July 3, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, my guest is Colin Carrasquillo, Digital Marketing Manager at Nielsen Auto Group.
We’re diving into some of the real challenges and solutions that most dealers are thinking about but rarely talk about out loud.
We talk about what it actually looks like to get your vendor partners working together instead of pulling in different directions. Colin shares how he’s doing this at scale across 14 rooftops and why it’s changing the game for their group.
We also get into why most dealers are still chasing the wrong SEO strategy in 2025 and what really matters now if you want to show up where your customers are actually searching.
You’ll learn:
- A practical way to hold your vendors accountable (without blowing up the relationship)
- Why internal communication might be the thing holding your dealership back
- How thinking beyond low-funnel keywords will give you a serious edge in your market
- Why building better human connections inside your store leads to better marketing outside of it
This conversation is packed with useful ideas you can take back to your store, and it’ll definitely make you rethink how you approach your partnerships and marketing.
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This Episode's Sponsor
FlexDealer Need Better Quality Leads? FLX helps car dealers generate better quality leads through localized organic search and highly-targeted digital ads that convert. Not only that, they work tirelessly to ensure car dealers integrate marketing and operations for a robust and functional growth strategy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer hey auto
industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
Sitting down with my new pal,colin Carasquillo I hope I said
(00:24):
it right, man.
Everybody that listens knows,knows.
My biggest pet peeve is when Iget somebody's name wrong.
How did I do?
Colin (00:33):
You did great and I will say listen, growing up I was
subjected to colon.
I was subjected to Pasquale,which is nowhere close to
Carasquillo, but I've learned todeal with it over the years and
now, at 32 years of age, youcould have called me John Smith
and I would have said, hey,how's it going?
MC (00:54):
That's funny man.
It's kind of the same way withme.
My last name is Cirillo andpeople will be like how do you
say it?
Turd burglar?
And I'm like yeah, that's close,I've been told how do you say
it, Turd burglar, and I'm like,yeah, that's close.
You know not everything.
I'm excited to get into this.
We're going to be talking allabout.
You know your role as digitalmarketing manager at Nielsen
(01:14):
Auto Group out there in NewJersey.
We're going to talk about howyou got a show on CBT We've got
to hear about that and also someof the clever stuff you guys
are doing with AI and with SEOand Gooba Goo.
I know who's a partner of yours.
We're going to talk all aboutit and I want those listening or
watching to understand we'regoing to get to some really
tangible stuff.
So make sure that you'rewatching through to the end.
But, dude, thanks for joiningme on the podcast.
Colin (01:36):
Thank you, it's my pleasure I've.
You know, listen, I've been afan from afar.
I've been watching everythingthat you guys have been doing,
you know, with your outfit andeverything going on, and you
know it's funny.
We were just catching up beforethe show.
He said he'd been doing thisfor 11 years and my reaction was
wow, it's so surprising thatit's been that long, because I
(01:58):
feel like you guys have reallyjust come on, you know, to the
space.
But that's because you're young, you're hip, there's so much
energy around it and it alwaysseems fresh and new.
So when you said 11 years, Isaid there's no way like that's
not possible, but long overdue.
So thank you so much for havingme on, because we can say I
guess it's been 11 years in themaking, but really honored to be
(02:18):
here speaking with you.
MC (02:19):
He's coming on buttering me up.
We're hip, we're young.
Let's ask my 16 year old son ifhe thinks any of those things.
He'd be like dad you're old,there's gray hair in your beard.
Colin (02:31):
He'd probably be a little jaded.
So you know, don't ask him that, but definitely ask the other
folks in the vertical.
You know the industry that Ithink they'd all say the same.
MC (02:40):
So it's great, it is what it is.
It it is what it is.
It's like we're young in ourown minds, you know.
I mean I still feel 17 in a lotof ways.
Colin (02:47):
I had.
You know, not recently, but Iguess once, once I entered my
30s, people asked me at onepoint, like how old I was, and I
forgot.
And now so this is going backto the 20s.
Excuse me, but I think I was 24or 25.
And they said how old are you?
And without a like a thought, Isaid, oh, I'm 21.
And 25.
And they said, how old are you?
And without a thought, I said,oh, I'm 21.
(03:07):
And I thought to myself, whywould I even pick that age?
So I agree with you.
I think you're honestly, andeven my mother, who's in her
seventies, same thing.
She still says she feels likeshe's a young lady in her
thirties.
I think it's just about doingstuff like this that keeps you
young.
It's exciting, it's fun, fun,it's always new.
MC (03:24):
So, yeah, yeah, I was thinking about this.
You know it probably issomething here, maybe there's a
thread here.
But we're kind of the firstgeneration that had technology
prominence, you know what I mean.
Like if I look at my parentswho are in their seventies as
well, right, boomers, they, youknow the computer came in and
(03:48):
everyone had a householdcomputer, but it kind of stopped
there.
You know cell phones, of course, my, my dad, you know I'll
remember he, he came home with acell phone.
That was like, yeah, right.
Colin (03:59):
Hold on son.
MC (03:59):
Let me talk to you Check out my new phone case and it was
like a briefcase that had thelocks on them Right.
But then you look at us, it'slike, okay, I remember having a
pager or friends that had pagers.
But then right after highschool it was like I had a cell
phone and it was a nice littlecell phone and I remember having
(04:20):
that.
And it's been a constant uphillfrom there to the point where,
you know, I show my parents chatgpt and I'm talking to it,
right, and my dad speaks italian, my mom speak portuguese, I'm
speaking to gpt in english andthey're blown away at how
quickly it's responding.
And I said, mom, ask it to sayall of that in portuguese now.
(04:42):
And she and in Portuguese andshe went into port and all of a
sudden it's responding and, bro,I'm watching the ghost leave
their bodies and they couldn'tbelieve it.
But for guys like you and I, I'mlike, how can I lean in?
How can I use this thing more?
Because we get to be that firstgeneration where it's like it's
(05:03):
the norm, so maybe that keepsus young.
I don't know.
But it does lead into what Iwant to talk to you about.
I mean, obviously, from yourvantage point as a digital
marketing director for an autogroup, you are privy, I think,
to a landscape and a thoughtprocess that not a lot of people
are, because you're not onlyseeing all of the moving pieces
(05:24):
of an operation, but you're theone, you're the pivot point of
how that all connects together,how marketing isn't just doing
SEO and hoping things are okay.
It's not just having a website,it's not just about having chat
tools or digital retail tools.
You get to say, well, I got tobring all these things together.
(05:47):
So, in a 2025 world, what isthe kind of the highest priority
thing you're looking at from amarketing and operations
perspective to bring this groupforward?
Colin (06:00):
Yeah, that's a really great question and there's so
many answers, but, you know, Ithink I might give you one that
will surprise you, and maybe onethat won't.
But, holistically, right,Because that's what it is.
It's looking at it from all ofthese different angles or
vantage points or lenses,whatever you want to call them,
and ultimately, for me, it'sactually looking at
profitability, right.
(06:21):
So hold on here, though,because profitability of the
automotive group right, made up,in this case, the Nielsen
Automotive Group, 14 rooftops,you know, 12 represented brands.
Each dealership has its ownfinancial statement.
Each dealership needs to beprofitable and in cases that
they're not, we need to mitigatethe opportunity for losses or
(06:43):
mitigate loss, and so, marketing.
My philosophy right now, reallyand it was the tail end of 2024,
into 2025, was getting moreinvolved in the operation side
of things, to better understandevery single facet of how to
(07:03):
successfully operate and run adealership and see how the
marketing plays into that,Because, in reality, the
marketing, althoughexceptionally important, is just
one minute piece of thismassive puzzle, and the thing is
it's also even though let'scall it minute and I take a lot
of pride in my marketing it'sone of the things that, if it's
(07:25):
not dialed correctly right, oryou're missing that piece of
this massive puzzle I'm talkingabout.
You'll never complete thepuzzle, right, so I'm looking at
it.
Oh, thank you, I'm looking atit from profitability.
So I want my dealership to bemore profitable than we were
last year, to be more profitablethan we were last year, than we
(07:46):
were in the previous year, andnow you have some blip years in
there.
I mean, my God, there wereyears where I think you know our
owners were making more moneythan God, and God bless them,
you know.
But the fact the matter is, howdo we continue to position
ourselves, maneuver ourselves tobe in that spot, right?
Because if we're profitable, itusually means things are going
(08:08):
well.
And it usually means things aregoing well from a sales
perspective, the fixed opsperspective, from the marketing
perspective, the opportunitiesthat are being generated.
So that's it.
To come full circle.
It's really I've startedlooking at things from that top
down holistic.
It's about profitability.
What does that look like?
Right?
And then how that factors in toeverything that we do from a
(08:30):
marketing perspective, from afollow-up perspective, you know,
investments that we make, so onand so forth.
So I hope that answers yourquestion.
You know it's a uniqueperspective, I would think.
But I'm not alone.
I know that there are tons ofgenius people out there that do
way more than I do, that thinkin crazy ways.
MC (08:47):
So no, and this is brilliant .
There's some things I want tounpack here as I'm writing notes
.
I think it.
How smart is that?
Yes To the individual rooftop,but as a whole, you have a
stewardship to the whole group,right, which I think is so
important.
But, you know, tying into theoperation, there's things that I
think are so critical that wedon't think of right.
(09:09):
So if we look at the landscapeof, let's say, vendors or
partners, today you have amarketing agency that goes we're
going to lasso the sun, moonand stars for you, and you're
like that sounds fantastic.
And then you have anotherprovider that says we're going
to lasso the sun, moon and starsfor you, and you're like dang,
that sounds fantastic.
(09:33):
Then, all of a sudden, you havebetween I don't know what the
latest number is 15, between 15and 25 different providers doing
different things, none of whomspeak to each other, all of who
are speaking to you, but you'reone person who you know.
