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IM@CS Invited To Participate At Essential Upcoming Industry Events

Today it was confirmed that IM@CS' Gary May has been invited as a speaker at both the Innovative Dealer Summit in Denver March 30 and Automotive Marketing Boot Camp in Orlando April 16-18. Additionally, the opening session at the Orlando event will feature a CRM discussion panel moderated by Gary May. These events are great opportunities for progressive dealers that showcase some of the best talent in the industry and IM@CS is pleased to be involved.

March 30 in Denver, just prior to the opening of the Denver Auto Show, the Colorado Auto Dealers Association (CADA) will host the second Innovative Dealer Summit (#IDS) one-day event to showcase technology, process, compliance and strategy for its dealers. The initial event took place last August and it exceeded expectation for all in attendance. IM@CS' session will be about Marketing Integration.

Come April 16-18 in Orlando, PCG Digital Marketing's Automotive Marketing Boot Camp (#AMBC) will provide attendees with one of the most thorough and encompassing educational curriculums available featuring "bring your laptop" classes over the two and a half day agenda. IM@CS will present on Dealership Branding and moderate the panel discussion on dealership use of CRM systems. Dealers interested in attending the event can get an IM@CS discount by being a reader of our blog!

http://www.automotivemarketingbootcamp.com/conference-news/archives/friends-of-imacs/

It is always a pleasure to meet the dealers that are making the most significant investments in their digital presence and results and these two events will be no exception. 2011 will be the starting block for a number of automotive retailers with their eyes set on growing their business and focusing on leading…

March 3, 2011 by Gary May 0
I Before We, With No Exception To D(ealers)

It's the end of the year and the heart of the holiday season, right in between being thankful for everything we have and swearing off more than half of it (mostly weight) for the coming year. It's the time of the year when a few minutes on the automotive networks and news sites gets the mind going. It's also right after last week's (first ever) rant….

So in spelling, it's i before e except after c. Makes sense. Well, it makes no more sense than if it had never been that way and we simply didn't make the rule. No different than putting I before we, especially for the D's. The I's are the loud talkers, advertisers and general blow hards. We…in case people forgot, are the industry. And alas, the D's. The D's are the dealers. Those are the ones that move the industry.

In the event that those that believe the real deals are: the ones doing all of the talking, the media, the OEMs and the old boys club…you're dead wrong. Not that more than an acceptable level of that goes on, it clearly does. But the writing on the wall is getting more clear by the day: the dealers, customers and (ahem) the banks/captives move our beloved industry. Just because an outside person can come in and put a deal together doesn't mean that anything….anything improved the dealership.

More and more dealers are waking up to the simple fact that they've been taken for a long drive on a short road for quite a while. And since the days of milk and honey have been over for a bit, it's more painful than most would care to admit.

So check out the majority of content on our favorite places to read. More #1 this and that's. More white papers. More new, unbelievable this and that's. More covers and articles blaring horns and sirens. OK, the numbers are up in 2010, thank goodness. Even if we're at 12M new units, that's not 17M. Not playing the downer here, lots of stuff is good, but realize that yelling about being the best at something does nothing for business at retail.

Heck, there should be more practicing of the preaching. Any company claiming they're the best, don't just back it up with 1-5% of the client base with quotes. Get the bottom percentage to do the same thing. Ask them to write testimonials without any favors, kickback or kudos of any type. And if you have three times the customers of your next competitor, you should have at least three times the reviews.

We need to move the industry at retail. We can't change the banks, so let's put our efforts where they matter most. Yelling about moving a dealer's Internet sales from 25 to 50 per month, when you didn't? Screaming that you can do the best job in the industry at whatever and your clients aren't the best in the industry? Promoting as best-in-class when the company's experts can't get on the phone for days to review the company's performance in what should be their core competency? Shame on us. How many things have become more important than the customer and how many things are in the way of simply delivering?

Let's make dealers better tomorrow. If a dealer is paying for a service, every 30 days should be better in some measurable form. It's not always units or profit. Sometimes, it's efficiency (which drives profit anyway) or education or communication or retention. Something that makes more sense than simply spending more. Let's put the dealers first. Before the next award bought. Before the next accolade spun.

I before we, with no exception to D is the wrong approach. Pass on the awards, the half-baked "third party" certifications, the advertisements (please!), the 'unbiased' networks, the bling and the paid glorification. Let's get more DEALERS on the cover of Newsweek, not CONSULTANTS on the cover of….

