DrivingSales Executive Summit Announces 2018 Breakout Speakers

Industry leaders selected to present on emerging topics and proven tactics in Las Vegas this October

SALT LAKE CITY, UT., July 19, 2017 -- DrivingSales, the world's largest online automotive community, is pleased to announce their lineup of speakers and breakout sessions at their 2018 conference the DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES).

Breakout speakers this year include experts such as Greg Gifford, Brent Wees, and Joe Webb.  35 breakouts were selected, and will cover topics such as artificial intelligence, digital retailing, vehicle subscription models, and human capital management.  

The breakout presenters at DSES are selected by a dealer panel.  Submissions are reviewed by dealership personnel who score each submission.  The process of choosing candidates was very intense this year as only 20 percent of the total applications were selected to present.

They join the innovative keynotes to complete the agenda of the DrivingSales Executive Summit.  DSES happens every year at the start of the fourth quarter, where the most progressive dealers in the country gather to collaborate on emerging trends and formulate their business plans for the upcoming year.  

DSES will take place at the luxurious Bellagio hotel on the Las Vegas Strip from October 21-23.

To learn more about the event, and see a comprehensive list of all keynote speakers and breakout sessions, click here.

About DrivingSales

DrivingSales was founded in 2003 by a 3rd generation dealer, Jared Hamilton, while attending NADA’s Dealer Candidate Academy. Hamilton and his classmates had grown frustrated that as a dealer, they didn’t have a trusted resource that could deliver insight as fast as the market was changing. So, as part of a homework assignment, he built a networking platform to connect his classmates and algorithmically share information between each of their dealerships in real time — helping each team solve their unique operational challenges.

DrivingSales mission is simple: to help dealers optimize their business and fuel excellence in employees to advance their careers. Having grown from humble roots as a tiny dealer startup to the global brand it is today, DrivingSales always stays true to the automotive retailer’s needs and helps them navigate the exciting opportunities in these innovative times.

In May, Luth Research published their findings about the car buying journey. They followed 400 car buyers over 30 days and they found there are three distinct parts of the automotive shopping journey in Omni-Channel Retailing (OCR).

1. Awareness and Brand Perception

2. Brand Consideration and Purchase Intent

3. Transaction and Purchase Decision

OCR is a style of e-commerce that industry leaders recommend dealerships get on board with, and do so quickly. Michelle Denogene of Roadster describes omni-channel retailing as creating a smooth process for car buyers from beginning to end. In other words, it allows the customer to start buying a car online, and then go into the dealership without missing a beat.

Here are the three stages of the OCR Journey in more detail:

Awareness and Brand Perception

Stage one is all about the consumer gathering basic information on what brands and options are out there.

Stage One Stats

• 73 percent of car buyers visit an OEM site.

• 50 to 60 percent visit 3rd party enthusiast review and forum sites/apps.

• 44 percent visit social media.

Brand Consideration and Purchase Intent

In stage two, consumers really start to narrow down what they want, and which brands are most intriguing to them.

Shoppers who research on their smartphones or mobile devices already have at least one, if not a few specific brands in mind. AND it’s important to note that more and more OEM website visits are when shoppers are on the go.

Stage two Stats

• 40 to 60 percent visit 3rd party enthusiast review and forum sites/apps.

• 55 percent mobile visitors use OEM sites

Transaction and Purchase Decision

Stage three is all about consumers finalizing their decision.

Here they search on mobile and PC and focus their research on brand, model, and which dealership to go to.

It’s important to note that brand decision is not finalized until the car is bought. Brand influence can and does creep in until right before the purchase.

Stage Three Stats

• 40 to 50 percent search the brand and model type

• 50 percent visit dealer sites

Instagram has recently released a report titled, "Driven By Instagram," in it they detail the in's and out's of the automotive industry on their hugely popular platform. As it turns out, if your aren't on Instagram to help sell your vehicles, you're doing it wrong.

Although it may not be a traditional platform for selling, Instagram's report shows there is ample opportunity for finding and retaining clients. For instance, if you're trying to target the younger generation take this into account: When Millennials are looking for a new brand, they are 1.41 times more likely to use Instagram than another social media platform to find that brand.

And when it comes to purchasing a car, Instagram plays a giant roll with ALL users. Take a look at these stats:

1. Almost a third of auto Instagram shoppers said they learned about a new product or service on the platform in the last month.

2. Almost a third of auto Instagram shoppers said Instagram prompted them to consider purchasing a new product/service in the last month.

3. 59-percent say Instagram is a key influencer in Auto Purchase.

So how do you get Instagram users to find your account? One proven way is through hashtags, and Instagram has put together their top 9 automotive hashtags so far in 2018:

• #CARPORN

  • 15,400,000 posts

• #CARSWITHOUTLIMITS

  • 8,200,000 posts

• #CARSOFINSTAGRAM

  • 7,500,000 posts

• #SUPERCARS

  • 5,900,000 posts

• #SPORTSCAR

  • 5,200,000 posts

• #INSTACARS

  • 4,200,000 posts

• #CARLIFESTYLE

  • 3,700,000 posts

• #CARSTAGRAM

  • 2,700,000 posts

• #CARSPOTTING

  • 2,300,000 posts

Now don't just sit there....​​​​​​​

Right now is the time to start 'gramming and hashtagging!

Each quarter, the Cox Automotive Industry Insights team surveys U.S. automobile dealers, both franchised and independent, in an effort to measure how they are feeling about the auto business and vehicle sales, both new and used. It's called the Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index (CADSI) and it focuses on both current market conditions and prospects for the coming three months. 

In Their research, Cox found that a large majority of dealers are nervous for summer sales. The optimism found in the first quarter, is no longer there.

Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke says it's one of the main take aways from the quarter 2 survey, "The biggest concern coming from this quarter’s survey is that expectations for the market moving into the summer have diminished substantially."

In Q1, 70 percent of dealers were extremely optimistic about future months, now only 56 percent of dealers feel that way.

So what is holding dealers back from thinking positively about the future months? Well there are a few reasons. 

1. Market Conditions
2. Limited Inventory
3. Credit Availability for Consumers
4. Competition 
5. Expenses

The good news, however, is that current (Q2) market attitude is fairly positive. 

What are your thoughts on Q2, and feelings coming into Q3?

WATERBURY, VT - Wizely, a digital marketing company focused on the intersection of advertising, analytics & product development, is launching today at the CMO Digital Insight Summit in Sarasota, Florida. 

Wizely is founded by automotive industry veteran and product innovator James Grace, whose previous successes include include patenting time-shift radio (“TiVo”) in vehicles for Cadillac, developing the precursor to Apple’s “CarPlay” functionality for Chevrolet and developing Dealer.com's big-data based nGauge & Attribution analytics products.

“Someone once told me that wisdom is knowledge put into practice and Wizely is being founded on that principle,” said Grace. “It’s one thing to know about the latest trends, buzzwords and technologies but it’s another thing entirely to turn that knowledge into products and services that make an impact.”

Wizley will focus on two critical areas where businesses tend to struggle; strategic product planning and people-based digital marketing. 

Unlike traditional marketing approaches that target audience segments or device groups, people-based marketing techniques target actual people.

Wizely Consulting Services will help companies develop solid product roadmaps and integrate analytics and data into their product and go-to-market strategies. Wizely Digital Marketing Services will help clients use data and analytics to develop truly targeted marketing and advertising campaigns using people-based marketing techniques rather than “spray and pray” approaches.

“For years I have been talking about the quality gap phenomenon where measures like impressions, visits, and spend increase substantially year-over-year while conversions, revenue and profit show much less dramatic increases,” said Grace. “Wizely will help clients address this quality gap in their products, services and advertising.”

The founding of Wizely builds on Grace’s history of thought leadership and innovation in the automotive industry.

“James has been a really valuable part of our RampUp thought leadership events.” said Natalie Salser, Director of Customer Advocacy at LiveRamp. “He is launching Wizely at precisely the right moment when so many businesses are struggling to put people-based marketing techniques into practice.”

The team behind Wizely has ambitious goals for the company, including a people-based marketing product to be released toward the end of 2018.

About Wizely

Wizely was founded on the principle that quality and results matter and that our clients shouldn’t have to choose between state-of-the-art ideas and impacting their business in measurable ways they understand.

Wizely is about putting knowledge, experience, and capability into practice to benefit our clients. Delivering amazing results and having a great time doing it are core to our DNA.  Visit us at Wizelydigital.com

If your dealership isn’t implementing live video into your social media strategy, you should rethink that.

A new study by IBM and BrandLive shows by that by 2020, 82 percent of all internet traffic will be video based, and a growing percentage of that video traffic will be live video (like facebook live, instagram live, etc.)

According to their study, viewers stay tuned in eight-times longer when watching live video compared to on-demand video. On top of that, of the two hundred companies involved with this study, 25 percent stated live content is more of a top priority for them in 2018 than on-demand content. And nearly 95 percent say in general, sharing and using live video will be an important part of their marketing strategy.

There a few ways to go live on social media. The most popular are through Facebook and Instagram.

How to Go Live on Facebook:

1. Go to the homepage of the account you want to go live from (It can be a personal page or company page)

2. On the left hand side of your screen, under your company name or personal name, you will see a button that either says “Post” or “Publish”

3. From there you will get a handful of options in a drop down menu, choose “Live Video”

4. You will get a screen that says “Tap to add a description”, there you can describe what your live video is about

5. Now look for the button at the bottom of the screen that will start the live video.

How to Go Live on Instagram:

1. Go to your home page

2. Swipe your screen to the right

3. On the bottom of the screen you will see multiple options, choose “Live”

4. Follow the prompts to “Start Live Video”

For ideas on live content, or reasons for your dealership to go live on social media, click here.

Test driving can be a pain in the butt for the customer. Test Drives can take hours out of their day, they have to travel to get to the dealership, and has potential to be socially uncomfortable as well.

But one dealership, who spoke with DrivingSales News, is trying something that they think will change the game of test drives completely.

Koch Lincoln of Alberta calls their new web feature ‘On-Demand Test-Drives’ and It gives the customer the opportunity to test drive their vehicle of choice from home.

Here’s how it works:

1. Customer goes online and orders a vehicle they want to test drive

2. A product expert delivers the car straight to the customers home

3. The customers gets to test drive the vehicle for 48-hours and returns at the end

Les Koch, Director of Sales for Lincoln Koch says they are always thinking of new ways to give buyers the ‘wow-factor’, “It is important that every touch-point of our business is personalized, professional, friendly, and helpful. No matter what part of the purchase journey the customer is on, they will be treated like a VIP.”

Their ‘on-demand test-drives’ are so new, they haven’t had a chance to gather any feedback from customers, but expect it will be well received.

From an outside perspective, this seems like it could be a risky move, but has potential to have a large payout.

What do you think - Is this something you would try?

What are concerns you’d have doing this at your own dealerships?

(To learn more about this dealerships innovative feature, click here.)

The automotive industry in Canada is changing and adapting quickly to new technology. This will affect how your company does business there, BUT the Canadian Dealer Forum will help you through the growing pains.

To sign up, click here!

To read about the Automotive Tech Revolution, click here .