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Dear Vendors: What's the Goal?

Good times can bring the luxury of bad decisions.

It can also be said that 2008 was forgotten too fast. Or the recession didn't last long enough to have stronger long-term impacts on our business minds.

I am noticing a regression occurring at the moment. Over the last 5 years it seemed that 3 out of 4 dealerships were thinking more about the impacts of their decisions longer than just the current calendar month. It seems this has dropped to 2 out of 4 in the past few months.

At times, I find myself being guilty of this type of mentality.

For me (someone that has been in the industry for 25 years) there is always that temptation to regress to the way this business was managed in the past. We would plan our marketing on a 60 day cycle. Actually, marketing is probably not the right word. Advertising is more like it. It was a time of instant gratification. If we were even a little bit creative, it could be like turning on a faucet. We really didn't care about institutional advertising. We didn't need a long term strategy. It was easy, it worked, and we could quantify the results.

I challenge myself every day when it comes to this. It is not easy to change the way that I think. It is not easy to be a fish out of water. It is not easy to resist the temptation to constantly throw money at every issue that involves even the most minute degree of technology. It can be done.
 
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Reactions: Alex Snyder
I always makes sure to ask about hidden cost, ie installation fees, training, add on features. Too many times have I heard a pitch, liked the product and then receive a proposal that that is higher than what I was told. My big stickler question always comes to training. How long does it take to train my guys and how much. Training is always extra and really the most vital part because if I cant use your product properly, i sure aint going to pay for it.