About 2 weeks ago, I attended this year’s DrivingSales Executive Summit in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Boy oh boy, was it amazing! To say that I learned a TON would be a massive understatement. Every keynote and breakout session I attended possessed an avalanche of knowledge — so much, in fact, that my fingers couldn’t move fast enough as I live-tweeted those sessions. 

In-between live-tweeting, live-blogging and frequent coffee/energy drink runs (gotta stay caffeinated), I did have brief moments of downtime to reflect on the sessions I attended as well as the things, people and vendors I saw there. Even though each session and the majority of the vendors possessed unique characteristics that no doubt set them apart from others, there were commonalities you couldn’t miss. 

At the heart of this year’s DSES, there were consistent themes that made their way into almost every part of the conference: employee growth, consumer experiences (and engagement) and or course, the importance of data:

Employee Growth

There’s little to no denying that sales is hard — like, really hard. I would assume this counts as doubly hard for folks in the automotive space. That being said, it’s becoming harder and harder to retain top talent; and a lot of that stems from the a lack of guidance from leadership in automotive. Thankfully, there are a number of folks in the automotive space (and in similar industries) who have realized this gap, and they’ve offered their insights. Student Maid founder, Kristen Hadeed, offered wonderful tips for hiring and managing employees in her introductory keynote presentation, “The Millennials are Coming.” Later that day, Motivational psychologist, Dr. Heidi Grant, offered tips for creating better and strong mindsets for your organization’s culture. 

Along with those 2 keynote presentations, there were also a handful of breakout speakers who touched on this topic:

• “How to Get Millennials to Work and Grow Your Profit.” - Presented by Samantha Cunningham Zawilinski of POTRATZ
• “The Expeditonary Leader’s Journey - the Path & Plan to Creating a Great Company and Culture” - Presented by Mark Brown of Grappone Automotive Group
• “Squash Sales Turnover by Focusing on Workplace Culture” by David Druzynski of Auto/Mate Dealership Systems
• “No Longer Fear the Walking Dead - Motivate and Resurrect Your Sales Team!” - Presented by Jonathan Dawson of Sellchology Sales Training 
• "Diversity by Design: Stop Recruiting and Start Connecting - How to Recruit, Retain and Motivate a World Class Team" - Presented by Bobbie Herron of ZMOT
• "Stop the New-Hire Revolving Door at Your Dealership” - Presented by Jason Volny of DrivingSales

Consumer Experiences

If there’s one thing that all of us have heard over and over and over again (regardless of industry), it’s that everyone and their grandma shops on their mobile devices. And no, these aren’t folks who are just trying to cash in on behavior they encourage — it’s actually the truth. With the ease of mobile or even laptop research, consumers have become choosier about which dealerships to spend their hard-earned money at. They want the best services, the best offers and the best vehicles at the best possible price. There’s no settling anymore. Consumers want the whole shebang, and mobile devices make jumping from website to website easier than ever before. 

Although it’s often expected that consumers will visit your website and leave at a certain point, it’s clear that many dealerships also want those consumers to come back. Additionally, dealerships want to keep those consumers on their website as long as possible and decrease their bounce rate. According to many of the automotive experts at DSES, this can be done by improving a consumer’s experience online: making the website easy to navigate, posting images/video and providing appropriate tools.

Keynote speakers, David R. Bell (“The Power of Your Physical Location in a Digital World”), Ian Cruickshank (“Swipe Left, Swipe Right: Your Vehicle Photos Tell You More than You Think”) & Andrew Davis (“The Loyalty Loop: How Small Things Add Up to Big Business”) discuss the importance of consumer experiences quite vividly.

As far as the breakout speakers go, consumer experiences were also touched upon by Brent Wees “The True Effects of Time Management (or Lack of) on your Dealership’s Consumer Experience;” Eric Giroux (“Ask Less, Get More: You’re Trying to Do Too Much with your Website and it’s Costing You;” Dave Spannhake (“Building A budget in a world of Millennials”), Michelle Denogean ("Beyond Digital Retailing: How To Create A Tailored Solution That Leads To An Experience, Not Just A Transaction”), Brian Finkelmeyer (“Outsmart Your Competitors and Win Today’s Online Shoppers”), Joe Webb ("Harnessing Video to Build a Brand, Not a Dealership"), etc. etc. You get the idea. There were a TON of sessions related to consumer experiences. 

Importance of Data

Last, but not least, many of the sessions at DSES emphasize the importance of data. Given how many consumers do the majority of shopping online, it only makes sense for dealerships to keep a close eye on visitor activity. Time on page, bounce rate, lead to sale, buyer profiles — it all matters. 

While almost every session (keynote and breakout) touched on data, there were speakers that made data their focal point: Michael King (“The Future of Search”), Sean Stapleton ("Why Relevancy and Optimization Are Crucial to Your SEM Strategy”), Mark Conner (“Dealer First Solutions to Digital Marketing”), Bryan Harwood ("Marketing Insights and Attribution – Are Your Metrics in Alignment?”), Darren Haygood ("See Before the Last Click: Identifying Influence Drivers That Drive Results"), Jenny Vance ("Getting More Consumer Data is Easy; Motivating Your Salespeople is the Challenge”)

I learned a TON at this year’s DrivingSales Executive Summit and I have little to no doubt that next year will be even better. I actually took all my DSES session notes and compiled them into a free eBook just for you guys. Download it here and let me know your thoughts! 

Seeya next year!