Four $12,500 scholarships awarded to students currently attending or entering an accredited college or university

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., – September 1, 2020 – CDK Global, Inc. (Nasdaq; CDK), a leading retail automotive technology company, together with the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD), today announced the recipients of its annual Fueling Careers scholarship program. The program awarded four students with $12,500 scholarships, which will help support their continued pursuit of a college degree.

The recipients of the 2020 Fueling Careers scholarships are:

• David A. Toyooka: Attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ.
• Jakeem A. Littles: Attending Life University in Marietta, Ga.
• Sabrina Linares: Attending Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla.
• Sebastian Watler: Attending Lamar University in Beaumont, TX.

"At CDK, we are committed to creating opportunities for quality and inclusive education that promotes lifelong learning," says Brian Krzanich, president and chief executive officer, CDK Global. "Each of the scholarship winners possesses the characteristics CDK and NAMAD have valued since establishing the Fueling Careers scholarship program in 2017. CDK is honored to play a small role in supporting these students as they continue learning the necessary skills to achieve success in their respective future careers." 

Sabrina Linares is the first student to receive the scholarship for four consecutive years. Sabrina is currently attending Florida Atlantic University, where she is studying Accounting and preparing for a potential career in the automotive industry.

"I am extremely fortunate to have been awarded the Fueling Careers scholarship from CDK and NAMAD for four consecutive years," said Ms. Linares. "I hope to use the scholarship as a means to relieve the financial burden of student loans and also to inspire many others in pursuing their dreams of higher education." 

Since its inception, the Fueling Careers scholarship program has provided 17 eligible applicants the opportunity to pursue their education and career-specific goals. This year's winners will also be offered an eight-week paid internship with CDK Global. The application site for next year's scholarships will open on January 3, 2021.

"With the Fueling Careers scholarship program, we are finding young, minority leaders who are setting the example for the next generation by demonstrating educational excellence at every level," said Damon Lester, president, NAMAD. "It will be exciting to watch these students flourish as they take the first steps in realizing their educational and professional dreams." 

Applicants eligible for a Fueling Careers scholarship must be planning to attend or are currently attending an accredited college or university. All applicants must also have a parent employed by a NAMAD dealership and must be sponsored by a current NAMAD member.

The scholarship application and award processes were managed by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. (ISTS). Selection of the final four award recipients was performed by ISTS and approved by the Fueling Careers Scholarship Committee consisting of CDK and NAMAD members. Award recipients were selected based upon both academic merit and financial need.

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About CDK Global, Inc.
With $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on enabling end-to-end automotive commerce, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving approximately 30,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process, including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. Visit cdkglobal.com.

About The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers

The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers' (NAMAD) objective is to pursue the meaningful presence and participation of minority businesses and diverse employees across all aspects of the automotive economic sector, including:

·Increasing the number of minority-owned dealerships in communities across America.

·Advocating workplace and supplier diversity in the automotive manufacturing environment.

·Supporting minority engagement in the automotive retail sales and service sectors.

We are committed to developing strategic relationships and advocating for the advancement of business policies and practices that ensure diversity and economic parity remain a priority in all aspects of the American automotive industry.

NAMAD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. For information on National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, visit namad.org.

About International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. (ISTS)

Founded in 1985, International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. provides comprehensive scholarship, grant, tuition assistance, and tuition reimbursement program management. ISTS is a 100 percent women-owned company, focused on offering cutting-edge technology and sustainable solutions to corporations, foundations, associations, unions, and other scholarship-granting organizations worldwide. For more information about ISTS, visit http://www.applyISTS.com.

Contact:

Media Contact: 
Roxanne Pipitone
847.485.4423
Roxanne.pipitone@cdk.com

OFFERS AUTOMOTIVE  DEALERSHIPS EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF ONLINE LEADS

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – August 31, 2020 – CDK Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDK), a leading retail automotive technology company, today announced the launch of BDC Pro, a new addition to its Elead ecosystem. BDC Pro provides a standardized 90-day lead nurturing program designed to manage the full cycle of internet leads for automotive dealerships that use Elead as their CRM provider.

