Next Generation Service Marketing 
How to rebuild your customer base and grow dealership profitability 

Traditional service marketing methods don’t work anymore. Your customers have changed, your competition has changed and digital media has changed. New consumer perception research will show you what you're up against and how to use that insight to stem customer base erosion. All attendees will learn new strategies and tactics to regain and retain profitable lost customers. You will see real results from some of the most successful dealerships employing these new tactics. Be sure to attend this session… the profitability of your dealership in the future might just depend on it.

Mike DeCecco is an industry veteran who has worked in the automotive business for over 10 years with companies such as Manheim Auto Auctions and AutoTrader.com. Before venturing into the Internet arena, Mike worked the floor as a sales consultant.  While working up through the ranks at the dealership, he drove floor sales by taking advantage of the latest in Internet capabilities.

Since 2003, DeCecco has been instrumental in the development of Dealer.com – a leading provider of eMarketing solutions for the automotive industry. In his tenure, he has worked with dealers to offer innovative and proprietary e-commerce systems, such as fully integrated websites, search engine marketing and lead management. In his current capacity as the spokesperson and director of Industry Relations for Dealer.com he is speaking as an authority on automotive Internet practices at conferences and conventions nationwide.

Prior to working for Dealer.com DeCecco managed the Internet business for one of the largest dealer groups in the country, the Lia Auto Group. At Lia, he managed the online presence and marketing of approximately 30 rooftops with 11 franchises in New York alone.

Kevin Root is the senior vice president of Product Strategy for DriverSide.com. He has worked in the automotive industry for over 20 years and has been recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as one of the original automotive e-commerce pioneers. Root is an automotive e-commerce subject matter expert and has led the product strategy for major portals including DriverSide.com, MSN Autos and UsedCars.com and is accredited for bringing over a dozen successful products to market. He has developed e-commerce performance improvement solutions for many of the major automotive OEMs and several leading dealer groups.

Previously, Root was the VP of Product Strategy and Marketing at Dealix, a division of Cobalt, and the VP of Products and Services in Cobalt’s Applications Group. He was responsible for product management, strategy, dealer consulting and their industry-leading research initiatives.

Practitioners

Internet Department for Beginners
Ingredients for building an Internet department for maximum ROI

Are you just starting out or are you looking to rebuild the Internet department?
Come to this session and learn the secrets of building an Internet department with limited resources so you can compete with the big players. We’re going to answer these questions and more: How do I get started? When should I start adding salespeople? When should I add lead providers? How do I evaluate and control lead providers? How can we control costs and make sure the department is profitable?

Broderick Alley is the Internet sales director for the Diehl Auto Group in Butler, PA. He spent nine years in the trenches as Internet manager – four years in Washington, DC market and five years in Pittsburgh market. He brings a wealth of experience and know-how to the conference.

How to Run a Champagne BDC on a Beer Budget
How to implement “out of the box” strategies for cutting costs while increasing traffic and revenue 

• Put proven processes in place to handle incoming phone calls that have an appointment rate of 70%. 
•  Turn to the new digital generation young adults for social media, video, and focus groups
•  Have unsold floor traffic and missed appointments racing back to your store
• Turn sold customers into “raving” fans and referral machines
• Improve lead generation from existing resources
• Turn your service drive into a BDC sales fountain
•  Hire and train BDC superstars

Larry Barditch is the director of business development at Kendall Chevrolet in Miami, FL. He oversees the BDC and Internet department. He is a former small business owner of 19 years. His company dominated the service segment of the local bottled water industry. His customer retention rate was three times the industry average. He has applied the same “customer-for-life” attitude to the auto industry. Barditch will show you how Kendall Chevy was able to finish 2009 as the top Chevy dealer in the Florida southeast zone, outperforming the “big box” national Chevy stores on one-tenth of their budget.

How Crossley Ford Became the #1 Dealer in Kansas City
Record profits in a down market

Attendees will learn how Crossley Ford:

• Increased their traffic with advanced SEO practices
• Generated more first party leads from their award winning website
• Utilized technology to automatically update their web site and inventory
• Leveraged automated follow up systems to improve sales and service retention
• Lowered operating costs by consolidating technology providers
• Improved profits by improving the customer experience
• Applied used vehicle market pricing data to dramatically increase pre-owned sales and profits
• Utilized mobile CRM and social CRM to revolutionize how they interact with their customers

Todd Crossley has worked in all aspects of a dealership in multiple locations throughout the nation. He has worked as a salesperson, leasing manager, sales manager, GSM, service manager, and service director. In 2004 his experience within the dealership allowed him to successfully transition to general manager of Gary Crossley Ford. In 2005 he built and moved into a new 60,000 square foot facility with 55 service and quick lane bays.

The Party’s Over! 
How to play by the new rules and thrive in the Internet age of the automotive retail industry
Andrew DiFeo, general manager for Hyundai of St. Augustine, will provide a general manager’s perspective of how dealerships can become more efficient in marketing spend and pricing of vehicles by embracing the new transparent world created by the Internet.

