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The Human Touch in an AI World: Dave Steinberg of FourEyes on Dealership Success

• CBT News • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Dave Steinberg, President and CEO of FourEyes, reveals powerful strategies for dealerships navigating today's challenging economic environment. As tariffs and market uncertainty shake consumer confidence, Steinberg explains why dealerships need a fresh approach to measuring performance and managing sales expectations.

Drawing from FourEyes' analysis of 40,000+ salespeople nationwide, Steinberg unpacks why raw sales numbers can be misleading. He shares a compelling example of a salesperson who sold 18 cars in a month – seemingly impressive until you realize they closed only 11% of leads compared to the group's 15% average. That difference represents six missed sales opportunities! This surgical analysis extends to BDC operations, where many dealerships have thousands of leads languishing with 1-2% close rates due to ineffective routing and follow-up.

The conversation tackles the AI hype head-on, distinguishing between "surgical" and "shotgun" approaches. Steinberg argues persuasively that AI's true power comes from quality data that personalizes the sales process rather than replacing human interaction. "AI is not going to replace salespeople; it's going to augment them," he notes. This becomes particularly important as the data shows most current buyers are purchasing out of necessity, making them more receptive to consultative selling that addresses their specific needs.

As economic headwinds intensify, Steinberg emphasizes the importance of industry collaboration. Early indicators show potential softening in crucial metrics like 4-7 day close rates. By sharing information and adapting strategies collectively, dealerships can navigate uncertainty while maintaining team morale and performance. Listen now to discover how better data insights can transform your approach to sales management and customer engagement during these volatile times.

Driving Solutions is the go-to podcast for dealership professionals who want to stay sharp, informed, and ahead of the curve. Hosted by Jim Fitzpatrick and powered by CBT News, each episode brings you real strategies, smart tools, and expert insights to help you run a more profitable operation.

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Jim Fitzpatrick:

This is Driving Solutions exclusively on CPTNews. com. Hey everyone, Jim Fitzpatrick, thanks so much for joining me this morning on Driving Solutions. Between juggling leads and following up, it's easy for even the best dealership teams to let opportunities slip through the cracks. Today, we are taking a look at a solution that could help your teams get more done and close more deals, known as FourEyes. Joining us now is the president and CEO, Dave Steinberg. Thank you so much, Dave, for joining us on the show.

Dave Steinberg:

Jim, great to be here. Thank you Thank you.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So you know, with the volatility and uncertainty that we're seeing out there, to say the least, and expecting in this new tariff economy that we find ourselves in, what type of data should dealers seek to better manage their sales expectations and their team accountability?

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, I mean, I think that it's a changing environment and I think that to say you know, regardless of your political opinions, what you think it is. It is sort of we are in a crisis management time where things are changing really fast that change, and it's important to understand that. There's the context information's changing really quickly. How are you getting that information and making decisions? The pace at which you have to make decisions changes. As leaders, we're expected to make decisions really fast in a crisis where we're rewarded for making you know we have more time in regular times and then style and you know regular touch points, analyzing the market.

Dave Steinberg:

What I look at, what we're seeing right now, is that good leadership needs to set the right expectations of your salespeople and information's changing. So, for instance, we have over 40,000 salespeople that we measure and look at their close rates every single day and so looking at, if we're looking at these 40,000 people for every salesperson and we look at where are they getting their leads? Where you know, are they getting? Are they an auto trader? Are they cars, commerce? Are they website leads? Where are they getting their leads?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

What would?

Dave Steinberg:

be their expectation of sales this month in this changing environment. I think that's one of the things. I think the other piece contextually that I would tell dealers that is really important is what we're already seeing in some, like, we measure close rate and we look at zero to three days, four to seven, eight to 14, because we're looking, we have AI cadences that are going to treat the lead differently over time. One of the really interesting things is the sales we're seeing right now, the people that are actually buying cars. Right now. Most of the sales, even the last few days, are happening where the person needs the car.

