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We threw some hard questions around.

And Ron Smith aced them all. Ron is the Enterprise Sales Director of Stella AI, a fully AI telephone answering system for dealerships, and joins the show after winning a recent month of Pitch Tank. We learned a lot about Ron's background, what dealers and vendors really dislike about each other, and have a lot of laughs.

Here's what we talk about in this episode:

0:00 Intro with Paul J Daly, Kyle Mountsier and Michael Cirillo

3:41 Ron and Stella AI won a recent month of Pitch Tank, and Ron shares how they literally changed the pitch with 30 minutes before the competition, and it's now the pitch their whole team uses.

6:35 Ron's journey to Stella AI started 20 years ago when he worked at his dad's dealership. Since then, he's worked at dealerships and automotive tech partners, able to see both sides.

9:34 We ask Ron to put his dealer hat back on and share the most annoying thing a vendor can do when they're pitching. He responds with one word: "Talk." Everyone has a good laugh.

14:59 In the spirit of growing empathy, we flip the question and ask what's the most annoying thing a dealer can during a pitch process. Ron talks about how getting stuck in a gray area without a solid 'Yes' or 'No' is really hard.

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Connect with Ron Smith (904) 738-4011 on LinkedIn 

Hear the Stella AI Difference

⭐️ Love the podcast? Please leave us a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your LinkedIn or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally!

We have a daily email!

https://www.asotu.com

✉️ Sign up for our free and fun-to-read daily email for a quick shot of relevant news in automotive retail, media, and pop culture.

🎧 Like and follow our other podcasts:

1. Automotive State of the Union
2. ASOTU CON Sessions