“You're Already Late!” Why AI is No Longer Optional in March 2026 (+ How To Hire Your First Agent)

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the car dealership guy industry spotlight. I'm your host Sam dark and coming up today

35 car a month salesperson Roman sprigs turned sales manager then turned general manager shares his strategy in small town America to deliver vehicles coast to coast all utilizing an AI agent

He named after his own son Alex learned three tips for buying installing and training AI in March 2026

and two things to absolutely avoid when considering who to trust with the tech solution joining the show today Roman sprigs GM all things auto and Ross tinkum vice president of automotive sales podium

Thanks to podium for supporting today's content. Let's get into it. So Roman you are a independent use dealer in a rural area. How do you get into the car business? How do you get into being a used car GM

At a dealership that's part of a larger dealer group. What what's the Roman sprigs story. I was introduced by sales manager that like my charisma years and years and years ago

And I was introduced in the business in our Subaru Hyundai store back in Cumberland, Maryland as a salesperson. Okay. So 30 to 40 to upper 40s cars a month sold a lot of cars. How long ago is this Roman back in oh

six. Okay. Okay. Sold cars for a few years. And of course, then here comes general sales manager talk and let a successful floor sales managing you you sold a ton of cars as a salesperson. What made you say, hey, I want to take this leadership role. I want to become a sales manager.

I would say and I don't want to put everybody in a group, but most high performing sales people or sales people period look over at the desk. Right. I want to do that. No, no, because a lot of high performing sales people are like, you know what?

I can connect with a customer. I can answer the phone calls. I can respond to the emails right up until the number you said 30 40 cars a month. I did it.

Yeah. And it lights a certain character type up. I think you might be that. So what was it about leadership that got you to say, hey, I want to take that call. I want to answer that call. I want to go down that road.

I like the people I work for. I like Mark, Mark Thomas, obviously, and Chris Carpenter to time he is now partial owner. And yeah, that down and talk. And hey, if you could touch all of the customers, right.

And our narrow shape of mind and then, right. Because obviously the way it shakes out is that never happens because once you're a sales manager, you get all these other things are chasing use cars and chasing.

And I wanted to help them. I thought I thought we can move the needle, which we did. And it's funny. You said what you said because my sales manager before that he said, hey, listen, you're going really well. I just do me one favor. Whenever they come asking you to be a manager, please just stay a salesperson.

And I want to just, I don't want to say just that minimize it. Just stay a salesperson. Yeah, was there going to come. And I didn't heed to that advice.

And why not? Because by the way, I can tell from your personality, you do really well connecting with the customer. You do really well telling your story. And you probably thrived and loved selling cars. I would have teaching training what led to the managing part of season train and diving into the hearts of

but to the dove employees and I still do it today. But let me answer your question and be honest, ego. Let's just call space. We ego, right early on a person.

So I got a question for you. You had that success 30, 40 cars a month. Most people in automotive don't get up to that unit count.

Didn't it just drive you nuts when you had a sales team and they weren't picking up the phone and they weren't engaging with the customer. And they weren't responding to those leads. How did you deal with that in the early days as you were building that sales for.

It was tough. It was tough because you know what you know. And one of the challenges was trying to convey what something might have been natural to me to convey to someone else.

Hey, listen, listen, listen. And then on any sales floor trying to get them to figure out that we're on the same team here. I'm not brow beating you. I just you're missing some things that could really be helpful to you.

And in newer generation, they don't want to hear. I used to score 40 points a game, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

But biggest challenge is conveying and getting them to understand how important it is and trying to get them to pick up the phone answering questions and asking the right questions.

It all is a part of the bigger picture. Why do you think you as a salesperson all those years ago in the early days were so good at sales on the phone, responding, engaging.

Why is it such a challenge today in March of 2026 to get salespeople BCs to do the exact same. Why isn't it easier to train on that and to get that engagement?

Because in my role, Ziggler Auto Group CEO, I see the challenge getting this younger generation to really engage in a way that connects with the customer. And by the way, add to that borderline sometimes unreasonable expectations by customers.

They want to get a phone call picked up at 2 a.m. in the morning or a service appointment responded to it six o'clock at night, right.

So enter general manager use car facility part of a three store group very well regarded in your area. Yeah.

You want to win sell a ton of cars. You got salespeople. You went to AI and technology rather than going to forcing people to do something that is just hard to get them to do.

There was that decision moment where you're like, am I willing to spend the money the time the effort to engage in this AI versus forcing people to do something.

Why did you decide to go the AI route small store? You got to make every dollar count. What made you confident enough to invest in AI?