No offense to any individualout there, but can you really I
mean, most of us have a hardenough time choosing what we're
going to eat for dinner tonightto then be the pivot point to
(09:54):
try and bring all these parties,who also have dozens and dozens
of employees together on thesame page and then convey that
straight through to thefrontline employee, who doesn't
even know that their behaviorand their actions like you said,
follow up or the greeting someof these small things are
(10:16):
actually marketing and revenuegenerating behaviors and it's
all disconnected and none of itworks and that's why we keep
finding ourselves in thisperpetual downward spiral.
Beautifully said, that's mycontroversial opinion of the day
.
I'm allowed at least one everyday and I don't think it's.
Colin (10:35):
I don't think it's controversial at all and let me
follow up with this.
So, you know, you identifiedsomething that I do believe is a
really relevant prevalentchallenge for dealers, right,
and that's the number of vendorpartners that they have.
So here's something fun thatwe've done at Nielsen, and a lot
(10:55):
of the stuff that I try is notproprietary.
I have, you know, my platformand I love to speak on these
platforms.
One to interact with folks likeyourselves who I, you know my
platform and I love to speak onthese platforms.
One to interact with folks likeyourselves who I, you know, I'm
just I'm smiling from ear toear when I was listening to you
kind of break it down, becauseit's that's the truth.
I mean, there's no controversythere, that is the truth.
But here's something that we'vedone at Nielsen because we're
(11:17):
talking about making thisactionable, this whole episode,
right.
We've actually challenged ourvendor partners, where I've set
up repeating calls or recurringcalls, where I have vendor
partners who are in charge ofspecific things all have to sit
on the call and essentially weall have a conversation about
what our goal is at Nielsen andhow they're going to work with
(11:40):
this other vendor partner andget that done and we've even
taken it further, where we havevendor partners working out of
like the same Google tag.
You know container and Googletag management.
So if it's a vendor partnerhelping us with our SEO efforts,
you know they can directlycommunicate with a vendor
partner who's helping us withour SEM efforts and they can
(12:02):
communicate with someone who maybe handling remarketing or
retargeting.
So it becomes this wholeecosystem where you have to play
nice in the sandbox.
We've given vendors ultimatumsand we no longer work with them.
We said honestly if you're notgoing to be willing to do it
this way meaning everyone workstogether to get the best result,
(12:23):
not just for Nielsen, but thinkabout that.
If you're working with peoplewho can strengthen what you're
doing, it's only going to makeyour numbers look better, Right
as far as the metrics.
So we've had conversations withvendor partners where we've
said you know this is what we'regoing to do.
Unfortunately, if you're notwilling to do that with us, it's
(12:43):
not that we have any disdain orbad feelings, it's just our
partnership has changed right,and we have grown.
We are traveling towards adifferent direction as far as
Nielsen and the trajectory therethat I've set out for 2025 and
beyond and unfortunately you'renot riding that rocket ship with
us, and that's okay.
Maybe we'll pick you back upwhen we pass Mars, but
(13:09):
eventually that's how we'veapproached this.
So I think that should be ahelpful thing for dealers to
realize that they're notnecessarily like I have to use
so-and-so I'm bound to them.
I think that can constantlychange over time, for sure.
MC (13:22):
There's a couple of things I want to bolt onto this because
I love this.
You're in Jersey, I'm in Texas,grew up in Canada, but here we
are speaking the same language,which is accountability.
If accountability freaks youout, you need to go somewhere
else.
(13:43):
Yeah, right, and I'm obviously,like a lot of people know, I own
an agency, right, and one ofthe first things that I find
here's me divulging all thesecrets is that everything we do
is month to month.
There is no long-term contract.
Why would I want, why would Isay out of one side of my mouth
that I want to be your partnerfor a long time and then, out of
the other side of my mouth, tryand handcuff you as my first to
(14:05):
demonstrate my sincerest desireto be thy partner.
Put these handcuffs on.
That's the first thing.
Second thing I love how you'regrouping everybody together.
It in a way, you are Well, notin a way, you are the catalyst
now for why other companiesshould be working together.
And the last thing I want tobolt onto this the reason it is
(14:25):
so brilliant is because the onlything then that gets in the way
because there's going to be nowvendors, there's partners now
leaning into this episode theonly thing getting in your way
is your ego.
Yep, like, if you don't, if youcan't make it, it's because
(14:47):
you've got somebody on your teamwho's an egomaniac, who feels
threatened by the other peoplethat are a part of your cohort.
Now that you've created Rightand it.
And that's the secret, andthat's why this will always work
.
This will always work becausethe people that don't have ego,
who are willing to work at, likeyou said, play nice in the
sandbox together, will continueto play nice in the sandbox.
(15:07):
That is the only secret.
It's not because they had somebackdoor, this and that at NADA
and they're drinking buddies.
No, it's because they don'thave ego and they're coming to
the table for Nielsen saying wewant you to grow because we know
if you grow, we grow with you.
Colin (15:23):
What a good show of faith .
I mean just regardless, unlessyou have something to hide.
You know, maybe your product'snot as great as you talk it up
to be or make it out to be.
Or, you know, maybe there aresome proprietary things that
you're not willing to show ordivulge.
But we're not asking right,meaning the dealer or Nielsen.
I'm not asking everyone to goand show their hand, put their
(15:46):
cards out there.
All I'm saying is hey, join meat the poker table and let's all
play a productive game.
In some hands this dealerexcuse me, this vendor partner
wins.
In some they don't.
In some hands we fold.
But the fact of the matter iswe're all at the table and we're
all having a productive meetingand conversation which, when
(16:10):
all is said and done, we leavethe game.
It's mutual, it's amicable,there's no hard feelings.
Perhaps someone learnedsomething, right let's run with
this analogy like poker, right,perhaps you learned a skill set
just sitting across the tablefrom me.
You know that you can say allright, I'm going to take this
into my next poker game.
(16:31):
Or, wow, they identified ablind spot of ours, let's fix it
.
So now we can go and be betterwhen we end up having another
poker game, which is just theequivalent of sitting at another
round table where I calleveryone together and we discuss
our initiatives and work that'sbeen completed and how that's
going to complement what they'redoing, and so on and so forth.
(16:53):
So that's the first time I'musing the poker analogy.
I'll have to, you know, I'llhave to massage it a little bit,
polish it up, but you get it.
MC (17:01):
You get it, yeah, well, and I'm looking forward to I know
we're going to hear it on yourshow, right, you've got a show
on CBT and so I'm going to lookforward to when you drop the
polished version.
But I like where it's going andI think it's solid.
Let me ask you this yeah, goingdeeper into this, right, as we
lean in, this is now a criteria,it sounds like, for you, if you
(17:21):
want to be a vendor partner ofours, the criteria is you must
play nice in the sandbox.
Bring me into the conversation.
How do you have thatconversation with a vendor?
Is it because I'm noticing andthis is a compliment I'm
noticing a, a positive, peoplefocused disposition about you?
Colin (17:44):
Oh, thank you.
MC (17:45):
Yeah, which is, I think, is great.
It's rare.
Most people are going to pushpause on this episode and
they're going to go to all theirvendors and say, guess what?
You're doing this thing, or youcan't be my partner, which, in
my opinion, is just startingthings off on the wrong foot.
Colin (17:59):
Yeah, that's probably not how you do it?
MC (18:01):
How does Colin approach this conversation with a partner?
Colin (18:05):
It's another really fair question.
The way that I've alwaysapproached business right is I'm
going to give you anopportunity to do your best.
You know, perform as well asyou can, and if you don't the
first time around, I'm not goingto be one of those people, like
, I think, many dealers are.
(18:25):
You know, maybe that's thedownfall of the dealer where you
said you know you own an agency, you operate month to month,
right, you don't want tonecessarily tie someone down to
that commitment.
But the other side of the cointhere would be if you were
building an incrediblerelationship with your client,
right, and you were providingincredible service and the
(18:47):
client was happy, it wouldn'tmatter if you went month to
month or had long-term contracts, because they're not thinking
about getting rid of you.
They're happy with the servicethat you're providing to them,
the results that they're getting, so on and so forth.
Them, the results that they'regetting, so on and so forth.
So if you know I guess it'swhat is it?
(19:09):
Fool me once you know, shame onyou, I mean twice, shame on me.
Essentially, if someone is notperforming to the standards that
we would hold them at Nielsen,which I think are quite high
standards, I would then say howare we going to rectify?
You know the opportunity and Ihate saying problem or issue.
It's really and this goes backto I don't even know, maybe it
was like college where someonefirst said it's opportunities
(19:31):
for improvement and don't talkabout the problem unless you
have a solution.
So I approach really everythingthat way now.
So I will approach vendors inthe same fashion and I will say
you are truly a partner withNielsen.
When we sign an agreement to dobusiness together, you become a
partner with Nielsen.
Your involvement with ourorganization is as much as my
(19:55):
involvement is with theorganization.
So if something doesn't work outto the way we think, let's go
back to the drawing board andlet's optimize what you're
providing to us.
Right, the solution, theservice, how is it going to work
better in our ecosystem?
Perhaps we identified somethings that can be strengthened
in your ecosystem and we go fromthere.
(20:15):
Ok, if it still does notperform to the level that we are
looking for.
Then we eventually say okay,it's not for us and we'll part
ways.
And we part ways, like I said,in a very mutual fashion.
I often say to these peoplekeep in touch If something new
comes out.
You have my number, reach out,let's schedule a face-to-face
(20:38):
meeting, let's have a sit down,let's go over new products,
let's go over new optimization,so on and so forth, even if
we're not currently working withthose people, and I think
that's something that you know.
Reflecting on it now, I pridemyself on because it's really
like don't burn the bridge.
Because at some point you mayneed to walk back over that
bridge to get to the destinationthat you're looking to go to in
(21:00):
that moment in time.
So really, it's justunderstanding that these people
are representatives of abusiness, just like I am, or a
dealer may be a representativeof a business that he owns yes,
it's his dealership, but that'sa direct representation.