Whooops, that one almost got out….

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Resultsego,

December 19, 2010 by Gary May 0
Things That Pissed Us Off In 2010 (Yes, They Pissed You Off, Too!)

We know it, you know it, they know it. Almost everyone knows it. Because if everyone knew it we wouldn't have ben put through it. But we were, you were and they were. Disclaimers: These are not in order of importance. Many companies are being called out, not all. This is a singular perspective.

So here it goes:

1. Automotive marketing overall: Sucked, still sucks, will likely continue to suck.
2. Dealership websites: 1995 called and wants its sites back. Give us a break and some new suppliers!
3. OEMs that don't publish new inventory: Get over it. customers leaving your brand are.
4. Automotive trainers that re-branded as web consultants: A new suit can't cover 1982 style.
5. Reputation management companies: Fudge is brown. So is bull%^&*. Fake customers? Envelope stuffers? Hooters girls? Please leave…
6. Motivational speakers that re-branded as automotive trainers: See line 4.
7. Social media companies: Charging dealers $3,000-5,000 plus per month? Larceny is still a crime.
8. DMS companies: Still make clients sign in blood for 15 year old technology, for 15 years? Nice. FAIL.
9. Website company dashboards: No, use this thing called Google Analytics. Quit fudging numbers. Block dealers' and your IPs for starters!
10. Inventory marketing portals: The luster is long gone. Run or acquire some companies for revenue!
11. Sales reps: Stop selling and start helping. Don't know much so you can't help? Sell elsewhere.
12. Ad agencies (Tier 1): Quit the facade. Traditional doesn't sell. Experiential does. Learn to like social. Get help.
13. Ad agencies (Tier 3): Quit lying to yourselves and your clients…You don't get digital. Get help.
14. CRM companies: If you don't do that, say you don't do that. Otherwise add it for free. Pariahs.
15. Website companies using Flash: 2003 called and wants their websites back. It's called HTML or PHP.
16. Facebook Personal Profiles: Businesses, we've been yelling. Set up pages. Not "friend" profiles!!
17, Social media companies: Setting up APIs and RSS feeds from OEMs is not social. It's plagiarizing.
18. Social media companies: Setting up inventory feeds as posts? If that's social, I'm tall, rich and hot.
19. Traditional media/ad networks still selling to dealers "old school". Shame on you (and your bosses).

Dealers, you're not in the clear either:

1. Hiring any service, including social, as a "pay for it and leave it" service? No such thing. Period!
2. Hiring any company because you "liked the rep when they were at ________ before". Failure…
3. Not taking the time to get educated on new aspects of your business? Hand the keys back to the OEM
4. "Trying" new things?! Sample spoons are for ice cream. Business is for big boys and girls. Just Do It!
5. Cutting your nose to spite your face? Chances are you're too lean. Hire the right people, not resumes.
6. Leaving everything up to the factory (especially some luxury brands). Wake up! It's your business!
7. Believing the you can turn your store's reputation over to an outside company?!?! I've got a bridge…
8. Not flinching on a new $4,000+ service to a company you're already cutting a $15k check to? Dumb.
9. Spending $3,000 on a 3-day conference 3+ times when you can get a month for that?! And get more!!!
10. Spending any money on your business and not taking ownership of the new spend. Why, why, why?
11. Paying any amount of ad money to traditional media and it's not integrated and tracked?! Foolish.

New-age definitions when you don't understand the spend:

CPM: Can't Provide Much
CRM: Can't Remember Much
ILM: Incredibly Lousy Marketing
CSI: Coached Senseless Investment
SSI: Serving Senseless Initiatives
I/O: Incredibly overpriced
OEM: Overlord, Empire, Master
PDI: Petty detailed injustices
Social: Someone outside control incompetently and loosely
IMS: Inventory Means Something
DMS: Decades-old Money-draining (or Mediocre-Moduled) Systems

We could go down the path a long way but here's the simple version of the message: quit doing things old ways, with old thought processes, with old beliefs, with old defenses, with old intentions, with old management. If you want to run a dealership the old way, get stuck in 1964, 1974, 1984, 1994 or 2004. If you want to thrive in this and the coming markets, wake up to the reality that business will not be the same. Even if we sell 17 million new cars again, it'll never be the same.

