LAS VEGAS — Andy Koblenz, executive vice president of legal and regulatory affairs for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), will deliver a keynote address at Industry Summit 2015, which will be held Sept. 8–10 at Paris Las Vegas.
“Andy Koblenz is a familiar face at Industry Summit and a great friend to dealers everywhere,” said David Gesualdo, show chair and publisher of F&I and Showroom. “His experience speaks for itself, and we anticipate a gripping and informative address.”
Since 2006, Koblenz has spearheaded critical efforts to protect franchised new-car dealers from federal regulatory overreach. He represents dealers before all federal regulatory agencies and is at the forefront of the NADA’s advocacy efforts to protect consumer choice in indirect auto financing. Along with the nation’s top dealer groups, he helped launch NADA’s optional Fair Credit Compliance Policy and Program, which helps dealers and lenders comply with fair credit rules while preserving robust competition for car buyers in the auto finance marketplace.
“The upcoming Industry Summit will provide an ideal forum to discuss a resolution of the challenges to the indirect vehicle financing model presented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Koblenz said. “As a matter of principle, car buyers have the right to negotiate the rate on auto loans. And they have the right to seek a better deal. No government institution should deny that. That’s not what Washington is supposed to do.”
Koblenz directs a staff of six attorneys specializing in franchise and state law, corporate law and federal regulatory affairs. He helped navigate NADA through intensely challenging times, including the credit crisis, automaker bankruptcies and Great Recession. Previously, he served as NADA’s vice president of industry affairs.
More information about Industry Summit is available at the event's websites. Attendees who register by Aug. 7 will enjoy a $100 early-bird discount.
IRVINE, Calif. — Kelley Blue Book (KBB) issued today its prediction for June 2015 sales. The vehicle information site expects to increase 5.8% from a year ago to 1.5 million units, resulting in an estimated 17.4 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR).
If the firm’s June sales prediction is realized, total sales for the first half of 2015 would come in at 8.53 million — a 4.7% increase from the same time last year and the highest first-half total since 2005. It would also mean second-quarter sales will have increase 3.9% from a year ago to 4.58 million — the highest second quarter total since 2005. For the year, KBB’s June sales prediction would mean the industry is on pace to close out 2015 with 17.1 million units sold, a 3.6 year-over-year jump and the highest overall total since 2001.
“With another month of new-car sales growth in June 2015, the sixteenth in a row, the auto industry continues its incredibly strong momentum. With a 17.3 million projected SAAR for June, it would mark the third month above 17 million out of the past four months,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for KBB. “However, heading into the summer months, sales should flatten out at a more sustainable pace.”
Including fleet sales, KBB expects June new light-vehicle sales to increase 5.8% from a year ago to 1.5 million units, which would be down 8% from May. The firm also estimates that the SAAR will be 17.4 million, up from 16.8 million in June 2014 but down from May’s 17.7 million SAAR.
The firm, which noted that the industry enjoyed 25 selling days vs. 24 in June 2014, also expects retail sales to account for 80.6% of volume in June 2015, up from 79.7 percent in June 2014.
“Kelley Blue Book anticipates positive numbers from nearly all manufacturers in June 2015, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles could see the largest year-over-year gains,” said Gutierrez. “The surge in popularity of utility and truck models this year has been beneficial for Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep and RAM brands, helping push the manufacturer to its highest U.S. market share since 2007.”
The Volkswagen Group is another manufacturer poised to report solid growth, thanks to the full model lineup of its redesigned Golf. The Audi brand could also boost sales by double digits this year, while sales for the overall luxury market is trending 7.4% higher than last year.
As gas prices remain comparably low vs. last year, June should be another good month for utility and truck segment sales. Year to date, SUV sales are up 11.9%, and with new models on the market such as the Honda HR-V, Kelley Blue Book expects even higher totals in June.
Conversely, non-luxury cars will continue to lose share, with year-to-date sales down 5.2 percent. While the month should see slightly positive numbers for the compact and mid-size car segments, combined share is expected to drop by nearly a full percentage point.
This is just a short rant, but I see this all the time. If you go to a dealer's website, and look at the "Meet our Staff" page you might see something like this:
A single name and phone number, and possibly an email address, with a big black silhouette where a photo should be. Sometimes there will be just a single person as a contact,
sometimes you can see multiple black silhouettes filling the page. How have you not gotten around to adding a photos yet? My guess is that some dealers do not think that is important.
I think this sets the stage for how you view digital marketing. One of the ground rules to succeed in digital marketing, is to treat digital customers the same as "real world" customers.
Don't give them less service, don't wait to respond to them, or treat them as any less important than customers who stop into your dealership. Having photos on your website is part of
this as well. It is hard enough to establish a personal connection with someone by email or text, but please, at least put a face to go with the name. How much nicer is it for a
customer to walk into a dealership, and see that same friendly face they have been talking to online? This is an easy fix too. You don't need to hire a professional photographer,
your iPhone will do if that is all you have. Find a light wall in the dealership, where you have good lighting (no shadows on faces) and shoot the photos. At the very least you
should have photos of Sales and Service Managers, sales people, and other customer facing employees. I think it would be challenging to market your dealership as "friendly" or
"personal" if the only images of your team are faceless black shapes.
