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The buzz of NADA

mattwatson81

Getting Refreshed
Apr 10, 2009
334
10
First Name
Matt
So what does everyone think was the big talk of the show?

Seems like every dealer I was talking to was shopping for and switching DMS providers. I think DMS and CRM are always major things dealers are shopping for though.

One of the new unique products I can think of was GOSO.
 
Did you spend any time at their booth? They didn't exactly have the most exciting sales team. Good product but poor delivery.

I really think it's only a matter of weeks/months before others are building this for dealers.

A product I really liked was Dealer Mouth. Allows salespeople to have their own dealer branded website. Very slick product. I spoke with one of the owners and they have put a lot of time and effort into building a really nice product.
 
Speaking of MOUTH, Boalt of GOSO has got to watch whats coming out of his MOUTH. He was in a product pitch on the next table over and he got my blood boiling.

Boalt went on and on and on ranting about how inferior the old generation is to the new generation. I was amazed at the truck load of evil-dealer stereo types that include "...55 year old dealers with pretty young wife's on their arm... Our generation sees right thru that...". Like he has the patent on glasses that see dumbass behavior? What of that moronic 24 year old chic that's married to that old man's wallet? He went on talking about how service writers should not sell and how great a world that would be. Oh there's more, but it's all the same rose-colored-glasses drivel.

Boalt's not from this industry, has no history with it, doesn't understand the daily BEATINGS that sales reps and staff take from our very important customers. Someone needs to chain him to a phone and a desk and take ups for 90 days and pay his rent with it. I'd say he'd prey for mercy.

If I were to dish out some empathy (something Boalt could use) Boalth was pitching a Social Media Manager and was in "peer to peer" mode. What I heard was an inexperienced smart young man that needs a dose of wisdom.

Disappointed in Syracuse
 
I was surprised at how many vendors had people that seemed "too bothered" to even say hi, let alone try and sell me on something.

I too experienced that. I'm used to being swarmed with sales people to a point where it's half annoying. But not this show..

Not a lot of new things happening this year. A few "Social" offering like GOSO. I agree with Jerry, DealerMouth had a nice offering for dealers that are up for allowing their sales and service staff to have their own managed micro sites.

A few iphone app vendors/offerings.

Quite a few CRM vendors had some nice feature enhancements.

That's about it. Alex and I should have a NADA review posted over on the blog here soon.
 
I was not impressed with the show this year. Even the vendors that I am currently involved with didn't have anything too exciting for 2010, and if they did, it was an add-on that they charged for. I did enjoy the drinks we all shared together though!
 
Interesting comments about the booth workers not in "attack mode"... coincidently or not, booths seemed busy and engaged in good conversations with dealers. Dealers seemed more active rather than "just looking". In my mind it was one of the best NADAs I've ever been to... Workshops seemed well attended.

Sad I didn't get to DealerMouth, will have to check that out.

Interesting comments about GOSO - I had been impressed with their marketing and efforts prior to this but didn't get a chance to sit down with Adam. I do agree that their offerings are seemingly easy to replicate and look like they are being done by others already.

The DealerTrack vision party prior (OpenTrack) to the bash was very interesting and pretty well attended. DealerTrack has a very good management team IMO and has a product that people want to love ... even if they want to love just because they want to hate another product... but enough of that. The OpenTrack meeting provided some great insight and good networking afterwards where I got to hear a good monologue offered by Sean Stapleton. I think the addition of Sean Wolfington to the Board of Directors enhances an already good team there.
 
I hope some of the vendors who spend money at NADA take the time to read this thread and better prepare in the future.

I was at a CRM booth looking for information and the sales rep excused himself so he could go talk to a dealer who happened to be grabbing a cookie. I was ready for a demo. Sure I had an allied industry badge, but what this guy doesn't realize is that I talk with dozens of dealers per month and I am constantly asked the CRM question.

Some of the other CRM vendors at the show did an awesome job.
 
Shereef told us about DealerMouth back in November http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/dealer-mouth-get-your-salespeople-involved-537.html

I do quit a bit of work with real estate agents/agencies and almost every agent has their own micro-site linking back to the agency site. I thought about applying micro-sites to dealers but never acted on it. It seems like one of the next logical steps.

After Shereefs post I sent a contact form to DealerMouth to get more info. They responded in about ten minutes. It was one of the owners. Very excited and very informative. He gave me a quick demo. I liked what I saw. I'll bet the refined product is even better. I was just a little concerned about the price he quoted. When calculated with the turn over in sales reps in my market it could get expensive. Maybe a dealership could coop with a salesman or wait until a new sales is there for 3 months. Not sure. I'm sure they would have an answer to that.
 
@mattwatson81 - Thank you for your comments, much appreciated.

@Jerry Thibeau - Before you make any comments on our product delivery, GOSO.com, you should take a look at your product delivery - PhoneUpNinjas.com, no offense but I don't think your necessarily an authoritative figure on product delivery.

@JoePistell - Your blood boils to easily, if you had heard the conversation, you would have noticed that I was speaking to a someone that was telling me that the average age of a dealer principle was 55, a fact I did not know, and I was just explaining that was one of the fastest growing demographics on Facebook.

I welcome all suggestions on how we can improve our product GOSO.com and would be glad to arrange a demo for anybody who would like to check it out.

I enjoyed the show, I thought that overall it was a big success. This was our first NADA and we're looking forward to next year.

Take care,

Adam Boalt
Founder
GOSO.com