So in these cases, how can youattack someone who's just doing
(21:22):
their job on behalf of a muchlarger entity or company and not
give them a fair shot or fairshake?
So that's how I would approachit and I would have those
dialogues.
I think communication is key.
I think every vendor partnershiprelationship whether you're
just vetting the vendor or havea newly consummated relationship
(21:45):
with them there needs to bewhat I would just call a table
setting or place setting meeting, where they come together with
you and whoever stakeholders, orhowever many stakeholders you
need, and say this is what we'relooking for, meaning our
organization, how do you guyshelp us get there?
Is that even something that'sachievable?
(22:07):
And you know what, nine timesout of 10, if you ask that type
of question, you will get theright answer, meaning they're
going to be truthful with youbecause you've already shown
them the respect of invitingthem into your house or your
office or home or whatever.
Let's call it like that.
You've invited them into yourhome and you're having the
dialogue with them, which Ithink is super, super important.
(22:29):
If you communicate, you setexpectations and then you go
from there.
MC (22:37):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck.
(22:58):
Visit flexdealercom.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
Visit flexdealercom, let's hopback into this episode.
You're blowing my mind right now.
There's so many things.
Well, it's because it is sowell, it's common sense.
It feels like to me right, butwe know how that goes Common
(23:18):
sense, not so common.
I wrote down a couple of thingshere, though.
I love that you say you knowit's important that we have that
.
Dialogue and communication iskey.
We never talk about this enoughin our industry.
We're consumed by, you know,whatever tariffs and AI and
(23:38):
Tesla and the government andwhatever else.
We want to talk about statelegislation.
I think the most important,probably most critical skill
those listening or watchingshould be leaning into and
acquire and get good at thatwill fail.
(24:00):
Proof them today and in thefuture is the skill of
communication.
Colin (24:06):
Absolutely.
MC (24:07):
And think of how oxymoronic this is, because marketing in
and of itself falls into thecommunications category, right,
and yet we stink at it.
So when you're saying, like weneed to have meaningful dialogue
and communication is key, I'mlike man, isn't that like?
We need to put that as a.
We need to emphasize it, colin,because if we can't communicate
(24:29):
internally with people that are, we're wanting to have drive
and initiative and we don't knowhow to communicate effectively,
which includes, you know,active listening and, like you
said, setting clear expectationsand talking through things and
grace, when things don't go theright way or whatever, I mean
we're already busting, fallingapart at the seams, and so I
(24:51):
feel like that's what's on mymind as you're talking through
this.
I'm like dang, communicationtraining, human interaction
training Is that even a thing?
I don't know if that's even athing, but it needs to be a
thing, because don't you findoften two parties come together
(25:11):
and they already start out hotbecause they're already in a
defensive posture.
Right, you as the marketingdirector and I'm not saying you,
I'm speaking rhetorically cometo the table who want to
demonstrate to the agency thatthey might have been voluntold
to work with, like I'm smart too, right and then vice versa.
(25:37):
They're coming in being likewe're the ones that are going to
save.
Come to the table, like yousaid, as partners.
I think boy, oh boy.
Might we experience a differentmarketing ecosystem in our
industry?
Colin (25:49):
Absolutely, and you had touched upon just that being
internal right Now, I think, oneof the fascinating things that
you were just starting to alludeto and correct me if I'm wrong
but it's then taking that right.
It's then taking that right sothat internal communication with
your vendor partners, even yourstaff could be a salesperson,
it could be a service advisor,it could be you know whoever a
(26:11):
parts advisor.
But then let's also think aboutit through the lens of the
consumer.
You said, hey, we're not evengood at internal communication.
How do you expect us to be rockstars then at external
communication or marketing?
We can't even communicateinternally.
And so I think that's somethingthat I also wanted to just
(26:39):
address there, because really itall starts with the in-house
culture and whether that's anindividual.
In my example, where I'm at withNielsen, it is me.
I'm at with Nielsen, you knowit is me.
I'm one person.
I rely very heavily onphenomenal vendor partners that
we've, you know, grownrelationships over the years.
You know tenure that I've hadwith Nielsen.
But it's just me, and so youknow, for me I often then have
to not only rely on those vendorpartners, which means I have to
(27:01):
communicate quite regularly andeffectively with them, and
efficiently.
But then also staff downstairs.
You know the sales staff, ourservice advisors.
Here's the messaging that'sgoing out when we do these
campaigns.
Here's what's out in thedigital ether at this moment in
time so that they're prepared tohandle, you know, any of the
(27:21):
inbounds, response or intentthat we're capturing through our
advertising initiatives andthat, even then, you know, just
kind of extrapolating it evenfurther the messaging that's
going out to the consumer.
You know, if I don't know how tohave an effective conversation
with you now, well, we wouldhave stopped recording already
and you would have said I'mnever talking to that guy again.
(27:43):
We didn't get anything done.
Now, what I love about this,though, is one you said right
off the bat we're going to makethings actionable, right.
So dealers, marketers, aregoing to learn from this, but I
think that, once again, it's 101in the sense of if you don't
even understand the internaldialogues and communications,
forget about trying to market toa consumer to get them to
(28:06):
understand what you want them todigest from your store, your
brand, the offers, the buybackevents, whatever it's going to
be.
It really starts here.
It's like self introspection orreflection and then looking
outward.
MC (28:24):
Right, but it's all tied together, every single bit.
It's all connected from top tobottom, back to top, and part of
this is the listening piece.
The active listening piece, Ithink is so critical.
You and I are not here tryingto overpower one another.
You're making solid points thatare making me reflect and I'm
(28:46):
writing notes.
And even to your point, Ididn't even realize I was doing
it, but, yes, setting anexpectation of here's what we're
going to do on this call.
Imagine that, not justinternally in your organization,
right down to the front line,but if you knew your partners,
your agency partners, your thirdparty partners were also doing
(29:07):
that inside of theirorganizations and training them
to even come back to this calland say, hey, here's our idea,
here's our plan, here's how wearrived on it and here's why
we're going to execute it inthis way.
There's so much syntax thatgoes missing in our
communication that had we justknown would have solved, you
(29:28):
know, maybe cancellations orwars or ego flares or whatever,
and I just think it's soimportant.
Now.
You said something earlier.
I want to transition a littlebit.
You had talked about thisintegration of your you know
your vendor partners andbringing them all to a call, you
brought up SEO.
I mean, I got to ask you from amarketing perspective, seeing
(29:48):
you know how many rooftops do?
You say 14.
So you've got 14 rooftops.
You got 14, you know tier threewebsites you've got 14, you
know micro markets in and aroundyour area, different social
economic factors, consumersentiments, brand affiliations,
all these things that you'relooking after.
And then you marry that to whatwe see so often on LinkedIn,
(30:12):
like SEO is dead, and then youhave the other side of it.
That's like there's 3 trillionsearches a day happening.
It's far from dead compared toGPT and this, and that help us
reconcile your thoughts aroundSEO today, what it is in a 2025
world.
I know we're not.
You know mind readers andlooking.
You know what's the crystalball, the few, my mind.
(30:35):
What do we call them?
The futurists?
Colin (30:36):
I know this is a crystal ball again.
I guess could be a futurist.
I was going to say mentalist,but that's not it either I don't
think it, either I don't thinkso.
MC (30:43):
Fortuneteller Film reader.
I don't know what we areLooking into the future, though
I know we don't know what'sgoing to happen in a month or
two.
Things are evolving quiterapidly with tech, but how are
you thinking about SEO and maybepull back the curtain a little
bit, managing across 14 rooftopsthe things that you care about?
Maybe a nugget or two aboutwhat's important to you and how
(31:05):
you're seeing that landscape.
Colin (31:06):
So I'll go full Wizard of Oz.
Pull back the curtain there,right?
So SEO, traditional SEO, Iwouldn't go as far as to say
it's dead.
I think that would be silly forme to say that someone in my
position here.
It's not dead, it's evolving,and the way that it's evolving
is going to be a challenge todealers because it's going to
(31:29):
mean for dealers that theemphasis in my opinion, my
humble opinion so this could becontroversy is that it's not
going to be on those low funnel,really high intent searches
anymore.
Now that could start worse.
With various vendor partners, Ijust had a conversation with one
of them yesterday about ourstrategy for SEO and it was met
(31:59):
with a little bit of pushback.
You know, x, y, z, insert abrand.
There was no geographicparameters to it.
There was nothing that Ibelieve, aside from going after
a very competitive term, whichwould be a term that I may spend
(32:20):
money on, meaning search enginemarketing side of things on,
they demonstrated that this onedealer in our market was
populating in.
You know wherever this personwas Vermont or Minnesota or
someplace across the country andyou say, okay, well, that's
good, but is it really goodBecause you're populating in
(32:41):
position one above all of theseother very competitive entities,
mass entities where people gofor news or vehicle shopping,
things like that, and thedealer's not selling car I mean,
I personally know this dealergroup.
They're not selling cars out tothat market where you're saying
(33:01):
, oh, this is great SEO.
To that market where you'resaying, oh, this is great SEO.
So, in as few words, I would sayit's not going to be about that
lowest funnel, high intentconversion anymore.
Okay, what it's going to beabout is becoming more mid
funnel right, it can even behigh to mid funnel and what
dealers need to understand iswhere searches, as far as these
(33:30):
high to mid funnel searches,will populate on Google, on Bing
, in ChatGPT, which now we'veunderstood people are actually
going to for search, to forsearch Google introduced and
whether it's known to the dealercommunity or not and I think a
lot do know, because it's kindof a real big talking point,
whether it's amongst the dealersor just vendor partners telling
(33:52):
dealers but their AI searchright, ai search overviews,
which is powered by their Gemini, artificial, intelligent being,
being entity, whatever we wantto call it, but that's
populating in what's calledposition zero.
So this is above any of yourpaid, your standard organic
(34:12):
results and even your Googlebusiness listing, which was a
really strong SEO, you know, hadreally strong SEO value, still
does.