I’ve worked with automotive manufacturers and dealers for more than 20 years, and the same challenges surface over and over again. Corporate teams struggle to successfully roll out new programs and initiatives across their network of highly dispersed dealerships. Dealers feel inundated with information from the corporate office, and lack the support and tools needed to succeed. And the field gets to play mediator, stuck in the middle of that strained OEM/dealer relationship.
Last October, we stepped in to help one national auto brand solve these challenges when they rolled out a new customer-loyalty program. By leveraging technology to roll out and monitor program performance, the client saw positive changes across the organization in three key areas.
1. Improving Transparency and Alignment Across the Organization
One department within this automotive company was focused on driving customer satisfaction and retention. It wanted the entire organization to rally around that goal, and set out to launch a loyalty program that would reward dealers with strong performance and encourage weaker dealers to improve performance. But to make it work, the deapartment needed a way to align communications in order to ensure that all parties—from the individual dealerships all the way up to the corporate office—were actively doing their part to deliver on that brand promise.
By tracking key performance indicators in one consistent tool, the department was able to get all levels of management on the same page in terms of program priorities and metrics. What used to be 10 disparate data feeds were consolidated into one tool, providing more transparency across the business. Instead of having to manually collect information, run simulations, and disseminate findings through the field to the dealers, the program manager was able to implement a large number of tasks, reducing her weekly workload by upward of 40%.
2. Empowering the Field to Serve as Consultants
Now that the entire organization was aligned around these goals and priorities, the field was able to better serve both the dealers and the corporate office.
Traditionally, field managers would spend full days preparing for store visits each week. By consolidating all of the relevant resources and information needed in one place, field managers were able to start spending less time compiling and researching information and more time with dealers, digging into performance updates and ways to drive improvements.
With one concise dashboard, field managers were able to quickly review and understand performance, with the ability to view and drill down on metrics at the company, district, and store levels. Time that used to be spent relaying information down from corporate was now spent serving as strategic consultants to the dealers. With the detailed metrics breakdown, they were able to talk to dealers about how their performance compared to others in their district, uncover areas of opportunity and key challenges, and discuss tools and best practices to help them improve.
3. Engaging Dealers to Drive Performance
As with other programs, dealerships were rewarded for hitting goals, but a primary motivator for success was the fear of corporate action should performance slip. At the launch of the program rollout, the company did an analysis of how much compensation was left on the table by dealers not hitting their numbers. With the new tool, field managers were able to better frame discussions around positive motivators, and give dealers a detailed view of how they were tracking against compensation targets.
With previous program rollouts, the field and dealers also lacked insight into how their performance was tracking against other dealers. The new tool provided higher levels of visibility and encouraged dealers to ask and answer questions among their peers, helping the organization uncover best practices of high-performing dealerships. These insights were then used as a valuable toolset for driving improvements among weaker performers.
So, what’s the real impact of aligning, empowering, and engaging your organization with the help of data-driven technology? For the auto brand in this scenario, dealerships that took advantage of the tool were regularly twice as likely to hit their quarterly targets. That’s good for customer loyalty and the bottom line.
Chris Taylor is founder and CEO of Square Root, an Austin, Texas–based SaaS company whose store performance management platform, CoEFFICIENT, helps leading auto and retail enterprises align their organizations, increase transparency, encourage collaboration, and improve store performance.
LAS VEGAS — Western Funding, a specialized automotive finance company focusing on subprime credit, has announced its Triple Pay program. With the launch of Triple Pay, dealers have the opportunity to build a portfolio of accounts that allows them to share in the profits of each deal made.
The launch of this program allows dealers to build a bankable portfolio and receive three different types of payments on the same deal — upfront checks, near portfolio closing and back-end payment streams. In order for the dealer to get their first check, the dealership must produce 50 deals.
“With the release of our newest program, Triple Pay, we look forward to helping dealerships maximize their profits by giving them up to 50% of the interest collected and the entire principal as the customer makes payments,” said Western Funding Vice President Bret Pangborn. “Our focus is developing our current dealer base as well as inviting new dealerships to join our team. To best serve our growing dealer base, we have officially launched our national recruiting campaign for qualified sales representatives.”
Western Funding’s first quarter resulted in an increase to $68.9 million in principal loan balances from $28.7 million in the prior year, a 142% year-over-year growth rate. Western Funding originated more than 2,200 loans in the first quarter of 2015, with the majority of loans being sourced on DealerCenter, officials said. The company’s static losses have continued to improve as a percentage of the amount advanced.
“We are excited with the opportunities in the automotive finance market,” said Western Funding President Guerin Senter. “We continue our strategic growth with a heavy focus on increasing dealer portfolios. We anticipate consistent performance through the end of the year and to end at a $150 million portfolio.”
Dealerships interested in learning more about Western Funding’s Triple Pay program are encouraged to call Western Funding directly at (888) 434-3150.
