How well does dealership VDP engagement correlate to car sales?

What do you measure your online marketing on? I'm sure lead form submissions are near the top of your list.

Yet many dealership marketing experts are now saying: Lead forms are dead and Shoppers don't like filling out forms and that it's VDP engagement that should the main metric to measure - not lead submissions.

But without the form submission, how can we be certain that someone is interested in our inventory?

We aim on to find out how well VDP engagement correlates to vehicle cars sales.

Ian has spent over 10 years in Marketing and Digital Advertising. As the VP of Sales & Marketing for Speed Shift Media, he is the head of all revenue generating activities. With a Masters in Business and IT Management and as an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia he is regularly called on to present and lecture on a variety of Information Technology and Digital Marketing concepts.

                                                                                
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — April 26, 2017 — Edmunds, the leading car shopping and information platform, forecasts that 1,431,695 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in April for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 17.0 million. This reflects nearly an 8 percent decrease in sales from March 2017, and a 4 percent decrease from April 2016.

“The industry has been holding its breath to see if the days of peak sales are over, and while Q1 sales managed to remain stable, we’re starting to see the slowdown in 2017 we’ve been anticipating,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis. “These year-over-year declines may become more typical as the year progresses, but there’s no reason to be in panic mode. Historically, car sales are still strong.”

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

*NOTE: April 2017 had 26 selling days, April 2016 had 27 and March 2016 had 27.

Edmunds estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 13.6 million vehicles in April 2017, with fleet transactions accounting for 19.5 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.6 million used vehicles will be sold in April 2017, for a SAAR of 38.4 million (compared to 3.4 million – or a SAAR of 38.4 million – in March).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

More insight into recent auto industry trends can be found in the Edmunds Industry Center at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-center/.

About Edmunds
Edmunds is the leading car information and shopping platform, helping millions of visitors each month find their perfect car. With products like Edmunds Your Price, Your Lease and Used+, shoppers can buy smarter with instant, upfront prices for cars and trucks currently for sale at more than 13,000 dealer franchises across the U.S. Edmunds’ in-house team of unbiased car shopping experts provide industry-leading vehicle reviews and shopping tips, as well as welcome all car-shopping questions to the free Shopper Advice line at 1-855-782-4711, via email at help@edmunds.com, via text at ED411 and on Twitter and Facebook. The company is regarded as one of America's best workplaces by Fortune and Great Places to Work. Edmunds is based in Santa Monica, Calif. and has a satellite office in downtown Detroit, Mich.

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Prioritize Your Prospects: Uncover Clues to Predict Who Will Buy Next

Each year, the average customer test drives fewer vehicles. Given the fewer opportunities and limited time available to sales people, the key question for them is: which prospects do I contact first? AutoLoop surveyed over 50K customers in 2016 who didn't buy on their initial visit to a dealer and we found significant differences in post-visit purchase rates based on a variety of factors, including the advertising they were exposed to, the reason they didn't buy on their initial visit, and even the color of vehicle they were seeking. Armed with a better understanding of who is likely to buy and when they will make a decision, sales associates will increase the effectiveness of their follow-up communications and convert more leads to sales after their initial visit to a dealer.

This will increase revenue from unsold prospects by over $1M per year, increase sales person effectiveness, and reduce days in inventory.

At AutoLoop, Doug is responsible for using customer analytics and insights to improve digital and multi-channel acquisition, retention and loyalty programs across leading OEMs and dealer groups. Prior to AutoLoop, Doug developed innovative marketing programs for automotive dealers and aftermarket providers as VP of strategy at DMEautomotive and VP of analytics at 3Birds Marketing. Doug also established the customer insights and online marketing functions at Dick's™ Sporting Goods, and he provided performance improvement consulting to Fortune 500 companies while at Ernst & Young Management Consulting. Doug earned his BS from Miami University in Ohio and his MBA from Indiana University.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Prioritize Customer Engagement

If only one salesman came to work today, what is the first opportunity he should act upon that is most likely to sell a car today?. If two salespeople show up, who show perform the task?

Using a combination of public service 911 to dispatch customer engagement one at a time and deep machine learning to select the highest Sales Result Probability (SRP) activity, customer engagement increases by 50% daily per salesman and it follows that sales increase immediately by the same amount. By knowing which customers have the intent to buy in the next 90 days, marketing is laser focused and marketing budgets slashed by half or more. Aligning the right customer with the right salesperson maximizes the result. It's Moneyball for the car business.

Check out Jim's interview:

About Jim Roach: 44 Years in Automotive from Salesman to Dealer Principal to Founder of 5 Auto related companies. I wrote the foundations of modern reporting systems such as StoneEagle and Ristken, have multiple patents filed in DMS data extraction. I was a pioneer in predictive artificial intelligence for use in auto retail in the 1990's and created the first reserve chargeback insurance policy. After 6 years of pioneering work in data mining with AutoAlert I created the industry first Human Capital Management System using deep machine learning to triage sales opportunities and prioritize execution of tasks. the system is based on modern 911 public service dispatch systems.

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