Part of my job has been to look at a number of lead management and CRM businesses. Adding to the comments above, I'd say look at NetTrak also as a lead management tool. They're the tool behind BZ. Chris Garver is the founder and seems like a good guy.

Josh,
I can recommend a couple of things to help you in you new position.
1) contact your local Toyota representative and ask him his thoughts
2) find a Toyota dealer outside of your territory and find out what they are doing to achieve success
3) give me a call because eSelleration Inc works with multiple vendors and is here to help you and the dealership achieve success.
Look forward to hearing from you but check our website esellerationinc.com for more information
Sincerely Yours
Stephen Douglass

Josh,

I am the director of internet marketing for KEA Advertising. One of our dealers with the largest internet presence asked us to research an ISM/ILM system and we decided upon getting them setup on AVV. From what Ive seen its great and not overly expensive. When you activate the system they also give you a complete training session via online meeting software which is very helpful to understanding how everything works. I would give them a try. if you have any questions feel free to email me.

Brandon
xBMANx

I use Webcontrol currently, and am pretty happy with it. It's a good system overall, and the few times I've had issues the support was great. You do have to pay extra to get additional features, such as automated emails... which seems a little odd, but I don't know. I haven't used any other ISM tools to date, so they may all be that way.

Looks like izmocars is giving a good competition to the top players in SEO!
Sorgenfrei LLC 's "Website builder ranking Report " mentions "izmocars is the most proficient at getting the highest percentage of their client placements in the most effective spot" and
"Izmocars has the highest percentage of their overall placements in the top spot followed by Dealer.com, the Cobalt group, BZ Results, Dealerskins and Reynolds Web solutions"

See the reports in dealer.com website.

11 Ways to Recognize a Bad SEO Firm

There are lots of different people out there calling themselves SEOs. Some of them are actually really good. But, for today, let’s take a look at 11 sure fire signs that your dealing with a bad one:

1.Focuses a lot of energy on meta keywords. Yes, they are still out there – SEOs that think that meta keywords are the best thing going.

2.Offers to do a lot of search engine submissions for you. These will do absolutely nothing for you. Nada. Zip. Let the search engines discover you through links.

3.Recommends 302 redirects. I saw this just this past week. A major SEO firm that was helping a client with a move from domain to another, and they recommended 302 redirects. No faster way to destroy all the historical trust built up in a domain.

4.Focuses on link swapping. This is OK, up to a point, but it is not the fundamental building block of a long term link building strategy.

5.Uses the same link building methods on all clients. If it sounds like the link building strategy is the same for all their clients, you need someone else to oversee your overall link building strategy. Note that working with specialists is an OK thing to do (e.g. someone that focuses on social media), just don’t let that be the only thing you do.

6.Recommends micro sites as a way to rank for more terms. Unless you have been penalized, you are almost always better off putting new content on the existing domain. Every time you create a new site, you have created a new thing that you have to go market to get links for. Much easier to keep it all in one place.

7.Recommends that you run your content across multiple domains. I saw this recently. A company was doing a site move, and their SEO firm recommended that they keep the old domain running, then create the new domain, and leave them both running for 6 months. Not going to work.

8.Talks about hidden text (or other tricks such as cloaking) as a strategy. If it feels like a trick, then it’s probably a bad idea.

9.Says they know the Google algorithm. Hell, Matt Cutts doesn’t know the (entire) Google algorithm. Sure, he knows more about it than anyone outside of Google does, but the Google algorithm is really a large morass of different algorithms, and no one person knows all of them in intimate detail. In any event, even if a single individual inside Google knew the entire set of algorithms, they won’t be sharing that information with an outside SEO firm.

10.Promises #1 rankings. An old favorite. No one can guarantee #1 rankings, unless you are talking about “left handed oil based bottle washer”. Face it. Your space is probably competitive, and there are lots of people who want to rank #1 for the most important terms, and they are all trying to do it. Good SEO firms will bring you good results, and help you grow your business. Basically, it’s the wrong metric. How big is your web based business today, and how much can the SEO firm help you grow it? That should be the focus.

11.Don’t want to let you know what they are doing. If you get one of these, it means one of two things are happening: (1) they are doing nothing, or: (2) they are doing something bad.

So as I said before, there are good SEOs out there, in fact, there are lots of them. They can really help you. Unfortunately, a bad SEO firm can really, really hurt your web site and it’s traffic from search engines. Learn what to avoid. In addition, learn what to look for on the positive side. A good start on that task is to find SEO firms that will start be educating you on the challenges you face, and then focuses on the nuts and bolts about how you meet those challenges

What a complete JOKE of a company. Isn't their training program the same one Autobytel was giving for free?

Reading all of these comments just confirms the negative impression that I also got from Izmocars. Talk about making promises you can't keep - I was completely disappointed by their failure to increase the number of leads to our site and think all the talk about SEO and online marketing to be completely bogus - we would have been better off shelling out for a straight-up website provider plus a marketing services firm. Classic example of trying to tackle too much and not do either correctly. I am not even going to get started on their customer service...

