Managing $500M+ in Dealership Ad Dollars | David Regn
发布时间 2024-01-02 10:00:06 来源
A high school t-shirt venture came to manage over 500 million in dealership ad dollars. Alright, this is crazy. Today I'm speaking with David Ren, the co-founder and CEO of Stream Companies, a fully integrated advertising and marketing agency that serves car dealerships. We discuss the size and scale behind dealership marketing budgets, how AI will impact the car buying, whether or not those gimmicky dealership mailers actually work, my personal biggest marketing regret, and much more.
一家高中T恤企业在经营中获得了超过5亿美元的经销商广告费。好吧，这太疯狂了。今天我将和Stream公司的联合创始人兼首席执行官大卫·任进行对话。Stream公司是一家完全集成的广告和营销机构，为汽车经销商提供服务。我们将讨论汽车经销市场预算的规模和范围，人工智能将如何影响汽车购买，那些花哨的经销商邮件广告实际上是否有效，以及我个人最大的营销遗憾等等。
Don't forget to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. What's up everyone, this is car dealership guy, you're listening to the car dealership guy podcast, which is my effort to give you access to the most unbiased and transparent insights into the car market. But before we dive into the show, this episode is brought to you by CDK Global. CDK Global has been empowering nearly 15,000 dealers with the tools and technology they need to build deeper relationships with customers. Their team is keenly aware of the state of dealership technology, and while many vendors promise seamless experiences between your CRM, DMS, digital retail and fixed ops, most of these bolt-on solutions tend to break workflows and cause more harm than good.
别忘了点击订阅，这样你就不会错过任何一集了。大家好，我是汽车经销商，欢迎收听《汽车经销商播客》，这是我为了给大家提供最公正和透明的汽车市场见解所做的努力。在我们开始节目之前，本集由CDK全球赞助。CDK全球向近15,000家经销商提供工具和技术，帮助他们与客户建立更深入的关系。他们的团队非常了解经销商技术的最新状态，尽管很多供应商承诺CRM、DMS、数字零售和固定运营之间的无缝体验，但大多数这些外挂解决方案往往破坏工作流程，带来更多伤害。
That is why CDK has launched a new dealership experience platform. This new integrated software consists of everything you need to operate a dealership officially, while delivering an unparalleled experience to your customers. Basically, everything working together, not separate, one system to run your dealership as opposed to 10. CDK developed it with an outside-in approach listening to dealers every step of the way. To learn more about CDK's dealership experience platform by visiting CDKGlobal.com slash DXP or clicking the link in the show notes below.
这就是为什么CDK推出了一种全新的经销商体验平台。这个新的综合软件包含了一切你运营经销店所需的内容，同时为你的客户提供了一个无与伦比的体验。基本上，一切都共同运作，而不是分隔开来，只需一个系统即可经营你的经销店，而不是十个。CDK采用了一种从外部到内部的方法，听取经销商的意见，始终与他们一同前进。要了解更多关于CDK的经销商体验平台，请访问CDKGlobal.com/ DX P或点击下方节目注释中的链接。
This episode is also brought to you by Stream Companies. I'd like to thank Stream for coming on us to guess and also supporting this podcast. In 1998, we had made a decision to, of course, advertise, so we put an ad in the yellow pages. And one day, we were sitting in the office and got a phone call from a gentleman named Dale Petrovich for radio and metropolitan communications, local businesses, and he was a Motorola two-way radio dealer. And he needed to write a marketing plan to be able to sell this new product Motorola was offering called Tolario. Dale was a bootstrapped through the business, didn't go to college, and he had no idea. So he picked up the yellow pages, gave us a ring. We actually went up to his office that day, met with Dale and one of his general managers, and he hired us on the spot. His first client ever put us on a retainer, you know, and that was in 1998. So we started out doing work with Dale. We actually put, funny enough, put his business on TV, local cable TV, and I met a TV rep who introduced me to my first car dealer ship in 1998.
这一集还由Stream Companies赞助。我想感谢Stream对我们的支持，并支持这个播客。1998年，我们决定进行广告宣传，于是我们在黄页上刊登了一则广告。有一天，我们坐在办公室里接到一个名叫戴尔·佩特罗维奇的先生打来的电话，他是一家当地企业的无线电和城市通信的销售商，而且他是摩托罗拉的一家双向无线电经销商。他需要写一个营销计划来销售摩托罗拉新推出的产品Tolario。戴尔是凭借自己的努力开始了自己的事业，没有上过大学，他一无所知。于是他翻开黄页，给我们打了个电话。我们当天上午就去了他的办公室，与戴尔和他的一位总经理会面，他当场雇佣了我们。他是我们的第一个客户，还为我们提供了一笔固定报酬，那是在1998年。所以我们开始与戴尔合作。我们实际上在地方有线电视上为他的公司做了广告，而我在1998年认识了一位电视代表，这个电视代表向我介绍了我在那一年的第一家汽车经销商。
What was it like? I mean, what are you even selling to car dealers in 1998? Were you selling websites yet? No, so the funny enough, like, dealers were just getting email addresses in 1998. Some dealers didn't even have websites. I mean, it was just starting. So we were selling, we were designing newspaper ads, designing and mailing direct mailers, and producing TV commercials, and buying local spots on cable. Wow. And how big were you at this point? It was just, it was Jason and I.
那时候情况怎么样？我的意思是，你们甚至在1998年向汽车经销商销售什么？你们当时已经在销售网站了吗？不，有趣的是，像汽车经销商在1998年才刚刚开始使用电子邮件地址。有些经销商甚至还没有网站。我是说，那个时候刚刚开始。所以我们当时正在销售、设计报纸广告，设计和邮寄直邮资料，并制作电视广告，在有线电视上购买本地广告时段。哇。那时候你们有多大规模？当时只有我和Jason两个人。
So this was just in 1998 and got our first dealership, and this was a small, small dealer in Pennsylvania, but he was still, he was spending $25,000, $30,000 a month. So we were like, wow, there's a lot more money in dealership ad spend than the two-way rating videos or doctors or anything like that. So that was our first taste of understanding the auto business and how, it was really antiquated at that point. They weren't even tracking the phone calls they were getting from the newspaper ads or the direct mailers. All right.
所以这发生在1998年，我们开设了第一家经销商。当时这是一个很小的经销商在宾夕法尼亚州，但他每个月的广告费用也要花费2.5万到3万美元。所以我们就惊讶地发现，在经销商的广告投放中，赚的钱比进行双向评级视频、医生或其他任何行业都多得多。这是我们第一次领略到汽车行业的情况，当时它真的很陈旧。他们甚至没有追踪通过报纸广告或直邮获得的电话呼叫。好的。
So let's fast forward. What does Stream do today? What are all the different services you offer? We are a fully integrated agency from strategy, media buying, digital, creative, soup to nuts. That's really our sweet spot is working with dealers, dealer groups and the publics, helping them execute and develop their go-to-market strategy. Yeah.
