Digital Dealer 8 Recap
Posted by Dealer Specialties
Digital Dealer (#DD8), Orlando Florida – Recap
by Al Hess, General Manager – Field Sales & Operations
This was my fourth Digital Dealer conference (DD8) and the fourth with distinct personality and content. Apart from other industry events, DDC is well worth the time and money investment. Digital Dealer reports that the Spring 2010 conference dealer attendance and exhibitor presence was at a record high. The two hot topics this year, based on my observations, were 1) pricing analytics (necessity, usage and market advantages) and 2) social media.
The discussion around pricing analytics remains interesting. The dealer community I speak with understands the general purpose and existence of the tool yet differ on how in-depth they need to go for a complete vehicle analysis and how much to invest in a corresponding product. Many are performing pricing analysis and comparisons using one of several free tools already embedded in an existing solution. Others invest in more robust analytics focused on per vehicle profit objectives, allowing such analysis to drive their inventory selection. If you attended the DD8 general session, you likely walked away as I did realizing there continues to be multiple methods for accomplishing the same result for marketing cars, stocking and turning inventory to maximize profits.
Social media discussions continue to focus on reputation management and the need to engage customers now in a social community forum. The risks are simply too great for any dealer not to be monitoring what people are saying about them, and forfeit the opportunity to engage online. The monetization of that social media effort comes not from a direct marketing strategy of advertising vehicles for sale, rather from promoting and protecting your brand and your community purpose. Selling cars can be a trickle down result from the extent of your social media presence and how well you execute what are now clearly defined best practices.
A third interesting observation is while many vendors had a mobile solution within their product offerings, there was very little session content around mobile. Mobile is a most exciting and opportunistic area for all retailers, including automotive retailers. This landscape is being crafted currently at rapid speed. I am very interested to see if DD9 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas October 12 – 14 addresses this topic with more education.
What direction is your business taking to help select, turn and price inventory?
May 03 2010 08:36 am | General
Toby Albergotti on 21 May 2010 at 7:10 am #
Thanks for the Recap…
A Simple Quick FREE way for dealers to manage their reputation: Google Reader & Google Alerts
Setup Google Reader: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y
A quick little YouTube Vid on a simple Google Alerts tip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stSXN-iRcyA
Dealer Specialties on 24 May 2010 at 1:47 pm #
Thanks for the additional resources, Toby!