"It's Like a Wingman": The Sales Intelligence Tool Closing the Gap Between Your Worst and Best Reps | Jay Ku, Founder of HeyGreenlight
What if your newest salesperson could perform like your best one every single time?
That's not a hypothetical. That's what Jay Ku, founder and CEO of Hey Greenlight, is actually building. And after sitting down with him at NADA, I have to be honest with you, this one stuck with me.
Jay spent years at TrueCar meeting with people representing thousands of dealerships, and he kept running into the same two problems. Salespeople had no idea who their leads actually were beyond a name and a phone number. And turnover was burning through training budgets faster than anyone could keep up. So instead of complaining about it, he built something.
In this episode we get into how Hey Greenlight pulls 25 plus data points on incoming leads, income, credit, garage data and uses that to build a personalized sales strategy for each one. We're talking about what to text, what to say on the phone, when to call, and even something as specific as which side of the lot to park the car on so the paint catches the afternoon sun just right when the customer shows up.
We also get into the AI conversation, and I'll be straight with you, I pushed on this because I didn't want to just nod along and confirm my own bias. Jay's take on where AI is genuinely useful versus where it becomes a crutch is one of the more grounded perspectives I've heard on the show. He makes the case that booking appointments and answering questions is table stakes, and the real opportunity is in helping people connect.
That's the thread that runs through the whole conversation. Tech enabled, human delivered. And Jay makes a compelling argument for why that's not just a feel good idea but actually a smarter business decision.
If you've ever watched a great salesperson work a room and thought "how do I bottle that" — hit play.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:48 Why Hey Greenlight
01:28 Two Dealership Problems
02:51 Data Enriched Leads
03:30 Wingman Sales Coaching
06:03 Personalized Prep Examples
07:31 Question Based Selling
09:55 AI Debate Human First
13:45 Connection Still Matters
17:52 Scoring and Accountability
18:44 Operational Efficiency Wins
20:28 How to Connect and Wrap
21:05 Podcast Outro
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Episode Transcript
Intro
0:13
All right, crew, we are back here at NADA at the Auto Media Marketplace booth together with I Heart Media Automotive. I've got the man himself, Jay Ku, the founder and CEO of HeyGreenlight.
I can't wait to get into this with you. Thanks so much for joining me on the DPB.
0:30
*Jay Ku*
Oh, well, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
This is a moment for me to be here with you.
0:34
*Michael Cirillo*
This is great.
I thought he was going to start singing.
This is the moment.
But we don't want a copyright.
You see how I stopped myself?
We don't want to copyright strike, OK.
0:41
*Jay Ku*
Also, if I start singing, you instantly have nobody listening to this, and so some protests to the FCC or something, maybe?
0:49
*Michael Cirillo*
The Innovative Idea Behind HeyGreenlight's Solution
I want to just dive right in because first and foremost, we've we've taken some trips around the NADA. There's a lot to take in.
It's rare that you land on an innovative idea that is fresh, something I believe deeply, which is leveraging the tools and resources already at one's disposal and putting them together in an innovative way.
1:18
And here we are.
You have it.
First, I want you to just tell me about how you came up with the idea for Hay Green Light and and the problem that you guys are solving.
1:26
*Jay Ku*
Sure.
No, thank you.
I appreciate that.
1:28
Addressing Generic Leads and High Sales Turnover Rates
So basically in my years at at TrueCar, I've probably met with people representing thousands, thousand dealerships.
And I think obviously there's a number of challenges in every dealership for sure.
I think two of the most significant ones are a salesperson has no clue when a lead comes in.
1:46
They have no clue who that person is other than name and a phone number and e-mail and obviously a VIN.
But otherwise they don't know who that person is.
Challenge number one.
And therefore, every outreach, all the initial touch points of that customer is incredibly generic challenge #2 is that turnover rates at dealerships, sales, you can invest 10s of thousands of dollars, burn thousands of dollars on leads, on salespeople only for them to not remember their training, not use their training or be gone in a few months, right?
2:17
And that's incredibly wasteful and also harmful to the dealership brand, right?
Because at the end of the day, that salesperson is the spokesperson for that dealership to that customer.
So you have two key challenges.
And, and, and that was especially she was something like TrueCar that had all these affinity partners where you were supposed to say, Lee comes in from Sam's Club.
2:37
You're supposed to reference that.
Guess how many sales people actually referenced it less than the fingers on my hand.
So, so the whole idea was this is how do we solve those two challenges?
