In our market a couple months ago they were offering their "New Car Partnership" listing product for three months FREE w/no further obligation. Signing deals on speculation for them seems crazy to me, sales must be down alot for them. We've experienced some real funky billing irregularities also w/autotrader, pay attention to your billing w/them, trying to get it straightened out drove my accts payable person insane. In the end we owed them nothing, they just had our billing history completely screwed up.
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Have you been blitzed by team ATC yet?
- Thread starter Alex Snyder
- Start date
If you thought AutoTrader was paying attention to the last thread on here involving them, they're going to be monitoring this one real close. AutoTrader has been using the "Sales Blitz" model both on the "National Blitz Team" level and the "Regional Sales Blitz Team" levels for years to help them satisfy revenue goals. It's worked really well for them in the past but the fallout after the blitz teams leave town is felt by the sales staff in the area they sold in for months, crazy promises, bad non existant deals written & submitted, etc. There are some good deals to be had during these blitzes but be careful in who is selling you because as others have mentioned, once they leave town it's basically you against them.
It is too bad as this tool has great potential however the management is bent on sucking out the profits and making big promotion rather than making a progressive tool and listen to the client feedback which would give them the direction they need to make it better.
How long was I after them about simple things like the "Pop-ups" and all they wanted to do is deny there was an issue for a long time, they kept sayingpop-ups? We do not use pop ups, this is a good indication of their coporate style, deny everything and spin the works..''
The same with their "Buggy" dealer management tool, this could have been streamlined and made more efficient.
At some point their business model will run out of room as their pricing will no longer sustain the expense and increases they are passing on to the clients. The upper level management I am sure have their exit strategy and 'Golden Parachutes' in place.
New ecommerce options are developing so quickly that many of the solutions presently offered in the market place will just go away.
One of the issues ATC faces is the increase in labor and marketing expense. At some point top management will start to disappear with their hard earned rewards and middle level management will start laying off staff and the ad and promotion budgets will be cut back and the company will have difficult choices to make. Couple this with clients moving to other solutions Auto Trader will bite the dust.
The other option is to move the whole operation and management to India. This will allow them to make a huge increase in profit, as 70% reduction in overhead will reduce their costs. I think this maybe one of the few options left to them.
Plus the curry is great in India.
How long was I after them about simple things like the "Pop-ups" and all they wanted to do is deny there was an issue for a long time, they kept sayingpop-ups? We do not use pop ups, this is a good indication of their coporate style, deny everything and spin the works..''
The same with their "Buggy" dealer management tool, this could have been streamlined and made more efficient.
At some point their business model will run out of room as their pricing will no longer sustain the expense and increases they are passing on to the clients. The upper level management I am sure have their exit strategy and 'Golden Parachutes' in place.
New ecommerce options are developing so quickly that many of the solutions presently offered in the market place will just go away.
One of the issues ATC faces is the increase in labor and marketing expense. At some point top management will start to disappear with their hard earned rewards and middle level management will start laying off staff and the ad and promotion budgets will be cut back and the company will have difficult choices to make. Couple this with clients moving to other solutions Auto Trader will bite the dust.
The other option is to move the whole operation and management to India. This will allow them to make a huge increase in profit, as 70% reduction in overhead will reduce their costs. I think this maybe one of the few options left to them.
Plus the curry is great in India.
I'd be happy to advertise more with AT, as long as when MY PAGE LOADS, I get a cut of the click through revenue from the irritating number of ads shared on the same page.
On second thought, no thanks - I am getting more action from cars.com
Chris
On second thought, no thanks - I am getting more action from cars.com
Chris
Brian - I'll take the over.
This company amazes me. They have tried the Blitz approach with me as well and they tried the free new car listings, etc. Bottom line- I dropped them approximately 3 years ago and my used car business is up! They are not a very friendly crew to work with and they don't really seem to care based on the things I am reading here today. They have tried to get my business back several times over the past couple of years but their pricing structure continues to be outrageous. They know it. They don't have any justification for it and they don't care.
This is going to be a fun thread to watch develop!
Glad to see I'm not the only one.
This company amazes me. They have tried the Blitz approach with me as well and they tried the free new car listings, etc. Bottom line- I dropped them approximately 3 years ago and my used car business is up! They are not a very friendly crew to work with and they don't really seem to care based on the things I am reading here today. They have tried to get my business back several times over the past couple of years but their pricing structure continues to be outrageous. They know it. They don't have any justification for it and they don't care.
This is going to be a fun thread to watch develop!
Glad to see I'm not the only one.
Brian - I think I'll take the under. I have a feeling people are sick of talking about Autotrader - it may be played out.
I won't be upset if I lose this bet though.....their sales reps really need to leave me alone - they tick me off every time they come around.
I won't be upset if I lose this bet though.....their sales reps really need to leave me alone - they tick me off every time they come around.
Autotrader is spinning "exposure, exposure, exposure". We decided to cut them to a minimum product last year and concentrate on driving traffic to our website. We've married a PPC campaign and have a great company doing organic SEO for us and it has been working out fantastic. The money we saved from not stepping up to the premium listings w/autotrader per month we've put into PPC & organic SEO and have managed to step up our closing ratios from our website inventory on used vehicles tremendously. Autotrader does have some value don't get me wrong, just that their rates vs ROI are insane near us at least. Our Autotrader rep has also informed us that they've experienced alot of indepedent dealerships closing & going out of biz near us in the past 6 months. I know that many independent dealerships are not on w/autotrader or have dropped off w/them in the past year, anyone else noticing this near them?
