Client Command Unveils Full Data Activation Toolkit

Brian Pasch0:00Hi, this is Brian Pasch, and welcome to another exciting podcast interview. This is one of a number of interviews I'm having prior to NADA to help dealers get directed on how to invest their time, which vendors to see, and well, how they can fill gaps in their sales and service process. In order to do that, I've invited Baylor to do that. Megan Horton, she is the VP of product at Client Command. Megan, welcome to the show.

Megan Horton0:30Thank you, Brian. Thanks for having me again.

Brian Pasch0:30You know, you've been on this podcast before. You've been out to our conferences. It seemed over the last three years, the market has moved to you as one of the first automotive CDP platforms. So when you think of NADA, and we'll get into some details, Does it feel like you have more experience, more insights to show dealers about the ROI of a CDP than those who've just got into the game recently?

Megan Horton1:14Brian, absolutely. I think over the last several years, as you've seen this transition from whatever acronym of the business, whether CRM, DMS, everybody trying to get into this space, or a marketing automation platform, The CDP that Client Command has developed over the last several years, really before CDP was a term, and you and I've talked about this before, in our former life as a business, we created unified customer profiles for our own marketing activation that we were doing on behalf of our clients as a marketing agency for over a decade. And when the need for CDP came about, again, we were like, Oh my gosh, we've been doing this for our clients. So let's turn it back over to them. And so I think having had that experience for the several years before a lot of the other folks who've come about, I think it's been incredibly informative for us, for our clients, the feedback that we've been able to get. And I do.

Megan Horton2:12So I think there's a lot of things that other partners are bringing to the table that are still in somewhat infancy stages of what a CDP entails and some of the key components that have to exist. So I think there's a lot of things that we have and we're bringing even further into the industry that a lot of folks are looking to us of what should we be doing or what are the questions we should be asking as we're evaluating CDP vendors in the industry as many are starting to emerge and kind of get their either their feet wet in it, or have really put a stake in the ground that that's what they are and there's some opportunities, again, for further partnerships that can take place to help everybody, again, kind of elevate.

Brian Pasch2:55Well, one of the things that dealers are a little confused about is everyone's saying they're doing data hygiene. I love some of the new articles that Jonathan, the CEO of Client Command, has been putting out on LinkedIn, very bold that there should be a distance and a separation between a CRM and a CDP, and he brings out his reasons. But one of the things that Jonathan has brought out is that the CRM is a dirty mess, it's a quick note taker, it's an incorrect data collector, where the CDP, that UCP, has to be somewhat protected from being corrupted, it has to be updated. So let's talk about data hygiene for a minute.

Brian Pasch3:43You've been doing this for years, and so when dealers want to know, maybe what percentage of their data is dirty, and how often are you maintaining these records, how do you answer them, because unless dealers have gone on the other side of a data hygiene project, they really don't know how bad it is.

Megan Horton4:05Yeah, no, you bring up such a great point, and I do. I'm going to hit on, just because I have the opportunity to, on Jonathan's recent articles. They are very bold. I love them. I think it is a huge piece of the conversation today of, well, my CRM vendor says that they're starting to do this, or everybody's trying to be all in one, and I think my kind of perspective on it as we're talking through it is the CRM is excellent for in-the-moment action, right? It's when a sales opportunity or potentially someone who's submitted for a service appointment, which still lives kind of in its own little space, the CDP is everything on the 95% outside of that sales conversation.

Megan Horton4:47So it's the pre-lead, right? What's happening on somebody browsing your inventory, if they're in market, but hadn't yet been contacted, if you're using something predictive or using Client Command's Active Shopper Network, it identifies these, you know, intent shoppers or consumers based on whatever predictive that you're using. Again, the Active Shopper Network being native to Client Command, then you've got your active lead, which is, again, CRM territory, right? But the CDP should be continuing to enrich and capture all of that sales behavior that's taking place between the salesperson and the consumer and all the back and forth in the CRM. But it's the post-purchase lifecycle after either the lead is dead or their service reminders or loyalty that has to take place.

