InsideAuto Podcast

Colby Joyner is the Vice President of Sales at Konect.ai, an AI-driven software that is built to increase lead engagement and drive conversions for automotive dealers. Colby is a former Air Traffic Controller in the US Air Force and a former EMT. Before joining Konect.ai, he was the Platform Director of Bravo Auto Group. His goal is to bring efficient processes into the automotive space and increase their use of technology. Colby is also a husband and father.

Jarrod Kilway is the Vice President of Strategy and Success at Konect.ai. He is an Automotive News 40 Under 40 Nominee, a founding member of Auto Genius, and the former Director of Digital Strategy and Solutions for Germain Automotive. Jarrod entered the automotive space while in college and holds a degree from the University of Akron.

How specific or targeted is the technology you use in your dealership? Is it too broad and complicated? Or is it easy to use?

Automation is meant to make processes easier and more efficient. Your automated marketing messages need to be targeted to a specific audience and increase engagement with them. Specific automation not only helps in making dealerships more productive but also increases profitability, improves communication among teams and customers, and in the long run, helps build better relationships.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Colby Joyner and Jarrod Kilway from Konect.ai to talk about the need for simple and specific automation in the automotive space. They discuss why dealerships fear adopting technology, what success looks like for sales representatives, and the importance of software integration. Stay tuned.

Delano Palmer is the General Manager at Tony T Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Orangeburg. Originally from Panama, Delano left the country when he was seven years old and spent about eight years in Germany before settling in Texas. Since then, he has run three different dealerships and successfully turned them around with his leadership style and knack for business.

Building a profitable and successful dealership is not just about selling cars. You need to have the right people with the right mindset, talent, and skills to drive success. They also have to believe in themselves, have the right vision, and work as a team.

So what process changes can you make to unlock the full potential of your team and build a better business? How can you use technology to make your team more efficient?

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Delano Palmer, the General Manager at Tony T Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Orangeburg, to talk about the importance of focusing on your team to build a successful dealership. Delano explains how he helped different dealerships turn losses into profits, talks about the challenges he faced along the way, and shares his thoughts on the use of Meta in the automotive industry. Stay tuned.

Aaron Bickart is a recognized senior leader, entrepreneur, and the Executive Vice President and General Manager of OfferLogix, where he spearheads the development and execution of the company's business strategy. He is an award-winning sales and marketing professional with over 30 years of success in the automotive industry. Throughout his career, Aaron has built partnerships with major OEMs and automotive players like Cox Automotive while serving in different leadership roles at Team Velocity and The Reynolds and Reynolds Company.

What can dealerships do to provide a better customer experience to their clients? How can they offer customers the best car deals in the market and stay competitive?

The automotive industry has evolved over the years. Customers' needs and expectations have also changed, especially with the growth of eCommerce and online retailing. This is why personalization has become so essential in the current auto industry: it helps dealers customize their offerings and retain customers for the long term.

In this episode of the InsideAuto podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Aaron Bickart, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of OfferLogix, to discuss the value of personalizing the customer journey in automotive. Aaron also talks about OfferLogix's Penny Perfect Payments, the adoption of technology in the automotive industry, and how OfferLogix offers a smooth customer experience. Stay tuned.

Aharon Horwitz is the CEO of AutoLeadStar, a company that uses innovative technology to help car dealerships successfully engage online buyers. Their software automates a dealership's marketing funnel and provides them with around-the-clock services to drive quality traffic to their websites. AutoLeadStar works with over 30 OEM brands and has been featured in over 10 auto publications, including Dealer Magazine, Auto Dealer Today, and Car Biz Today. Aharon is also the co-host of the InsideAuto Podcast.

Ilana Shabtay is the Vice President of Marketing at AutoLeadStar and the Co-host of the InsideAuto Podcast. She is an experienced marketer, innovator, and growth hacker with expertise in digital marketing, artificial intelligence, and automotive. Ilana is also a Dealer Marketing Expert Panelist.

