AutoPilot: Record-Breaking ROI Without Staff Intervention

Brian Pasch0:09Hi, this is Brian Pasch and welcome to another exciting podcast interview today. We're going to be talking about breakthroughs as dealers are waking up to the power of first-party data management, third-party audience and real-time retailing where we can activate messages without manually initial intervention to people who are starting their personal intervention to people who are starting their service journey or their sales journey off the dealer's website. To get the details of this, I've invited Jonathan Lucenay. He's the CEO and founder of Client Command. Jonathan, welcome to the show.

Jonathan Lucenay0:46Thanks, Brian. Happy to be with you and your listeners.

Brian Pasch0:49So, let's jump in. I saw you in New Orleans at NADA and you had a very bold statement. I loved it. Right at the top of your booth, people were coming up and asking questions about the statement. What was written on your booth that got so many people's attention, even OEM program managers?

Jonathan Lucenay1:16We have the best shopper data at NADA. In fact, I would just say for the purpose, we're not at NADA anymore. We have the best shopper data in the industry.

Brian Pasch1:27Amen. Amen. Well, I love the boldness. And of course, we're going to talk about the actual breakthrough testing of this claim. Although you've been in business for many years, Jonathan, how many years has Client Command been in existence?

Jonathan Lucenay1:47I founded the company in 1999. So, 26 years.

Brian Pasch1:5126 years ago. And as you started to work with building your own identity graph for people who are shopping, and then you received your patent for something called the Active Shopper Network, and more recently, the Active Service Shopping Behaviors. You were way ahead of your time. What were dealers saying to you when you told them, hey, I know when your customers are out shopping on the internet off your website?

Jonathan Lucenay2:20We launched the Active Shopper Network and got our patent in 2018. Dealers like, you can do what? And they wanted to get into deep technical conversations, trying to understand how in the world you actually did this. Now, the industry's progressed quite a bit and people understand a bit about identity resolution. Still a little bit of a mystery to people. Technically, how we get data from consumers that aren't on the dealer's website. It's 100% privacy compliant, consent-driven, and we are able to get that across the entire internet. So, it gives you, as a dealer, the ability to go ahead and get, I think this is where you're going, third-party data to know, hey, I've got shoppers that are shopping on TrueCar or Autotrader or CarGurus or somewhere, some third-party marketplace.

Jonathan Lucenay3:17It also gives you the ability to know, I've got customers that are defecting.

Brian Pasch3:22That's the juicy part for me. Dealers have no idea why people defect. And in fact, recently, I've been doing some testing with Urban Science RDR data, which shows, you know, post-defection data. And you know what's so amazing? Because Glenn is doing a lot of coaching with dealers on defection. And when I say defection in the Urban Science world, this is a lead that was in the CRM, right? Whether it was a customer or not, the dealer had a shot, and why did they lose it? Now, you and I talk about defection is like, hey, your customer is out shopping. They may not even send a lead into your CRM, which is really the more powerful argument.

Brian Pasch4:12If somebody who's in your DMS for sales or service, if they're out shopping for service or sales, the dealer can be alerted. And this is the power, right, of the Active Shopper Network. Now expanded for sales and service gives dealer a competitive edge. It really removes the blind spot.

Jonathan Lucenay4:34Absolutely. So, crazy stat blew our minds when we ran the stat. When we launched our Adaptive Journeys product at NADA, one of the things we put in the Adaptive Journeys product is a chart that shows of your customer base, how many are shopping and how many of those are on your website. 94.2% of the customers in the average dealer's database that are out shopping for a car are not shopping on the dealer's website, haven't been there.

Brian Pasch5:10Yep. And I'm just going to tell you, my shopping journey that resonates with me, here's the reason why. I keep my cars for a relatively long time.

Jonathan Lucenay5:21Okay.