I was on a fringe of hiring another salesperson or a principal and around the or he likes to add salespeople and I pitched it to mark and and I got an idea from another couple guys that in the or I regard highly instead of hiring a physical person, I can hire somebody.

I don't want to throw your numbers out there, but X amount of dollars, right. Yeah, for this agent, I looked at it as an employee that I can tell exactly what to do. It's going to do it. It's not going to talk back. I don't have to write it up. I don't have to spend time of correcting it or come to train it.

You got to get it bought off in your culture and the way you do business. You named this agent as you called it something that was meaningful to you. What's your name?

Oh, son's name, Alex Alex very cool and neutral and just just yeah, yeah. So and enter Ross Tinkham podium Ross. When you got the call from Roman and he's like, look, small dealer independent used. I want my guys to deliver an incredible customer experience to every single customer walking in here. I'm going to hire an AI agent. I'm going to name them after my son. Well, went through your mind.

Ross. Well, I think absolute perfect fit for podium and for AI. I mean, we pay a lot of attention, Sam, to what happens in the franchise world. And we know the appetite for for AI and like it's talked about a lot. It doesn't get talked about as much in independent and generally my observation is independent dealers. I think or maybe a year, year and a half behind sort of the adoption curve.

Just appetite spend dollars budget. Why?

That's a good question. I don't know. That's a general statement. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who do innovate and ride ahead of the curve.

But listen, AI is a new technology. I think when you're running a smaller, smaller store. And it's all on you and your own reputation. I think there's a lot of hesitancy of if we hire this AI agent and it messes up with the customer that reflects poorly on me as a business owner. I'm not saying a franchise dealer doesn't operate that way, but it's I think it's a little bit different.

It's an intimate with a lot of the independent dealers we work with, but the other side of the coin is like they are running so thin.

In most cases, there is no service drive. It's all about moving units. Everyone's wearing multiple hats. And yeah, you're not obviously staff to the degree you are with humans like a franchise world where AI can become a great fed even for somebody enough, you know, more rural area.

I often talk on the show and I say, look, in this world of AI today, a new role of a general manager, no matter the size of the store is to grow, develop and invest in these AI agents so that they become a part of your culture.

Roman, you plug this new AI agent in and you start having this experience. What were some of the early challenges you faced or learnings you had to get around in order to make it successful and make it work in your store.

Tell you the first challenge was they plugged it in on a, I don't know, let's say at Wednesday night, I come in on the Thursday morning, I'm trying to figure out how to how he made this appointment on the first night in the customer showed.

And I'm thinking, that was my biggest challenge. Like one night literally the first customer, I come in the morning and I'm looking at podium and I'm thinking, and then I had to start thinking process, right?

Because initially, I'm like, okay, they told me all these things, which I will say that in most cases, people over promise and under deliver, they under promise.

But really, and I know, I'm no spokesman in what way in what way, Roman, did they under promise as you?

We had this tool, Austin had about an hour with me on a demo, and I think he even went over because I was so, so inquisitive, right?

And the way he explained it very, very professionally, I have gotten more than he, than he demoed. I can tell you that. And that's no short Austin because he did a great job as well as the rest of the team.

They, they shorted themselves. And I knew Ross, you're sitting there tickled, think I'm sure, but it's just the facts. I didn't expect to get what we got.

Roman wasn't expecting what he got it over delivered yet. I think in the independent world and smaller dealer world, a lot of dealers wedge against new car dealers by saying, you know what, we're not like those big city guys. We're not like the big town.

You're going to get a different experience here. And Ross, podium or related AI companies, you have a responsibility to defend that small town's field. You've got a responsibility to defend the perception that, you know, what we connect with a consumer better than the big guys do.

How do you do that at podium with AI technology? How do you deliver and deliver above and beyond?

Well, I mean, I think I think the most, the most important thing that we can do to support that statement into over deliver is, is the ability in which you can customize AI to be whatever it is you need it to be.

And so that goes much further than how you schedule a test drive or following process steps, but it's tone, it's voice, it's, you know, what language you would like it to use to interact with your customers.

And I think we make that pretty darn easy and do it in a way I haven't seen anyone else in the market do. So, because again, if we go back to what you're doing, you're hiring an employee, like that is the, that's my, that's the framework you have to operate from.

And if you do that with a human, like you can build it into whatever you want it to be and it should really be the same with AI.

So, Roman, how many salespeople do you have right now, excluding Alex?

I have three in a sales manager.

So when you went to your salespeople and your sales manager and you're like, I'm going to plug in this AI agent, going to name them after my son, we're going to train him and he's going to help us set appointments.

What was some of the skepticism you got initially before Alex started actually setting the appointments you were just talking about?