所以让我们快进一下。Stream今天做些什么？你们提供哪些不同的服务？我们是一个全面融合的机构，从策略、媒体购买、数字媒体、创意设计到全方位服务。我们真正擅长的是与经销商、经销商集团和公众合作，帮助他们执行和制定市场营销策略。是的。
So I'd have to imagine you clearly see tons of dealerships, their marketing budgets, their spends. Given all the inventory craziness that we've seen in the last couple of years, what have you seen shift in the way dealers are deploying marketing dollars?
所以我得想象你肯定看到了许多汽车经销商、他们的营销预算和开支。鉴于过去几年我们所见的库存疯狂情况，你看到经销商在营销支出方面有什么变化吗？
Yeah. I think that just to kind of rewind a little bit, dealers started to really lean heavily into digital pre-COVID. But as COVID hit, really you saw traditional media budgets decline even more and more and more dollars get shifted into performance media, paid search, paid social, the endemic, things like that. So historically pre-COVID was probably 60 to 70% digital and the other spends traditional. But really that's pivoted where in many cases we don't have any dealers running any type of traditional advertising. Wow. Has any of that reverted in the last year or so?
是的。我认为，为了稍微回顾一下，疫情之前，经销商开始更加依赖数字媒体。但是随着疫情的来临，你会看到传统媒体的预算不断下降，越来越多的资金转移到表现型媒体、付费搜索、付费社交媒体、特定领域等方面。所以在疫情之前，数字媒体的占比可能是60%至70%，其他支出则是传统媒体。但是现在情况已经发生了转变，很多情况下，我们没有任何经销商在进行任何形式的传统广告宣传。哇，过去一年左右这种情况有没有发生逆转呢？
Yeah, definitely. And I think we'll see kind of more happen even more in 2024. Our perspective is making sure that our clients have a good mix of both awareness, performance and retention. Again, I think retention is often overlooked in this business. We spent so much dollars driving demand, but we forget to retain the traffic that we're driving and the customers we already have. I think that awareness has kind of been a forgotten part of the advertising mix. Our most successful dealers never stopped their awareness advertising even during COVID. Give us some examples. What is that awareness advertising that you're seeing?
是的，绝对是这样。我认为，在2024年，我们会看到更多的事情发生。我们的观点是确保我们的客户在意识、绩效和保留方面有一个很好的平衡。再次强调，我认为在这个行业中，往往忽视了保留。我们花了很多钱来推动需求，但我们忘记了保留我们所推动的流量和已经拥有的客户。我认为意识在广告组合中已经成为被忽视的部分。我们最成功的经销商即使在COVID期间也没有停止他们的意识广告活动。给我们一些例子。你看到的那些意识广告是什么？
Yeah. Depending on the market, right? It could be we've got big dealers in big, big metros that sell hundreds if not thousands of cars a month. So, go run broadcast TV, radio, cable TV. But really those are the bigger dealers with the bigger budgets. When you look at when a dealer approaches you and I'm trying to put myself in their shoes, they're coming to you like, hey, I have X amount of dollars to deploy. How do you figure out, again, the attention of the consumer is shifting so quickly from different platforms? And where are we consuming content? Where is that attention? How are you balancing that for dealers nowadays, especially when two years ago, if you got a car in the lot, it sold. You didn't even need to advertise. And I can imagine that hurt your dealer spend. But how are you then balancing today where consumer attention is shifting so rapidly and making sure that you're channeling those dealers dollars in the right direction?
是的，这取决于市场，对吧？我们可能在大型城市有一些大经销商，每个月销售几百甚至几千辆汽车。所以，我们要进行广播电视、广播电台、有线电视的推广。但是这些都是有更大预算的大经销商。当一个经销商接近你时，我试着换位思考，他们会向你表示：“嘿，我有X金额的预算要使用。你怎么确定，再次提醒你消费者的注意力在不同平台间快速转移？我们在哪里消费内容？那个注意力在哪里？在如今，特别是两年前你只要车库里有辆车，它就会卖掉。你甚至都不需要进行广告。我可以想象那对你的经销商支出造成了伤害。但是你现在如何平衡和确保把经销商的资金引导到正确的方向上，因为消费者的注意力变化如此迅速呢？
Yeah, that's a great question. So first off, if we've got a new potential client that's reached out to us, it's really understanding the market that they're in, the brand that they're selling, what is the competitive landscape look like? What's their sales penetration? What's their share by zip code for their brand that they sell? And then also, what's the competitive mix for makes and models that they compete against? So we really want to understand what the market looks like. And then we look at what's the consumer look like in that market as well? What's the demographics? What's the income? Those types of things. Before we even put a budget together, we want to have all that information. And then also, what is the inventory? Do they have the inventory? What is our go to market in terms of simple, going back to your college days of marketing of the five P's?
是的，那是一个非常好的问题。首先，如果我们有一个新的潜在客户联系我们，我们首先要了解他们所在的市场，他们销售的品牌，竞争格局是怎样的？他们的销售渗透率是多少？他们销售的品牌在每个邮政编码区域的市场份额又是多少？还有，对于他们所竞争的品牌和车型的组合，我们也想了解。所以我们真的想要了解市场现状。然后我们还会关注在这个市场中顾客的特征是怎么样的？人口统计学情况如何？收入如何？在我们制定预算之前，我们希望获得所有这些信息。还有，他们的库存是什么样的？在市场推广方面，我们如何执行“五个P”的营销策略，回到您大学时代的课堂上。
We've got to have the product. We've got to make sure the dealers are pricing the product to market, to be competitive. And then we look at things like, what's the promotion? And then the placement. Where are we going to be able to, if we're going to go in awareness, whether it's broadcast TV or cable TV or radio, do we have the funds to get the right reach and frequency to stand out from the competition and then noise in general? So that goes into all those recommendations. And then we look at what the digital competitive landscape looks like. What's the competition on Google look like? Are we getting enough visibility within search? What's converting from a keyword perspective? Really get down into the details to put the dollars to work for the dealership so that we can drive enough opportunities to do business, to reach the sales goals. And then the sales goals really help us build out an appropriate budget, for sure.
我们一定要有这个产品。我们一定要确保经销商将产品定价到市场价位，以保持竞争力。然后我们要考虑的是促销活动和产品放置。无论是广播电视、有线电视还是广播广告，我们都要确定我们是否有足够的资金在竞争中脱颖而出。所有这些建议都与我们要考虑数字竞争环境相关。Google上的竞争如何？我们是否在搜索中得到足够的曝光？从关键词的角度来看，转化情况如何？我们会深入研究细节，以确保为经销商有效地利用资金，以实现足够的业务机会，达到销售目标。销售目标确实有助于我们制定出适当的预算。
Yeah. So you take clearly a very analytical approach, which I think is smart. Can you give us an overview of your scale, number of dealers, whatever numbers you can kind of go so we can contextualize to scale your business?
是的，所以您显然采用了非常分析的方法，我认为这很明智。您能给我们提供一下您的规模概况，包括经销商数量等任何数字，以便我们能够对您的业务规模有所了解吗？
We're at about almost 700 employees. So our scale is pretty immense. And we've built the company to move at the speed of retail. I think that's super important for our clients, right? That includes having people that work on the weekends because if a client needs something changed on the website, a new slide, or has an issue with a vehicle price, the wrong way or just needs help, we have people that are available on the weekend. So we've built the business to really be able to support our dealer clients as well as our OEM partners.