Data plays a very important role in the growth and success of car dealerships. Not only does it help dealers learn more about their customers and products, but it also helps in driving digital marketing strategies.

However, dealers need to have the right infrastructure to organize and use this data. This is where a customer data and experience platform (CDXP) comes in handy. It makes it easier for dealers to own their own data, focus on strategic growth, increase efficiency, and provide more value to customers.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, co-hosts Aharon Horwitz and Ilana Shabtay sit down to talk about the recent launch of AutoLeadStar's Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP). They discuss the benefits of CDXPs, how dealers have been responding to AutoLeadStar's platform, and what other players in the automotive industry are doing.

Jennifer Sanford is the Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations at STELLA Automotive AI, a division of Telepathy Lab. She is responsible for marketing, brand management, and industry relationships within automotive. She has a lot of expertise not just in automotive but also in the health insurance and recruitment industries.

Within automotive, Jennifer previously built and led marketing, lead generation, brand management, and OEM business development at Dominion Dealer Solutions as the VP of Marketing. In her free time, she and her husband spend a lot of time sailing in the bay.

Although the adoption of technology in dealerships has led to the growth of digital retailing, customers who walk into a dealership still expect above and beyond in-person experiences. They want to be received well, treated well, and talk to a salesperson who will listen and provide them with the products they want.

Dealerships, therefore, have to ensure that they keep their customers at the center of their businesses. They have to create customer-centric experiences so that the customers feel valued and return, which will also act as a good referral system for the dealership.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Jennifer Sanford, the Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations at STELLA Automotive AI, to talk about the adoption of technology in the automotive space and the importance of providing customer-centric experiences in dealerships. They also talk about the benefits of training employees and using data to serve customers better. Stay tuned.

Ilana Shabtay is the Director of Marketing at AutoLeadStar and the Co-host of the InsideAuto Podcast. She is an experienced marketer, innovator, and growth hacker with expertise in digital marketing, artificial intelligence, and automotive. Ilana is also a Dealer Marketing Expert Panelist.

Over the last year, dealerships have had to pivot and make changes in the way they run their operations, how they market their products, and their strategies for communicating with customers. This has mostly been accelerated by technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the same period, Ilana Shabtay has had the privilege to interview some great guests on the InsideAuto Podcast. They've shared their advice on various topics affecting car dealerships, ranging from adopting new technology and handling inventory shortages to leveraging vanity metrics.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, host Ilana Shabtay sits down with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, Co-founder of Rise25 Media, to talk about the interviews she did over the last year. Ilana shares some of the guests who were featured on the podcast and what she learned from them about improving dealerships. Stay tuned.

Gary LaDue is the Director of Marketing at Modern Auto Group. At Modern Auto Group, he drives their marketing strategies from their website to CRM, SEO, and events marketing. He has experience driving national and regional brands, and is a data-driven marketer in the automotive space who loves to find opportunities and build relationships between consumers and brands. Gary is also a Founding Member of Auto Genius, a community of high-growth automotive marketing professionals.

Do you know and understand your customers' needs? Do you know how they like to communicate and what they hope to hear from your dealership? Do you have the products that can meet their needs?

While working in the consumer packaged goods industry (CPG), Gary LaDue learned the value of using data to understand consumers' needs and wants. He also learned that data can help a business segment its customers into different personas for a more efficient marketing strategy. After moving to the automotive industry, he started using that same knowledge in his data collection, analysis, and marketing strategies to ensure that his company meets customers' needs.

Gary LaDue, the Director of Marketing at Modern Auto Group, joins Ilana Shabtay in this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, where he talks about the value of using data to segment customers. Gary also talks about the need for brand consistency, how to communicate well with customers, and future evolutions in the automotive industry. Stay tuned.

