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Any dealers using Rich Dealers advertising services?

I went through their sales pitch a couple weeks ago. I decided to pass.

Here is the thing that I believe vendors in our industry need to understand, and many of them don't. Our industry is changing. Our customers want something different than they once did. Our customers do not want to be treated the way that our industry treated them in the past. Our customers prefer a more "transparent" experience.

This vendor had me on a Go To Meeting conference for over 45 minutes, and I still had absolutely no idea what it was that they were selling, and I had no idea how much it was going to cost. After about the 5th trial close they put on me, I finally just told the guy "No offense, but you have been at this for almost an hour, and I still have no f-ing idea what you are selling!!"

They wanted $3,000 a month to design my radio, TV, and Social Media, etc., and they are "closely tied" to the staffed event industry.

I talked to a guy that is on their program. He spends about $5,000/month with them and another $25,000/month in Radio, TV, Direct Mail, etc..

Rumor has it that the "references" are actually partners in the marketing company.

For me, I need to do business with vendors that treat me the same way that my customers want to be treated. It just wasn't a good match for me.
 
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This vendor had me on a Go To Meeting conference for over 45 minutes, and I still had absolutely no idea what it was that they were selling, and I had no idea how much it was going to cost.

I've heard of others having this same experience. I've met both Jimmy and Travis - they're nice guys. For dealers that struggle with having a message and bringing it all together across all their marketing channels (traditional, digital while wrapped around some high volume direct mail), I'm sure they generate some results with their Gravitational Marketing service.

How Gravitational Marketing Works.png

They where speaking at a conference a few years back and advised (or suggested) a tactic where one places a "lead" capture form on their website in order to have access to view inventory. Maybe I didn't catch the whole purpose or supportive reasoning for this little tactic but I have seen a few other marketing agencies also provide "Staffed Events" where dealers are to remove ALL pricing from their website until the Weekend of the BIG SALE!! They can however, get a "preview" price a few days before hand if they fill out the lead form. The event is promoted across all channels of marketing (what any good dealer should do no matter if it's a particular campaign or your every day sale/message/brand). Here is a link to an older conversation we've had around this same topic.

Keep in mind this was awhile back and may not resemble the services Rich Dealers are now providing.
 
Forgive me if this is out of context, here. Why don't more dealers hire digital marketing strategists in-house? Is it, typically, nothing more than a matter of budget? I've always wondered why they only go with big templated type agencies for digital efforts.
 
Hey guys! I’m a little late to the party here, but figured I should chime in anyway. I’m one of the partners here at Rich Dealers. Of course, I realize you’re looking for feedback and input from other dealers, not from us, but maybe I can help and add some value nonetheless.

We are decidedly NOT for everybody. We’re so aware of this fact that we’ve intentionally set up our program so that there’s never any kind of a term commitment. Our members stay with us because they love us, and because it works. And if they don’t like it, or don’t feel like Rich Dealers is a fit, they can cancel any time.

The neat part about this is that it incentivizes us to deliver our best work, best ideas, and best results every month. We’re only as good as the results our members got last month. It definitely lights a flame under all of our chairs here at our office.

It has the added benefit of ensuring that our membership is only ever comprised of people who want to be here, want to be part of something fun and positive, want to learn from others, and want others to learn from them. We have built a unique and powerful group of dealers and managers that most people are really proud to be a part of.

Of course, our approach seems a bit unconventional because we don’t subscribe to the common thinking that says all car sales are made on price. We believe customers make buying decisions based on a number of criteria, and price is often the most important criteria only in the absence of other value. Our goal is to help dealerships maximize the value they deliver to their customers (through experience, solutions, confidence, expertise) so they don’t have to rely on price as their only differentiating factor. Add to that our campaigns, web strategy and media approach which often multiply the number of leads coming into a dealership by 10x, and you have a winning combination. Customers are happy and excited to buy from you, your employees are happy and excited to work for you, and you’re happy to see sales and profit increase simultaneously.

I’m embarrassed to admit that we have had our fair share of goofball sales people (haven’t we all?), and that some of them have failed to be engaging, useful, interesting, or helpful whatsoever. And, based on feedback from dealers, we’ve recently dramatically shortened the length of our initial presentation to dealers/managers so that prospective members can get the gist of the idea in 15 minutes, and if they choose to learn more and explore the opportunity more deeply they can.

Three quick, but really important points:

(1) We’re media-neutral. We help dealers generate results through all media (radio, TV, paid search, other digital, print, mail) and don’t have any specific media that we sell ourselves (in other words, we don’t have a direct mail piece that we’re trying to sell). Instead we help each member determine what media would be the best choice for their market, their budget, and their goals, and then guide them through the process of leveraging that media to the fullest, using the creative approach we provide. Advertising budgets among our members range from $5,000 per month on the low side to $250,000 per month on the high side. But the amount spent on advertising is meaningless—what’s important is the return on that investment, and ultimately, the net profit.

(2) Our references and testimonials are from real dealers who have achieved real results with our program, and have volunteered to share their experience out of appreciation for the impact we have made on their life and business. The suggestion that our references are partners is false. The only partners in our business are me and Jimmy Vee, and it’s been that way from the day we started back in 2004.

(3) We are not affiliated with the staffed event industry, and never have been. I’m not even sure where that idea could come from. To my knowledge we’ve never recommended a staffed event to anybody, though I do know that from time to time some of our members do host staffed event sales, with a range of results.

If it would be helpful, I would be delighted to arrange a private conversation between you (or any dealer or GM) and Jim and me. We’ll learn about any challenges you might be facing, give you some ideas and strategies for improvement, and help you determine if Rich Dealers would be a good fit for your business.