"Stop Blaming Marketing": The Digital Mistake Costing Dealers Growth | Ashley Cavazos, NCM Associates

"Stop Blaming Marketing": The Digital Mistake Costing Dealers Growth | Ashley Cavazos, NCM Associates

From The Dealer Playbook by Michael Cirillo

March 10, 2026 · 15 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the disconnect between marketing and strategy in dealerships and how to bridge that gap for growth.

What if the reason your marketing isn’t driving growth… is because it was never invited into the strategy conversation in the first place? That question sits at the heart of this conversation with my good friend Ashley Cavazos, Digital Performance Consultant and Moderator at NCM Associates. We recorded this one live from the NADA show floor in Las Vegas, and within minutes we were digging into something I see happening in dealerships all the time. Leaders expect marketing to deliver results. But marketing often isn’t sitting in the room when the decisions that shape those results are made. In this episode, Ashley and I talk about why that disconnect still exists and what has to change if dealerships want marketing to actually drive growth instead of constantly cleaning up problems after the fact. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:47 Why Marketers Need Seats 03:39 Inventory Firefighting Reality 04:06 Connecting Teams And Journey 06:22 Plan For Failure Points 08:04 Process Before Mindset 08:28 Alignment Beats AI Hype 10:37 Leadership And KPI Clarity 12:12 Advocating With Data Proof 13:18 Contact Info And Closing

People in this episode

Host: Michael Cirillo

Guest: Ashley Cavazos

Topics covered

  • marketing strategy
  • dealership growth
  • digital performance
  • team alignment
  • leadership
  • KPI clarity

Keywords

  • marketing
  • dealerships
  • growth
  • strategy
  • leadership
  • data
  • performance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NCM Associates

Places: Las Vegas

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