So basically when we started, Hey, green light, the focus was on those two things.
2:51
Enriching Leads with Comprehensive Consumer Data Insights
So number one, through our partnerships with folks like Equifax and a number of other people, we get incredible amounts of data on almost every single U.S. consumer.
And so as soon as that lead comes in, we effectively append to that lead 25 plus data points, income, credit score, garage data and you.
3:10
And with all that information, we then calculate how soon is that person going to buy a car.
Because the reality is you need to talk to people differently based on timeframe, based off of age, based off of, you know, viability in terms of affordability, rather those types of things.
And so we give every dealer the power to know that information about their leads.
3:29
Now on its own, right, that's great.
3:31
Personalized Sales Strategies for Every Incoming Lead
But even with that information, can you trust your salesperson to use that info in the right way?
So, so instead, so we built essentially a, a, a, a sales product called Wingman, which more or less develops A personalized sales strategy for every lead that comes in down to what to text, what to e-mail, what to say on the phone with a teleprompter and when to call, when to text, when to e-mail, down to to the time of day.
3:55
Some people cannot check their phone during the day.
So that's not maybe not the best time.
And it does all of that.
And so basically makes your worst salesperson or your newest salesperson as good as your best.
4:05
*Michael Cirillo*
OK.
So there's a couple of things I want to draw on.
The first one I I think is a challenge that we've had in this industry for a while, which is training.
Training is so predicated upon the trainer's ability to articulate and motivate and inspire and the recipient's own desire to even want to learn or grow.
4:31
The second thing you brought up that I think is just so innovative in, in its simplicity even, which is levelling the playing field.
What do we always, what do we hear?
I mean, from my experience, it's, it's, there's one or two BDC reps that are good.
4:51
There's the one that's always the best of, of the crop, but even how are we measuring that compared to what?
And then there are the rest of them at varying degrees of, of efficiency.
What, what I'm hearing you say, tell, tell me if this is, if this tracks what I'm hearing you say is, but that's not a, that's a thing of the past.
5:12
Like now everybody, your your newest green pea in the BDC.
You're most seasoned.
That's a level consistent playing field.
5:20
*Jay Ku*
That's right.
So that that's absolutely right.
And and what we've built is not only so notice how when I talked about what we did, I don't think I mentioned the letters A and I at all.
And, and the reason is that there is an AI aspect to it in terms of the intelligence and us using it to basically pull in a number of different best practices around sales and that type of stuff and feed it to the, to the salesperson.
5:43
But the, the reality is that this is a tool that is part coaching, part immediate information sourcing, right?
If someone says what's the towing capacity of this kind of sub rather than looking it up, But then also it's basically taking the tips and tricks that make the best salespeople who they are in giving it to all of your salespeople.
6:03
How Wingman Personalizes Customer Appointment Preparation
Case in point, just anecdotal.
We had one of our dealers and one of the calls the the customer was saying how they're really into sort of the exterior color of the car and how it looked and everything.
And basically when the salesperson was prepping for the appointment, he asked the the wingman, which he asked wingman, she's coming in today for this appointment at 3:00.
6:23
What do I need to prep and get ready for the appointment?
Based on the conversation, everything that happened, Wingman tells them, say this, don't say this.
Remember, this is her credit ban.
This is her income.
These are her concerns.
Oh, by the way, because she mentioned that the exterior color is important to her.
When she comes in at 3:00, the sun is going to be at this point at the dealership.
6:41
Make sure you park the car on.
I think it was like the Southside whatever because the way that the lights going to hit the paint, it's going to really make it shine.
6:48
*Michael Cirillo*
Wow.
6:50
*Jay Ku*
Who would think to do that?
6:51
*Michael Cirillo*
It's like I I've used this term before and it's, it's like like a cruise ship has a cruise director to be a guest experienced coordinator, right.
What you're effectively telling me here is it is yeah, it's BDC enablement, but it's like guest experience coordination provided like who?
7:11
Hey, who's thinking about where the sun's going to be positioned at that time of day so that the car can sparkle?
You know, right, Like, now if we could get it to know that my wife loves Diet Coke, fountain Diet Coke.
7:28
And that was sitting in the car, that car we are driving home in that vehicle.
7:31
Enhancing Sales Through Question-Based Customer Engagement
It's actually funny you say that because we've trained on question based selling where you take an interest in the person, not a position.
7:39
*Michael Cirillo*
Tell me more.