Brian Pasch5:22So, I have a Honda Pilot from 2019 that still has 33,000 miles on it. And that's here in Florida. And I needed to kind of swap out my Corvette for something more of an SUV practical. And I was like, you know, I already have a Honda Pilot. It's young. I probably don't need another Honda. And ended up getting a Cadillac XT6. I never went to Braman Honda's website. But if they knew I was out shopping for an SUV, they surely could have reached because I had a great experience with them. And they could have said, hey, you know, with, you know, do you want to trade in your Honda or hey, do you want to look at something else?

Brian Pasch6:19Because I'm fine with the Honda brand. It's just that's not what I was thinking of. I could have been convinced to buy another Honda. This is the power, right, of the Active Shopper Network. So, let's talk about two strategies. Let's you mentioned a new product. Well, actually, there was two new products that you announced. But what when you say the Adaptive Journeys product, how are you using the Active Shopper Network to solve immediate problems for dealers with with this active journey? Tell me what that is.

Jonathan Lucenay6:55So, one of the things you've talked a lot about over the last few years, Brian, is the CDP, the customer data platform and a dealer's need or dealer groups need to unify all their first party data, transit hygiene action on it. That's a little bit too big of an investment for some dealers and time horizon on it may be a little longer than some dealers want to experience. So, we took a piece of our CDP, the Adaptive Journeys portion of our CDP, and we infused it with Active Shopper Network data, which tells you when a consumer shopping for sales or service anywhere on the Internet, and allows you then to send them a personalized one to one message.

Jonathan Lucenay7:43If it's appropriate, if it's appropriate, a vehicle that is either exactly the same or similar to the one that they're shopping with a payment, an offer specifically from you. And what we've seen is by setting that up and then based on their reaction to that, it sends them on a different journey to continue to communicate with the customer until they actually show up at the dealership. And what we've seen is when you get to a customer, as soon as they start shopping, and you start feeding them in a journey fashion, the data they need, your gross profit is going to be 36% higher than if you don't.

Jonathan Lucenay8:27So, we pulled that out, made it simple dealer can say hey I want, I want to participate in the Adaptive Journeys piece of a CDP and only buy that, and they can immediately start talking to every one of their customers that shopping for a car. And of course with the Active Shopper Network you can say hey hey I don't want just my customers, I want to know when my competitors customers are shopping for a car too, and that's also an option.

Brian Pasch9:01So Adaptive Journeys allows dealers to immediately plug in their existing clients in the DMS, send them dynamic messages for sales or service to decrease defection, increase that lifetime value of each customer. So again, the same type of logic could be that a dealer could say hey anybody, say they're a Honda dealer, anybody also who's shopping for a Honda right now I want to present a sales message or looking for Honda service, a service message. Did I get that right?

Jonathan Lucenay9:35Yeah, that's exactly right Brian. And so they're able to do that right now, if they've got pretty good ad tech, they can do that with the customers that hit their websites that's about 5% of the people in their database that are shopping, are hitting their website, the other 95% 94.2 to be exact, is out there shopping, this gives them the edge to be able to say, I'm going to talk to them and I'm going to talk to them immediately.

Brian Pasch10:02Love it, love it. Okay, Adaptive Journeys solves two immediate problems for dealers, they don't need to invest in a CDP effectively leveraging your CDP and your tech stack to deliver those marketing messages. Now, you took this concept one step further. And this was a partnership with two other tech companies that I know very well. The results were amazing. And you're going to productize this and it's available now for dealers. Let's talk about this partnership. Let's build on the conversation. What can you do when you combine three tech companies yourself and two others to create unexpected results? Walk me through what you tested.

Jonathan Lucenay10:56Yeah. So at DMSC last year, Rich Sands from STELLA AI and Dan Moore from Dealer Funnel. And I started talking about what if you combined the Active Shopper Network with Dealer Funnel's text chat platform, an automated AI driven texting engine, and STELLA's appointment scheduling ability through the STELLA AI. And so we combined the products to create a product that's completely seamless that allows literally the dealer hits go and the next time they have to do anything is when the customer shows up to either get a car fixed or to buy a car. And the way it works is the Active Shopper Network identifies consumers inside and outside the database and 85% of the people that respond are outside the database.

Brian Pasch11:56Makes sense.

