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.

Located at Manheim San Francisco Bay, the new center will serve clients’ growing and diverse needs.

HAYWARD, Calif., June 13, 2018 – Preparing for increased demand in its retail reconditioning business while anticipating growth in the vehicle mobility space, Manheim opened its 19th retail recon site on June 13 at Manheim San Francisco Bay.

The company invested approximately $500,000 in the 20,000 square-foot facility to provide mechanical and reconditioning services to dealers, commercial consignors and new vehicle mobility providers in the evolving automotive sector. The half-million dollar investment is a part of the $1.5 million investment Manheim has made in its San Francisco Bay location. The Center has seven vehicle lifts and a team of highly-trained technicians who can perform minor and major component repairs on about 100 vehicles per week

“We are uniquely positioned to offer end-to-end solutions to independent and franchise dealers, fleet operators, ride sharing companies and manufacturers,” said Greg Beck, general manager, Manheim San Francisco Bay. “Our proximity to Silicon Valley, home to many of tomorrow’s vehicle mobility providers, is just one more way we are poised to deliver tremendous value and meet client and industry needs.”

Manheim’s retail reconditioning offerings provide everything needed to prepare vehicles for sale, including a 140-point inspection, mechanical and body reconditioning, paint, detail, merchandising, imaging and more.

By outsourcing such services to a single point of contact at one location, clients can focus on customers, fulfill retail demand faster, and save time and money. Further, this alternative to in-house recon frees up a dealer’s own service bays for paying customers and gets retail-ready vehicles to their lot quickly—typically within four to 10 days, depending on client specifications and vehicle condition.


“The conveniences and flexibility generated by Manheim’s Retail Reconditioning solution help dealers improve efficiency, speed, capacity and margins,” said Beck. “It can even help reduce costs, by avoiding vehicle transport to/from multiple locations and enhance the unit’s value.”

Retail reconditioning is a natural extension of Manheim’s solutions, leveraging its large-scale operations, expertise and high-quality workmanship. The company started to participate in the $24B retail reconditioning industry in 2015 and now operates 19 locations, serving a range of clients from dealers to manufacturers and new vehicle mobility players. It has invested more than $17M to build new Retail Reconditioning facilities across the nation, enhance existing ones and develop proprietary technology. Last year alone, Manheim produced over 30,000 retail-ready vehicles.

Manheim’s newest Retail Reconditioning Center, located on more than three acres at 1525 Crocker Avenue in Hayward, is an extension of Manheim San Francisco Bay, a 72-acre wholesale auction established in 1987. It is one of the company’s six operating locations in California and features 12 lanes to sell approximately 2,500 vehicles per week. 

Supporting its community, Manheim San Francisco Bay is a 23-year member of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce and contributes to Hayward Animal Shelter, Hayward Police Department memorial funds and local food banks, as well as American Red Cross, Drivers for Survivors, Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America and Ronald McDonald House Charities. The organization has achieved a platinum ranking in the Cox Conserves Zero Waste to Landfill program by diverting 80 to 89 percent of its waste from landfills.

About Manheim (www.manheim.com)
Manheim® is North America's leading provider of end-to-end wholesale solutions that help dealer and commercial clients increase profits in their used vehicle operations.Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for inventory management, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. With its omni-channel approach, Manheim Marketplace enables wholesale vehicle clients more efficient ways to connect and transact business how and when they want. Approximately 18,000 team members help Manheim offer 8 million used vehicles annually, facilitating transactions representing nearly $58 billion in value. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim North America is a Cox Automotive™ brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com. 

Media Contact: Julie Shipp  |   PR Manager, Manheim  |   404-558-7837  |   julie.shipp@coxautoinc.com

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

We are rounding out the top five forum posts for May 2018.

To create this list we take many things into account including the amount of views, and the amount of interaction in the comment section.

May 2018 Top Forum Posts 

What Project Management Software Do You Use?

Posted by Jordan Scott, Digital Marketing Director of the Davis Automotive group.

Amazed at all the options available for Management Software, Scott asked the DrivingSales community which are best and why.

Check out what the community has to say here.

Anonymous Reviews Disappearing From Google?

Posted by Andrew James, Digital Marketing Manager for DrivingSales.

Intrigued by google disabling anonymous reviews online, James asked the community if this will be beneficial in the long run.

