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This webinar announcement promotes a session featuring digital strategy experts from CarClick360.com and LotLinx who will discuss new tactics for 2017, with a case study from Vern Eide Management Group demonstrating successful implementation across 10 dealerships. The key premise is that dealerships need to update their digital approaches to increase sales and market share in the new year. No discussion or outcomes are documented in the thread—it's purely a promotional post for the upcoming webinar.
Steve Stauning is promoting a free live webinar on December 21st focused on delivering exceptional customer service and controlling the customer experience from start to finish, with the core premise that truly excellent service eliminates the need for apologies. The webinar promises to teach automotive professionals practical lessons for consistently wowing customers, though no specific strategies or attendee feedback are detailed in the post itself.
DrivingSales is hosting a webinar on November 9th at 11:00 AM EST featuring Preston Ford and iFrog, where attendees will learn how a Ford dealership in a small rural town scaled into a successful operation. The session is positioned as a case study in dealership growth strategy, with registration available via the provided link. The thread serves as a straightforward announcement with no discussion or follow-up commentary.
Attendees of the 2016 DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) shared mixed feedback, with several noting declining energy and attendance compared to previous years, inconsistent content quality, and poorly vetted speakers delivering misinformation. Key criticisms included a shift away from actionable, implementable advice toward theoretical concepts, and judges during the Innovation Cup competition acting antagonistically rather than supportively. The underlying concern is that DSES, once known as an exclusive high-quality conference, may be struggling with quality control as the organization scales up amid growing competition from other automotive industry conferences.
Jeff Running, E-Commerce Director at Fremont Motor Company (an 11-store Wyoming group), conducted a simple 8-question customer survey five years ago that yielded surprisingly impactful results on both sold and lost customers, ultimately transforming how the dealership approached their digital strategy. The webinar showcases what questions he asked, what the data revealed, and how the dealership adjusted their approach based on customer insights. A CMO commenter notes that similar customer research involving 20,000+ buyers fundamentally changed their marketing strategy, suggesting survey-driven customer data can be a game-changer for dealership digital planning.
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John Lane from LotLinx surveys dealers about whether major holidays remain strong sales periods, noting that digital engagement may be altering traditional seasonal shopping patterns and sales peaks. He's promoting an upcoming webinar (September 30) that will present data on this trend and invites dealers to complete a brief survey sharing their recent holiday sales experiences. The thread explores whether the automotive industry's traditional holiday sales boosts are being disrupted by changing consumer behavior.
Steve Stauning promoted a free live webinar scheduled for October 14, 2016, focused on helping dealerships generate more trade-in leads from existing website traffic and improve close rates on trade-in prospects to over 80% without increasing marketing spend. The webinar promised to cover strategies for generating leads, setting appointments with better show-up rates, and selling trade-in customers using proven processes.
Automotive industry professionals share their plans for attending fall conferences, with Digital Dealer 21 in Las Vegas and the DrivingSales Executive Summit (DSES) emerging as the most popular events among respondents. Several attendees mention upcoming smaller conferences like Dealer Days and a DealerOn/Google event, indicating a robust conference season. The thread captures informal networking intentions, with one participant joking about collecting promised meals from colleagues at the Vegas event.
Steve Stauning promoted a free live webinar scheduled for September 9, 2016, at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific on reputation management for auto dealerships. The training promised to teach dealers how to build and maintain a genuine 5-star online reputation without spending money or excessive time. The post was primarily an announcement designed to encourage dealership managers and team members to register and attend.
AutoHook is sponsoring a contest offering a free trip to Digital Dealer 21 (including conference admission, up to $500 flight reimbursement, and two nights hotel) to the dealer who submits the best panel question addressing unanswered challenges and ambiguous topics in the automotive industry. The winning question will be featured and discussed by industry experts at the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in August 2016. This is essentially a promotional giveaway encouraging participation from dealers seeking to have their most pressing business questions addressed by industry leaders.
DealerRefresh members can save $100 per team member on DD21 (Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition) registration by using promo code 'dealerrefresh' at checkout. The event takes place August 8-10, 2016 in Las Vegas and features 100+ exhibitors and 1,000 attendees focused on advancing dealership operations and technology. The post is a straightforward promotional announcement offering a member-exclusive discount with registration details.
