Vcommerce announced this month that it will use a membership system to support its collaborative efforts to unite the brick-and-mortar auction industry.
The organization was founded in June and soft launched its website on Labor Day. Founder Kelly Bianchi says that her platform aims to “bridge several gaps within the wholesale automotive industry” and is a natural fit for a membership structure based on feedback following its soft launch phase in September.
“We knew what was needed,” Bianchi said. “But we needed more input as to what would be the best approach for a Vcommerce intervention, and at what price customers would feel comfortable investing in their online initiative. The result became a member-based structure that blankets the online industry with a much-needed collaborative effort of marketing and support, while still providing the option for additional marketing services, training, and online management.”
According to the company, a membership to Vcommerce includes a full subscription to its website, where the service will focus on marketing.
“We need to extract the online business from the brick-and-mortar,” Bianchi said. “Our auction pages will not depict ‘Free Lunch in the Lane’ type of promotions. We want digital dealers to become acquainted with everything relevant to the online process, including incentives.”
To recap, through its portal, customers will be able to access services like the following from Vcommerce or Vcertified Partners:
â– Online auction management services
â– Online infrastructure support
â– Training
â– Sale day customer support
â– Technology vendor support
â– Marketing support
â– Other supplemental services
Scheduled to exhibit throughout the Used Car Week conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. next month, Bianchi hopes for Vcommerce to eventually represent the online auction community at the national level through heavy online marketing, direct sales initiatives, industry events and strategic partnerships.
“We need to start with a foundation,” Bianchi said. “For a $600/month membership, auctions can create the perception of a full online department as opposed to reducing their Internet credibility by allocating one online manager who is not entirely dedicated to the initiative.”
Users of both AutoManager’s suite of solutions and data from NADA Used Car Guide will now be able to access the latter across three of AutoManager’s offerings.
Previously only available in the DeskManager DMS software, users can now utilize the NADA UCG data in AutoManager’s mobile app as well as via its WebManager marketing platform.
The company’s aim? To allow users to value vehicles on the road at auctions, on the lot and during private sales.
“We have had great success with NADA Used Car Guide in the past, which is why we are so excited to expand our integration,” said Kami Tafreshi, AutoManager’s chief executive officer. “Many of our dealers rave about the NADA Used Car Guide valuation tool, so to be able to offer it among all products at one low price per lot, regardless of number of users, is a great benefit to our customers.”
According to the company, AutoManager is the first company in the industry to offer NADA Used Car Guide’s valuation tools in both its DMS and its Web marketing platform.
“We are excited to work with AutoManager to provide pricing data across three of their products,” said Mike Stanton, NADA Used Car Guide’s vice president and chief operating officer. “The integration helps make the marketing — and ultimately selling process — more efficient for dealers.”
Want more info on AutoManager’s offerings or a free download of its software demo? Visit its site here.
Selectbidder, a Canadian auto tech company best known for its auction-centric dealer trade networking platform for trade-in vehicles, launched its product in the United States market last month and officially announced its first American auction partner on Tuesday.
Eighteen-hundred miles away from Selectbidder’s Moncton, New Brunswick home is Melbourne, Fla.-based Space Coast Auto Auction, who will utilize the Selectbidder platform to orchestrate real-time bids for its network of dealers handling trade-ins.
How exactly does it work? To put it simply, the Selectbidder platform takes an auction’s already established network of dealers and connects those with recent or pending trade-ins to other dealers interested in buying them.
Joe Pritchett, Space Coast’s chief executive officer, explains his reaction to the solution, which was recently demonstrated for him at the 2015 NAAA Convention in Orlando, Fla.
“Once we saw how Selectbidder puts our auction into the trade-in process, I knew we needed to start using it,” Pritchett said. “With Selectbidder, our selling dealers are going to deal with us at the point of trade, allowing us to sell more cars straight from their lots. Our dealers and their customers are going to love how quickly and easily they get live offers on their Trade-ins. For our dealer buyers, it’s going to allow them to tap into fresher vehicles earlier in the remarketing process.”
Basing the system around what Selectbidder considers the “original dealer network” – the auction – the company aims to increase transparency for everyone involved, including the customer, who can see for themselves how much the dealer will receive for the trade-in vehicle at the next step in the sale cycle.
In a previous interview with Auto Remarketing, Selectbidder chief executive officer Sean Liptay said he hopes this is just the beginning of his tech-company’s growth in the U.S.
“The beauty of the product is that it can be up and running within a week in any location in North America, based around surrounding independent auctions,” Liptay said. “So it doesn’t matter if it’s the local auction in Florida versus the local auction in Louisiana, they can be up and running because they already have the relationship network built.”
