Automotive Alchemy
Welcome to 'Automotive Alchemy', a podcast that dwells in the cavernous depths of data, unearthing precious gems of wisdom to illuminate your path to digital marketing success. As alchemists, we understand that each nugget of information is a vital ingredient in our elixir of knowledge. So ready yourselves as we embark on an enlightening journey through the arcane world of data-driven automotive marketing.
Automotive Alchemy
2024 In The Rearview: A Recap of Last Year & What To Expect In 2025
Dealer Alchemist leadership reflects on 2024’s lessons, emphasizing transparency and digital marketing as keys to success. They discuss essential strategies for navigating the upcoming year, urging dealers to maintain a clean online presence and embrace innovation while managing expectations.
• Importance of transparency in vendor-dealer relationships
• Reflection on successes and challenges of 2024
• Need for a strong, simple website foundation
• Overview of OTT advertising's potential and usage
• Encouragement for strategic digital marketing and advertising
• Predictions for 2025’s growth and innovations
• Final advice: Embrace proactive strategies and avoid reactive measures
Welcome back to Automotive Alchemy, and this one's a special one. You guys this is kind of the let's call it the 2024 in the rear view and talk about some lessons and wins and really how you guys are looking at 2025 for the audience listening and or watching. Welcome back. You're in for a treat because today we've got most not all, but we have most of the leadership team of dealer alchemist Sean Kieran, ceo, john McAdams, cro, and Jeff Clark, president and partner. Well, I just want to give you just a quick framework before we get right into talking to these guys and having a. Really I can't wait for this conversation. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:The episode today we're just going to reflect on a lot of the insights, strategies, things that we talked about on the podcast in 24. So for the listeners and or viewers, we're going to repeat some of the expert advice, but you need to be thinking about it as you think about navigating challenges that maybe are carryover from 24. In fact, for some dealers, they're mitigating challenges that they've been working on for years, but there's also a lot of opportunities going into the new year and we want to talk about some of those things as well. So expect us to cover things, of course, in the digital marketing realm, leveraging some of the most important tools within the Google ad set. Also, looking about website conversation this is a new venture for Dealer Alchemist in 24. And, of course, we talked a lot about transparency, and I think that's really important. So today we've got three experts from Dealer Alchemist to talk about what's happening as we start to slide our way into 25. Welcome guys. How?
Speaker 2:are you Doing excellent Thanks. How about you? I'm doing good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can't complain and nobody cares when I do so. Instead of that, I'm just going to ask you guys some questions and I can't wait for this dialogue. We covered this year on the podcast a lot of ground and I think that's one of the things that's really important that you guys are actually putting this content pillar in the ground to say, well, this is the place where we talk about the things that are important to the dealers that we're trying to help, and I love that you're doing it. So, yes, we talked about vehicle listing ads. We had a couple of really good episodes where Kieran, what you went really deep on a lot of that. We talked about GA4 and we talked about OTT CTV advertising with Jeff.
Speaker 1:We did a lot around transparency and digital ads and the last couple episodes where we started to deconstruct if you will dissect website pages, I thought was also extremely helpful for dealers because there aren't a lot of people talking about some of those things that we take for granted because they've been available to dealers for nearly three decades. So, in retrospect, what do you guys think topically, dealers may be improved on or they saw some positive impact from, and where do you think of those issues or some of those topics where they're still wrestling and any of you can go first, by the way.
Speaker 2:You know, I'll tell you in the conversations that I've had, one of the things that I that I believe has gotten better is a dealer's understanding of the needs to have these things properly dialed in. You know, we went from COVID where it was really easy it was shooting fish in a barrel to a decline and everything getting a lot more difficult and a scenario now where we're all hopeful that we've got brighter pastures ahead, right, and anytime that we get lean and anytime we're forced to really inspect, we tend to get a little bit better. So I think and I hope that it feels to me like I don't know what Jeff and John think, but it feels to me like in these conversations dealers have done a much better job understanding the need to be present on these various areas and the need to inspect these areas and make sure that they're dialed in. What do you all think?
Speaker 3:In COVID it was a different time. Right, as Sean said, it was shooting fish in the barrel, and what I'm hearing from dealers and operators and general managers is they need to get back to the basics, right, and sell the car or service the vehicle, provide great support and great service to their client base. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to a couple of things. Right, when you look at websites in particular. Right, it's still about conversion, simplicity and support. Right, those were basic building blocks before. We may not have paid as much attention to it during COVID because maybe we didn't have to, but the conversations I'm having with dealers is yes, john, we need to get back to basics, we need to do the things that will produce the results we expect and we need to inspect what we expect. So, great conversations by dealers coming out of COVID Certainly 24 has been fantastic and I expect that to continue in 25.
Speaker 4:I'll dovetail on what both Sean and John had to say. As you know, sean, I spend most of my time at the manufacturer level. What I do continue to see from the manufacturers is the fight for simplicity. Dealers keep pulling in the other direction because they think it's an open space or a free pixel. They want to put something in it. If you look at some of the marquee brands that are sold in today's market, notice how simplistic they are. Notice how clean the background is. Notice how everything above the fold is focused and featured on the vehicle.
Speaker 4:Way too many calls to actions on a lot of websites today. Get pre-approved, chat with us. Do your digital retailing, do this, get this coupon. Come over here, by the way, flash over here and flash over there. Dealers get frustrated and they wonder what happens. And well, when you start to deconstruct the website and you find that there are seven different plugins, and when you start to look at the fact that there's old UTM container codes and there's so much junk and I mean junk that is jamming up a lot of these sites and well, I didn't do that, my predecessor did that. Well, we got that for free. Well, just because you got it for free doesn't mean you need to shove it on your website. And the manufacturers get frustrated, and that's why they create these programs, that they mandate certain designs and templates. And, of course, the dealer gets frustrated because well, it's my store, it's my site, I should be able to do what I want.
Speaker 4:The manufacturers are doing everything they can to help the dealer get the best of what's available in the market today. Of course, is using every tool at their disposal, kind of like a MacGyver right. If a bobby pin or a paper clip and a piece of bubble gum and duct tape will help fly you out of a Turkish prison, well, let's try it. Maybe we can sell 10 more cars. That's not really how it works.
