When Monik Pamecha co-founded AI voice startup Toma in early 2024, he hadn't anticipated spending the summer months sweating in Bible Belt car dealerships. He and co-founder Anthony Krivonos were still focused on banking and healthcare customers when the dealers came knocking. Seeing an opportunity to pivot into a far less-regulated space than banking or healthcare, Pamecha and Krivonos set up a test: They decided to have their voice agent call essentially every car dealership in the country multiple times. Over the span of a few weeks they found those calls were only picked up 45% of the time. The co-founders packed their bags. And like some sort of modern reinterpretation of the movie 'Tommy Boy,' they set out to tour a dozen car dealerships in Oklahoma and Mississippi to get a better understanding of how these businesses work. They got their hands dirty both figuratively and literally; Pamecha said his wife was surprised by the grease stains on his clothes when he returned home. That commitment paid off. Not only did they win customers, they got the dealers' full charm offensive. The founders shared home-cooked meals ' a sometimes awkward-but-funny affair given Pamecha's vegetarianism, he said ' and were invited to tour the Corvette Museum. At least one dealer even asked the Toma founders to tag along to a shooting range....

“The UK car industry has just seen one of the busiest months it has ever seen.” When Robert Forrester, the CEO of Vertu Motors, said these words, he was referring to July 2020—and indeed, in certain parts of the world, car sales have been relatively strong in the past few months. Amid a global pandemic and mandated lockdowns, some people who once relied on public transportation, rideshare services, and air travel have turned to private cars instead.Forrester believes the lure of private-car ownership won’t be going away anytime soon. If he’s right, that bodes well for the future of the company he leads: Vertu Motors is a £3 billion automotive retailer that operates 130-plus dealerships across the United Kingdom. Forrester recently spoke with McKinsey’s Monica Toriello about what the car-buying experience looks like today and how it might evolve over the next ten years. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.McKinsey: Like most retail establishments, Vertu’s showrooms had to close down for a few months. How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed car buying? And which changes do you think will last beyond the pandemic, if any?...