But this position zero result,which are these ai overviews is
basically giving gemini, the airight, the ability to go scour
the internet and findtrustworthy sources of
(34:37):
information that then it candigest quicker than any human
could and spit those resultsback out at the top of Google
right and now, within that thereare live links, it will have
all the information there.
But these aren't searches likewhat's the best lease deal near
(34:59):
me?
No, these are searches, and Ialluded to it at the beginning
of the call, but these aresearches like what's the best
SUV for my family of five, right, what's the best SUV for
off-roading?
What is the best pickup truckfor work in a field?
(35:20):
The fact of the matter is we'reso hell bent at any given moment
in time and I think this is ourdownfall, will be our downfall
Dealers are so hell bent at anygiven point in time to capture
the smallest amount of people,meaning those that are actually
in market, right, and it's thesmallest amount of people, I
(35:41):
think and once again, I don'tknow the exact numbers.
I know years ago, right andI'll reference the years ago,
but was 700 billion people onthe planet, I believe.
I think I can fact check andI'll probably ask AI 700 billion
people whatever it is okay Atany given point in time I think
it was two to 3% of the entirepopulation is in the market for
(36:03):
a vehicle.
Okay, that's still a big number.
That's the entire population.
Though what happens when I getto this hyper-local level and I
am one dealer group in NewJersey it becomes probably less
than a 10th of a percent ofpeople that we are spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, a
(36:26):
year trying to get in front ofthat same consumer, and these
are all dealers competing forthe same person.
So my mentality changed mymentality and I got a little
lucky with this.
I will say, when AI firststarted launching, I understood
what it was trying to do andthis actually goes back to
something that Sundar Pichai hadsaid numerous years ago, but it
(36:49):
was Google's basically supposedto take all of the world's
information and present it to aconsumer in the most digestible
format.
It was basically to provideanswers to questions.
So, okay, let's think about it.
You go from presenting allthese different results that
people can click on to nowactually providing an answer to
(37:10):
the question.
And here it is.
It's very easy for you todigest, you can take that and
run with it.
So in reality it becomesunderstanding the consumer
mentality, which is people arenot inherently brand loyal
anymore.
People will flop between manydifferent types of vehicles.
Perhaps once they settle on amodel type, meaning like an SUV
(37:34):
or truck or, you know, sedan orconvertible they'll stay within
that kind of you know, let'scall it bowling lane there,
within the barriers there, butthey're not necessarily set on a
brand.
So, if you can, through validinformation I'm not talking
about creating a narrativeeither, because that's you're
going to be penalized if you tryto do that.
(37:54):
If you try to just create afictitious narrative saying,
okay, I have this vehicle andthis vehicle is the best for a
family, it won't benefit you.
You're going to get penalizedbecause there's no truth or
facts to that, so it's actuallyabout gathering information
that's out there, public domain,and putting it together in
personalized ways, that I guessa large language model would be
(38:18):
one way to look at it, but in apersonalized way that you're
answering the query of theindividual in the market that
you are specifically selling init's hyper-localized Correct.
That's where a lot of people aremissing it because they're
going after it in this stillvery high funnel.
Well, for those that are doingit I really actually don't know
(38:40):
anyone who's doing it to thislevel at Nielsen as far as just
the connectivity between thedealerships and journeys as well
.
So, for example, just to kindof extrapolate on it more, when
we talk about, let's say, thatexample or query of best SUV for
families in New Jersey, what wedo from our group site, our
(39:02):
marketplace site, is we have anentity called Nielsen Editorial.
Essentially, it's an entitythat we've created that acts as
a referral site, right, and itbecomes the source of
information in the New Jerseymarket.
It's now become so powerfulthat when people ask those
questions, nielsen is whatpopulates all of the AI
overviews and its links to eachone of our dealerships.
(39:23):
And this is also in the questof me becoming what I call a
digital land baron, which is, ifI can populate position zero, I
have paid ads, and then I alsohave all the organic rankings.
The next time my competitorsshow up, it's probably on page
two of Google, and if you're onpage two of Google, it's
(39:43):
probably not even worth doinganything, you know.
So it's about connectivity aswell, because it starts at the
group site and then it tricklesdown to the child sites.
So on each child site then wemight have a snippet of
information as to why.
And let's just use one of ourbrands that we have.
Hyundai Tucson is a, you know,great SUV for families in New
Jersey.
But what we'll do on that isthat I also may link it to my
(40:08):
Nissan site, which talks aboutthe fact that a Rogue is a good
family vehicle.
And then what we do is we takeit even further.
Then we do comparisons theTucson versus the Rogue and this
is all content that lives inthe Nielsen ecosystem.
And so you know, for us it'smore so, instead of putting a
(40:31):
dam downstream, going for thatvery low funnel, high intent
shopper, you know, move the dama little further upstream and
from there, if you dam the youknow, let's just call it this
river of search, I don't knowwhat we want to call it.
It's basically, if you look atit from a funnel perspective,
right, which is the sales funnel, but that a little higher up
(40:53):
the funnel I can start divertingthe waterways to our Nielsen
sites.
MC (40:59):
When all is said and done.
Colin (41:01):
I got you, then that's it .
You won't think about anotherdealership.
What you'll start makingsynonymous in your mind is
Nielsen Automotive Group and Ineed to go buy a car.
Is Nielsen Automotive Group andI need to go buy a car.
That's what that becomes.
So I said a lot of words, no.
Hopefully they're impactful.
MC (41:19):
But here's what ties it all together for me, why it makes
perfect sense and I think thisis a great you know like nail to
end on.
Here is one of the reasons Ithink for that is when I'm left
to my own devices referencing myearlier little you know, poking
fun at ourselves that we can'teven choose what to eat for
(41:41):
dinner, so we typically choosethe lowest common denominator,
right.
This is why Kraft dinner stillexists all these years later.
Here's my point.
That is what happens when I amleft to my own lazy reasoning
outputs.
I end up on Google and I gotell me what I want.
(42:04):
Right, yeah, best least deal,because that's all I can come up
with With AI in the mix Gemini,search, generative results, gpt
, perplexity, blah, blah, blahall the different AIs.
They are now handling thereasoning portion of all of that
.
The models are doing a betterjob at understanding the intent
(42:26):
and I no longer have to reason,which means then I can refocus
this is what I believe brings itup funnel.
I can refocus my brain power oncircumstantial prompting.
I'm in the market for this.
I'm a family of five, we areactive.
(42:48):
That's what I mean bycircumstantial.
I have more faith now that theAI model.
Let's use SGE Search NetworkExperience as an example.
We'll use Gemini.
I can now have more faith thatI can share more with it and
that it will do a better jobreasoning all of it and give me,
(43:08):
like you said, well, what's thedifference between the Hyundai
Santa Fe and the Palisade?
What's the difference betweenthe Palisade and the Explorer?
What's the difference between?
You know what I mean.
The reasoning now gives me that, but it moved me up funnel,
(43:29):
which I think is so brilliant.
And then the way you've talkedabout how the group site
connects through to the childsites and the child sites
connect to each other and backup to the group site.
What an interesting spider web.
Those that are listening orwatching need to be paying
attention to this stuff, becauseI would fully endorse and fully
agree, from my vantage point,with what you just said, that
things are higher funnel.
They're much morecircumstantial.
(43:49):
The AI models are doing abetter job at reasoning and
therefore we're able to givethem more context than just
best-least deal, which I thinkis going to be really lazy if
anybody keeps doing that stuff.
Moving forward, dude, this hasbeen so much fun.
We could totally do a part twoof this.
I'd love to catch up with youagain and see how things are
evolving, but for now, how canthose listening or watching get
(44:12):
in touch with you and connect?
Colin (44:14):
Yeah, listen, I am an open book and I love putting my
information out there In allhonesty.
Others might not, but you cansend me an email which is I'll
spell it all out.
So you have it.
But it'sC-C-A-R-R-A-S-Q-U-I-L-L-O at
Nielsen Autos.
That's N-I-E-L-S-E-N AutosA-U-T-O-S dot com.
(44:38):
I'm going to give my cell phone.
That's fine, you guys can shootme a text or call me.
Just don't try to sell mesomething right away.
Come on, 908-358-9284.
Once again, that's 908-358-9284.
Real honor to be on here withyou and I just want to leave you
with one little thought,because you talked about you
(45:00):
know you took my SEO thing to adifferent level and that's kind
of how I've always approached.
It is more so get in front ofpeople in moments that matter
most to them.
So in that case, if someone'ssearching for you know the best
vehicle for off-roading, well,now you know you just hit a
really great spot or point intheir lives, right?
(45:21):
So they're off-road enthusiasts, okay.
Or maybe they're talking aboutthings best SUV for my pet, or
whatever it is.
How special would it be?
And just think about this howspecial would it be now if you
guys meaning marketers, us we'reconnecting all those dots so we
see the query, right, that gotthat person to our dealership.
They then convert and now, whenwe're able to reach out to them
(45:44):
meaning our people that we canreference the stuff that really
matters to them.
So you end up submittinginformation, we track it back,
we have a dialogue and what wecan do just communication 101.
Michael, thanks for yourinterest on this vehicle.
Is there any particular reasonwhy you chose this car?
(46:08):
Are you an off-road enthusiastor do you like the outdoors?
Do you have pets?
Guess what?
What you don't know is, I haveall of that information at my
fingertips and instead of sayingI saw you converted on this
because you looked at, you,wanted to see if it could fit
your dog, you say let me tellyou a little bit about myself.
I want to learn a little bitabout you.
You know, I actually I loveoff-roading.
(46:30):
I have a massive, you know,labrador who can fit in X, y and
Z.
And then you go.
I love off-roading too, and Idon't have a Labrador, but I
have a Chihuahua and you're likegreat, what's the dog's name?
Next thing, you know, you'rejust creating a friend.
You're creating a conversationthat goes on and on.
So this could go on and on.