The automotive retail industry is in a very mature stage of its business life cycle in North America. While some fundamentals of the business are still in place, dealers have to play by a new set of rules to ensure their sustainability in this environment. The Internet has created an efficient market where the consumer has an equal amount of information as the dealer. A dealers’ success will depend on embracing this efficient market rather than fighting it.

To adapt to this new business model and remain profitable, dealers must shift their advertising focus from traditional media to the new media mix on the Internet. But that is only one piece of the puzzle. To succeed in today’s competitive retail marketplace, dealers also must focus on their online reputation and embrace an upfront, transparent, and competitive pricing model based on statistical information rather than traditional pricing methods.

This session will focus on real-world examples of an effective advertising mix on the Internet, online reputation management, and being able to turn a net profit with an upfront and aggressive pricing strategy.

Andrew DiFeo is general manager of Hyundai of St. Augustine. He has over 10 years of both retail and wholesale automotive experience. Prior to opening Hyundai of St. Augustine in May of 2008, DiFeo was general manager of a Mitsubishi dealership in Florida. Before entering the retail automotive industry, he worked at Toyota Motor Sales, USA for five years holding several field manager positions in sales, parts, and service as well as completing Toyota’s management trainee program. DiFeo received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and has completed both the NADA Dealer Academy and the NADA Executive Education Program.

Do It Yourself Strategies
Proven techniques for building the right team, as well as tips and strategies that will help turn your phototaking, Facebooking and lead generating activities into sales.

This session will speak to the importance of job descriptions and the process of hiring people. The self-selection process will help you maximize performance based on areas of responsibility, capability and accountability. Among other topics, guidelines for multi-tier interviews, two-week game plans and 90-day pay plans will be discussed.

Additionally, we’ll discuss how to:

• Own your picture taking process
• Drive merchandising factor performance via pay plans
• Track sales by lead provider in your DMS
• Take your pay-per-click in-house
• Leverage social media across the group
• Address the unique nuances of having different people responsible for selling versus pricing used car inventory

Examples during the presentation will come from the store and corporate level.

Jim Flint is the corporate director of Interactive Sales and Marketing for the John Eagle Dealerships, a multi-line, multi-state group of dealerships. His focus is on crafting innovative interactive marketing plans that grow leads and increase conversion ratios, sales and profitability.

With more than 13 years of experience in automotive sales and marketing, Flint knows what it takes to drive retail sales in tough business climates. He’s been responsible for the development of integrated business plans for Toyota, Nissan and Mazda. His combination of sales operations, financial analysis and marketing has given him broad experience in developing solutions that drive real-time, bottom-line results. Prior to working in the automotive industry, he worked in sports marketing for Nike.

Looking Inside the Crystal Ball
Real life dealership examples showing you how to become leaner and meaner in the market, driving money right to your bottom line

Is your Internet department a leader in the market, a follower or just barely hanging on?
This presentation will provide real dealership examples of how you can:

• Identify trends in your market using that information to sell more cars/service
• Ways to leverage new applications such as mobile web sites and text campaigns
• Share how to consolidate vendors and services to improve your margins. Over eight months, we (Jeff Wyler Automotive) consolidated vendors by more than 50%, saving approximately $1 million in the process.

Kevin Frye is the e-commerce director of the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family, one of the top 50 dealership groups in the United States. He has been a leader in the industry with the use of video and video SEO, and managing your online reputation. Before his work with Jeff Wyler, Frye was an independent business owner who pioneered selling cars online for both dealerships and individual consumers, selling over 500 cars on eBay in one year alone.

Frye was a Naval Aviator for eight years, with extensive flight hours in Desert Shield and Operation Southern Watch, as well as over 200 combat hours in Desert Storm. He has used the leadership skills he learned in the Navy to keep the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family at the front edge of automotive e-commerce.

The YouTube Video Walk-Around Essentials: The Masters Program
Step-by-step instruction on how your dealership can get greater profits. Get it done today: point, shoot, prepare, and post

Back by popular demand – one of the best attended sessions of the last two Digital Dealer Conferences. In the past three years, Tim Jennings has done almost 700 video walk-arounds and 100 customer testimonials that he has hosted on YouTube and his web site. Nothing he has done in the 19 years of selling cars has had a faster return on time and effort than this. Two days after posting his first five videos, a customer walked into the showroom and said: “Hey, you are the guy in the video!”

You will receive all the info you need to have video up and running in one hour. Also, let Jennings show you some short cuts he has learned in the last year that will save you time and effort. By the way, did we mention this is free technology? Wow, he wishes someone would have given him all this information. He had to figure it out on his own. Now you don't have to!

Tim Jennings has 19 years of automotive selling experience. The last 16 years have been at Tom Sparks Auto of DeKalb. Jennings welcomed the task of running the Internet department in 1999. At that time, the rest of the staff wanted nothing to do with it. Often fellow employees would tease about the “Internet mooches.” Like picking a solid stock early, he has enjoyed a good return on his investment of time. Jennings started the Internet department and has built it into the best returns on the dollar at his store. He spoke at the 2007-2010 Digital Dealer Conferences and is back delivering actionable information for 2010. “I’m not here to sell you anything. I sell cars every day just like you. I’m here to help you, so you will help me! Let me teach you what I have learned online since 1999.”