What do you think? Add to the discussion here.

Managers Confirm Appointments?

Posted by Derrick Woolfson, a Business Development Manager.

Woolfson asks if it's worth it or not for managers to confirm appointments.

Have an opinion on the matter? Click here!

Taking Development Seriously

Posted by Brandin Wilkinson, Presient/Owner of Woodworth Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Ltd.

Wilkinson states that personal development is something dealerships don't take seriously enough.

Do you agree? Join the conversation here.

Autonomous Car Testing Doesn't Seem to be Going so Great

Posted by Sherri Riggs, Community Manager at DrivingSales.

After researching how many autonomous car crashes there have been, I realized we are farther away from autonomous vehicles being the norm than I thought.

Add your thoughts on AV's 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 .

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Trust is one of the most powerful human emotions. We are biologically wired to make our decisions based on trust. It has never been more important to the auto industry than now as it transitions from pure sales and service to autonomy, mobility services and electrification.

The second annual AMCI “Trusted Automotive Brand Study®” again confirmed that trust accounts for more than 50% of a consumer’s decision to repurchase or recommend an automotive brand.

While we saw an erosion of trust in the 2018 study, particularly among luxury brands and with both luxury and non-luxury dealers, some brands have made great strides. The recipients of AMCI’s 2018 Trusted Automotive Brand Study® awards are:

MOST TRUSTED LUXURY – Genesis, INFINITI, Tesla

MOST IMPROVED LUXURY – Acura, INFINITI, Mercedes-Benz

MOST TRUSTED NON-LUXURY – Chevrolet, GMC, Kia

MOST IMPROVED NON-LUXURY – Chevrolet, Honda, Volkswagen

This is the second year both Genesis and Kia have been industry trust leaders. These and other young brands are setting the standard. Chevrolet’s performance in 2018 shows that large, established brands who focus on trust can really achieve great results.

“We are very pleased to see more automotive brands focusing on trust but there is a lot more work to be done. The top automotive brands Trust Indices are still below 50 on a 100 point scale and lag behind many other familiar consumer product and retail categories,” said Dave White, President, AMCI Inside.

For further information contact: Ian Beavis, Chief Strategy Officer, AMCI Global, ph: 714-813-6300, email: ibeavis@amciglobal.com.

About the Trusted Automotive Brand Study

In January 2018, AMCI conducted its 2nd annual Trusted Automotive Brand Study (TABS). The study was executed in collaboration with C Space, a global customer agency. A nationally representative sample of 2,500 owners across 34 brands participated in the study.

About AMCI Global

AMCI is a leading global automotive marketing agency committed to serving every part of this vibrant industry and creating advocates for automotive brands. Founded in 1984, AMCI has grown to include three distinct practices: AMCI Live, dedicated to consumer and industry product activations and events; AMCI Testing, focused on using the latest technology and methods to evaluate and compare all aspects of automotive products; and AMCI Inside, devoted to working with dealerships to employ best practices and improve the customer experience. With over 15 million consumer drive experiences in the last 10 years alone, as well as thousands of dealerships all over the world to improve the customer experience, AMCI works with every major automotive brand across the globe.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, AMCI has offices in Detroit, Atlanta, Nashville, Dallas, London and Beijing. Discover AMCI at https://amciglobal.com/ or follow us on Twitter at @AMCIGlobal. AMCI is part of the Omnicom Group Inc.

About C Space

C Space is a global customer agency that marries art and science to create rapid customer insight and business change. C Space works with some of the world’s best known brands – like Walmart, Samsung, IKEA and more – to build customers into the ways companies work and deliver on “Customer Inspired Growth.” By building real, ongoing relationships with customers – online and in-person – brands can stay relevant, deliver superior experiences, launch successful products and build loyalty. C Space’s customized programs are tailored based on specific business needs and include private online communities, immersive storytelling, data & analytics, activation events, innovation projects and business consulting.

Headquartered in Boston, London and Shanghai, C Space also has offices in New York, San Francisco and Mexico City. To learn more, visit www.cspace.com or follow us on Twitter @CSpaceGlobal. C Space is a part of the Omnicom Group Inc.

Contacts

AMCI Global
Ian Beavis, Chief Strategy Officer
714-813-6300
ibeavis@amciglobal.com