这样，我们把一个潜在客户信息发送到你的客户关系管理系统（CRM）中，一个销售人员在两分钟内回应，而另一个销售人员却需要三天时间。然后你可能会问，为什么我的成交率这么差？实际上，我们应该帮助你理解这个问题，并帮助你指导你的团队更好地完成工作。
So it's like becoming an extension of that consumer to help dealers elevate their game. It may be the last piece is just like, your glasses ideas kind of like on the right track. It's like, once I move offline and I show up at the dealership, does my sales rep that I'm supposed to have the test driver with get a push notification that says I'm there? Do they know my preferences? Do they know what I want to test drive?
这就好比成为了消费者的延伸，帮助经销商提升他们的服务水平。最后一点是，你的眼镜创意有些类似。就是说，当我从线上转到线下，来到经销商那里的时候，我的销售代表是否会收到推送通知，知道我已经到了？他们是否知道我的偏好？知道我想要试驾什么车？
Am I making that seamless? I know I'm building trust, or am I just kind of like, I show up and I'm like any other person, right? And I get in line, I put my name on the page and somebody comes and calls my name in 45 minutes, right? It's a huge difference in expectation there. And I think, well, marketplace standpoint, like we can help with each of those things.
我做得够顺畅吗？我知道我在建立信任，还是说我只是来了，就像任何其他人一样，对吧？然后我排队，把名字写在名单上，45分钟后有人叫我的名字，没错吧？这之间的期望差异非常大。我认为，从市场的角度来看，我们可以在每个方面提供帮助。
So some of our basics, some of them get more like, yeah, maybe we should be sending the glasses to like all of our dealers and saying like, hand these out to people whenever they show up, right? So maybe there's something there. And I want to tie into one of the points you just mentioned. So one thing that I respect a lot about your company is the way you have, you know, you're an industry participant in car business and you really aligned interest between you and the dealer and the customer. I think I think you've done this very well in the marketplace segment. I think some other marketplaces haven't been able to do it as well for various reasons. So my question is, you mentioned like, right, bringing financing upstream into the market into the shopping experience and stuff like that. How do you do that and align incentives with the dealer, right? Because obviously, like, we're just talking prequalification because financing is a huge profit center for dealers. And as a dealer, whenever I would hear financing upstream or something like that, my ears would start buzzing. Well, something, you know, my spidey senses are, yeah, so how do you align incentives? Because I have to imagine this is a big consideration for you, given, given I know the leadership of your company.
所以，有些基本的东西，比如我们应该把眼镜发给所有经销商，让他们在有顾客来时分发出去，对吧？也许这是个不错的主意。我想谈谈你刚才提到的一点。我非常尊重你们公司的一个方面，就是你们在汽车行业中，不仅参与其中，还与经销商和客户的利益很好地对齐。我认为你们在市场细分方面做得非常出色，而其他一些市场平台出于各种原因可能没能做到这一点。
我的问题是，你提到了将融资前置到购物体验中，这一点该如何操作，并且如何与经销商的激励措施相对齐呢？因为融资是经销商的重要利润来源。如果我是经销商，听到“上游融资”这个词，警觉心就会提高。那么，你们是如何对齐这些激励措施的？因为我知道贵公司领导层对此肯定非常重视。
Yeah, no, 100%. And, you know, candidly, it's a lot more work to do it like in a way that tries to take all those interests in mind. But basically, you know, the simple way that we think about it is creating a three-way marketplace for us to be participating with lenders and with our dealer customers. So if you're a customer on the marketplace, you say, I work with these lenders, we match those things up. And those things just flow through into your system. So you're running the deal just like you normally would, and we're not trying to like take it out ahead of you or anything like that.
是的，完全同意。坦率地说，这样做需要更多的工作，因为我们要考虑到各方面的利益。但基本上，我们的简单思路是创造一个三方市场，让我们可以与贷款机构和经销商客户一起参与。如果你是这个市场的客户，你会说，我和这些贷款机构合作，我们会把这些匹配起来，然后这些信息直接流入你的系统。所以，你处理交易时就像平常一样，我们不会提前干预或者做其他什么。
And then we're basically looking at it as a way to provide more value on the back end, right? Okay, did that loan fund? Do we provide value to that lender partner or just like we provide value to you versus if we wanted to, you know, kind of go to a single bank and say, we got a lot of people on this marketplace. And if you want to cut it out, just come play with us. And we'll just kind of force that downstream to our dealers. And it's a choice, right?And we've chosen, I think, to take a little bit harder of a path, but in a way that we'd like to think benefits the consumer and the dealer, because to your point, it's like your consumer, I go on the site, I get prequal or qualified with hard credit financing for a specific bank on a specific car.