The High Touch Behind the High Tech
The migration from having an Internet department to becoming an Internet group
 Join Shaun Kniffin as he takes you on a two year journey with the Germain Motor Company showing how it went from having a single Internet department to becoming a model for the 21st century dealer.
This session will show you how to:

• Use technology to create a high level of customer service
• Create a centralized process that manages the four streams of Internet-driven leads – emails, phone calls, online chat, showroom traffic
• Build a call center that drives sales
• Find operating efficiencies that drive profit to your bottom line by creating an Internet Financial Statement.

Shaun Kniffin is Director of Internet Sales and eBusiness Development for the Columbus region of Germain Motor Company. With more than 10 years experience with Internet initiatives, he has developed a BDC Call Center that responds to all Internet inquiries, Service scheduling, Live Chat and incoming Internet phone calls. In the last five years, Germain has increased internet business to nearly 40% of all sales through managing all aspects of the dealer CRM, telephony and eBusiness strategy.

Facebook and ROI – Bigger than Expected
General Manager Joe Orr will provide you with a best practices playbook showing you how to create real return on investment through your Facebook fans.

The Dick Hannah group spent a year watching and studying dealers who were early adopters before it jumped into social networking.

This session will help dealers build and earn a relationship with their community this fast while communicating daily with topics of community interest. Attendees will learn how to take leadership roles in their communities while creating and become involved with local events, nonprofits and local news. Building and earning trust, dealerships can soft sell “Facebook Fans Only” sales, “Trade of the Week” and so much more.
Learn how Dick Hannah attracted 2,500 local fans in six months while creating a strong community and advocates for the group, allowing local businesses and community interest groups to post “approved” messages to its fans.

Joe Orr has 30 years experience in the car business, and serves as GM for multiple dealerships at Hannah Motor Co., the largest dealer group in the state of Washington.

Recognized as a dealer well ahead of the Internet curve, Orr has presented at major conferences, including J.D. Power’s ‘Internet Round Table’ and the Driving Sales Executive Summit. The Hannah Dealerships have been named top ‘Internet Dealer’ for both used used cars and special finance in the U.S.

Consultants/Trainers/Industry Experts

Third-Party Leads – Are They Still Necessary and if So, How Can You Be the Most Successful with Them?
Veteran performance coach Dennis Colome shows how to make your Internet department the envy of the dealership

Millions of consumers submit a purchase request for a vehicle at a third-party web site every year. Over 50% of those requests eventually result in a vehicle purchase.* Ninety-three percent of dealers surveyed say that third-party leads play an important role in how they generate business,** however, their value is often dismissed or taken for granted in the rush for the next great digital media fad. Where does the truth lie? How do dealerships in 2010 ensure they are getting the most out of third-party leads? How do they differ from OEM and dealership site leads? How have these online customers changed and how should dealership processes change to meet their expectations…or should they?

Veteran dealership trainer and performance coach Dennis Colome of Autobytel shares insights and best practices, from an over 30-year career in the auto industry, that are proven to not only make the Internet department the envy of the dealership, but to ramp up ROI and efficient car sales to make the entire dealership the envy of its region. Here are some things you will take away from the talk:
• Use best practices to increase your close rate
• Use third-party leads to make great gross profits
• Use third-party leads to strategically grow your business
• Understand the thinking of the third-party shopper and use it to your advantage

R.L. Polk/Autobytel Study
**Autobytel 15th Anniversary of the Internet Survey, 2010

Dennis Colome of Autobytel is known nationally as one of the best dealership process trainers in the industry and is a pioneer in helping dealership sales personnel adapt and improve their sales practices for the rapidly evolving Internet customer. Colome has helped establish the company as an industry leader in empowering dealers with the processes, best practices and knowledge they need to deal effectively with today’s car-buyer. He has trained thousands of dealerships in the U.S. and countries as far away as India. He brings nearly three decades of retail sales and training experience to Autobytel.

Five-Star Reputation, Five Easy Ways
Important strategies and tactics every dealership should implement to influence brand perception online

Social networking has changed the online world as we know it today. Now social communities and online contributors share experiences and in doing so define a dealership’s collective reputation…

If unmanaged your online reputation could become a digital scarlet letter and mold inaccurate perceptions of your business’ services and values.  However, if managed, this online reputation can promote incremental business and marketing results. 

Join Brice Englert in understanding the five simple ways to turn your online reputation into a recognized five-star success story!

Brice Englert joined @utoRevenue as the general manager in 2008 and has successfully forged a unique vision of unmatched customer service and innovation. @utoRevenue clients have benefitted from comprehensive packages of marketing solutions to drive higher customer retention in service and sales.  Prior to leading @utoRevenue, Englert was integral in Dominion Enterprise’s mergers and acquisitions activity including the purchases of four of the 10 existing DDS businesses.  He holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University. Prior to graduate school, he proudly served as a captain in the USAF and led a program developing software tools to support joint war-gaming.

Price Wars: Revenge of the Value Proposition
A long time ago in a dealership far, far away...