Interested in reading more about Selectbidder and other companies making noise in the auction industry? Stay tuned for our Oct. 15 issue of Auto Remarketing, both in print and online, where we delve further into the topics of digital trends, tools and strategies for the wholesale market.
Editor Joe Overby contributed to the reporting for this story.
The JM&A Group has renewed its agreement with Kia Motors America.
Partnered since 2007, JM&A will continue to offer the Kia Distinction branded F&I products and extended warranty services.
According to JM&A, 716 Kia dealers offer at least one of JM&A’s products, with more than 400 utilizing at least five of its offerings.
“We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Kia,” said Forrest Heathcott, JM&A’s president. “We have a great momentum and expect another excellent performance year. JM&A remains committed to providing automotive dealers with strategic support and we look forward to helping Kia maintain superior performance and growth.”
In addition to Kia’s suite of branded products, JM&A also offers Kia dealers F&I training in several areas, including associate development, consumer-friendly sales methods, compliance, marketing and e-contracting.
According to JM&A, Kia Distinction product sales have increased by 25 percent over the last eight years while the Kia certified pre-owned program continues to experience retail growth at 43 percent.
“Our customers’ satisfaction and peace of mind is our highest priority, and providing our dealers with the best possible F&I products and training in the industry helps us ensure that the needs of Kia customers will be met,” said David Carp, Kia’s director of fleet, remarketing and CPO. “We look forward to continuing this relationship with JM&A and utilizing the tools they help us provide our dealers.”
This week, customer relationship management solution OneCommand finalized the certified integration of its HigherGear CRM with Guest Concept’s 1st Pencil, a dealership sales presentation software provider.
Executives explained that 1st Pencil and HigherGear CRM have historically been used autonomously by dealers across the country. They indicated this new integration is designed to provide enrolled dealers with the ability to utilize the 1st Pencil presentation software and processes within their HigherGear CRM workflow to improve payment negotiations, customer satisfaction, and month-over-month sales.
The HigherGear CRM’s current desking tool has been replaced by 1st Pencil’s software to provide dealers a fresh and easy approach to selling vehicles and presenting numbers.
“For years, the OneCommand team has focused on providing control, accountability, and utilization of the HigherGear CRM for their dealer clients. With the 1st Pencil integration, these dealers will also receive an enhanced set of tools to sell more customers on their first visit to the dealership,” OneCommand president and chief executive officer Jeff Hart said.
“When selling a car, presenting numbers to potential buyers, if not done properly, can turn the buyer off from the sale. That’s why this integration is so important to our dealer clients. 1st Pencil instantly creates a customer-friendly presentation zeroing in on the motivating factors in the car buying decision,” Hart went on to say.
Hart added that the ease-of-use features within the HigherGear CRM have always been a top priority for the OneCommand team, and dealers are utilizing the combination of these two products to seamlessly close more opportunities.
Using Guest Concept’s 1st Pencil solution can provide dealerships a customer-friendly approach to sales negotiations that enhances profitability, increases closing rates, reduces negotiation times, and improves customer satisfaction rates.
“We are extremely excited about working with the HigherGear team. The feedback we’ve received from the enrolled dealers about the integrated system has been outstanding,” Guest Concepts president David Krier said.
For more details, go to www.onecommand.com or www.guestconcepts.com.
NAAA member auctions now have access to a new safety program.
The National Auto Auction Association along with KAR Auction Services, Inc. — parent company to ADESA — announced Tuesday that KAR has licensed its Safe T. Sam safety program for use by NAAA-member auctions.
Now, through NAAA, all member auctions will have access to a variety of components of the safety program, that has “demonstrated success for KAR and its group of companies,” according to the news release.
KAR first developed its safety program in 2012 and rolled it out company-wide in 2013.
NAAA plans to introduce the program in stages, starting with familiarizing auction personnel with the Safe T. Sam safety mascot and mentor, the association shared.
Next up will be the adoption of the safety vest policy, and high-visibility safety vests, rated for varying levels of speed, will be offered for purchase through NAAA’s website.
NAAA and KAR management explained the yellow or orange vests are uniform in type and color and expected to be used whenever employees and temporary workers are in traffic areas or are operating vehicles.
And starting next week, NAAA will implement a series of Safe T. Sam training videos, which will include standardized messages for all employees and specialized messages based on an employee’s role. The seven- to 12-minute videos are followed by a short quiz for adoption.
“Today safety is not an option; it’s a must,” said Ellie Johnson, NAAA’s chairman and immediate-past president.
For Johnson, safety was a top focus of her term as president, and current NAAA president Mike Browning is following that same path. For more insight into Browning’s plan as president see Auto Remarketing’s recent profile on the newly inducted NAAA leader.
