Latest / Auto Collabs / The #1 Thing Dealers Want from Vendors: Communication, Not More Tech with Tina Cuatto

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The #1 Thing Dealers Want from Vendors: Communication, Not More Tech with Tina Cuatto · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  Okay, so- Okay... two things. Okay. No, so- Okay. What? J- [singing] This is Auto Collabs. What? Just a minute. Uh, you, you, Spider-Man. What I was gonna- You, you. You, you, you... you're on mute.
• 0:18
  [laughs] I've heard, I've heard a couple of things about where our guest today comes from. Uh, first, uh, Connecticut. I can't think Connecticut without Who's the Boss? Just- Samantha. Samantha.
• 0:32
  I wish her name was Samantha. Samantha. Samantha. [laughs] And I can't think Connecticut now because Dave Portnoy has embedded in my brain so deeply that New Haven- One slice. Yes...
• 0:41
  style pizza is the best pizza in the world, and I'm just so jealous- So interesting... that our guest, Christina Cuado... Did I say it right, Cuado? Or, or Tina. Cuado. Cuado. Yeah, that's it. You got it.
• 0:54
  Comes to us from Connecticut. It's probably a little... Yeah, I know. I'm just, I'm gonna see myself out of this one because Paul's got the Philly connection. There's obviously a name connection there- [laughs]...
• 1:04
  with the Cirillo in the- Hey, come on... anytime you get two letters next to each other in the last name, Cirillo gets excited. [laughs] You know. Uh, but hey, we're hanging out with Tina today.
• 1:14
  We really hope that you enjoy this conversation. [singing] Hey, Tina. It's great to have you again. Everybody on this screen is already smiling. That's a good start. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me back.
• 1:28
  You know, Kyle made an amateur mistake- [laughs]... pre, pre-podcast. He did. Messed up, man. [laughs] That's right. People didn't need to know.
• 1:36
  [laughs] Is that he said Michael and I are going to just not talk for the first five minutes of this podcast while Paul and Tina talk about Philly. Go Birds. Unbelievable. And go Birds. Okay, we're done. There you go.
• 1:48
  Enough go Birds. Yeah. And why? Okay. Because we're not in football season anymore. I mean, Phillies are kinda doing their, their dumbness, but we're good with this. It's okay. [laughs] We're good. We're good with this.
• 1:56
  It's fine. Tina, thanks, thanks for joining us again. Um, what does summertime look like for you? I was just having a conversation with, uh, Laurie Halter with Charisma, the PR agency- Mm-hmm...
• 2:05
  and we were, like, just talking about summer vibes in the industry partner space are different. A lot of which because, like, you call your clients, like, your deal- and, like, people are on vacation. People are a bit...
• 2:16
  Like, there's a lot of getting ready and positioned for September. So what does, what does the summertime look like for you and around, uh, the halls of Dealo? Honestly, nothing has slowed down.
• 2:23
  I feel like the Roadrunner, and I can't believe it's post July 4th. [laughs] Like, we have just been go, go, go. Um, it's really- Where's the- It's really because I think of- Oh, go s-...
• 2:36
  you know, the, the acquisition of Synchro. We've just been trying to, um, get all of our products aligned, people aligned, process. So it has been absolutely nonstop on the product side. Tell, tell...
• 2:47
  Give us, give us the inside scoop on what an acquisition looks like from your seat. Oh, my God. Especially another website company. Yeah. I know. That- This was really interesting. Yeah.
• 2:56
  Um, the Synchro folks, their products, their people very much align with the Dealeron culture, so it was very natural.
• 3:03
  Um, but of course, you still need to integrate two very large, um, technical teams, product teams, understand their products and features, and try to unify so that our, our collective Dealeron dealers are getting the both of best systems.
• 3:18
  So it's been nonstop since pass, uh, last September. Yeah. No wonder, yeah, you're very, very busy. Do, do you have, like, a, a season kickoff? Like, is it, like, when September hits and people go back to school?