然后我们基本上将其视为在后台提供更多价值的一种方式，对吧？好的，那个贷款成功了吗？我们是像为你提供价值一样，为我们的贷款合作伙伴提供价值吗？还是如果我们想，只是去跟一个银行说，我们在这个市场上有很多客户。如果你想参与进来，就来和我们合作，然后我们会把这个机会传递给我们的经销商。这是一个选择，对吧？我们选择了一条稍微艰难的道路，但我们认为这种方式对消费者和经销商都有好处。因为正如你所说的那样，作为消费者，我上网站后可以为一辆特定的车从某个特定的银行获得预批准或正式批准的贷款。
And I show up with a dealer, and you're like, I don't like working with that bank or actually don't work with that bank. I'm going to flip you, right? And then there's a consumer, you're like, wait, so I did all that stuff. It was a big waste of time. Now I don't trust cars.com. And I don't really trust this dealer. So in our mind, it's like, it's not just like the right thing to do. But it's like, it is the right thing to do. And we think it yields better profit on the back end for everybody, including the consumer, right? They're going to net out ahead by going through that process as well. So that's what we think about it.
我带着一位经销商出现，而你说你不喜欢与那家银行合作，甚至根本不跟那家银行合作。你打算换另一个，这时候消费者可能会想：“等一下，我做了这么多前期准备都是白费力气吗？现在我不再信任 cars.com，也不太信任这个经销商。” 在我们看来，这不仅仅是要做正确的事情，而是必须做正确的事情。我们认为，这样做能够在长远来看给每个人，包括消费者带来更好的收益。通过这个流程，消费者也会获得更多优势。所以这就是我们的想法。
It is a bunch of work to kind of hold those tensions at the same time, but we think it's the right thing to do. And we're going to stick with it. All right, so three fun questions before we wrap up. And we go into closing thoughts. So what's exciting to you nowadays, right? Was you think about your role, your product guy, again, I looked at your background and you've done product for Man Well Over a very long time and several companies, right? So what's exciting to you nowadays?
同时保持这些紧张关系确实是一件很繁重的工作，但我们认为这是正确的做法，我们会坚持下去。好了，在我们结束前，还有三个有趣的问题。首先，最近有什么让你感到兴奋的事情呢？你是产品专家，我看了你的背景，你在许多公司做了很长时间的产品开发。现在有什么让你感到兴奋的事情呢？
Yeah, to me, it's basically like solving real problems for consumers and small businesses. Like at the end of the day, you take kind of what consumers are dealing with and like proliferation of choice and trust and all this kind of stuff. And it applies, you know, unilaterally everywhere. So if we can do that in a way that does this, it makes it simpler for thousands, tens of thousands of small business owners and millions and millions of consumers. That's a pretty motivating thing. And it feels like you're making a real impact because people who make good decisions about their car purchase experience are really, really happy. People who make bad decisions are really, really unhappy. So at the end of the day, we're here to make people happy. And that's motivating.
对我来说，这基本上就是为消费者和小企业解决实际问题。归根结底，你要考虑消费者正在面对的问题，比如选择的繁多和信任等。这些问题适用于任何地方。所以如果我们能够以一种方式简化这些问题，使成千上万的小企业主和数以百万计的消费者受益，那就是一个很大的激励。这让你觉得自己在带来真正的影响，因为做出正确购车决策的人会非常高兴，而做出错误决策的人会非常不高兴。所以最终，我们在这里是为了让人们感到满意，这非常鼓舞人心。
It could be wrong. And you could tell me if I am, but it looks like you've been essentially in the car business for three years by way of cars.com or, you know, auto tech, whatever you want to call it. What's the most interesting or let's say unexpected thing you've learned about this industry since you've joined? Like, was there anything that you was shocked you that this is how it's being done or anything like that?