Some may be able to, by all appearances, just skim along on the surface, mesmerized by everything going on around them and still put up the numbers. For most of the businessmen and businesswomen in the retail part of our industry, it's a deep dive kind of time. Your success depends on you and how you build your business's presence, results, growth and more. Less than 5% of your colleagues are engaged, firing on all cylinders and moving forward in today's market.

There are a lot of things that pissed us off in 2010. And we may never do a post like this again. But somebody needed to do it. This might motivate some, light a fire in others and have some in stitches. No matter what, it's time for moving some more metal. There's not too many ways to do that today.

Are you pissed off enough to do something? We've been helping those that want to do something for the past three years and three months. Are you next?

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

December 7, 2010 by Gary May 7
IMACS To Speak At Upcoming Digital Marketing Strategies Conference In Napa

IM@CS is pleased to announce that President Gary May has been invited to speak at the upcoming PCG 2011 Digital Marketing Strategies Conference in Napa, CA just prior to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) conference in San Francisco. As things continnue to shift online for the automotive industry, the time dealers have to reassess their activity, brand and resutls online is extremely limited.

Like the PCG event prior to NADA 2010 in Orlando, progressive dealers are expected to get answers to their questions, sound strategies to move forward, relevant data to build from and more. Attendees will take part in three different workshops per day, bookended by breakfast and "Wine Tasting Optimization (WTO)" receptions prior to local Napa dinner engagements that are expected to be the talk of NADA.

Gay May will be joined by Christine Rochelle, Alex Snyder, Matt Murray and Glenn Pasch with keynotes by Brian Pasch, Jared Hamilton and other special guest speakers. Speaker bios and session times can be found at http://www.digitalmarketingstrategies.org/digital-marketing-strategies/agenda/ as well as registration and lodging information.

As the market continues to favor businesses that are focusing online, engaging consumers, responding to input and reviews and retaining their customers properly via the web and other tools, the sessions on February 2-3 will provide the latest in some of the ways to address today’s automotive retail environment.

Heading to San Francisco for NADA and willing to add on a few days that can more your business? Join us!

November 14, 2010 by Gary May 2
Quick, The Shiny Object Just Moved! Ouch, It’s Your Vendor…

Don't read too much into the title, it's not a slam on your (fill in the blank) vendor, although many deserve to be taken to task. This is about what they have to deal with. If you've been under a rock this year or simply have not been paying attention, Google changed significantly three times. Your vendors have had to change at least that many, even though they pitch that they're changing all the time.

So, what does this mean for the shiny object mentality? It's not changed. In fact, it may only get better. In other words, as things get a little more dicey in the online space in regard to results, there will be a larger "sorting out" of who really is prepared from a resource perspective to roll with what could be considered large changes in the way search and results are structured. And when a sales rep is not up to speed and things that happened a week prior, let alone a couple months, it's time to sharpen the pencil and make sure that door that hits them on the way out is primed.

All kidding aside, there have been countless changes since last December that have affected the search engines and how YOU get displayed in results. The biggest one from an overall view would likely be Google Instant, followed by the recent change to the Google Map/Local results that are also affecting the display of reviews and paid ads. There's lots of money, eyeballs and leads at stake.

The shiny object's location is changing, at what seems to be a continuously more rapid pace. Not just search results (and your traditional website) are facing the music, but also mobile: applications, marketing, social and more. And the third party lead market seems to be experiencing a larger ebb and flow in the market today. Just as there is no longer room in automotive retail for "what used to work", there's no room for "let's wait and see" in the vendor world. Rest for just a little bit and your a** will be kicked (but don't worry, dealers will still buy from lots of companies, especially if they keep sending "attractive" reps out to show impressive charts and talk about clicks….yawn….).

It's not easy being a website, CRM, pay-per-click, SEO or social media services company today. Engagement changes regularly and sometimes daily. By the time you send out pertinent information, run some webinars and update your systems and inform the rep force, that earth-changing update is old news and the next revelation has hit the news wires. And yes, even the vendors that do launch 25 updates a week and tweet about it do have to deal with issues outside of their control and fall down regularly.

As fast as the industry is changing, technology is changing many times faster. The balance between being bleeding-edge, leading-edge, between-the-edges and absolutely-no-edge is sometimes no greater than a whisker. Consumers control the content that is controlled by the big engines at such a great level today, what we have to yell about is less and less relevant, engaging and important. Who knows, maybe the shiny object is not even obtainable.

