Dealers: It’s Time to Start Listening to the Sane People

2020 is already starting out as another year of vendor fearmongering.

Unfortunately for car dealers, this fearmongering is often supported and promoted by virtually all the automotive “news” organizations in the industry. Any company with enough cash to buy an ad, sponsor a webinar, or underwrite an event is basically credentialled by these organizations.

This makes it impossible for dealers to know whom to trust.

I’ll use a recent vendor webinar; one presented by a “news” organization as (in my opinion) something other than a sponsored commercial, as an example. I wrote it that way because one of my clients didn’t realize it was nothing more than an infomercial they were watching (likely the goal of the whole thing); and basically got all spun up about how they were doing everything wrong.

Here’s my interpretation of the transcript:

MODERATOR: We’re about to hear from the foremost expert on widgets. A totally unbiased and trusted resource in all things widgets. If you don’t do everything this completely neutral expert tells you to do, you will go out of business very soon.

VENDOR: Thank you for the fine introduction. Yes, I am the all-knowing, all-seeing, Lord God King Bufu; and let me start by telling you that everything every single dealer on this call is doing is wrong. You are all about a week away from bankruptcy.

MODERATOR: My, that sounds serious. It sounds like every dealer in America should stop what they’re doing and spend all their money buying your widgets, is that right?

VENDOR: Well, if they want to avoid Armageddon, then yes.

This goes on for what feels like an eternity to the frightened dealers on the call. During and immediately following the webinar, the attendee-dealers generate a slew of emails and calls to their existing vendors demanding to know why they’ve not been protected from this impending doom!

It’s not just webinars, of course. Vendor-penned articles and blogs have sullied the pages of industry rags and websites for years. Combine these with the glut of vendor-sponsored seminars and conferences featuring widget vendors telling you why widgets are the be-all, end-all, and you quickly understand why honest vendors get squeezed out, and why we’re left with nothing but two+ decades of wasted budgets.

Take a Breath

First, everything digital is measurable. Second, there are no “secrets” to growing sales. Third, those dealers consistently growing market share aren’t the ones changing providers every two months.

Finally, top dealers make sure new offerings pass the DISC Test before throwing any budget at them. The DISC Test, of course, is simply Does It Sell Cars? If a vendor cannot articulate in laymen’s terms how their newest widget passes the DISC Test, then you simply shouldn’t buy it.

Unfortunately, after every sponsored presentation/article, more and more dealers I encounter are abandoning the tried-and-true in favor of some pie-in-the-sky promise made by vendors whose only experience is fleecing their customers.

What’s worse is that some dealers who are alerted to the danger still insist on entering the void and getting fleeced. (I know, because even after showing a client that black is black, and white is white, they explain, “Yeah, but I really think we should try this new widget;” and then proceed to throw away another $10,000.)

Some fearmongering presentations are just too persuasive.

Not All Vendors Are Bad

Certainly, not all vendor presentations are designed to cheat dealers. In fact, most are just meant to encourage dealers to move their budgets from one average vendor to another average vendor. To put it more clearly, most vendors aren’t bad… but (and this is critical) all vendors are vendors.

As vendors, their goal is to get as much of your budget to their bottom lines as possible. If they help you sell a car or two along the way, then great; but, that’s not their primary goal. They’re in this to make money; and that’s okay… so long as you know this going in… and you start listening to the sane people occasionally.

Who are the sane people? They’re the ones with no skin in the game. They’re the ones with a track record beyond the two hoodwinked dealers who genuinely believe (wrongly) that this new shiny object is really what’s going to drive their growth.

… that is, until the next shiny object comes along.

Shiny Objects

It feels like I’ve made too many presentations and written too many articles about the dangers of chasing shiny objects in automotive retail. It feels like I’m beating a dead horse. Of course, it also feels like no one is listening, as I continue to witness dealers wasting tens of thousands of dollars trying to outsmart their competition with the latest and greatest.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a quick list of just some of the shiny objects I advised dealers against wasting their money on in the past:

·       Pinterest

·       Pokémon Go

·       Foursquare

·       Outsourced Social Media Management

·       Twitter

·       Google+

·       Google Glass

·       QR Codes

·       Online Shopping Carts

·       .auto .autos .car & .cars

·       Pan & Scan Videos

·       Video SEO

·       .mobi Websites

·       Mobile Apps

·       Augmented Reality

Yet, guess what? Dealers continue to fall for the slick presentations made by those who have no intention of moving the needle. (Unless, of course, that needle is their own bottom line.)

The Two “Secrets”

Want to know the only two “secrets” to growth? They have nothing to do with digital marketing or artificial intelligence or which website vendor you choose. They’re simply Attitude and Activity, and I wrote about them last week: The Two Secrets to Driving Growth.

I recommend you read and share it.

Good selling!