(46:51):
I'd love to do a part two withyou.
You're an absolute pleasure tospeak with, so thank you very
much.
MC (46:56):
Thanks, buddy.
Colin, thanks so much forjoining me on the Dealer
Playbook Podcast.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe Dealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer hey auto
industry.
Welcome to this episode of theDealer Playbook Podcast.
Sitting down with my new pal,colin Carasquillo I hope I said
(00:24):
it right, man.
Everybody that listens knows,knows.
My biggest pet peeve is when Iget somebody's name wrong.
How did I do?
Colin (00:33):
You did great and I will say listen, growing up I was
subjected to colon.
I was subjected to Pasquale,which is nowhere close to
Carasquillo, but I've learned todeal with it over the years and
now, at 32 years of age, youcould have called me John Smith
and I would have said, hey,how's it going?
MC (00:54):
That's funny man.
It's kind of the same way withme.
My last name is Cirillo andpeople will be like how do you
say it?
Turd burglar?
And I'm like yeah, that's close,I've been told how do you say
it, Turd burglar, and I'm like,yeah, that's close.
You know not everything.
I'm excited to get into this.
We're going to be talking allabout.
You know your role as digitalmarketing manager at Nielsen
(01:14):
Auto Group out there in NewJersey.
We're going to talk about howyou got a show on CBT We've got
to hear about that and also someof the clever stuff you guys
are doing with AI and with SEOand Gooba Goo.
I know who's a partner of yours.
We're going to talk all aboutit and I want those listening or
watching to understand we'regoing to get to some really
tangible stuff.
So make sure that you'rewatching through to the end.
But, dude, thanks for joiningme on the podcast.
Colin (01:36):
Thank you, it's my pleasure I've.
You know, listen, I've been afan from afar.
I've been watching everythingthat you guys have been doing,
you know, with your outfit andeverything going on, and you
know it's funny.
We were just catching up beforethe show.
He said he'd been doing thisfor 11 years and my reaction was
wow, it's so surprising thatit's been that long, because I
(01:58):
feel like you guys have reallyjust come on, you know, to the
space.
But that's because you're young, you're hip, there's so much
energy around it and it alwaysseems fresh and new.
So when you said 11 years, Isaid there's no way like that's
not possible, but long overdue.
So thank you so much for havingme on, because we can say I
guess it's been 11 years in themaking, but really honored to be
(02:18):
here speaking with you.
MC (02:19):
He's coming on buttering me up.
We're hip, we're young.
Let's ask my 16 year old son ifhe thinks any of those things.
He'd be like dad you're old,there's gray hair in your beard.
Colin (02:31):
He'd probably be a little jaded.
So you know, don't ask him that, but definitely ask the other
folks in the vertical.
You know the industry that Ithink they'd all say the same.
MC (02:40):
So it's great, it is what it is.
It it is what it is.
It's like we're young in ourown minds, you know.
I mean I still feel 17 in a lotof ways.
Colin (02:47):
I had.
You know, not recently, but Iguess once, once I entered my
30s, people asked me at onepoint, like how old I was, and I
forgot.
And now so this is going backto the 20s.
Excuse me, but I think I was 24or 25.
And they said how old are you?
And without a like a thought, Isaid, oh, I'm 21.
And 25.
And they said, how old are you?
And without a thought, I said,oh, I'm 21.
(03:07):
And I thought to myself, whywould I even pick that age?
So I agree with you.
I think you're honestly, andeven my mother, who's in her
seventies, same thing.
She still says she feels likeshe's a young lady in her
thirties.
I think it's just about doingstuff like this that keeps you
young.
It's exciting, it's fun, fun,it's always new.
MC (03:24):
So, yeah, yeah, I was thinking about this.
You know it probably issomething here, maybe there's a
thread here.
But we're kind of the firstgeneration that had technology
prominence, you know what I mean.
Like if I look at my parentswho are in their seventies as
well, right, boomers, they, youknow the computer came in and
(03:48):
everyone had a householdcomputer, but it kind of stopped
there.
You know cell phones, of course, my, my dad, you know I'll
remember he, he came home with acell phone.
That was like, yeah, right.
Colin (03:59):
Hold on son.
MC (03:59):
Let me talk to you Check out my new phone case and it was
like a briefcase that had thelocks on them Right.
But then you look at us, it'slike, okay, I remember having a
pager or friends that had pagers.
But then right after highschool it was like I had a cell
phone and it was a nice littlecell phone and I remember having
(04:20):
that.
And it's been a constant uphillfrom there to the point where,
you know, I show my parents chatgpt and I'm talking to it,
right, and my dad speaks italian, my mom speak portuguese, I'm
speaking to gpt in english andthey're blown away at how
quickly it's responding.
And I said, mom, ask it to sayall of that in portuguese now.
(04:42):
And she and in Portuguese andshe went into port and all of a
sudden it's responding and, bro,I'm watching the ghost leave
their bodies and they couldn'tbelieve it.
But for guys like you and I, I'mlike, how can I lean in?
How can I use this thing more?
Because we get to be that firstgeneration where it's like it's
(05:03):
the norm, so maybe that keepsus young.
I don't know.
But it does lead into what Iwant to talk to you about.
I mean, obviously, from yourvantage point as a digital
marketing director for an autogroup, you are privy, I think,
to a landscape and a thoughtprocess that not a lot of people
are, because you're not onlyseeing all of the moving pieces
(05:24):
of an operation, but you're theone, you're the pivot point of
how that all connects together,how marketing isn't just doing
SEO and hoping things are okay.
It's not just having a website,it's not just about having chat
tools or digital retail tools.
You get to say, well, I got tobring all these things together.
(05:47):
So, in a 2025 world, what isthe kind of the highest priority
thing you're looking at from amarketing and operations
perspective to bring this groupforward?
Colin (06:00):
Yeah, that's a really great question and there's so
many answers, but, you know, Ithink I might give you one that
will surprise you, and maybe onethat won't.
But, holistically, right,Because that's what it is.
It's looking at it from all ofthese different angles or
vantage points or lenses,whatever you want to call them,
and ultimately, for me, it'sactually looking at
profitability, right.
(06:21):
So hold on here, though,because profitability of the
automotive group right, made up,in this case, the Nielsen
Automotive Group, 14 rooftops,you know, 12 represented brands.
Each dealership has its ownfinancial statement.
Each dealership needs to beprofitable and in cases that
they're not, we need to mitigatethe opportunity for losses or
(06:43):
mitigate loss, and so, marketing.
My philosophy right now, reallyand it was the tail end of 2024,
into 2025, was getting moreinvolved in the operation side
of things, to better understandevery single facet of how to
(07:03):
successfully operate and run adealership and see how the
marketing plays into that,Because, in reality, the
marketing, althoughexceptionally important, is just
one minute piece of thismassive puzzle, and the thing is
it's also even though let'scall it minute and I take a lot
of pride in my marketing it'sone of the things that, if it's
(07:25):
not dialed correctly right, oryou're missing that piece of
this massive puzzle I'm talkingabout.
You'll never complete thepuzzle, right, so I'm looking at
it.
Oh, thank you, I'm looking atit from profitability.
So I want my dealership to bemore profitable than we were
last year, to be more profitablethan we were last year, than we
(07:46):
were in the previous year, andnow you have some blip years in
there.
I mean, my God, there wereyears where I think you know our
owners were making more moneythan God, and God bless them,
you know.
But the fact the matter is, howdo we continue to position
ourselves, maneuver ourselves tobe in that spot, right?
Because if we're profitable, itusually means things are going
(08:08):
well.
And it usually means things aregoing well from a sales
perspective, the fixed opsperspective, from the marketing
perspective, the opportunitiesthat are being generated.
So that's it.
To come full circle.
It's really I've startedlooking at things from that top
down holistic.
It's about profitability.
What does that look like?
Right?
And then how that factors in toeverything that we do from a
(08:30):
marketing perspective, from afollow-up perspective, you know,
investments that we make, so onand so forth.
So I hope that answers yourquestion.
You know it's a uniqueperspective, I would think.
But I'm not alone.
I know that there are tons ofgenius people out there that do
way more than I do, that thinkin crazy ways.
MC (08:47):
So no, and this is brilliant .
There's some things I want tounpack here as I'm writing notes
.
I think it.
How smart is that?
Yes To the individual rooftop,but as a whole, you have a
stewardship to the whole group,right, which I think is so
important.
But, you know, tying into theoperation, there's things that I
think are so critical that wedon't think of right.
(09:09):
So if we look at the landscapeof, let's say, vendors or
partners, today you have amarketing agency that goes we're
going to lasso the sun, moonand stars for you, and you're
like that sounds fantastic.
And then you have anotherprovider that says we're going
to lasso the sun, moon and starsfor you, and you're like dang,
that sounds fantastic.
(09:33):
Then, all of a sudden, you havebetween I don't know what the
latest number is 15, between 15and 25 different providers doing
different things, none of whomspeak to each other, all of who
are speaking to you, but you'reone person who you know.
No offense to any individualout there, but can you really I
mean, most of us have a hardenough time choosing what we're
going to eat for dinner tonightto then be the pivot point to
(09:54):
try and bring all these parties,who also have dozens and dozens
of employees together on thesame page and then convey that
straight through to thefrontline employee, who doesn't
even know that their behaviorand their actions like you said,
follow up or the greeting someof these small things are
(10:16):
actually marketing and revenuegenerating behaviors and it's
all disconnected and none of itworks and that's why we keep
finding ourselves in thisperpetual downward spiral.
Beautifully said, that's mycontroversial opinion of the day
.
I'm allowed at least one everyday and I don't think it's.
Colin (10:35):
I don't think it's controversial at all and let me
follow up with this.
So, you know, you identifiedsomething that I do believe is a
really relevant prevalentchallenge for dealers, right,
and that's the number of vendorpartners that they have.
So here's something fun thatwe've done at Nielsen, and a lot
(10:55):
of the stuff that I try is notproprietary.