Jonathan Lucenay11:57And it says, okay, I got an offer for service. If you've got certain customer shopping for service, we're going to send them an offer. And if you've got customers that are shopping for vehicles, we're going to send them a competitive offer. And then we're going to drive them to a chat with Dealer Funnel's text chat or STELLA AI. And the AI is going to take care of scheduling the appointment. And it works, Brian. It's seamless.

Brian Pasch12:28So STELLA allows someone to call in, right? And book a test drive or a service appointment. Dealer Funnel is the one is really messaging through their tech stack and keeping the conversation going. And then giving the consumer the ability to schedule the test drive or service via texting or just call this number and book it over the phone.

Jonathan Lucenay12:57There's also an email component to it that's driven by Client Command. And if the consumer has not given permission for us to text with them, then rather than text, we'll email back and forth.

Brian Pasch13:10So effectively, what you're saying is to the dealers listening. Hey, we believe in the Active Shopper Network. We believe the Active Shopper Network is accurate in identifying consumers who are out shopping for service or cars. Don't trust our claims that we have the best data in the business. Sign up for this tech stack. And we're going to load up your customers. And we're going to identify those who are yours. And we're going to reach out to them if they're shopping, only if they're shopping. And we're going to add the other people who you don't know about that are out shopping. And we're just going to use the tech stack to generate appointments.

Brian Pasch14:00And let the data speak for itself. That means that staffing isn't changed. Hours of operations are not changing. Training, you don't need any training. So what happened? Because you and I were talking about a dealer that turned this on that really confirmed what you, Dan, and Rich Sands from STELLA had in mind. What were the results?

Jonathan Lucenay14:27We weren't exactly sure what the results would be when we started. We had a hypothesis that they would be strong. And this particular dealer said, if I can get five sales and 15 ROs, that's going to be a win.

Brian Pasch14:42Yeah, I mean, of course, right? If they're, you know, front and back end grosses, $2,500, $3,000, $5,000, $15,000 in gross, plus, you know, maybe a few other grand in RO profit.

Jonathan Lucenay14:59Okay. Month one, they got 32 sales, 198 ROs.

Brian Pasch15:06198 ROs. And of those ROs, how many ROs were existing customers and how many were net, like, say, new conquest?

Jonathan Lucenay15:17So I may get these two numbers backwards, Brian. I did not look at them right before this podcast. So 88% in either sales or service were conquest and 83% in the other. So let's just say in the middle of the road.

Brian Pasch15:32Yeah, 80%. So not only did the program work, it really generated the opportunity for dealers to expand their customer base, which means more people in service drive down the road, right? The stats show, right, that consumers who service their car to dealership are more inclined to purchase their next car from the dealership, especially if they have an active service to sales, you know, processing, greeting people.

Jonathan Lucenay16:04Yeah, 100%.

Brian Pasch16:05So talk about this for a minute. What are you calling this product, this partnership between STELLA, Dealer Funnel, and Client Command?

Jonathan Lucenay16:15We call it AutoPilot because literally it's putting your sales and service on AutoPilot with Client Command, Dealer Funnel, and STELLA AI. It makes sense if you think about it, just respond to the consumer's market signals and make it easy for your people to do what they do best, which is sell cars and fix cars.

Brian Pasch16:37Love it, love it. Well, this conversation should be getting dealers excited. We've talked about audience quality before. I want to make a little analogy, I think, from a previous conversation that we had. Just because someone says they have an audience of shoppers, you know, Jonathan has the patent on the Active Shopper Network, but sometimes people say in market shoppers or active shoppers, not, you know, trying to infringe on a trademark. But for years, dealers have been buying Google's in-market shopper list and Meta's in-market shopper list, and they've been spending literally thousands of dollars putting their message in front of these people. And dealers know that those audiences are not rock star audiences.

Brian Pasch17:38It's just standard operating procedure because it's told to us that it's better than drawing a radius around the dealership and advertising to everyone. But Jonathan, you took a recommended audience from Google and a recommended audience from Facebook and ran it against the Active Shopper Network. And how did they score? Because I think there's certain blind trust in automotive marketing. So when you put their Google's and Facebook's in-market shopper list, or let's just pick somebody else, S&P Global in-market shopper list, Experian in-market shopper list, Acxiom in-market shopper list, and you match it up against the Active Shopper Network. What did you find?

Jonathan Lucenay18:27You can add Amazon to that list too. The best ones scored 20% of the people that were on their list or in their audience were actually shopping for Google. The very best ones. They were as low as 3%, as high as 20%. And if you think about it, those are great companies. They do great business. Their business model, though, is that they sell impressions and volume matters. And so the ability to infuse or grow the audience size, they're financially incentivized to do that.

Brian Pasch19:11Yeah. And, you know, I had a revelation at NADA. I shared it with you, but it didn't hit me. It takes sometimes kind of unpacking or peeling back the onion. So for the dealers, I want you to lean in just for a moment. When you use the Active Shopper Network dashboard, you could say how many people right now are shopping for, I'm just saying, BMWs in my market. And since the Active Shopper Network is really a standard of truth, it may say to you, there's 1,200 people right now in your PMA. It may be 1,200. Do you understand that if Facebook or Google knew that they wouldn't be able to run their own algorithm because they've set these standards that, well, the audience is too small and we didn't even think about it.

Brian Pasch20:07And if that's the case and they're going to sell you an active shopper in market shoppers at BMW, you know, based on their own rules, they're going to have to throw in lookalikes and near matches and estimates just to get the list large enough. When you see it, you can't unsee it. But with the Active Shopper Network, you can deploy, listen now, who cares if it's 1,300 people? That's 1,300 people are actively shopping. So what does Client Command allow you to do? Email those people, partnerships with Dealer Funnel, text message with those dealers, direct mail, excuse me, not those customers, direct mail those customers. Wouldn't you rather spend money focusing on the 1,300 that are really actively shopping via text, email, direct mail?

Brian Pasch21:02And if they're your customers calling them, then paying for 5,000 people in a modeled audience where only 20% are really shopping. When you see it, you can't unsee it, Jonathan. I think that's where we have to elevate the awareness that micro audiences with the right activation with AutoPilot shows that who cares how big the audience is if they're high quality. You just need a framework to communicate with them. Am I summarizing that right?

Jonathan Lucenay21:35You're spot on. And what dealers, dealer groups and OEMs are going to face in this is as they want to get more one-to-one and micro audiences, it has huge benefits for them financially, obviously. But it has the opposite financial implications to an agency that is scared, oh my goodness, I'm going to lose 80% or more of my ad dollars. And that doesn't have to be true. And the dealer, of course, could choose to save 80% of their ad dollars, or they could choose to redeploy a portion of those ad dollars and make a bigger impact with the same dollars by talking to people that are already shopping.

Jonathan Lucenay22:20And that's really the choice that's there, but they have to press into it. They don't have to use Client Command for deployment. They could take that audience and they could use that audience with their OTT, Amazon, their own agency.

Brian Pasch22:34Right. I mean, we know, right, that, let's just say, in AutoPilot, for example, Client Command can do the email, Dealer Funnel would do the texting with AI, STELLA's doing the inbound phone calls. But you could take that same audience and push it over to Spectrum Reach.

Jonathan Lucenay22:55Yeah.

Brian Pasch22:56And deliver video advertising to those same households. Obviously, I mentioned direct mail. So you're right. It means that they can be more tactical with their ad dollars instead of spraying and praying. When dealers realize that there are not that many people this moment shopping that would qualify for all of these outrageous large numbers in Google and Facebook's world. And knowing that they have to use modeled audience or just throwing in people with a hope and prayer. Then maybe, maybe dealers will start to understand the power of audiences managing your customer data and conquest through a platform like Client Command. Jonathan, I'm really fascinated about AutoPilot because it puts your money where your mouth is.

