Welcome to Episode 10 of the MarketPunch Podcast. In this episode, I’m going to be joined by two of my favorite #AutoMarketing pals, Megan Barto – Marketing Director at Ciocca Honda & Hyundai and Robert Karbaum, eCommerce Manager at Weins Canada.

This is a very special episode of the MarketPunch Podcast because Megan, Robert and I will be talking all about the DrivingSales Executive Summit.

With DSES2014 only a few weeks away, I wanted to use this episode to let first time and regular attendees know what to expect from this year’s DSES and also to take a look back at our involvement in last year’s event.

Enjoy The Show!

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MarketPunch Podcast Tip Of The Week

Before I bring in Megan and Robert to talk all things DrivingSales, let’s take a look at another MarketPunch.com tip of the week!

This tip comes courtesy of Megan Barto who in turn discovered it from Eric Miltsch. I expect it to come in quite handy this year at DSES and any other conference you might attend in the future.

When you attend a conference like DSES, most people want to do two things – take notes, and share what they’re learning on social media (mostly via Twitter).

However you know that as fast as the information comes at you, it’s near impossible to take notes and tweet at the same time.

That’s where this handy tip comes in.

By harnessing the power of IFTTT, Twitter and Google Docs, you can create a special recipe that will effectively turn your tweets into your conference notes.

Here’s how it works…

When you are at the conference, tweet everything that you want to remember and tag it with a specific hashtag. In this case I’m using #DSES2014.

When you setup this recipe on IFTTT, each time you tweet something with #DSES2014, IFTTT will automatically append a Google Spreadsheet with the info contained in that tweet.

Do this during the entire conference, and at the end you’ll have a spreadsheet of all your tweets that you can then go back through to compose your notes.

How awesome is that?

I publicly shared this recipe on IFTTT so you can implement it yourself with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Welcome Megan Barto and Robert Karbaum

It’s my distinct pleasure to welcome both Megan Barto and Robert Karbaum to this episode of the MarketPunch Podcast.

Megan, Robert really got to know each other a bit better at the 2013 DrivingSales Executive Summit as we were each participants in the annual DrivingSales Best Idea Contest.

This contest is designed to uncover The Most Innovative Dealership Strategy of the year.

Developing a Picture Perfect Online Reputation

Megan’s Best Idea was called Picture Perfect Online Reputation.

This idea showed her innovative use of inexpensive digital picture frames placed on the desks of sales consultants desk to subtly show the wonderful reviews of their dealership to guests sitting at the consultant’s desk.

The direct result was an increase in positive customer reviews and one year later, the picture frames are still being used inside the dealership.

Appointment Boarding Pass

Robert’s Best Idea was called the Appointment Boarding Pass.

The goal of the Appointment Boarding Pass is to increase the show ratio on booked sales and service appointments. The concept is to provide the customer with a simple, easy to use, mobile ready document that includes all the information they need to arrive at the dealership for their appointment, or reschedule if need be.

By implementing the Appointment Boarding Pass, Robert was able to dramatically increase the show rate of guests who set appointments.

How To Visualize Big Data in the Dealership

My Best Idea was called How to Visualize Big Data in the Dealership.

I discovered a way to take various location data from multiple sources in our CRM, upload it to a Google Map and then visualize the big data.

I’ve used this idea to visually display on a map:

• 
  
• Where sold & unsold internet leads are coming from
  
• 30 day, unsold internet leads in relation to competitive dealerships
  
• The effectiveness of direct mail campaigns based on zip code
  
• Calculate average distance service and/or sales customers drive to our dealership
  

Then based on what we saw visualized, we then could make educated marketing decisions because we removed most of the guess work.

And The Winner Was….

After all was said and done, Robert was declared the winner of the DrivingSales Best Idea Contest – and rightfully so.

His idea alone was worth the price of admission to DSES because as soon as our team returned home from Las Vegas, we had the Appointment Boarding Pass implemented for all of our stores within a month.

Truly, the Best Idea!

The 2014 DrivingSales Best Idea Contest

This year there’s another strong lineup of ideas that I’m looking forward to checking out:

• 
  
• “Free Gas Friday†– Cathy Nesbit and Alyssa Safty, Director of Social Media/Comm. Involvement and Internet Manager, Harry Robinson Buick GMC
  
• “Monetize your Digital Assets†– Bryan Armstrong, Internet Manager, VW SouthTowne
  
• “#MyRideYYC†– Shelly Hebert, Business Development/Marketing Manager, Glenmore Audi
  
• “Vehicle Xchange Program: Loyalty-Driven Sales Velocity; in-Store and vBDC†– Erich Gail, COO, Cardinale Automotive Group
  
• “YouTube Postal Service“ – Robert Karbaum, E-Commerce Manager, Weins Canada Inc. / Don Valley North Toyota
  

What We’re Up To at #DSES2014

What’s cool about having Megan and Robert on this show to talk about DSES is that we’ll all be contributing content to this year’s event!

Let’s take a quick look at our involvement and where you’ll find us.

Dealership Culture and it’s Effects on Long-Term Sustained Profitability

In this breakout session, Megan and her General Sales Manager, Andy Guelcher will show attendees how they can improve the culture of their dealership (and thus it’s profitability) today!

What Dealers Will Learn:

• 
  
• How dealership culture is directly related to profitability
  
• Simple things you can do TODAY to create a positive culture
  
• What effects a negative culture have on sustained profitability & growth
  

Blog to the Future

In this breakout session, I’ll show you how to take advantage of your website to differentiate yourselves from the competition.

What Dealers Will Learn:

• 
  
• Why creating original and useful content is the #1 way to differentiate yourself from other dealers
  
• How to utilize your blog to create connections with your customers, drive more traffic to your websites, generate inbound leads, and ultimately improve SEO
  
• Actionable gameplan for launching their blog platform that can be used for 2015 and beyond
  

2014 Canadian Session

Back by popular demand, and free to all Canadian dealers registered for DSES, the Canadian Breakout Session offers content on some of the hottest digital topics, trends and strategies for dealers in today’s Canadian automotive market.

This will be the 2nd year of this unique session that is unlike any other conference agenda in the auto industry because it is built by Canadian dealers for Canadian dealers.

Not only is Robert defending his title at the DSES Best Idea Contest, he is also be presenting at the Canadian session.

If you’re Canadian, you don’t want to miss Robert’s presentation – The Hard Truth: Social Media is Advertising. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t free.

Thank You for Listening to the MarketPunch Podcast

I can’t thank Megan and Robert Enough for taking the time to join me for this episode of the MarketPunch Podcast.

If you don’t already, be sure to follow each of them on Twitter – @skeetle & @karbaum

I also thank YOU for tuning in once again. If you plan on attending the 2014 DrivingSales Executive Summit, let me know so we can connect face to face this October!

See you next time on the MarketPunch Podcast!

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