Solving the Barriers to Your Dealership's Success
This webinar, originally presented by C-4 Analytics on the Digital Dealer platform, addresses a common phrase heard by digital marketing vendors: “We’re all set.” While this may be a defense mechanism, it often reflects a belief that a dealership's marketing is running flawlessly. In reality, there are three fundamental, structural barriers that prevent 99% of dealers from truly being “all set.”
It’s time to move past the surface-level reports and deep-dive into the core issues that may be holding your dealership back from achieving its full potential.
Truth #1: You’re Buying a Product, Not a Service
A product is a one-size-fits-all solution designed to be built once and sold thousands of times with minimal change. While this might be great for lawnmowers or websites, it's detrimental to a marketing strategy. Your dealership is unique—your market, customers, and competitors are one of a kind. Your marketing should reflect that.
Symptoms of the Product Problem:
- You can't get a hold of your rep, because they have 50-100 accounts.
- Making changes takes too long, because the product isn't designed for customization.
- You have to tell your vendor what to do, because they aren't equipped for strategy.
- Your monthly meeting is focused on upselling you to a "better" package.
A product’s content is not unique. If you search for a phrase from your website like "Treats the needs of each individual customer with paramount concern," you'll find it on countless other dealership sites. To truly stand out, you need to localize your content, ad copy, and landing pages to meet your unique market's competitive threats and opportunities.
Truth #2: Your Vendors Are Conflicted
A conflicted vendor sells their products or services to your facing on-brand competitors. This means you are paying a company that is using your own money to fuel a competitor's success. This creates a no-win scenario where neither you nor your rival can truly dominate, while the vendor rakes in the profits.
Symptoms of the Conflict Problem:
- Your vendor never talks about your strategic plan in your monthly meetings.
- They want to show you their reports, but avoid discussing your OEM reports, registrations, and regional rankings.
- They talk about jargon like "cost-per-click" and "CTR" instead of sales, share, and profit.
- They don't know your business or your market as well as you do.
A conflicted vendor can't help you shift market share. They won't ask for the data that would reveal your sales strengths and weaknesses because it would create a problem with their other clients. The only way to solve this is to find a conflict-free partner who has your best interests at heart.
Truth #3: You’re Operating in a Fragmented System
Fragmented solutions, or "siloed" vendors, solve a single problem. While it may seem like a good idea to hire the "best" company for each individual service (website, SEO, PPC, social, etc.), this approach creates a lack of communication and coordination.
Symptoms of the Fragmentation Problem:
- You have to manage a long list of vendors for different services.
- No one is accountable when goals are missed; the website vendor blames the SEO vendor, who blames the PPC vendor.
- No one is working together toward a single, unified goal for your business.
- You are constantly putting out RFPs for new vendors because none of them are delivering.
A fragmented approach means that your paid media campaigns may be landing on pages that aren't optimized for SEO or conversion. It's like asking a quarterback to throw a touchdown pass to a receiver who doesn't know the play. To achieve maximum success, you need a partner who can integrate all these pieces into a cohesive, measurable strategy.
Watch the Full Webinar
For a deeper dive into these topics and to hear directly from Rob Stoesser, Vice President of OEM, watch the full webinar below.