The solution offers dealers an operating model that is efficient and fully integrated inside the Elead CRM. Dealerships can deliver a better experience by engaging online shoppers with consistent, productive conversations while giving their sales staff more time to focus on providing a VIP experience to guests in the showroom.

BDC Pro handles first responses, workflow, task management, delivery of confirmed appointments, warm handoffs, and no-show follow up. The program has a support network that consists of trained agents for follow-up activities, plus a team of sales operation consultants that help dealerships identify successes and areas of opportunity to improve appointment traffic and gain competitive market share.

“Our vision for the future of BDC is to continuously evolve to keep dealership needs central to the solutions we offer,” said Scott Thompson, senior vice president, CRM, and Layered Applications. “As the economy continues to reopen, competition is at an all-time high, and dealers are hyper-focused on expense management. BDC Pro gives them the ability to take advantage of every opportunity, get more showroom appointments, and close deals quickly and efficiently. That’s crucial right now.”

BDC Pro gives dealers an affordable way to access a large pool of professionally trained live agents that work as an extension of the in-house dealership sales team. BDC Pro agents are assigned follow-up workflows and tasks based on their training level and skill set to provide superior coverage and lead handling.

It is designed for short- and long-term follow-up strategies for online inquiries with a robust cadence of live calls, texts, and emails. BDC Pro accelerates lead conversions by using advanced software technology to deliver messages at the time most optimal to trigger a response from the auto shopper. Every workflow and task completion is connected to the customer record, giving instant visibility into the full history of communications with the car buyer and detailed notes on the interactions.

BDC Pro is currently available in the U.S. Learn more about BDC Pro or request an expert sales consultation.

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About Elead CRM

As part of the CDK Global portfolio of solutions, Elead CRM integrates its retail solutions around a dealer’s culture, processes, and systems to aggregate data into a single view of the customer across the entire business – streamlining the customer lifecycle to deliver a personal experience every time. Helping more than 5,000 dealerships nationwide, including six of the top 10 dealer groups, Elead CRM helps dealers operate more profitably and gain a business advantage with sales, service and marketing operations tied back to the CRM.

About CDK Global, Inc.
With $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on enabling end-to-end automotive commerce, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving approximately 30,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process, including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. Visit cdkglobal.com.

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Roxanne Pipitone

Senior Director, Corporate Communications
847.485.4423
Roxanne.pipitone@cdk.com

Have you ever been riding in a car where you got to your destination and had no idea how you got there? Maybe you're in an Uber. If you had to describe the route the driver took could you do it?

Let's call that "passenger thinking". Because you weren't accountable for driving and didn't need to focus on the route, you didn't think about it. You were happy to let someone else take over.

It's ok to have passenger thinking when you need to get from an airport to a hotel. But his same thinking can happen with your employees, and it's dangerous. Passenger employees are just along for the ride. They aren't involved in their own failure or success. They rely on someone else (their manager? The dealership?) to drive. This isn't healthy and you need to do anything you can to eliminate passenger thinking in your organization. How can you do this?

First, set correct expectations. Encourage your employees to think about tomorrow as well as today. What do they want to do when they grow up? How can their current role help to get them there? What do they need to do (learning, performance, etc) to get there? This is a very valuable conversation to have with an employee.

Next, employee engagement is a two-way street. When setting goals, implementing new processes or initiatives, conducting 1 on 1's, make sure each of your employees knows that you need their input and feedback. This is essential because you can't read their minds. 

You may think or know exactly what each employee needs to do to improve, but you want your team to discover this for themselves. This establishes that they are the drivers of their career, and you are there to help them. This can actually help make your job a lot easier. You aren't babysitting,  but rather leading.

