What Interests a dealer?

[Zack_AF]

I saw a post from the Car Dealership Guy on LinkedIn talking about dealers reaching out to him for vendor recommendations.
Obviously word of mouth from reputable sources is always great and platforms like LVL UP Auto are a great resource in searching.

This had me thinking about what interests dealers in various vendors/technology/applications/etc and ultimately what the deciding factor is to use a particular vendor.

For research purposes:

-Is it results?
-Is it something competitors are using and you have FOMO not having it?
-Are you solving a problem that's unique to your store?
-Is it something you believe will give you a competitive advantage?
-Customer Service?
-Price/co-op eligibility?
-Your magic 8 ball said yes?

For entertainment purposes, what's the deciding factor(s) NOT to use a particular vendor?

 

[sukoseo]

-Is it results?
-Is it something competitors are using and you have FOMO not having it?
-Are you solving a problem that's unique to your store?
-Is it something you believe will give you a competitive advantage?
-Customer Service?
-Price/co-op eligibility?
-Your magic 8 ball said yes?

Results they are sold are never the results they get when the tech is live.

In my experience, price and co-op trump most others on that list. "Believing" they are getting a competitive advantage is pie in the sky and is a warm and fuzzy feeling type thing. Sometimes it's the shiny briefcase thing or the "hey I knew this guy in college thing".

Either way, all the reasons are wrong and results are important, hence the reason for tech stack switches every half year or so.

 

[Zack_AF]

I too think results are the most important but they can obviously vary for a multitude of reasons. I wouldn't necessarily expect shown results to be guaranteed but are necessary as proof. There's also swindlers out there but I think there's ways to weed these kind of people out between reputation and things like ASC events.

No right or wrong answer here and doesn't have to be from my list, I just threw those out there.
Just genuinely curious as to what piques interest and what leads to a decision from various minds.