I have, you know, my platformand I love to speak on these
platforms.
One to interact with folks likeyourselves who I, you know my
platform and I love to speak onthese platforms.
One to interact with folks likeyourselves who I, you know, I'm
just I'm smiling from ear toear when I was listening to you
kind of break it down, becauseit's that's the truth.
I mean, there's no controversythere, that is the truth.
But here's something that we'vedone at Nielsen because we're
(11:17):
talking about making thisactionable, this whole episode,
right.
We've actually challenged ourvendor partners, where I've set
up repeating calls or recurringcalls, where I have vendor
partners who are in charge ofspecific things all have to sit
on the call and essentially weall have a conversation about
what our goal is at Nielsen andhow they're going to work with
(11:40):
this other vendor partner andget that done and we've even
taken it further, where we havevendor partners working out of
like the same Google tag.
You know container and Googletag management.
So if it's a vendor partnerhelping us with our SEO efforts,
you know they can directlycommunicate with a vendor
partner who's helping us withour SEM efforts and they can
(12:02):
communicate with someone who maybe handling remarketing or
retargeting.
So it becomes this wholeecosystem where you have to play
nice in the sandbox.
We've given vendors ultimatumsand we no longer work with them.
We said honestly if you're notgoing to be willing to do it
this way meaning everyone workstogether to get the best result,
(12:23):
not just for Nielsen, but thinkabout that.
If you're working with peoplewho can strengthen what you're
doing, it's only going to makeyour numbers look better, Right
as far as the metrics.
So we've had conversations withvendor partners where we've
said you know this is what we'regoing to do.
Unfortunately, if you're notwilling to do that with us, it's
(12:43):
not that we have any disdain orbad feelings, it's just our
partnership has changed right,and we have grown.
We are traveling towards adifferent direction as far as
Nielsen and the trajectory therethat I've set out for 2025 and
beyond and unfortunately you'renot riding that rocket ship with
us, and that's okay.
Maybe we'll pick you back upwhen we pass Mars, but
(13:09):
eventually that's how we'veapproached this.
So I think that should be ahelpful thing for dealers to
realize that they're notnecessarily like I have to use
so-and-so I'm bound to them.
I think that can constantlychange over time, for sure.
MC (13:22):
There's a couple of things I want to bolt onto this because
I love this.
You're in Jersey, I'm in Texas,grew up in Canada, but here we
are speaking the same language,which is accountability.
If accountability freaks youout, you need to go somewhere
else.
(13:43):
Yeah, right, and I'm obviously,like a lot of people know, I own
an agency, right, and one ofthe first things that I find
here's me divulging all thesecrets is that everything we do
is month to month.
There is no long-term contract.
Why would I want, why would Isay out of one side of my mouth
that I want to be your partnerfor a long time and then, out of
the other side of my mouth, tryand handcuff you as my first to
(14:05):
demonstrate my sincerest desireto be thy partner.
Put these handcuffs on.
That's the first thing.
Second thing I love how you'regrouping everybody together.
It in a way, you are Well, notin a way, you are the catalyst
now for why other companiesshould be working together.
And the last thing I want tobolt onto this the reason it is
(14:25):
so brilliant is because the onlything then that gets in the way
because there's going to be nowvendors, there's partners now
leaning into this episode theonly thing getting in your way
is your ego.
Yep, like, if you don't, if youcan't make it, it's because
(14:47):
you've got somebody on your teamwho's an egomaniac, who feels
threatened by the other peoplethat are a part of your cohort.
Now that you've created Rightand it.
And that's the secret, andthat's why this will always work
.
This will always work becausethe people that don't have ego,
who are willing to work at, likeyou said, play nice in the
sandbox together, will continueto play nice in the sandbox.
(15:07):
That is the only secret.
It's not because they had somebackdoor, this and that at NADA
and they're drinking buddies.
No, it's because they don'thave ego and they're coming to
the table for Nielsen saying wewant you to grow because we know
if you grow, we grow with you.
Colin (15:23):
What a good show of faith .
I mean just regardless, unlessyou have something to hide.
You know, maybe your product'snot as great as you talk it up
to be or make it out to be.
Or, you know, maybe there aresome proprietary things that
you're not willing to show ordivulge.
But we're not asking right,meaning the dealer or Nielsen.
I'm not asking everyone to goand show their hand, put their
(15:46):
cards out there.
All I'm saying is hey, join meat the poker table and let's all
play a productive game.
In some hands this dealerexcuse me, this vendor partner
wins.
In some they don't.
In some hands we fold.
But the fact of the matter iswe're all at the table and we're
all having a productive meetingand conversation which, when
(16:10):
all is said and done, we leavethe game.
It's mutual, it's amicable,there's no hard feelings.
Perhaps someone learnedsomething, right let's run with
this analogy like poker, right,perhaps you learned a skill set
just sitting across the tablefrom me.
You know that you can say allright, I'm going to take this
into my next poker game.
(16:31):
Or, wow, they identified ablind spot of ours, let's fix it
.
So now we can go and be betterwhen we end up having another
poker game, which is just theequivalent of sitting at another
round table where I calleveryone together and we discuss
our initiatives and work that'sbeen completed and how that's
going to complement what they'redoing, and so on and so forth.
(16:53):
So that's the first time I'musing the poker analogy.
I'll have to, you know, I'llhave to massage it a little bit,
polish it up, but you get it.
MC (17:01):
You get it, yeah, well, and I'm looking forward to I know
we're going to hear it on yourshow, right, you've got a show
on CBT and so I'm going to lookforward to when you drop the
polished version.
But I like where it's going andI think it's solid.
Let me ask you this yeah, goingdeeper into this, right, as we
lean in, this is now a criteria,it sounds like, for you, if you
(17:21):
want to be a vendor partner ofours, the criteria is you must
play nice in the sandbox.
Bring me into the conversation.
How do you have thatconversation with a vendor?
Is it because I'm noticing andthis is a compliment I'm
noticing a, a positive, peoplefocused disposition about you?
Colin (17:44):
Oh, thank you.
MC (17:45):
Yeah, which is, I think, is great.
It's rare.
Most people are going to pushpause on this episode and
they're going to go to all theirvendors and say, guess what?
You're doing this thing, or youcan't be my partner, which, in
my opinion, is just startingthings off on the wrong foot.
Colin (17:59):
Yeah, that's probably not how you do it?
MC (18:01):
How does Colin approach this conversation with a partner?
Colin (18:05):
It's another really fair question.
The way that I've alwaysapproached business right is I'm
going to give you anopportunity to do your best.
You know, perform as well asyou can, and if you don't the
first time around, I'm not goingto be one of those people, like
, I think, many dealers are.
(18:25):
You know, maybe that's thedownfall of the dealer where you
said you know you own an agency, you operate month to month,
right, you don't want tonecessarily tie someone down to
that commitment.
But the other side of the cointhere would be if you were
building an incrediblerelationship with your client,
right, and you were providingincredible service and the
(18:47):
client was happy, it wouldn'tmatter if you went month to
month or had long-term contracts, because they're not thinking
about getting rid of you.
They're happy with the servicethat you're providing to them,
the results that they're getting, so on and so forth.
Them, the results that they'regetting, so on and so forth.
So if you know I guess it'swhat is it?
(19:09):
Fool me once you know, shame onyou, I mean twice, shame on me.
Essentially, if someone is notperforming to the standards that
we would hold them at Nielsen,which I think are quite high
standards, I would then say howare we going to rectify?
You know the opportunity and Ihate saying problem or issue.
It's really and this goes backto I don't even know, maybe it
was like college where someonefirst said it's opportunities
(19:31):
for improvement and don't talkabout the problem unless you
have a solution.
So I approach really everythingthat way now.
So I will approach vendors inthe same fashion and I will say
you are truly a partner withNielsen.
When we sign an agreement to dobusiness together, you become a
partner with Nielsen.
Your involvement with ourorganization is as much as my
(19:55):
involvement is with theorganization.
So if something doesn't work outto the way we think, let's go
back to the drawing board andlet's optimize what you're
providing to us.
Right, the solution, theservice, how is it going to work
better in our ecosystem?
Perhaps we identified somethings that can be strengthened
in your ecosystem and we go fromthere.
(20:15):
Ok, if it still does notperform to the level that we are
looking for.
Then we eventually say okay,it's not for us and we'll part
ways.
And we part ways, like I said,in a very mutual fashion.
I often say to these peoplekeep in touch If something new
comes out.
You have my number, reach out,let's schedule a face-to-face
(20:38):
meeting, let's have a sit down,let's go over new products,
let's go over new optimization,so on and so forth, even if
we're not currently working withthose people, and I think
that's something that you know.
Reflecting on it now, I pridemyself on because it's really
like don't burn the bridge.
Because at some point you mayneed to walk back over that
bridge to get to the destinationthat you're looking to go to in
(21:00):
that moment in time.
So really, it's justunderstanding that these people
are representatives of abusiness, just like I am, or a
dealer may be a representativeof a business that he owns yes,
it's his dealership, but that'sa direct representation.
So in these cases, how can youattack someone who's just doing
(21:22):
their job on behalf of a muchlarger entity or company and not
give them a fair shot or fairshake?
So that's how I would approachit and I would have those
dialogues.
I think communication is key.
I think every vendor partnershiprelationship whether you're
just vetting the vendor or havea newly consummated relationship
(21:45):
with them there needs to bewhat I would just call a table
setting or place setting meeting, where they come together with
you and whoever stakeholders, orhowever many stakeholders you
need, and say this is what we'relooking for, meaning our
organization, how do you guyshelp us get there?
Is that even something that'sachievable?
(22:07):
And you know what, nine timesout of 10, if you ask that type
of question, you will get theright answer, meaning they're
going to be truthful with youbecause you've already shown
them the respect of invitingthem into your house or your
office or home or whatever.
Let's call it like that.