7:40
*Jay Ku*
So we've trained it such that it asks, it helps the salesperson ask questions about why is that customer interested in the car, what is the pain point that they're having, what are the features that really they stand out for them.
And so and then also asking about their family situation, all those types of things.
Because for example, we had one where we saw where the customers like, Oh yeah, you know, I'm going to bring my kids, we're going to stop by and have some lunch before we come in.
8:02
And then Wingman automatically populated into the teleprompter.
Oh, great.
That's, you know, we actually here's 3 restaurant recommendations nearby that are great.
And this one's great for families.
You know what, when I can send you a confirmation on the appointment, I'll send you a link to the restaurant and the Google Maps so you can just plot your way there.
And it's literally right down the street from the dealership.
8:19
*Michael Cirillo*
You know, what I love about this is because those are the things that the customer actually kind of cares about.
Like what the last couple of times I've purchased the vehicle, I mean, they're getting, they're getting faster, but they're, they're still this like 3 hour thing where you know that, that they have to, even if it's brand new and never been sat in, they got to bring it to detail.
8:38
They got it.
So you're still sitting there.
And every single time, I kid you not, I say to my wife, what if they just asked me what I wanted to eat and had Uber Eats coming?
But to pick up on those cues and and what I'm seeing, the opportunity here is to get ahead of that in a much more intentional way.
8:56
*Jay Ku*
That's right.
So here's the thing.
So is it reasonable to expect all of your salespeople to ask those questions, make a personal connection when they're managing maybe 7080 leads per month?
I mean, you would think so, but but understandably maybe not.
And so we even had somewhere people mention like, oh, the sound system is really important.
9:12
And then the teleprompter tells us all this person to ask, well, oh, what kind of music do you like to do?
What's your favorite artist?
They mention it and guess what, when that person is prepping for that appointment, they ask Wingman, what do I need to do?
And he says, oh, by the way, you should have this music queued up ready to play in the sound system because that's his favorite artist or something, right?
9:29
We even had one, we some of our dealer clients that have a large Spanish speaking customer base.
And so Wingman told the salesperson, hey, when you take a video of the car, which by the way provides a script and instructions for what to video, after you take the video, make sure you should send it over to them on WhatsApp because it tends to be that Spanish speaking customers use WhatsApp more than iMessage or these other things.
9:50
So you're going to get more engagement in a higher likelihood they're going to actually watch the video if you send it over WhatsApp.
9:54
*Michael Cirillo*
Right, I'm I'm, you know, something that I've been really conscious of is in a world of AIGPT in particular, yes, I'm calling you out really does a good job at reaffirming my bias on so many things.
10:09
Leveraging AI to Empower, Not Replace, Human Salespeople
And so I'm, I'm trying to be conscious of what I'm about to ask because I don't want it to seem like I'm just wanting to reaffirm a bias here.
However, we did, you did briefly touch on AI, but the throughput here that I'm hearing is scale the human and I, I feel like there's two camps.
10:28
There's camp A, which is, you know, like I, I can never remember the guy's name, but the, the CEO of Salesforce, who, you know, 8 months ago saying we're going to replace 50% of our workforce with AI.
Then you have Google on the other side of it.
10:44
That's like, no, we're, we're, we may not hire as aggressively, but we are going to leverage AI to, to speed our people up into that sort of a thing.
My own CTO, Dan was on yesterday and he's talking about the need for the human to still develop the skill set.
11:00
And I'm, I'm hearing something to the same degree of you, which is that the through line to this is tech enabled human delivered.
That's right.
Is is kind of how I'm hearing it.
But but you see, I'm, I'm even conscious to make sure I'm not reaffirming a bias of just the the the people in Camp B who are like, no people, people would do, right.
11:22
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
Yeah.
What's your view on that?
11:24
*Jay Ku*
Yeah.
So look, I think there's there's a like with everything, there's a time and a place for every tool.
Yeah.
And I think like with everything, when something's new, everybody believes that tool, it'll be a fix all and will kind of permeate everything.
I think, look, here's the reality.
Here's my take on it.
And, and for any dealer that's thinking about where and how they utilize AI is most of the players out there today are creating a like AI from a standpoint of data analysis and quickly pulling things and insights 100% great.
11:49
And there's a lot of people do that.
I think from an agentic AI standpoint, there's a lot of people developing some great technologies, but I think a lot of them it's I think it's going to become a commodity where like SEO or these other things at at some point soon every dealer will have some amount of AI to answer phone calls, answer questions, great if you just have a very straight Q&A type.
