This year’s convention kicked off with a wave of refreshed and renewed positivity. The organisation has a clear vision which is set on bringing the best insights and global leaders to speak with their members, Australia’s automotive dealers. Ian Field’s address as Chairman was an affirmation of the new direction of AADA. He spoke to a packed hall about his take on the organisation saying, ‘we’re not interested in popularity, we just want to get the job done.’ His message was commended and it launched the delegation well into two distinct areas of discussion, relationships and actionable insights.

Here are some key points our team took from the convention:

Relationships
Being in the industry for forty years gives Pentana Solutions a keen understanding of important and long standing relationships. We’re passionate about innovation and that’s why we collaborate with our clients, new and old, to create technology that will transform their dealerships. How do we collaborate successfully? The answer is - from a base of strong relationships.

Similarly Veronica Johns, President and CEO at Fiat Chrysler, during her opening keynote said, ‘To achieve real goals, you needs to recognise your strengths and weaknesses, put your ego to the side and grow relationships.’ Entering Fiat Chrysler as a personal assistant to then rise through the ranks to CEO, Veronica had a refreshing perspective on growth in an organisation. The delegation also listened intently as she shared ways to drive internal relationships with generation Y. She told Australian dealers, ‘Make sure your people enjoy coming to work, then just let them do amazing things.’ Similarly the closing keynote speaker, John Howard OM AC SSI had some great notes on leadership and relationships for the delegation. His first point was, ‘a leader must stand for something that is clearly understood, he furthered this point by saying ‘the relationships that are most important are those between a leader and those immediately lead.’ Within a dealership where there are so many specialists whose combined efforts link to a common goal this point could not be more pertinent. His presentation ended the convention with applause from a packed house.

Actionable Insights
As an Automotive industry supplier, Pentana Solutions understands it’s all about measurement and numbers. Being on top of these numbers is something that gives certain dealerships the ability to surge ahead of the competition. In line with this, one of our most popular products during the convention was our mobile Business Intelligence solution, Pulse.

Chris Polites of Carsales.com.au also presented a session on the customer journey on day one of the convention. Dealers were given insight into the six stage customer process as well as the emotional highs and lows experienced by their prospective clients. Some of the stand out numbers include the following:

• Car buyers will visit four dealerships on average before purchasing a car, so understanding what part of the buying cycle they’re in is important
• 33% of buyers will travel over 80km to buy a vehicle and therefore relationships and CRM processes are key
• 77% of buyers arranging finance did so around four weeks before buying the vehicle so new and used vehicle staff need to realise the opportunity in F & I when it walks in the door

Insights continued to flow on day two when the delegation was led by Paul Cummings. He presented to the group from the convention floor, up close and personal. We felt as though he imparted a clear sales funnel for all those who attended his sessions. This abstract sales funnel went as follows:

• ‘You can feel service when it’s right’
• ‘Service is the multiplier of perceived value’
• ‘Profit is the difference between price and perceived value’
• ‘People, all of us, loose our fiscal common sense in the middle of a wow experience’

So, put simply, if you want to make great sales numbers then wow your prospects with a wow experience!

These were just some of the key points we took away from this year’s AADA Convention. We enjoyed seeing you all this year and look forward to the next.