Best Marketing Vendor Experience of 2013 Ready? GO!

[Jeff Kershner]

Amen -- I miss a few people since moving out of the dealership a couple of years ago. Dyan Davis at Unity Works is certainly up there on that list.

John, I'm so glad you brought up Dyan at UnityWorks Media. I was going to mention her in my first response to this thread but didn't want to go overboard.

Dyan Davis = AMAZING!

I've never worked with an account manager as original and genuine as Dyan. She knew how to get shit done with no bs to go along with it. I had an stellar relationship with Dyan and she did one hell of a job for us when you and I were at MileOne.

I'll take this opportunity to mention UnityWorks as one of those vendors that not only provided great service (Dyan) but IMO offered the best online video service / product for dealers (pre 2011 - I mention this since I haven't worked with them since then). I took full advantage of each and every one of their solutions and was always impressed with the results. They offered one of the best values of any of my online marketing efforts. Shout out to Phil Sura (their VP) as well. Phil made sure my dealers were always taken care of and were apart of any new feature or service they were testing or soon offering.

Fast forward to 2014 / today - I have not actively used their service since stepping away from the every day life on the dealership. BUT, I can say...many of the dealers I had on UnityWorks, are still on.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Amen -- I miss a few people since moving out of the dealership a couple of years ago. Dyan Davis at Unity Works is certainly up there on that list.

You know what John... As I think about it, working at M1 and being a "Major Account", we no doubt typically received a vendors BEST account representatives and support.

More often than not, a Major Account rep is someone that really knows their shit. Someone that has been with the company for awhile and has the internal relationships that allows them to be more effective. When you're a major account (large dealer group), you usually receive special attention. I witnessed this first hand as I transitioned from a mid size group to a single dealer then to a Major dealer group and then back to a 4 Top OEM group.

My last transition from the Major group to the smaller had it's advantages. I had made solid connections, and was able to leverage the relationships I had built prior. Of course I can't lie and say that DealerRefresh didn't provide advantages as well.

With that being said, take the time to research and choose the right vendor for your dealers needs. Then BUILD a relationship / partnership with them. When your account manager makes a suggestion or offers a best practice - listen and implement before you move on. IMO - properly build some leverage. Becoming an active member and participating here on DealerRefresh can provide you some amazing connections and leverage with many of the progressive vendors / service providers for dealers.

 

[Daniel J. Mondello]

That's what I'm talking about - Measurable Results!!

Thanks for sharing Daniel and thanks for your participation here lately. We hope to hear more from you in the future. We always value someone of your expertise and experience as a member of the community.

Thanks Jeff, I have been a long time reader on DealerRefresh and I plan to become a frequent poster. I hope everyone else out there is learning as much as I am from this community! Keep up the good work.

 

[Kelly Wilson]

2013 was not a good vendor year for my group. But in the "positive" spirit of things, we have started or will be starting a TON of new relationships this year and I hope to have a number of raving reports in 365 days.

As always, CarChat24 was a great partner. with my growing BDC, chat response time was 3 sec, % contact info up 70%, managed overnight leads closed up 50%. AVA was also useful as SPAM filters hit up hard this year. Apx 10% of internet sales were saved by a customer's response that alerted us our CRM emails were not being received. Though their customer support had a few issues as they expanded in 2013, we've continued to get results.