Dave Steinberg:

The person needs to buy a new car. There are some people who are trying to beat the market for sure, and saying, okay, there's inventory, there's stuff, a lot of the sales. So the question then becomes are you storing that information correctly? So most CRMs don't adequately store the fact of whether or not the customer actually needs to buy a car right now.

Dave Steinberg:

Those are going to be the easiest deals to get across the line, where those people just have to buy a car. I think, as information starts coming in, we're seeing we're already seeing some buyers. We listen to thousands of phone calls. We're seeing buyers sometimes say you know what, I'm going to wait a little bit and see what shakes out.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So how can dealers bridge the gap between outdated metrics and real-time insights to effectively adjust their strategies to times like this?

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, so it's expectation setting. So good leadership is. You're a rabbit on the track. Your job as the rabbit is to not get too far ahead of your team. You don't want to set unrealistic goals. You'll lose morale. You'll lose, they'll stop following you, you want to stay far enough in front of them.

Dave Steinberg:

So what we're looking at now is how do we help set expectations for 60,000, 40,000 salespeople that we say this is what we would expect this salesperson to do, even in this economy, in this environment. That's changing and that's based on what every salesperson did yesterday. That's based on you know what's going on with auto trader now close rates. What's going on with dealer website close rates. What's going on with new. What's going on with auto trader close rates. What's going on with dealer website close rates. What's going on with new. What's going on with used putting that hands in the hands of dealerships so dealerships can make faster decisions.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, okay. So let's talk about salesperson performance. If someone sells 16 cars last month, or sold 16 cars last month, what questions should dealers be asking to understand if that's a good result Kind of picking up on what you were just mentioning there, especially given today's economic situation?

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, like I was on a call with a dealer yesterday where we were, we, they, we were looking at one of their salespeople who sold I think they sold 18 cars last month, had a good month, did a good job. Now this salesperson was only closing 11% of their leads. If you took that same bucket of leads, that same mix, and gave it to anyone else in their group, they would have closed 15% that they rewarded the salesperson for closing 18 cars.

Dave Steinberg:

But what they didn't realize is they lost 4% by giving them the most leads right and so I think, as deals become harder and as we start to look at the underpinnings of what's really bringing sales across the line, we have to look more surgically at performance One, because you want to tell that person who sold 18 cars great job, we're happy you sold 18, but guess what you could have done 24. That's right. So let's talk about getting you to 24 this month, even in this changing economy.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Rather than celebrating it, advise them and consult with them. And I mean, obviously you're grateful for the 18 cars, but at the same time, if you had the opportunity to get 24, that's what it's all about.

Dave Steinberg:

Well and we're seeing that all over the place where top performers. The other thing we're seeing that's really interesting is that a lot of times where you see really good sales performance is when you have a really strong BDC and the BDC is prepping the leads, giving the salespeople the real cream. But what happens is there's a bucket of leads that the BDC should be getting more results out of and they're holding back on those leads, and so you have high salesperson performance in stores on average, but the BDC is sitting on 2,000 leads that are closing at 1% or 2%, where that you got to look closer at that process to say, if I've had that salesperson who was, who was selling 18% of the leads that I gave them, that I was awarding, what would have happened if the BDC released a little more to them?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right, that's good.

Dave Steinberg:

And so like that information, I think um isn't been. It's been very hard for dealers to get good information out of their CRMs, and so a lot of what we're trying to do is get that information to them, get it and then be able to employ AI campaigns that are more surgical and less shotgun, because not every salesperson needs the same AI campaign treating their leads.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah for sure. In fact, let's talk about that. There's a lot of hype around AI right now. What misconceptions might dealers have about AI and how can they better align AI strategies with the actual behaviors and needs of their shoppers?