It went pretty well for us. We were paying around $3000/mo for our listings (I have forgotten what level they call it) and ended up signing up for another $1000/mo, but they were making us "featured" for each of our new car makes (4 in total). While we ended up paying them more, we gained quite a bit more exposure with the featured listings, which was going to increase our sales dramatically with all the exposure.
Unfortunately, we did not enjoy much of an increase in new car inquiries, so we recently cancelled our agreement to go back to our previous agreement. Seems new car buyers are not needing to go to Autotrader to find new vehicles. They are already going to manufacturers websites and the dealers!
Too bad, so sad, bye bye.
So, yeah, we got talked out of another $4-5000 for the same results we were already getting. How could that not be a good thing?
Don't they realize how small this market is? They are a 600 pound gorilla, but their tactics are always the same.
Personally, it is getting old.
Unfortunately, we did not enjoy much of an increase in new car inquiries, so we recently cancelled our agreement to go back to our previous agreement. Seems new car buyers are not needing to go to Autotrader to find new vehicles. They are already going to manufacturers websites and the dealers!
Too bad, so sad, bye bye.
So, yeah, we got talked out of another $4-5000 for the same results we were already getting. How could that not be a good thing?
Don't they realize how small this market is? They are a 600 pound gorilla, but their tactics are always the same.
Personally, it is getting old.
Blitzes are just another way to juice dealers out of more revenue without adding value. How is it valuable to a dealer to have new reps come to their market they are not even familiar with for a week and then leave and provide no follow up consulting?
How is it valuable to allow the blitz teams give discounts, free products, and tweak contracts that the local rep is not allowed to do?
But guess who gets the aftermath... hmmm the dealer and the local consultant maybe?
RE: Gerald:
You hit the nail on the head ATC is known and was built on a place to search out USED cars hence AutoTrader magazine agreement from the beginning. Why do I need a site like AutoTrader.com to show me NEW cars that all have the same MSRP, look the same, all are close to the same mileage point ect... Thats what the manufacture sites are for. They were pushing this new car thing first a couple years ago by selling New car partnerships priced at the same as USED car programs (that didn't work obviously) since there was no value or "new car shoppers" on the site. They launched new car specials which bombed because it takes 45 minutes to set them up per car. Now they are giving it away for FREE until August when your new bill starts coming for it ...
They have obviously maxed out on getting car dealers to pay them "newspaper" money from the used cars and keep trying to grow revs by changing strategy and becoming a "new car search site??
I think it is best used on used. And if there is heavy competition for your make in your market then yeah maybe a Premium or Partner solution is best, if not just as long as your cars are listed the consumers that want your car at your price and mileage will find it on the site. ATC helped with this with having such great search parameters that narrows the cars down very well.
If this company was public I would be shorting the stock about now. Especially in this economy I'm sure with it being the highest budgeted item for internet advertising it is being looked at hard and with so many alternatives...
I'll take the over.
How is it valuable to allow the blitz teams give discounts, free products, and tweak contracts that the local rep is not allowed to do?
But guess who gets the aftermath... hmmm the dealer and the local consultant maybe?
RE: Gerald:
You hit the nail on the head ATC is known and was built on a place to search out USED cars hence AutoTrader magazine agreement from the beginning. Why do I need a site like AutoTrader.com to show me NEW cars that all have the same MSRP, look the same, all are close to the same mileage point ect... Thats what the manufacture sites are for. They were pushing this new car thing first a couple years ago by selling New car partnerships priced at the same as USED car programs (that didn't work obviously) since there was no value or "new car shoppers" on the site. They launched new car specials which bombed because it takes 45 minutes to set them up per car. Now they are giving it away for FREE until August when your new bill starts coming for it ...
They have obviously maxed out on getting car dealers to pay them "newspaper" money from the used cars and keep trying to grow revs by changing strategy and becoming a "new car search site??
I think it is best used on used. And if there is heavy competition for your make in your market then yeah maybe a Premium or Partner solution is best, if not just as long as your cars are listed the consumers that want your car at your price and mileage will find it on the site. ATC helped with this with having such great search parameters that narrows the cars down very well.
If this company was public I would be shorting the stock about now. Especially in this economy I'm sure with it being the highest budgeted item for internet advertising it is being looked at hard and with so many alternatives...
I'll take the over.
ATC behaves like OPEC.
Increase prices without regard to the consumers whining until it sees "demand destruction". THEN, it'll mend its ways.
Joe
Increase prices without regard to the consumers whining until it sees "demand destruction". THEN, it'll mend its ways.
Joe
✨ AI Highlights
Dealers share frustrations with AutoTrader.com's 'blitz' tactic, where out-of-area sales reps descend on markets to push upgrades or new sign-ups, with complaints about aggressive pitches, pricing, and photo caps on packages. An AutoTrader employee defends the product by comparing its cost favorably to traditional media, while others note the blitzes were reportedly discontinued. The thread devolves into a messy back-and-forth between dealers, anonymous insiders, and competing reps from Cars.com, revealing deep skepticism about third-party listing site value.
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