fixed ops conference Archives - DealerRefresh

July 11 by Molly Curry

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…]

Soliciting Positive Service Reviews
Our sales department does an excellent job providing exceptional customer service and making a happy customer when they come in to purchase their new-to-them BMW or Mercedes, etc. It's "easy" to have a happy customer that leaves a 5-star review. On the flip side, we have a service department... Soliciting Positive Service Reviews
People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?
Hey Refreshers, I need your help. We're looking for 5-6 (or more) recent dealer examples (websites), where they (or 3rd party) are doing a phenomenal job on actual new and used vehicle photography. Indoor photo booths, or outside with natural light, hopefully some great examples of both.... People's Choice Awards for Best Vehicle Photos?
Best Facebook Marketplace or Ad Vendor
Who is doing the best job with Facebook Marketplace or Facebook advertising? Who are the players in this area now? We were with CDK Social Suite. Hard to get matchback data since we are not CDK DMS. Also trying VinFuel currently and so far so good on the traffic.
Best Equity Software
Looking for opinions and results on the following Equity tools, especially if you are a GM dealer. If you have used both would like to hear the Pro's and Con's on each. 1. Auto Mastermind 2. Auto Alert Currently we use Team Velocity and have had Dealer Socket Revenue Radar.
Strategic Marketing - who's using
We are looking at Strategic Marketing - we are a GM store currently with Team Velocity and not seeing positive results in sales, with service we have. If you have used Strategic and can provide info how they have done for service marketing and sales etc would like to hear your results and how... Strategic […]
Dealer Inspire & their SEO/SEM
We are a GM dealer looking to make the switch to Dealer Inspire with GM opening up to other vendors. Of course CDK's $754mo cost is a basement bargain and now we are looking at $3,000 before adding SEO - $1,000mo potentially, and SEM which we spend about $3,000. Like to hear from Dealers using... […]
Decent Lead Validation Service
I am trying to find a lead validation service that could integrate with our CRM (Dealersocket). Something that will let our internet agents know right away if the phone numbers and emails are valid or fake, so they can prioritize the real leads. So far all I can find are not industry specific... Decent Lead […]

Jeff Kershner
I’m the founder of DealerRefresh. I got my start in the dealer business when I was 18. From there I've worked throughout several departments within fixed to variable ops. Whether it’s managing the desk, perfecting sales process or studying online marketing and media trends, I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. On top of keeping up with DealerRefresh, I consult with dealerships and key industry businesses. My passion has been and continues to be helping dealers leverage new media to sell and improve customer service.
Alex Snyder
2019 marks Alex's 30th year in the car business. In that time he has had a front-row seat for the rise of the Internet and has been working to bring the online and offline dealership experience closer. Whether you knew him from his life at Checkered Flag or his years with Dealer.com/DealerTrack/Cox Alex has remained an opinionated DealerRefresh contributor who enjoys nothing more than to poke at the unsaid truths in our industry. He also helped found FRIKINtech.