On top of all this, a friend of mine has a colleague who had a terrible experience with the senior creative director that makes me question their choice in executive personnel. Needless to say I would not recommend this company to anybody.

I too am very dissapointed with their customer service. They refuse to provide us with an ftp login to our own website, I have never heard of a hosting company that does that. Also they are taking a month to do something that would take me a day to do if I had the ftp login. I really would not recommend this company. They makes promises and don't deliver.

it's true, they are gasping for air at this point...

We recently switched to Izmocars as our website provider. Wish we would have listened to the theme of these reviews. The site took way longer than promised to build. The service remains poor. The custom features promised when sold, now don't exist....surprise, surprise. The fact that you deal with a customer service team whose first answer is "I'm not knowing" is a fact. Before posting this review our E-commerce Manager spoke with Izmo and told them I would post an appropriate review of our experience. This prompted a series of emails and phone calls with a "please give us 1 more chance."
Chance given.....service, same. We have continued to be let down by Izmocars. We were sold under the guise that the various technology providers we have would all work seemless with Izmo and we could be certain our inventory feeds etc...service issues would not be bounced between "not our fault" customer service departments. This has also proved not true.

I was the Internet Director at a Mercedes store in So. Cal. We were selling 60 - 70 units a month doing fine. My owner drank the Kool-Aid and changed our system to Izmocars, their biggest attribute is their pitchmen. They sell to owners that know nothing about what internet sales are. First 30 days we sold 25 units. The system made me the last person to contact every customer, somehow that didn't work. In 6 months the department was dissmantled and I moved on. They now have no internet sales department. If you are considering Izmocars do your homework.

Where do I start . . . Your initial salesperson will be in the US (probably CA or local rep). ALL technical support and 99% of all other communication is in India. Izmocars is owned by LOGIX Microsystems Ltd, a Bangalore-based software services company.

Problems: English is their 2nd language, back-end tool is a joke (not flexible), most changes made thru India support center. Even Reynolds Web Solutions and Cobalt are way more flexible on back-end tool! Pros: Site looks pretty (I guess).

I wanted to change 1 frame-in on site and it took a week. Plus they screwed up another link by accident. No big deal though, it was only my PreOwned Inventory frame-in. They couldn't even fix it when I was on the phone with support. I was told the change could be done in a few days.

Wow! Izmocars makes me want to get out of Autos and into Real Estate.

We switched to IZMO Cars about a year ago looking to improve our website traffic and conversion rates. Once we went live, we saw an immediate increase in not only leads, but the quality of our leads as well. The IZMO websites were doing a much better job at keeping customers on our site, and it brought us better qualified customers who were anxious to know more. We saw even greater results when we started up with their Rainmaker program which is designed to drive customers to us through an extensive, ongoing SEO and internet marketing campaign. I head up an internet department for 11 stores and 13 franchises, and we have seen a 36% increase in unique visitors, a 70% increase in leads, and a 72% increase in website deliveries!

This is a simple one, you show two web site screenshots. The top one caught my eye because of the good design. So why does it say powered by Reynolds and Reynolds at the bottom left corner? Didn't you say it was yours? (IZMO)

I run the Internet department for 13 stores. I have tired other web sites, when we switched over to Izmo web sites we saw a 27% increase in our leads from our web site. I work with their support team and find them to do the work very fast and get whatever is broken fixed. I think Izmo offers the best web site and support of all the other companies I have tried. I am also ranked #2 on the Ward's Top 100 E Dealers!

I've been demonstrated izmo’s website services and products several times but never pulled the trigger with them. I'm not a huge a fan of their vehicle details page (one of the MOST important pages on a dealer’s website). They seem to have a a good grasp on search engine marketing, matter of fact one of their customer support reps emailed me asking if I would link to one of her dealers website from DealerRefresh to help build Page Rank. I commend them for taking the effort to help their dealers gain search engine indexing with off-page SEO.

Since I have never personally used them, I can't comment on their admin utilities or customer service.

I oversee the online marketing for 7 dealerships in los angeles. I also had a poor experience with izmocars. I used them about 3 years ago. Many of their tools didn't work, others worked poorly and their support was very lacking. We got out of our contract with them early.

I inherited an Izmo website at a previous dealer (Toyota), and made do with it until I made some startling discoveries:

1. We were being billed several thousand dollars a month for the "Rainmaker Program" which was supposedly going to send me hundreds and hundreds of leads based on their web technology, blogging, etc. We never got a lead from them, and consequently nearly had to sue them to get credit.

2. Using the back end tool, I noticed they were receiving a CC of EVERY lead that came in through our website, including Credit Apps! Being based in India, I was very concerend about our client's privacy, notified my principal and legal counselor immediately. Izmo stated they kept a copy "In case something happened to our server." I attempted to C myself, but the program would not allow it. After speaking with Customer Service, they remedied the problem and CC'd me.

