Gubagoo’s Head of Marketing Drew Delaware joined us from Toronto to talk about sales acceleration. He spoke about the importance of personalising the sales journey, and encouraged attendees to change their thinking about leads, how to move them through the sales funnel to become prospects, through to purchase commitment, while remembering they are dealing with people.

Carsales’ Matt Heggie explained why the ‘new-normal’ is anything but doom and gloom for Aussie car Dealers. He declared that “Aussies are back in love with their cars”, with 81% of respondents telling Carsales in July that they were more likely to use their cars now than before COVID-19. This would result in increased aftersales requirements, and deliver more opportunities for consumer engagement, trade-ins, and upsells.

Facebook’s Paul Balbo spoke about the social media giant’s commerce roadmap and explained how Dealers can take advantage of Facebook solutions to supercharge their dealership growth and sales.

MTAA Super’s Education Specialist, Darren Gilby, walked attendees through the Federal Budget and changes to superannuation.

CitNOW showed off its app-based system that allows Dealers to distribute video to Sales & Service customers for a ‘click and watch’ experience, providing transparency that breaks down trust issues many customers have with dealerships.

eGoodmanners dealt with integrated solutions across customer management and retention, analytics, test drives, trade-ins, and marketing and communications.

IPMG examined smarter ways to trade more used cars, thinking outside the square and buying privately to add one or two used car sales per month.

OpenPay provided an overview of the Buy Now Pay Later industry, highlighting how the growing technology and flexible payment arrangements can win back lapsed service customers and double the average transaction value.

Podium showed how customer experience is overtaking price and product as a key brand differentiator, with an emphasis on convenient, frictionless and efficient experiences at every stage of the customer journey.

Infomedia demonstrated how following up on customers after they have deferred repair recommendations demonstrates customer care and helps build trust.

Autotrader explained how its new app will improve the consumer experience and ultimately drive more dealer engagement.

AutoXCarCare offered insight into world first technology for cosmetic repairs, focusing on value and convenience for customers in order to generate greater profits.

Ben Cooper from SpinCar showed how industry leaders are reacting to changing consumer shopping habits, placing their digital showroom at the heart of their retail operation and customer engagement strategies. Ben investigated how this world-wide trend can be utilised by Dealers to better compete in our rapidly evolving landscape.

Gumtree’s Brad Reece explained how to use the Dealer Central platform to streamline the process of advertising vehicles online and enable real-time performance reporting, in order to efficiently create and optimise listings.

Xtime gave an overview of the digital tools it supplies to over 500 Australian Dealers, in order to help with digital service strategy, and suggest options to improve the service experience and drive loyalty to dealership and brand.

Snap21 shared how its integrated photo review app, one-touch social sharing and review platform provides a simple and convenient way for clients to rate and review their experience with dealerships, then socially share this experience with their family and friends, creating and building Dealers’ reputations.

Brent O’Connor, Business Development Manager, Apprenticeships Are Us, explained how the new Wage Subsidy can help dealerships, and the benefits of using a Group Training Organisation (GTO) to reduce the hassle of recruitment and mitigate risk by having the GTO as the employer of the apprentices.

The combined WildJar and AdTorque Edge workshop looked at best practice techniques for managing dealership phone calls and reducing wastage; from phone tracking (where your calls are coming from) to call monitoring (how your calls are being handled). It also delved into advertising and how integrating phone tracking with lead acquisition platforms such as ALICE can give you clear and accurate visibility of which campaigns are generating the most test drives and vehicle purchases, and therefore the best ROI.

Loopit covered the emerging trend of car subscription, detailing how Dealers can add to their bottom lines with recurring revenue and make their dealerships more resilient to seasonal sales fluctuations by growing their own car subscription fleet.

Permagard demonstrated low touch e-commerce concepts to generate additional, passive income for dealerships in a world where consumers are increasingly shopping online.

Chrysalis gave a presentation on understanding customer behaviour and retention rates during the term of finance loans, and identifying the best renewal points.

Titan examined what the dealership of tomorrow might look like, with automation replacing manual systems, and using data to gain insights that can drive more responsive decisions in your business.

dealermeter explored the data driven habits of successful used car Dealers operating in our “new norm”, highlighting how used car sales margins have stepped in to fill the revenue gaps left by the loss of finance income.

Carbar highlighted how using a subscription service can greatly increase customer satisfaction.

Op2ma spoke about leveraging technology to improve F&I, drive customer retention and increase profitability. They predicted that behavioural and cultural change and rebuilding sales processes based on customer feedback would be keys in 2021.

SalesLogs presented an alternative to the traditional spreadsheet approach to managing data, while Total Selling Solutions pointed out that 68% of customers who switch to the competition do so because of perceived indifference.