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Autotrader - Good, but $800-900/sale good????

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#21
Yago, I don't work for AutoTrader. I have to say they like to point to my results, so I have some friends there. I think Jerry might be cajun atleast he has a common name in southern Louisiana.

One of my good friends, that used to be an ISM for me, had 58 cars sold/rolled and sourced to AT a week ago. I'm sure that he picked up some sales over the weekend and on Monday. That is an import store, in Dallas, that often leads the city in VDPs. He is an Alpha/Premium and also purchases columns. Trust me, he isn't worried about his ROI from AutoTrader.
 
#23
ddavis said:
Yago, I don't work for AutoTrader. I have to say they like to point to my results, so I have some friends there. I think Jerry might be cajun atleast he has a common name in southern Louisiana.

One of my good friends, that used to be an ISM for me, had 58 cars sold/rolled and sourced to AT a week ago. I'm sure that he picked up some sales over the weekend and on Monday. That is an import store, in Dallas, that often leads the city in VDPs. He is an Alpha/Premium and also purchases columns. Trust me, he isn't worried about his ROI from AutoTrader.
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Funny thing about the car biz is that a website works for a dealer and it sucks for the one across the street. It works for a guy in my state and it sucks for all the guys in your state. So once you past the fact that this is not a 'fly by night' company--and autotrader is not!--you are the only one that can answer if the ROI is there for you.

About autotrader trying to make more money, charging more for more programs, aren't we all working in 'for profit' organizations? Autotrader wasn't created to earn friends but to create ROI for its owners. So the answer goes back to:

does it provide a god ROI to your store?
 
#24
JQuinn said:
This is a timely topic. Just today I received the results of a survey (our sold clients) that told us that 2 out of 3 of the respondents 1st contact with the dealership was via walk-in (no call, text, or email), despite 54% who reported shopping the internet prior to purchase.
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Are you saying that the 2 out of 3 walk-in customers didn't use your website or see any of your advertising prior to walking in?
 
#27
JQuinn said:
No, not at all. Saying that 2 out of 3 walked through the door as their 1st contact with the dealership for that sale -- as opposed to calling, emailing, texting, faxing (whatever) before they visited.
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Yep :iagree: that is how most people shop their local dealers. And most people still stick to the "buy within 10 miles of my home rule."

To add to that...

We conducted the same surveys at Checkered Flag and also found that roughly 50-60% of our buyers (not shoppers) visited our website. And roughly 60%+ buyers were repeat customers of Checkered Flag.

Aside from the repeat buyers (they said it was their past experience), nobody else was able to definitely state what advertising source, website, or medium was the one that helped them to choose Checkered Flag. They could name various advertisements when reminded, but there was never 1 thing that did it over the "previous experience."
 
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#28
Alex Snyder said:
Yep :iagree: that is how most people shop their local dealers. And most people still stick to the "buy within 10 miles of my home rule."

To add to that...

We conducted the same surveys at Checkered Flag and also found that roughly 50-60% of our buyers (not shoppers) visited our website. And roughly 60%+ buyers were repeat customers of Checkered Flag.

Aside from the repeat buyers (they said it was their past experience), nobody else was able to definitely state what advertising source, website, or medium was the one that helped them to choose Checkered Flag. They could name various advertisements when reminded, but there was never 1 thing that did it over the "previous experience."
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Wow -- our numbers are remarkably similar. I'm not surprised given this market, but I would consider those numbers EXCELLENT in a Checkered Flag-type market. Those guys must have been doing it right!
 
#29
ddavis said:
Thibeau is definately French. Only difference is the web feet.
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From Maine originally. French Canadian.

In regards to this thread, unless your sales people are doing a great job of interviewing customers as to their shopping patterns, and most are not, it's difficult to determine exactly where the lead originated. When done right in conjunction with a good CRM ROI report, you can make educated decisions on the value of third party vendors. But to judge a vendor such as AT by looking at the number of phone calls and/or leads submitted does not always paint an accurate picture.
 
#30
Jerry Thibeau said:
From Maine originally. French Canadian.

In regards to this thread, unless your sales people are doing a great job of interviewing customers as to their shopping patterns, and most are not, it's difficult to determine exactly where the lead originated. When done right in conjunction with a good CRM ROI report, you can make educated decisions on the value of third party vendors. But to judge a vendor such as AT by looking at the number of phone calls and/or leads submitted does not always paint an accurate picture.
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Jerry, Cajuns are French Canadians that were put on slave ships and exiled to southern Louisiana. Your family missed the boat. My family name was changed, in error, from David to Davis, in public records several generations ago.

I have sat down with so many customers that I had sourced to our website only to find out that the clicked through from AutoTrader or Cars.com. I had different phone numbers for my website and for third party providers but they are going to call the number that is on the site, that they are looking at.
 
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