There is unrest in the dealership universe. Several thousand dealers have declared their intentions to leave the Value Alliance. This separatist movement, with the advent of price driving software technologies, has made it difficult for the limited number of value-focused dealerships to maintain gross in their local and regional galaxies. Mike Frazer, a former AutoTrader.com district manager turned dealer merchandising consultant, is presenting price integrity in a familiar but forgotten light...through the maintenance of on-air and online value-based merchandising...

Mike Frazer resigned his position as a top performing sales manager and merchandising systems developer after nearly four years at Autotrader.com to help open a used car superstore in South Florida. Concerned that his client's competitors were “racing each other to the bottom,” Frazer created a dealership and inventory merchandising strategy based on total transparency and vehicle value building. After completing a four-month consulting agreement “living the life of a GM,” his focus on value building across broadcast and digital classified advertising channels resulted in a 400% increase in sales while holding above average front and back-end gross for his dealer client. Today, he continues his consulting services as national sales manager of Chroma Cars, LLC, a web site/inventory hosting and photo services company specializing in digital merchandising software solutions.

Internet Marketing and Social Media for Independents and Small Franchise Dealers
How to play with the big guys

We will take a look at the situation faced by independent/small franchise dealers, share winning approaches by dealers who have moved ahead, and share specific best practices to avoid the pitfalls in new marketing, and where to get more information.
Topics include:

1. Maximizing results from web sites
2. Expanding the dealership’s Internet presence using free toolsWhat are the new social media/Internet marketing tools
3. How to engage with social media to take advantage of it without increasing overhead
4. Which new tools offer quickest return on time invested
5. Examples of good Internet marketing and social media by dealers
6. Specific web sites/resources for more tips and best practices
7. Avoiding security and privacy issues on social sites

Attendees will leave this session with answers to the top eight questions dealers ask about this topic, specific practical tips they can implement for free, and ways to increase ROI from Internet marketing.

Ken Gibson worked with the General Motors Standards for Excellence program (SFE) as part of a team working with dealers to help overcome the effects of the recession, and drive sales through process improvement and Internet marketing. He worked with some of the best dealers, helping them earn as much a $1 million in bonuses while streamlining processes and maximizing ROI. In 2008, he founded Gibson Internet Marketing Consultants and was selected to develop Internet training for the 1,100 dealers of the Colorado Independent Auto Dealers Association. He has trained over 100 dealers in Internet marketing and social media.

Why Pep Boys, Jiffy Lube and Bubba’s Tire Depot are Killing Us!
How to utilize social networking, content management, and paid search for fixed operations

Attention GMs and service directors:  It’s time to get serious about fixed operations! We all know that over 50% of our actual profit comes from fixed operations. Then why is it that we continue to lag behind in capitalizing on the most cost effective, measureable way to market our service departments?  In this session, Darren Haygood will layout a simple, proven plan that shows you how to utilize content management, paid search and social networking to deliver immediate results! Don’t miss this session! Start reclaiming the customers that you’re losing to the local garage or quick service shops.

Darren Haygood is national accounts director with Dealer.com. Haygood currently works with top dealer groups and agencies across the country on their digital marketing strategy. As a nationally recognized trainer and consultant in the automotive industry, Haygood has over 12 years factory and retail experience, specializing in Internet sales, phone skills training and BDC operations. He has produced highly profitable, consistent results for both large, multi-franchise dealer groups and independently owned stores for the past 10 years.

Haygood takes a dynamic, energetic approach with clients, providing real-world, everyday experience in helping them utilize technology to deliver consistent, profitable results. He understands the challenges of implementing and executing consistent processes, and provides clients specific tools and best practices to deliver improved performance.

Differentiation vs. Alignment – The New Digital Marketing Debate
What is more profitable – marketing your dealership’s brand or riding your OEM’s marketing coattails?

Hear a panel of dealers from GM, VW and Hyundai discuss their experiences in seeking the right balance in their marketing efforts between dealership brand building and OEM advertising alignment. They will share the approaches they have tried and the results they achieved.  You will leave the session with insights and tools to guide you in building an effective digital advertising strategy.

Panel to be moderated by Brent Hillyer, VP of Enterprise Sales at The Cobalt Group. Prior to joining Cobalt earlier this year, Hillyer was the director of marketing and sales operations at Ron Tonkin Auto Group and has served as GM, Retail Marketing, Volkswagen of America, giving him a practical perspective on the interests of both the dealer and the OEM.

Don’t Back Yourself into a Corner
Communicating with online trade-in customers

Many online leads include a trade, and the way you handle these customers will influence sales results. Your goal with new leads is to set dealership appointments. If you say the wrong thing on the phone, via chat or in an e-mail conversation, then you’ve lost your chance. 

Join Rob Lange to discuss how to immediately diffuse trade-in value allowance pressure in e-mails, on the phone and at the dealership to gain customer confidence and drive dealership appointments. Establish credibility in your communications to avoid pushing customers away or backing yourself into a corner. Now, more than ever, you need quality trade-ins. Don’t lose another sale or quality trade; prepare yourself to get both with this session.

