“Attribution is not a game of perfect, it’s a game of better.”
Greg Collins
About Greg Collins
Greg Collins joined as CEO in 2019 to accelerate growth, and scale C3’s software as a service business model.
Greg’s 25-plus-year career in enterprise software & marketing services spans Price Waterhouse, DataSource, Open Secure Access, and Reynolds & Reynolds. His functional experience encompasses enterprise-level service delivery, planning, and complex corporate development. He’s developed and grown SaaS businesses from ideation through accelerated growth, external financing, servicing and selling to the world’s largest enterprises.
Most recently, Collins led strategy consulting at Cape Fear Advisors and has completed and integrated more than 70 M&A transactions throughout his career.
He received his BA in Economics from Williams College and his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School.
Key takeaways:
[1:26] I introduce today’s guest, Greg Collins, and invite him to walk us through his career, from business school to consulting to M&A to auto to analytics.
[2:50] Right before the Internet took off, Greg was working at Reynolds & Reynolds. He shares what his responsibilities were and what he does today.
[4:35] With the vast experience he has accumulated, Greg chances a guess at what the landscape of modern auto dealership could look like in 10 years.
[7:36] Automotive was one of the first industries to take advantage of digital marketing. Greg explains the very good reasons why the adoption was so rapid as well as why they make such responsive clients!
[12:01] Aside from automotive, Greg speaks to other well-suited industries to sell analytics to, including financial services and health care. He also shares how he was first exposed to attribution and multi-touch.
[15:32] Greg gives some advice for buyers to build trust in their service providers when it comes to choosing a media-mix and using attribution.
[17:21] Is more data always better? Greg weighs in and also touches on how to set expectations when deploying an attribution system.
[23:05] The future of attribution is huge and closer than we expect. Greg touches on the growth and the challenges we can expect.
[26:21] Greg shares something that he knows that no one else knows: the more he learns, the more he realizes he doesn’t know much about anything; it’s important to just listen.
[27:19] I thank Greg for coming on the podcast and sharing so much of his experience.
Be sure to tune in for the next episode and thanks for listening!
Connect with our guest:
Greg Collins on LinkedIn
Quotes (edited):
“A consumer would put in four lead requests to dealerships. The winner was the one that responds the fastest, and that is still true today.”
— Greg Collins
“Automotive is a wonderful place to sell because they are willing to look at numbers, and willing to embrace well-quantified ideas and new relationships as a result.”
— Greg Collins
“Attribution is not a game of perfect, it’s a game of ‘better.’”
— Greg Collins
“As a client, you have to be clear on expectations about third party relationships or the source of data; your service provider should be able to give those answers to you, and if they can’t, that should be a warning sign.”
— Greg Collins
“C3 remains an independent third party, and that independence provides additional credence to the results.”
— Greg Collins
