Automotive Industry Faces – Fran O'Hagan: Power today is in the hands of the customer

Automotive Industry Faces: Fran O'Hagan

"The power used to be in the hands of the sales person. The power today is in
the hands of the customer."

Full Interview PDF: Auto Industry Trends

Part 2 of a 3 part interview:

Fran O’Hagan is President & CEO of Pied Piper Management Company LLC and founder of Auto OEM Network: the largest automotive group on LinkedIn with 127,000 members and growing. Few people are better positioned to see the most important trends and challenges across the industry. Part 2 of our interview therefore focuses on trends.


Automotive IQ: Turning toward Auto OEM Network itself, given your unique position of having founded this group which is the largest automotive community on LinkedIn, what trends have you experienced in the industry during the evolution of the group so far?

Fran O'Hagan: Interesting. It’s clear that the Internet has dramatically impacted the auto industry as it has virtually every industry. In the auto industry the Internet has shifted the balance of power. The power used to be in the hands of the sales person. The power today is in the hands of the customer. It used to be that you showed up at a dealership hoping that you could learn from the sales person about the car. Today, you can learn as much as you want about the car before you ever even get to the dealership. It changes the role of the salesperson from a librarian in charge of information and the brochures to somebody who is, if he or she is smart, focused on helping you...

This is part 2 of a 3 part interview with Fran O’Hagan

Conclusion (Part 3): Challenges and the Role of Social Media