Speaker 4:You had mastered a number of years ago, sean, doing creative marketing with small little pieces of your budget to try to disrupt things. We're all about that. We think that's a great idea. But have a plan. Make sure you're working with the factory reps, make sure you're talking to the manufacturer so you're in keeping with what they're trying to do. So to Sean and John's point, I think it really is about getting back to basics and simplicity, because look at Tesla, look at other brands that have just cleaned up what they do. It's easy to navigate, you clearly understand the product offering and within a matter of a couple of clicks you've ordered or purchased something. Really, try to stay focused on something just that simple a one, two, three to the end of the road for a sale, if you will.
Speaker 1:I love that encouragement of making sure that there's alignment with the oem instead of always looking for the places of potential friction, tension and the things that kind of end up being divisive. It is actually really important to think about so many of the factors and variables, about keeping that relationship symbiotic. It needs to be. It doesn't mean that it'll be always perfect and without stresses and tensions. That exists in any environment where the business is like that, where there's franchises involved. But all the things that you guys shared I think are really important. And I will say this while what I do doesn't take me to every single live show and trade show, every single live show and trade show I was at the biggest one in the fall and near your booth and I heard all three of you guys in different conversations at different times when I was by your booth talking to dealers who were asking questions about all of these things that you guys didn't just start playing in this vertical three months ago or in 24. You guys actually represent let's just call it a bullpen of really deep experience, which I think is the biggest point of differentiation in any industry, but in automotive, you know, I won't name names, I'll just say that I I get. I grow very tired of seeing the things in linkedin that are it's the worst advice for dealers period, and you guys give really strong, great advice whether people are using you or not. You would rather make sure that people know that you're a place where you will educate and be helpful in terms of the content that you offer for dealers to consume before they're a customer, so that they know what you're all about when the moment arrives where they're actually considering you, and I really love that about your approach.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you guys a little bit about thoughts on the couple episodes that Jeff and I did on Over the Top or OTT, connected TV Advertising. That was very revealing for me because I was in fact, on one of those episodes. I referenced the fact that a dealer near where I live was getting my attention much more significantly through his efforts in connected TV as a Toyota dealer than any of the dealers who were trying to pepper ads at me through Google, whether it was within paid search, vehicle ads or anything else. I was noticing what was happening, coming through my fact that I've been streaming as a TV viewer for many years now. So question there on that and any of you can jump in if you want to, but that advertising opportunity is still projected to continue to grow, I think nearly, maybe almost, by another 8% annually, maybe 10%.
Speaker 1:Some people are arguing how would you advise dealers should be approaching this advertising option? Is it still one where for some it's like be cautious and maybe put these things in order ahead of it? But I know a big part of it is I'll say it on your guys' behalf let's get real or let's not play when it comes to do you have enough budget, if you're really thinking about what you're trying to do in marketing and advertising, to go in that channel versus the other places where you may want to play first. I would love your thoughts just in general on that, because I think it's still underutilized by a lot of dealers.
Speaker 2:So we have a general philosophy here, and that philosophy is that imagine that you're building a house. If you're building a house, you've got to have a good foundation. You've got to have walls put up correctly, and if I don't put the walls up straight, well, I'm going to have a whole lot of problems afterwards. Right Advertising is a lot like that. At the foundation of that advertising is my website. Is my website fast? Is it clean? And are there just enough buttons? No more than three on the SRP, no more than four on the VDP period. You've got double digital retailing tools. Don't show them both to the consumer. It makes you look bad, mr Dealer.
Speaker 2:So it starts there by cleaning that up. Thing number two is the technical SEO. Is the technical SEO for my website correct Meaning? Are all of my citations aligned? Is my Google business profile aligned? Am I paying attention to my website speed and the container codes that live on my website to make sure that they're not slowing me down Once I get that fundamental set tied in?
Speaker 2:Next, after that becomes the Google ecosystem Do I have paid search? Do I have paid social? Do I have vehicle listing ads? Probably in order, it's Google paid search, vehicle listing ads. I have paid social, do I have vehicle listing ads? Probably in order, it's Google paid search, vehicle listing ads, then paid social and then, once I get those dialed in, after that comes OTT. And so the secret to OTT is that if I don't have the other advertising mediums digitally properly saturated, I'm going to probably waste money there. Your OTT spend should be the smallest of your spends in digital advertising, because it does have the lowest ROI, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2:See, think of it as like. Think of it as when we have a consumer in market. The best way to get the consumer to perform is to have them see the ad on all digital devices in their household. So what happens is they see that ad because they're looking for the car in paid search. They see the visual ad through the vehicle listing ad. They pop onto their social feed. They see the carousel ad. They go home at night, they see it during TV, watching Yellowstone on whatever station that's on. That's where OTT works. It works when it's the icing on the cake and the cake is properly built. But leave out the flour and the eggs and see what kind of cake you got. And that's the same thing that happens when I go blow a bunch of money in OTT because my cable advertiser told me it was a good idea. Right, if you want to replace your traditional, first properly build out digital and then move the rest over. That's the right way to get that done, in my opinion.
Speaker 4:That done in my opinion. Yeah, I'll add to that, sean. So how you started this part of the segment? Yes, there's still a tremendous amount of opportunity and growth in OTT. As a matter of fact, while it's one of the fastest growing segments, it's still very much underutilized. I think the point Sean is trying to make is there have been a couple of manufacturers that got out past the tips of their skis when it came to OTT and dealers, over course, corrected and started putting too much money into OTT.
Speaker 4:The thing that you need to remember with OTT is there's some questionable content in the market, right, so it's finding a provider that actually does this for a living. Most of the OTT being sold today I got a newsflash for you it's not being sold by technical companies, right, it's being sold to subvent what's been lost in linear or traditional advertising. Think about that. For a second right, how long did it take for dealers to realize that their traditional agencies? Oh well, now we're a digital agency. Well, that's great, but what got you into digital? We got into digital because you stopped buying traditional. That's the real answer. It's not. Hey, the market shifted and we needed to evolve and we saw the demand for digital. So, like a lot of people, we were smart and got into the game. That's a perfectly reasonable answer. People, we were smart and got into the game. That's a perfectly reasonable answer.
