PSB Institute @ AIMExpo – Sessions
Individual PSB Institute @ AIMExpo speakers by alphabet
An exciting — and profitable! — approach to managing your CRM
By Amanda Blackstone and Duncan Butler
Implementing a CRM in your dealership? A CR what, you say? This session will present the hows and whys of using a CRM in today’s selling environment.
Digital Marketing: Your digital footprint — How big is it, and how much can it grow?
By Amanda Blackstone and Duncan Butler
This session will provide distinct takeaways that show what you can do in your dealership to measure and grow your online presence. Have you claimed your spot in the digital world? Is your digital reach as expansive as it could be? From trainers who are in dealerships of various sizes every week, this session will provide real-life examples of how dealerships can grow digitally.
Inventory Controls: Parts, bins and obsolescence
By Amanda Blackstone and Duncan Butler
When was the last time we counted nuts and bolts? Do the processes and controls in your parts department make for seamless day-to-day operations, or are there areas for improvement? This session will provide a range of methods to grow your parts department into a more efficient operation.
Technician efficiency and service profitability
By Amanda Blackstone and Duncan Butler
Are you clocking in to the efficiency time clock? This session will look at effective methods of measuring absorption, efficiency and profitability in your service department. The efficiencies offered will lead directly to dealers being able to build profit into their service department.
Marketing your dealership in the digital era
By Heather Blessington
Bring your smartphone/tablet to this thought-provoking session and be prepared to bookmark many new websites and social apps that are changing the face of how your dealership should be doing business. We’ll look at the trends in digital marketing, including where mobile is heading. Dealers will leave the session with very clear points that they can immediately apply to their digital marketing strategy.
Social media marketing without a strategy is just noise
By Heather Blessington
Do you have a social media strategy? How can you measure social channel performance? What does the average dealer spend monthly on social efforts? It’s time to learn proven strategies utilized by dealers across the country designed to deliver measurable ROI, customer engagement and brand loyalty. This session will dive into real-world examples of dealers who are doing it right, so come prepared to start planning how you will take your own social marketing to the next level.
Service Systems: Improve your CSI by selling value on the greeting and 360-degree walkaround
By James Bulecza
With James Bulecza’s charismatic and professional approach guiding the presentation, he will provide attendees with systems, data and knowledge to take back to their dealership and start profiting from immediately. This session will offer training materials, including a service writer tool kit that will enable service advisors to perform the 360-degree walkaround more effectively. Also, don’t forget to check out the 50 profit-tracking spreadsheets that will be offered.
Phone — Friend or foe?
By Jason Breckenridge
People struggle with phone sales for two reasons. First is fear, and second is selling on the phone is counter-intuitive for most people. This seminar will teach you how to overcome both of these debilitating conditions.
Dealer Ecommerce 101: Implementing an effective online strategy
By Craig Cervenka
This session will offer basic approaches for dealers and P&A retailers that are new to e-commerce. E-commerce isn’t just about parts and accessories on a “website” anymore. Consumers have more choices when they shop — and where they’d like to shop — thanks to smartphones, tablets, Amazon and e-tailers. Plus, we’ll take a look at other choices consumers will have in the future for their shopping needs, and those may surprise you. But there’s always a starting point, and we’ll share some of the basics of implementing an online strategy.
Protecting Your Dealership: A 25-point inspection to avoid company and employee fraud
By Paula Crosbie
Catch costly mistakes, protect your company assets and have more accurate accounting records. By monitoring your books and communicating with employees, your dealership can avoid financial pitfalls. We’ll present 25 simple tasks every dealership, no matter the size, can benefit from. Internal controls can make your business an ongoing success story.
5 methods to increase F&I turns
By Paula Crosbie and Robert Klein
Are your F&I products an afterthought? When selling a service contract do you have a story to tell? We will present five crucial steps you should take to increase your finance & insurance (F&I) revenue. There is money to be made in F&I; it is just a matter of how you sell it. Join us for this informative and interactive session.
How unicorns and fairies translate to increased profitability for dealers
By Sam Dantzler
Huh? Unicorns and fairies? At a dealer conference? That’s right. This session will bring excitement from the outset, and stay that way until the end. Often, unicorns and fairies are thought of as fictional creatures. Belief in these warriors parallels a belief that: 1. Everyone will buy in your store. In fact, dealers must also believe that: 2. They will buy today; and 3. They will buy from me. So it shall be written. So it shall be done.
Alternatives to Discounting: How to get money back into your dealership
By Hal Ethington
The numbers are quite alarming when looking at how much money dealers lose by offering special customer discounts. There are ways around giving a special discount to your neighbor, friend, family member and others. Implementing policies and programs in your dealership can increase your bottom line and still retain your repeat customers.
The Foundation of Profit in Parts, Sales and Service: What to measure, what is possible and what results to expect in a powersports store (2 parts)
By Hal Ethington
Focus on profit can become diffused in the daily operation of any good store. This two-part session highlights the basic drivers of profit, and sets key performance indicators for both good and bad performance in each department. Hal Ethington presents current business knowledge drawn from the daily experience of thousands of dealers across the nation during the past year. He highlights what is good, how it got there, what is bad and what went wrong.
This two-part course is divided up into Parts (one session) and Service & Sales (another session). Participants need not attend both sessions for them to gain from the presentation.
Dealer Roundtable: How to sway hot-button issues in favor of your dealership — and turn a profit! — with a digital activism campaign
Moderated by Robin Hartfiel
Discover the most effective ways that dealer principals have overcome local ordinances and issues that otherwise would have limited their ability to do business. What’s are the most effective outreach methods? How can dealers most efficiently rally their customers for support? We’ll learn about success stories straight from dealers themselves.
Industry roundtable and Q&A, featuring experts on every segment of dealership revenue
Moderated by Robin Hartfiel
The dealership as a whole gets an overview, from floorplan financing to new and pre-owned unit sales. We’ll gather dealers and industry executives to share their success stories, how they’ve overcome obstacles to success in 2013 and how they see the retail landscape shaping up for the rest of the year.
F&I Compliance: Real-life requirements to make F&I profitable
By Peter Jones
This is a “no theory” seminar. We will be discussing what real-world procedures and policies will work with real dealerships and real customers to drive your bottom line. Making F&I profitable is challenging and time consuming. In this seminar you’ll gain the nuggets you need to implement into your dealership’s F&I operation to enhance its profitability and make it work easier and smoother with your sales operation.
Making It Happen in Your Service Department: It’s all about productivity…
By Steve Jones
Losing money in your service department while struggling to keep up with the workload? Service CSI scores sliding into the abyss? The name of the game is productivity: The ability to keep work flowing steadily through your service department. This interactive session will help you uncover the issues preventing your service department from being productive and profitable. Steve will provide you with examples of proven solutions and guidelines for implementing necessary changes.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize — How to build the value of your dealership
By Laura Lemco
The time to build value in your dealership is now. When you are ready for your next adventure, or if a transition comes upon you abruptly, walk away with the highest possible price. Laura will explain the major building blocks that construct the greatest value.
Selling More Stuff Online and In-store: Capturing online and web-influenced buyers
By Bob McCann
Key to this presentation is identifying the characteristics of online buyers and web-influenced buyers that powersports dealers need to recognize, and providing simple, easy-to-manage ways to make sure their website captures the attention of online buyers and successfully converts them to online sales. The presentation also will share strategies to use to make sure dealership websites capture the growing segment of web-influenced buyers. As a bonus, ARI will do a website analysis for pre-registered dealers and provide attendees with the results at the end of the workshop.
Busted: 5 myths about search engine marketing
By Bob McCann
In this session, we’ll look at real-world examples to show you how your business can put the odds in your favor and generate more leads to sell more stuff. As a bonus, ARI will conduct an SEO test of all pre-registered dealers’ websites and provide dealers with the results at the end of the workshop.
OEM roundtable and Q&A, featuring executives from participating manufacturers
Moderated by Dave McMahon
We’ll gather the industry-leading executives who were early adopters to AIMExpo, sharing their visions on a variety of topics, including the American powersports market, their company’s plans for the future, potential roadblocks to success and more.