我们现在拥有大约近700名员工。因此，我们的规模相当庞大。而且，我们已经将公司建设得能够与零售业的速度相适应。我认为这对我们的客户非常重要，不是吗？这包括在周末有人工作，因为如果客户需要在网站上修改一些内容、更换新的幻灯片，或者对车辆价格有问题，或者只是需要帮助，我们有人可以在周末提供支持。因此，我们真正建立了这个业务，以真正能够支持我们的经销商客户以及我们的原始设备制造商合作伙伴。
We've got 20 plus OEM partnerships. So it's important that we're really able to, our internal core values or one hour response, 24 hour resolution to really meet the needs of our clients. Before we started the podcast, you were talking to me a little bit about some of your clients, you worked with some national clients. How did you scale that from Eastern PA all the way to National to some of the largest dealer groups in the world, frankly? How did you do that?
我们已经建立了20多个原始设备制造商（OEM）的合作伙伴关系。因此，非常重要的是我们真正能够满足客户的需求，这体现在我们内部的核心价值观，即一小时回复和24小时解决问题。在我们开始播客之前，你和我谈到了一些客户，你曾与一些国家客户合作过。你如何将业务从宾夕法尼亚东部扩展到全国，甚至到一些世界上最大的经销商集团呢？你是如何做到的呢？
First and foremost, when that dealer, this name was built, Bill Latch, he still running that store sold. Which store is this? It was called Courtesy Chrysler Jeep and Thorndale PA was our first auto client. That was your first store, got it. What Bill gave us, which some of our other clients, I'll talk a little bit about that in a second, was the opportunity to learn the business. I didn't know, in 1998, didn't know anything about the car business. But Jason and myself, again, being curious, life-long learners took this opportunity to really understand the business.
首先，当那个经销商建立这家店时，他的名字叫Bill Latch，他仍然在经营这家店。这家店是哪家？它叫做Courtesy Chrysler Jeep，位于宾夕法尼亚州的Thorndale，是我们的第一个汽车客户。那是你们的第一家店，明白了。Bill给了我们一些东西，也是我们其他一些客户所给予我们的，我稍后会谈一下，那就是学习业务的机会。1998年，我对汽车行业一无所知。但是Jason和我自己，再次充满好奇，终身学习者，抓住这个机会来真正了解这个行业。
I'm talking how to read a financial statement, what are all the profit centers in the dealership, what are all the opportunities coming in, whether it's sales call, service call, parts call, how do we help our dealers holistically run their business in a smarter way? I think by really entrenching ourselves in the business allowed us to start to make a name for ourselves. Again, through the network of dealers, talk to dealers, we really started to build out a nice auto business. I would say our biggest opportunity, what really set us to the next stage of the business was a woman who since passed, who is a mentor and great friend of mine, Julie Tozo, family owned Lynn's auto group in North Jersey.
我正在讲述如何阅读财务报表，以及经销商中的所有利润中心，还有即将出现的所有机会，无论是销售电话、维修电话还是零件电话，我们如何帮助经销商以更聪明的方式管理他们的业务？我认为通过真正融入业务中，我们开始为自己打下了知名度。再次强调，通过与经销商的网络交流，与经销商交谈，我们真正开始发展起一个不错的汽车业务。我要说，对我们业务的下一个阶段产生影响最大的机会是一位已经离世的女士，我的导师和好朋友Julie Tozo，她拥有位于新泽西北部的Lynn's汽车集团，是一个家族企业。
At the time, they had four or five dealerships and we're spending $5 million, $6 million a year on advertising, super competitive market, Julie interviewed 18 agencies and she just loved Jason and I's fresh perspective on looking at the auto business in a different way. We made it to the finals between us and another agency, ended up coming out on top and that was in 2002. That was really the next stage of our business of really learning what high volume stores look like in competitive markets.
当时，他们拥有四个或五个经销商，并且每年花费500万到600万美元用于广告，市场竞争异常激烈。朱莉面试了18家机构，她非常喜欢我们杰森和我的全新汽车业务视角。我们成功进入了决赛，与另一家机构竞争，最终我们脱颖而出，那是在2002年。这真的是我们业务的下一个阶段，真正学习高销量商店在竞争激烈市场中的样子。
We were spending $100,000 a month in the Star Ledger at that time getting a thousand phone calls a month off of our newspaper ad. That was really, I guess, really, we got our masters in automotive working with the Tozo family and just really understanding the business and how to deal with a multi-generation family dealership. It was a big life lesson and there were 20 plus year clients of ours. That was a huge, not only a huge business opportunity but it really taught us a lot about the business.
在当时，我们每个月在《星标纪事报》上花费10万美元，从我们的报纸广告上收到了每月一千个电话。那真的是，我想，真的，我们通过与Tozo家族合作，在汽车行业中获得了丰富的经验，真正理解了如何与一个多代人家族经营的经销商打交道。这是一堂重要的人生课程，他们是我们二十多年的客户。这不仅是一个巨大的商机，而且真的教会了我们很多关于这个行业的知识。
Seems to me like you focused on one by one brick by brick compounding here based on what you're describing one store at a time. Again, you've been around for quite a while and I want to get into how you reinvented yourself in a second but I think that's, correct me for long, that seems to have been your strategy here, like really compounding over many years. It really is and I think it was like provide a great service, be partners to our clients, taking calls any time of the day and really again, our work spoke for itself and we took that opportunity and like you said, we laid the next couple bricks.
在我看来，根据你所描述的，你似乎专注于逐个逐个地积累砖块，一次只做一家商店。再次强调，你已经在这个行业待了很长时间了，我想接下来我们要讨论的是你是如何重新发明自己的，但我认为，纠正我如果我错了，这似乎一直是你的策略，就是通过多年的累积来实现。确实如此，我认为我们提供了出色的服务，与我们的客户成为合作伙伴，随时接听电话，真正展示了我们的工作水平，我们抓住了这个机会，就像你说的那样，我们铺下了接下来的几块砖。
We truly introduced us to a gentleman named Ed Carden who was on the national dealer council for Nissan. He was a general manager at that time with Cherry Hill Nissan and now owns 10 plus stores with his business partners. Again, still a client of ours so really that brick by brick and then got introduced through Big Dealer Group and PA long term, still a client of ours. Again, a mentor, Fred Bean's got introduced to Fred through his internal agency at that point and then Fred decided to make the change and dissolve his internal agency and roll it into stream. Again, we have amazing partners and clients that have taught us and mentored us and really helped us grow the business for a private brick.
我们真实地介绍给了一个名叫埃德·卡登的绅士，他是尼桑全国经销商委员会的成员。当时他是樱桃山尼桑的总经理，现在与他的商业合作伙伴共同拥有10多家商店。再次强调，他仍然是我们的客户，所以这确实是一砖一瓦的积累，通过大型经销商集团和长期合作的宾夕法尼亚公司认识到他。再次，我们有了令人惊讶的合作伙伴和客户，他们教导和指导我们，真正帮助我们为私人企业发展壮大。
Tell me more about like present day dealership numbers.
