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Anyone have advice for the overwhelming amount of vendors these days?

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Eley Duke

Eley Duke

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Nov 30, 2009
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Eley
#1
Here is the deal, I am not happy with my website performance, and my CRM. So I am looking, and it is getting overwhelming. I've been looking at and talking to Dealer.com, Cobalt, Dealer Socket, Vin Solutions, eCarlist, etc. But its overwhelming the amount of stuff.

Anyone have advice on what they went through and how they narrowed the field. I am looking for a vendor to handle my web, leaning toward dealer.com. I am also looking for a vendor to handle marketing, sales, service, and follow up. Something that can desk deals, a seemless system that then also ties int oservice, Dealer Socket seems to be it, but I want to explore as well. Then you got to add in inventory marketing, appraising with the iPhone or some magic wand that reads the bar code on the vin and then somethign that I flip a switch and it all goes to eBay, AT, and Cars. And then live chat, FB, Twitter, take some video's, and ........ you get the point. How the hell do we tie all this together and also help run a dealership, I guess this is why my hats are falling on the floor off the rack!

I know there isnt a company that does it all, but does anyone have a list of all the vendors and their core products or areas of business that are leading the way and are seemless with sales to service?

By the way, anyone ever used Vin Solutions and Dealer Socket, let me know what you liked and didnt like comparing the 2.

Thanks,
 
#2
so.. my small peon input would be run as far as you can from Cobalt! The only tool I will say I think does a great job from Cobalt in Onstation- and even with that, depending on who you choose for the rest, they will probably offer a similar tool. We have them handling some things that they have no business handling and I cant wait to get to #DD9 to find the perfect replacements for us! The rest of your list of candidates seems awesome! I have some favorites of what Id like to have, although at the dealer level that greatly depends on what i 'can' have. Hard to get the top to buy in and understand all of this, and its importance sometimes, which is frustrating in itself. In my opinion, and stricly from observing, listening and presentation standpoint - dealer.com and vinsolutions would be my first picks, although dealersocket's ilm is great too but will not provide a site platform. Therefore, truly finding one vendor for every single tool and resource may be tough. By the way, if you havent booked your digital dealer conference tix for oct 12-14 yet, do so now! its not too late and it will provide extremely useful info and answer most of the questions and concerns you are facing right now. It has for us over the past 5 years.. (although getting the dealer to commit to things once we are back in the store isnt always easy..Even though the recommendations are usually a no brainer..(what is with these dealer principals I tell ya ;) good luck and see you in Vegas #DD9!!
 
#3
Hi Eley,

The number of companies and solutions available can be quite overwhelming. Many of the companies you mentioned are good companies but do well at one thing, and don't offer all services. Some are not so good. Dealer.com is a great website company and offers search engine marketing, but they don't do all of the things you wish to incorporate in one solution.

The only company I know that comes close to "doing it all" is VinSolutions. We signed on with them recently and replaced 5 other companies. They integrate your website, CRM, Inventory (including eBay and Craigslist), Desking, SEO - SEM and more. They integrate well with your DMS. (We use Reynolds & Reynolds.) Their system allows you to set up automated responses and follow-ups as well that can be quite sophisticated. There is a learning curve, but that's with all new systems. At least you are learning one company's systems instead of five separate companies.

I saw recently that they are on the list of fastest growing companies in the US this past year, so I guess we weren't the only ones impressed with their company. Hope this helps.
 
#4
I will say upfront that we are using VIN Solutions with great success, however iMagic is a great option, and if you are a single-point dealership, you might find more attention and support from some of the smaller players. Track me down at DD9 and I will be more than willing to help you Eley (am also presenting at DD9 and sharing how we handled many of these same decisions)
 
#5
Eley,

Here's a tip from your 'ol Uncle Joe. HTH.

I know your overwhelmed and want a vendor to take this burden from you, but, be warned! There is no vendor that will do it all AND customize everything you want and need.

CYA (Cover Your Ass)
You MUST take the time to write down each and every task that you want done, write down each and every problem with your current system that needs to be fixed. You must write down ideas that you want executed (but have no idea how it's done). Next, assign each item you wrote to a class (e.g. Website, vehicle data gathering, inventory exporting, Chat, CRM, etc...)


You NEED to build this list. I'll repeat for emphasis, You NEED to do this!

You NEED to do this for so many reasons, most important is for you. After you generate this list, sit with your HIPPOs (your GM or GSM or Dealer Principal) and review your "wish list" and add any items you may have missed, then you RANK each one ( ability to create more sales, or speed operations, etc). You MUST have this management meeting. They NEED to buy into what your doing AND understand it's not your fault if it's not done fast and easy (soooo many non-tech people totally underestimate the difficulty of pulling this off)

After that is complete, get this wish list to your vendors, have them review it and prepare for a high level conference meeting. Hammer out the high ranking items, don't get lost in the low ranking tasks.

