As the Internet Sales Manager at McGovern CDJR, Peter Massimilla, Jr., is focused on turning leads into sales and better connecting with customers to close that loop.
The details: One of the top ideas he’s kicking around is connecting with customers in his area by capitalizing on the excitement of the World Cup.
“We live in a very high Hispanic community here where we are in Medford, Massachusetts,” Massimilla told Sam D’Arc during an appearance on Daily Dealer Live.
“If you look at what's going on with the World Cup and the amount of Spanish people in Boston, the celebration, lifestyle of it all… we weren't tapping into that market, and now we are. We have a direct Instagram that's garnered towards Hispanic-speaking people.”
Rebuilding efforts: Massimilla is a one-man show for BDC, working through leads to develop contacts across different customer segments.
He’s part of an overall team that is trying to build the store’s sales up after the recent purchase by McGovern.
Right now, it’s averaging 120 per month in the Greater Boston area.
“We're kind of rebuilding the store,” Massimilla said. “McGovern took over a longtime family store that's been here for 35 years. It's just very set in its ways... We're getting things back in order.”
Working the subprime market: His store is also working to develop its subprime base.
In handling those leads, he points out that it takes some special care, given the customers often don’t have the most perfect credit or bring the top profits.
Still, he asks his salespeople to put themselves in the buyer’s position.
“The big thing is that you need to have a bit of empathy in the situation and show them in a gentle and respectful way that this is where you fit into the market and this is how I can get a deal done for you.”
That empathy and assistance, he says, come back in the form of a longer-term customer.
“One buyer spending $20,000 is OK, but one buyer spending $20,000 every five years is a bigger deal,” Massimilla reasoned. “You get retention, and you can get them into the sales department. You can create a pattern of things for them, and you can continue to earn their respect and their business.”
Utilizing technology: As a one-man BDC department, technology is everything for Massimilla. That includes developing chatbots via Claude and ChatGPT with vendors to ensure salespeople have all the relevant information when connecting with customers.
“I can build a chatbot for the staff so that they can put in the customer’s name, the car, and what they’re looking for, and it will give them a word track to start with when they’re speaking to the customer,” Massimilla said.
Other uses: While Massimilla sees the need for AI to help with customer-interaction prompts, he stresses the need for the human touch to follow up.
“Yes, you can get a great appointment out of AI, but you can’t get a great conversation that’s going to lead and pull the customer back into the situation,” he said.
His reasoning: Authenticity is a way for a store to stand out today.
“There's so many times nowadays, especially with the advent of AI, where people are essentially either directly speaking with an AI bot or they're getting an AI pre-written response,” Massimilla said. “A very robotic and it's such a cold interaction…the heart of car sales is the interpersonal connectivity.”
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Massimilla shared his thoughts on the best lead generators.
His top choice was CarGurus because it provides more complete lead information.
He also credited Stellantis direct leads and Facebook Marketplace with supplying solid leads.
One of the biggest challenges he’s trying to solve, though, is incomplete leads missing key information.
When this happens, he starts working through different channels - texts, emails, and phone calls - to reach out and present himself as helpful.
When leads are missing information, he looks beyond the CRM and turns to Google to fill in the gaps.
“You can find some things out, and you can fill some gaps, and it might give you an upper hand in verbal communication,” Massimilla said.
Takeaway for dealers: Massimilla points out that speed is important in turning leads into a sale. But as he sees it, you only score that goal by making a connection.
“Connecting is the biggest thing,” Massimilla said.
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