One question, what are dealers right now paying on average to acquire customers?
告诉我更多关于目前车行数量的情况吧。
一个问题，目前经销商平均支付多少来获取客户？
Most of our clients are very focused on what their PRU is. So how much they're spending per unit on advertising?
我们的大多数客户非常关注他们的PRU是多少。他们在广告上每单位花费了多少？
We've got clients that are spending anywhere from $250 a unit to some dealers that are super aggressive with some of the OEM programs have more co-ops so they could be spending $600, a unit depending on their co-op programs and how much money they're earning in co-op.
我们有一些客户每件产品花费250美元到一些非常积极的经销商使用一些原始设备制造商（OEM）的计划，他们的合作费用更多，因此他们每件产品的花费可能达到600美元，具体取决于他们的合作计划和获得的合作资金数量。
Yeah, so just to simplify that, if I'm spending $100,000 a month and I sell 200 cars, I spent $500 per unit. That's the math you're going by, right? Like per sold unit.
是的，为了简化一下，如果我每个月花费10万美元，而我卖掉了200辆汽车，那么每辆车的成本是500美元。你说的是每个销售单位的成本，对吧？
That's correct. Yep. Got it. So you're saying the lowest you're seeing is about $250?
没错。是的。明白了。所以你的意思是最低价大约是250美元？
Yeah, and that was a little dip below 200 in some cases during COVID and I would say pre-COVID was probably closer to $350 to $400 a unit on the low end.
是的，在 COVID 期间有些情况下价格下跌到了200美元以下，我会说COVID之前的价格可能在350到400美元左右每单位的底部。
When you see players in the industry like Carvana or other upstarts that in some cases, in a new market may spend thousands per unit and I don't know what's the latest numbers but I know that it used to be at certain point, over $5,000 a unit.
当您在行业中看到像Carvana或其他新兴公司这样的参与者，在某些情况下，在一个新市场上可能会每单位花费数千美元，我不知道最新的数字是多少，但我知道在某个特定点上，每单位花费超过了5000美元。
Again, I'm going way back now, right? Obviously come a long way and I don't want to pick on Carvana. There's plenty of other examples.
再说一次，我现在要回溯很久以前了，对吧？显然取得了很长的进步，我不想针对Carvana进行批评。还有很多其他的例子。
What's the thought that goes through your mind as a practitioner or someone that does this? How do you reconcile that?
作为一位从事此行业的从业者或者相关人士，你内心会有什么想法？你如何使其达到一致？
Yeah, I think that it was, Carvana had a different model, right? Than the franchise dealer. They were going for how do they get market share? How do they build a brand and brand recognition? So they were spending, like you said, over $5,000 a unit.
是的，我认为是这样的。Carvana有一个不同的模式，对吗？与特许经销商不同。他们追求的是如何获得市场份额？他们如何建立品牌和品牌认可度？所以他们的每辆车支出超过5000美元，就像你说的一样。
So it really gets hard to compete in terms of if they're in a low, if they're when they open their Philly location and they're pouring $50 million or however much into a market, you don't want to go to fight with Carvana on TV, right?
因此，在他们进入低端市场或者在费城开设分部并投入5000万美元或任何金额时，要与Carvana在电视上竞争真的很困难，对吧？
So I think it's, again, that's about understanding the media landscape and making sure that we're putting our dealers, dollars that were. But for the most part, Carvana was never something that our clients were focused on and like, oh, how do I compete against them?
所以我认为，再次强调，这是关于理解媒体环境，并确保我们投放的经销商资金收到最大价值。但就大部分来说，我们的客户从未关注过像Carvana这样的公司，也不会纠结于如何竞争对手。
It was always more, how do I compete for my fair share of the brand that I'm selling and how do I conquest new vehicles? If I'm a Toyota dealer, how do I make sure I'm beating the Honda and Nissan dealer in my market?
我始终觉得要想在我所销售的品牌中争取到我的公平份额，需要做更多的努力，还有如何征服新的汽车市场。如果我是一家丰田经销商，如何确保在我的市场上击败本田和日产经销商呢？
Yeah. No, I think you made a good point. I was thinking about how do you compete with that when you're a dealer that's spending a tenth or can spend a tenth of that, which sort of leads me to my next question, which is, do you think that from a marketing perspective, like top of funnel, do you think that there's an embedded advantage to being a local dealer nowadays or do you think that the advantage lies with the national chains, the national groups, regardless of the fact that they're maybe not as ingrained locally into the communities, but having that national brand is more powerful.
是的。不，我认为你说得很对。我在思考，当你是一家只花费十分之一或能够花费十分之一的经销商时，你如何与之竞争，这也引出了我的下一个问题，从营销角度来看，你是否认为作为一家本地经销商，现在是否有一种固有的优势，还是说优势在于那些全国连锁店，不论他们在本地社区是否融入得深入，但拥有全国品牌更具有影响力。
Where are you on those two schools of thought?
你在这两种思想派别中处于何方？
Yeah, I mean, just I think from our perspective, in our lens, that dealers are rooted in the local community, even the dealerships that are publicly owned that don't have a unified name are still very much ingrained in their communities and their household names in their markets.
是的，我的意思是，我认为从我们的角度来看，无论是公共所有的经销商还是没有统一名称的经销商，在当地社区都有根深蒂固的地位，它们在各自的市场中都是家喻户晓的。
They give back to the local schools, the local hospitals, the local charities, which I think plays an advantage because they're impacting the local economy and they're creating local jobs.
他们回馈当地的学校、医院和慈善机构，我认为这是一个优势，因为他们对当地经济产生了影响，并创造了当地的就业机会。
So, from my perspective, the dealers are so important to the local economy and also the national economy. The industry employs a tremendous amount of people, not only in the dealerships, but all the ancillary products and services and media that gets rooted into the economic ecosystem impacts our economy.
在我看来，经销商对于地方经济和国家经济都非常重要。这个行业雇佣了大量的人员，不仅涉及到经销商本身的岗位，还涉及到所有与之相关的附属产品、服务和媒体，这些都为我们的经济生态系统带来影响。
I always say how do your ships go is how the economy goes.
我总是说，你的船怎么样，经济就会怎么样。
Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.
是的，这是一种很好的看法。
How much budget are you managing today? I'm trying to compare this to financial industry.
你今天在管理多少预算？我想把它与金融行业进行比较。
Do you have a number? Can you give us a perspective of what is that budget number that you're today managing at Stream?
你有一个数字吗？你能给我们一个关于你在Stream管理的预算数字的概念吗？
Yeah, it's over a half billion dollars that we're managing for the tier three and so far tier one clients. So, it's come a long way since Jason and mine, my mom's living here.
是的，我们目前管理的第三层和部分第一层客户的资金已经超过了五亿美元。所以，相比起Jason和我母亲在这里住的时候，我们取得了长足的进步。
Yeah, I can imagine. Is there a specific channel that you're directing most of that budget?