I didn't get much.

Sam, I didn't get much and I'm a pretty strong personality.

And they trust me, right?

And I have to say this that again, Austin podium called me the right time because I was going through a DMS change and I was going from a Cadillac to a cobalt.

Okay.

And the CRM and the way the response to the leads, man, and that's why I said to Ross, I wouldn't even want to know where we'd be without podium right now.

And no skepticism at all.

They were excited.

And that's where I wanted to lead into a little bit like and maybe go off a little bit on the fact that, man, this sucker has reinvigorated the sales floor.

Well, it's an example.

We've all been on sales floors where you walk in. Hey, follow up.

Do this.

Did you do your task?

And the salespeople are just demotivated, right?

This thing, all of a sudden, has the floor buzzing.

People asking question selling cars because salespeople really do want to work, right?

And we think in the dealership, replace them.

Pimp them.

Get them out of here.

No.

We have to find a way to motivate them.

And what it did was it helped me motivate that sales floor.

And we had two record months in January and February.

We usually start off the fourth quarter behind the mark.

And again, I said, Ross, just in the blanket statement, I hate to see where we were at.

But I love where we're at.

And I know why it's the smaller things that it's done.

It's reinvigorated.

And it has people selling having fun selling cars where you come in before and you get off when he's salespeople.

I can't get a hold of a customer and they won't respond.

This thing has made them come into work.

And first thing they check in the morning, Jack, podium for other dealers your size.

Walk us through what podium actually does for the dealership day to day.

What does it look like once it's in place?

How do you engage and interact with it?

How do you train it?

Alex.

It makes it easy and they keep adding things like I noticed the other day.

One of the pain, not a pain point, just a little bit of a thing we had to figure out.

It would say the car was available, right?

So now it asks the question before it responds to the customer.

Is this car available?

And I get it at night.

I answered one last night, right?

Initially they came in.

They check there.

They check.

What's podium look like in the day to day?

They check their dashboard.

See what's going on.

Check reviews that because it gives reviews.

And you want to check and see if your customer is giving a review and it does that.

It checks their funnels.

I make sure they check their new leads first.

We assign those leads.

Then they have to place them in a funnel, follow up, do all the things.

But more importantly, it keeps a running tab in real time of what's going on with your customer.

The AI agent itself lets you know what's going on.

It makes notes because God knows salespeople love making notes, right?

Alex loves making notes to let you know exactly what's going on.

Transcription.

But during the course of the day, you can't miss it because it beeps my phone.

Hey, Alex needs your assistance.

If the AI needs assistance with anything on a customer question of negotiating or things like that, it knows it's bound.

As far as training it.

If you don't like a response, you just give it a thumbs down.

You tell it what it wants to say.

And I bet you the next one or two responses that says it.

Yeah.

It's been, I don't want to say to take anything away.

It's really been a plug and play.

And that's a fair point, Rowan, because if you implement something like this, you onboard it as an employee.

You don't train it.

You don't spend the time working with it, giving it thumbs up, thumbs down, answering questions as it converts it over to you.

It's not going to develop into part of the culture.

You've got to make that investment, Rowan, which you've done.

Yeah.

And I don't want to tear the industry up, but that's the, that's the negative in the industry, right?

We try to plug and play people, give them their business cards, give them their passwords and say, go sell with no commitment or investment, right?

And I know this was my first, and I tell you what is my first decision as a general manager.

So guess what?

It's going to work.

Yeah.

It's going to work.

And I'm going to.

Right.

And walk us through your thought process here, thinking about the next couple of years, go two years down the road.

What is dealership life at your dealership, independent, smaller town, look like in two years with versus without AI?

How far behind will dealers be that don't have this in two years?

You say two years.

If you don't have it now, you're behind.

Yeah.

Why?

That's where it's at.

I mean, that's right now within the AI industry, because I pay attention now.

It just keeps evolving.

If you are not there now, you're done.

You're especially for this selling season.

You're behind the mark two years from now.

I don't even want to know.

Ross, it's interesting.

From podium's perspective, automotive, we're not early adopters.

We want something that's proven before we plug it in.

In Roman's case, he had to have enough confidence to be able to make this bet.

Of course, he took a little bit of a risk, but named it after son and it's had success.

What advice do you give to most dealers that are kind of on the fence?

How do we implement AI?

When do we implement it?

And then once we've implemented, how do we engage with it to ensure it succeeds?

I think we were running to most frequently what I would call two types of buyers.

Those who are on the fence who have not tried it or those who have tried it, and it's gone very poorly.

I mean, that is that is generally what you run into.

And for the most part, the folks that we talk to, like, have tried it and just aren't happy with what else they're using.