Another tip is to provide regular, structured feedback. I've always said that if you want me to be successful, you need to show me what success looks like. Create performance metrics for each job role and sit down with each employee monthly to review their actual numbers. This allows you to course-correct and celebrate the wins. But more importantly, you can have a conversation with them about where they are in their growth. 

Engaged employees are invested employees. They can see a clear path to success and take an active role in their development.

Quit driving your employees around. Implement a structure that allows them to take the wheel of their future.

The Vehicle Intelligence Company Executive Is Recognized for Effective Leadership, Company Growth and Product Innovation

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 26, 2020—Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, today announced  Kevin Weiss, chief executive officer, has been named to The Software Report’s list of Top 50 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CEOs of 2020. This year’s awardees represent highly regarded technology executives whose colleagues both internally and externally praise their leadership style. 

“I am grateful to be recognized alongside an outstanding cohort of software industry executives and this honor wouldn’t be possible without my amazing colleagues here at Spireon who strive every day to meet and exceed the expectations of our automotive, finance and commercial fleet customers,” said Weiss, “While 2020 has served up challenges to many industry sectors, I’m incredibly proud of the Spireon team’s continued focus and momentum in delivering connected vehicle technology to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets.” 

Weiss joined Spireon as chief executive officer in 2016. As a result of his leadership, the company has experienced impressive growth, increased customer satisfaction, continuous technological innovation, substantial executive team expansion and a roster of strategic industry alliances. In 2018, Weiss successfully recruited Greenbriar Equity Group, L.P. as its new equity partner. With over $3.5 billion in capital and investments in the global transportation and logistics industries, Greenbriar became the primary investor in Spireon, and continues in that role today. 

The driving force behind Spireon’s success, Weiss draws on decades of experience leading technology companies, bringing a strategic mindset and practical approach to ensure Spireon reaches its full potential as a recognized leader in connected vehicle intelligence. In the last 12 months alone, Spireon has introduced several new hardware and software solutions including MyDealer 2.0 for Kahu®, the Intelligent Trailer Management (ITM) platform and the FleetLocate IntelliScan® image retrieval technology. A testament to the company’s commitment to white-glove customer service, Spireon has also maintained a 76.76 Net Promotor Score, a critical measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, exceeding the industry average of 26.8 for B2B technology companies. 

The Software Report is a comprehensive source for market research and insights, business news, investment activity and corporate actions related to the software sector. Executives featured on The Software Report’s Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2020 were selected based on nominations from colleagues, peers and other software industry participants. Nominees were reviewed across a number of key areas including company performance, workplace culture, product strength and strategic decision-making. 

About Spireon  

Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, is the leading provider of aftermarket telematics solutions in North America. By equipping cars, trucks, trailers and other mobile assets with GPS devices and sensors, Spireon turns any vehicle into a connected vehicle. Award-winning products GoldStar, Kahu and FleetLocate deliver 24x7 asset visibility and actionable insights to auto dealers, lenders, transportation companies, service fleet managers, rental car companies and consumers to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets. Spireon’s NSpire IoT platform powers all Spireon solutions, supporting nearly 4 million active subscribers and processing more than 1 billion data events each month. Learn more at www.spireon.com.    

Market EyeQ users can now automate behavior-based predictive marketing campaigns to pre-owned car buyers and utilize Manheim Market Reports to evaluate trade-in vehicles based on real time auction prices.

NEW YORK (August 26, 2020)  automotiveMastermind®, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO) and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, today announced the integration of pre-owned vehicle functionality with the Manheim Market Report (MMR) wholesale vehicle values within its Market EyeQ sales platform.

Market EyeQ’s pre-owned functionality allows dealers to unlock additional sales opportunities by matching customers of pre-owned vehicles with relevant offers through the platform’s behavior-based predictive marketing campaigns. With the update, dealer partners can map their new and pre-owned vehicle inventories to prospective car buyers, which Market EyeQ identifies for dealers from the same platform, improving the accuracy of their marketing outreach to help them sell vehicles more efficiently.