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, so one of the things is that again, like where really good AI is and where you see the future of AI is surgical, not shotgun, and that what there's two sort of technological revolutions going on right now Everyone's talking about AI. Ai is a revolution right now is because of the other revolution that's happened. It started, you know, I remember walking around NADA in 2015 and it was big data, big data, big data. Everyone's talking about big data.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Dave Steinberg:

And you couldn't even at the time, you couldn't even analyze your big data. It was just just collect it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, it's going to be super valuable. We don't even know what you're going to do, it's just collect. I remember, I remember that to those times Big, big data. Right.

Dave Steinberg:

Well, what's happened in the last 10 years is now we have tools to store the data, to move the data, to analyze the data, so the power is actually of AI, is actually in data. Now we still have this overarching problem in automotive and that our data collection has been garbage. Has been garbage that we still have our CRMs and our DMSs still doing kind of shady stuff as far as sharing and giving access to the data, making it very difficult to get access to the data. That's right.

Dave Steinberg:

What we have seen is when you actually get access to the data is when you can start to have then that surgical AI that can actually improve your close rate. And so, for instance, looking at a salesperson just yesterday, a salesperson who runs a great process and they basically close like 18% of their leads this salesperson I'm talking about, when we look at what the group would have done or the industry would have done, the group was a high-performing group. They would have done 14% on that same bucket, so they're a good salesperson. The industry would have only closed 11% the average industry, so great salesperson.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, for sure.

Dave Steinberg:

Now we can see in their performance that they work their leads. This was an unusual salesperson who works their leads hard for 14 days hard, and so their eight to 14 day close rate was like 3%. They were still closing pretty well in that eight to 14 day. That salesperson needs a different AI campaign If, when that salesperson actually had turned off, had gone to the dealer and said stop with this AI, you're stepping on all my leads, I have this process.

Dave Steinberg:

So when we look at surgical AI, surgical AI should be coming in and treating that salesperson, working with that salesperson to help themselves, not just sort of trampling on all their leads. That's the future and that starts with better data. That's the data that 4i is getting and analyzing and cleaning in order to be able to run these AI campaigns. But dealers need to look at it and say, hey, don't just buy the shiny red ball, use the information, make sure you're getting the right information in order to run these campaigns, because AI is not going to replace the salespeople, it's going to augment them, and the way it augments them is with the right data.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right, and this is what dealers need to be focused on right now, because, to your point, to your point, we're all, we're kind of AI drunk, but but at the end of the day, what does it all mean? And you know, to put it in practical terms like that, and in practice in the showroom is night and day Right.

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, well, I think that that too. Like you know, when, when generative AI first came out, everyone was so impressed it could just have this two-way conversation. We got kind of, we got kind of, we fell in love with just that picture. But that's not, that's. That's really easy to do.

Dave Steinberg:

I think that the interesting thing you see in AI and the interesting thing we see is that dealers cherry pick leads. We see that in performance, most salespeople what they do is they cherry pick who's in market, who's not, and they leave a lot on the table and there's a lot of missing information that if the salesperson knew, they would have actually been able to service them better and your AI campaigns would have been able to service them better. So, like one of the things we look at is at day four of a lead. If a lead is four days old, the industry would close it at 1.7%. It's like the close rate just falls down at day four.

Dave Steinberg:

But the dealer usually does not have the right information. They just have what that person filled out a lead on. You have to assume that's changed. Why did they want to buy that? What was it that interested them? So how can you service that person better? So those people aren't going out and getting that information. That is where AI can come in and get that information and then help deliver a better customer experience. So, oh, what you were really looking for was a third row seat. Well, you didn't really care about this. Make model trim, you were looking for a third row seat, and you were looking for a payment at this level, and you were looking for this. Here's what we have for you. So that's where I think the power of AI really is.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, of course, what we?

Dave Steinberg:

call like match is in helping to match. Understand the customer, get that information, load the lips of the salesperson, communicate better to the customer. It's not necessarily a day four. It's not just trying to get them to come in for an appointment. That's not going to you already. If you didn't get them in for an appointment, you're not going to get them in at day four with just the same message.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No, I agree. Can you share some examples of when relying solely on AI interactions has unintentionally hindered sales performance, and what lessons should dealers take away from those situations?

