In my time at autoTRADER I saw the rise and fall of several English NPV (non-automotive) dealer website providers. Over the past 3 years, Dealer Spike seems to have become the dominant player in Canada, but is that a good thing?
Smarter Business Solutions (SBS) is currently working with 2 clients that are going through or have recently switched from the Dealer Smart Site (DSS – autoTRADER) platform and a third that just signed on with me, has decided they will make the switch in the spring apparently. Of the clients that remain with the Trader DSS platform, the reasons are more less based on their comfort with the current platform and/or cost. It is truly dependent upon their level of knowledge or strength of belief, in how important their website is within the customer journey to make a buying decision as a whole.
The Dealer Spike Pitch
The Dealer Spike pitch it a typical one within the industry…
- easy to use
- OEM approved website vendor (in some cases)
- OEM specs/images/descriptions included
- current OEM promotions auto-loaded
- great SEO – we do SEO on it/optimize it periodically
- it’ll give more leads… “guaranteed”
- we’ll make it look exactly like you want
- no issues with working with Trader feeds
- etc.
All of this is part of the typical website provider’s pitch. So how do you cut through to find out if it makes sense to make the jump? Well, proper Vendor Management is a good start; but, over the next couple newsletters I’ll dig deeper into how the process has been through the transitions I’m involved with – both the good and the ‘needs improvement’.
If you are considering making the switch to a new website provider, feel free to reach out directly to me to discuss instead of waiting to read my posts over the next while.