Speaker 4:But when a lot of your television stations and a lot of your radio stations, owned by conglomerates, are now all of a sudden selling OTT back to Sean's point. Have you structured the foundation of your structure properly? Are you built on cinder block? Are you built on a poured basement? Is it concrete reinforced? Do you have the proper elements? Because nothing's worse than spending tens of thousands of dollars to drive people from OTT to a poorly performing website. And it happens.
Speaker 4:I watch it every day. I have dealers ask me Jeff, I was told this was the greatest thing. Well, you know, let's take a second and let's go look at your website. It's really kind of hard to start the conversation off by saying your baby is really ugly, right? That doesn't go over real well. But you know, somehow I have to find a way to be tactful, to say what is all this crap on your homepage? Do you understand what Google means when Google talks about the UI, ux, experience? No, I've never heard of that before. Well, let's start there, right? That's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 4:You mentioned earlier about our desire and our years of experience to educate people. We take this seriously. I'm 25 plus years at this, as is John and as is Sean, so that says either A you got three old guys on this call or we've spent the better part of our professional careers understanding and studying the evolution of digital, of websites and now, of course, the benefit of streaming. It drives me nuts to watch standard television anymore. I can't handle it. I said to my wife the other night three and a half hours to watch an hour and 45 minute show or movie, you know what. The other hour and 45 minutes is eaten up with Advertisement about stuff that I don't care about. So if you're really honest with yourself and think about, do you enjoy streaming and why? Why not reach your audience where it is? Why not get more bang for your buck? Why not talk to those folks? But to Sean's point, make sure that you're allocating your budget appropriately. All of a sudden overspending and OTT isn't going to fix the fundamental or structural issues of your business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is a really good example, actually, of how you guys care about your target those that have already said yes, and they're your clients now, but even the ones that will watch this content and hear what you have to say about it, because you both just laid out really strong, compelling reasons why you would want to do this, but also when you would want to and not do it, which, instead of just saying, oh yeah, do it. Add it right, because there are a lot of people, even on that particular topic alone, yes, yes, yes. How much gas can you pour on this fire? It's going to solve all your problems. And both of you just kind of walked through the scenario in which, well, one, it doesn't belong here.
Speaker 1:The building house metaphor is perfect. I used to use it when I taught drum lessons to the young drummers who would come in and say, teach me how to play Blink-182 songs. To the young drummers who would come in and say, teach me how to play Blink-182 songs, and I'd be like you can't even play a paradiddle. You need to start with the boring stuff on one drum first foundation before you can go to the attic and start playing like you're John Bonham, okay, but yeah, so I don't have to hope. I know that when people listen to you guys talk through content like this and these answers, that they appreciate the fact that you're laying out the practical steps of maybe where it belongs and why it belongs, and then they get to choose when the moment comes, when it belongs. I think it's great.
Speaker 1:Let me move on for you guys, unless anybody had any final thoughts on OTT. Okay, so you guys are originally known, I think when you guys launched you can correct me in your answers if you want, but I'm pretty sure I remember when you guys came into it, known as an advertising technology, which you still very much have and a serious prowess, and you're formidable there. To build on the fact that you are a very formidable full service solutions provider, today you guys added a website platform in 24. You guys have SEO. You have paid media in Google, meta, bing, all of it. You also offer services down the social and reputation management service channels. So would love to hear any and all of you give some thoughts on how 24 ended up being really kind of such a banner year, as you bring the whole thing together and your thoughts on expansion, anything that you guys might want to share relative to being now such a complete provider.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a few things in there. I think one of the reasons that 24 ended up being such a great year was the people that we have on the team. You know, it always takes people. We just happened to get lucky with people that were experts in these areas and said, hey, I've been doing this for a long time, I'm incredibly good at it. I know you all have technology. Can we pair your technology with my ability to perform in order to get better? And that's what it's all about. See, when I look at our best performing dealers, like, for example, did you know that we do advertising for 30% three of the top 10 Toyota dealerships in the United States? And one of the reasons we do that is because we do all of this for them. They take advantage of the entire solution set. We went out and we said how do we build the best way for these things to work together? And in getting these things to work together, it was all about which pieces work and which pieces are just fluff. We don't need fluff, we need results, and it's always about delivering results, and I think that focus on results is why 24 ended up.
Speaker 2:I mean it just ended up absolutely incredible. I mean when you see the things that we're unrolling at NADA. You got to see this new website set up at NADA. It is the coolest thing you have ever seen, have ever seen. Imagine if I could I don't know build your website from start to finish in like 10 minutes. How would that be Now? Obviously you'd have to clean it up, you'd have to QC it so by the time you go through that and you have to wait for the other vendors to get their stuff together. So, even though I can technically build it in literally minutes, you probably look at a week, maybe two weeks, before your QC and all the SEO pages that you have to clean up. But these things are incredibly exciting, the technology that is coming forth. It is unreal, is what it is.
Speaker 1:Did I just hear you tell me that you guys can pour the foundation, frame out the website all the stuff that actually is going to matter for it in a matter of minutes, and what's going to really actually take the time days, maybe a couple of weeks is all the other dependencies, which is well, who's going to put a feed into this thing and all that other stuff? But the core of making sure that it is built on a strong foundation and framed up to be awesome in the first place is something that you guys are now expediting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to show you how to do that in NADA. As a matter of fact, we'll build some. We're going to build some for dealers in NADA and show them just what that looks like. That's going to be awesome, not to mention it's on the fastest architecture that has ever existed in automotive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love speed.
Speaker 3:It'd be awesome, you know don't read into that audience.
Speaker 3:I love speed. It'd be awesome. Don't read into that audience. I love speed. Yeah, you want to be part of that at any of the at the booth, without any doubt. Right, definitely, come by the booth, it's going to be an awesome time. I can tell you the crowds. You know, follow the crowd. When you see the crowd, it'll be the dealer alchemist booth. Right, just follow the crowd.