Megan Horton5:32So, again, keeping those two things separate and letting the CRM be that operational execution, engage with the consumer in the now, and then letting the CDP, again, really be that well-rounded long-term, both before and after the sales process. So, I'll add my kind of two cents on the topic there. But as you ask the question around what's happening from a hygiene and an enrichment perspective, you know, we have built natively into our platform, not only the unification, which is what you hear of. We unify all of your, you know, consumers into a UCP, a unified customer profile. That's only one piece of it. It's great that you've unified the multiple Megan Hortons, my maiden name, all the phone numbers that I have, the email addresses that I've created over the years.

Megan Horton6:21But when those things become outdated and irrelevant or wrong, you have to have that be appended and enriched to your records. And so often what I hear, and we get contacted so often around, hey, we have a CDP right now, but what I'm not getting is further hygiene. They're removing my duplicates, but all my contact, I'm getting bad email addresses. I'm getting, you know, these phone numbers that no longer belong to individuals. And we've built that as soon as we ingest data from our clients' first-party data, whether it's CRM, DMS, website calls, what have you, that those processes are running to make sure that we constantly have the most up-to-date information.

Megan Horton7:03So, again, that life cycle can take place for continuing to build a relationship and create a great experience.

Brian Pasch7:10And Megan, one of the things that's missing from a lot of the models that I'm seeing is dealers spend a lot of time and money on email. And when those emails bounce or are undeliverable, there is still the situation that after a hygiene process, the CRM or their mail delivery platform will refuse to email that because they think something is wrong. And for years, the CRM doesn't know this. No one knows it. And I think what I've talked with you about and Jonathan about is that not just change of address or, hey, I called the number and it was disconnected, but email delivery is a real big part of all communication.

Brian Pasch8:02And having that signal like, hey, we tried to email these, but the Client Command email platform recognize these as suspicious or, and to, you know, go through a process of getting alternative emails so that the dealer doesn't lose the customer. And I think, and I think this is where your years of experience with data hygiene separates you from someone who says, we just unify the data. There's something different in a, in a production experience capabilities resume is anybody could unify, but keeping it up to date year after year, that's not easy.

Megan Horton8:46So it's, it's, it's definitely not. And I think further to that, Brian, it's your activation of that email also has to be done through a reputable partner as well. Which I think is another key thing, especially when, you know, we're talking about CDPs, which is, is first-party Client Command CDP has a unique feature in that our active shopper conquest opportunities are available again, built in natively with our, our CDP platform. You don't want to just take an appended email address that you bought or it's been enriched and send it through a non-reputable partner. You can get caught in spam traps. You can get a bad domain reputation.

Megan Horton9:29So I always encourage when I'm talking with dealers to take that, you know, it feels like it's an extra step, but take that extra step to make sure that you can further engage with those consumers with whoever it is. Your, your partnership is, because it's not that the data is bad, right? It, we know that it's the most up-to-date information. It's, it's opted in contact information for Brian Pasch or Megan Horton, whoever the consumer is, but you have to think about the whole cycle. And that's why working with a partner who has those relationships as well is really, really key.

Brian Pasch10:00And Megan, just for people who are not aware of the Active Shopper Network and your CDP framework. So your CDP is bringing in daily data from DMS, CRM website. You have a pixel on the website. So the UCP, the shopper profiles being updated, but any dealer who's implemented a CDP using just deterministic identity resolution, they have to wait for someone to fill out a form on their website or click on a link on an email that's sent out in a specific way. This process of actually matching customers to a digital ID or their shopper ID is slow. And this is where the Active Shopper Network comes in for your clients.

Brian Pasch10:47Say it's a Ford dealer in a particular market. You know, all the people who are shopping for Fords in that market, you can add the active shopper audience to their marketing strategy, right? Because you can deploy direct mail for them or email for them or social media ads, all using the dealers plus the Active Shopper Network. How does that give your dealers a competitive edge? Because maybe dealers haven't tested the quality of the Active Shopper Network versus I bought a list from Polk or I bought a list from Experian or Equifax.