With dealers across the U.S. experiencing new and used vehicle inventory challenges due to production and sales disruptions from COVID-19 impacts, having accurate vehicle valuations greatly simplifies the trade-in process. Including MMR as a valuation option can give dealers greater confidence in knowing the value of potential trade-in vehicles, since MMR values are derived from a non-editorialized, statistical analysis of in-lane and digital wholesale vehicle transactions.

These Market EyeQ platform enhancements come at the same time as sales of pre-owned vehicles surpass pre-virus forecasts and as many dealers cope with new vehicle inventory shortages. Combined, the product updates empower dealers to both meet changing consumer demands and maximize their inventory.

“Everything we do at Mastermind is built on a strong foundation of accurate, expansive data,” said Mastermind Co-Founder and CEO Marco Schnabl. “The additions of the pre-owned functionality and MMR utilization to our Market EyeQ platform are not only timely and relevant to the current market conditions, but more importantly, they empower our dealer partners to effectively match consumers with the most relevant pre-owned vehicle offers based on accurate vehicle valuations. Mastermind is committed to fast-tracking the innovation of our product by building on our strong base of the highest quality data to help dealers create lasting relationships with customers and ultimately sell more cars.”

“Providing the industry’s most trusted wholesale vehicle values to the market is a top priority for Manheim,” said Zach Hallowell, vice president, Manheim Digital Marketplace. “MMR is the gold standard valuation tool used by tens of thousands of consignors and dealers to assess millions of trade-ins each month. Accurate valuations are especially critical during times of market uncertainty like now. MMR is intentionally designed to be highly stable and avoid over-reacting to short-term market ups and downs and can be used with confidence regardless of market conditions.”

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

About Manheim

Manheim, the nation’s leading provider of end-to-end wholesale vehicle solutions, is celebrating 75 years as an industry innovator, driving success for clients, the company, its employees and the industry. The dream of five men who auctioned off a handful of cars in 1945 from a single-lane location in Manheim, Pennsylvania launched a company that today offers 7 million used vehicles annually and facilitates transactions representing nearly $67 billion in value with the grit and determination of our team members. Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for decisioning, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. Operating the largest vehicle wholesale marketplace, Manheim enables clients more efficient ways to connect and transact business how and when they want. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim is a Cox Automotive™ brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com/.

With an industry focus on how to improve the customer experience as well as how to save time on each transaction, Roadster doubles down on holistic omnichannel commerce platform that will help dealers achieve these goals by focusing on each aspect of the sale 

San Francisco, Calif. — August 24, 2020— Roadster, the leader in commerce solutions for car buying and leasing, today announced the rollout of its enhanced omnichannel commerce platform designed to help dealerships offer a more modernized and improved car buying experience, by holistically addressing every aspect of the sale.  Building upon its already successful in-store sales process, where Roadster’s Express Storefront empowers dealers to connect the dots between what the customers did at home and their in-store experience, the company will now introduce a suite of new remote selling products that will empower internet and BDC teams to guide customers further down the purchase funnel regardless of where they are..

“The industry has been focused on plug and play digital retailing products as a way to improve and modernize car buying but in order to really improve the customer experience, we have to empower dealership personnel with solutions that make it easier to sell,” said Andy Moss, CEO of Roadster. “Car shoppers don’t buy cars in a linear fashion and we can no longer treat them that way. We are proud to be introducing the next generation of our digital sales platform at such a crucial time in the industry, when dealers need the most efficient and effective way to engage consumers and seamlessly walk them through the purchase process from start to finish.” 