• 3:30
  Does the, does kind of the temperature change? You know, you start looking into the end of the year? Yeah. We're always really focused at, you know, what are we gonna present at NADA?
• 3:39
  So we're really starting to focus on, um, that and, you know, where we wanna collaborate, and especially bringing a lot to, um, to the show this year, um, with the combined, uh, product force.
• 3:50
  Yeah, I, I think about anyone that's in product or development right now.
• 3:56
  Like, the pressure of the world in product and development when you've got companies like Gemini and GPT, uh, and OpenAI, and even to s- to some degree Google and Microsoft, like, pushing the boundaries so- Yeah...
• 4:12
  quickly and then people thinking, like, thinking they're doing something when they're vibe coding even though they're not really doing something.
• 4:20
  [laughs] And, like, asking their product, you know, people that they buy products from, like, "What have you done for me lately? What are you doing?" Yeah.
• 4:26
  I can't imagine the, like, hustle that that kind of almost falsely creates around a company that- Oh, that's a great question...
• 4:33
  many- Like, how are you dealing with that balance with, like, people coming to you kind of expecting, you know, this, like, multinational, like, you know, $500 billion investment thing and the pace that it's moving versus, like, "Hey, we have to serve our dealers today," you know?
• 4:50
  Like, what does that look like? Yeah. We, we have that all the time, and I don't... I think, um, AI, search engines, Gemini, vibe coding, all of that has really just amplified it.
• 4:59
  We're trying to stay very focused in what we do best, talking with dealers, trying to solve problems, and building scalable solutions, so that's really what we've been focused on.
• 5:09
  Um, we're all trying to vibe code too and just understand new systems and how can we get things to market faster, how can we get things into the hands of our developers faster, but still, um, still making sure that we're kind of following Dealeron design and our ethos of the, the UX team and all of that.
• 5:27
  So it's been interesting but a challenge, and there's so much still to discover on that front. It's like I feel like every industry. I can tell you that, like, my vet, my dog's vet experiences this.
• 5:41
  [laughs] Um, any profession, like accountants, lawyers, right? Like, you've... We're talking about vibe coding, but everybody is...
• 5:48
  Or, like, people who know are leveraging the knowledge and the, the accessibility of knowledge and be able to execute things so fast that everyone who is a professional who knows their craft is being challenged much more than they ever have because someone who doesn't know can know enough to be dangerous-...
• 6:06
  really quickly. And I f- I guess if we're really not careful, I mean, we're f- we're, the three of us goons on this call, like, we're super guilty of this. [laughs] Right?
• 6:14
  'Cause somebody tells us something, we're like, "Well, let's see about that, Mr. Attorney," right, you know?
• 6:19
  Um, I think if we're not careful about it, though, and we can't guide people in the right way, you can either offend them, right? Or you can appear defensive, or you can just waste a lot of time. Yeah.
• 6:31
  I do think it's interesting, this industry, and the more that I'm talking with dealers, there's a lot of really, really smart, innovative dealers. And it's fun to kind of bounce ideas off of each other.
• 6:43
  Um, we have our CAB, our client advisory board, and that's been a really nice kind of safe space to talk to a group of like-minded dealers, um, that are trying to push the boundaries a little bit.
• 6:54
  Um, so that, we just had one of our recent, um, kind of, um, discussions, um, and AI was a topic. Um, how are you using AI? Are, you know, are you using it in the dealership?
• 7:06
  Are you using it in your, in your personal life? Um, and we're trying to take the focus that it's less of... It's more than just a chat service, right? It's more than just a conversational service. Yeah.
• 7:17
  So how are we bringing that into the products that are actually gonna solve dealerships' problems at the end of the day? What do you think that next problem is? What do...
• 7:27
  Uh, 'cause everybody's, there's, like, if there's one.ai company, there's 83. Yeah. That's so true. Right? They just, like, they, like, they grow on trees. Like starting today. Right? Right. Starting today.
