Beyond the RFQ: Optimizing the Purchase Process for All Online Shoppers
Moderator: Amit Aggarwal, J.D. Power and Associates
Panelists: Chip Perry, AutoTrader.com; Christian Nimsky, Kelley Blue Book; Dave Schoonover, Kia Motors America Inc.; Allan Cooper, OneCommand; Anna Zornosa, The Cobalt Group Inc.

• Chip - AutoTrader.com study finds that 80% of new-vehicle buyers walk into the dealership rather than contacting the dealer first. This is contrary to what many dealers think reality is with only 41% of buyers walking in.
• Anna – Online lead forms are a traffic generator to dealerships even if shoppers don’t complete them, simply because they saw dealers and their information on inventory locator/lead submission forms.
• Anna – First-time new-vehicle buyers are the #1 users of the online lead process because they are looking for control of information and an increased comfort level.
• Dave – Kia has seen a significant response rate increase over the past two years in online leads in the midst of a major product evolution.
• Christian – When and How are very important, it’s not just about, give me your information for a lead. You’ve got to be there for shoppers when they’re ready.
• Allan – How we’re engaging shoppers throughout the process is paramount – if I’m a mobile oriented person, don’t send me an email…send me a text.
• Allan – Engaging shoppers with a figure of authority in the dealership, not just a 6-month experienced salesperson that may not know as much about the brand and its vehicles as the shopper is important to connecting shoppers to the brand.
• Anna – A study of 3,000 calls into dealerships found that 24% of the time, calls went into a voicemail that was full or not working.
• Chip – Social Media experimentation may be overblown when there are still lots of things OEMs could do better at targeting shoppers on a model level on third-party sites.

Automotive Mobile: Selling Games or Selling Vehicles
Moderator: Michael K. Nelson, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
Panelists: Charlie Taylor, Volkswagen of America, Inc.; Sharon Knitter, Cars.com; Jason Ezell, Dealerskins; Daniel Hodges, Associated Press; Matt Shaw, AdMob

• Michael – Mobile traffic to m.toyota.com has grown 1000% since December, 2008 with very little spending to promote it.
• Michael – Across all OEMs, nobody is really doing the Configurator or Compare tools on their mobile sites. Many don’t have Search Inventory or 360 spin tools or video either.
• Daniel – SMS messaging has been shown to drive traffic at 15% the costs of traditional media costs.
• Matt – Higher speeds and larger screens are finally allowing for rich media with scale…and it is growing fast.
• Charlie – We need to learn from global markets that are years ahead of us, for example Japan, when it comes to mobile and what we should be providing.
• Jason – Mobile shoppers are using their mobile devices to stay connected. Use your main Web site to send information to shoppers’ mobile devices. Even in this room, text and mobile usage are extremely high as you can see all the glowing screens in the room.
• Sharon – Continuous innovation is the most important thing with mobile. Since 2007, the mobile Cars.com site has undergone 3 major redesigns.
• Sharon – 39% of Cars.com mobile site visitors are on a dealer lot.