Automating the Finance Department with Dave Kasabian | 2024 NADA Show

Paul J Daly: 0:06

All right, we're here with Dave Kasabian, CMO of us. And we're so excited that like, this is one of your first podcasts that we get to get all the good information. That's right. So thanks for joining us today.

‍Dave Kasabian: 0:16

Thanks for having me.

Paul J Daly: 0:17

So I don't know. I mean, us, we just had this conversation a little bit off camera. Tell us about the structure of us, because it's a much bigger company than I thought when we first had this company.

Dave Kasabian: 0:27

Yeah. So so we're a global company. It was actually founded in in France. Been in the US for 10 years. This is our 10 year anniversary this year. Wow. Yeah, in the US. And we're, we've got 1000s of customers globally. And we're about 400 employees at this point, and continuing to grow 30 to 40%. Every year.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:47

That's incredible. So uses, it's a new entrant really to auto in its in its timeline, right? So there's not a lot of people that really know what you all do. So can you give us just like a really quick? Sure,

Dave Kasabian: 0:59

sure. So we we automate the purchase to payment process in the finance organizations, of all companies, but auto dealerships are our biggest vertical that we're in. So we have hundreds of customers that are auto dealers of all sizes. And we really automate the, the invoice to payment process for them. So take that from a manual process that takes lots of time and effort and has lots of errors to an automated process that allows them to do it more quickly at lower cost, and allow them to focus more on driving their business versus managing those back office processes.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:42

I mean, in auto, specifically, everybody is talking about how do we because we have a talent gap, right. And I think every industry right now is experiencing this talent gap. And how do we do things that historically we've had bunches of people in an office doing that have a lot of legacy knowledge and can can do it? And how do we make sure that we streamline the new the talent that we have? And leverage technology to do that? How does you see this like, leveraging technology instead of replacing people? Right.

Dave Kasabian: 2:12

So that's a really good point that the way people have traditionally dealt with that is throwing more people at a process. We look at it as how do we take technology, apply it to that process, so that it takes less time. And that you can build that knowledge that you're talking about that at the end of those Digital's have built that into the technology, so that it's consistent, and it's in its controls, so that you know what's happening the same way each time, and you have the visibility, to be able to check on it and audit it and make sure that it is accurate. So it provides that level of control. But it also frees up those those people with that industry knowledge to be focusing on the more important things that are more strategic to the business, rather than on those manual processes and Treasury. Yes, nobody loves doing the same thing every day. And like they're just you know, hammering on a rock. It's really trying to free people up from that. And at the same time, saving money by doing it. So looking for this can reduce the cost. But you can also reduce the time, which is and we all know time is money as well.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:24

Sure. Yeah.

Paul J Daly: 3:25

Who are the people in the store that you ended up speaking to the most? I assume it's back office? Yeah. Who else? Like who is your target? decision maker?

Dave Kasabian: 3:33

Yeah, so we're typically talking it depends a little bit on the size of the dealership here, we're typically talking to the controller CFO, and sometimes the CEO or owner. And really talking about how their process works, and how many, how many rooftops they have, how many invoices, the process, all those things, help us understand what their needs are and what we can do for them. Because to us, it's very important to understand their situation so that we can really accurately assess what what value can we provide to you and be very upfront about that at the beginning. Knowing how much, how much value can they really get out of investing with us? Because if there isn't that much, you know, we want to be very honest with them and say, hey, you know, in this situation, you may be okay doing it the way you are. But the vast majority of time so that's not the

Paul J Daly: 4:32

answer. It's a low hanging fruit, like you said, you know, like, what's the thing that when you go in the biggest response out of the words like oh my gosh, that just got so much easier. Yeah. What's, what's the what is that low hanging fruit?

Dave Kasabian: 4:44

So it's usually around the invoice, how many invoices they're processing, and how many different rooftops they have and how, what do they have visibility into where they stand at any given point in time? Because when it's something annual process they usually don't. And so being able to give them that kind of insight into where they stand across the entire dealership, at any given point is is one of the key things. And then also how long it takes them to actually process their invoices moving through moving through a friend, you have a

Kyle Mountsier: 5:19

sickness, yeah, whatever. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I have a question. And this is a little bit off topic on that. But you've only been here as the CMO for a few months now,

Dave Kasabian: 5:27

three months?

Kyle Mountsier: 5:29

What what solidified your decision to say, Hey, this is the company that I want to help lead in. And with auto being your biggest vertical? What's the why for you? Why is this important to you?

Dave Kasabian: 5:40

Well, for me, it was I honestly didn't know us when I was first contacted. But you brought up a point earlier on in the interview that that US has been around for a while, but you didn't, you had heard of us. And when I got to know the company in the value that we bring to dealerships, the fact that people don't know about it, as a marketer, what you want to find is a company that has a strong product, strong culture is really helping their customers, but they don't have the visibility in the market that they should, as a as a CMO. That's what you're looking for. Because you're going to be working with people that you you'd like, and you respect customers that you can deliver value to, and it's about getting that message out and sharing

Kyle Mountsier: 6:28

a story. Every marketer wants to share a good story, right? Yeah,

Dave Kasabian: 6:32

and and that's really that's really exciting for me as a marketer and school. But you always have to look at the the company and the product and make sure that you believe in what you're marketing. Yes, because I never want to be in that position where I'm a Marketing something that I don't truly believe it's going to benefit the people that are buying it. Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 6:51

die inside. Yeah, like no marketer with integrity can do. So what did you have any interaction with the auto industry prior to this?

Dave Kasabian: 6:59

I did not. So I'm, I'm that's great. I'm drinking through the fire

Paul J Daly: 7:07

what has been your car buying experience prior to coming to us? Like you've obviously had to buy cars prior to that? So how did you buy cars? What was your was your method?

Dave Kasabian: 7:15

So there's two ways one, I buy some at least some and I you know, I go through the process and I do the research on the type of car I want to buy what the current pricing is on that. I go into the chats to find out how how people are negotiating what what what's negotiable, and what's not like, Chaz? You mean

Paul J Daly: 7:39

like on Reddit? Yeah, things like that.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:41

Wow. Nice. Yeah, I know deep dive right. There's a lot of people in auto that don't recognize how deep red it is in the research phase.

Paul J Daly: 7:48

isn't buying rideable influencer? Yeah. I mean, it's much more there things like that. Yeah. You see YouTube reviews, and I mean, YouTube and Google reviews. And that's like a level. But once you get into the Reddit threads, there's like a credibility level that goes through the roof. So you spent some time in the Reddit threads. Yeah. And what do you do right now?

Dave Kasabian: 8:06

I drive a Audi s5 Okay, and 92 G

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