At WinnowPro, we firmly believe that data is key to the future success of businesses” David Saedi, CEO of WinnowPro

It’s a well-known fact that the rapid development of digital marketing over the last decade has led to a transformed competitive space for automotive dealerships. There have been two specific shifts that have affected auto marketing the most. The first being growing online searches by consumers looking for the best deals. Consumers are entering the buyer’s journey much more informed now by conducting their own extensive online research before ever stepping foot into a dealership. Statistics show that car buyers consider up to eight other brands before making a decision, not to mention the countless reviews available to them online. This trend has forced even the reluctant auto brands to dedicate resources -- be it time or money -- to maintaining a reputable presence online.

The second shift has been a move to proactive selling within the industry. Evidence of this has been much more prevalent in the last five years with brands like Carvana. What we mean by proactive selling is finding new channels to attract consumers who have grown tired of traditional methods of car buying. The success of these new marketing tactics has highlighted consumer desire for a re-architected buyer’s journey in the face of an industry that is historically passive with marketing innovation.

Taking these developments into consideration, WinnowPro has
a two-pronged approach at working with clients that address these very issues. Our team of engineers have developed AI-backed tools that provide our clients with precise, real-time data on their online positioning as compared to their direct competitors. Using that information, our strategists then assist clients in developing custom search engine marketing strategies that effectively convert targeted sales leads into buyers and recurring customers. These intelligent strategies continuously boost WinnowPro clients’ market share by repositioning them higher in online searches - creating new opportunities for capturing more leads in the future.

The second prong of our approach is focused on developing innovative channels of communication and lead qualification. Stimulated further by the pandemic, consumers are increasingly reluctant to visit a dealership in-person. Therefore, as dealerships shift to meet the consumers where they are online, WinnowPro works with clients to build out competitive lead capturing techniques, like the WinnowPro chatbot, an intelligent chat flow that automatically qualifies leads before they reach a dealer’s sales team (i.e., driving higher conversion rates).

We recently interviewed David Saedi, CEO of WinnowPro to know more about the company.

Read on for the excerpts from the interview.

Q. What has helped the company distinguish itself and its services from others? 

At WinnowPro, we firmly believe that data is key to the future success of businesses. Many business decisions today are based on data, yet so many companies still lack the experience and expertise to conduct analytics properly. We work to fill that gap. WinnowPro is dedicated to creating industry-leading data collection and analysis tools that are designed to promote optimal profitability for a business. With an impressive team of highly experienced engineers and business experts, we work with clients to provide them actionable insights that they can understand and utilize. We leave no stone unturned in the detail of our analytics. Along with that, we set a high standard for data integrity at WinnowPro. By collecting our own data instead of solely relying on information from third-party sources, we deliver intelligent insights with confidence. More information on WinnowPro’s data integrity practices can be found in their ongoing Data Integrity Series on the WinnowPro blog.

Q. How important is the expertise of the WinnowPro team to what it delivers?

The expertise of the WinnowPro team is critical to the company’s success and is at the very basis of everything they do. WinnowPro is able to deliver successful results for their clients because they deeply understand the automotive industry, including industry trends, how to gain competitive advantages, pain points, customer buying behaviors, and much more. Through WinnowPro’s deep body of knowledge of the auto industry, specifically for auto dealerships, they can continuously strategize on sales and marketing activities alongside their clients for the long haul.

You’ll find WinnowPro’s discipline and industry experts around the world, with most of their team headquartered in San Mateo, California. WinnowPro’s expertise in the automotive industry is supported by their experience with digital marketing at industry giants such as Google and Facebook, as well as engineering work with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Q. How have you innovated to adapt since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic?

Since the breakout of Covid-19, the company’s first concern was employee safety. WinnowPro quickly turned to remote working, which luckily served their global team and functions very well. Since then, WinnowPro provides ongoing support and flexibility for their team during this long period of uncertainty with health and financial benefits including unlimited PTO.

WinnowPro’s second focus was on helping clients stabilize and earn a bigger competitive edge, which was no small feat since the industry (and world) was in a complete shock. The pandemic created an unprecedented challenge for dealerships that relied heavily on in-person sales, so WinnowPro worked with clients on developing their digital capabilities in preparation for the increase in online sales for both their auto sales and service departments. The biggest innovation during this period was the creation of the Competitive Intelligence Tool (CIT) that gave WinnowPro clients a significant competitive advantage in their respective locations.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

WinnowPro has several sales and marketing tools currently in development that will be launching later this year. One product that the company is eager to release is a new intelligent chatbot tool for auto dealerships that uses machine-learning functions to work as virtual sales associates for dealers. The tool’s primary benefit to dealers is its ability to save sales teams at the dealer time from qualifying website leads, which traditionally steers sales folks to dead ends from time-consuming low-quality leads. Instead, WinnowPro’s chatbot engages and qualifies real website leads in real-time and will handoff those high-quality leads directly to a dealer’s sales team so sales teams can do what they do best, close deals.

WinnowPro also has several new services -- including email marketing -- that will be gradually rolled out to participating clients in the upcoming months. Viewers can stay informed about WinnowPro’s newest releases via email updates.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers?  

WinnowPro is expanding quickly, both within the company and in the market. The company looks forward to bringing on more industry-leading experts to their team in the upcoming year, with the intention of expanding their offering and ability to effectively support clients in reaching their goals. This will include clients in the automotive industry, as well as those clients within the healthcare, real estate, and similar industries. Regardless of the timing for industry expansion, WinnowPro will continue to be a data-focused company that measures results with impact for their clients’ ROI.

"WinnowPro is able to deliver successful results for their clients because they deeply understand the automotive industry, including industry trends, how to gain competitive advantages, pain points, customer buying behaviors, and much more.”