Rob Lange is the national sales training director for Kelley Blue Book. His responsibilities include providing educational materials to dealers to enhance their sales processes using Kelley Blue Book values and services, and conducting regional dealer meetings to educate dealerships on the power of the Kelley Blue Book brand. Lange develops “best practices” documents for dealerships, contributes monthly articles to industry publications and regularly speaks at related conferences.Lange has conducted more than 350 webinars for more than 5,000 attendees.

Increasing Sales Through Database Mining and Equity-based Marketing
A practical, hands-on session on how dealerships should mine their customer database to drive qualified traffic and increase customer retention, sales, and market share.

Every dealer knows their customer database is their most valuable asset, but most do not know how to leverage it.  In this session, we will show how to mine your database efficiently, resulting in 10-30 incremental sales each month. We will discuss how to combine your inventory needs (which models you need to sell, which you need as trades) with your manufacturer’s incentives to develop an appropriate campaign, and then determine the precise customer list for that campaign. We will show how to separate your database by transaction type (finance vs. cash vs. lease vs. service-only customers) and treat each differently.  We will also cover how to determine the equity your customers have in their current vehicle to determine which of them are likely in market and able to purchase a new vehicle keeping their payment the same or lower with no money down (how many times have you heard a customer say, “I’ll buy it if I can keep my payment the same!”).

Allen Levenson heads Sales & Marketing for Prospect Vision, a nine-year old company that helps hundreds of dealerships mine their customer database, drive sales and customer retention and whose clients include Autonation, Penske, Asbury, and many others. Prior to Prospect Vision, Levenson spent eight years as VP, Sales & Marketing of Asbury Automotive Group, a publicly-traded dealer group with over 120 franchises. Previously, he was founder of a leading business-to-consumer e-commerce site and a consultant with McKinsey and Bain & Company.

Vehicle History Affects Value – Justify your Pricing and Hold More Gross
Learn how you can buy your cars at the right price, advertise them right and sell them for more gross using vehicle history

This session will examine provide a “how-to” for retailing the right cars at the right price for your dealership. Dealers and consumers have valued cars differently based on history for years and retail prices show this. Learn in this session how you can use history to justify your pricing and hold more gross at retail, in the dealership and online, for your inventory. 

You can build consumer confidence in your cars online and on the lot by utilizing the information that customers want to know about. Vehicle history can help you hold your asking price and get your customers to say “yes” faster. Learn more in this educational session.

Jay Luna is the process improvement manager for CARFAX, has 18-plus years of automotive industry experience and has worked with hundreds of dealerships nationwide. His career has spanned all facets of the car business and he is a highly motivated professional with a record of outstanding results in highly competitive markets. He's worked in dealerships sales, management, marketing and e-commerce. Luna has spent the last five years at CARFAX delivering extensive process improvement seminars to help dealerships leverage the CARFAX brand and data through best practices that positively affect a dealerships sales process.

Internet Sales Best Practices
Learn how to create an efficient lead handling process that covers structure, staff and technology

Increasing close rates requires a clear organizational plan that defines structure, staffing and technology that cost-effectively accomplishes the objective. The strength of any good sales staff will always be its people. Technology supports the structure of your sales team, freeing the team to do what you hired it to do: sell cars.  Technology is the foundation of your Internet sales best practices. 

Learn how to create an efficient lead handling process that covers structure, staff and technology. Harness technology to free up your sales reps to sell cars.  Master the 10-minute e-mail quote and follow-up phone call.  Gain insight into who should make the critical first call and how to efficiently handle phone, e-mail and voicemail contacts. Find out if you need an outsourced BDC, receptionist, Internet sales assistant, or in-house BDC to make that first call. Staff appropriately and build a great sales process around technology to consistently achieve high close rates. 

Tom Mohr, CEO of ResponseLogix, has worked closely with auto dealers for 25 years.  ResponseLogix helps dealers solve the top three challenges facing their Internet sales departments: the speed and quality of the initial response to Internet leads, the impact and consistency of ongoing follow-up, and the effectiveness of the Internet team’s live communication with the customer.

Prior to ResponseLogix, Mohr was president of Knight Ridder Digital, where he was on the board of Cars.com.  Prior to that, he was Knight Ridder corporate director for Classifieds, where he oversaw $800M in revenue responsibility including $200M in automotive advertising revenue.  

Social CRM – What is it and How to Make the Most of It
How can you leverage social media and CRM together for the highest ROI?

With so much confusion surrounding social media, it is important that dealers understand that CRM is a powerful tool that will help you cut through the clutter and develop lasting relationships with their customer. Jonathan Ord will focus on how to tie social media and CRM together to increase sales, market more efficiently, service more vehicles and maintain CSI. Ord’s sessions are continuously some of the best-attended and top rated sessions at the Digital Dealer Conference. Don’t miss this information packed session!

Topics covered include:

1. How does “social” CRM build on “traditional” CRM
2. Support is now PR – You can’t sell something to someone who is mad!
3. The social customer demands: authenticity and genuine and direct communication. How do you get there?
4. Understand that social conversations have value to all departments.
5. The YouTube culture prevails. How are you leveraging video in your dealership?
6. Are you still doing “Look at Me!” marketing instead of focusing on creating a dialogue with the customer?

As CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Ord sets vision and drives overall strategy for DealerSocket. Under his leadership, DealerSocket has received many accolades including being named to the Red Herring North American 100, International Business Awards Best Overall Company and #1 on the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 list. Ord has been honored several times as one of the most successful young entrepreneurs and executives in Southern California.
A recognized leader in the automotive industry, Ord is a regular contributor to numerous business and auto industry publications and an in-demand speaker at elite 20 group meetings for top dealers groups including Larry H. Miller, Van Tuyl, Penske and Galpin. 

How to Protect your Online Inventory for the Cars You Sell
Car dealers are under attack!

Car dealer web sites are under attack! Brian Pasch will lead a seminar on how to protect your inventory from people who might otherwise leverage it for their own benefit, and push you off Google page one. He will teach you how to defend yourself, evaluate all advertising models for your inventory online and how to protect your cars from your competitors

Brian Pasch is a 20-year veteran of the direct marketing industry. His career has spanned both management and technology roles. He is known for his expertise in consumer data warehousing models, as well as search engine optimization.

Pasch foresaw the redistribution of traditional print media budgets to Internet advertising and in 2005 created the PCG Digital Marketing. PCG's fast growth has been attributed to their innovative digital marketing and search engine optimization strategies.

Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse
New marketing platforms and emerging business practices for today’s dealerships

Technology, the economy, and society are all changing at breakneck speeds, and your dealership must keep pace to stay competitive and relevant.  This session will reveal emerging business practices and new marketing platforms that today’s consumers have to come to expect. On the marketing and technology front, new platforms like social media, video, live chat and mobile can help your dealership keep car shoppers actively engaged, ultimately turning them into actual buyers. Likewise, innovations and strategies in business transparency and sourcing shopper traffic, for example, can help dealerships become more effective and efficient. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how your dealership can leverage these latest trends and platforms.

Howard Polirer brings more than 15 years of experience as a dynamic automotive sales educator to dealer audiences across the nation. As one of the nation's premier automotive educators, he has taught thousands of dealers about effective online innovation and Internet advertising at hundreds of conferences for national, state and local dealer associations.

Previously, Polirer owned his own automotive sales training and consulting company and also served as executive vice president of an automotive training company serving automotive clients, OEMs and associations. With over 30 years of experience in the retail automotive business, he has extensive dealership expertise, having grown from a salesman at a Toyota dealership to sales manager and then to general manager for a Volkswagen, Subaru and Chevrolet dealership.

Lessons from the Best of Silicon Valley
Learn the secrets of the best in tech for winning today’s Internet empowered consumer

Over the past two years, INCISENT Labs has been researching and analyzing cutting-edge practices and behaviors from other industries, including Silicon Valley to better understand the most successful strategies to engage today’s Internet consumer. This session will take the key learnings from our research to illustrate how your dealership can use the power of the Internet to level the playing field with Internet empowered consumers. These proven techniques for Internet advertising, marketing and selling will enable you to win more consumers online, sell more cars more profitably and generate greater customer satisfaction.

Pat Ryan Jr. is the CEO of First Look, the pioneer in inventory management, marketing and sales solutions for the automotive market. Ryan’s pioneering work in consumer optimization has made him widely recognized as an industry thought-leader and speaker, as well as a regular columnist for major automotive publications. Ryan is instrumental in helping top dealer groups like Penske and Hendrick develop and continuously improve winning pre-owned and Internet operations.  He holds a masters in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a juris doctor cum laude from Northwestern Law School and a bachelor of arts degree from Georgetown University. 

The Digital Presence Revolution
What it is, why it’s important and how to take control of it

Say goodbye to traditional web sites and SEO and say hello to new tools that change the game. In this mind blowing session you will learn what digital presence is and its relation to your web site, SEO, online reputation and overall Internet existence. Along with a strong understanding of digital presence, you’ll see brand new technology that provides dealers with a dynamic web presence, SEO, social media marketing, reputation management, reporting and consultation – all from a single platform. If you’re looking for what’s new, you can’t afford to miss this session.  

Shaun Raines is the director of Automotive at ReachLocal and the founder of Dealer Advisor LLC. Always a top rated speaker at Digital Dealer Conferences and industry events, Raines delivers relevant presentations with a unique mixture of knowledge, conviction and humor. With 20 years of automotive experience covering sales, parts, service and all things Internet, he has worked with teams that launched and supported ground-breaking services such as Carpoint.com (Microsoft), CarsDirect Connect and Yahoo! Autos.

The Evolution of Business Development: The Hybrid BDC
Enhance your “playbook” to clearly outline your team’s improved process, preparing everyone with today’s most effective tools and techniques

Success favors the prepared mind! A hybrid BDC can increase net profit with business development representatives and Internet sales specialists as a hybrid car does with gas and electricity. Different forms of power for maximum efficiency! Tools such as live chat, digital cameras and mobile devices can be used to exceed a 25% increase in web site lead conversion and social networking growth. Proven techniques and skill sets will double your conversations (avoid getting an excuse when getting through), appointments and call backs by leaving unique messages. How to move beyond the “low hanging fruit” and ensure that every customer receives accountable and effective follow-up.