I think the level of comfort in the industry of like, AI is at a level where if you're working with the right provider, and you onboard it well, and you integrate it into your processes and into your people.

You're in a pretty good spot to have success early on two years ago, probably, you know, a lot of hallucinations, a lot of challenges.

And I think the industries largely worked through there.

So I think for the most part, you can feel pretty confident that if you do it the right way.

And then that's more than just the software.

It's getting buy-in from your team.

It's investing people's comp plans if you run a BDC.

There's a lot to think about there.

But if you do it the right way, you're, I think, in a pretty good spot.

We try to make it very easy for you to understand what is AI delivering to you?

Like, what is it scheduling for appointments?

And we're now doing a lot, start on the sales side, we're on the service side, trying to break those two pieces apart.

Like, how the dealer understand the value, AI is driving.

And like, if we're not doing that, you're not going to know.

So you've got to be doing that.

And I think it really is just the ongoing training is things change for you and for your team, right?

Of continuing to fine tune AI and bring it along with you as things change for the dealership.

And thinking about what podiums tool, Alex in this case, again, named after Roman Sun has given him in their dealership in terms of scheduling, customer communication, customer interaction engagement.

What's next for the independent auto or even the franchise dealer in AI?

What, where are things headed over the next six months, the next year, Ross?

What can we look forward to next?

Listen, just coming out of NADA on part of the leave of some months ago feels like a year ago.

But I mean, I, everyone just wants to talk about voice.

I mean, I think, you know, like that, that's been mentioned on your show quite a bit, Sam.

That his voice in there.

It's getting.

You can still tell it's not you can tell us not a person, right?

I've not listened to any voice solution where it is, you know, it's as good as a human.

But what, when will it be there?

Do you think in your opinion?

And what's the benchmark for success in voice AI?

There will be a point in time in which you will not be able to distinguish AI voice from human voice.

When, when does that happen?

I don't know.

Six months prior to soon a year, a couple of years, 18 months, not far on the horizon.

But not, but not quite there.

But, but, but the question though, Sam, is does that matter as much?

Like if you're calling to make a service appointment and nobody ever picks up the phone and you leave a voice mail and can't get in touch with anybody,

and you prefer that versus an agent picking up the phone and helping you with what you need help with.

Like the people care as much.

As long as their problem is solved or they're, they're neat as they can care of.

And that's where I think we're, we're at where like they can do the job and might not sound like just like a human.

But it can get the job done in a far better way than a lot of the existing processes most dealers have in place.

So I know podium has a newer voice AI tool, right?

I think you launched it at an ADA Roman.

Do you, do you use that yet?

Have you implemented voice AI into your operation?

No, no.

And what's the bench?

When, when will you Ross?

When would you go to Roman and say, hey, it's there?

Or would you say, hey, wait a little bit?

Or would you experiment with it?

What should my strategy be at a smaller store where every dollar spent is so valuable today?

Yeah.

It is really important.

The company that you're dealing with is really important.

Like, yeah, I am sure I want to make assumptions, Roman.

You get a lot of calls for people trying to sell you AI as every dealer does.

And I hear about it every day.

Yeah, he's driving.

I'm sure.

Yeah.

And it's, it's noisy.

Like, I think here's what I think you need to be cautious of.

If you're going to enter in with a voice product, connect with a company that like has a track record of.

It's really taking your feedback and being able to.

To make the product better based on that.

Because I think for a lot of companies, that's where voice is where it's not perfect.

But it's getting there.

But like, we, we look for.

Is cliche to say we look for partners, but Sam, we look for partners because we want a feedback from our customers.

We know everything isn't always perfect.

But like, we want the feedback.

And we should, we certainly use that to, to, to level up the product every single day of the week.

So truly, I think looking for a partner is really important when it comes to new technology, especially.

When we're talking about an AI agent that talks to your customers for you.

So I think I think the experience of the business you're working with matters.

They've got five customers, but have an awesome demo.

Run away.

Run away yesterday.

You know, like save yourself will trouble there.

So yeah.

All right.

So voice AI is emerging.

And that is probably going to be the buzzword for 26 is.

Deals become more comfortable with the figure out, engage in it.

What's beyond that?

What's just beyond that Ross for a dealer like Roman.

So there's two ways to answer that question.

One is like from a dealer's perspective.

The other is from a consumer perspective.

And I think what is starting to get talked and talked about more is.

We as consumers, we use AI to do things like go source of car.

That will take me and let me shop 100 dealerships simultaneously.

And so, you know, most dealers are going to probably see lead volume go up.

But there's going to be a whole lot more to sift through.

And so I think.