Megan Horton11:29Yeah, absolutely. So the Active Shopper Network, for those that don't know, is Client Command's patented data network that monitors the consumer behavior online across the entire internet. So not just what's happening on your first party website where you may be getting some identity resolution, but it's across all of the sites that are out there that a consumer can be browsing for inventory, safety ratings. They're really learning anything about a vehicle in their shopping journey. And so with the Active Shopper Network, there is a benefit to getting to the consumer first. We have seen it time and time again in engaging with the consumer as soon as they start their journey.

Megan Horton12:07So it doesn't have to be, you know, bottom funnel, top funnel, wherever the consumer is, you need to engage with them with what's important to them. And the Active Shopper Network's AI identifies what that consumer is shopping for right now, what's important to them, what are they comparing across brands, across models within a single brand to help deliver to our clients how you should engage with Brian, what he's looking for, what's most important. And within our CDP for your first party data, that's enabled natively to know who you should be engaging with. You know, you get a call from the OEM and they're saying this weekend only you need to push, you need to push this.

Megan Horton12:46And our platform can help you engage with your first party data of consumers who are looking for that particular model, or are they looking to defect to a competitive model? How do we keep them and aid in that retention? On the conquest side, within the platform, you can see anybody within your market or even out of your market if you're trying to go well beyond what may be desired and see, again, who is shopping for a car right now. It's all about the audience. Who is ready to buy today? Who's ready to buy in the next 60 days, 120 days? How do you get in front of them now and create that relevancy to where they know your brand and can engage with them, again, at the right time natively from your platform?

Brian Pasch13:31You know, I remember speaking with Jonathan Lucenay, your CEO, and he was saying, Brian, when we compare like a Google in-market shopper audience or a Meta in-market shopper audience or another vendor, And when we compare it against the Active Shopper Network, only 20% of that list is actively shopping. And always remember that dealers, if you've purchased other in-market shopper lists and have been disappointed, Or maybe even the conversion rates are the same as drawing a radius around your dealership. Well, this was an interesting test. Remember, list companies make money by selling quantity, not just quality. And so if you have a really good quality list, but it's small, they're going to backfill it.

Brian Pasch14:27I know that sounds like a harsh thing, but that's the list business. You know, how much can I dilute and still sell it and keep a customer? So, Megan, I think one of the things that dealers need to understand when they come to your booth is the performance lift in marketing. And I saw a recent case study where you partnered with Dealer eProcess that did Amazon advertising. Normal Amazon campaigns performed at X. And what was the lift in Amazon advertising conversions when they used the Active Shopper Network?

Megan Horton15:08So I wish, Brian, I had the exact number in my head right now. But what I can tell you is we did this comparison. I think it was like a 4X lift. If not more in some stores. We ran a test between 10 and 15 stores, and every single store had an increase in conversion compared to the Amazon list. Some were somewhere around one to two times. There were some that were four, some that were larger. So exactly what the average is. But that still speaks to it of every little incremental increase that you can have. And the other big piece in this is the audience sizes were also different because the active

Megan Horton15:47shopper network, because you know who's actively shopping, were smaller audiences because you're intentionally targeting and engaging with consumers who care about buying a vehicle right now versus this kind of generic geography play that so often when you go to these list companies, they're like, oh, yeah, there's 100,000 people. Well, 100,000 people are not shopping right now.

Brian Pasch16:09Right. I can guarantee that. That's just quantity to make more money. So when your CDP has the dealer's first party data unified and modeled, plus the Active Shopper Network, your platform also has marketing activation, right? And this is very important. So data hygiene, data unification, continual profile updating based on CRM, DMS, and website call activity. Now, I have these audiences and I want to market to these people. Some of the audiences are too small for Google and Facebook. So what are the options for marketing or communication that you can offer dealers direct through your platform?

Megan Horton16:59Yeah, absolutely. So we have several options for activation and actually at NADA, we're unveiling kind of a new feature set around our activation hub for both native as well as really vendor agnostic activation, which I think is another huge opportunity for dealers. So within our platform, there is email, direct mail, we have a BDC for when you need outreach to your first party customers as well as in the states where it's okay to do outbound phone calls to a conquest record, Meta, OTT, as well as these options to send your audience data via a secure method to an Amazon S3 bucket or a secure FTP.