是的，我可以想象。你是否有一个最主要投入预算的具体渠道？
Can you say, hey, this is a disproportionately our fastest growing channel?
你能说，嘿，这是我们增长最快的渠道，相比之下过于不成比例吗？
There is and it's the channel that none of us really want to direct it to, but no, I think it's the channel that drives the most amount of traffic and they've done a great job of working into the OEM ecosystem, the dealer ecosystem.
有一个渠道，但我们中没有人真正希望将它引导进来，但不，我认为它是带来最多流量的渠道，并且他们在OEM生态系统、经销商生态系统中做得非常好。
So, if you look at it.
所以，如果你看一下的话。
So what's the channel? One second. What's the channel?
那么频道是什么？等一下。频道是什么？
I was going to say, yeah, if you look at most of the budgets, I mean, paid search is the highest, highest amount of on pretty much every budget. You put us on a cliffhanger on that one.
我本来要说的是，如果你看大部分的预算，付费搜索基本上是每个预算中最高的一项。你把我们置于悬崖边缘了。
Yeah. And I do think that that's starting to shift, right?
是的。而且我确实认为这种情况开始发生变化了，对吧？
Because that ecosystem has gotten so competitive, so outlandish with how budgets are managed and new products that are being put out there. But if I just pulled up 100 random budgets, I would say 98 of them paid search would be the highest channel spent. Wow.
因为这个生态系统变得如此竞争激烈，以及预算管理和推出的新产品太过奇特。但是如果我随机选取100个预算，我会说其中98个支付搜索是最高的渠道支出。哇。
And is there a distinction from franchise dealers, independent dealer when it comes to that? Or would you say it's pretty similar?
在这方面，特许经销商和独立经销商有区别吗？或者你会说它们非常相似吗？
We don't have a ton of independent dealers, but again, I would say maybe the independents might be heavier on the pandemics, right? They might be playing with all the pandemics where. What's in dynamics? You know, the cars.com, auto trader, car gurus, par facts. Yeah.
我们没有很多独立经销商，但我想说独立经销商可能更加关注疫情吧？他们可能在各种疫情中来回操纵。那么，动态上有什么情况呢？你知道，如cars.com、auto trader、car gurus、par facts这些网站。
What are your thoughts on third-party listing sites? There's been a lot of chatter in the dealer community for various reasons, whether it be pricing increases from certain vendors, dealers listing fake prices on certain platforms. Like all this together, are you a believer in the third-party listing side stuff?
你对第三方房源网站有什么看法？在经销商界，有很多讨论的声音，原因各异，例如某些供应商提价、经销商在某些平台上发布虚假价格等等。总而言之，你是否相信第三方房源网站这些东西？
Yeah. I mean, if you look at it, again, looking at the data, right? Because we want to put our clients in the best position to win each and every month. Again, it goes market by market, but the third-party sites do perform. So we just.
是的。我的意思是，如果你看一下数据，对吧？因为我们想让我们的客户在每个月都能处于最佳位置。还是要看具体市场情况，但第三方网站确实有效。所以我们只是...
Especially when COVID happened, right? And new car supply went down and dealers were living off of used cars and used car volume. It was even more important to make sure that you had a presence across at least two, if not three of the third-party sites.
尤其是当COVID发生时，对吧？新车供应量下降，经销商主要靠二手车和二手车销售维持生计。因此，确保你在至少两个或者三个第三方网站上都存在是非常重要的。
But I think now, as the used car market has changed dramatically, that we've got clients that are saying, hey, do I need to be on all of them? Which ones are performing best? Help me look at my spend and, again, make sure that it's balanced from new car to use car and I'm not disproportionate, right? We've seen a lot of clients that are newer to stream now come on board and their budgets are upside down. They're still very much heavily focused on used while their new car supply is growing. So we're really trying to help them make sure that they've got the right balance.
但是我认为现在，由于二手车市场发生了巨大变化，我们的客户开始问道：“我需要在所有平台上都进行推广吗？哪个平台效果最好？帮助我审视我的推广费用，并确保从新车到二手车之间的平衡，避免不均衡。”我们看到很多刚加入流媒体行业的客户，他们的预算不合理。他们非常重视二手车，而新车供应量却在增长。因此，我们正在尽力帮助他们确保他们拥有正确的平衡。
You know, it never made sense to me how, like, when things were slower, where people would want to cut budgets, because it feels like a death spiral.
你知道吗，对我来说这从来都不合理，就像当事情变慢时，人们会想要削减预算，感觉就像一个死亡螺旋一样。
We were. I mean, I think it's a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea.
我们曾经是。我的意思是，我认为经营一个不明智的生意是个好主意。
I think it's a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea.
我认为身处一个不太明智的商业领域是一个好主意。
该句表达了一种讽刺的意味，指出尽管在一个不好的商业领域经营可能听起来不明智，但说不定却是一个不错的选择。
I think it's a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that's not a good idea to be in a business that maybe Hayden"?
我认为在一个不值得做的生意里是个好主意，也许是海登吗？
Go ahead, Civío for hun carrying the stock account now what was really cool to see in that case was, you know, we did spend more and sales went up. So the PRU actually stayed in balance for that dealership, but they were not afraid to go after it, right? Like, well, one, they were in a market, you know, Texas was, you know, very much a friendly state when it came to how things were handled during COVID for the car dealer. So by, you know, having a great team because he's got a great team and, you know, very effective advertising. It sets sets up for, you know, not just success then, but for future success.
继续前进吧，Civío公司为hun携带股票账户，现在在这种情况下真的很酷的是，你知道的，我们花费更多，销售额增加了。所以PRU实际上保持了那家经销商的平衡，但他们并不害怕追求它，对吗？比如，他们在一个市场上，你知道的，德克萨斯州在处理COVID期间对汽车经销商来说非常友好。因此，通过拥有一个优秀的团队，因为他拥有一个优秀的团队，并且进行非常有效的广告宣传。这不仅为当时的成功铺平了道路，还为未来的成功奠定了基础。
Well, I think one of my biggest regrets is I think it was around 2013 or 14 when Facebook marketing was still like very, you know, nascent within the car business and at least in our region, we were probably the only independent that were doing it in non-traditional ways, sort of, you know, advertising or showing experiences, not necessarily like showing an ad, but actually just showing a video of a customer or something. And I think we were spending in hindsight, it was like $100 or so, customer acquisition costs per unit. And now, you know, I look back and I'm like, Oh my goodness, how did we not juice that thing to the max and bring every single customer in the area to buy a car? Because it's so funny how you have this opportunity under your nose. And I didn't know back then we didn't know, but now I look back and I'm like, Oh my God, those were the glory days, at least for some form of social media marketing.
