Joseph Davis the eCommerce Director from Ewing Auto Group out in Plano, TX explains his role and how his group operates. Using the same vendors if possible and trying to make everything fluid between them that way “we are all looking at the same documents and reports” even though all manufacturers are a little different, but “we try to run them as similar as we can.”
Right now we have the Subaru store on with FIXED OPS DIGITAL and are looking to bring the Mercedes and Buick GMC in as well… the Subaru store that we have now we recently acquired it and they didn’t have the best fixed ops department in the world and we were definitely lagging behind so we needed to find technologies and things that would push us forward. How are we going to grow this business? I met with FIXED OPS DIGITAL a couple of years ago and really liked what they were doing and they were really innovating the marketplace. They’ve got their menus and Apple Wallets, just this really cool technology that not everyone has, especially in the dealership space so I kind of wanted to sexy it up a bit and they were the company that looked the best.”
On the Driving Sales Executive Summit, Joseph says it’s “I always get something new every time I come. Great people, great networking, I just love being out here.”
Coming into the Summit Joseph wanted to focus on the ever-changing consumer and look at all of the new technologies out there. “We know we cannot continue to grow doing only traditional things, so we’ve got to look at where the marketplace is turning and try to get ahead of that curve rather than waiting for other people to do it and then us kind of coming in from behind. We want to be on the front of the wave, we want to change things. The other thing is the salespeople are all Millenials now and what we run into is how do we manage them better. I know a lot of the breakout sessions and some of the keynotes are on the millennial and how do you keep them? So two-fold people and technology.”
One session Joseph is looking forward to attending is called “Less is more strategy, customer experience starts with engagement”, from Steve Rossler. Engagement is really huge and the traditional buying experience takes 6+ hours and no one wants to be in the dealership that long these days. That’s ruining an entire day, so I am looking at how do I get someone out of here in an hour, two hours max from start to finish so that way they’ve got the rest of their day, it’s a wonderful experience for them. In my opinion, if I can give someone an amazing experience they’re going to come back to me and I am going to hold more gross. People want the experience now, it’s not all about what is the lowest I can get this car for. They want a fair deal and they want a great experience and you almost have a customer for life. So that is why I am interested in that session.”
The second session Joseph is planning to attend is “Lead forms are not dead, how to turn leads into car sales,” presented by Daniel Kim. “We’ve got a sales BDC and it’s not doing as well as I want it to do. So really with attending that one is trying to pick up maybe some new ideas some gold in there if there is any and apply it to our sales BDC. Ask ‘are we handling internet leads correctly, is there a different way we could be doing it’? We are not terrible, but I definitely know that there is room for improvement so I am trying to find that the best I can.”
Lastly, “Don’t be basic: stand out, catch eyes and engage with today’s customers,” with Gray Scott, Joseph was drawn to because of engagement, he has seen Gray speak before and “he really knows his stuff”. Trying to not be cookie cutter is my thing. With Gray he takes things that we are doing but finds ways to make them different and really stand out. That’s why he is interested in going to the last talk.
Thanks Joseph for stopping by and talking with us!