Megan Horton17:46And where that really comes into play, Brian, which gets me excited, and I mentioned this kind of vendor agnostic approach, is that so often when a dealer is engaging with a new partner, it's kind of this all or nothing move, right? We all are trying to force everybody to use everything that we offer. And while my sales team is going to kill me in saying this, there are some vendors who've worked really well to develop these deep, cultivated relationships with dealers, and they want to continue to work with that partner. And I do, I respect that. We have a ton of clients that are also like that, that they want to continue to use us.

Megan Horton18:21But there's some unique elements around the Active Shopper Network that nobody else does have access to, but we want to be an audience provider for our dealer partners. And if they have a partner that they want to continue to deploy audiences through and activate audiences through, we can get that data to them.

Brian Pasch18:42Right, so it's really, you know, data as a service or audience as a service, right? So I want dealers to understand, if you have your own CDP, great, organize your first party data, activate. But here's what I do know. If you don't use an external identity graph, you're limiting the power of a CDP, the follow-up of a CDP. And so, Megan, people can come to you and purchase audiences for activation, regardless of what CDP platform or what marketing agency, right? So dealers who want one platform and you want, they want to have one vendor, that could be Client Command. If a dealer already has a CDP or a marketing agency, fine, just buy our audiences and let us coach you how to best activate them.

Brian Pasch19:34I think that's the best of both worlds, because today I know that dealers have too many cars sitting on their lot and they need another channel to communicate with active shoppers. And there's only one place for that, and that's the Active Shopper Network.

Megan Horton19:54Correct, correct. I think, you know, we've talked about this, this open vendor ecosystem, when we work together as vendors to better the community and the industry and help our dealers win and elevate, we all get elevated. And that's really where my approach is and what these next couple years look like, is how do we work together to make it easier, not make it so complex? Man, it is such a pain when you have to get multiple folks on the phone and figure out, okay, well, if the data starts here and then it gets passed here and then what happens along the way? How do we make it easier?

Brian Pasch20:29No, it's so smart, Megan, because look, you know, I've worked with the Morgan Auto Group. They have a big investment in Tealium. And that's not going to change anytime soon, but if they have stores that need to move inventory, they're not getting enough leads, they need a high-quality list that can be activated that's just targeting active shoppers. So it's not an all or nothing. It's really, where could you fit in? Hey, you want to use our audience builder tool? You want to use our activation hub? Or you want a full CDP and a managed service? Okay. So, Megan, which hall are you guys going to be in?

Brian Pasch21:15Are you in the north or south? Where are you this now?

Megan Horton21:17I know, right, right. We are in the west hall. I should know my booth number.

Brian Pasch21:22The west is the main. It's not important. It's just in a what hall.

Megan Horton21:27Yes, we are in the main hall. We are in the back sandwich between Toyota and Ford. So if you look for them, we'll also have our sign spinning, but you can't miss us right between those two.

Brian Pasch21:38That's easy. There will be a lot of Ford and Toyota dealers there. Megan, I'm super excited for Client Command because this year you have turnkey, full service, CDP, marketing activation. You have marketing activation as a service, and you have audiences as a service. I think that would align with every dealer that they're somewhere needing activation to help them sell more cars, organize their first-party data, or supplement their CDP in regards to the Active Shopper Network. Thanks so much for coming on the NADA pregame show. I'll be there. I'll be coming to your booth and seeing all the new things. I hope dealers will as well.

Brian Pasch22:25Megan, obviously clientcommand.com. If someone wanted to talk to you, what's your best email address?

Megan Horton22:33Yes, best email address for me is meganh at clientcommand.com.

Brian Pasch22:37Great. All right, everyone. Mark down on your to-do list, your agenda. Get over to see Client Command at NADA. Maybe you'll see me there as well. Megan, thanks for your time, and thanks for listening in. I hope to see many of our friends at NADA this year. Have a great day. Bye.