嗯，我认为我最大的遗憾之一是大约在2013或2014年，当时Facebook营销在汽车行业内还处于起步阶段，至少在我们的地区，我们可能是唯一一家以非传统方式进行营销的独立经销商，通过展示体验而不是仅仅展示广告，比如展示顾客的视频。回想起来，我们当时每个顾客获得成本约为100美元。现在，我回过头来想，天呐，我们为什么没有抓住这个机会，把每一个地区的顾客都吸引过来购买汽车呢？因为有时候你就在自己的眼前有这样的机会，当时我们不知道，但现在回想起来，哦我的天啊，那些曾经是辉煌的日子，至少对于某种形式的社交媒体营销来说。
You have a first mover advantage, right? And like I said, goes back to, you know, why I see some of those budgets switching back to traditional because it's less competitive. Same thing there, right? Like social was not many dealers were on it. They weren't using it effectively and they weren't being memorable. So I still think that, you know, in some cases there's an opportunity with social, but I think you both know it's again, because the advertising has become such a big part of it. A whole ecosystem has changed from, you know, 2013 to where we are now.
你有先发优势，对吧？就像我说的，回到你知道的那个问题，为什么我看到一些预算转回传统渠道，因为竞争较小。同样的情况，对吧？就像社交媒体一样，很少有经销商使用得好，也没有留下深刻印象。所以我仍然认为，在某些情况下，社交媒体还有机会，但我认为你们俩都知道，这又是因为广告已经成为其中很大的一部分。整个生态系统已经从2013年发生了巨大变化，到现在的形态。
Do you have we were talking about listings. I do have like a favorite listing side for whatever reason. I mean, is there one that you specifically think performs the best for your dealers? I mean, again, it goes market, you know, market by market, you know, in some of our, you know, dealers that, you know, go back to when cars.com had the relationships with the newspapers, some of those cars.com markets perform really well for our dealers. And then there's markets where, you know, park euros is, you know, just performs the lowest cost per lead, all those types of metrics that we help our dealers manage. So you're saying it really depends on, really depends on the dealer in the region.
你有我们讨论的房源吗？我确实有一个特别喜欢的房源网站，不管出于什么原因。我的意思是，你认为哪个房源网站在你的经销商中表现最好？我的意思是，这取决于市场，你知道的，不同的市场，我们的经销商在一些与报纸有合作关系的cars.com市场表现得非常好。而在一些市场上，Parkeuros销售线索成本最低，我们帮助经销商管理这些指标。所以你是说这真的取决于地区内的经销商。
It really does too, right? And then it also depends on how the dealers pricing their inventory to market. Are they competitive or are they overpriced? I mean, just if you're overpriced, tell me about it. Yeah, it's like, Hey, we need more leads. Yeah, lower the prices. You're going to get more leads. Oh, right. That's, that's, that's, that's the battle. You know, I would say retail automotive advertising and retail automotive was not for the faint of heart, right? Because you need to be able to have those conversations with their client. It's never one thing. Yeah, there's so many ways to gain the system.
这真的是这样的，对吧？同时，这也取决于经销商如何定价其库存以进行市场推销。它们是有竞争力的，还是定价过高？我的意思是，如果定价过高，告诉我一下。是的，就像是“嘿，我们需要更多潜在客户。降低价格，你就能得到更多潜在客户。”是的，没错，这就是争斗。你知道的，我会说，零售汽车广告和零售汽车行业可不是给胆小的人的，对吧？因为你需要能够与客户进行那些谈话。这从来不是一件事。是的，有很多方法可以玩弄这个系统。
So we, we post a lot on Instagram. And the other day I noticed that when you post on Instagram, you can add it to your story. And the Instagram team changed the button where it's supposed to be added to the story. And they made it into their new app, right? The threads app. And so now every time you go to, you know, just muscle memory, like post something to your story, you actually enter their new app. So the first, the only thing that goes to my mind, like thinking, you know, about like, no, no different than operating a dealership is someone is in Instagram right now trying to game the system so hard and get their metrics up, right? They're like, Oh, yeah, we just need more leads. And they're just just made one little switch. And like they just completely just obliterated the entire, you know, all their numbers out of the park so far.
所以我们在Instagram上发布了很多东西。前几天我注意到，当你在Instagram上发帖时，可以将其添加到你的故事里。Instagram团队将这个按钮移到了他们的新应用里，也就是Threads应用里。所以现在每次你想要发布一些东西到你的故事里，就会进入他们的新应用。第一次想到的是，就像运营一个汽车经销商一样，现在市面上肯定有人在Instagram上想尽一切办法来提升自己的指标，对吧？他们说：“哦，我们只需要更多的线索。”然后他们只做了一个小小的调整，就彻底地击败了他们迄今为止所有的数字。
Yeah, every dealership needs more leads and more ups. You mentioned traditional media where you've seen, you know, that falling. But do you do you still believe in like radio ads TV? Like, are those two expensive for dealers to justify? Like, am I going to get us $300 cost per acquisition on something like that? How do you think about that? Yeah, I get it goes back to understanding the dealership, the market, the positioning that they're in. I do believe, you know, in certain dealers that have the market has the demand for the vehicle that they sell that traditional plays, you know, an important part of the awareness, right? I think that we've gotten as an industry, we've got so hooked on performance media and last click attribution that we want to give credit to to the digital metrics. But we forget, you know, we're all consumers, right? And we consume content, you know, through the through through screens, right? Brother, it's the TV screen, the laptop, the iPhone. So we still need to connect, you know, with our potential customers and provide them with a message and a story of the why come by from, you know, the local dealership. And I think that does still have an impact, you know, and it's changed as well, right? It's not just, you know, traditional, you know, TV, I can buy ads on Hulu, I can buy ads on Amazon, you know, I can buy ads on, you know, all connected TV. So the landscape of media consumption has changed. And I can no spend more money on quote unquote TV, but it doesn't have to be on broadcaster cable. It can be, you know, targeted at a zip code level, you know, using my first party data, my audience is to really hone in on, you know, the right customer with the right message.
是的，每个销售经销商都需要更多的潜在客户和更多的线索。你提到了传统媒体，你知道，你看到传统媒体的衰落。但你是否依然相信像广播广告和电视广告这样的方式？这两种方式对经销商来说是否太昂贵以至于无法证明其价值？我是否能以这种方式获得300美元的每次获得成本？你如何看待这个问题？
是的，我明白这与理解销售经销商、市场和他们所处的位置有关。我确实认为，在某些市场需求旺盛的经销商那里，传统媒体在宣传方面仍然起着重要作用。我认为作为一个行业，我们对于性能媒体和最后一次点击归因已经过于依赖，我们想要给数字指标以功绩。但我们忘记了我们都是消费者，我们通过屏幕消费内容，不论是电视屏幕、笔记本电脑还是iPhone。因此，我们仍然需要与潜在客户建立联系，并向他们提供一个消息和一个关于为什么要从当地经销商购买的故事。我认为这仍然具有影响力，并且它也已经发生了变化，对吧？现在不仅仅是传统的电视广告，我可以在Hulu上购买广告，在亚马逊上购买广告，甚至在所有连接的电视上购买广告。媒体消费的格局已经改变了。我可以在所谓的电视广告上花更多的钱，但它不一定要在广播或有线电视上进行。我可以利用我的一手数据和我的受众定位到邮政编码的级别，以便将广告精准地投放给合适的客户，并传达他们想要的信息。
So one thing that hasn't changed, but I've personally never done is like those like credit card campaigns or the keys, and we've, you know, we've all received them in the mail, or you got like that fake credit card or the key or, you know, come spindle, we are going to win the lottery. What's the deal with those? Like, are you do those really, really work? Are you still singular? Use them? What's your thought?