You've invited them into yourhome and you're having the
dialogue with them, which Ithink is super, super important.
(22:29):
If you communicate, you setexpectations and then you go
from there.
MC (22:37):
Hey, does your marketing agency suck?
Listen before we hop back intothis episode.
I know you know me as the hostof the Dealer Playbook, but did
you also know that I'm the CEOof FlexDealer, an agency that's
helping dealers capture betterquality leads from local SEO and
hyper-targeted ads that convert?
So if you want to sell morecars and finally have a partner
that's in it with you, thatdoesn't suck.
(22:58):
Visit flexdealercom.
Let's hop back into thisepisode.
Visit flexdealercom, let's hopback into this episode.
You're blowing my mind right now.
There's so many things.
Well, it's because it is sowell, it's common sense.
It feels like to me right, butwe know how that goes Common
(23:18):
sense, not so common.
I wrote down a couple of thingshere, though.
I love that you say you knowit's important that we have that
.
Dialogue and communication iskey.
We never talk about this enoughin our industry.
We're consumed by, you know,whatever tariffs and AI and
(23:38):
Tesla and the government andwhatever else.
We want to talk about statelegislation.
I think the most important,probably most critical skill
those listening or watchingshould be leaning into and
acquire and get good at thatwill fail.
(24:00):
Proof them today and in thefuture is the skill of
communication.
Colin (24:06):
Absolutely.
MC (24:07):
And think of how oxymoronic this is, because marketing in
and of itself falls into thecommunications category, right,
and yet we stink at it.
So when you're saying, like weneed to have meaningful dialogue
and communication is key, I'mlike man, isn't that like?
We need to put that as a.
We need to emphasize it, colin,because if we can't communicate
(24:29):
internally with people that are, we're wanting to have drive
and initiative and we don't knowhow to communicate effectively,
which includes, you know,active listening and, like you
said, setting clear expectationsand talking through things and
grace, when things don't go theright way or whatever, I mean
we're already busting, fallingapart at the seams, and so I
(24:51):
feel like that's what's on mymind as you're talking through
this.
I'm like dang, communicationtraining, human interaction
training Is that even a thing?
I don't know if that's even athing, but it needs to be a
thing, because don't you findoften two parties come together
(25:11):
and they already start out hotbecause they're already in a
defensive posture.
Right, you as the marketingdirector and I'm not saying you,
I'm speaking rhetorically cometo the table who want to
demonstrate to the agency thatthey might have been voluntold
to work with, like I'm smart too, right and then vice versa.
(25:37):
They're coming in being likewe're the ones that are going to
save.
Come to the table, like yousaid, as partners.
I think boy, oh boy.
Might we experience a differentmarketing ecosystem in our
industry?
Colin (25:49):
Absolutely, and you had touched upon just that being
internal right Now, I think, oneof the fascinating things that
you were just starting to alludeto and correct me if I'm wrong
but it's then taking that right.
It's then taking that right sothat internal communication with
your vendor partners, even yourstaff could be a salesperson,
it could be a service advisor,it could be you know whoever a
(26:11):
parts advisor.
But then let's also think aboutit through the lens of the
consumer.
You said, hey, we're not evengood at internal communication.
How do you expect us to be rockstars then at external
communication or marketing?
We can't even communicateinternally.
And so I think that's somethingthat I also wanted to just
(26:39):
address there, because really itall starts with the in-house
culture and whether that's anindividual.
In my example, where I'm at withNielsen, it is me.
I'm at with Nielsen, you knowit is me.
I'm one person.
I rely very heavily onphenomenal vendor partners that
we've, you know, grownrelationships over the years.
You know tenure that I've hadwith Nielsen.
But it's just me, and so youknow, for me I often then have
to not only rely on those vendorpartners, which means I have to
(27:01):
communicate quite regularly andeffectively with them, and
efficiently.
But then also staff downstairs.
You know the sales staff, ourservice advisors.
Here's the messaging that'sgoing out when we do these
campaigns.
Here's what's out in thedigital ether at this moment in
time so that they're prepared tohandle, you know, any of the
(27:21):
inbounds, response or intentthat we're capturing through our
advertising initiatives andthat, even then, you know, just
kind of extrapolating it evenfurther the messaging that's
going out to the consumer.
You know, if I don't know how tohave an effective conversation
with you now, well, we wouldhave stopped recording already
and you would have said I'mnever talking to that guy again.
(27:43):
We didn't get anything done.
Now, what I love about this,though, is one you said right
off the bat we're going to makethings actionable, right.
So dealers, marketers, aregoing to learn from this, but I
think that, once again, it's 101in the sense of if you don't
even understand the internaldialogues and communications,
forget about trying to market toa consumer to get them to
(28:06):
understand what you want them todigest from your store, your
brand, the offers, the buybackevents, whatever it's going to
be.
It really starts here.
It's like self introspection orreflection and then looking
outward.
MC (28:24):
Right, but it's all tied together, every single bit.
It's all connected from top tobottom, back to top, and part of
this is the listening piece.
The active listening piece, Ithink is so critical.
You and I are not here tryingto overpower one another.
You're making solid points thatare making me reflect and I'm
(28:46):
writing notes.
And even to your point, Ididn't even realize I was doing
it, but, yes, setting anexpectation of here's what we're
going to do on this call.
Imagine that, not justinternally in your organization,
right down to the front line,but if you knew your partners,
your agency partners, your thirdparty partners were also doing
(29:07):
that inside of theirorganizations and training them
to even come back to this calland say, hey, here's our idea,
here's our plan, here's how wearrived on it and here's why
we're going to execute it inthis way.
There's so much syntax thatgoes missing in our
communication that had we justknown would have solved, you
(29:28):
know, maybe cancellations orwars or ego flares or whatever,
and I just think it's soimportant.
Now.
You said something earlier.
I want to transition a littlebit.
You had talked about thisintegration of your you know
your vendor partners andbringing them all to a call, you
brought up SEO.
I mean, I got to ask you from amarketing perspective, seeing
(29:48):
you know how many rooftops do?
You say 14.
So you've got 14 rooftops.
You got 14, you know tier threewebsites you've got 14, you
know micro markets in and aroundyour area, different social
economic factors, consumersentiments, brand affiliations,
all these things that you'relooking after.
And then you marry that to whatwe see so often on LinkedIn,
(30:12):
like SEO is dead, and then youhave the other side of it.
That's like there's 3 trillionsearches a day happening.
It's far from dead compared toGPT and this, and that help us
reconcile your thoughts aroundSEO today, what it is in a 2025
world.
I know we're not.
You know mind readers andlooking.
You know what's the crystalball, the few, my mind.
(30:35):
What do we call them?
The futurists?
Colin (30:36):
I know this is a crystal ball again.
I guess could be a futurist.
I was going to say mentalist,but that's not it either I don't
think it, either I don't thinkso.
MC (30:43):
Fortuneteller Film reader.
I don't know what we areLooking into the future, though
I know we don't know what'sgoing to happen in a month or
two.
Things are evolving quiterapidly with tech, but how are
you thinking about SEO and maybepull back the curtain a little
bit, managing across 14 rooftopsthe things that you care about?
Maybe a nugget or two aboutwhat's important to you and how
(31:05):
you're seeing that landscape.
Colin (31:06):
So I'll go full Wizard of Oz.
Pull back the curtain there,right?
So SEO, traditional SEO, Iwouldn't go as far as to say
it's dead.
I think that would be silly forme to say that someone in my
position here.
It's not dead, it's evolving,and the way that it's evolving
is going to be a challenge todealers because it's going to
(31:29):
mean for dealers that theemphasis in my opinion, my
humble opinion so this could becontroversy is that it's not
going to be on those low funnel,really high intent searches
anymore.
Now that could start worse.
With various vendor partners, Ijust had a conversation with one
of them yesterday about ourstrategy for SEO and it was met
(31:59):
with a little bit of pushback.
You know, x, y, z, insert abrand.
There was no geographicparameters to it.
There was nothing that Ibelieve, aside from going after
a very competitive term, whichwould be a term that I may spend
(32:20):
money on, meaning search enginemarketing side of things on,
they demonstrated that this onedealer in our market was
populating in.
You know wherever this personwas Vermont or Minnesota or
someplace across the country andyou say, okay, well, that's
good, but is it really goodBecause you're populating in
(32:41):
position one above all of theseother very competitive entities,
mass entities where people gofor news or vehicle shopping,
things like that, and thedealer's not selling car I mean,
I personally know this dealergroup.
They're not selling cars out tothat market where you're saying
(33:01):
, oh, this is great SEO.
To that market where you'resaying, oh, this is great SEO.
So, in as few words, I would sayit's not going to be about that
lowest funnel, high intentconversion anymore.
Okay, what it's going to beabout is becoming more mid
funnel right, it can even behigh to mid funnel and what
dealers need to understand iswhere searches, as far as these
(33:30):
high to mid funnel searches,will populate on Google, on Bing
, in ChatGPT, which now we'veunderstood people are actually
going to for search, to forsearch Google introduced and
whether it's known to the dealercommunity or not and I think a
lot do know, because it's kindof a real big talking point,
whether it's amongst the dealersor just vendor partners telling
(33:52):
dealers but their AI searchright, ai search overviews,
which is powered by their Gemini, artificial, intelligent being,
being entity, whatever we wantto call it, but that's
populating in what's calledposition zero.
So this is above any of yourpaid, your standard organic
(34:12):
results and even your Googlebusiness listing, which was a
really strong SEO, you know, hadreally strong SEO value, still
does.
But this position zero result,which are these ai overviews is
basically giving gemini, the airight, the ability to go scour
the internet and findtrustworthy sources of
(34:37):
information that then it candigest quicker than any human
could and spit those resultsback out at the top of Google
right and now, within that thereare live links, it will have
all the information there.
But these aren't searches likewhat's the best lease deal near
(34:59):
me?