• 7:38
  Like, what do you think the next layer is? Because I think, you know, there's been some things around, like- Yeah... data models.
• 7:44
  There's been some things around, um, you know, like chatbots that, that have been kinda recreated within auto. There's, you know, the whole, like, service AI, like answering phone calls.
• 7:54
  Like, what do you think that next problem is that the industry's gonna discover? Or what are you all working on maybe that you think is, like, the next frontier of, "No, this is actually what AI is meant to do.
• 8:03
  It's, it's a deeper proposition than just kind of like this, the..." I'll call it simple. It's not perfectly simple- Yeah... chat, right? Um, where, where's it headed? I'm not great at predicting the future, right?
• 8:14
  But, um, I can tell you- [laughs] Come on. [laughs] They told us you were. Um, I, I can give you a little, you know, peek about what, how we're thinking about it, right? So anecdotally, we have a, a product called Cyrus.
• 8:27
  We came out with it about five years ago. It's a digital assistant. I don't know if you guys are familiar. Probably not, because it didn't make a splash in the market.
• 8:35
  It was all na- uh, natural language understanding, decision trees, no human backed. And at that point, dealers were like, "No, I still need my BDC to pick up the phone. I still need the manning chat." Like, no, no, no.
• 8:48
  Um, we are reimagining that because the appetite is different now with dealers. The market's different. Oh, for sure. Um, so you'll see that reinvented on the DealerOn website soon.
• 8:58
  Um, and we're also thinking it's- I can't wait... it's less than, or it's more than chat, right? It's how can we amplify our analytics platform? Um, how can we make data more digestible for dealers?
• 9:11
  Um, how can we help with vehicle merchandising? So those are kinda some of the use cases that, um, we're working on right now, um, that you'll see before the end of the year. [gasps] Okay, I got a question. Okay.
• 9:25
  Um, I've been, I've been working this whole time- He's been, he's been cooking this up...
• 9:27
  because I'm like, I'm like half-foot in the, the ballpark of like, I'm so excited about AI, and I feel like a mad scientist, and I'm vibe coding, and I'm doing things that my dev team didn't ever think I would talk to them about.
• 9:43
  And then I've got one s- foot in, on the side where I'm like, I might be six months away from wearing, like, a tweed blazer with, like, elbow patches- [laughs]... and talking about the dangers of AI. Okay.
• 9:55
  [laughs] Um, I, I wanna say- You already have that jacket, you know. I see it in my mind's eye, though. [laughs] And I'm gonna speak with a British accent. It's so clear. And so- And there's a pipe involved...
• 10:05
  my question is this. I, I think you and I did a panel, not at this last ASOTU CON, the one before. Mm-hmm.
• 10:12
  And we were talking about, I, I think, I don't think it was supposed to be the topic, but we ended up going down a security kind of- Yeah... compliance and security channel. We did.
• 10:24
  From your perspective, I mean, overseeing product and now AI and all of these things, w- what are your thoughts about the security aspect of this?
• 10:35
  In the vein of, like, we could be on the verge of AI writing its own code to create all sorts of security issues that we don't even know will exist yet. And, like- Mm-hmm...
• 10:45
  how, how do you get in front of that, or what, what are your thoughts about how you get in front of that? Yeah.
• 10:50
  So we have a team that we formed that's not only building some of our machine learning and AI tools, um, but also trying to set boundaries and guidelines for the rest of our development teams on how best to use it.
• 11:04
  So we're trying to understand what are the best models to use and partner with, and, you know, understanding and kind of writing guardrails for the rest of us.
• 11:12
  So, um, it is really important for DealerOn to understand the, the security of, um, introducing different models, uh, into our system. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 11:24
  W- what was the name of your old, your software again that you said, your AI back in the day? Oh, Cyrus. Cyrus. Yeah. I am so glad. See, I'm glad I asked, because I'm like, "Did she say it was called Virus?" Oh.