有一件事情从没变过，但我个人从未尝试过，就是那些信用卡广告活动或者送钥匙的活动。我们都曾收到过这类邮件，或者你收到过那种假信用卡或者钥匙，或者收到过关于中奖的传单。对于这些活动，你是怎么看待的？它们真的有用吗？你还会使用吗？你有什么想法？
Yeah, I don't, not off the top of my head if we don't, I mean, we've done them in the past, for sure. I don't know that we've done any how well do they work? I mean, for the right markets, they do work, right? They drive, they drive traffic and listen, I'm, you know, connected in the industry with, you know, different people that run staffed events that use those mailers to drive, you know, thousand ups, you know, over a couple of days period. So in some cases, they work with new car inventory levels the last couple of years. We haven't been using kind of any of that type of, you know, you know, mail to drive, drive traffic. It's really been about vehicle, you know, the last couple of years have been about vehicle acquisition, right? How do we buy from, from our customers, you know, whether it's, you know, a lease return or it's a third car they had in the driveway and didn't need a third car, no during COVID, how do we help our clients, our vehicles?
是的，我不是立即能回答的，如果我们不做的话，我是说，我们过去是做过的，毫无疑问。我不知道我们是否做过，它们的效果如何？我的意思是，对于适合的市场来说，它们确实有效，对吧？它们带来了流量，听着，我认识一些在行业中有联系的人，他们运营着有人员的活动，并使用邮件来吸引1000个以上的活动参与者，时间跨度为几天。所以在某些情况下，它们能够与过去几年的新车库存水平保持同步运作。我们过去几年没有使用任何这类邮件来推动流量，真正关注的是如何从客户那里购买车辆，无论是租赁归还车辆还是他们家中不需要的第三辆车 - 即使在COVID期间如此，我们如何帮助我们的客户解决车辆问题？
I had another gentleman in the podcast a while back and he was telling me about, no, I was asking about the, like, you know, all these like tried and true marketing tactics that seems so like dumb on the outside, but actually convert. And I think we were talking about all the call to actions on a website and, and how like the sad part is that it actually converts when there's like, you know, five or 10 call to actions.
我之前在播客里面有一个先生，他告诉我，不，我是在询问，你知道的，那些看起来很愚蠢但实际上却很有效的营销策略。我记得我们谈到了网站上的所有行动号召，以及悲哀的是，当有五个或十个行动号召时，它们实际上会转化。
Part, partnership guy, we've got a product on the, so, you know, we've got stream, we've got another business full throttle, which runs 100% independently of stream. We've got a product called Nitro leads. So if you went to some of our OEM, you know, tier one websites, some of the tier, it's, it's like an e coupon, right? And we do test drive offers, we do incentive offers. And when I tell you, it's the best converting, you know, thing on, I'm talking on tier one OEM sites, dealer websites, and many people are like, Oh, this is just the distraction. But we've AB tested it. And it, it works. And, you know, is a big driver of, you know, not just, you know, incremental leads, but incremental sales for, for the dealers and the OEM.
合作伙伴，我们有一款产品在这方面非常出色，你知道我们有流量，我们还有另一个独立运营的业务，名为全速前进。我们还有一个名为Nitro leads的产品。所以，如果你访问我们一些OEM的一级网站，一些二级网站，它就像是一张电子优惠券，对吧？我们提供试驾优惠和激励优惠。当我告诉你，它是转化率最高的，我指的是在一级OEM网站、经销商网站中，很多人认为这只是个分散注意力的东西。但我们经过了AB测试，它是有效的。它不仅为经销商和OEM公司提供了增量潜在客户，还带来了额外销售额。
So Yeah, man, human nature, human nature, it doesn't change much. So it's, it doesn't, it doesn't. Look at it. You go, if you look at most of the retailers right now, right? Like the consumers have been trained to give their information on those, those popups, like go to, go to a, you know, Hugo boss or go to a, you know, gap or whatever, and you go in there, they're, you know, do you want the 10% off? You know, give us your email. And I always do those. You're actually right. But I'll tell you one thing. I'm, I'm very meticulous. Like I right away on subscribe afterwards. I take my coupon.
是的，人性，人性，它并没有太大的变化。所以它不会变，不变。你看看吧。你去，如果你看大多数零售商现在，对吧？像消费者已经被训练了在那些弹出窗口上提供他们的信息，比如去雨果博斯或者去Gap之类的地方，然后你进去，他们问你，你想要10%的折扣吗？给我们你的邮箱。我总是做这些事情。你说得对。但是我告诉你一件事。我非常小心翼翼，像立刻取消订阅。我拿到我的优惠券之后。
No, but there's, there's a new thing though now, right? Now they want you to subscribe email. And then they also want you to confirm my text. Yeah. So I think in some ways, as marketers, we train the consumer, right? To if we give the information, we get value. So I do think that's why, you know, think, like you said, those silly things, they, they do work because the consumers conditioned to do it. Yeah. And like you said, you know, it's, it's a trade, right? You get value in exchange for information. So that's why it would, that's why it works.
不，但现在有个新的事情，对吧？现在他们希望你订阅邮件。然后他们还希望你确认我的短信。是的，我认为在某种程度上，作为营销人员，我们训练了消费者，对吧？如果我们提供信息，我们就得到了价值。所以我认为那些你说的愚蠢的事情，它们确实起作用，因为消费者习惯于这样做。是的，就像你说的，这是一种交易，你为了获取信息而得到价值。所以它能起作用的原因就在于此。
I want to shift gears for a second. One topic that's obviously very hot is just AI and everything going on with opportunities, with AI and deal share marketing. How, first of all, are you doing anything on this front? Are you seeing any dealers implementing AI in any badass ways?
我想稍微转换话题。一个显然非常热门的话题就是人工智能以及与之相关的机会和交易份额营销。首先，你对此方面的工作有何了解？有没有看到任何商家以非常棒的方式实施人工智能？
Yeah. We've got a couple clients that are, that are using AI, you know, for things like, you know, identifying, you know, service opportunities and, you know, again, going back to how do we help find, you know, the right, the right audiences. So we're definitely on the full throttle side. We have, you know, AI built into our platform to help identify the best in market audiences for, for dealers and other agencies and OEMs to market to those customers. So, you know, we're scoring them in real time buying for propensity based on, you know, demonstrated behavior. So that's where we're seeing, you know, AI from a marketing perspective is really around, you know, identifying, you know, who's the right person we should be talking to. That's, that's the value that I see in AI on the automotive side.