可能是错的。如果我错了，请告诉我。不过看起来你已经通过cars.com或者汽车技术（你可以叫它任何你喜欢的名字）在汽车行业工作了三年左右。自从你加入以来，你学到的最有趣或最意想不到的事情是什么？有没有什么让你感到震惊的事情，比如“原来是这么做的”或者类似的情况？
Yeah. So maybe one of the things is like every single piece of technology is so customized to automotive. It's like, you know, oh, that's a good point. Yes. Like, everything is extremely, extremely auto centric versus kind of we've taken technology that exists and applied it to our industry, which is very, very different than a lot about other industries that I've worked with. So I think that's probably like the most surprising. And then, and then obviously, you've got these situations where it's like every single participant in the market thinks they are unequivocally doing it the right way, which isn't really surprising. But it's just like the beautiful thing about successful entrepreneurs, right? It's like you've cracked the code and nobody else has cracked it. And it's like, there is a pattern there. And so we're trying to always play in the middle of that, which, which can be fun, as you can imagine.
对呀。所以，也许其中一件事情是，每一项技术都高度定制化应用于汽车领域。就像，你知道的，这确实是个好点子。是的，所有的技术都是极其以汽车为中心的，而不是我们从其他领域引进的现有技术再应用到汽车行业。这和我在其他行业工作时非常不同。所以我觉得这可能是最令人惊讶的事情之一。然后，显然，在这种情况下，每个市场参与者都觉得自己的方式是毫无疑问的正确方式，这其实并不令人意外。但这也是成功企业家的美妙之处，对吧？就像你破解了别人没能破解的代码。而且这里面是有一定规律的。所以我们试图在这个过程中找到一个中间地带，这就像你可以想象的一样，有趣。
That's good. Yeah, it's funny because I, you know, when I have friends and stuff on outside of the industry, or we self conversations like, Oh, what's CRM do you use? And you mentioned some CRM that they've never heard of. They're like, wait, like Salesforce HubSpot, like, no, neither. Absolutely not. We're too like unique for that, right? And it's like, there's some truth in that, but there's some like, I think, I think auto has like a sense of pride or ego to in a way that's kind of like, we're special and we're different that you get elsewhere, but not to the same degree, right? It's kind of a beautiful hilarious thing.
那挺好的。是啊，这挺有意思的，我有一些在行业外的朋友，我们聊天时会提到，哦，你们用什么CRM？然后你提到一些他们从未听说过的CRM，他们会说，等等，像是Salesforce或者HubSpot吗？我说，不，都不是。我们太特殊了，不适用那些东西，对吧？这说法有些道理，但也有点让人觉得我们有种自豪感或者自负，仿佛我们很特殊，与其他地方的感觉不同，但又没有那么强烈。这种感觉既美妙又有些搞笑。
Yeah, I've used, I use our non automotive CRM before, actually, believe it or not. And we had one that was kind of semi custom built. And it was just very ineffective. You kind of came to the conclusion that when you, when it's all said and done, you're, you end up building pretty much the same thing. It didn't achieve the goals we thought it would. Some things were actually great. And, you know, retrofitted to our workflow. And again, CRM is just one example. But when it's all said and done, I think there's, there's some reason, at least for software products, why they are custom built for auto, for the different processes and whatnot. So definitely was that educational for me.
是的，我用过，也使用过我们非汽车行业的客户关系管理系统，实际上，不管你信不信。而且我们还用过一个半定制的系统，但效果非常不理想。你最终会发现，当一切尘埃落定时，你几乎还是得构建相同的东西。它没有达到我们预期的目标。有些方面其实还不错，适应了我们的工作流程。再说，客户关系管理系统只是一个例子。但最终，我认为至少对于软件产品来说，它们为不同的汽车行业过程定制是有原因的。所以这对我来说确实是一次有教育意义的经历。
Yeah. Well, Matthew, thanks for coming on. This was super great. If anyone wants to learn more about your kind of different products, cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, cars, what you're working on, we'll throw up a link in the show notes below. But really, really fun chatting and thanks for coming on. This was great. Beautiful. Thank you very much. Appreciate it for having me. Thanks.
好的，马修，谢谢你参与节目。今天的交流非常棒。如果有人想了解更多关于你那些不同的产品、汽车等的信息，我们会在下面的节目备注中提供链接。真的很开心和你聊天，再次感谢你的到来。这次交流非常棒。非常感谢你邀请我，真的很感激。谢谢。
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.
好的。希望你喜欢这一集。请给我们的播客评分，考虑订阅我们的节目，并查看节目说明中的相关链接。谢谢收听。下次再见。