DealerRefresh

Obstacles, Observations and Opinions of an Automotive Internet Sales & Marketing Manager

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Digital Dealer 24 Review with Kevin Frye #DD24

It’s Five AM on Monday morning when I get up. Between the cat meowing to be fed and the dog whining to go out, it’s time to start the day. It has been a long, cold winter, but it’s April, it can’t be that chilly outside, right? Wait, GREAT GLOBAL WARMING! I just looked out the window and there is SNOW on my truck? It’s time for me to get on a plane and head as far south as I can go in search of warmth and sunshine. Digital Dealer 24 in Orlando, here I come!

Digital Dealer 24 at the Orlando Convention Center

Orlando, home of the adult Disneyland…  Wait, am I getting confused with Las Vegas? Maybe, though after multiple WestPac tours with the US Navy, I think that might be found in either Thailand or the Phillipines. I was excited to return to Orlando which has hosted the east coast Digital Dealer show many times. All prior conferences had been hosted at the Rosen Shingle resort, while DD24 was going to be located at the Orlando Convention Center. How did that work out? [Read more…]

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10 Key Takeaways from the ‘Data Doesn’t Lie’ Panel Discussion (DSES 2017)

In October 2017 I had the honor of co-moderating a panel discussion at the DrivingSales Executive Summit. Together with fellow attribution front runner, Steve White, Founder & CEO of Clarivoy, and our dealer experts, Shaun Kniffin, Marketing & Technology Director of Germain Automotive Group and Ben Robertaccio, Marketing Director of the quickly-rising Morrie’s Automotive Group, we were fortunate to have a jam-packed room on the last day of the conference. I guess the panel title (or the speaker lineup) evoked some attention.

Following is a list I compiled of the top ten takeaways from the discussion, and at the end of the post is the original Facebook Live recording by DealerRefresh.

[Read more…]

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Introducing the All-New DealerRefresh Podcast – In the Mix

Don’t you just love a good old-fashioned radio show?

Well if you do then you should listen to the radio. But if podcasts are your medium of choice, then be sure to subscribe the all-new DealerRefresh Podcast – “In the Mix!” Hosted by Refreshers Ryan Gerardi and Chris K Leslie, In the Mix is quickly becoming a preferred for keeping up with everything going on at DealerRefresh.

From webinars to interviews, Refresh Friday broadcasts, and humorous insightful commentary with your hosts and occasional guests, the DealerRefresh Podcast showcases everything going on…and more, offering up perspectives, opinions, obstacles, and observations from the best minds and personalities in the industry.

Subscribe and Listen on iTunes, Soundcloud, and Google Play

At present, the podcast is being hosted on Soundcloud where you can catch all current episodes using your browser. This is where we will link people to from blogs, discussion threads in the forums, emails, etc.

If you’re an avid podcaster then be sure to search for DealerRefresh from your favorite podcasting app, be it, Apple’s Podcast iOS app, Overcast, etc. Here are some additional links to get you started:

Comments, Questions, Feedback, and Ideas

At DealerRefresh we are always striving to provide the optimal experience with our Members and like all new ideas and experiments like this, we welcome your feedback and ideas on how to improve what we do. Please follow this link to the Forums to let us know your thoughts and ideas around the DealerRefresh podcast. Thanks.

 

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The Best Internet Sales Process Ever!

SponsoredLet’s be clear about the best “anything” when it comes to helping dealers sell cars: This new, best “thing” is only as good as the execution by your team.

The best CRM for you and your team, for example, is the one that they’ll use. Period.

It’s one that is intuitive and simple; and one that will help them communicate with your customers and prospects. The bells and whistles are what sells a CRM, but it’s your team’s execution that determines whether your CRM provider is a vendor selling you a product or a partner helping you sell cars.

Bad CRMs

While no CRM will sell you a car by itself, bad CRMs – those your team cannot or will not fully utilize – can cost you sales.

Lately, many of the CRMs often thought of as among the best customer relationship management tools in automotive have been falling flat for dealers. From reports that seem to come from a “random number generator” (providing often vastly different results depending on the day you run the report or where you grab the data) to impossible to implement work flows (preventing your team from easily customizing processes to fit specific customer profiles); these once highly-recommended products are being cursed in sales rooms across America.