Part of it is like what's coming next in the technology from a dealer standpoint.

But also how are your customers going to leverage AI to a greater degree to buy from you.

In the next six to 12 months.

And that that's probably more important.

Think about.

Yeah.

You know, it's interesting as we kind of get towards the end of our time together.

I love Roman story.

Sold cars sold a ton of cars was very successful.

Wanted to share that success with others.

And realized in this competitive environment, something that we believe at my auto group a lot, which is.

AI is creating a level of expectation by consumers that very quickly is going to be absolutely impossible for people.

Not only tough because we don't like to answer the phone period, but impossible to deliver on phone calls at 2 a.m. Right.

Text messages at 5 a.m.

A service update Roman at 5 p.m.

When everybody's checking out a service all at once.

And AI well trained can deliver that.

And I love that you named him at the AI agent after your son.

Like what does that mean to you that you've given.

You've kind of set an example and automotive.

That really kind of continues the legacy that you began selling cars with.

I mean, I think that's pretty cool, Roman.

Yeah, it's cool to go around a dealership and no one.

There's no negative, right?

If you're in the audience, you sound like yourself.

There's always the chatter in the huddles, right?

About what's not working and what's worth.

They never talk about what's working, but when I walk through there.

Man, check this out Roman.

Look what Alex said here.

And it's just.

It's just like another employee.

It's it's cool.

It's cool.

And like I said,

Automotive fun again.

And like automotive became not fun for a hot.

And I'm sure you could find some showrooms that still are not fun.

That's the biggest little little thing, right?

Is it's exciting again.

And that's an effort to a product.

All right, Roman.

So as we close out,

what advice would you give to the dealer that's sitting squarely on the fence right now?

They're like, Hey, you know what?

This AI thing.

I know it was the buzz word to any DA.

I know I hear a lot about it all over the internet.

But I'm not totally convinced at the end of the end of the day.

The smaller store I can't just deliver a ferry customer.

A great experience.

What's the advice?

If you haven't done it, you're you're late.

Any advice is look into it.

Check your lead responses in your CRMC.

If you're tired of the CRM and task and all that things.

And do you want to work harder or smarter?

And do you want your customers to hire you?

Or silently fire you?

Or do you still want to keep chirping down your sales people's back in your sales management?

Back about tasks and follow ups?

And I mean, do you really have time to do that?

And my answer is a sales manager to a general manager?

No.

No, face the way to do it.

We do it everywhere across the industry, right?

We pay the debt guy and the paint touch up guy.

Why aren't we paying for the guy who takes care of what we like to do?

At the effectiveness that they do it.

And that's that's that's that's pretty insane to me.

As we wrap up, it does occur to me based on what Roman is saying.

Success in 2026 in automotive big big small dealer.

It you can't just plug an AI tool in and just to have the lights come on.

And it's just automatically working.

You do have to develop it.

You do have to understand it.

You do have to train it to adapt to your culture.

Timing is an important element of implementing AI in 2026.

I learned that at NADA.

The age is walking around and seeing it.

There are dealers that are so far ahead and they're so.

There are the others that are behind any thoughts as it relates to timing and training as an expectation into 2026 Ross as we wrap up.

Yeah.

I mean, I think.

Anything.

Any where the investment is going to take some time on your part, especially when we're talking about replacing.

Or augmenting your staff, right?

And then we're talking about the first thing that you're going to do with an AI employee.

And so generally what I would say is.

You know, if you're a single point dealership and we're just getting off the ground with you.

You really got to invest in those first 30 to 60 days, which are larger, larger group.

We might you know extend that timeline a bit.

Yeah.

But it's going to take your first 60 days to put in the work.

But again, look for something that makes it easy for you to do that.

You don't want to have to put together an email and send it to a support address to get changes made to your AI agent.

You should need you should be a mess for that matter.

I can list them.

Yeah.

But yeah, put yourself in a position where you have full control over over the outcome.

And I think.

Why isn't it ironic Ross that with AI, it's having better people that is the difference maker versus just more AI.

Like, I don't want to send a support case to an email address.

I want someone I can talk to and get it taken care of.

So.

Yeah.

Or issues be able to talk to the agent yourself and tell them what to do.

And I think that's that's what that's what we try to deliver on.

So yeah.

Yeah.

Well, Ross Tinkam, Roman sprigs.

Thank you so much, both for coming on to share your perspectives on all things AI in small town America used automotive and Roman.

Thanks for being forward thinking in naming it naming your AI and sharing your experiences not only for yourself, but for your team.

Thanks for sharing your best practice here on cardio ship guy industry spotlight.

Thanks for being on the show.

Oh, mine.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.