Industry Events

DrivingSales Presidents Club 2016 – The Event

DrivingSales Presidents Club Event 2016

If there’s one industry event that I really look forward to each year, it is the DrivingSales Presidents Club Event.

Why? …several reasons, but mostly due to the great content presented by a selection of high caliber presenters. The set-up makes for a more intimate experience, a real opportunity to absorb some of the latest statistics, best practices and how to apply them. You’re not running around the halls from room to room, missing half of a presentation because somehow got yourself stuck in a never-ending conversation.

In previous years, the DrivingSales Presidents Club (PClub) event has been in the heart of New York City. For me, that’s a semi-quick train ride from Baltimore/Washington to Grand Central. Who doesn’t appreciate staying here on the East Coast and experiencing the energy of New York City from time to time?

While the event has always received high praise and excellent feedback from dealer attendees (any myself), there’s always opportunity to elevate and bring forward something different. After my conversation with Chris Reed, President of DrivingSales, it’s quite apparent that this is exactly what they intend to do.

Chris said the DrivingSales executive team has “re-imagined” the PClub event for this year by combining the already progressive thought leadership and dealer executive focus the event is known for, with the added interactivity and peer networking for a true workshop format.

They’ve expanded the event to a day and a half to make room for dealers to participate in their choice of 3 in-depth 2+ hour interactive workshops (out of seven) facilitated by professional moderators and 20 innovative dealers who have successfully tackled the workshop’s topic.

Industry Thought Leaders for DS Presidents Club

The dealers’ presentations will be complemented with insights from industry thought-leaders and consultants. Here are some examples of what they have lined up:

Building a Winning Workforce

Steve Szakaly, NADA Chief Economist, will be sharing his findings on the workforce issues holding us back as an industry.

Then you’ll will hear from Wes Lutz owner of Extreme Dodge and Andrea Schliessman, Sr. Director of People Development for AutoNation. Both will be speaking on the techniques they use to radically reduce sales turnover while lowering the cost of sales.

Used Car Centering

Given the margins dealers are making on new vehicles, should you run your businesses as a Used Car operations first and a Franchised Dealership second?

My friend – will he make it – Tom White, Jr. will lead a dialog by 3 dealers and executives from vAuto, DealerSocket and DRIVIN on how to squeeze the best margin from your used car operations.

Creating a Resilient Business

What if interest rates climb 3%, sub-prime defaults soar, real estate values tank, and the SAAR drops 20% – are you positioned to handle these blows?

Jon Lancaster, retired dealer, bank owner and financial whiz, is partnering with David Spisak, CEO of Reverse Risk, to walk you through a “stress test” of your business.

Tom Gage, Cox’s market strategist, will share how the industry is going change over the next 10 years, and Ryan Kerrigan of Kerrigan & Associates is going to share how you can leverage these insights to maximize your “Blue Sky” valuation.

There will be four more workshops you can choose from of a similar caliber:

  • Dealership Brand as A Competitive Advantage
  • The Modern Showroom Floor
  • Precision Marketing
  • Service and Parts Business Innovation

Keynoters Dan Waldschmidt, best-selling author of Edgy Conversations and along with DrivingSales Founder and CEO Jared Hamilton will be sharing found insights that are sure to have your wheels turning and excited to return to your dealership and implement this new found knowledge.

DrivingSales valuable insights contest

Chris also shared with me…the finalists of the Most Valuable Insight Contest will be presenting on some groundbreaking, in-depth market discoveries from their own individual research initiatives.

In addition to the new format changes, there’s another Big Change. This year’s President’s Club will be held in South Beach, Miami Florida on May 4th -6th. If you’re going to move the PClub Event away from NYC, while keeping it on the East Coast, Miami is it.

As always, attendance at the Presidents Club is limited to dealer owners, general managers and dealer group executives. If you, or your leadership team would like learn more about the event, review the agenda or to sign up, you can do so at drivingsalespresidentsclub.com.

Are you planning to attend? If so, let us know over on the DealerRefresh Dealer Forums.

Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.