The vendor you choose will need to make some customizations to make it work and I've been where you are now, you'll have so many balls up in the air, that you're going to need your list to police your progress and give your bosses and vendors updates.


Get referrals.
You need to talk to other players that are in your seat that have the vendors software. You'll want to ask things like:

  • How flexible and easy is database marketing?
  • Discuss "work-arounds" (how do you do this if the software doesn't do that?)
  • ease of integrating inventory into email or chat discussions?
  • is CRM sales rep intuitive?
  • Did the vendor make promises they didnt fufill?
  • How good/bad is their customer service? <--wicked important to get your ass out a jam..fast!!
  • And on and on and on...
Before you choose your vendor, your sanity rests on whom ever it is that will be your project manager. You don't want an intern. You don't want "the new guy", you want a skilled, organized communicator that can lobby for you and your needs and get the job done. Ask your referrals who was their project leader and how much help they were in getting it all done (and making you look real smart!! ;-).


Lastly,
I highly recommend that you bring along change incrementally, what you're doing touches EVERYONE in your organization. Hell, all I did was launch a new web site and I had "Mutiny on the Bounty" (crusty ol' car sales reps HATE change ;-)


p.s. In my case, I went to 2007 NADA looking for a new website vendor. I built a 4 page check list for the web site and interviewed each and every vendor at the show. When they saw the check list they were curious, when the heard my needs and highlighted the needs that were non-negotiable (aka high priority), THEY ALL TOLD ME NO.
 
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#6
Eley - I will not recommend a company or service, but you know me, you know my family, and you know Checkered Flag. I can tell you that we were in your chair at one time and insanely frustrated. The next frustrating step is to actually have all the fancy stuff in place and get caught up in things like VIN scanners, license scanners, iPhone apps, and whatever pretty new toy is available to find that your sales drop and your employees are confused to hell.

There are two things that need to happen and nothing else really matters:

1. Get customers to contact you (website/online advertising)
2. Get your staff to contact your customers (CRM)

Once you've got those two things working, then you can look at that new toy to make small/incremental moves.
 
#8
Everyone, thank you all for the info. First I realize there is nothing that can do everything, I guess what I am after is for a vendor that can handle several things well, instead of having 5 different vendors. If I have to have 2 vendors that can handle 10 solutions then I am ok with that, my goal is to just find the right vendor for our store to help us grow, and it is overwhelming with all the info!

Unfortunatly I cant make DD9 as much as I want to, my leg is up on my desk resting from leg and ankle joint surgery, so I cant make that, but I am planning on going in the spring if they have one, which I hear will probably be in Orlando, anyone got info on that yet?

Joe, thanks, that is awesome advice, I already have 4 legal pages of notes on just 2 vendors and their solutions. Next I am doing what you said and creating my list of wants, needs, likes, and "what the hell is that" things that I want to look into. I am putting it all into a Excell spread sheet to eveluate it. Maybe I can market and sell my "vendor evaluation program" at DD10? I really appreciate your advice!!

Alex, I know, and you know I greatly apprecaite all your time and advice, but I just got to look, step out in the middle of it all and see what is out there so i can confuse my self even more! The "toys" are on the radar but a second phase of course, but I feel like I almost have to take those into consideration too when doing the research as to how it will all mesh! By the way, Cory is a great guy!

Thank you all, there seems to be two big vendors, VIN Solutions and Dealer Socket for a lot of the applications and solutions I need, then I just found eCarlist and looking at their apps, and several more. So keep the advice coming, I greatly apprciate it.

To bad there isnt a "Dealership Technology for Dummies" version of all this! Probably would sell out, but of couse be outdated by the time you downloaded it to your Kindle from Amazon! Alex, is there a forum that everyone can just post info on the latest "toys" and solutions, maybe where they can post links in sub catagories?
 
#10
JoePistell said:
Eley,

Here's a tip from your 'ol Uncle Joe. HTH.

I

Before you choose your vendor, your sanity rests on whom ever it is that will be your project manager. You don't want an intern. You don't want "the new guy", you want a skilled, organized communicator that can lobby for you and your needs and get the job done. Ask your referrals who was their project leader and how much help they were in getting it all done (and making you look real smart!! ;-).


Lastly,
I highly recommend that you bring along change incrementally, what you're doing touches EVERYONE in your organization. Hell, all I did was launch a new web site and I had "Mutiny on the Bounty" (crusty ol' car sales reps HATE change ;-)
Click to expand...
Eley

These 2 items,on a very well thought out Uncle Joe list.... are the 2 biggest items to think about.
You need to be able to work with your project manager and they need to know more about something than you do, hopefully it's the tech side of your job and their own.
Salespeople and the HIPPOs need to be on board with whatever tech products you add to your process.......Salespeople feed our families and they hate change or the appearance of "more work for them". HIPPOs like instant results and big profits and most of them don't want to be part of the technology process, that's ok as long as they are involved enough to keep middle management driving the use of whoever's software you decide to bring on board.
 
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