DEALERS LEARNED ABOUT ALL THINGS DIGITAL — AND EVEN MORE AT THE DIGITAL DEALER 19 CONFERENCE & EXPO
Panelists speaking about the relationship between dealers and vendors
Stephanie Dang and Jim Roche of Xtime
SOMETIMES DEALERS JUST NEED to dive in deep and get an in-depth briefing about a specific topic. Chances are they likely got the info they needed at the Digital Dealer 19 Conference & Expo held October 5-7 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.
The three-day conference was packed with concurrent sessions covering the entire digital marketing spectrum, and featured sessions on how dealers can stay at the top of their game.
Vendors led many of the sessions, though conference organizers made a point of ensuring the presentations were “sales-pitch free.”
Between sessions, attendees were also able to walk the massive show floor, where they could learn about the latest products in digital and visit the booths of some of the vendors who presented.
Being a digital conference, dealers had the option to scan their badges at the door to receive digital copies of the presentations they attended.
The Digital Air Strike team at its booth
NEW RULES
“Shoppers aren’t coming to shop. They’re coming to your store to buy,” said Sean Stapleton, Vice-President of Sales & Marketing for VinSolutions.
And when shoppers do walk into the store, Stapleton said, dealers need to be ready. The way they can do that is by making use of data, which helps salespeople form a better understanding of that customer.
Gone are the days when dealers had control of the sale, said Stapleton. Now shoppers are in the driver’s seat.
They no longer want to follow your old sales process, said Stapleton. “It’s dead. It’s a waste of time,” he added.
Instead, Stapleton shared what he called the five new rules to the road.
1. Win the shopper online. Make it easy to be found and easy to buy, said Stapleton. “Serve the customers the way they should be served.” He added that dealers can know how well they’re winning through Google Analytics.
2. It’s not about how you want to sell. It’s about how customers want to buy. Customer data should drive the experience on your lot, said Stapleton. Buyers are providing data clues through their online searches, like a virtual trail of breadcrumbs. Dealers can help sell the experience through test drives, Stapleton added.
3. Show and tell. Prove you have what the customer wants, said Stapleton. Show them photos of your inventory. That’s one of the fastest ways to own your market, said Stapleton.
4. Shoppers control the road. This is where modern technology can help with collecting data, said Stapleton. He added the most powerful piece of software at a dealership is the CRM system. “It never takes the day off,” said Stapleton.
But when you do ask your customers for data, take out all of the asterisks of the information they can or cannot include. “Don’t make it like it’s 1984,” said Stapleton.
5. All roads are unique. “Your shopper is like a snowflake,” said Stapleton. So if you’re going to catch a snowflake, it doesn’t make sense to pretend like you don’t know your customer.
Stapleton’s rule of thumb? The more sophisticated the data, the simpler it will be to catch and keep your customer’s attention.
GIRL POWER
Bobbie Herron knows how tough it can be for women to climb the ladder in a male-dominated automotive industry. But she hasn’t let that stop her.
Herron, the digital sales & marketing director for Garber Automotive Group in Michigan, is a frequent fixture on the digital marketing circuit.
During her presentation, Herron told the room packed with women — and only two men — that she was once asked to sign a contract agreeing not to wear pants at her old job at a BDC. Women continue to face hurdles, but there are ways they can rise to the top, she said.
Herron shared her tips on how women at dealerships can put their “best stiletto forward” and market themselves:
Do: Be confident
Don’t: Be cocky. Check your ego at the door, said Herron. “We have a lot of critics in the world but there are no harder ones than we are.”
Do: Drop the word “sorry” from your vocabulary: “It’s not assertive,” said Herron.
Don’t: Apologize. Women tend to apologize all of the time, and “when you do it, you give a moment of weakness,” said Herron.
Do: Raise your hand. Herron remarked that too often a promotion will come up, but women don’t ask for it.
Do: Lighten up. Working in a male-dominated industry might mean having to go golfing sometimes — even if you have a terrible swing, she said. That’s often when there are discussions about promotions.
Do: Learn to say “no.” Women often have a disposition to be kind and people-pleasers, but sometimes that won’t help you get the promotion, said Herron.
Do: Channel your inner Wonder Woman. When you walk into a room and execute presence, people know who you are, said Herron. Strike a pose with confidence. “Be a stiletto in a room full of flats.”
Do: Be assertive
Don’t: Be aggressive. Herron has noticed that those who speak first in a meeting are open to being attacked. What she does is piggy back on someone else’s comment, or asks questions to build on what that person said.
Do: Step outside your comfort zone. When Herron sits in on vendor group meetings, she’s often the only woman. She encourages women to attend networking events and circulate throughout the room.
Do: Be professional and show off your industry knowledge — not your thoughts on children, your dog or how you love someone’s outfit.
The next installment of Digital Dealer will take place January 19-21, 2016 in Orlando, Fla.
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Facebook surges in popularity
Facebook has made big leaps in the automotive retail world. Thom Brodeur explains why the social network has even more to offer to the auto industry.
There’s one social network Thom Brodeur really focused on in his presentation at the Digital Dealer 19 Conference & Expo: Facebook.
The social network is no longer just an
OEM platform, said Brodeur, COO of Digital Air Strike, in his presentation on the company’s 2015 Automotive Social Media Trends
Study in the U.S.
Rather, Facebook has become increasingly important as a local marketing platform, he added.
Canadian auto dealer caught up with Brodeur at the Digital Air Strike booth on the show floor to talk more about Facebook’s popularity with automotive retail customers.
“What I found really intriguing was how big of jumps there have been,” said Brodeur, referring to the differences between the 2014 and 2015 stats on Facebook from the Digital Air Strike study.
The fifth annual study surveyed 2,000 car buyers and service customers in the U.S., and looked at how review sites and social media play a role in dealership selection.
Last year, about a third of new-car buyers who saw a Facebook ad have clicked on it from a mobile device. That number has doubled in 2015.
This was also the first year Digital Air Strike benchmarked automotive service customers as part of its study, and Brodeur said he was surprised to find how high the numbers were for service as well.
About 53 per cent of service customers who have seen a Facebook ad have clicked on it via a mobile device, said Brodeur.
Brodeur added Facebook has also become the number one social network and has surpassed social platform Foursquare for “check in,” an embedded feature that enables users to share their location with friends.
He explained customers often use this feature to take advantage of a coupon offer, support the business, or it gives them something to do while waiting.
Facebook has likely swept into the number one spot because it provides a multi-layered experience for consumers, said Brodeur. Customers can “check in,” comment, post and share with the people they know.
“So when you layer those things together, you’re creating this more wholesome experience, and I think that’s unique,” said Brodeur.
He also sees Facebook growing more popular as a review site. Right now it sits in fifth place, behind sites such as Cars.com, Edmunds.com and Yelp.
But one of Brodeur’s biggest challenges is educating dealers about the ins and outs of Facebook marketing.
During Brodeur’s presentation, one of the dealers in the room asked him about the practice of buying “likes” on Facebook as a way to inflate social media numbers. To which Brodeur replied, “There’s no one legitimate in that business any more.” He added that buying “likes” won’t convert into leads, any way.
“Anyone who has a model that requires you to pay to play for verified consumer reviews will go by the wayside. Consumers are much smarter. They know when they are being fogged and mirrored,” said Brodeur.
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Facebook by the numbers
Some of the stats uncovered from the Digital Air Strike 2015 Automotive Social Media Trends Study (U.S. numbers):