Speaker 3:But and I can tell you, dealer alchemist has always been about technology and doing the right thing, and Jeff spoke to it earlier you had the three of us in terms of automotive experience, you're probably at 90 years three old people, not including you, sean, kind of like what we were talking about. But then you add in retail experience at GM executive level right, you add Sean and I, and now you're at 25 a pop, that's 50 years. And then you add in this really crazy digital nerdy component factor into all of that, which is what we are right, and we've always decided to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons, right. So when you see additional product sets or solutions or strategies coming through, it's not because we're trying to do a revenue grab or a wallet share grab, like some other places, do we do it because we know it can make a difference, a positive difference of growth, like a growth strategy, in those dealers' lives. So why do we want to build a website quicker, faster than anybody else? Because we can get to market and get conversion rates climbing so that they can sell more cars right, get more leads to sell more cars right. Why are we doing SEO? Because we know that if we do it the right way and when we do it the right way, we can literally get greater organic presence, which we know converts higher on a website than most things ever.
Speaker 3:We know that leads and phone calls still sell cars, so let's not separate ourselves from that and hide behind some other metrics. Sean and I never hid behind that. We want to drive phone calls and leads. Yes, you'll take a lot up all day long, so will everybody on this call, but in the meantime, I need to drive phone calls and leads to get appointments set, to sell and service more cars and make more money doing it. So why did we expand into RepMan? For the same reason.
Speaker 3:Certainly, dealers need to have a great reputation online, but did anybody stop to think about the organic value inside the algorithm, when dealers and consumers are bidirectionally talking back and forth on these platforms on Google, on Facebook leaving positive reviews or maybe not a positive review but there's back and forth directional communication that the algorithm is picking up and giving you a signal. Everything's based on a signal. Are you doing the signals the right way? Are you doing enough of the positive signals to move the needle forward with the sole purpose unless I'm wrong selling and service more cars to make more money? Right, and I think that's what you're going to get when you see why we do what we do at NADA. Right, you're going to get some really incredible knowledge, tips of how to grow your business today, based on empirical knowledge, not something Sean or Jeff and I picked up on a book or somebody said something.
Speaker 3:Well, let's just repeat that this is based on empirical knowledge of trying and doing. And if it's successful, we repeat it. And if it's not, we take it back to the workshop and we tinker on it until it is successful. And if it's not successful, guess what? You don't see. You won't see that because it doesn't make any sense. So I'm excited about 2025. Clearly, I'm passionate about what I do. I've been passionate about this industry for more than 25 years, helping dealers, growing dealers, and that's what comes through. That's what you heard at one of the other events recently that you're talking about, when dealers came to talk to Sean or to Jeff or to John. They're coming because they need help and they know that we have solutions and experience to help them get to where they got to go. So see you at NEDA. Can't wait to see you there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all of that was great. J Mac Love that. It from a let's just call well, I've been in this like as long as you guys, so I feel like I'm just one more old guy talking to you guys old guys. But I love that because, again, experience, that's the big differentiation out there. Kids, If somebody doesn't have it, it doesn't mean that they're not talented, but the person who's done a brain surgery 10,000 times is the person that I want to do in mine.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to make a point on what you shared, john, because it comes from a place where, to me, I think that there are a lot of companies that look at something foundationally as like, let's have a mission statement, let's have purpose, let's have core values, and core values become cliche to a lot of people who aren't serious. Right, they become core values become cliche to people who are. They will not hold themselves accountable to any of them anyway. Those are the people, and what you just articulated sounds like a group of people from leadership all the way throughout an organization that understands what your purpose is and your values are, and you're going to allow that to kind of permeate the way you guys do business, and it is exactly the kind of thing that makes people say that's why I want to talk to these guys. I'm going to get get some good insights. They're going to help you make good decisions. I want to see what they're capable of.
Speaker 1:Just just your opening remarks on on this last segment, john, those factors around rep man, of where your reputation might be one point off, you know, uh, from another, yeah, those all have uh algorithm consequences. Where would you like to show up? How strong would you like your Google business profile to be when you have 60 or 70% of your traffic making its way through there before they travel on to any other destination? So really good stuff. And this is why I think people are gravitating more and more to what you're doing, because you're educating people all the way up to being customers and long before they get there. They also know why you guys are doing what you're doing. I mean you essentially kind of gave. All of you guys are giving little portions of why we matter or why we want to talk to you, why we would want to give us consideration and why those that already have continue. So it's awesome. Before I move on, because somebody else may have thoughts here, I want to move you guys into a couple more questions here, if that's okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely, sean. The one note that I'll close on with what both Sean and John talked about. You talked about mission statements and mantras and a lot of things. We have a very simple approach here. You ready? Yeah, we're here to innovate.
Speaker 4:Advertising and automotive Innovation takes guts, you know. Some people refer to it as chutzpah. Right, you got to be willing to bump up against the wall. We're not always going to get it right. We're going to make mistakes. Anybody who's trying to innovate will.
Speaker 4:It's a sea of sameness out there in so many different facets today. So, when people are considering a shift, so when people are considering a shift, think about this for a minute. Are you frustrated with open support tickets that take days and weeks to resolve? You know why Because no one's innovated that process, no one has changed it, because no one's bumping up against the wall. 97.3% of every support ticket we get is resolved inside of 24 hours, sometimes right there on the call with us. That's innovation that lets you, the retailer, get back to what you really get paid to do, which is to move metal or to service vehicles.
Speaker 4:This is a belief that we have fundamentally throughout everything that we do, from ownership all the way through to our lowest level employee. Our job is to innovate advertising and automotive, very simply. Now, it's a much more complex issue than just simply a tagline, but we believe in it, from our technical folks, our developers, our designers, our front-end engineers, our UI, our UX people. These guys are some of the best and the brightest in the industry. Guys and gals, right, they really are bumping up against the wall, and when they bring us a lot of these things, we look at them and, being entrepreneurs, we're like, yeah, that's a great idea, let's go do that.