Dave Steinberg:

I mean, you just kind of mentioned a couple of them, but yeah, I mean, I think it's, I think it's being really, you know one, every lead counts right now Every lead counts, no question about it.

Dave Steinberg:

And so I would just step back and go. If every lead is so important, is my best foot forward on every lead a robot Right, just in simple? Or is my best foot forward on every lead a human interaction, like we see the difference in high gross lead, a human interaction like we see the difference in high gross, the difference when you look at dealers and get to get high gross per vehicle. There is a good human interaction happening there. There is.

Dave Steinberg:

It makes sense yeah, if I mean you, you can just, you can just game theory it out. We're already seeing this a little bit. Let's say, let's, let's pretend in a future world, a year from now, that ai is able to negotiate and do everything on a car. They can negotiate the whole thing. One first thing you're going to then see is you're going to see tools for the car buyer to have AI go out and negotiate for them. So you're going to have robots talking to robots, you're right.

Dave Steinberg:

To do it. Second thing you're going to see is you're going to see eBay and Amazon and Walmart salivating at the idea that the car dealerships just removed the need for a salesperson. So I'm very pro-dealer and I'm very pro-keep. The secret strength of the dealer is keep the salesperson as a driver. Now we have to make them more efficient, we have to make them more successful, but taking the sales person out of the equation is a recipe to lower gross Stepping back beyond sales enablement or lead follow-up tools.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Why is it important for the automotive industry as a whole to come together around sharing and leveraging collective industry data? I mean, right now you've got some heads that are spinning in showrooms and dealerships because of all that's going on.

Dave Steinberg:

Look, we are an industry. We all care about our collective well-being, right? And I think that I'm a big like not having sharp elbows and working with people that might be deemed your competitors. It doesn't matter, we're all playing the same game.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

We are.

Dave Steinberg:

I think that the information that dealers need to make good decisions is out there right now. You know I'm looking at some things that I'm a little alarmed by. You know I'll be totally honest, like I'm looking at some things that I'm a little alarmed by, I'll be totally honest. We watched the four to seven day close rate very carefully. We're watching that right now and we're seeing some early indicators that that's dropping it's TBD. Let's look. The news cycle is changing. But good leadership is about giving your team the context and setting performance expectations and as things change really fast.

Dave Steinberg:

You don't want to destroy the morale of your, your team. You have good sales, a lot of teams. You have good sales people. You want to keep them. You want to keep them focused on doing the right job. I I think that the more information the industry can change, the more the the industry as a whole can step up and get these problems fixed. And hopefully you know so and I just think that sharing information well helps everybody.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

There's no question about it. We should all come together as one big huge dealer 20 meeting right now and share ideas and share what's working and what's not working. It makes all of us in the industry that much stronger, right.

Dave Steinberg:

Yeah, for sure, and it's the collective well-being, the collective. Again, rising tide lifts all ships. I mean that's kind of a cliche, but obviously it's true.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right, no question, dave Steinberg, president and CEO of 4Eyes. We'll put all the information on the screen here as to how to get a hold of him and to check out 4Eyes. These are the kinds of solutions, folks, that we want to be bringing you here at CBT News, and when you've got this kind of technology helping you and in your corner to decide which way to go with this particular customer, in real time for your salespeople and for your management team, this is the kind of technology that you need on your side. So, dave, thanks so much for stopping by. We really appreciate it, because it's solutions like this that dealers need to get their hands on. Without a doubt, we've been impressed with the product that you've delivered.

Dave Steinberg:

Jim, thank you so much and good luck to everyone, and let's get through this together.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. Thanks so much. Man Appreciate it Thanks. Thanks for watching Driving Solutions exclusively on CPTNewscom.