3. Speaking with a former sales person for Izmo, I was told the Rainmaker program simply took leads from one area and sold them to another area, hence the hundreds of leads coming in each month, and that is why they CC'd themselves my stores leads. (Take that info with a grain of salt).

Needless to say, I quickly got another website set up as soon as possible. Izmo may have changed management, policies and tactics since then, but so what? There are plenty other good fish in this sea

You're already ahead of most dealerships just by taking the time to learn what you really need, before just signing for anything.

My suggestion is to put together a "business plan" just as if it were your own business, because in the end it's all on your shoulders whether the dept succeeds or not. And if you fail to plan, then you might as well plan to... You've heard it before.

Once your plan is together with time span, costs, goals, ect... get buy in from the top down stressing to them that it is a long term project with higher overhead at first, and with each month getting better ROI. Tiger Woods didn't pick up a golf club for the first time and win a PGA tournament, and dealerships selling tons of units from the internet didn't do it the first month they implemented a bdc.

Im assuming the dealership has none or very little technology now for customer management, if there's a dealer website it's been neglected, ect...

Start with technology that is simple, economical and hassle free the first 6 months to a year. Simple- easy to learn upfront without complexity for ALL users. Economical- to prove it doesn't take a lot of money to get your results. Hassle free- technology integrates with your dms, website, crm tool and most of all when choosing a company, talk to the tech support team. Can you get through to them? How long does it take to respond?

I wouldn't go crazy on the consulting/training at first except for initial set-up and learning best practices on email leads, setting appts, phone scripts. Then add your creativity and work with that in the first 6 months to a year adjusting to everything. When you plateau, get the guru's.

Remember, there is no "silver bullet" for success in the bdc area. If there was, everyone would do it. But starting with industry standards is a must.

Good luck, and feel free to contact me with any questions.

[email protected]

Nathan,
to start with have you thought about what you want, what you need, what market segment you want to capture? Create for yourself a digital marketing plan of what you want to accomplish in plane english. Then contact a vendor and listen to what they say and how they present their plans. Remember you are the customer and they should be listening to you and your needs. A couple of things to keep in mind.
1)ask for references
2)no long term contracts after the initial start up, 90 days then month to month
3)make sure the company has a support team that can be reached during your hours not what's good for them
4) do you feel comfortable with the person you are buying from.
5)most vendors have a couple solid products but few are all inclusive. Make sure you get the best products available it will make a difference.

Use these points as a guide to what, where, and how you want to spend your budget. If you need assistance don't hesitate to drop me a line.
Sincerely yours
Stephen Douglass
e-Strategy Consultant
eSellerationinc.com
216-789-7001

Hello Nathan,

I work with Dealers every day, and I think that each of them have to make that decision based on the culture of their dealership. That being said, IMO I would search out vendors that are great at what they do. Some of the companies you mention do offer a holistic solution, but is their solution great or are they taking a shotgun approach keep market share and or trying to keep up with Jone's.

Today the trend is for automotive web vendors to not only offer web sites but SEO, SEM, CRM, BDC, eBay feeds and the list goes on and on. I would rather find the company that focuses in each niche and is great at what they focus on. The other question I would ask myself is this, does the "Holistic Vendor" actually provide the service and or are they out sourcing it? If they are out sourcing wouldn't it make sense to actually search out the niche vendor not only to cut out the middle man out and save money, but to get the expertise that you truly deserve.

Keep in mind, this is just one man's opinion, but I always recommend that my dealers search out the experts in their perspective fields.

Hey Nathan,

Speaking from the vendor side of things, I would say the less pieces the better. Not only from a cost standpoint, but also concerning compatibility and integration. If you want everything to be as automated as possible than compatibility should be a concern. Of course, purchasing more features from a vendor should also result in a better deal. You can take a look at our website DealerDNA - Digital Marketing but quite honestly it doesn't do the products justice. Most of the features are not on there because the updated version of the site is still in progress. We would be more than happy to give you a web demo if you would like. That's really the best way to get a feel for a products depth and interface anyway. Good luck with whatever road you choose and let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Our dealership just got set up with HigherGear about three months ago, and the training and support is above and beyond. The only place they are lacking is with ILM, and they are working on that and expect a web-based solution by March/April. We are currently in the works of setting up our Internet/BDC dept (I've been the Internet Dept up to now, but we're going to bring on more leads). When I say lacking in ILM, though, that doesn't mean non-existent but rather I could benefit from a little more advanced ILM. I would highly recommend these guys, they will train you and your sales staff and make sure the CRM solution works for you. Their system is pretty easy to use so your older sales guys won't feel behind.

A solution that I'm looking for the ILM is using dealer.com's ILM, which is a very nice ILM system from what I've seen and also relatively inexpensive. You could also use them for your website/SEO/and used inventory management on other websites.

Just remember, the fewer pieces you piece together, the less expensive overall (usually) and the less complex it will be. But you should definitely look to stick with your CRM provider as your trainer too, because they do go hand-in-hand and they will make sure to keep your business.

Hope some of that helps!

Nice plug flashlight guy, my regards to Darwin.