Do you remember the Lollapoolaza rock tours that took the world by storm during the 90’s?
It was a collection of the who’s who of modern music; each concert made your ears salivate. Imagine a concert that brought together the best of alternative rock, hip hop, ska, funk, and heavy metal. What Lollapoolaza was for music in the 90’s, Dealer Talk has become for automotive marketing in Canada
Dealertalk’s version of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Ice Cube, Stone Temple Pilots looks like these marketing rock stars: Jeff Kershner, Marcus Sheridan, Grant Gooley, Scott Stratten and Laura Madison.
2015 plans to take the Dealer Talk series to the next level.
Marcus Sheridan, “The Game Has Changed: How Sales & Marketing Changed Forever and What You Must Do About It”
Sheridan will be a hit with car dealers. Marcus plans to teach the audience how to bring their dealership into this century, to gain trust with potential customers as opposed to going to battle with them over price.
Sheridan was forced to reinvent his own pool business after the market collapse of 08’. How did he do that? Sheridan became a trusted partner and a teacher to his customers. With $0.00 marketing dollars to spend and near financial collapse, Sheridan started a blog that answered questions that potential pool buyers had. Fast forward seven years and Sheridan’s site, www.riverpoolsandspas.com is the world leader in pool related content, and recently River Pools and Spas has become a pool manufacturer. Teaching and trust can go a long way in the digital world, and Sheridan will teach you how to do that.
Laura Madison, “How I Used Personal Branding, Social Media & Video to WIN New Business In the Dealership”
Laura Madison was just like you, but better. Laura knows how tough it can be grind it out daily on the blacktop trying to close deals.
Instead of complaining about her own lack of ups, she created her own personal brand. How did she do that? By become a source of helpful information to customers in her local town by using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and her own blog. Laura used this approach to start selling over 25 units a month; not bad for a Toyota dealer smack dab in the heart of Montana, full of loyal truck drivers.
Laura plans on teaching the sales people in the crowd of the importance of building a brand and experience, and making car buying experience rather than a transaction.
Scott Stratten- Unselling: The New Customer Experience
Scott Stratten’s list of credentials and accomplishments run longer than a Dave Matthews Band drum solo. And that is long.
Forbe’s ranked him one of the Top 5 social media influencers in the world, and Stratten also wrote “UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging” ranked as a best seller by Globe and Mail.
Scott’s a modest guy and would rather spend his time at Dealer Talk talking about his recent car buying experience. Scott will talk about how using “Unselling” can help you close potential buyers before they show up on your lot.
Scott will give specific examples of how to keep these potential online customers coming back for not just another car, but for service appointments as well.
Grant Gooley-Remarkable Marketing & Consulting Topic: Dealership Marketing Roast – The Hard Truth!
Let’s face it; as far as used car dealers have come in the last 10 years to shed the image of a gold chained, greasy haired weasel that was born to fight with you on price, it still exists with some customers.
Grant wants car dealers to tackle this head on. No more side stepping or weaving.
What does Grant think the best way to do this is? With a roast of the used car dealer.
For those of you familiar with the “roast” phenomenon, you probably recently enjoyed the roast of the pride of Canada, Justin Bieber.
If you are not familiar, a roast is a chance for the speaker to air ugly truths about the roastee. The roastee in this case being the used car sales person. Grant feels the auto world will be a better place once these are out in the open.
Grant will “roast” the used car dealer, and then take the opportunity on how to shed this stereotype and focus in on what matters most, the customer. Grant knows what he is talking about; he has worked with over 60 car dealerships during his career. Grant has implemented the practices he will talk about, and at the dealership level observed a 30-40% lift.
Trust me, if you haven’t seen Grant speak before, he will be a highlight of Dealer Talk. High energy might actually be selling Grant short – you do not want to miss him at Dealer Talk 2015!
Last but certainly not least is DealerRefresh’s own Jeff Kershner. Jeff was poised to take the Canadian market by storm at the last conference, but, in an ironic twist, an east coast snowstorm had him stranded in Baltimore. Dealers are excited to gain some of Jeff’s valuable insights and knowledge on his presentation It’s 2015; How Are You Communicating With Car Buyers?
For any of the DealerRefresh community that wants to take part, please go to http://dealertalk.ca/pages/page-with-no-content/redirect-to-eventbrite/ and use the promo code “dealerrefresh”
Look forward to seeing you there!
Here is a quick video of Dealer Talk 2014:
