Digital Retailing for Dealers - What are your results?

[joe.pistell]

How much bullshit can a dealer take?

Alexander Lau,
Disagreement is healthy, but, look in the mirror... How much unhelpful bullshit can you put out? All you got is smug, snarky remarks. C'mon, your smart, help our community, think of helpful topics that can move us forward and help us sell more cars.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Alexander Lau,
Disagreement is healthy, but, look in the mirror... How much unhelpful bullshit can you put out? All you got is smug, snarky remarks. C'mon, your smart, help our community, think of helpful topics that can move us forward and help us sell more cars.

Bull fucking shit, you had better start paying closer attention to 99% of my posts, because they go to bat for the dealer and I've done nothing but answer questions in these waters. They're frauds and we all know it. Here, I'll be positive, I'm 100% positive that they push nothing but their own agenda (raping unbeknownst dealers as much as possible). One big, giant cockamamie charade. Don't like, I could give a shit.

 

[John V.]

WOAH NELLY!!

Let's use our coursers and click on the "page 1" icon. There you will find my original post and we can start back from there............

"Not looking to get into a long draw out discussion about Digital Retailing (DR). I personally think it scares your customers away but that is just my stubborn self. All I really want to know is five things for those who are/were previously using a full suite of DR tools:

1. Did your overall website lead volume (eprice/RMI/test drive) go up or down?
2. Did you show F/I Products?
3. How was the gross vs.non-DR sales?
4. Was it a pain in the a** to get your payments to match your actual in-house specials or did you just run OEM incentives?
5. Most importantly, Did it actually increase your sales and how are you attributing that?"

 

[Alex Snyder]

WOAH NELLY!!

"Not looking to get into a long draw out discussion about Digital Retailing (DR).

That is your answer. A long-drawn-out discussion means people don't know if Digital Retailing is actually helping.

 

[John V.]

Conclusion
https://imgflip.com/i/3dol3i

 

[john.quinn]

Ok... Maybe thats a little harsh.

Nope.

 

[john.quinn]

Just went back to the beginning and read the whole thing. This has been the best post/string I've read in a looooong time. Insightful & witty... like the old DR Forum days

This is a hard topic to make "simple," but my (humble, amateurish) attempt:

1. Vendors had/have a mistaken belief that consumers hate the car buying process.
a. some consumers complain about segments of the process, and generally, there is some consistency in the complaints; i.e., takes too long.
b. But, without any doubt, buying a new car -- for the most part -- is an exciting, positive experience.

2. General retail habits have dramatically changed, i.e., Amazon.

3. Vendors have an overall POOR understanding of the dynamics and nuance of dealership operations.
a. F&I people think that the operations world revolves around F&I -- their DR solutions lean heavy on the Credit Process.
b. Website people think that the operations world revolves around Lead Gen -- their solutions lean heavy on capture.
c. Calculator people thing that the operations world revolves around the Math -- get the numbers right and they will come.
d. etc, etc, etc, -- fragments of fragments = a disjointed workflow.

The resulting misguided software solutions then "Propose" what they think is an End-to-End worlk flow; what they THINK consumers want and need to make simple and informed purchase decisions.

Consumers? Scratching their heads... "I still would like some help... ummmm... not sure where/how to get it now. I think I'll just go in."
Dealers? Scratching their heads.... "Why am I paying for this 19th plug-in, pop-up widget coupon for my site?? Oh hello, Welcome to XYZ Motors!"
Vendors? Scratching their heads... seeking the next buzzword to glom onto (A.I.??!). There's revenue to grow, after all.

 

[Marc Lavoie]

Just went back to the beginning and read the whole thing. This has been the best post/string I've read in a looooong time. Insightful & witty... like the old DR Forum days

This is a hard topic to make "simple," but my (humble, amateurish) attempt:

1. Vendors had/have a mistaken belief that consumers hate the car buying process.
a. some consumers complain about segments of the process, and generally, there is some consistency in the complaints; i.e., takes too long.
b. But, without any doubt, buying a new car -- for the most part -- is an exciting, positive experience.

2. General retail habits have dramatically changed, i.e., Amazon.

3. Vendors have an overall POOR understanding of the dynamics and nuance of dealership operations.
a. F&I people think that the operations world revolves around F&I -- their DR solutions lean heavy on the Credit Process.
b. Website people think that the operations world revolves around Lead Gen -- their solutions lean heavy on capture.
c. Calculator people thing that the operations world revolves around the Math -- get the numbers right and they will come.
d. etc, etc, etc, -- fragments of fragments = a disjointed workflow.

The resulting misguided software solutions then "Propose" what they think is an End-to-End worlk flow; what they THINK consumers want and need to make simple and informed purchase decisions.

Consumers? Scratching their heads... "I still would like some help... ummmm... not sure where/how to get it now. I think I'll just go in."
Dealers? Scratching their heads.... "Why am I paying for this 19th plug-in, pop-up widget coupon for my site?? Oh hello, Welcome to XYZ Motors!"
Vendors? Scratching their heads... seeking the next buzzword to glom onto (A.I.??!). There's revenue to grow, after all.

That's about it.

The general announcement, I'm still looking for a dealership that can tell & show me they are selling vehicles in numbers using a DR solution.

I see no dealership today that is taking the flag up and saying: "This changed my business, for the better. I'm selling way more cars, was able to lay off half of my sales team."

Remember, people are voting with their wallet, and if you're not selling, it's not being used/accepted.

I remain convinced that this is not how we'll do it, for the masses.

There will always be a portion of the population that want something like this (me included, bought the last 4 cars sight unseen), but building a business on exceptions is a very dangerous path.

 

[john.quinn]

The general announcement, I'm still looking for a dealership that can tell & show me they are selling vehicles in numbers using a DR solution.

@Todd Caputo is your guy, Mark.

But to my earlier point, with most tools, you only get out what you put in. And Todd is tireless (I assure you!). Certainly an exception to the rule.

JQ

 

[Chris Cachor]

1. Vendors had/have a mistaken belief that consumers hate the car buying process.
a. some consumers complain about segments of the process, and generally, there is some consistency in the complaints; i.e., takes too long.
b. But, without any doubt, buying a new car -- for the most part -- is an exciting, positive experience.

I'm going to have to disagree here. My wife wants a new Honda Odyssey so I stopped by the dealership in my neighborhood last week. It couldn't have been a more cliched car buying experience. Pretty unbelievable to be honest.

I think for the dealerships that help you buy a car - there's really no value add from DR. It's the experience like we had where the salesperson is just getting in the way that you want DR. Today, you can literally go online, pick out a stock #, call the dealer and pick it up on your way home from work. No fancy tablets or anything.