As part of its new offering, Roadster will introduce Express Response, a lead response solution that allows the dealership to automatically respond to internet leads with intelligent and relevant information that encourages the customer to start the deal-making activity online.  Unlike legacy models, where consumers often get an inactionable auto-response to their lead submissions or where the dealership spends a significant amount of time sending detailed and individualized responses, Express Response increases customer engagement 24 hours a day by responding to all internet lead sources from one seamless platform. It empowers dealers to follow up on customer’s interest on any piece of new or used inventory, and respond directly with VIN specific information to help move customers down the purchase funnel faster. It improves transparency and consistency, providing customers with pricing that matches what appears on a dealer’s Express Store and links them directly to the appropriate VDP or SRP to ensure there are no surprises as they build the deal. 

Express Response also gives dealers the ability to control their brand voice, cadence and timing of their messages, as well as track response metrics, from open rates, click through rates, session length and actions taken to measure and ensure customer engagement and satisfaction remains paramount. It also provides dealerships with unique visibility into a customer’s first interaction with their dealership, which is something that many dealerships have been unable to track until now.

In early pilots with 43 rooftops and 12 dealer groups representing makes including Kia, Buick GMC, Nissan, Mazda, CDJR, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Acura, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Porsche, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, VW, Audi, and Ford Lincoln, Express Response vastly improved engagement rates. Express Response’s open rate is at 65 percent, compared to an industry average of 12.6 percent, and its click through rate is at 22 percent versus the industry average of 1.2 percent.*

“Express Response has significantly increased our customer engagement,” said Greg Nalewaja, General Manager at Midlands Honda. “Not only are we able to immediately collect information from customers that otherwise would have taken four or five salespeople to gather, but our closing ratio is 16% because we can move our customers down the purchase funnel faster and more efficiently.”

In addition to Express Response, Roadster will begin to roll out its enhanced Express Storefront experience, which is designed to give sales agents the flexibility to start orders and push tasks to customers throughout the buying experience. Unlike current models where customers are forced to go through a very linear and rigid online process regardless of their situation and a sales agent is left either forcing them to take steps that don’t make sense or having to take them out of it entirely to better accommodate their customer’s needs, Roadster’s enhanced Express Storefront experience moves sales agents from being reactive to being proactive, encouraging them to push appropriate purchase tasks including showcasing F&I when starting an order for better visibility and transaction rates in whatever order makes sense to the customer, while providing them with visibility into all of the customer’s activity and various deals created in one place for ease of engagement and follow up. 

Customers are encouraged to complete as many or few of the steps of the transaction online or in-person, including having the choice of completing forms in whatever order makes sense at checkout, or simply reserve the car with a deposit and finish the process in store. The enhanced Express Storefront experience, allows sales agents to prompt customers when it is time to complete tasks together, including complete a credit app or trade in, request a deposit, ask for additional documentation and more. With remote sales gaining in popularity due to COVID-19, Roadster’s restructured selling experience provides dealers with the opportunity to save the customer and their sales team time by guiding customers through as much of the purchase process as possible before they come into the showroom.

Adding to its offering, the company will also roll out Express Store Live, powered by Live Person, providing dealerships with an efficient and digitized way to build relationships with their customers, even when their customer is at home. With Express Store Live, dealerships will have access to video conferencing and screen sharing capabilities to answer questions that their online buyer may have at any step of the process.

In addition, Roadster’s commerce platform will also integrate with Equity Mining Tools like Auto Alert to provide dealers with the ability to surface up the exact VIN that might be right for their current customers and give them the ability to reserve or purchase that vehicle from the comfort of home.
 

For more information on accessing Roadster’s omnichannel commerce platform, please visit www.Roadster.com

About Roadster

Roadster provides consumer-driven Commerce Solutions for today’s modern dealership. With Roadster's proprietary technology platform, dealerships can provide hassle-free car buying in-store, online or on the go. Roadster dramatically improves dealership customer satisfaction scores, while significantly reducing sales costs. From inventory merchandising, to financing/leasing, incentives, trade-ins, service plans and accessories-- Roadster delivers near penny perfect deals in a beautifully designed interface that customers and employees will love. Roadster is based in Palo Alto, CA and was founded in late 2013. For more information, please visit https://roadster.com.

