Your resurrection of this popped up in my email and it was actually perfect timing to get some feedback on some findings if anyone is interested in providing any of course...
Many of you might remember a company a few years back that was swallowed up by Truecar, called CarWoo! (The punctuation is part of the logo). For those who did not know this company, they provided a sort of trimmed down digital broker service by taking a car buyers request for a vehicle, sending that request to multiple dealerships, then letting those dealerships compete for the business. The idea was to simplify what many believe most people already do on their own time which is shop around for offers then use them against other dealerships until they get the best deal. The thought was that putting this is one place could simplify everything for everyone. Consumers wouldn't have to call and email around and open themselves up to possible spammy tactics, and dealers would be able to see exactly where the consumer was shopping and the deals they were truly receiving from the competition.
This was a relative success with consumers but as with anything, dealers took it one of two ways. One side took a positive stance that this put them in front of low funnel buyers (Because people actually paid to use the service) and allowed them to win out some extra customers simply by being more engaging and professional than competitors who just threw out low prices. On the flip side, a significant amount of dealers saw this as nothing more than a platform where dealers would beat themselves down to the bottom of a price war, and took the position that simply on the basis of right and wrong, they could not condone something they saw as removing the "selling" out of "car sales".
While researching all of this for a future product launch (Full disclosure) I ran a few tests with some local dealerships that we work with. I used some of the third party sites mentioned on this thread to submit a lead and just sat back and watched what happened. To be honest, I already knew what would happen, but I just needed to let it play out to have the visuals in my back pocket for a future sales deck.
What happened every time (In a variety of different ways) was that I would submit one lead to one dealership than at some point, either immediately or at a later time/date, I would receive ads or listings for a similar vehicle at another dealership (All accounts were created fresh and only used for one search and submission inside of incognito windows so the results wouldn't be flawed). As of today, because as we all know the emails and phone calls never stop when someone gets your contact information, I continue to receive ads and emails in which well over 70% of the time the dealership I sent the original submission to wasn't the featured dealer in the ads/correspondence.
What get's me is that immediately when finding old reviews on CarWoo you will see a dealership or two complaining about the company pitting one dealership against another for the same buyer (Direct competition), yet I rarely find this thought process on threads such as this one when every day the companies listed above are nonchalantly taking a customer that's yours and throwing your competition back in their face. After some thought, the "why" of why multiple dealerships are being pushed starts to make sense. It's the business model- They have to ensure they can report success and growth to as many clients as possible on a consistent basis or else they can't institute rate hikes. Now, they could try and assert equal growth at every dealership by claiming the ability to create car buyers out of people who were not in the market to buy a car, but that simply wouldn't be believable nor would it be a metric they could actually prove. Heck, they can't even figure out how to document the path of a sale as it is so they are all claiming every one of them, you know, you get the calls.
The bottom line here guys is that my research showed me that dealers who see themselves in the same room competing for a lead get offended, while the same dealers, competing for the same lead, against the same competitors, in separate rooms, with a 3rd party moderator holding all the keys to the doors, are as happy as a pig in ****. Quite simply, I just don't understand it.
Again, full disclosure, I am launching a product locally (Not Nationally) that's similar to CarWoo, and the European version CarWow, but with a major difference. You see, CarWoo was built by people who never sold a car in their life, I've had my dealers license for 3 years, worked under a dealer for 2 before that, and have been in dealership marketing and SEO for another 2. I'd like to think I have made a more dealer-friendly version of this model but I know the same Boo-Birds will likely fly saying I'm out to get them too. They will then turn around and pay someone 10 fold what I would cost that will push their competition when they're not looking.
Rather than fight them, I'd just like to understand them and I'm hoping someone here can help me do that. Maybe I don't understand because I always thought the opportunity to go head to head with another dealer would favor me. And if I didn't want to get scrappy, I picked the wrong line of work. I'll tell you one thing: If Im fighting for my check, my business, and my future, I'd rather someone that allowed me to get on the field and play ball every day over someone that sat me in a windowless room and told me to trust that they would open the door for me.
BTW, If you have read all of this, thank you!!