Erin Borgerson promotes a webinar sponsored by Hireology and DrivingSales that presents research findings on dealership hiring practices, highlighting that the industry faces a critical 72% salesperson turnover rate driven by broken hiring processes. The webinar, led by CEO Adam Robinson, promises to analyze survey data from over 80 U.S. dealers and present practical tools dealerships can implement to improve team building and retention. The core insight is that modernizing hiring practices is essential to reducing turnover and improving both operational efficiency and customer experience.
Jeff Kershner announces the 2016 DrivingSales Presidents Club event moving to Miami (May 4th) and offers a $200 discount code for dealers who haven't registered yet, while inviting community members to share their attendance plans and past experiences. Positive feedback from attendees highlights the event's quality content, actionable takeaways, and professional atmosphere compared to other industry conferences. The thread establishes the Presidents Club as a well-regarded, intimate networking event that draws repeat attendees from the dealer community.
Charmaine promotes a Dominion Dealer Solutions webinar on Digital Reputation Management featuring consultants Brian Pasch and Michael Sos, highlighting that 82% of consumers switch dealerships after reading negative reviews and covering topics like social media advertising strategy and eCommerce merchandising. Alexander Lau hints at having strong opinions about reputation management tools, while Jeff Kershner endorses Dominion's Prime Response product and speaks highly of Michael Sos's expertise. The thread is primarily promotional with limited substantive discussion, though it validates reputation management as a critical concern for dealers and suggests Dominion's solution as a credible option.
DealerRefresh community members coordinate their attendance and activities at the NADA 2016 conference in Las Vegas, sharing booth locations, demo schedules, and after-hours events. Multiple vendors including StringDPS, PureCars, eLeadONE, and DealerHQ promote their booths and offerings, while attendees plan meetups and networking opportunities throughout the week. The thread serves as a casual roll call for industry professionals to connect in person and highlights various exhibitor activations happening during the conference.
A small Florida dealership owner asks whether the Digital Dealer Expo in Orlando is worthwhile for a 20-30 car operation, and multiple experienced attendees unanimously encourage attendance, emphasizing that the conference offers valuable education and networking opportunities regardless of dealership size. Key insights include the importance of setting specific goals before attending, the abundance of quality content that makes it impossible to see everything, and the networking value of connecting with industry peers both online and in person. The thread concludes with practical advice on maximizing the conference experience and information about future events.
This thread announces a DealerON webinar scheduled for December 10th at 12 EST featuring Brice Englert discussing transparency in the automotive sales process, building on a previous community discussion about dealer transparency practices. The webinar recording was subsequently shared in the thread, though no specific insights or conclusions from the presentation are detailed in the posts.
This thread announces a webinar featuring Kevin Frye on leveraging Google Analytics to optimize automotive dealership marketing and increase vehicle sales. The advanced session promises step-by-step instructions and real-world data examples to help dealers identify their optimal marketing mix while challenging conventional industry practices. A recorded version of the webinar is provided via embedded YouTube video for those who missed the live broadcast.
Jeff Kershner recommends attending a DealerOn webinar featuring Bill Wittenmyer from eLeadONE on how dealers can leverage advanced technology and multi-channel engagement to drive sales from the service lane while improving transparency and streamlining processes. The post emphasizes Wittenmyer's reputation as a knowledgeable presenter who consistently delivers valuable industry insights and statistics, making the webinar worth attending for dealership professionals seeking to increase market share and sales opportunities.
Jeff Kershner created a post-conference forum for #dealertalk2015 Toronto attendees to continue conversations and ask unanswered questions from the event. Attendees praised Kershner's presentation content and requested he share product links and other speaker materials, while organizers promoted an upcoming DealerTalk event in Calgary featuring keynote speaker Marcus Sheridan. The thread establishes a continuing dialogue space for conference participants rather than offering specific conclusions or problem-solving.
PureCars is hosting a webinar on 7/23 at 2 pm EST with Performance Director Will Perkins on optimizing mobile advertising strategy for automotive dealers, given that mobile car shopping searches are growing 51% year-over-year and are predicted to account for 80%+ of automotive shopping by 2020. The webinar will cover how to improve ad spend efficiency, stay relevant to in-market mobile buyers, and implement the right methodology to dominate mobile advertising in the automotive space.
Eliana Raggio promotes a DealerOn webinar on lead prospecting that contrasts passive selling (waiting for walk-in customers) with proactive lead generation through data mining and relationship building. The core argument is that salespeople can increase sales and control their business outcomes by developing deeper knowledge and generating qualified leads rather than relying on random customer traffic. The webinar, scheduled for June 4, 2015, positions lead generation and personal branding as superior sales strategies to traditional lot-based prospecting.