Matt Raymond is the Director of Digital Operations at Team Automotive Group, a dealership that provides a vast selection of new and used vehicles and exceptional car care for drivers in Salisbury, North Carolina. Matt joined the automotive industry after spending seven years in law enforcement. Before taking on his role at Team Automotive Group, he worked as the Digital Marketing Manager and eCommerce Director for Halterman's Automotive Group, an award-winning dealership based in Pennsylvania.

With the recent disruptions to the automotive industry due to technology changes, many dealerships have seen a growth in demand for digital retail. However, with this demand comes the need for a more efficient business development center (BDC) and better marketing strategies to ensure that your dealership continues attracting customers and making sales.

According to Matt Raymond, centralizing your dealership's marketing and BDC functions can help you bring together your team, increase efficiency, gain more control, and improve the recruiting and onboarding of new employees. Matt played a key role in building Team Automotive Group's BDC, and now he's here to share his strategies.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Matt Raymond, the Director of Digital Operations at Team Automotive Group, to discuss how centralizing marketing and BDC helps improve efficiency in dealerships. Matt talks about his marketing strategies, the importance of consolidating data, and how his company has been handling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay tuned.

Steve Shannon is an Advisor for Podium, a company that helps businesses modernize customer interactions, as well as EDO, a company that measures the effectiveness of TV spend. Steve's objective is to bring leading-edge solutions directly to auto marketing professionals. In these roles, he's helping advertising technology and data science companies understand the auto industry in order to build their business.

Steve began his career as the Director of Marketing at General Motors and Oldsmobile in Michigan. Since then, he has held many advisory roles as well as executive positions at Hyundai, Saab, and General Motors. Steve received his bachelor's degree from Harvard and his master's degree from Columbia Business School.

How do marketing efforts trickle down and impact a company's automotive ecosystem? What does the future hold for the US automotive industry?

As someone who has held executive marketing roles at General Motors, Oldsmobile, and Hyundai, Steve Shannon is well-versed in this subject. According to Steve, most marketers are focused on the big vehicle launches within the calendar year. That doesn't mean they're not looking ahead towards the future, but it does make it more challenging to disrupt the industry. Whether your company is trying to revolutionize the tier system, the role of dealerships in car sales, or the future of electric vehicles, the automotive sales system is very complex. But there's hope: although there hasn't been a big disruption in the industry over the past 100 years, Steve says that change will happen, even if it's slow-moving.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Aharon Horwitz and Ilana Shabtay sit down with Steve Shannon, Advisor at Podium and EDO, to talk about the current — and future — marketing and sales efforts happening in the auto space. Steve shares how he began a career at General Motors, the campaigns he worked on at Hyundai, and the future of automotive innovation. Stay tuned.

Marija Cvetkovska is a Paid Search Manager at PCG Digital. Before joining PCG Digital, she was an accomplished business development manager at two major Michigan dealer groups, The Suburban Collection and Sellers Subaru. She earned the Mark of Excellence Award from Cadillac in 2019 and 2020, which only three BDC managers receive nationwide.

Marija regularly speaks on podcasts as well as at workshops and conference presentations. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, watching football and basketball, and reading. She is also fluent in four languages.

Recent changes in the automotive industry mean that dealerships have to be flexible, creative, and consistent when coming up with better ways of serving their customers. What does this mean? Concentrating on marketing and driving leads is not enough.

The right strategy for building a better dealership, according to Marija Cvetkovska, is to focus on customer service. If customers prefer communicating through email or on the phone, then dealerships should use those methods to reach out and build relationships with them. What should you be doing with these communications? Provide leads with the information they ask for, go the extra mile to serve them better, and maintain a customer-centric dynamic, to name a few.

In this episode of the InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay is joined by Marija Cvetkovska, a Paid Search Manager at PCG Digital, to talk about practical tips for growing BDC sales for dealerships. Marija explains why she transitioned from the retail side to the vendor side of automotive, shares some marketing and communication tips for dealerships, and talks about the value of centering your customer. Stay tuned.