OVE.com to Hold Summits for Independent Auctions
ATLANTA — OVE.com is holding two educational conferences this summer for the company's independent auction partners to learn how they can maximize the site's services and to share best practices with one another.
The first of the inaugural Independent Auction Summits will be held at the Manheim DRIVE Center in Atlanta on July 26 from 11:30 a.m. (EST) to 5 p.m.
Then, the second of these will be held in Denver right before the International Automobile Remarketers Alliance conference kicks off. The Denver summit starts at 8 a.m. (MST) and runs until 1 p.m.
Officials emphasized that auction owners, general managers and online managers can utilize this forum to share best practices and find out the best strategies for selling via OVE.com. Moreover, attendees can also get a "firsthand look" at seeing how OVE.com allows their respective auctions to include units that wouldn't normally be in their physical lanes, thus attracting more business with dealers.
"OVE.com benefits, such as electronic condition reports, provide customers with confidence in the marketplace, and that means faster sales and hassle-free transactions," stated Tim Swift, co-owner and general manager at the Corry Auto Dealers Exchange, an independent auction in Corry, Pa.
"OVE.com has also helped us bring in incremental business," he added. "Now we not only get buyers from around the country, but our new dedicated online specialist has taken our business on the road and is introducing regional dealers to the benefits of placing their inventory online with us."
Continuing on, OVE.com noted that more and more opportunities are becoming available through the site as more buyers turn online. In fact, year-to-date through June, there have been 32 percent more buyers purchasing at OVE.com compared to the monthly average from full-year 2009.
OVE.com said its auction partner base — which is close to 100 partners — is bearing the fruit from this with "incremental sales and customer satisfaction opportunities."
"We counsel all of our auction clients that it is extremely important in the current business cycle to have as many arrows in your quiver as possible," stated Pierre Pons, president of TPC Management Co.
"It makes good business sense for an independent auction to be able to offer their customers vehicles through OVE.com, and we have a number of great success stories with independents where OVE.com has vastly opened their business opportunities," he added.
OVE.com said it aims to help more auctions achieve similar successes, and as such, it crafted these summits with the following format.
Two concurrent tracks will compose each of the two summits. There will be one track where owners and general managers can talk with the leaders of OVE.com about strategic issues. Then, the other track will focus on teaching online managers the best practices of online selling.
Among the areas to be discussed are the following: buyer and seller behavior, vehicle valuation, best practices for selling and marketing, and a look at OVE.com coming down the pipeline.
Moreover, attendees can also hear how their peers have succeeded via OVE.com and offer their feedback on what they'd like to see in the future on OVE.com.
Registration for either summit can be accessed via: https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=13265&.