“We at NAAA have always believed in promoting and improving safer conditions in the auto auction industry,” said Johnson. “We want our auctions to be a safe place to work and do business by encouraging and supporting more ongoing education and training efforts like KAR’s Safe T. Sam safety program.”
Johnson was responsible for forming the NAAA Safety Committee, which works to research safety within the industry and developing a strategy to cut down on accidents on the auction lot and in the lanes.
The committee includes reps from Manheim, ADESA and independent auctions, as well, and management shared the committee unanimously agreed on the adoption of KAR’s program after researching options.
Re3 Conference sponsor Del Mar Recovery Solutions recently partnered with Vendor Transparency Solutions in another step to enhance its compliance management systems.
Executive explained this move will increase Del Mar’s level of compliance and quality of services it provides to the lending and financial services community. This partnership is geared to provide a series of online, ongoing sets of vetted industry training courses that are specific to service providers in the repossession industry.
The companies highlighted the combination of Del Mar’s progressive compliance initiatives and VTS’ new formal online tracking tools will allow Del Mar’s compliance team and its clients the confirmation that all personnel has been trained in accordance with industry standards and best practices.
With requirements from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau being such an important asset for both finance companies and service providers, Del Mar Recovery Solutions president and chief executive officer Joshua Elias emphasized the company has positioned itself to continue to be one of the leader in the recovery industry.
Elias added this newly formed partnership will now allow ease of access for Del Mar’s current and future lender client base of license, insurance, contracts, training and all due diligence as required by CFPB.
“Providing our clients the extended comfort that the Del Mar executive team takes compliance and training very seriously makes this partnership an easy decision. VTS has done a wonderful job paving the way for service providers to have a visible and efficient way to train its employees in the repossession industry,” said Elias, one of the executives included the inaugural Remarketing & Used-Car Industry’s 40 Under 40 who will be honored during Used Car Week next month in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“We have worked diligently over the course of the past 5 years creating a program that both serves as a sounding board to our clients and vendors, but also as a leader meeting the new demands of the new requirements being passed down by the regulators,” Elias continued.
“We will continue to partner with leaders in our industry, like VTS, to ensure our compliance programs stay ahead of the curve,” Elias went on to say.
Partnership like this one will be just part of the discussion that’s on tap for the Re3 Conference, which unfolds at the midpoint of Used Car Week. The Re3 Conference delves into a wide array of compliance and other matters associated with the repossession, recovery and remarketing of vehicles.
It’s all set for Nov. 18 at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz. The deadline for an early bird registration discount is Oct. 15. More details are available at www.usedcarweek.biz.
“There is no question that the topic of compliance has taken center stage and needs to be the primary focus of lending institutions and their service providers,” said Max Pineiro, president of Vendor Transparency Solutions.
Pineiro then cheered the moves made by Del Mar Recovery Solutions.
“The attention that is being placed on compliance and risk management by Del Mar is a clear indication of their intention to mitigate risk for their client base,” Pineiro said. “VTS is looking forward to working with the staff at Del Mar Recovery Solutions through comprehensive compliance monitoring and continuing education training.”
Data-mining and sales-generation platform AutoAlert announced Thursday that it has combined its efforts with MotoFuze.
The latter is best known for FuzeCast, its customer experience management (CEM) solution, that can combine content marketing, reputation management, social selling, employee engagement and dealership communication and integrate with any existing customer relationship management solution.
Through their partnership, the two companies hope to provide dealers with influential car-shopper insight for in-market, in-equity customers.
One example provided by the company is in regards to how AutoAlert and ProfileFuze interact, allowing dealers to view and manage the following information from any CRM:
- Analysis of all CRM leads marked lost, highlighting customers back in-market
- Makes/models customers are shopping and equity position in their existing vehicle
- Information about customers' previous dealership interactions, including online reviews
- Social connections with the dealership to help deliver a better customer experience
"Dealers using AutoAlert currently access deep customer intelligence that can boost vehicle sales 10 to 20 percent or more," said Brian Skutta, chief executive officer at AutoAlert. "Adding ProfileFuze data further enhances this intelligence by identifying current customers who are in-market shoppers, often times before they have had a chance to engage with the competition."
Todd Crossley, the president and owner of Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City, Mo., told AutoAlert that a lot of his company’s growth in the last year can be directly attributed to FuzeCast and AutoAlert working together.
"This combination of tools keeps a constant watch over my entire consumer database indicating which current or potential customers are both in equity and currently shopping for a vehicle,” Crossley said.
