DealerRefresh.com Post - Part Deux
Here is my response in the Autotrader.com Pricing??? thread from DealerRefresh.com.
It’s a shame that far too many dealerships are more concerned with finding sales and service opportunities through 3rd party sources when they have a website that their customers can’t find online. AND…when their customer’s do find them online, they are forced to listen to cheesy jingles or Charlie and Chocolate Factory mini people talk about how great the dealership ‘experience’ is.
Goto Amazon.com, eBay.com, Google.com, BestBuy.com, Walmart.com, etc. and see what the biggest and brightest players online are doing. Try to emulate their Internet presences vs. trying to build a Walt Disney like experience on your website.
Here’s a secret…consumers have better things to do than visit your website to listen your jingles and TV commercials!! They won’t come back daily to ‘check you out’. The WWW has far too many options for your dealership to become the online version of WallyWorld.
Step back for a moment and take your Internet advertising offline…
Do you spend a majority of your offline ad budget on off-site sales?
THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOUR BUDGET IS GOING TO 3RD PARTY PROVIDERS!!!
Invest in yourself before you spend your money elsewhere. If your virtual dealership isn’t the best it can be, why would you concentrate ANY effort on online portals?
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I am in awe after reading this post. I thought I was the only one who had these thoughts. I am glad to know that I am not alone.
I have this new Autotrader rep, who came from the newspaper company. She is raving about the video capabilities that were added to our account. My boss (for some strange reason) listens to this girl.
I told her that all this flashy “stuff” she is just now getting to see (much like a child in a toy store), is not all that effective in helping me sell a car, because the potential customer wants to find a car, get the pricing (in many cases taking your price to a closer dealer to “keep ‘em honest”), do a little research to be sure they are making a wise decision, get a credit approval (people with bad credit normally) and then get the car and get on with their life.
They are not in search of the best video. She sent us an email about an article she found on how video is the next big thing. Guess what…the person who wrote the article about videos, makes their living in video.
It is a sad state for a dealer when they trust a vender over their internet manager. But then that’s another post.
I hope I didn’t ramble too much.