No, these are searches, and Ialluded to it at the beginning
of the call, but these aresearches like what's the best
SUV for my family of five, right, what's the best SUV for
off-roading?
What is the best pickup truckfor work in a field?
(35:20):
The fact of the matter is we'reso hell bent at any given moment
in time and I think this is ourdownfall, will be our downfall
Dealers are so hell bent at anygiven point in time to capture
the smallest amount of people,meaning those that are actually
in market, right, and it's thesmallest amount of people, I
(35:41):
think and once again, I don'tknow the exact numbers.
I know years ago, right andI'll reference the years ago,
but was 700 billion people onthe planet, I believe.
I think I can fact check andI'll probably ask AI 700 billion
people whatever it is okay Atany given point in time I think
it was two to 3% of the entirepopulation is in the market for
(36:03):
a vehicle.
Okay, that's still a big number.
That's the entire population.
Though what happens when I getto this hyper-local level and I
am one dealer group in NewJersey it becomes probably less
than a 10th of a percent ofpeople that we are spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, a
(36:26):
year trying to get in front ofthat same consumer, and these
are all dealers competing forthe same person.
So my mentality changed mymentality and I got a little
lucky with this.
I will say, when AI firststarted launching, I understood
what it was trying to do andthis actually goes back to
something that Sundar Pichai hadsaid numerous years ago, but it
(36:49):
was Google's basically supposedto take all of the world's
information and present it to aconsumer in the most digestible
format.
It was basically to provideanswers to questions.
So, okay, let's think about it.
You go from presenting allthese different results that
people can click on to nowactually providing an answer to
(37:10):
the question.
And here it is.
It's very easy for you todigest, you can take that and
run with it.
So in reality it becomesunderstanding the consumer
mentality, which is people arenot inherently brand loyal
anymore.
People will flop between manydifferent types of vehicles.
Perhaps once they settle on amodel type, meaning like an SUV
(37:34):
or truck or, you know, sedan orconvertible they'll stay within
that kind of you know, let'scall it bowling lane there,
within the barriers there, butthey're not necessarily set on a
brand.
So, if you can, through validinformation I'm not talking
about creating a narrativeeither, because that's you're
going to be penalized if you tryto do that.
(37:54):
If you try to just create afictitious narrative saying,
okay, I have this vehicle andthis vehicle is the best for a
family, it won't benefit you.
You're going to get penalizedbecause there's no truth or
facts to that, so it's actuallyabout gathering information
that's out there, public domain,and putting it together in
personalized ways, that I guessa large language model would be
(38:18):
one way to look at it, but in apersonalized way that you're
answering the query of theindividual in the market that
you are specifically selling init's hyper-localized Correct.
That's where a lot of people aremissing it because they're
going after it in this stillvery high funnel.
Well, for those that are doingit I really actually don't know
(38:40):
anyone who's doing it to thislevel at Nielsen as far as just
the connectivity between thedealerships and journeys as well
.
So, for example, just to kindof extrapolate on it more, when
we talk about, let's say, thatexample or query of best SUV for
families in New Jersey, what wedo from our group site, our
(39:02):
marketplace site, is we have anentity called Nielsen Editorial.
Essentially, it's an entitythat we've created that acts as
a referral site, right, and itbecomes the source of
information in the New Jerseymarket.
It's now become so powerfulthat when people ask those
questions, nielsen is whatpopulates all of the AI
overviews and its links to eachone of our dealerships.
(39:23):
And this is also in the questof me becoming what I call a
digital land baron, which is, ifI can populate position zero, I
have paid ads, and then I alsohave all the organic rankings.
The next time my competitorsshow up, it's probably on page
two of Google, and if you're onpage two of Google, it's
(39:43):
probably not even worth doinganything, you know.
So it's about connectivity aswell, because it starts at the
group site and then it tricklesdown to the child sites.
So on each child site then wemight have a snippet of
information as to why.
And let's just use one of ourbrands that we have.
Hyundai Tucson is a, you know,great SUV for families in New
Jersey.
But what we'll do on that isthat I also may link it to my
(40:08):
Nissan site, which talks aboutthe fact that a Rogue is a good
family vehicle.
And then what we do is we takeit even further.
Then we do comparisons theTucson versus the Rogue and this
is all content that lives inthe Nielsen ecosystem.
And so you know, for us it'smore so, instead of putting a
(40:31):
dam downstream, going for thatvery low funnel, high intent
shopper, you know, move the dama little further upstream and
from there, if you dam the youknow, let's just call it this
river of search, I don't knowwhat we want to call it.
It's basically, if you look atit from a funnel perspective,
right, which is the sales funnel, but that a little higher up
(40:53):
the funnel I can start divertingthe waterways to our Nielsen
sites.
MC (40:59):
When all is said and done.
Colin (41:01):
I got you, then that's it .
You won't think about anotherdealership.
What you'll start makingsynonymous in your mind is
Nielsen Automotive Group and Ineed to go buy a car.
Is Nielsen Automotive Group andI need to go buy a car.
That's what that becomes.
So I said a lot of words, no.
Hopefully they're impactful.
MC (41:19):
But here's what ties it all together for me, why it makes
perfect sense and I think thisis a great you know like nail to
end on.
Here is one of the reasons Ithink for that is when I'm left
to my own devices referencing myearlier little you know, poking
fun at ourselves that we can'teven choose what to eat for
(41:41):
dinner, so we typically choosethe lowest common denominator,
right.
This is why Kraft dinner stillexists all these years later.
Here's my point.
That is what happens when I amleft to my own lazy reasoning
outputs.
I end up on Google and I gotell me what I want.
(42:04):
Right, yeah, best least deal,because that's all I can come up
with With AI in the mix Gemini,search, generative results, gpt
, perplexity, blah, blah, blahall the different AIs.
They are now handling thereasoning portion of all of that
.
The models are doing a betterjob at understanding the intent
(42:26):
and I no longer have to reason,which means then I can refocus
this is what I believe brings itup funnel.
I can refocus my brain power oncircumstantial prompting.
I'm in the market for this.
I'm a family of five, we areactive.
(42:48):
That's what I mean bycircumstantial.
I have more faith now that theAI model.
Let's use SGE Search NetworkExperience as an example.
We'll use Gemini.
I can now have more faith thatI can share more with it and
that it will do a better jobreasoning all of it and give me,
(43:08):
like you said, well, what's thedifference between the Hyundai
Santa Fe and the Palisade?
What's the difference betweenthe Palisade and the Explorer?
What's the difference between?
You know what I mean.
The reasoning now gives me that, but it moved me up funnel,
(43:29):
which I think is so brilliant.
And then the way you've talkedabout how the group site
connects through to the childsites and the child sites
connect to each other and backup to the group site.
What an interesting spider web.
Those that are listening orwatching need to be paying
attention to this stuff, becauseI would fully endorse and fully
agree, from my vantage point,with what you just said, that
things are higher funnel.
They're much morecircumstantial.
(43:49):
The AI models are doing abetter job at reasoning and
therefore we're able to givethem more context than just
best-least deal, which I thinkis going to be really lazy if
anybody keeps doing that stuff.
Moving forward, dude, this hasbeen so much fun.
We could totally do a part twoof this.
I'd love to catch up with youagain and see how things are
evolving, but for now, how canthose listening or watching get
(44:12):
in touch with you and connect?
Colin (44:14):
Yeah, listen, I am an open book and I love putting my
information out there In allhonesty.
Others might not, but you cansend me an email which is I'll
spell it all out.
So you have it.
But it'sC-C-A-R-R-A-S-Q-U-I-L-L-O at
Nielsen Autos.
That's N-I-E-L-S-E-N AutosA-U-T-O-S dot com.
(44:38):
I'm going to give my cell phone.
That's fine, you guys can shootme a text or call me.
Just don't try to sell mesomething right away.
Come on, 908-358-9284.
Once again, that's 908-358-9284.
Real honor to be on here withyou and I just want to leave you
with one little thought,because you talked about you
(45:00):
know you took my SEO thing to adifferent level and that's kind
of how I've always approached.
It is more so get in front ofpeople in moments that matter
most to them.
So in that case, if someone'ssearching for you know the best
vehicle for off-roading, well,now you know you just hit a
really great spot or point intheir lives, right?
(45:21):
So they're off-road enthusiasts, okay.
Or maybe they're talking aboutthings best SUV for my pet, or
whatever it is.
How special would it be?
And just think about this howspecial would it be now if you
guys meaning marketers, us we'reconnecting all those dots so we
see the query, right, that gotthat person to our dealership.
They then convert and now, whenwe're able to reach out to them
(45:44):
meaning our people that we canreference the stuff that really
matters to them.
So you end up submittinginformation, we track it back,
we have a dialogue and what wecan do just communication 101.
Michael, thanks for yourinterest on this vehicle.
Is there any particular reasonwhy you chose this car?
(46:08):
Are you an off-road enthusiastor do you like the outdoors?
Do you have pets?
Guess what?
What you don't know is, I haveall of that information at my
fingertips and instead of sayingI saw you converted on this
because you looked at, you,wanted to see if it could fit
your dog, you say let me tellyou a little bit about myself.
I want to learn a little bitabout you.
You know, I actually I loveoff-roading.
(46:30):
I have a massive, you know,labrador who can fit in X, y and
Z.
And then you go.
I love off-roading too, and Idon't have a Labrador, but I
have a Chihuahua and you're likegreat, what's the dog's name?
Next thing, you know, you'rejust creating a friend.
You're creating a conversationthat goes on and on.
So this could go on and on.
(46:51):
I'd love to do a part two withyou.
You're an absolute pleasure tospeak with, so thank you very
much.
MC (46:56):
Thanks, buddy.
Colin, thanks so much forjoining me on the Dealer
Playbook Podcast.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe Dealer Playbook Podcast.
If you enjoyed tuning in,please subscribe, share and hit
that like button.
You can also join us and theDPB community on social media.
Check back next week for a newDealer Playbook episode.
Thanks so much for joining.
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