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Who is innovating?

Last few years innovation has been taken by many as a sales pitch and somehow frowned upon.

I blame Digital Dealer for their “no sales pitch” policy.

That was the best thing for the car industry, everyone’s product in amazing behind closed doors alone with the dealer, I want to hear the pitch with another 50 people. Try to squeeze something iffy then.
 
That was the best thing for the car industry, everyone’s product in amazing behind closed doors alone with the dealer, I want to hear the pitch with another 50 people. Try to squeeze something iffy then.

I really enjoyed the Startup Alley at Driving Sales. It's new vendors pitching a room filled with other vendors and investors.
 
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I just went to the most recent one in October. First DD in roughly 5 - 6 years. I won't be going back. Me personally, I'll be attending smaller, more focused / targeted events with the exception of NADA. If I want to see innovation and whats on the horizon, I go to NADA.
 
I just went to the most recent one in October. First DD in roughly 5 - 6 years. I won't be going back. Me personally, I'll be attending smaller, more focused / targeted events with the exception of NADA. If I want to see innovation and whats on the horizon, I go to NADA.

Agreed. I found Driving Sales and Digital Dealer were just rinse and repeat. Year after year. Last time I went I got stuck in a presentation on responsive website design with a presenter who kept saying “sorry about the way the site looks, this projector has a weird resolution” :light:

Also, having VP of Sales doing “educational” sessions is laughable.
 
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just rinse and repeat. Year after year.

That has been fine as there were so many dealerships resistant to "upgrading." There was still a place for the first time Internet Managers at Digital Dealer, and plenty of growing ISMs + General Managers at Driving Sales. But now we're at a point where the bulk of the franchised dealerships have embraced digital strategies and we're all still listening to stale messages.

And this is exactly the direction I was hoping this thread would go! Thanks @Rick Buffkin and @craigh - you're helping to prove my point. The industry is stale. Last time things were stale we saw companies like iMagicLab, DealerSocket, Dealer.com, VinSolutions (begrudgingly admitted - my fight with the original team was strong on DR), vAuto, eLead, HomeNet, DealerOn, and basically every technology provider that got kicking in the late 90s/early 00s.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE may we be on the edge of another generation of innovations for the 20s!
 
In reading all of these posts I ask myself what I would want to focus on if I were still working in a dealership. The car business is light years behind other retail industries. Taking a page from Apple could be a start. How easy is it to buy an iPhone, iPad or Macbook? How easy is it to Service or trade one in?

What if Supply Chain was better from the factory? Would a reduction in offered options/packages/colors help improve the SHOPPING experience for consumers? If you go to buy anything online you pick product>size>color>payment>shipping. Consumers have been conditioned by retailers such as amazon to get what they want quickly and without hassle. Same goes to shopping at Apple. Auto tech companies have been attempting to mimic these online retailer tools and strategies without having a simple product suite (except Tesla).

Simply put, reduce the brain damage during production/ordering and have more relevant inventory choices for the consumer. Reinvest in training to "sell" these simplified offerings and the elusive concierge experience might become more of a reality. Making it easier for people to FIND & BUY a car would be the definition of innovating in the modern retail world. Instead of identifying NEW challenges, let's fix the ones we already have. OEMs are the key to this.

"You can have any color, so long as it is black" - Henry Ford, 1909
 
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE may we be on the edge of another generation of innovations for the 20s!

Agreed. I remember when I started doing marketing for my dealer group in 2009 it was insane the amount of things we have to accomplish. Shifting the ad spend to pure digital. Getting everyone on a CRM. Making sure the website was done correctly, converted well, and that the leads were maximized in the CRM. Phone software, building BDC's, and getting the used car department to use vAuto.

Then I got in rinse and repeat land. I stopped going to Digital Dealer because I felt like I could teach most of the classes. I had pulled all the internet era levers in the store, and worked with the owner and department heads to make them all work. My group went from awful to superstar status.

But that's a fun song to sing from 6 years ago. A nice stroll down memory lane, but there just was a lack of change that got me really bored in the industry.
 
In reading all of these posts I ask myself what I would want to focus on if I were still working in a dealership. The car business is light years behind other retail industries. Taking a page from Apple could be a start. How easy is it to buy an iPhone, iPad or Macbook? How easy is it to Service or trade one in?

What if Supply Chain was better from the factory? Would a reduction in offered options/packages/colors help improve the SHOPPING experience for consumers? If you go to buy anything online you pick product>size>color>payment>shipping. Consumers have been conditioned by retailers such as amazon to get what they want quickly and without hassle. Same goes to shopping at Apple. Auto tech companies have been attempting to mimic these online retailer tools and strategies without having a simple product suite (except Tesla).

Simply put, reduce the brain damage during production/ordering and have more relevant inventory choices for the consumer. Reinvest in training to "sell" these simplified offerings and the elusive concierge experience might become more of a reality. Making it easier for people to FIND & BUY a car would be the definition of innovating in the modern retail world. Instead of identifying NEW challenges, let's fix the ones we already have. OEMs are the key to this.

"You can have any color, so long as it is black" - Henry Ford, 1909

Completely disagree.

The car business is behind some and ahead of many.

We don't sell cell phones.