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AI and Dealership Staff: Finding the Right Balance
2027 Automotive CRM Research Report
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MRC · Modern Retailing Conference Next up
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Palm Beach, FL
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Scottsdale, AZ
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14
2026
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Palm Beach, FL
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Unlock the power of Customer Data Platforms to transform your dealership’s marketing, communication, and data management strategies.
Read our one-minute summary, or ask your AI what this book means for your dealership.
Automotive CDPs: A Planning Guide for Dealers is a comprehensive guide that combines a book and video series to help dealerships implement and optimize Customer Data Platforms. Learn how to unify, maintain, and activate first-party data for improved communication, reduced waste, and enhanced revenue opportunities.
Customer data sits in 20+ systems, and many estimates say 20% of DMS data goes out of date each year. The book makes the CDP the third core platform after the DMS and CRM.
Map each store's tech stack, rank use cases by ROI and time to launch, and start with 5 to 10 that can go live within 6 months. Larger groups should consider a formal RFP.
Run a global data hygiene project first. Then load DMS, CRM, ASC website events and phone calls, followed by iframe website tools and data partners.
Personalized marketing alone caps the return. Real-time use cases pay: under 40% of shoppers who start an online service scheduler finish, and a CDP can send the rest to a call center.
Why dealers need a CDP, spotting returning shoppers, and reviving dead leads.
Aging DMS data, blind trust in vendors, and the common reasons CDP projects fail.
Unified data, ongoing hygiene, data ups, real-time outreach and control of data access.
Less marketing waste, lower DMS fees, better retention, new revenue and higher valuations.
The project team, tech stack and GA4 audits, use case examples and how to rank them.
OEM CDPs, what to put in an RFP, and a five-section RFP outline.
Clean the DMS first, then load data in three steps on a set schedule.
SMS, email, call centers, Google, social, streaming and direct mail.
Activation and suppression audiences, size limits, MAPs, agencies and measurement.
Closing notes, the companion video series and a directory of vendors named in the book.
Short on time? Read the project roadmap chapter (p. 35) and the CDP partner selection chapter (p. 53). About 25 minutes.
The author, the format, and who it was written for.
Automotive CDPs: A Planning Guide for Dealers is an essential resource for dealerships looking to transform their data management and marketing strategies. Authored and narrated by Brian Pasch, this comprehensive guide includes a detailed book and an extensive video series, catering to various learning styles. It provides actionable insights to help dealerships overcome challenges with outdated or incomplete customer data, highlighting the power of first-party data to drive sales and service opportunities.
Through this resource, you’ll learn to assess your current technology stack, create an effective RFP, and select the right Customer Data Platform (CDP) partner. It also covers implementation planning, data hygiene, privacy-compliant data transfers, and leveraging CDPs for real-time alerts, tailored marketing campaigns, and measurable ROI. Designed to save time and money, the playbook draws from Brian’s extensive experience and dealer feedback to help you navigate the complexities of CDP integration. Whether you’re exploring CDPs for the first time or looking to optimize your existing setup, this guide is your roadmap to success.
Pick your seat to see what this book means for your job.
Quick answers about the book and who it's for.
It's a book by Brian Pasch, with a companion video series, that teaches dealers how to plan, choose, load and activate a Customer Data Platform (CDP). The full title is Automotive CDPs: A Planning Guide for Dealers. It runs 96 pages in ten sections, from why CDPs matter now to a directory of vendors named in the book.
A CDP unifies, cleans and activates customer data that the DMS and CRM can't. Customer data sits in 20+ systems, and many estimates say 20% of DMS data goes out of date each year. The Automotive CDP Planning Guide makes the CDP the third core platform after the DMS and CRM.
In a 10+ year-old dealer's DMS, 40% of vehicle transactions are likely no longer owned by the customer on file, according to the Automotive CDP Planning Guide. The book says to clean DMS data before it enters a CDP, and that DMS data hygiene can lift Google and Meta match rates by 25-35%.
Through ranked use cases and, for larger groups, a formal RFP. Map each store's tech stack, rank use cases by ROI and time to launch, and start with 5 to 10 that can go live within 6 months. The Automotive CDP Planning Guide includes a five-section RFP outline and a checklist of what to tell bidders.
Clean the DMS data first. Then load DMS, CRM, ASC website events and phone calls, followed by iframe website tools and data partners. The Automotive CDP Planning Guide lays this out as a three-step data ingestion plan with a data ingestion schedule table.
Real-time use cases. The Automotive CDP Planning Guide says personalized marketing alone caps the return. For example, under 40% of shoppers who start an online service scheduler finish, and a CDP can send the rest to a call center. The book also says that with a CDP, 2-3x more data ups than lead form submissions per month are possible.
The Automotive CDP Planning Guide names five: less marketing waste, lower DMS fees, better retention, new revenue and higher valuations. Its financial benefits chapter explains each, and its project roadmap chapter shows how to rank use cases by ROI and time to launch.
Yes, though it's mainly a planning guide for dealers choosing and launching one. Stores that already run a CDP can use its chapters on data hygiene, loading data, activation channels and measurement to review their setup.
Brian Pasch wrote and narrates it. The book draws on his experience helping dealers, including enterprise dealer groups, implement CDPs, plus comments from CDP leaders at Client Command, Fullpath, fullthrottle.ai, Activator.ai and Tealium.
The printed book and companion video series are $75, plus shipping and taxes, and the printed book includes access to the video series. It's a paid book rather than a free download. Order it with the Buy the guide button on this page.
Unlock the power of Customer Data Platforms to transform your dealership’s marketing, communication, and data management strategies.
Unlock the power of Customer Data Platforms to transform your dealership’s marketing, communication, and data management strategies.
The 2027 Automotive CRM Research Report examines how AI, CDPs, cloud data warehouses and evolving CRM platforms are reshaping who controls dealership data and customer communications, and the new standards dealers should demand as CRMs expand into service, F&I, lifecycle marketing, compliance and AI-agent governance.
This investigative report reveals how many third-party scripts collect customer data on dealer websites, often without the dealer's knowledge, and gives you an inspection checklist to audit, optimize and secure your digital properties.
Based on interviews with dealership leaders using AI in sales and service, this report shows how the strongest stores split work between AI and people, manage the handoff, bring staff along and measure what AI actually adds.
In collaboration with Impel