8/10/12 UPDATE: I emailed my rep. today and he emailed me back right away and then the DDC Liaison emailed me telling me the information they need next. This is a great start.
The Ball: In my court.
Status: DDC has emailed me the info. they need and are now waiting on me. I'm getting it together.
Days at this Status: 0
Days Since Signing: 2
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8/9/12 UPDATE: I confirmed that our paperwork has been received. I touched bases with my sales rep. today (who has to be highly commended for doing a great job during the extensive tire-kicking I did throughout the evaluation process), and was told that the next step is that I'll be contacted by a Production Liaison with DDC.
Apparently, this person will help with the "general production questions" that DDC needs answered prior initiating to the website production process. I asked and already received (from my rep.) a list of those questions so that I can get working on them. I received that list on 8/8/12 actually and am working on it now.
The Ball:In DDC's court.
Status: Waiting for DDC Liaison to email me "general production questions".
Days at this Status: 1
Days Since Signing: 1
Because this post is to hopefully help other dealers planning on going through a vendor switch (it doesn't matter which vendors are involved), I'll share what I think is important from time to time.
The Registrant Lesson: - I dread this issue. For those who may not know what this is about, the Registrant is the person who owns your soul... well, maybe not that bad, but they control your URL.
When you spend your $9.99 a year or whatever to use your top level domain name (i.e.
www.example.com) - somebody has to actually initiate that transaction with a company serving as a Registrar. Nobody ever "owns" their domain name; even Google doesn't own
www.google.com. These domains are leased, from 1 to 10 years. So when that domain is leased, the person initiating that transactions put somebody down on the form as the de facto "owner", otherwise known as the Registrant. And the Registrant controls that domain name.
Many times (way to many in my opinion), the vendor puts themselves down as the Registrant. This is fine if the vendor will play ball when you break-up with them, not so much if they don't. If they want, they can hold your domain hostage. It happens less than it used to, but it still happens. I've heard vendors from many industries (not just cars) say, "Our clients want it this way. They don't want to be bothered with this technical stuff." There might be some, or even a lot of truth to that, but I still don't like it. There is not enough of a good reason in my book for a vendor to be the registrant for a customer's domain. The only "unless" I'll add is this: unless it is explicity stated in contract form that the domain will be transfered to whoever the dealership wants it transfered to, at any time, on demand, and that this is not dependent on any other aspect of the agreement. In other words, control your website's domain.
So, in our case, the vendor is the also the Registrant. This is a good company though, and I'm sure there won't be any problems at all - far from it. No, I'm making this point because it's an issue that somebody at every dealership should have their eye on and not everyone uses well established vendors. I still come across dealerships' websites and say, "Powered by who?" I'm going to take this opportunity to put the domain under the control of a dealership principal and put them down as the Registrant. Who is your website's domain Registrant? Do you know? (And I mean right as you read this, not by going and checking - lol.)
Here's a tip: Did you know that one part of Google's algorithm is not only how long the domain has been registered, but how long it is registered into the future? i.e. Registered until 2013 vs. 2020 makes a difference and every little bit helps. You can check your's here:
Internic | Whois
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8/8/12 UPDATE: I’ve got to call Clickmotive / GS Marketing and have “the talk”. Hopefully, she’s picked up on my hints lately. She knows I’m not happy. I hope she doesn’t make a scene. She’s probably reading this.
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(After this initial post, all UPDATES will be refreshingly short.)
WHAT: It’s simple, yo (I’ve been watching way too much Breaking Bad - lol): this serial-post will chronicle the process of switching website vendors from Clickmotive / GS Marketing to Dealer(dot)com.
I’ll keep peoples names out of it for the most part but will include lots of personal observations.
WHY: It’s amazing how many moving parts are involved in the evaluation, negotiation and implementation of a dealership website package; and that goes double when switching from one vendor to another (because of the simultaneously occurring engagement/disengagement processes.)
So, one important reason to write this is that I will need to take advantage of the Dealer Refresh brain-trust during this process.
Also, I hope to add some value to this roadmap for other dealers/ISMs in the future that are destined to go through a similar process themselves. Even if the players are different, the process may be relatable by all.
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BREAKING UP & BACK ON THE DATING SCENE
Start: The last week of June, 2012
End: 8/6/12
*This is the only part of this process that I’ll write about after-the-fact. The rest will be as-they-occur updates.
It’s funny how big things (like switching website vendors) can have seemingly innocuous and innocent beginnings. Mine was this: I wanted video on YouTube.
Specifically, I wanted to stream our used inventory videos to our YouTube channel. Our website package didn’t include video streaming, so I called Clickmotive Fusion Support.
On the phone, her (Clickmotive rep.) initial response was akin to: “Ok, I’ll send you a form to sign (aka: Agreement addendum) and you send me your YouTube username and password.” Whoa there. What’s the cost? “You know,” she said, “I’m going to put you in touch with a Senior Regional Sales Manager.” Alrighty, then.
So she followed through and I was pitched as you would expect. I received a PDF of add-on’s along with a list of prices and that was that.
Then I called Sister Technologies. Why? Because that’s apparently who provides this video functionality to Clickmotive’s Fusion tool. They sent me their own PDF of prices. I understand mark-up’s are a part of business, and Clickmotive is no different - their prices were slightly higher than Sister for the same product, and that was totally OK. Moreover, Sister T. even took any static about this out of the equation by saying, “You can just contract with us and we’ll integrate it with Clickmotive.” So I would be able to get the best price for streaming video to YouTube. I told them I’ll be in touch soon.
That call to Sister T. was the catalyst that launched the break-up; not because of anything that was said or not said, but because of this: I was in dating mode now. I wanted to see if I was dating below my level or if I could be doing better. Ok, I admit it, I wanted to see if I could trade-up. There - I said it. Was Clickmotive/GS Marketing holding me back? What else was out there? Did I really want to be dating again? What if I’m dateless during the holidays? (Ok, that last one was too much analogy, sorry, I’ll reel it in.)
I thought, “Hey, why don’t I just see what else is out there.”
We’re a Gulf States Toyota dealer so we have good reasons to stay with GST’s preferred website providers, and for us, that’s either Clickmotive/GS Marketing or Dealer(dot)com (DDC from now on)...
[Aside: Shortly into this process, Clickmotive told me, “You should be calling GS Marketing with your questions.” You see, GS Marketing is apparently a reseller (they use the term “partner”, which is fine) of Clickmotive’s Fusion product and they’re (GS Marketing) the ones we signed our initial contract with. Whew - that's a lot. So that’s the relationship and why I put those two together often.]
...so I called DDC, you know, “Let’s get to know each other.” I was on the prowl. That was on or about July 9th.
One month later, on 8/8/12, we signed with DDC.
But wait! You skipped the whole evaluation process, man! What gives? (My evaluation has lots of twists and turns and I don’t have the time today to write about it in the way I want to, but I will write about it later this week or next.) Basically, I wanted to start this post and since we signed with DDC today, I had to hurry.
Begin the conversion process.
*Posts are in reverse chronological order so go up to see more recent developments and goings-on.