*attributed to Campaign Monitor, “Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2020: By Industry and Day”, 2020 article

BALTIMORE (PRWEB) AUGUST 20, 2020

CallRevu, the industry leader in automotive Conversation Intelligence featuring call data, tracking and advanced machine monitoring powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help Dealers Connect, Communicate and Close deals, is pleased to announce that Jim Menard has joined as the new Vice President of Client Services. Menard will be focus on strengthening CallRevu’s relationships with dealers, supporting customer growth and elevating CallRevu’s brand across the automotive ecosystem.

“I am excited to join CallRevu, where I can apply my passion for helping dealers achieve greater success – helping them simplify the customer experience while strengthening their conversations with customers – CallRevu is a cornerstone in helping dealers achieve their goals,” said Jim Menard, Vice President of Client Services.

Menard has been working in the automotive industry for 23 years, having served as Senior Vice President of Sales, Service and Support for TrueCar and in other senior leadership roles at AutoTrader, vAuto and Search Optics. Menard brings proven experiences that result in better organizational effectiveness, employee retention and satisfaction along with higher sales, greater market penetration, and enhanced customer experience.

Menard comes to CallRevu from Dominion Dealer Solutions where he was the Vice President of Client Success, Operations and OEM Relationships where he focused on dealer and OEM relationships across the company’s software and digital marketing platforms. Jim is also a frequent keynote speaker for influential automotive groups, such as the National Automobile Dealers Association [NADA], National Independent Automobile Dealers Association [NIADA], and National Alliance of Buy Here, Pay Here Dealers [NABD].

“We are excited to have Jim on-board, and help us take our customer engagement to the next level — Jim knows the industry and has proven experience leading a Customer Services team to deliver unparalleled value and service. Jim is Bold, Innovative and champions Partnership – all are core values to CallRevu and made Jim an obvious choice,” said Anthony Giagnacovo, CEO of CallRevu.

About CallRevu
CallRevu, founded in 2008, helps thousands of automotive dealers in the U.S. cultivate the customers that make it into the showroom after having a great experience on the phone. CallRevu has monitored over 110 million calls and by providing local and toll-free numbers to place on all ads, we track, listen, summarize, alert, and report on dealership’s phone calls to monitor call performance. With the robust data we collect, we coach on how to enhance the caller’s experience and improve the bottom line of dealerships. Visit http://www.callrevu.com.

Gina Callari currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of EVOX Images®, the industry leader in the automotive imagery market

LOS ANGELES (August 19, 2020) - Women in Automotive (WIA), the organization that champions the advancement of women in the automotive community, today announced the addition of its latest board member, Gina Callari. With over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry, Gina is the COO of EVOX Images, a company driving innovation with the highest quality vehicle images for commercial use.

"We are honored to have Gina Callari, COO of EVOX Images, join the Women in Automotive board,” said Jody DeVere, Co-Founder of Women in Automotive LLC. “Her automotive industry tenure, experience, and contributions to leading innovation in the digital arena are a valuable contribution, and her enthusiasm to support women in leadership roles is infectious.”

Women in Automotive was founded by six female industry leaders who came together with the same interest in developing women in the auto industry and helped to facilitate the training and hiring of more females in automotive roles.

Callari is uniquely gifted to assist the Women in Automotive to carry out its mission and vision, which is “championing the advancement of women in the automotive community.”

“I am truly honored to join the Women in Automotive board alongside some of the best and brightest in the industry,” said Gina Callari, COO of EVOX Images. “Through this new role, I’m excited to help empower the next generation of female executives by sharing my insights and career experiences.”

For more information on WIA and their upcoming conferences, please visit https://womeninautomotive.com/.

