#IS20G9 – Phoenix, Arizona – September 13, 2016

Day 2

Kicking off round 2 (Day 2) at #IS20G, they brought in the heavyweight! Jim Zielger launched the day off and did it the right way. High energy and masterful delivery with a section titled “10 things I would Do If I Bought Your Dealership.” And while I won’t list each of them here (otherwise you wouldn’t have to go see for yourself….), these were tangible, relevant, well thought out pinpoints that people could take into their stores to either evaluate or re-evaluate where their stores are operating right now! My big take-aways, TRAIN YOUR PEOPLE and then HAVE ACCOUNTABILITY! It isn’t rocket science. With all of Jim’s years in the car business, he stays rooted in the basics, because they work, yet he finds a way to study and grow and remain relevant and cutting edge.

Next up, Sean Seltzer with SocialDealer, who talked about Facebook, a lot about Facebook, almost as much as Facebook (Bob Lanham) talked about Facebook. His message created the ongoing buzz that Facebook and Social in general are no longer about just organic social and chatting with your friends. this is the new media, you need to get involved and get involved now!

Dan Moore with Vin Solutions was next to present and was another engaging personality. Dan’s message was on creating a great online customer experience. There is no longer a Gen X or Gen Y, Millennials or Baby Boomers. Customer everywhere want an amazing customer experience, so don’t make it a generational thing, it really is now “GENERATION E” for EVERYONE! We are not a one-size-fits-all society and therefore the experience should not be either. Every step that a consumer takes on the internet creates a little piece of the online experience. People in general want an experience that is custom to them.

I think that Greg Gifford was strategically placed next to keep everyone there keen and on their toes. Greg was introduced with a piece on “Less Grossman’s Pro Tips for Local SEO.” This guy was high energy, high speed, and totally non-stop. He had something like a 137 page slideshow all with movie references to demonstrate the power of SEO and how to accomplish. In short, this guy was FUCKING awesome. If you EVER get the chance to hear Greg Gifford speak, do yourself a favor and get a fucking ticket (and just a heads up, you need to be okay with the “F” word.).

Whiel not just anyone could have followed up the Greg Gifford performance, Todd Dearborn with CarsDirect was willing to accept the challenge. Todd spoke heavily on sub-prime financing and how to attract the sub-prime consumer in a digital environment. You need a great tool to measure what you are attracting, and you MUST have a department specialized in sub-prime F&I is you want to see success.

Next we were introduced to Ken Potter, who gave us some more inspiration and a motivational moment. Ken echoed again what many others were openly talking about, it’s about the people. People are always a businesses biggest asset! How can you take care of your people? He posed the question, “How can you amplify the light of the people that work for you?” and “What do you want to see as a win?” Basic, but strong fundamental principles when dealing with employees!

After Lunch was the highlight of day 2 for me. EXPERT ROUNDTABLES.

The roundtables were set up where there were roughly 15 or more different topics and each attendee was able to  pick 4 topics and sit with an expert for 15-20 minutes at a time and have rapid fire questions with a no-holds barred answer session. It is like automotive advertising/speed dating sessions rolled into one room. The room was absolutely electric at this point. At each table you have one automotive expert and about six or seven dealership attendees that want info – and then off you go! This was awesome! Really awesome! The three round tables I attended were:

  1. Everything Video with Sean Bradley
  2. Franklin Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) with Karen Bradley
  3. SEO with Shaun Raines (from DealerOn)
  4. Marketing Tactics with Greg Iverson

Each of these people had amazing expertise in their respective area and I really learned a lot during this time.

The end of day two was instructed by many experts from a multitude of automotive vendors, these included Christian Jorn from Remora, information from Digital Air Strike, 12 steps for succes from Chris Herman with Herman Advertising and Kerri Wise with TrueCar, each of them were phenomenal, and while I know I have said this many times, I think most could have put an entire conference together off of just the second half of day 2 from the Internet Sales 20 Group.

One of the big highlights on this afternoon came when Sean V. Bradley put together a “3rd Party Lead Super Panel” pretty much on the fly. He assembled 10 members from many 3rd party vendors and then allowed open questions to be asked. In closing he let each company have one minute to pitch their product to the attendees on why their dealerships should buy from them. Who does that? It was awesome, innovative and really kept people there fully engaged.

Impression and Recap (click to  read the intro)

Day 1 (click to read the day 1 recap)

Day 2 (YOU ARE HERE)

Day 3 (click to read the day 3 recap)