We’re very fortunate in our industry to be able to stay on top of the latest, greatest methodologies and technologies automotive makers and shakers have to offer. Digital Dealer 25 was certainly the perfect forum for such an exchange of information.
The breadth of speakers was substantial, from advertising and marketing agencies such as Erik Radle of the Miller Agency waxing about traditional vs digital practices and his vision towards the future, to Brent Wees of NextUp on how to manage a sales floor, as well as Kevin Frye, former fighter pilot and current e-commerce professional dropping wisdom on Google Analytics and the upcoming trend of augmented and virtual reality… to mention just a few.
As a single individual, it was tough for me to cover all of the speakers, hence I spent much of my time on the floor visiting and interviewing vendors. To be fair, vendors have their hands full with elevator pitches and pre-set meetings, but most are only too glad to share their value propositions.
Two of my favorite vendors (and there are many) were Market-Scan, and Lotlinx. The value proposition for Lotlinx is substantive. The concept that Lotlinx focuses on is that 80% of a dealer’s marketing budget goes to 20% of their best selling inventory, so why not balance out that equation? It has been postulated that the faster a dealer gets 30 visits to any single VDP, the quicker that vehicle will sell. As a solution, Lotlinx can provide VDP visits to those less popular makes and models by using AI to seek and find buyers who are looking for those makes and models – as opposed to letting budget get munched by best sellers that move anyway.
MarketScan, a company headquartered 15 minutes from our office is a massive data-crunching beast. They are a desking software (and more) that encompasses virtually every possible, deal, manufacturer discount, rebate offer, and lender that is under the sun. They have the most in-depth and comprehensive database and calculation technology available. A customer will not only know what their best possible deal on planet earth can be for any specific vehicle, but the payment calculations will be within a penny…every single time.
One other thing I noticed was the general spirit of the show in general. It was incredibly upbeat and very well run. Vendors at the show tended to be satisfied with the shows performance and I’m quite certain their follow up backed up their initial perceptions. It was only my 2nd Digital Dealer so I was like a kid in a candy store, so much to learn and so many vendors to chat with.