But It’s the Process That Matters, Right?

[Read more…]

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Digital Dealer 23 Review with Kevin Frye #DD23

Kevin Frye at Valley of Fire

Contemplating the future of automotive at the Valley of Fire

I thought it might be a great idea to take some peyote, spend some time in the desert, and meditate on the future of our industry before starting Digital Dealer 23. As my mind wandered in the desert heat, a vision overtook me…

I should work to create a conference where dealers and vendors in the automotive industry can gather together to share the latest and greatest on how to be the best digital dealer in automotive. And I should have them gather in a city in the middle of a desert with bright neon lights, dazzling entertainment, and fantastic food and service. Wait? What? Holy hallucination! Someone already has done this and it is called Digital Dealer?

Time for me to straighten up and begin my recap of Digital Dealer 23 in lovely Las Vegas! [Read more…]

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Here’s Your Deal Cheat Sheet for Digital Dealer 23 in Vegas!

DEALS, DISCOUNTS, GIVEAWAYS FOR DEALERS at Digital Dealer 23 #DD23

It’s Vegas, baby! Digital Dealer 23 opens on Monday and dealers, once again, attend this conference to learn, share and bring home ideas they can implement to make their businesses profitable. Dealers who participate in conferences are determined to be successful despite SAAR and natural disasters. Good news is you have an army of vendors ready to help and support your sales efforts. Product innovation and commitment to service are the tools dealers need so check out the following deals, discounts, insights and promotional offers your DD23 exhibitors have for you. As they say in Vegas: Good Luck! Feeling really lucky? Click here.

MOBAUTO No clickbait promises of a fancy Apple Watch or an Amazon Echo for watching our presentation. We let our product do the talking. Exclusive mobile leads by text. Booth #532. 323-577-2886

COFFEE GROWLER/CARD HOLDERS/LANYARDS PLUS NEW PRODUCT RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT UpdatePromise – Automated status updates and mobile payments to improve consumer experiences and service lifecycles, UpdatePromise will announce new product release (TBD). Pick up a free growler & business card holder while at the booth. Booth #1023. 951-471-7235

PHANTOM 3 DRONE GIVEAWAY CarChat24 – Stop by the booth and talk to them about their 24/7 Live Concierge Chat and Facebook & Texting platforms. Booth #827. 800-510-7567 @CarChat24

IPAD GIVEAWAY Fastlane – Stop by the booth and drop in your business card for an iPad giveaway. While there, learn more about theirin-store and online checkout product for new, used, lease sales. Booth #424. [email protected]

MUST SEE PANEL DISCUSSION A DealerRefresh Panel – “Freshen Up” discussing attribution, eCommerce and managing vendors. Panelist info here. Monday, September 18th, 2:35 p.m. Keynote Hall. Sign up for RefreshFridays, a weekly 30-minute live video podcast here.

ENTER TO WIN OUR URBAN SURVIVAL KIT INCLUDING A HIGH SIERRA BACKPACK, DRONE, GO PRO, IPAD, AND A $100 AMAZON GIFT CARD! AutoLoop – Take CRM to the next level with XRM. Visit Booth #301 for details. 877-850-2010 [Read more…]

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Dealers: Sales Got You Down? Get Out of Town!

When the rowdy frat boys of Animal House fell upon hard times they needed something to take their minds off a bad situation. Road trip!

With J.D. Power reporting June SAAR to be the weakest first half since 2014, dealers need to rethink their second half. Get some fresh ideas, implement new concepts, network like mad, and work closer with your vendors.

Here’s a list of events and conferences to consider (in order of upcoming dates) or you can visit www.vendorDBauto.com and search CONFERENCE.