Brian Pasch23:52You're saying we have the best data in automotive and you're saying, look, I don't even have to disrupt anything that's going on in your business. Just give me a chance to win using our tech stack. Is this product just sold through you? Tell me how a dealer says, I want AutoPilot. I have a tough market. I need to increase my service revenue. I need more car sales. I love the fact that I can trust you with some ad dollars to generate results. How do they go about getting this set up for their store?

Jonathan Lucenay24:29clientcommand.com. Obviously, you could submit a request to have a demo LinkedIn direct message me reach out to STELLA or Dealer Funnel. All three companies will be happy to explain the product to you set set it up for you and enable it for you. You've been asking me for years, Brian, about an open ecosystem. So shouldn't we partner together as tech companies to make this place better, this industry better for our dealers and our OEMs? And we're trying to take steps to do that. So we certainly appreciate the support of the industry in doing that.

Brian Pasch25:08Well, you know, the other thing that just kind of cracks my brain open a little bit, AutoPilot at a regional level.

Jonathan Lucenay25:17Right.

Brian Pasch25:19Reaching out to people in market shoppers, knowing where they live.

Jonathan Lucenay25:23Right.

Brian Pasch25:24Because, you know, where they live, directing them to the nearest store. This could even be a tier two play.

Jonathan Lucenay25:29Yes.

Brian Pasch25:30Right. For sales and service could be a national opportunity for OEMs. I love the fact that it's completely automated. So an OEM could invest in a in a region.

Jonathan Lucenay25:42Right.

Brian Pasch25:43That's struggling. And just put AutoPilot to work because your identity graph knows where they live. So we just, you know, like no favoritism, just move it towards the closest dealer or give them a choice of two dealers, especially if they have an existing relationship. I love the potential of this. Jonathan, in just a few weeks, end of April, we have the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference. This is exactly why we have DMSC bringing new digital marketing strategies to dealers. We're having it this year in Scottsdale at the beautiful Westin Kierland. I'm really excited. I think this product is going to go over well with the dealers.

Brian Pasch26:30What's your projections of the uptake of AutoPilot at the conference?

Jonathan Lucenay26:36We think just about every dealer will leave with AutoPilot. There's no reason that dealers wouldn't turn this on and plug it in. Price is right. The product works. The only, I guess, reason would be, hey, I'm selling all the cars I need to, and my service bays are full.

Brian Pasch26:55Okay. Not too many dealers are singing that song lately, but I think this is amazing. John, thanks so much for supporting dealer education. Thank you for coming out to DMSC once again with your team to educate dealers about what's possible through third-party audiences, smart data activation, and partnerships, like you mentioned, bringing the best of breed tech together to provide unprecedented results for dealers' marketing dollars. Dealers, listen, if you are looking for breakthrough technology strategies and, well, frameworks to move the needle this year for 2025, get your team registered for the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference. You just go to digitalmarketingstrategies.org, get your tickets, book your hotel.

Brian Pasch27:45Weather in Arizona, April is beautiful. The show is jam-packed. It's Sunday, Monday, half-day Tuesday. And then to kind of take a break, Tuesday afternoon, we have a pickleball tournament and a golf tournament just to blow off some steam and celebrate the wins of new partnerships, new friendships, new tools to help your dealership thrive. So go to digitalmarketingstrategies.org and get that booked. And, Jonathan, clientcommand.com, right? That's where they need to go to get some more information.

Jonathan Lucenay28:17clientcommand.com. Their dealership signed up either for the active journeys or for AutoPilot. That's it.

Brian Pasch28:24Right. Well, Jonathan, thanks for your time, for the dealers and industry folks listening, and thanks for your time. And you should know that there's many great interviews with technology leaders, disruptors and people coming together to bring our industry together to do more with our precious first-party data and enhancements from third-party data in the framework of CDPs or just audience activation. So listen to all the interviews on my channel. Just search for the Brian Pasch podcast. Thanks for listening in today. I'm excited for the future of automotive marketing, especially ones that are driven by smarter data investments and technology that drives more people into the sales showroom and the service drive to some more cars in a digital age.

Brian Pasch29:10Thanks for listening in.