LAS VEGAS -
There have been some big changes to the digital marketing landscape — ones that certainly impact dealers, says Kerri Wise, TrueCar's vice president of dealer marketing.

“We're in the era of the empowered consumer,” Wise said in a phone interview with Auto Remarketing. “And I think the consumer is really what's changing.

“They have a lot of information at their fingertips, in terms of pricing information and vehicle information,” she said. “They have technology that's ever-evolving that allows them to have that information wherever they go, in terms of their smartphone.

“And they have high expectations in terms of the experience. So I think with those three elements, in terms of the consumer, it's kind of forcing dealers to also adjust to meet the needs of that consumer.” 

In fact, TrueCar recently conducted a study of its dealer partners that closed sales at the highest rates (relative to competitors).

The company found that these dealers were the ones who were strongest at “meeting needs of that empowered consumer and connecting the dots between what happens online and then what happens off-line, in the store — which is a much more difficult thing to do these days,” Wise said.

Wise will discuss this concept of the “evolving consumer” further during her presentation at the CPO Forum, part of the Used Car Week Conferences being held Nov. 14-18 at the Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Las Vegas.

Her session — titled “Key Tactics to Compete and Win in Today's Transparent Marketplace” — will be held at 4 p.m. (PT) on Nov. 15.

“One of the advantages that we have at TrueCar is that we're watching some of the patterns of consumers from shopping all the way through the sale,” she said.

“And so we learn a lot about not only how they shop, but how they're changing. And so I'm going to be using some of that insight from consumers as well as our observations and studying of our top-performing dealers to understand how these top-performing dealers close at a high percent in a transparent way,” Wise said. “It's easier said than done.

“We'll be looking at these consumer insights, combined with these best practices from real dealers that are balancing transparency and balancing their bottom line, and sharing that with the audience in terms of what makes them successful,” she said.