AND DON’T MISS OUR WORKSHOPS

Brian Finkelmeyer
Senior Director, Conquest, vAuto
1:25 – 2:15 p.m., Room #

During the session, Brian Finkelmeyer will discuss ways you can use live metrics and data to manage your new car inventory to become a more efficient dealer. He will also uncover ways to use digital advertising without breaking your budget and why you should reward everyone in your dealership.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to manage your new vehicle inventory.
• Learn how to use digital spending to your advantage.
• Learn how to reward the people that drive your new car sales.

Mo Zahabi
Product Consulting, VinSolutions
2:30 – 3:20 p.m., Room #

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded in the last several years. Everywhere we turn, another news outlet is publishing a story about how AI is shaping the future and another company is releasing an AI-enabled product. But what does artificial intelligence really mean, and what does it mean for your dealership? In this session, Mo Zahabi, senior director of product consulting for VinSolutions and data enthusiast, will answer these questions and more. You’ll learn what AI is and is not, how AI can be implemented in dealerships today, and key criteria for evaluating AI vendors – all in language that will enable you to go back to your dealer principal and make a compelling case for bringing artificial intelligence into your sales and marketing mix.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Define artificial intelligence and related terms.
• Identify specific opportunities for artificial intelligence implementation.
• Lay the foundation for strong artificial intelligence utilization in your dealership.

Patrick Janes
Director, Stockwave Business Development, vAuto
9 – 9:50 a.m. Room #

During the session, Patrick Janes will discuss the three trends that will drive your auction purchasing strategy beyond your competition. He will tell you when is the right time to buy vehicles, what kinds of vehicles your customers really want and why people are steering away from big car payments.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Learn what season you should be buying vehicles at auction.
• Learn what your market can afford.
• Learn what type of vehicle your market wants.

Allison Spangler
Senior Director, Offsite Solutions, Manheim
10:05 – 10:55 a.m., Room #

Dealers have traditionally not considered their wholesale acquisition and disposition strategies as revenue-generating opportunities. In fact, many of them have believed that there’s no money to be made in buying and selling in the wholesale market. But today’s wholesale vehicle landscape gives dealers lots of ways to generate revenue and protect their margins—by streamlining the process of getting vehicles into the marketplace and having data-rich tools that make buying the right vehicles at the right price even easier.

This session will demonstrate how you can: 
• Get vehicles into the wholesale marketplace faster
• Reduce transportation costs by listing directly from their lots
• Sell vehicles faster by creating compelling, high-tech listings
• Appraise vehicles better to cut losses on trade-ins
• Better assess vehicle condition to know what they should pay when buying units
• Buy vehicles at the right price to improve retail margins

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Wholesale more efficiently: Learn how dealers can use digital tools to list vehicles quickly from their lots without sending them to a physical auction.
• Appraise vehicles more effectively: Taking a car in on trade is sometimes necessary to close a new retail deal, and new tools and data give dealers the information they need to make the right offer and protect their margins.
• Make smarter buying decisions: Improve your wholesale buying with data-rich tools and better imaging to get the right car at the right price.

Russ Daniels
Senior Manager, Product Marketing, HomeNet Automotive, vAuto, Cox Automotive
1:20 – 2:10 p.m., Room #

Vehicle merchandising that included photos and video were the first steps in differentiating your dealership online. Now, your customers require more from online merchandising to continue down the buying path. This session will cover new immersive merchandising experiences that are entering the automotive space. You’ll learn about best practices and gain insight into providing higher levels of engagement and transparency that customers need to quickly make more informed buying decisions.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Identify the evolving technology and media trends quickly transforming the way shoppers interact with information and make buying decisions.
• Understand the behavior consumers are displaying in their shopping tendencies to be able to market to their preferences and encourage buyer enablement.
• Learn how to utilize reporting and tracking to measure merchandising success and identify areas of improvement.

Jessica Stafford
Vice President and GM, Autotrader
2:25 – 3:15 p.m., Room #

This workshop is a crash course in data quality, using that data to personalize your marketing, and understanding data and online behavior that leads to sales in your dealership.  We will focus on how you can find simple ways to use data to know your customer better and know what online behaviors show they are getting ready to buy. The best marketers today know everything about their customers — whether they are expecting a child, what books they read, what food they eat, even what else they are shopping for online and what these buying signals mean for your dealership. This may seem complicated, but it’s not — it’s available and attainable for you today. Learn why you should be investing in understanding the data and what results it can deliver for you.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Identify the top steps to effective data and personalization marketing strategy for your dealership.
• Create a list of questions to ask your marketing partners to ensure alignment of your dealership’s marketing goals.
• Define behaviors and triggers that show that shoppers are getting ready to turn into buyers.

George Magda, Director
Enterprise Dealer Partnerships, Cox Automotive
11:10 – Noon, Room #

Dealers today are experiencing margin erosion at an exponential rate. This presentation will help you to eliminate waste and transition inefficient practices to sound business ones adopted from the most forward-thinking dealers and experts from Harvard.

George Magda, who has more than 20 years of experience in the automotive space, will provide examples that any dealer group will be able to apply when they return to their store. From adopting a lower tolerance for holding cost to unfreezing capital, he will show which cost to sale adjustments are hijacking your profitability and how a few simple questions will expose if your digital media provider is vulnerable to ad fraud.

After this session, you will leave empowered to engage with your advertising partners to address what precautionary measures are being leveraged and aimed at protecting digital media ad budgets. You uncovering if your advertising partners are adopting the use proper ad fraud methods to best mitigating non-human cannibalization of ad dollars.

Primary Learning Objectives:

• Learn which cost to sale adjustments are eating away at your profitability.
• Gain insight to bring new conversation to your next advertising meeting to ensure your ad dollars are not at risk to bot traffic.
• Learn how large dealer groups are setting themselves up for success by applying logic and embracing industry trends to improve profitability.