是的。我们有几个客户正在使用人工智能，用于识别服务机会，以及如何帮助找到合适的受众群体。因此，我们确实在全速发展。我们的平台中集成了人工智能，帮助经销商、其他机构和原始设备制造商找到最适合市场的受众群体。我们根据展示的行为实时评分，为购买可能性进行打分。所以，从营销的角度来看，我们认为人工智能的价值在于确定应该与哪些人进行交流。这就是我在汽车行业看到的人工智能的价值。
You know, I think where, where AI becomes a slippery slope is like, when we have, when we're interacting with the customer through, through AI, like that to me, is a slippery slope. Have you seen, or are you seeing any really meaningful implementation of AI on the consumer front? Like, I want to know, as a consumer myself, is there something that's going to completely change the car buying experience for me? Or is this all about efficiencies on the back and for dealers to reduce costs and stuff like that?
你知道的，我认为AI成为一个滑坡的地方是，当我们通过AI与客户互动时，对我来说，这是一个滑坡的地方。你有没有见过或正在见到任何有意义的AI在消费者方面的实施？比如，作为一个消费者，我想知道是否有什么东西会完全改变我购车的经验？还是这只是为了提高后台效率和降低经销商成本之类的事情？
From my perspective right now, right now, car dealership guy, it's, it's on helping the dealerships and workers, right?
从我的角度来看，汽车经销商先生，现在的重点是帮助汽车经销商和工作人员，对吗？
And the work that we do, whether it's in the dealership or, you know, at stream or full throttle, it's how, how do we, you know, get, get more productivity out of our, our workers and allow them to do more things that are meaningful with the customer experience, right? I think that's where it can provide, you know, efficiencies with task management and around, you know, giving the workers more time to interact with their customers and be more customer-faced.
而我们所做的工作，无论是在经销商，还是在流媒体或全速前进的工作中，我们需要思考如何提高我们员工的生产力，让他们能够与客户更有意义地互动。 我认为这是通过任务管理的高效和给予员工更多与客户互动、更具客户面向性的时间来实现的。
Yeah, and that's what I suspected, but I think it's going to be interesting to see.
是的，这正是我所怀疑的，但我觉得看到的时候会很有趣。
So yeah, we were talking about, you know, recently there was a post that went viral about a dealership that, you know, was interacting in a, you know, a chat GPT agent interacting with a customer. It didn't quite go the right way.
嗯，我们在谈论的是，你懂的，最近有一篇帖子在网上迅速传开，内容涉及一家经销商与一位顾客之间的聊天对话。聊天是通过一个聊天机器人（GPT agent）来进行的，但结果并不是很理想。
The agent, you know, sort of like quote, quote, quote, sold a car for $1. That went viral. And you know, it went really viral, by the way. I think like, you know, tens of millions of impressions online.
这位经纪人，你知道的，就像引号，引号，引号，卖了一辆车才1美元。这件事迅速传播开来。而且要知道，它的传播程度真的非常广泛。我想，你知道的，在线上有上千万次的浏览量。
Yeah, I'm not, you know, I just heard, heard about that, but I don't really know anything about it. But I think that's the, that's the unknown, right? We don't know what can happen with, with AI, right? And I know from my experiences, as a consumer, my, with big brands, every time AI is used, it's like, can I please talk to a human, right? I'm not interested in having a conversation.
是的，你知道的，我只是听说过，听说过那个，但我对此并不了解。但我觉得那就是未知的问题，对吧？我们不知道人工智能会带来什么样的结果，对吧？而且从我的消费者经验来看，每当使用人工智能时，我总是想和一个人交谈，对吧？我对与机器对话并不感兴趣。
Yeah, I think with exactly, I think the implementation, it needs to be 100%. It's no different than like self-driving cars in that sense, where 90% is not good enough, you know what I mean? Like, you need 100%. Like, I need to, I need to get my exact answer for, to really be able to replace a human.
是的，我认为，确切地说，对于实施来说，需要百分之百的准确度。这与无人驾驶汽车类似，在这方面，百分之九十的准确度是不够的，你知道我的意思吗？就像需要百分之百准确度，才能真正替代人类，我需要得到确切的答案。
I've had other guests on the podcast say that, you know, like salespeople are, you know, in for a rough decade because of AI. And, and I think it's still, it's going to take getting to that point where that experience is so much better, or it's at parity, where I truly, you know, know, I can get anything I can from AI agent, which I think will really bring a new dawn of automotive sales in general, because it's going to make things a lot, you know, more efficient and very different.
我在播客中邀请了其他嘉宾，他们说销售人员可能会因为人工智能而面临艰难的十年。我认为，要达到那种体验更好、或者与之相当的程度，还需要一段时间。当我真正知道，从人工智能代理那里我可以得到所有我想要的东西时，我认为这将给整个汽车销售带来新的黎明，因为它将使事情更高效，也会非常不同。
Yeah, and I think it still comes back to this is old school, right? Like, we used to preach this, we still preach it. It's like, read the lead, right? You need to read what questions the consumer is asking, and we, to provide a great experience, we need to answer those questions. I think that's, you know, still impacts our business, right? Where, you know, consumer asks the question, and we just say, okay, can you come down on Saturday at 12, 12 o'clock, right? Versus, you know, building rapport, building trust with the consumer, then, you know, asking for the appointment after you done those, those things.
是的，我认为这还是回归到旧学派的理念，对吧？就像我们过去曾宣扬这一理念一样，现在我们仍然这样宣扬。就好像，你需要阅读主导信息，对吧？你需要读懂消费者提出的问题，而为了提供出色的体验，我们需要回答这些问题。我认为这仍然对我们的业务产生影响，对吧？就是消费者提出问题，而我们只是简单地说：“好的，你能在星期六中午12点来吗？”相对而言，我们可以先与消费者建立亲近感、建立信任，并在完成了这些事情之后再约定预约时间。
So I still think that, you know, there's tremendous amount of opportunity just as an industry to provide, you know, an amazing experience to the consumers. And I think we know that that's really what they want at the end of the day.
所以我还是认为，你知道的，作为一个行业，有巨大的机会能够为消费者提供令人惊奇的体验。我认为我们知道，那真的是他们最终想要的。
The T word, my friend, trust, totally agree on that.
"T字母，我的朋友，信任，完全同意这一点。"
这句话表达了对某事的共识和认同。它可能暗指某个特定的话题或关键词，而使用了“T字母”作为隐喻来表示此事。朋友之间对此事的态度是相同的，他们彼此信赖，并且完全一致同意。
This has been very, very insightful. I want to thank you for coming on. I also want, you know, if anyone wants to learn more about your company's stream, I see stream, streamcompanies.com can confirm that on your end. And is there, and if anyone wants to get in touch with you, is there a preferred way?
这真的非常有启发性。我要感谢你的参与。我也想知道，如果有人想要了解更多关于你公司的流程，我看到在streamcompanies.com上可以确认这一点，你有没有什么首选的联系方式？
Yeah, David, it's streamcompanies.com. David, thank you so much for coming on. This has been great. Thanks, Carlos. 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.
是的，David，它是streamcompanies.com。David，非常感谢你的参与。谢谢，Carlos。好了。希望你喜欢这一集。请给这个播客评分。考虑订阅这个节目，并查看节目说明中我们讨论的链接。感谢你的收听。下次见。