Speaker 4:And we sometimes have to police each other and grab the reins and pull back, because just because it can make money and just because it sounds like a good idea doesn't mean it is a good idea. And that takes restraint, that takes experience and that takes years of wisdom to know when to do it and when not to do it. So I would encourage everyone that's listening to this today or watching this, ask yourself the question are you truly innovating as a dealer? Are you doing the same thing on the same platform and expecting different results? And if you are, maybe ask yourself the question could it be better? Could it be different?
Speaker 1:That's a great question for dealers because a lot of them probably don't frame it the right way. Some dealers actually do have great ideas where they could be very innovative in their businesses, but they don't have the right partners to help them do it, and so that's that. Yeah, I mean full stop, right there. Ok, let me ask you guys a little bit about transparency. We, kieran and I, did a couple episodes where we went on this pretty deep Love to get some thoughts on what role it plays. It is huge, but let me just say it this way what role do you think transparency plays in improving the dealer and vendor, the vendor partner relationships? What lessons can be drawn from dealers that are embracing this approach, and that could be from people that you don't have to name any names of dealers, but would love your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3:So, as a former dealer from sales through general manager, sean. I've had the pleasure of working with hundreds of vendors traditional digital, you name it. I had the opportunity to do that. What always rung true, especially as digital became a forefront media. And, yes, I was around before many card dealers had websites. I was around before Google AdWords was even here. I was probably certified as an AdWords person before most people that are listening to this happened, and I'm Google certified and I'm AAISB all the stuff that we did when digital took over.
Speaker 3:And why did we do that? Because I knew I wasn't getting the level of transparency that I needed to make my company or my dealerships profitable and successful and agile and nimble enough to move forward and, quite frankly, dominate or beat my competitors. So, at the end of the day, that was our goal. So I believe and I'm not going to speak for Sean or Jeff, but I believe transparency is one of the forefront things that should always, sean or Jeff, but I believe transparency is one of the forefront things that should always be in our mind. I know it's one of the driving factors at Dealer Alchemist, right, because a transparent partner I was going to say vendor, but a transparent partner you both get to work together, to grow, to dominate, to see what's working, to see what's not working. If I am the vendor and I'm only going to give you what I think you need, you don't have the full picture and you have a lot of the pieces to the puzzle, but because we don't, or other vendors won't let you see it, you can't help us to grow. We're going to kind of just give you what you need to have, hopefully to hold on to our relationship a little longer.
Speaker 3:Now, what does that do? Well, one thing it creates a retention rate of 99%, right? So think about it. Right, we're in a world of churn, right, we've been in this forever. 99% is the retention rate of dealer, alchemists, dealer partners, right, not only because of transparency, but because of our innovation, because of the things that we do, because we resolve tickets 97.3% of the time the first day, right, those things matter to dealers because when does it break, sean? It breaks Saturday at 10 am, when other vendors put on their out of office and their phones don't get picked up and nobody's responding. You can bet your last silver dollar that we are on it because we are here to support our dealer partners, right? So, when it comes to transparency.
Speaker 3:For me remember, I'm a geeky, nerdy car guy for 30 years. I'm a different breed, I get it, but transparency is what helps dealers grow with us together Because, as Jeff said, we may not always get it right, first and foremost, but when we work together, we always find the right solution and carve that path forward. And now so more in 2025 than 2024, because it's getting more and more tight and competition is growing. Things are changing in the auto space, different than 24, different than before COVID and different before any other time. We have to make sure that together we're looking at the same data, the same process, the same reports, everything the same. So we come up with a strategy of growth. It's got to be a growth strategy. It's a win-win for everybody when you start thinking about growth and strategies to propel them forward in 2025.
Speaker 1:I like it. I like it. Transparency is one of those things that I think is critical and I, I like it. Transparency is one of those things that I think is critical. I love the fact that you guys are as open about it and you talk about it openly, because there are far too many vendors and have been for far too long that want to operate in black boxes and they want to continue to give their dealer clients baby food, knowing that that will ensure they'll never know how to chew on a steak, and chewing on steak means you have the goggles of transparency. You know what's going on versus.
Speaker 1:Hey, we're going to continue to send you our bullshit report full of vanity metrics to feed your ego or to basically mask the fact that we suck, and we don't want you to know it. We want you to keep writing a check to us. I think that's really, really important. So great stuff. Hey, let's on this segment. Let me just ask the last question this segment any trends that were discussed in 24 that surprised you with their effectiveness or adoption rates or anything about that was a surprise in 24 to you?
Speaker 4:I think the the continuing to fall over themselves to implement digital retailing. I'm not anti-digital retailing, I never have been anti-digital retailing but if you look at the effectiveness of digital retailing and I was talking to an industry expert the other day and we were having a good chuckle about this and you know, wonderful idea, absolutely a wonderful idea but, man, are there challenges, right? And when you look at the push from the manufacturers and from the companies that specialize in digital retailing, there's just some fundamental things that dealers need to realize. Right, most of your consumers can get part of the way there. They can't get all the way there, and yet we continue to put time and effort, energy and money into all of these things.
Speaker 4:I can go back to the time when three of the four of us had offices next to each other and sitting in a boardroom. One day we came up with the bright idea of saying hey, what's the number one most abandoned form on a website? And unanimously, we all raised our hands and said the finance application. Well, why is that? Well, because you ask for 115 fields of shit that nobody can remember, right, and you want them to do it right now. So one of the fundamental things we did is we changed how we went through the finance app and we had a four-step process. You broke it down into little bites, to your point, sean, and we had a four-step process. You broke it down into little bites, to your point, Sean. We had them eating baby food and then we graduated them to carrots and beans and fruit before they could eat big boy or big girl food.
Speaker 4:I don't think the digital retailing world has figured that out yet, and yet dealers trip over themselves. Ask yourself the question if I'm driving someone off of my website to go to a third-party site, is that really in my best interest? I'm going to argue it's not so. One of the trends that I continue to hear about and see are twofold right, digital retailing and chat. Digital retailing and chat both great ideas and some applications. They work.
