Industry insights for dealers provided at an Industry Day event organized by TRADER Corporation
Billy Beane, keynote speaker
TRADER CORPORATION hosted Industry Day recently at the Canadian International AutoShow, giving stakeholders an opportunity to hear valuable insights into the current sales climate from a quartet of diverse speakers.
First up was Shane Skillen, CEO of Hotspex, a research and analytics firm. Skillen’s presentation, “Facts from the Auto Buying Battlefied” started with some potentially alarming news about the changing role of the car with a new generation of buyers. For example, one vehicle in a car sharing fleet such as AutoShare or ZipCar replaces 36 private cars.
Fortunately, Skillen said that because car buying is so emotionally based, with imaginative means, great opportunities to build revenue still exist.
He cited one Porsche dealer who sent a mobile team into affluent neighbourhoods to sneak one of their models into empty driveways, snap a picture of the house with the hot car in front of it, and leave a copy of the photo with the dealer information for the homeowner to find in their mailbox. Their bookings for test drives went up by 35 per cent.
“Get people thinking about what experiences they’re going to have,” he said. “That’s ultra-motivating. They’ll be more relaxed going to work. They’ll have more fun with the family.” He also said that because people are “intensely visual,” great pictures — ideally eight according to their research — are a painless way to make big gains in ROI.
James Glover, president of Coherent Path, which uses its cloud-based Loyalty Analytics and Personalization platform to help clients such as Walgreens and Kobo increase loyalty and drive purchases, was up next with “Hide & Seek: How Big Data Can Help You Find Your Auto Consumer.”
We’re in the midst of a data explosion – 90 per cent of all of the world’s data was created in the last two years – that is changing the way we buy.
Glover said that 78 per cent of customers in the e-commerce space research online and then go into the store to buy or pick up, creating a market of info-savvy “omnivores” (those who buy both online and in person) you need to attract and retain to succeed. Using big data to focus on the customer’s entire buying journey is the way to do that.
Glover cited Amazon as one retailer that excels at it: buy a book, and you’re instantly offered other selections that may suit your taste. “If someone is headed towards flashier cars from economy cars, and I begin to see where they’re headed, I can influence their direction by putting content in front of them, leading them to a destination that’s favourable for me,” he said.
Annmarie Turpin, Ocean Media’s Senior vice-president, Client Analytics, spoke on “Lessons from the Media Frontier: Reaching Auto Intenders Effectively.” She said that leveraging television for growth is a key strategy, and that specialty channels with their lower ad rates and lesser PVR impact, are a smart buy. TV, while demanding higher out of pocket costs, is a proven medium with mass reach that delivers high ROI when used properly, and she suggested putting your TV assets into your online banners to get more bang for your buck.
As the keynote speaker, Billy Beane, long-time GM of the Oakland A’s whose story inspired the hit Brad Pitt film “Moneyball,” charmed the crowd with an aw, shucks manner that belies his business savvy.
Beane used statistics to make the failing Oakland A’s genuine contenders. His talk was part inspirational, part practical, with numerous takeaways for life and sales.“Fans have been saying for years that there’s a mathematical way to put together a sports team, but people don’t want to hear that because sports is emotions,” he said.
“The most important move I made as GM was the first person I hired — guys who ran baseball teams were guys like myself. The thinking was that if you’re going to be a jockey, you had to be a horse first,” he said.
“There was all this data, all this information, and no one was using it. When I was looking for an assistant GM, I wanted a guy from outside, who had no experience bias, no self-interest in decision-making, someone who would treat the business like an actuary. Some of the data going back to 1850 still had relevance.”
Beane’s “Moneyball” strategy valued low-cost, unconventional statistics like on-base percentages over batting averages, and strikeout/walk ratios over pitching velocity, cutting their payroll and upping their wins dramatically.
“How it’s changed the business is that the most important skill a player could have is to be undervalued,” said Beane. “We don’t have any star players, but we don’t have any poor performers. The great thing is that we can make changes very quickly. We ruthlessly cut from the bottom.”
