How to Keep Your Digital Marketing Organized and Vendors Held Accountable, from Driving Sales.
As we work with more and more dealers, we’re starting to see some trends in the way that digital marketing is being handled. In some cases, dealers aren’t fully aware of everything they’re supposed to be getting from their vendor partners. This can be challenging because most vendors that we’ve seen over the years will only give you what you expect from them.
Part of my responsibilities with Dealer Authority is to make certain that promises are kept, not just by us (that’s the easy part) but also by other vendors we have to work with on behalf of the dealers. A case in point happened last week when had to hound a website provider for a demonstration of their new product. One would think that keeping a current client happy would be the top priority, but after a couple of scheduled meetings postponed and a dealer wondering what was going on, we finally made contact. The strange thing is that the new platform they showed us seems to be a great improvement but the bad taste they left in the dealer’s mouth by not making it happen more quickly might lead them to having us find them a new website provider.
There are many reasons that a dealer isn’t certain about what their providers are actually providing. Sometimes, it’s just turnover; a new internet manager can have a challenge getting to know everyone that their predecessor had established for the dealership. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of having a fluid and accurate process for monitoring their vendor partners. This is what I want to address here with some tips I’ve accumulated over the last couple of years.