• 11:36
  [laughs] I'm like, "That is such a weird name for a-" [laughs] No. Cyrus. Cyrus. I think it was- Like Miley... named for Ali's dog. Miley Cyrus. At least, at least that's- Oh. No. [laughs] At least that's what I heard.
• 11:48
  [laughs] His fake dog, I don't know. I, I have to inject this. W- while I'm on the mic, I gotta inject this- Sure... 'cause it's one of my funniest, earliest experiences in automotive, and it has to do with DealerOn.
• 11:57
  Oh, gosh. Okay. [laughs] Uh, this was before, like- Oh, boy... this was before anybody even knew me or knew I existed. I was just a rando, bald-looking Franklin the Turtle guy from Canada that people thought was weird.
• 12:09
  Um-You guys hosted an after party at a, at a digital dealer in Tampa Story's getting better by the minute Those parties were wild, I heard You, you hosted a par- DealerOn hosted a party, and it was at, I wanna say it was at a club called Mangoes or something like this.
• 12:27
  [laughs] And it was, like, where they have the live band, and it's, like, you know, cool Latino style music, and there were dancers on the... And every- And then there's all the dealers, and it's an open bar.
• 12:38
  And I'm like- Cracking... got my Latin heritage, and I'm up there. I'm- Yeah. Oh, it sounds like... Yeah. Oh, you're dancing?
• 12:44
  I'm dancing up on the balcony 'cause I'm feeling the vibes, and the dealers are all drinking and having fun and this and that. And then one of the dancers are like, "All right, everybody.
• 12:53
  On the count of three, we're gonna jump," you know, and the music starts escalating. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. "Three, two, one." The music erupts. I'm like, "Da," and I'm the only one moving.
• 13:05
  And everyone's like- [laughs] Everyone's staring at the stage like that. [laughs] What? That's fun. That sounds like some dealers. Yeah. That sounds right. That's okay. Now, why am I telling you this?
• 13:14
  Because it makes me think- Why are you telling us this story, Michael? [laughs] It makes me think about the percentages of the industry, to your point, that are leaning in and getting involved and going, "Yeah."
• 13:29
  And then how many... There must've been 600 people in there. One of us, named Michael Cirillo, got in with the instructions and leaned in and was like, "Yeah, let's go."
• 13:39
  And then there were 599 other people just staring blankly into the abyss of, like, how to participate. So from DealerOn's perspective,
• 13:51
  with new and emerging technology, with all of the things you guys are developing, how do you encourage maybe the rural dealer who doesn't quite
• 14:01
  know what's going on out there that this is real, that you need to get involved, and that you need to participate, and that it's something that you should absolutely be paying attention to?
• 14:11
  Great story leading up to that question. [laughs] Um- Wow. I mean... That is a good question, though. I think just talking to dealers, right?
• 14:22
  And so not bringing it back to the cab again, but just getting a diverse group of mindsets as well and making sure that we can have a use case that fits every type of dealer, right?
• 14:32
  Um, you're going to have the dealers that are vibe coding themselves or understanding what vibe coding means, and others that are like, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
• 14:41
  But if you're able to say, "This will solve a problem for you," then I think they're more likely to adopt it.
• 14:49
  But, I mean, we are- How do you avoid- I think we are taking-- We're all taking risks here, but we don't want to feel like we're, you know, being left behind, getting run over by, by something new. There you go.
• 15:00
  Yeah, yeah. I, I, I wanna talk about something else new that I haven't actually got to talk to you.
• 15:05
  We didn't, we didn't even talk about this at ASOTU CON, and I didn't get to talk to you after I saw it announced at DMSC. Mm-hmm. But you guys have done a really cool thing in your backend.
• 15:16
  I think, like, a lot of times, and, and we're seeing more and more providers break the norm on this, in like, "Hey, we wanna be good partners to the other partners," right? Yeah.