About EVOX IMAGES®  

For over 25 years, EVOX has provided large-scale global image solutions on demand, focusing on automotive VR and 360 images. With an ever-growing database of more than 13,500 vehicles, EVOX delivers the most consistent and high-quality vehicle content. EVOX continues to drive innovation in automotive imagery with a new generation of augmented reality, virtual reality, and CG solutions. With available API and easy-to-implement web player technology, EVOX delivers complete, easy, and powerful speed-to market solutions. For more information on EVOX Images, please visit www.evoximages.com/ or follow EVOX Images on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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I began selling cars in 1998. The Internet was just beginning to take hold. In fact, a lot of the customers I contacted from Internet leads (that were faxed and handed to me) were actually angry that I was calling them.

 We had a brochure rack, and it took up a pretty large footprint on the showroom floor. We had boxes and boxes of brochures in the supply closet that we used to keep the rack stocked. When I think back to the value of the dealership, we had the information. We had the product specs, colors, and options. You went to the dealership to gather that information.

 As the Internet took hold, customers could go online to get that information. They could spend hours upon hours comparing the different makes and models. The brochure rack started to dwindle. People weren’t coming in asking for brochures as much anymore. That value had shifted, but we still had the pricing. Customers had to come to us for that part of the process, and our Internet lead handling process reflected that. Most of the customers inquiring through the Internet were looking for the price of a particular model. That was the value of the dealership. We controlled the pricing.

 Today, customers can get the pricing online. They can compare models, options, and pricing of the vehicles they’re interested in. If you want to be in the game, you need to price all of your vehicles online. It’s the entry fee to play the game.

 So where is the value of the dealership? How do we justify the need for a brick and mortar facility?

 I feel like this is a good question that we need to be able to answer in our departments. This doesn’t matter if you are in sales, service, parts, what is your value? How can you add value to the transaction?

 There is an interesting dichotomy here. We hear frequently that customers don’t like the sales process, yet our customer experience research has shown that they are looking for a dealership and a salesperson they can trust. As a dealership employee, how can you build value and trust into your process?

 I think a good place to start is to ask, “Are you in the way or are you necessary?” We need to make money. That’s a given. Customers have told us that they don’t mind paying more for a good experience, but that’s easier said than done. We have processes that have worked for years. It takes intestinal fortitude to make changes when the current processes work.

 But here is the thing. If our processes don’t work for consumers, they will eventually find a workaround. We’ve seen it occur over and over again.

 Dealerships have value. It’s up to us to find it and communicate it to our customers. As this value shifts, we need to be vigilant in building value into everything we do.

I know the title sounds like an ad for a clinical trial, but what I’m referring to is a problem that runs rampant in dealerships. If not checked, it can cause you to lose appointments, sales, service gross, and more.

What is conversational narcissism? Simply put, a conversational narcissist is someone who makes the conversation about them. They attempt to take control of a conversation and focus it on themselves. This is a problem if you are in any sales-type position.

If you think about a needs analysis, regardless if you are in variable or fixed ops, it is to gain information from the customer about their wants and needs. Hence the title “needs analysis”. But a good needs analysis is about so much more.

Your customers want to trust you. They need to know you have their best interests in mind. This is accomplished by talking about them, not you. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t find common ground and relate their needs to your own. This is a good way to build trust. I’m saying that you need to be careful about the flow of the conversation.

In addition, so much of the sales and service process today involves engagement. Active listening and questioning are two of the keys to better customer engagement. This requires less talking from you.

Don’t worry. Conversational Narcissism can be treated, and it doesn’t require a visit to a doctor or medication. Here are some things you can do:

First, ask your peers. Odds are this isn’t something that only occurs during your sales process. Find someone you can trust and ask them to be straight with you. Do you tend to take control of a conversation?

Next, pay attention to how much you are talking vs listening in a sales conversation. You can ask more questions. We all know that listening is a skill all successful sales consultants, BDC agents, and service advisors have. Work to develop this skill in yourself.

At the end of the day, active listening and questioning are two of the antidotes for conversational narcissism. Take the time to perfect these two skills and improve your engagement with customers. Your bank account will thank you.