Glynn Rodean is president and CEO of New Vision Sales Inc. Rodean teaches a methodology of sales, management and business development from years of experience that produced record setting volume and profit.   As a sales professional, Glynn exceeded 50 cars a month, installed his first BDC in 1998 and achieved over a million dollars in monthly variable gross. Glynn speaks at seminars, workshops and consults with dealers across North America. The NVS Call Center is an extension of Glynn’s experience. He has trained thousands of people, written numerous articles, customizes sales playbooks and is the author of “Own the Phone!” 

The Social Revolution: Social Media in the Auto Industry
How social media has changed all the rules and how you can keep up

There’s no doubt that social media has revolutionized how people interact online – but there’s plenty of confusion about how to create and manage your social presence. Learn about how social networking is changing the way consumers interact with businesses and tips, tricks and tools that you can use to maximize your social impact.

Duncan Scarry is owner and president of Moore & Scarry Advertising. He is a nationally recognized authority on automotive retail marketing.  With over 15 years of successful offline and online advertising experience, Scarry offers dealers and manufacturers insight into the most effective, progressive automotive marketing methods. Scarry leads one of the fastest growing automotive advertising agencies in the country, serving the nation's top dealerships and dealership groups. A widely sought after presenter and advisor, he has spoken at Toyota Motor Sales eRoundtables, Automotive News Webinars and Digital Dealer Conferences. His passion is strategically combining the strengths of traditional and new media to increase automotive retail sales.  

Internet Management
Successful general managers share their secrets

With online initiatives increasingly driving the bottom line, dealerships across the country are making the transition from silo'd Internet departments to integrated Internet stores. Forward-looking dealers/operators and general managers lead the charge, taking greater day-to-day oversight of their online operations to ensure that processes are consistently implemented and that customers receive quality care – whether in sales, F&I or accessories, parts and service. This workshop examines the strategies successful GMs develop and the tactics they implement to build an Internet culture, take online sales to the next level and boost profitability.

Jack Simmons is a dealer training manager at Cars.com. Prior to joining Cars.com, Simmons served as the vice president of automotive solutions for WorldNow, where he was the primary architect behind the company’s automotive vertical. Simmons also has served as a national dealer trainer for AutoTrader.com, where he managed and developed training programs for dealers, manufacturers and state automotive associations.

Simmons has more than 25 years of automotive industry experience and has trained 96,000 automotive professionals during his career. He has spoken before NADA Dealer 20 Groups and has served as a workshop presenter at numerous industry events, including NADA, NIADA and national BHPH conferences. He also served for two years as a consultant for GM of Canada.

The Future of Automotive Web Site Analytics and Data Mining
Turn your chat, forms and phone call data into a behavioral targeting weapon

Data is the competitive edge needed in today’s marketplace to become a successful online automotive retailer. Learn what key data points are critical to making your Internet departments sales explode. We will explore actual data metrics to learn and what to track to turn your web site into a lead capture platform.

Todd Smith is co-founder and president of ActivEngage, Inc., the automotive industry's leading live chat service provider. He has over 18 years of successful industry experience and has worked in every facet of dealership operations, including spending 2007 as the general manager of a Chevrolet dealership. Smith has developed some of the most cutting edge eBusiness, BDC and showroom sales strategies and solutions for a variety of clients including Ford, Ford of Canada, AutoNation, Budget Car Sales, Maritz Inc., Mazda North America, Toyota Motors Sales, ADP, AutoTrader.com and over 1,500 dealerships across the U.S.

Stauning’s Automotive Continuum of E-commerce Success (2011 Edition)
New ideas for how to get on track and stay on track for greater profits in 2011

In this session, Steve Stauning spotlights the 2011 edition of his renowned ACES chart – the continuum he developed in 2009 that has since helped literally hundreds of dealerships focus their Internet sales and marketing efforts on those activities and products that drive the greatest return. Once you understand how the 2011 Automotive Continuum of E-commerce Success (ACES) can be applied in your store, you will never again struggle with the “who, what, why, when, or how” around delivering exceptional Internet sales growth and profits.

No matter what is holding your Internet sales team back – low closing percentages, turnover problems, low-priced competition, high costs per sale – following Stauning’s ACES chart to the letter will help you develop into a truly superior Internet dealership.

Stephen M. Stauning is one of the most popular and respected speakers and writers in the industry, and is the co-founder of Kain-Stauning, a leading automotive dealership training and consulting services firm focusing on digital marketing and Internet sales. Prior to his work with Kain-Stauning, he has served in various leadership roles, including as the Asbury Automotive Group’s ) director of e-commerce, the director of the Web Solutions division of the Reynolds & Reynolds Company, and as general manager for Dealer Web Services at Dealer Specialties.

Ideas that Every Dealership Group Needs
Leveraging dealer group technology to maximize efficiency and profitability

Sharing ideas, old and new, to help dealer groups leverage technology to maximize efficiency and profitability.