• 15:26
  That it used to be like, form a moat around yourself and don't let anyone else in because they'll wreck your-- They'll, they'll wreck everything, right?
• 15:32
  But, like, we- we're starting to see more and more partners across the industry go, "No, no, no, no, no. We're great at partnering with these other people.
• 15:39
  It's not just, like, it's not just about building an integration. It's a- it's about partnering."
• 15:43
  You guys introduced something that, like, really gave access to dealers to increase their level of partnership and, and adoption of stuff.
• 15:50
  Can you talk a little bit about, like, the thesis around why you did what you did and what that was? Yeah, absolutely.
• 15:54
  So it's called On Marketplace in our app store, and this was actually something that, um, was, uh, pulled over from our, uh, Synchro acquisition, and we revamped it- Hmm... and we've, um, been enhancing it.
• 16:07
  Um, but yeah, just one of the many products, um, uh, that all of our collective dealer base can now take advantage of.
• 16:14
  Um, so it is a way for dealers to find approved vendors, um, and have that seamlessly be integrated onto their DealerOn website.
• 16:24
  Um, it also gives those vendors access to this system to do their own enabling, disabling, and adjustments of, um, of their own product on the DealerOn website. And, um, it just kind of- Hmm...
• 16:37
  just streamlines the process. It gives dealers, um, an understanding of different vendors in the marketplace that they might not know about.
• 16:46
  Um, so there's ways to search for digital shopping tools or chat products or service schedulers. Um, and so it's, it's really taken off.
• 16:54
  Um, and I actually just got out of a call with one of our partners today, kind of showing them how, um, how they can do all of this themselves, right?
• 17:02
  Now they don't have to call into our support team and have cases and queues and, and all that kind of stuff.
• 17:07
  So, um, yeah, and, and with that as well, uh, we're going to be releasing what we're calling a third-party scorecard.
• 17:14
  So kind of taking all of the information of all of those vendors and partners and GTMs that are on dealer sites, um, and giving- Oh...
• 17:22
  them the power to see how it impacts their site speed, how-- Just having an understanding, period, of what is on their site, because there's so many times that they might not be the ones who are putting it, you know, approving it or putting it on the site.
• 17:37
  And then six, eight months down the line, they're like, "Wait, we canceled this, but that GTM code's still on, on our site."
• 17:44
  So it's going to be super powerful, game changer for our internal teams to have better conversations, but also put, um, that visibility and, um, real impactful metrics right in front of the dealer.
• 17:57
  Which is so good- Great call. Yeah... because you pick up a website and you're like, "Oh, there's 18 GTM installs on here" [laughs]. Yeah. And they're all killing your web core vitals.
• 18:09
  [laughs] Exactly.So what do you think-- You have the purview into a lot of different places, a lot of different stores, a lot of different websites, a lot of different tech.
• 18:19
  If you were to say there is one kind of presiding question that dealers want answered or one thing that they're asking for, what is the one thing? If they could have one thing- Yeah...
• 18:31
  in the tech, yeah, what do they want most? Or what's the thing that bubbles to the top as well?
• 18:35
  Yeah, I'm not gonna talk tech too much 'cause to me, I think it's communication, and it goes back to vendor communication and making sure that all of their vendors are aligned and acting as partners for the dealership.
• 18:51
  So you're saying cross-vendor communication- Exactly... right? Like, everyone's working with one another that understands... I mean, gosh, how many conversations have we been in, guys, where it's like- Oh, yeah...
• 19:00
  that's the problem.
• 19:00
  Well, because, like, these, like, especially, like, a single rooftop, they're not hiring a 15-person marketing team that has deep tech understanding with five developers and da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da, right?
• 19:11
  They're leveraging these partnerships to be able to do that and try and get some of the si- similar, like, things that maybe I, I don't, I don't know, like, you point to, like, what, what a Tesla has, right, from, like, a consumer experience perspective.
• 19:27
  But doing it at the, at the dealership level, and that requires, like, leaning on and leveraging all these different tools and providers and services and, and softwares and all those type of things.