"These 'hot' customer leads are added to the dealership CRM as a new or reactivated opportunity," he continued. "This makes it easy to measure their overall effectiveness. These tools are tracking to represent 20 percent of my total sales for the year — that's a huge number.”
AutoAlert and MotoFuze will be present at the Digital Dealer 19 Conference and Expo from Monday to Wednesday at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.
Continuing the theme of digital proliferation in the automotive industry, The Appraisal Lane announced Wednesday that the Gettel Automotive Group in Florida is the newest dealer group to put the company’s trade and communications platform solutions to task.
Gettel has rolled out the The Appraisal Lane system across all 11 of its dealerships in the Sarasota, Bradenton, Gainesville, and Ocala markets of the Sunshine State.
With TAL’s solution, Gettel’s employees can now post pre-owned inventory and receive quick cash offers from TAL’s network of appraisers.
“We’re extremely pleased to support Gettel Automotive Group’s daily business operations, and we look forward to improving its business and enhancing its consumer offerings,” said Jeff Risner, TAL’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Until now, the wholesale used-car appraisal and acquisition process was inefficient. The Appraisal Lane is transforming this process by providing dealers like Gettel with the most accurate used-car offers, quickly and easily, in a fully optimized mobile platform that makes it easy for them to conduct business virtually anywhere, at any time.”
Kurt Fisher, Gettel’s pre-owned vehicle operations manager, says he looks forward to the future business opportunities that TAL brings to his business in the form of increased sales and improved customer service.
“There’s a confidence level and validation that comes with using The Appraisal Lane platform to put the most accurate numbers on our used-car inventory, and on hot trades when the customer is physically sitting at the sales desk ready to transact,” Fisher said. “In addition to accurately valuing our full spectrum of used inventory, and getting cash offers in the process, The Appraisal Lane enables us to move aged inventory much faster than before. It has been a great tool for us so far.”
For those unfamiliar with The Appraisal Lane’s offerings, at its core, dealers and auctions can utilize TAL in three different ways:
- Submit vehicles for appraisal. Whether those are pending trade-ins, stubborn vehicles on the lot that are proving to be a tough sell, cars that didn’t sell on the auction block, or anything in between. Depending on the situation, TAL will respond with a cash offer within 10 to 15 minutes. Many times, those cash offers stem from outside buyers, which typically include dealer or auction partners.
- Buying cars. TAL has partnerships with many dealerships and a handful of auctions, some of which only utilize TAL services to buy inventory.
- White label customers. Dealerships or dealer groups seeking to utilize the TAL platform to power their own internal trade network can license a solution from TAL.
TAL is optimized for mobile use – appraisal submissions, purchase offers and communications between dealers, appraisers and wholesale buyers can be managed completely from a phone, tablet or computer. It tracks sales info, like costs, transportation, and profit and loss information, along with fulfillment channels through which used-vehicles are sold, including direct-to-dealer, physical auctions and online auctions.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg — stay tuned to upcoming digital and print editions of Auto Remarketing as we take an up-close and personal look at some of the other digital pioneers in the industry.
DealerVault has added another company to its Premier Network of third-party service providers. SiriusXM Radio is the newest addition, the company announced on Friday.
Through SiriusXM’s integration with DealerVault — which works to simplify the dealer enrollment process in the SiriusXM Pre-Owned Program — dealers can now offer their customers a “All Access” subscription to the satellite radio service through DealerVault at no cost to the dealer or customer.
“It is my pleasure to announce that SiriusXM has joined the DealerVault Premier Network family. SiriusXM is known for delivering a wide variety of audio entertainment and we anxiously anticipate the support this relationship will provide for the automotive industry as a whole. I applaud the courage in SiriusXM’s choice to embrace transparency and true dealer control in data movement,” said Stephen Cottrell, president and chief executive officer of DealerVault.
Customers purchasing any pre-owned vehicle with a factory-installed satellite radio from any dealer enrolled in the SiriusXM Pre-Owned Program receive a free three-month subscription.
Dealers enrolled in the Service Lane Program can also give a two-month SiriusXM subscription to eligible customers visiting their service departments.
DealerVault’s Premier Network enables third-party solution providers, now including SiriusXM, to actively support dealerships’ desire to “take back control of their data,” the company said.
“SiriusXM has long maintained a very strong commitment to the dealer community to provide new and used vehicle purchasers with an unparalleled quality of in-vehicle entertainment as well as to protect the data necessary for us to serve our customers. Now that we are a Premier Data Delegate, it is easy for dealerships using DealerVault to participate in SiriusXM’s Pre-Owned Program and give their customers access to SiriusXM as they drive off the lot, at no cost to dealers or the customers,” said Gail Berger, vice president of auto remarketing at SiriusXM.