Speaker 4:Oftentimes maybe not so much right, and I think more and more your repeat buyers, your credit worthy buyers they don't have a problem with digital retailing. Right. It's the consumer that's buried in negative equity, that doesn't know what to do, isn't quite sure which way to turn. They're going to sit there and they're going to stare at a wall until such point as they just say, okay, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. My head hurts. So I hope that the folks that are developing digital retailing tools are continuing to hear what the general public is saying and what tech companies like ours are saying. Again, we work with some of them. Some of them are great companies and they continue to innovate and they continue to put a lot of effort and time and there's a lot of people doing a good job at it. But I think the expectations of dealers around the success of digital retailing need to be realigned, and I think you know more and more people have kind of grown tired of traditional chat, right? So those are the two trends that I see a difference in.
Speaker 4:Again, I'm looking at it from an enterprise level more than a regular retail level, but a lot of that stuff filters up to me from John and his team Awesome.
Speaker 1:How about 2025? Have you guys started looking into the new year? We're we're just a few days in, but uh, are there innovations? Are there? Are there things that are coming up or trends that are already maybe spilling over? You think are going to be new? Anything that you're excited about for 2025?
Speaker 2:you know, there's uh, there are some incredible things coming in 2025. You know, I'll tell you that everyone should come by the booth to play with some of these things, because they're amazing. One of the things that we're launching is the first integrated Penny Perfect payment solution on our website platform, which is the birth of digital retailing in a completely different way than what people have had it in the past. Imagine the easy to use experience that doesn't take you off the website and is seamless and quick, because most digital retailing solutions are unbelievably slow. Imagine we get to announce the two new manufacturers that are coming on with the Dealer Alchemist platform. I wish I could announce them on this, but I can't. However, I can say that we're meeting with the entire field team for one of those manufacturers tomorrow to teach the entire field team, and I did meet with one of my friends who was a dealer, and what he said was every one of my friends and their stores is so tired of the choices that we have. I don't know that you have any idea how many, how, how big this is going to be for us, and today he is at his 20 group showcasing one of those websites and it's it's going to be unbelievable. So we've got this new way of looking at payments, we've got these new manufacturers and a fully integrated trade solution that's right around the corner as well. So imagine a fully integrated, easy to use trade tool that does everything that you need to oh yeah, and saves you $500 a month because you don't have to pay for somebody else's right.
Speaker 2:So our goal is to make sure that that website has everything included that you could possibly need, so that you can minimize the third-party scripts and we like the third parties.
Speaker 2:We have a relationship with a number of them but unfortunately, every time you install one, what do they do?
Speaker 2:They take over your website. They want to put their script on every single page in 15 places and slow it down to a crawl and pretend like that trade button or that finance button is the single most important button on the website, and I've got news for you the single most important thing on the website is the car itself. It's more important than the dealership, and so if we can't showcase getting to the car and understanding what our price and payment on that car is, simply and easily, we are losing our business to the electric providers out there that deal direct to consumer, and the way we're going to prevent that from happening and stop that from happening is to embrace a more simple, easy, touse website that makes all of this easy to use, and we will be at the forefront of all of that. Faster website, easier to use, integrated payments, integrated trade and simple to use that's what's coming in 2025. That thing is gorgeous. Beyond belief is what that thing is.
Speaker 4:To put the icing on the cake of what John just shared with you, we're still one of the only companies in the industry that's fully transparent in our pricing. What you see is what you get. There is no hidden fees. There is no nothing. Your bill from Google, your bill from Meta, is your bill from Google and your bill from Meta. Whether you spend five grand, 10 grand, 50 grand or a hundred grand, it's about getting back to what we have been preaching from the get-go with this company. Yes, we want to innovate advertising and automotive, but we want to simplify it. We want to be your partner, not just at the retail tier three level, but at the tier two and the tier one.
Speaker 4:The conversations that I'm having with a lot of the manufacturers, they're saying you know, jeff, this is incredibly refreshing to sit here and have someone say are your dealers tired of waiting on service? Are they tired of bills that they can't quite understand? Do they feel like there's fuzzy math going on? How much of their ad spend truly goes to their ad spend? There are entirely too many companies in this space today that, to your point, are giving you shiny reports and fuzzy math. If these things aren't clear and simple and easy to read. There's a problem and you've got to ask yourself why we continue to put money back into the innovation of these platforms. If you had any idea the amount of money that we dump in development costs, it's because we want to build the best, most robust, service-oriented platform that the automotive industry has ever seen.
Speaker 4:Sean, you and I have known each other a long time. Man and I've had a very storied career and I've had a very storied career. Coming here was a very thoughtful and deep process for me, and when I saw what Sean was doing, I said you know, I'm in for that program Because we were literally building something that's epic. This is probably my last hurrah and, man, I want to go out on top. It might take us 10 years to get there, but I will leave this industry, as will Sean and JMAC, better than we ever found it.
Speaker 4:Not only do we want to pay it forward to our dealers, we want to pay it forward to the community. We want to give back. We want to make it easier for consumers to use our solutions. We want our dealers to have a transparent, responsive, affordable solution that makes sense. We're here to advise them. We're here to guide them. We're here to help them. We're really here to change the industry.
Speaker 4:And to Sean and John's point and to yours, there's a lot of good providers out there that we are good friends with and I'm rooting them on for success. But you better believe I'm coming for you. You better believe that I'm raising the bar and I'm saying all right, bitch, get up off your ass and let's go, let's get after it. And I say that affectionately, but damn, let's get after it. And that's really what DA is all about. Our people, our team, our philosophy, man, we want to innovate. And if you don't want to innovate, that's fine. If you're still good with eight track technology, keep doing it right, keep rewinding your cassette with the tip of a pencil, because we're way beyond those things and we want to take our dealers and our partners for that ride with us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love it. I'll just add this in really quick right For 2025, don't settle. Don't settle for bloated budgets and increasing budgets with no result and no gain and no car sales. Don't settle for it. Don't settle for bad traffic to your website that doesn't convert. Don't settle for a website that converts at what? 1%, 2%. Don't settle for what we've all been pigeonholed into. It doesn't need to be that way. Expect better from your vendors. Expect better from everybody that surrounds you to grow that business. And I can say that because our dealer partners are experiencing better.
