January 9, 2024
NADA 2024 is on the horizon. Here are the top three hot topics that dealers will be talking about at the conference and beyond.
In February of 2024, dealers will descend on Las Vegas to network and uncover valuable insights they can apply to their business throughout the year. As usual, NADA has outlined several familiar workshop tracks, including fixed operations, human capital, leadership, marketing, variable ops and innovations. But what are the real topics of interest for dealers? Here’s a few that we predict will be talked about well beyond NADA.
- The affordability crisis.
Dealers are looking to understand how to approach a market in which 50% of consumers are priced out. What strategies can be used to help more customers get into cars, without sacrificing margins? A few workshops address this, including Troy Spring’s “Future Proof”, and Greg Uland’s “Shifting your Mindset in a Changed Automotive Retail Environment”. Spring will focus on helping dealers understand their consumers better and design meaningful marketing campaigns to attract new buyers. Uland will focus on strategies to create a more seamless online to in-store buying experience and expand the capacity of the service drive. If customer affordability is keeping you up at night, then be sure to stop by the Polly booth (#7338N) to learn how embedded auto insurance can help increase your customers' budgets. - AI.
Every business leader is eager to understand how artificial intelligence can be applied to their organization to increase efficiency. At NADA, no fewer than nine sessions include a mention of AI. There are marketing sessions like John Wanamaker’s “Beginner’s Guide to Data-Driven Marketing”, operations focused workshops like Jack McMahon "How to Leverage AI", and a Human Capital Super Session “Unleashing the Combined Power of AI and Human Capital”. Dealers interested in the topic should have plenty of options for learning how to apply the power of artificial intelligence in their dealerships. - EV’s.
EV’s have been a hot topic this year and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. With OEM’s shifting their production, dealers are working to prepare for a new future. This includes thinking about changes to the service drive and how to educate your team so they can sell these types of vehicles effectively. This year, NADA has a session type devoted entirely to EV’s. Two sessions worth attending if you’re interested in this topic are “Watt’s the deal with EV’s” and “Make more profit with EV sales”.
One more topic we think dealers will be talking about? Margin compression. As this Bloomberg article notes, the days of low inventory and high profits are behind us. Dealers are facing a new (old) world and will be seeking ways to cut costs and generate additional revenue in 2024.
What are the sessions you’ll be attending at NADA? Tell us on social. And if you’d like more information on combating compressed margins and the affordability crisis, visit our NADA booth to learn how to use auto insurance to your advantage.