Even with the industry consolidation that we see year after year, it's always refreshing to see the new guy or gal on the block give it a chance. Dealers need much better services than what's been delivered historically and there are companies willing to do it. But the wake up call for dealers is that THEY need to do more in the way of understanding, goal setting and holding staff accountable. Vendor accountability is critical, but still not as important as making sure you can do what you're paying for.

So belive it or not something changed in how well you'll perform online since you started reading this. Maybe it was a vendor, a competitor, a search engine, a customer or even you. No matter what, don't take your eye off of the shiny object!

You did read correctly. Keep one eye on the ball, one on your customer, one on your brand, one on your staff, one on your marketing, one on your process, one on your future, one on your past….and one on the shiny object.

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

November 13, 2010 by Gary May 0
Gut Check: What Are We Doing? Oh Yeah, Measuring!

Overstated? Maybe….but likely not. What are we doing? If we go by the numbers, and they're estimated but well known, we've got the second largest employer in the Untied States behind our back. The automotive industry is massive, even if you don't consider the associated businesses it keeps thriving. So, let's say we have a few million directly employed in the car biz (which is likely conservative) and had less than 3,000 in Las Vegas recently for the most important events that actually can move the needle. Pitiful. This week's SEMA show will kill that in attendance. And within the first hour.

What are we doing? So add the OEM eCommerce summits, conferences and events (which represent vendors more typically than push owners and general managers into the uncomfortable zone) and you've got at best a few thousand more that are around the discussions of online marketing, online customers, online retention and online success.

Ignore it at your own willful demise. Attack it like people trying the 72 ounce steak at Big Texan, you might go crazy trying to figure out which end is up. So how do you go down the road somewhere in between the two extremes and still try to maintain that "blocking and tackling" BS mentality that makes ownership and management comfortable? Simple: a plan.

While they are in fact out there, the count of dealers who have a written-down, approved, executable monthly strategy for doing and increasing amount of activities to promote success is likely somewhere around the chance of us having a space program in 2011 that lands us back on the moon. It's on the radar, they're might even be some dollars against it but I will venture a strong guess that it won't happen. That's not quite as disappointing as a dealer that is a few months from increasing their results and market share significantly, and does nothing about it.

Folks, the information is out here. And don't be afraid to ask. Yes, you might have to do some digging through the typical crap: an article on one of the popular automotive communities that doesn't answer your question but does have the "expert's" contact information. Or one of our recent favorites: white papers that will confuse the &^@# out of dealers that also end with a signature block that looks more like a proclamation. (Hint: generally speaking, automotive communities are not the place for white papers. Link to your website from the community website. Better yet, if it's a white paper done in conjunction with a company OUTSIDE of the industry, definitely publish it but keep your post on the communities to the synopsis. Please. Tip: not only that, you get back-links!!!!!!)

There have been fantastic pointers and forecasts about what will happen in the digital/online space for the past two years. Over 95% of the dealers missed or ignored them. Maybe it's time to have 2011 be "The Year Of Great Automotive Listening" (do that will your Movie-Guy voice). No matter what, this is the year of honest measurement, in our opinion.

So here's a few places to go to get your feet wet (or immersed) in measurement:

  1. Google.com (Analytics, Trends, Insights, Alerts, Webmaster tools, etc)
    A. If you've never used the above, start with going to Google and entering "links:www.YOURDEALERSHIPWEBSITE.com" or "site:www.YOURDEALERSHIPWEBSITE.com" and see what Google sees!
  2. Hubspot.com (Website grader, Facebook grader, Twitter grader, PR grader, etc)
    A. If you attended DrivingSales Executive Summit, you got more than you need!
  3. SEOmoz.org, Yahoo Site Explorer, etc (Linking and content tools)
  4. Twitalyzer, TwitterCounter, Untweeps, TwitterAnalyzer, etc (amazing tools if you're on Twitter)
  5. FourScore (found this recently for your FourSquare ranking/effectiveness)
  6. Compete, Alexa, etc (even though many dealership sites won't rank, be creative!)

There are so many other great FREE tools available for you to do more than just count on others, like your website company, and actually improve while holding people accountable but too many to list.

