The alarmist tone from presenters at industry events can spook dealers. That’s not a bad thing.
I selfishly attend conferences for one reason: inspiration.
I look for presentations that can stoke my own creative fire, or ones that force me to confront new and exciting ideas. Sometimes I even look forward to hearing about technologies and strategies that threaten my own position in the industry because it keeps me from stagnating. And, from the very beginning, it was clear the Western Canadian Dealers Summit was the perfect forum for all these kinds of inspiration.
The atmosphere created by Denis Ducharme and his team from the Alberta Motor Dealers’ Association was a fitting complement to the backdrop of the Canadian Rockies. Everything, from the hors d’oeuvres (seriously, those were freakin’ amazing) to the learning environment, was first-class.
I’ve attended countless 20 groups and conferences in the past decade and I’m comfortable saying the venue was like nothing I’ve experienced before. These comforts would prove important because our topic of discussion was anything but comfortable.
If asked to distill the weekend’s talks into a thesis, I would say that auto retailers not only need to adapt to change, but to adapt to the rate of change, which is far greater than at any point in the industry’s history.
Naturally, the talk of change provoked fear from some of the attendees which they generally disguised as frustration. A few hysterical presentations added to those fears. One speaker, for example, encouraged dealers to add a mobile app to their marketing mix. But, in fairness, the rest of his presentation was awesome — like most of the information shared over the course of the weekend. In fact, the majority of presenters were insightful, engaging, and (dare I say) encouraging.
Among the most useful ideas were plans for building a market strategy, including practical advice for hiring a marketing manager. We also learned about the qualities to look for when staffing our stores.
Finally, there were some interesting discussions on why marketing to millennials is for suckers, how long term loans have hurt consumers, and why ours is the age of disruption. But it was the last topic that would return to me throughout the Summit and in the following weeks.
Five years ago, at a 20 group, I was arguing with the general manager of an automotive group in the western United States. He was pushing their A-Z sales process and one-price business model which I knew, for various reasons, wouldn’t work in our stores.
Despite my evident frustration, he reminded me that how we chose to operate didn’t matter as long as we critically examined the alternatives. If our goal was to grow, we needed to understand different models, choose the best, and adjust it to according to variables like our market, culture, values, and leadership capacity.
The general consensus was, “Okay, sure. Things are changing, but what can I do about it?
A few days later he emailed me this, “Hey, great chat. Dug this up for you “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie.
This quotation returned to me on the weekend of the WCD Summit while Charlie Vogelheim discussed the future of self-driving cars, and again when Erik Raddle spoke about Moore’s law and how to advertise in the age of disruption.
Afterwards, an old friend summarised the Silicon Valley presentation by saying, “This stuff doesn’t matter because it doesn’t work in Canada.” Obviously, this attitude was concerning, but I resisted the urge to remind him that technology, and the way we share information in our industry, has made borders irrelevant.
The best ideas coming from the innovation capital of the western world will inevitably influence Canada. So, he can either prepare himself or he can sell his store, because the new rate of change has made playing “catch up” impossible.
As it turned out, that conversation was only one of a handful with a worrying tone. The general consensus was, “Okay, sure. Things are changing, but what can
I do about it?”
Admittedly, I don’t have an easy answer. Nor did any of the weekend’s presenters. Conferences like these are useful for shining a light on what’s happening and what’s coming, but it’s the responsibility of businesses to find out how to embrace the change.
For some that could mean abandoning existing business models to offer autonomous ride-sharing subscription services. For others, it might be as simple as leaning on Google’s AI to dominate search engine marketing.
After a life spent in the retail car industry, I still believe no one knows how to sell a car like a car dealer. But the rise of the all-digital marketplace, shifting attitudes toward ownership, and the necessity of data (to name a few) are going to weed out dealers that aren’t informed and prepared. So, my only advice as you ready your dealership for the future, is to be like Marie Curie and endeavour to understand more, so that you can fear less.
Mitch Gallant is Partner and General Manager of Carma Automotive and Carbon Marketing and 13 year GSM and Asst GM at the Capital Automotive Group, in Regina, SK. You can reach
him at: mitch@carbonmarketing.ca