12:10
I need to know, does it do this?
Where do I put that?
How do you know AI can answer it fine and that's a great use for it.
But the reality is, is and not to poopoo the innovation behind that, like that's necessary, that will be required.
Dealers will have that.
But and then and AI can book appointments.
12:25
But the question is, is OK, but what else from there?
And, and, and ultimately, can it help you sell?
Can it help you empathize?
Can it help you connect?
And we feel like we're one of the few that's actually focusing on that first, because I do think a Gentek AI that can answer questions and book appointments like that will be commonplace.
12:44
And there's any number of folks that can do that.
And what we have an AI that can do that too.
And that's just, but that's, that's table stakes, ma'am, that's table stakes.
You know, just like every dealer needs to do SEO, every dealer will need to have some kind of AI agent that can answer questions and book appointments.
Fine.
But it being utilized for sales is is where we have to get more creative.
13:04
*Michael Cirillo*
Yeah, I just feel like, you know, as long as human beings are going to continue to be born on this planet or we're we're going to need them and we're going to we're going to need them.
I'm talking like an AI now.
I'm talking like Skynet them.
13:20
We're going to need people.
We're going to desire people.
The work may change.
And I see, I see what you're doing with with Wingman as changing, contributing to change in a positive way, but in a way that still allows the human to do what they're good at, which is to feel and to discern and to empathize and to trust.
13:44
*Jay Ku*
That's right, That's right.
13:45
Why Personal Connection Remains Crucial in Sales
And and like I said, if you're talking to, you know, a 23 year old getting her first car, maybe not a great credit, you know, and just trying to figure that out, like you want to talk to a person.
As long as look, the reality is buying a house is harder these days.
So for some people, buying a car will be your most expensive purchase, right?
14:01
Like you want to feel good about that.
You want to feel consulted, you want to feel empathized, you want to feel helped.
And you know, as much as the common kind of cliche of like, oh, people don't enjoy going to dealerships and dealing with salespeople is that there's it's still not to the point where they're like, you know what, like I don't want to talk to a person when I do this, right?
14:20
It's still there.
And so and so that's why for us is this tool is wingman on, you know, variable on fixed on acquisitions.
It's just having a person be able to sense, to understand, but have us have something there that can give them the guidance and the tools, what questions to ask, what information to give, but also to help connect, right.
14:41
And you know, people need help connecting.
I mean, it's ironic that you would have AI or technology help you connect, but it really can.
I can't.
It can't replace, but it can certainly assist.
14:52
*Michael Cirillo*
I think about it, I'll never forget the experience I had sitting at my grandparents kitchen table when my father pulled out a briefcase, opens it up and pulls out the first cell phone.
15:08
You know the big.
15:09
*Jay Ku*
Sure.
Like, yeah, yeah.
15:10
*Michael Cirillo*
And my my grandfather who was a radio operator in World War 2, so I had to carry this massive backpack and all this my dad said, watch this and called them and my the ghost.
It looked like the ghost left my grandfathers body at that level of innovation.
15:27
Now I'm thinking about what everything that you've just talked about, if you were to look at your parents or my parents, our parents generation in your minds eye and say, look at what we're doing here.
What do you think?
Do you think we have the same reaction?
Like what do you mean it's giving me?
15:43
*Jay Ku*
Well, I would say this, I would say, I would say in one sense, yes.
But I would also say the an older generation that you know, and like us, like when you wanted to call your friend at the house, guess what?
You had to call the house.
Yeah, your parent would answer.
Yeah.
Hi, Mr. Smith, Can I say you know, and you are you were forced to interact to develop those aspects that today, I mean, it's so funny.
16:02
There's a cliche on like tick tock or Instagram.
But how you know how you know what generation your barista is at the coffee shop?
Basically I talk to you, right?
Millennials are effusively about customer service.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
I always had Gen.
Z there.
Like what do you want?
You know, like, oh, it's like right there.
Like, yeah, OK, you want to, OK, great.
16:18
Get out of here.
You know, it's just like, it's just that, that and you walk up to them and they're on their phone, right?
It's just, and so I say yes, 100%.
But also it's a return to sort of like, I don't know, it's almost like a lost art or certainly it's a lost art, but also that art of connection even is it's just it's hard to teach and the hallmarks of a great salesperson, they can do all those things organically naturally.
16:40
So we just want to make every salesperson be able to do that consistently and automatically, even if they can't do it organically.