It's time for a gut check. How much further can you go down the road mostly (or absolutely) blind to what is essential to grow your business and be able to talk to the main points….without fudging it anymore.

Here's to doing things with more tools than just passion. Here's to knowing what we're doing!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 31, 2010 by Gary May 0
What Have You Done For You Lately? (Ooh ooh ooh yeah…)

You're back but your bags (and head) may still be packed from your Las Vegas departure. The whirlwind of powerpoints, data, applications, widgets, speakers, vendors and pitches that opened October 12 with Digital Dealer and ran through DrivingSales Executive Summit at Encore, came to a close mid-day last Friday with the departure of over 1,000 from JD Power's Annual OEM and Ad Agency shindig called Internet Roundtable at Red Rock Resort (where more upfront talks than Internet dealings happen, but let's digress).

So your notebook, FlipCam, voice recorder and brain are packed with thoughts, visions, ideas and goals around everything you heard. But the "back to normal" is so gratifying that you may have not done a cotton-picking-thing since switching off the neon and turning on the flourecents. And besides, it was kind of touching to see that 88-day old unit turn 100 now that you're back (ooops!).

So if you're stuck with not knowing where to start, you didn't leave with goals. If you've got three or four places you want to start at, you may not know what your greatest weaknesses or opportunities are. And if you didn't gather enough information on how to get started and the first steps to take from that high-ranking speaker, call them for a freebie. And you may just want to "x" off that session or conference next year because the value didn't get delivered.

So, what have you done for you lately? (Sorry Janet, it's not about you). It's time to crank that Internet machine thing to the next level, right?! Do yourself a favor and start looking everywhere else but automotive and get your bearings. Why? Because there are Facebook pages selling more Snuggies than your website sells in service. There are blogs feeding more contacts to start-up S-E-O, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E companies than you get leads from $199-a-month leases. And we have ourselves (and many vendors) to blame.

Start Thursday with a goal to add one task from your volume of Notes 'de Las Vegas and start it. Not Friday, not next week. October 28. Haven't secured your Google Places/Maps location? Do that or learn about it. Haven't secured your Foursquare venue? Have 60 domains you registered a bunch of years ago and one is perfect for a blog? Start it and who cares what it says as long as it says something about what your store is passionate about regarding your customers and the products you sell. But what have you done for you lately?

"Good thing I cook or else we'd starve to death…" How appropriate is that today? Automotive retailers must thank their customers for coming in year after year and driving off in new and pre-owned cars with little more than a smile. It was about the badge, the new product, the incentives and the advertisements. Now it's about you. Matter of fact it always was but the industry lucked out for more than a decade. So what have you done for you lately?

Yes there's half-cooked information all over. Yes, there's "experts" who haven fallen into something that, for obvious reasons, they can't quite explain in an hour on stage. Yes, there's going to be more consolidation in the indsutry which means your ____________ company may become part of another company you're not doing (or don't want to do) business with. But what have you done for you lately?

There are many really good, and some extremely good, tools and providers out there to settle for what someone in your Twenty Group has or what your read in an ad or study. Last week it was amazing to watch the Innovation Cup at the DrivingSales Executive Summit. The "let's never settle for me-too" juices were really flowing there. Put easily, if something can't be verified by a neurtal third party, don't necessarily run away, rather gain more information before making a decision. Chances are you're right that it wasn't a good choice in the first place.

Today you have to be prepared to do something for yourself and stick with it. Even though it's so easy to quit and go back to what you knew. It's also more costly than ever. If you invested the time and money to be around that much addictive behavior for a week or two in Las Vegas, everything you brought back deserves to come to life in your store. That is if you can find your notes among the free schwag of flying monkeys, free model cars, light-up bounding balls, mints, pens, flash drives, logo hats, t-shirts, notepads, shopping bags and fliers for products that are pay-for-it-now-cuase-it's-almost-to-market-so-you-can-be-first (wink, wink).

So what have you done for you lately? Come on, we've got to …….uh, wait….come on…..wait for it…..wait for it……you know you want it…..SELL MORE CARS!

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 28, 2010 by Gary May 0
DrivingSales Executive Summit…In A Nutshell

 DrivingSales Executive Summit V2.0 hit Encore (Wynn) in Las Vegas last Monday through Wednesday. A few things: attendance doubled last year’s, the start was absolutely electric and the event finished on such a high it left many attendees literally longing for more and feeling like they needed another day. The DSES crew flat out delivered.