Speaker 3:When I hear some of the numbers that prospects are proud of, I almost feel bad. I'm like you're willing to settle for a 1.5 website conversion rate. You're okay with that? Did you expect better? Or, over the past 10 years, has somebody lulled you into believing that that's the best this industry can possibly do? So I'm going to challenge every dealer and, to Jeff's point, every vendor. But they got a long way to go to catch our ass. Be better, do better and expect better, because I can tell you better is out there, but you're going to have to go get it. It's not going to just land on your doorstep and going to sell more cars. Expect better for the hard earned dollars that you earn every day and you entrust to your vendors, and I can tell you that's what I'm bringing to NADA. I'm bringing that because, as a former dealer, I know we could all do better, and at DA, I know we're already doing better. So just come by booth 4471. Jeff's giving out free drinks, I believe, and you'll learn how to do better and dominate in 2025.
Speaker 1:I love it. I want to move into our last segment and this is think of it as maybe it's a lightning round. You can give a short answer if you want. It's not as easy as this or that, where I just ask you guys if you prefer corn dogs or hot dogs. This is, they are real questions, you know, but I'd love it if All beef. There, you go, there you go. I would love to know if you've got a piece of advice that you would give dealers as they're starting their 2025.
Speaker 2:I've got a very simple one. If you're banking on things getting better without making any changes, you're kidding yourself. Hope is not a strategy. So, instead, it is time to inspect and it is time to compare. And I'll tell you because we're about to launch this new program with these two new manufacturers, with a few more to come afterwards it is time to look at what your competitors are doing.
Speaker 2:It is time to look at what your choices are, because there are better choices out there. How do I know? It's because I keep having dealers that tell me that they had a great December and a great November and a great October and a great September. I also know a lot of other dealers that didn't, and they happen to be the ones that I'm talking to. As we get these people calling us saying, hey, I'm not sure how things are good over there because they're not so good over here, and we look at their strategy and we understand why it's not good. It's painfully obvious looking at what we see. So that's my advice for 25 is hope is not a strategy. It's time to inspect and do a little comparison.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 4:Sean, mine's simple Don't overreact. This industry is full of knee-jerk reactions and I want this immediately and I want to do that. Don't all of a sudden decide to chop your advertising budget by 50% to see what happens. Like that's, for the love of God, what are you thinking? Well, you know, I cut my budget by 50% and I still sold as many cars. Well, that's called a pipeline. You've been in retail for how long? I just?
Speaker 4:I am absolutely flabbergasted sometimes at the common sense that comes out of some people when it comes to their business. It is slow, it is steady, it is consistent. Can you and should you aim to lower your budgets? Absolutely you should, but that comes from perfecting your market. That comes from putting all the tools in the right place to maximize the efficiency. You heard Sean mention it earlier. Get your SEO in the right place right. Clean up your website. Make your calls to action simple. Don't overthink this. Waving palm trees on the beach in Florida never sold a car. One Newsflash for you A dancing frog in the background because that's your moniker doesn't sell cars. What? Yeah, surprise, right.
Speaker 4:It's about effective, efficient, clean and transparent communication with a consumer. Make it easy on them, don't make them have to go. Look for it. Consumers are a lot like children, right? They're going to find the path of least resistance. They just are. So why make it hard for them? Keep it simple. Keep the calls to action clean and don't overreact.
Speaker 4:Think it through. If you're thinking of cutting your budget, that's great. Have a discussion with your ad partners. Most of your ad partners aren't going to like that because, guess what, when you cut your ad budget, you're cutting their fees. I, on the other hand, welcome that discussion because, guess what? My fees are the same whether you cut your budget or not. So who do you think you're going to get a more transparent discussion out of? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. Now, if you're underspending, we're going to be one of the first ones to tell you. You know what you're not going to reach, what you need to reach because you're not spending enough money. I don't set the market, the market sets it. So just don't overreact and think it through. It's wonderful to have a goal to cut your advertising spend.
Speaker 4:But, just like this time of year, it's appropriate to use this analogy how many people run out and join a gym in January? I used to use this in my NADA speaking sessions and I'd have a room full of a couple hundred people and a bunch of people raise their hand. Well, come NADA time, you're usually in about the February time frame. How many of you joined the gym the first week of January? I'd see 10, 15 hands pop up. How many of you were still going to the gym six weeks later? About four or five hands to drop right. What happens 30 days after that? 30 days after that, 30 days after that? Right, don't overreact. Think it through that, right, don't overreact. Think it through, measure it, and when you're doing that, you're going to find ways to effectively cut your budget. Chopping your budget by 50% in one month to see what happens really bad idea. But if, month over month, you're able to cut your budget by 5%, maybe 8%, where are you at at the end of the year? It's small, incremental changes that make the biggest difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I like it, anybody got a bold prediction for 25?.
Speaker 4:Interest rates will drop. Interest rates will come down, yeah drop Interest rates will come down.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of optimism in the market, a lot of optimism, and I think if that first couple of interest rate drops can hit, I think you'll see consumers start to naturally hit the dealership lots. I think EVs are going to shit the bed. To be very, very honest with you, with pulling away of those tax credits and dealers heavy on those things and manufacturers reporting billions of dollars in losses. I'm not anti-EV, but I will tell you that EVs are going to hit the skids for a while until they can figure out how to get the prices down and make them more reliable. So those are my two predictions for the year.
Speaker 1:Anybody else with a bold 2025 prediction?
Speaker 3:I'm going to jump in right. So I'm just a data nerd by heart. I think everybody on this call knows that about me. I follow deep trends in automotive on the regular. My prediction is that SAR, which is how the new car industry is judged in terms of how many vehicles are retailed every single year, I think we're going to break a record in 2025. I don't think the same is going to happen on the used car side of the house. That's just my feeling on that.
