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Brian Kramer is in a whole new ballgame. After spending years on the dealership side, he has joined Cars.com as their EVP and GM of Accu-Trade. Michael Cirillo, Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier talk to Brian about this transition, and the issues that he’s now experienced on both sides. They also touch on haircuts, lead fatigue and pitch slapping.

What we talk about in this episode:0:00 Intro with Michael, Paul and Kyle

10:05 The schedule of the industry partner and the dealer, and their priorities, don’t always line up. Brian realized this when he was on the other side of phone calls he had been receiving as a dealer.

13:57 Brian thinks that vendors need to stop “pitch slapping” dealers by piling new widgets and tools.

21:52 Brian also sees a need for dealers to stop “pitch slapping” consumers by trying to sell them something when they really aren’t interested.

25:40 Ultimately, Cars.com, like Automotive State of the Union, is for the dealer. Brian talks about how Alex Vetter has centered Cars around arming the rebels and pushing back.

“I'll tell you, there's a lot of people there that are working in the same direction, to really transform this industry, I mean, Alex Vetter has put this north star out there of really empowering dealers for all the disruption that's happening to be like a safe haven to be able to sit there and just be arming them with as many tools as possible to hang with any disrupter that comes into the space, and make it easier and simpler so that they don't have to do an insane amount of work to do it.” 

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