Upon walking into the main Encore conference room at 4:00p, it was packed. Charlie Vogelheim emceed once again with his typical style. Jared Hamilton, founder of DrivingSales.com, did a more-than-typically -fast-paced tirade on where the industry is from both his and an opportunity perspective. It was mesmerizing and for more reasons than the picture of the donkey suspended in mid-air. The foundation was set.

Brian Benstock and Sean Wolfington talked about what Paragon Honda and Tier 10 did together to achieve massive results from integrated marketing. Not “let’s do this offline and see if it works on the web” so-called integration but a rarely-executed integration. The cost would strike most dealers, especially Honda dealers, as a shock today but it was a massive undertaking, shaved Paragon’s costs in what would rank as the “wow that’s great” territory and put them solidly on the map as #1. It was impressive.

Then it was time for Scott Monty of Ford (http://www.twitter.com/ScottMonty). As I’ve had the benefit of seeing a good part of the opening of his presentation before, it was crowd watching time. Simply put, Scott had the room wrapped around his finger. It’s amazing to hear about just part of what he, backed by a rare CEO in Alan Mulally, and the social media and marketing teams do at Ford. Day one’s reception at Piero’s was fantastic, the buzz consistent well into the evening.

Day two kicked off with great anticipation and didn’t disappoint. Jeremiah Owyang (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog) piqued the interest of many in the room with volumes of data as well as practical application. Brian Pasch and Erich Miltsch both hit their separate sessions, SEO and location-based services, with great engagement. Eric unveiled his CarZar application (http://www.thecarzar.com) which was definitely the talk over the rest of the conference. Grant Cardone followed with one of his rousing, impassioned pleased from stage about businesses maintaining an “eat or be eaten” mentality.

Three sessions of breakouts, then lunch, and three more rounds covered the rest of day two’s learning. The Facebook session (Albrecht AG and Lebanon FLM) was insightful but seemed to lack engagement with the audience and didn’t answer the “tough questions”. Rafi Hamid’s Enterprise Management presentation may have been a little much for some of the attendees. Fact is all could have, somewhat to completely, restructured their dealerships just from his insight.

Then it was time for the Dealer and Vendor Innovation Cup. What a great way for dealers to participate in what may change the industry next! These are some of the most innovative folks around, not hampered by other company’s offerings or what vendors don’t provide. Some of the substance was leading edge, others more common place. But the desire to execute, and what it took to continue to push the envelope, that was the compelling “meat and potatoes”. eCarList (http://www.ecarlist.com) and Marc McGurren from Jerry Durant Toyota won. Congratulations.

The one thing that continues to strike me after attending eight years of automotive conferences is this: why do we not connect the dots at the event rather than making the attendees do so themselves after the events. DrivingSales Executive Summit would have been the right place to have a Q&A session that allowed those that wanted the extra insight to get going when they returned to their dealerships later in the week. Note to promoters: breakouts, lunch sessions and other quick after-session times plus post-event webinars and curriculum are perfect for that and the speakers should be required to do their part.

Tuesday closed with another packed reception but I’d say the buzz was higher. Yes, there was even a Ralph Paglia sighting! Lots of connecting, introductions and big conversations (small chat was non-existent). It was fun to have a number of Canadians in the room as things change north of the border. The industry there is also changing rapidly and not having felt as steep of an economic decline as the US did, many retailers there are waking up to incredible opportunities for their dealerships. After hours, Sean Wolfington and Brian Pasch greeted some forty plus to their own reception which went on for another four hours plus.

Wednesday saw Dan Zarrella (http://danzarrella.com) put many on their ears and some looking inquisitively with a wide-ranging but hard-hitting session of insight all relevant to search, social, engagement, measurement and more. The accountability and opportunities dealers can create just from his time on stage would be more than a year of gains. Joel Ristuccia of Babson College brought incredible amounts of insight to the subject of change management in the industry, Dale Pollak did one of always rousing, but very up-to-date, admonitions about how dealers must change now and Jared Hamilton closed the event with John Holt of Cobalt Group on stage. Admittedly I missed that session while in the adjoining hall on phone calls and no tweets.

In closing, with definite room to grow and improve (and some more microphones around the audience for the Q&A session after each keynote), DrivingSales Exeuctive Summit was spot on in only its second generation. There was enough positive feedback to likely venture a guess as to how much the third edition would grow. And maybe room for…….