Building a Culture Around a Word: Guest vs. Customer
By Tom Orlando
How do you want a guest in your home to feel? That is exactly how you want the people that visit your dealership to feel. This seminar is about how to create a culture in your dealership built around that one premise.
Does the “Be-Back” bus stop here? How to increase your delivery ratio
By Tom Orlando
“He’ll be back.”… The famous last words. However, the reality is that even if your sales team is among the top performers in the nation, most of the people they talk to on a daily basis; DON’T go home with a bike that day. How do you get the “Be-Back” bus to stop by more often, so you can get more second swings?
The metrics that matter
By Neil Pascale
In a relatively flat market like powersports, it’s vital to understand today’s most important marketing channels and what your expectations for them should be. Without this, it’s unlikely your store will generate more leads, and thus more sales. In this session, learn the true benchmarks of where you need to be in online unit inventory listings, social networking, email marketing and website traffic. Then, create an action plan to bring your marketing plan to a new level.
Creating a more effective sales department
By Neil Pascale
Rate your sales department’s lead management practices vs. industry benchmarks. Then learn effective lead management strategies currently being used by powersports dealers. Finally, create an action plan to improve the processes at your store, both before and after the sale.
Why are your lenders so nitpicky? Minimizing transaction risk to maximize relationships
By Pamela Perdue
In this session, Pamela will demystify for the attendees why the lenders who help them facilitate motorsports sales have become so picky about regulatory details. Attendees will leave armed with information and tools they can use immediately upon return to their dealerships to enhance their lender relations and improve their efficiency when dealing with these pesky operating details.
Winning showroom design and merchandising strategies
By Jim Rasmus
In today’s economy, have you maximized your efforts in creating the ultimate showroom for your customers, your staff and your products?
This seminar will provide easy-to-use examples and solutions that are proven to help you increase sales and increase profits. Jim Rasmus will also explain the science and psychology behind successful store design and merchandising techniques that will help you maximize your store’s potential for success.
Learn what the masters of retailing of have been using for decades on how you can create a successful shopping environment, how to control customers through improved traffic flow and how to choose the right fixtures to be able to implement the Seven Basics of Merchandising. This seminar will help create a more loyal customer base and improve sales, profits and the overall quality of your dealership.
Creating a Scooter Community for Your Dealership: Rules of engagement
By Josh Rogers
Does your dealership sell scooters? If not, we’ll offer insight into the potential revenue you’re missing. If you are selling scooters, are you creating an environment that makes your scooter buyers want to return to your store with frequency? We’ll look at a variety of ways for your dealership to generate a scooter community. We’ll uncover ways to make your scooter customers ride more, and by doing so, make your dealership a scooter destination.
Measuring the value and effectiveness of social media
By Samantha Scott
Think your business should be using social media, but concerned about measuring the ROI? Asking yourself, “Is social media as a marketing tool really measureable?” The answer is YES!
In this presentation, Samantha will give attendees an overview of how to apply social media for business — and how to determine its worth. From initial research to application and lead tracking, you’ll leave capable of applying social media for business and connecting efforts with revenue.
Social Media 101: Best Practices
By Samantha Scott
New to social media and unsure where to start? In this presentation, Samantha will guide attendees through an overview of top social media channels (of today and to come), review how to effectively manage them and where to get content and explain how to measure social media efforts to maximize effectiveness.
Succession Planning: A panel discussion on what you need to know in advance to make the most of this one-time event
Moderated by Brad Stanek, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
This presentation includes a multi-disciplined panel with expertise in tax, law, insurance and finance that will give you insights to some of the most common questions dealership owners have when they get close to exiting their business.
Defending Your Profits: “Threat” management for today’s powersports retailer
By Gart Sutton
“The best defense is a good offense.” In this interactive session you will: 1. Learn essential business practices you MUST follow to preserve your profits. 2. Hear actual case studies that will help you protect your dealership from legal or financial catastrophe. 3. Gain current information on protecting your investment by becoming more proactive. 4. Take away vital skills for managing today’s business risks.