• 19:38
  And I agree, like, creating that communication pathway is, it's, it's hard, but it's super important. Yeah, I... From, from my point of view, that's really what I hear the most, right?
• 19:48
  How can we all be better partners together, be aligned with the dealership, big or small? Um, I know we're hearing it with a lot of our enterprise dealers, larger groups, but you know, we hear it across the board.
• 19:59
  And I really do think back to- Uh, y-... to our marketplace and, and app store, um, that will allow us to be better partners with some of these vendors too, right? We, we want you to, to join us.
• 20:10
  We want you to have visibility. We want to work together. All right. This is the part of the show where you get to give people one piece of advice. These are dealers. Uh, I'll, I'm gonna outline it.
• 20:22
  Dealers who are looking and trying to vet a vendor, what one question should they be asking? This could be any vendor. I know that's a, that's a big question to ask you on the spot, but I have confidence you can do it.
• 20:33
  Do you pick up the phone and, and call when I have a problem? Whoa, okay. You mean have an AI bot answer? That's a big deal. Actually, Paul, we were having, like, an internal conversation.
• 20:45
  We're like, that's important for human comne- ne- Yeah. Yeah. Human connection- Oh my gosh. Yeah... no matter what, right?
• 20:50
  It's like, when I have a problem, I just need you to pick up the phone and call, not, not send an email thread, anything like that. Text a Slack. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good one. That's a, that's a strong one.
• 20:59
  Well, Tina, it's always a pleasure hanging out with you. Thank you, guys. And I'm so glad we got to, like, run into each other a couple years ago at ASOTU Con for the first time.
• 21:07
  Feel like we've been friends since then and, and in panels and conversations and all that, and you're a challenging personality within our industry.
• 21:14
  So thank you again for joining us here on- Thank you so much for having me. See you guys soon. [upbeat music] Man, Tina's just a baller. You can tell she's just- Oh, yeah... in the scrum day in and day out.
• 21:28
  She's been on the beat at the industry events, and she's just someone who's just all ready to, like, ready to go. You know what I'm so bummed about, though? Yeah. I learned at one of the ASOTU Cons now.
• 21:38
  How many are we on? I can't remember. I learned- We're, we're about to have number five this year. We have to have a special celebration. Whoa. Five already. I learned that she's a, a classically trained dancer. What?
• 21:50
  Okay. Yeah, like ballet. No big deal. Like, you know all the things. I know how that goes. My wife was one. Yeah. You know the whole routine. Yes. You know, it's intense. So when you conne- Yeah.
• 21:58
  When you say, like, she's a baller, it's like, yeah, because, like, her upbringing and dance and all that kind of stuff, you gotta be- Discipline, intensity. Oh, yeah. Right? Precision. I mean, I was kind of bummed.
• 22:06
  All the things. But I, I, she...
• 22:08
  You know, we all have, like, different ventures and stuff like that, but, like, leading an organization with that many rooftops that it's involved in, like, using your tech and having to, like,
• 22:19
  work within the current scenario of software is so hard, right?
• 22:25
  'Cause, like, you have to care for all of these rooftops, but continue to be innovative at the same time and push the boundaries, like, at, at at least a similar looking pace to some of the big companies, uh, out there in the world.
• 22:37
  Like, leading product in that world is, it's a tough one. Yeah, it is. Well, I think she's up for the challenge.
• 22:42
  Listen, on behalf of Michael Cirillo, Kyle Montzer, myself, thank you as always for joining us on Auto Collabs.
• 22:49
  Sign up for our free and fun to read daily email for a free shot of relevant news in automotive, retail, media, and pop culture. You can get it now at asotu.com. That's A-S-O-T-U.com.
• 23:01
  If you love this podcast, please leave us a review and share it with a friend. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
• 23:10
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Auto Collabs. [laughs] Are we recording? Are we rolling yet? Not yet.