DealerTalkX Toronto 2017
Another conference is in the books! DealerTalkX in Toronto took place November 16th in a very hipster and industrial venue called the Warehouse. Although it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, and our Uber might have dropped us off at the wrong door, the content presented made it well worth the trip.
The morning started off with an interesting presentation from Malte Kruger from Mobile.de which is Germany’s largest vehicle market. He spoke about the importance of reviews when it comes to a vehicle market place and how a German Audi dealership gained 1000 reviews in just 18 months. The key – ask! If you don’t ask for the review, why would your customers think to give you one?
The most exciting presentation of the day was up next with the one and only, Gary Vaynerchuk. To say we were excited to see him present wouldn’t even begin to scratch the surface. He touched on a number of hard hitting points that dealers really need to take into consideration. The biggest one for us – “You can’t win in 2019 if you don’t start laying the foundation for it in 2017.” Seems like a simple thought at first, but when you start looking at your overall strategy in place today, is it really setting you up for the future? Think of where you’re spending your advertising dollars and look for the under-priced opportunities. If you’re still advertising with print and TV, you’re missing the mark! He left us all with one great thought to take back – “what’s the ROI of something you don’t know how to use? Zero!” Don’t be the one in the dealership to not invest in something like Facebook advertising because you “don’t see the value in it” when you haven’t spent the time to understand it first.
Next up was Emma Hancock from The Car Girl to speak about the customer of the future: women! This demographic represents 40% of all vehicle purchases in Canada and women aged 50 – 70 are the largest segment of female consumers, have a higher income and overall net worth. Sounds like a pretty good demographic to target and sell to, but not surprisingly, 63% of women say they don’t like going into car dealerships. So what can you do to change this perception? Simple: acknowledge, respect and recognize women car buyers and don’t make comments like “when will your husband be coming in to see the vehicle.”
The final presentation we caught was from Devin Daly from Spin Car. Although his presentation might have been taking us back a few years when the conversation of merchandizing inventory started to ramp up in the industry, he definitely hit on a lot of things that dealers still aren’t doing, or aren’t doing well. Some of his tips for getting the best photos online were: be consistent, convey professionalism (think clean cars!) and get those photos online fast to avoid missed opportunities.
This wrapped up our 2017 conference season, and what a great way to end it. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing the hard hitting lineup of speakers for DealerTalkX 2018. Keep an eye out for our 2018 list of conferences to check out and start planning where you’re going to go and who you’re going see early! We hope to see you there!