Attendees will learn about functionality that every dealership group needs from their:

• DMS
• CRM
• Web sites
• Inventory management, and
• Other technology investments

Matt Watson earned a bachelor's degree from DeVry University in Computer Information Systems and is a MicroSoft Certified Application Developer. With 10 years of automotive experience and web application development experience, Watson is the lead architect of VinSolutions' applications. Prior to coming to VinSolutions, he was the lead architect of a large healthcare project. He we also the lead developer for Ticket Technology Solutions, a provider of inventory tracking, web sites, and CRM for ticket brokers. He is a member of the VinSolutions, LLC board of directors.

Creation vs. Evolution
The two ways e-dealerships come into existence – a debate of biblical proportions

And on the seventh day, he rested. Unless he worked in a car dealership… in which case he answered leads from home on Sunday.

Two belief systems live and breathe in our dealerships. Some believe in Evolution.  Simply sell vehicles online and over time you will inevitably evolve into an e-dealer. Others, though, believe e-dealerships must be driven into creation by a higher power. They require their staff to adapt to the changes. Which ideology is the better means to the same end goal? This topic will be discussed in a rousing, logical, passionate debate by two scholars of e-commerce, Joe Webb and Bill Playford. In this session, dealers will learn how to utilize technology, training, people and department structure to bring about an e-dealer culture into their showrooms.  The time is now to determine what path you will take to the promise land: creation or evolution.

Angela Martin is the Internet director for Feldmann Imports in Bloomington, Minnesota. After 10 years having success using the best online technology to move Nissan and Mercedes-Benz units off the lot, she says she wouldn’t change a thing about her career path. Martin is constantly experimenting with new technology and making sure her Internet department stays ahead of the competition. Her department’s online sales now account for over 30 percent of the dealership’s business; and that number is consistently growing. Her team has been close to reaching 100 units from the four-person department for the last few months and she attributes their success to the digital advertising efforts of Feldmann Imports and Feldmann Nissan.

Joe Webb is the president of DealerKnows Consulting, an automotive Internet sales training firm specializing in assisting dealers with the advancement of their online efforts through both on-site and virtual consulting. Webb has been called "the funniest guy in the car business" and consults nationwide, showing dealerships success by instilling proven Internet marketing practices. He has been writing for Digital Dealer magazine almost since its inception and is a regular top-rated speaker at the Digital Dealer conferences. In the past, Webb found success in the trenches when he created and managed an award-winning business development center for a Chicago dealer group. His primary goal, as he always states, is "to better the culture of car sales".

Bill Playford is vice president of DealerKnows Consulting, an automotive Internet sales training firm specializing in assisting dealers with the advancement of their online efforts through hands-on, on-site, and virtual consulting. Playford brings a unique mix of dot com imagination, MBA strategy, and dealer practicality as he focuses on the Virtual Dealer Training program. Before joining DealerKnows, he served as director of retail operations for Trilogy’s SmartLeads program, and honed his skills at one of the first true Internet dealers. A long-time e-commerce evangelist, he seeks to help bridge the gap between technology and dealer culture. 

The Value Proposition
How to magnetize customers and become the dealer of choice

In this workshop you will learn how to use your value proposition and customer centric processes and word tracks to create a compelling reason for your online and phone shoppers to stop shopping and give you an opportunity to earn their business. We will use the primary components of a value proposition and the attributes of dealer selection to map a simple and easily executed game plan you can take back to the dealership and implement right away.

Greg Wells has spent the last 22 years working in automotive retail with specific expertise in business development centers and Internet sales. His work has been recognized nationally by NADA and his in-dealership sales training experience has launched many successful selling careers for his students. Wells is a partner at Kain Automotive, a three-time Diamond Award Winner as Best Internet Training by Auto Dealer Monthly. With an innate ability to diagnose operational opportunities, he can then teach the strategies and tactics necessary to help clients grow their business. Wells has built BDCs from scratch and knows what it takes to recruit the right team and meld them into a cohesive unit. He has extensive knowledge in call mapping and customized scripting, as well as ongoing database growth and marketing.

Appraisal Process 2.0
Best practices to boost revenue

A pre-owned department needs to be able to quickly and consistently handle appraisals, so that the dealership profits and the customer experience improves, resulting in more deals and better gross profits. 

Appraisal Process 2.0 will discuss the increased critical function appraising plays in the profitability of a dealership and how to put market data to use in order to conduct smarter and more accurate appraisals.  Today, there is a myriad of data sources available and it helps to know how to access and interpret the data for maximum benefit. Consumers also have access to an increasing amount of data that they carefully review before coming in. This session will discuss a few key sources that dealers should use, as well as how to identify the needs and opportunities associated with today’s informed consumers, especially if they come in with erroneous information on their cars, which is often the case.

Stu Zalud, director, Dealer Services at NADA Used Car Guide, is a 38-year veteran of the dealership world. At NADA Used Car Guide, he is instrumental in bringing the dealer perspective into play with product development and company communications. Before joining the company, he was chairperson of both the Greater Cleveland and Ohio Automobile Dealers Associations and served on the NADA Board of Directors. As a dealer, Zalud had direct experience with all aspects of operations in three different markets and has weathered many market ups and downs.