Rally, my dealer friends! The NADA new-vehicle sales forecast remains unchanged at 17.1 million for 2017. Remember! It wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Women in Automotive
Sunday, July 9 – Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate. Jack Simmons will be the emcee along with Eliana Raggio from DealerOn. Between these two you won’t need a second cup of coffee! Agenda, speakers and workshops look well-developed and offer a large variety of topics. Prices are $595 for the full 3 days or $295 for any one day. Contact: 407-412-9988

Internet Sales 20 Group
Monday, July 10 – Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia, PA. There’s a King of the Ring cash prize of $1000 that sounds fun, a Trending Now Tedx-style workshop and on Tuesday night, a hypnotist! $1045 conference fee. The conference is brought to you by Dealer Synergy. Contact: 856-546-2440

VinSolutions VinWorx User Summit
This annual event is Tuesday, July 11 – Wednesday, July 12, 2017 with optional days to meet with your Performance Manager at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Speakers include Mark O’Neil, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Cox Automotive; Mike Burgiss, V.P. Digital Retailing at Cox Automotive; Jim Roche, Sr. VP of Marketing, xTime; Tim Mueller, Google Automotive Retail Strategist; Brian and Glenn Pasch; Joe Webb; Bobbie Herron. There is no charge for this event but you have to have a VIN ID #. Contact: [email protected] [Read more…]

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Are You Closing Your Appointments at 80% or Better?

SponsoredLearn how to provide The Perfect Appointment in your dealership and enjoy 80% show rates and 80% close rates!

In 2013, we officially introduced dealers to The Appointment Culture as an answer to the dozens of worthless activities we observed managers, salespeople and BDC agents conducting in some effort to appear as if they were truly setting and selling appointments. 

In reality, they weren’t setting actual appointments, customers weren’t actually showing up on time, and virtually no one was actually closing “appointments” above the level that they closed their Traditional Ups. (Given this, why even encourage appointments if these won’t improve your close rates?)

For the most part, dealership employees were “box-checking;” that is, they were reporting and saying all the right things, but the needle wasn’t moving. Of course, in the growing market, it was hard for group executives, regional managers or dealer principals to know if their teams were really setting appointments that showed and bought, or if they were getting smoke blown up their backsides.

In the growing market, most stores were merely faking their appointment execution as their sales teams and (especially) BDCs were basically stealing from them.
[Read more…]

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Digital Dealer 22 Review with Kevin Frye #DD22

Can Peyton Hoffman Keep Me from this 5-Hour Energy Drink & another Digital Dealer review?

Woo hoo! It’s spring break!

I mean – “Hey boss, is it OK if I go to Digital Dealer 22 in Tampa to learn about the latest and greatest in automotive digital?”

Use your noggin knucklehead!

The last approach might be more successful if you want to join fellow dealers in sunny Florida to work, train, and network 24/7 to become a better digital dealer when you return. And who doesn’t want to go to Tampa, Florida for Digital Dealer 22 after a long, cold winter? Are you ready to begin this recap? [Read more…]

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Simplifying Attribution to Propel Efficiencies and Profits

Despite changing consumer behavior patterns, many if not most dealers continue to evaluate third parties only on “hard lead” measures and discount others forms of influenced purchase behavior. Consumers want to be in control of their experience and they are reluctant to provide their contact information because they fear the repercussions of unwanted marketing and solicitation.

These influential experiences appear anonymous to the dealer looking through the lens of a traditional hard lead, and even when a flow of hard leads is provided, many dealers struggle to ascertain their value when they can’t attribute them to immediate sales, even when the leads are proven to have made a purchase elsewhere.

As competition in the automotive space increases and sales plateau, dealers will need a continually better way to understand the complexities of consumer shopping behavior and refined data to help cut through the clutter and focus on their marketing spend,

A Strategy, Goal, and Framework

After months of research and analysis, Cars.com has launched an attribution strategy that begins to resolve the conflict between how consumers shop and how advertisers measure and differentiate valuable data. While slow to adopt, the general consensus across the industry does acknowledge that the traditional way of measuring performance does need to change.

The goal is to provide automotive advertisers – OEMs and Dealers – with a better understanding and appreciation of the next generation of value measures that better reflects the connections with Cars.com Consumers, using a framework to demonstrate value and influence called Influence Drivers. The frame will continue to evolve and grow with the consumer and consists of Digital Drivers, Physical Traffic, and Revenue Signals.

[Read more…]