Speaker 3:But I think, in terms of new car sales, we are looking at an awesome, awesome year to go sell some metal, move some iron, put people in cars and make them happy, help them buy cars. But it starts today. Frankly, it started in December, right? So get your house in order, take advantage and own your share of that record-breaking SAR. And, as Sean said, if you're going to do in 2025 that didn't work in 2024, I can guarantee you it is not going to work in 2025 because it did not work in 2024. And 2025 is going to be a blockbuster of a new car sales year. That's my prediction.
Speaker 1:I like that. That's a bold one, a bold prediction.
Speaker 2:What about you. You got one, Kieran. You know I don't like to try to predict those things or throw something out there, just because I don't want to jinx it. There's so many exciting things happening and we are laser focused on what those things look like, so I'm all about laser focus on the objective. I don't even think about what those things look like. We've got objectives and deliveries that need to happen and nothing else exists in my world.
Speaker 1:I like that. Fair enough, I'm going to land the plane, gentlemen. I will tell you and I'll tell the audience listening and or watching great stuff Really good to kind the plane, gentlemen. I will tell you and I'll tell the audience listening and or watching Great stuff Really good. To kind of recap look in a rear view of 24.
Speaker 1:It's impossible for me to detail every single great insight that I liked from the episode, but there's a couple things that definitely rang loud and clear to me. Simplicity matters to you guys. Simplicity matters to you guys and it matters to you guys in a way where you talked about things about transparency and innovation and really the why you guys should matter and do matter to the automotive community and to dealers, and I think those things are really critically important and underserved. You guys play in the market in places where it is well. If you're being honest about business, it's red ocean, it's competitive. The good thing that I love about your company and the way that you guys are in the market is there's so much clarity around your purpose and why you're doing what you're doing and what you're building and why 24 was so great and why you guys are going into 25 with so much momentum. You have people in that red ocean category that are in identity crisis. Right, this is just me. I'm not speaking for any of you, I'm just telling you as a guy who also knows this industry really, really well and, uh, when I look at it, I see people who I think are so still desperate not to help their dealers, not to help the automotive community understand why they matter and why they're great. They're trying to figure out how they can take one more pivot to get out of the business and probably find somebody who will buy their big bag of garbage that they've been amassing over many, many years because they're tired, right, and here you guys are with a fresh tank of gas and the fastest dragster on the track saying you better, take a look, this is going to be fun and there's work to be done, and the bold prediction out of J-Mac's own mouth of 2020 being a strong year and I think, by the way, very insightful that you would say not so much on the used car side, right, I mean, we just went through a few years where there were not nearly as many cars manufactured, and that has a huge impact on things downstream around the used car market, right, but there's a lot of new cars sitting out there waiting to be sold and we have a lot of changes that will to your point, jeff. I think we will see some improvements in interest rates, which will help with a problem that has been facing dealers really increasingly since COVID, which is affordability has continued to skyrocket for the consumer, and so I think there's going to be a lot of economic factors that will maybe make you right, john. It might be that kind of 2025.
Speaker 1:I appreciate your time. All three of you guys have a lot more important things that you would like to do with it, but the people that need to hear from you I know that I speak for them they appreciate you guys taking time like this to talk through these things. I will say to the audience if you're not following any of these three gentlemen on LinkedIn, you should do so. John McAdams Sean Kieran spelled very, very uniquely. I thought mine was unique, but S-H-E-A-N is the most unique spelling of Sean I've ever seen in my life and I'm 53 years old, so take that and put it in your pipe and smoke it.
Speaker 1:And then Jeff Clark All three of these guys. We've talked about it a couple of times at least I have on this episode. They are not people that got into this game two years ago. They've been in it for so long that they've learned things and they've burnt miles on a highway that matter. So they've learned lessons that you can learn from and, especially if you're on the retail side of this business, you should feel very encouraged to want to know people and to be friends with people and potentially, probably, if you're smart, do business with people that have been in it at least as long as you have, if not longer. Right, this is where you start to separate. Really, you know the dogs that can run and the ones that should stay on the porch, just being honest. So thank you guys for taking the time.
Speaker 1:Follow these guys on LinkedIn. You can find all three of them on LinkedIn. You can also follow Dealer Alchemist anywhere you find socials. Go to the YouTube channel. You can see the full episode there. You will see clips of this episode as well, which is really one of the best ways for you to understand some of these short form pieces leading you into maybe some of the longer times that you want to sit down with 30 minutes or longer and listen to all of it. So we appreciate that.
Speaker 1:For more information on all the things that these guys are doing, let me just say two things before we say goodbye.
Speaker 1:And that is, go to dealeralchemistcom. That's kind of the central hub where you can kind of get inside of the dealer alchemist machine and read up on content all by yourself and then, when you're ready, to say, hey, I want to talk to somebody, well, they make that easy as well. Second, if you happen to be going to NADA in New Orleans, we're going to fast track this full episode to get out there so that it will be out there at least a couple of days before JMAC. It's booth number 4471. That's 4471 in New Orleans for NADA. You can stop by and see any of these guys. I believe that you could get a cup of coffee in the morning if you wanted, and if you wanted Irish cream in it, it probably would be there for you. I believe. If you decide you want to wait until the afternoon to pop the cap off of a Estella or whatever it is that you're going to be doing, that kind of full service of beverages Is this true, we are indeed.
Speaker 4:And, sean, on one final note, it seems appropriate, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Southern California affected by those devastating wildfires. All of us at Dealer Alchemist are praying for those folks in those areas. We've got dealers in those areas and we are thinking of them and the citizens of Southern California. Our thoughts and our prayers are with those folks, as well as anyone who's been affected by a natural disaster, but that one particularly hits home because we have several clients in the Southern California market, whether it's their employees, their clients, whatever the case may be. So, on behalf of myself and the rest of the leadership and ownership team here at Dealer Alchemist, know that our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Speaker 1:That's certainly very much appreciated, and the year has started with some really, really terrible tragedies. So, um, thanks for mentioning that to the audience. We appreciate your time. We never want to waste it. So thanks for showing up again for another episode of automotive alchemy. We will catch you again where we'll take any of these automotive challenges and turn them into pure gold. See See you next time. Thanks, guys, thank you Outro Music.