16:48
*Michael Cirillo*
Yeah, there's a, there's a cycle or a circle here that I'm going kind of back to the beginning, which I think is we, we talked about training my own, this is my own opinion.
OK.
So it's like I, I know there's, there's difficulties, there's challenges in training.
Like I said, the trainer wishes the trainee would get it, the trainee wishes the trainer would go home.
17:08
However, what, what you've built, what you're deploying, the consistency, the Intel, I think this is an unlock for those who are willing to pay attention that they will begin to, to your point in, they'll ingest the information and the cadences and the charisma and the delivery that it will actually train them.
17:35
If they're paying attention, it will help them become better at this art of connection that is a.
17:40
*Jay Ku*
100% the goal and it was never, I suppose it's never good to build a product that makes you irrelevant at some point.
But but listen, our feeling is there's always going to be new sales.
17:48
*Michael Cirillo*
People fire yourself or you can get fired by something else.
Exactly.
17:52
Measuring Salesperson Adherence to Best Practices and Coaching
And and so the reality is this so is that we actually score every call.
So here's the thing we have, we tell the salesperson what to write.
So, but also we have to figure it's not just the teleprompter on the phone, but it's also emails and text messages, right?
And so the idea is that is that we score on how faithfully that salesperson is following the guidance.
18:10
So we incorporate training, best practices and all that coaching into it.
Are they actually following it or are they deviating from it?
Some cases that might be OK, but then GSM or GM, whoever can say, hey, you know, Steve, I notice you're, you're really deviating from the script level.
18:26
Why is that right?
Well, just remember, we've trained it and we've built it in such a way to really help you get connection to the customer.
So we actually score how faithfully people have it.
So then the the the dealer principal or dealer manager knows that oh, like this, yeah, this is actually working and paying off and they're following what we want them to follow.
18:44
*Michael Cirillo*
The I, I have an affinity for operational efficiency.
18:48
Investing in People for Stronger Operational Efficiency
And so one of the reasons I think I'm excited about this is just that it is not operational efficiency at the cost of removing people.
It's operational efficiency at the investment of making them stronger, better and more.
19:04
*Jay Ku*
That's right.
Because look, like I said, if you think about an ecosystem of, of technologies and a dealership, especially when it comes to AI, it's like, you know, fine, have an AI that can answer inbound calls and put book appointments, have an AI that can ask some base ask and answer basic questions, that kind of stuff.
19:21
But you can do that, but if the salesperson when it comes to time, and it always usually does for that human to human interaction, cannot connect their way out of a paperback like it, who cares, right?
And So what we're also saying on some dealerships that we work with is they say, oh, you know, we've tested some AI solutions, but guess what happens?
19:40
Person comes to the dealership for their appointment.
Salesperson 1 hasn't read the transcripts of the conversation 2, no clue what they're looking for, whatever.
And guess what started all over again?
How frustrating is that versus our belief is if you keep the person at the center, which is why our wing man, when it generates text, generates emails, we want it to be that the salesperson is sending it, editing it, tweaking it.
20:01
They can just read it and be like, oh, great, It's referencing that she has three kids and mentions the fact that she's worried about, you know, cargo space.
And it does all that automatically.
Cool, great.
I'm reinforcing that send through the CRM.
Wonderful.
So I'm still at the center of it because again, when that person comes in.
20:19
We've already been dating.
We know what to do, like we we know each other here.
That's so valuable, I think in so many ways.
And it's just something that we feel like it's hard to do a lot of dealerships.
20:28
The Future of Human Connection in Sales Technology
Well, listen, I think this is amazing.
I think everybody that's paying willing to pay attention should be paying attention to this because I really love the throughput to human connection increasing and leveling up human capabilities.
As we wind down, Jay, how can those listening or watching you can look right into that camera there and tell everybody how they can connect with you?
20:49
*Jay Ku*
Yeah, I'd say like come visit us at at hey, greenlight.com, check us out on LinkedIn and yeah, look, come learn more about it.
And, and we're, we're excited to, to show you and, and show you what we can do.
21:01
*Michael Cirillo*
Love it man.
Thanks so much for joining me on The Dealer Playbook..
21:02
*Jay Ku*
Yeah.
No, thank you. Appreciate it.
21:05
(Outro) Hey, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast. If you enjoyed tuning in, please subscribe, share and hit that like button. You can also join us and the DPB community on social media. Check back next week for a new Dealer Playbook episode. Thanks so much for joining.