Congratulations to Jared and the entire DSES team for an impressive event!

October 24, 2010 by Gary May 1
The More Things Stay The Same, The More They Stay The Same

We're considering making a big alarm clock. No, a BIG %^&*#$@ alarm clock. That way instead of waking up 10-100 dealers at a time, we can wake up 10,000. And folks, we all should know how big that clock has to be. 14 years of the automotive Internet, over 6 years for most OEM website programs and CRMs, over 3 years of SEO chatter, social media, landing pages, microsites, email marketing and nearly 2 years of mobile, geo-location, widgets and integration. What do we have to show for it? The alarm clock is not big enough.

Two percent leadership and a bunch of blank stares. The season of automotive industry digital marketing events is upon us. It's time to move the needle. Even before massive fees, niclkle-and-diming- new widget this and new fandagled that. And it's not "back to basics" or "blocking and tackling". If you want to stick to blocking, the customers are going to be walking. The alarm clock is not big enough.

Many folks talk about how the people that have been moving the industry's training and messaging programs are right there in the comfort zone, what they like, the heart of the 20 Group, the flame to the cigar so-to-speak. Many dealers around the country are still FourSquaring and we're not talking about the social media game. Many dealers don't have photos up on inventory for a week or two (or longer) after receiving the units. Many dealers don't know the first thing about where, what, how and why there are reviews on the web (or, in some cases, all over it) about the poor experiences at their dealership. The alarm clock is not big enough.

We're talking about dealers having to buy leads since their own inventory doesn't display correctly, generating their own leads. We're talking about the leads that are received not being handled right nearly 70% of the time. We're talking about dealers struggling with finding the right people to handle the leads right, yet hiring the wrong people in the first place. The alarm clock is not big enough.

Consider the volume of content that is available to every dealership with an Internet connection*. Consider the wealth of knowledge that exists at the other end of the phone at nearly any time. Consider the amount of information available in one day with the right person. Consider how much consumers, us, are changing the rules. The alarm clock is not big enough.

*Blocking computers from accessing most of the web? Does the industry emply adults? The alarm clock is not anywhere close to big enough for people with that much control. My fricking gosh, lighten up.

Think about how much less the franchise matters today and how much more the dealer brand matters. Think about how your HTML website* won't load on a cell phone nicely but your United, Delta and American boarding passes do. Think about how much more you want your customers to spend at your store but they don't even open your emails (because hopefully you're actually looking at that). The alarm clock is not big enough.

*And the fact that your website company is using Flash-laden pages, can't deploy a PHP-coded application and won't be able to resize and deploy a widget or give real analytics? No alarm clock can wake that up.

Really, the more things stay the same, the more they stay the same. It's not that we believe there are people intentionally not doing what they should to move the industry forward or that they can't do it. No. It's that whatever has been done has honestly moved the ball forward about a yard but it's 4th down and 28 yards to go. This round of events in Las Vegas needs to get as much fire about them as profits because of them.

Not the same data. Not the same repackaged presentation. Not even the same presenter. Not the same expectation. Not the same end game. Not the same focus. Not the same anything. We all know dealers that are afraid today. Isn't fear supposed to promote change?

Here's a challenge: Every speaker. Every presenter. Every vendor. Follow up your sessions with a call or onlne meeting within two weeks of the event for everyone that wants it. And promote it. For Free. Answer every question. Refer other companies if you don't offer something that's being asked for. Give something away at your session. Really give it away. No strings attached.

Maybe it's a start. Maybe it's about time. Maybe it's about the dealer. Maybe it's about selling and servicing cars. What do you think?

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

October 6, 2010 by Gary May 0
Getting Ready For Digital Dealer And DrivingSales Executive Summit? Here’s Some Tips

Tickets? Check. Hotel? Check. Registration? Check. FlipCam? Check. SmartPhone? Check. A plan to make what you take back with you work? Ummmm. Not checked!

Digital Dealer 9, DrivingSales Excecutive Summit and JD Power Internet Roundtable are right around the corner. Have you mapped out your sessions? Have you made a commitment to have executable items upon your return? Some alerady have planned for success.

So, here some ideas to get ready before you head to Las Vegas in a couple weeks. It might make the investment worth it!


 

October 1, 2010 by Gary May 0