Oh what I’ve seen!! 9 years at autoTRADER, 5 of those in the non-passenger vehicle (NPV) arm of things (one of the original department members) and from there just shy of 5 years as a Online Strategy Consultant (OSC) where theoretically I was supposed to assist dealers in getting better with regards to their digital marketing.
I say ‘theoretically’ because the last number of months I was there I was told to stop doing any non-revenue generating activity… you know… stop helping dealers and start selling the latest re-packaged, smoke and mirrors promotions.
When I started Trader in 2008, we talked about leads, leads and then leads some more, and how awesome we were at getting them for our clients. For our automotive customers, TRADER did a pretty good job most of the time.
For their non-automotive (NPV) clients… well… once the books disappeared (or actually before that, but you’ll have to ask me about the specifics of that since there aren’t any original NPV sales team members left after only 3 years!) TRADER typically had very underwhelming results a lot of the time – which is why a marketplace such as Kijiji, eroded their marketshare in a huge way, and Trader was having a hell of a time getting it back. That isn’t to say that Trader didn’t work for a client but sometimes you can pay too much for gold… if you know what I’m saying.
Originally the OSC role was to assist dealers improve their overall knowledge of digital marketing AND to assist the sales team as a subject matter expert (SME) for things such as their website platform, SEO, branding, etc. Before I left, the NPV side of the business was under a lot of stress to improve their revenue because it was under performing in relation to management’s goals. Unfortunately NPV had seen very few tangible improvements in their product suite since its inception. Primarily the products that were released were overpriced peripheral products that had a great story attached to them to justify an additional $200, $300, $800/month or more, to your Trader bill – but the 20%-50% increase in your invoice never led to the dramatic improvements that their story would lead you to believe it would have.
The other way NPV would bring you new opportunities was to simply repackage current products in a manner where you get “more value” but their calculations on what to bring to their ‘valued clients’ was ALWAYS based on what percentage increase in revenue they would expect. The value this impact would have on your business was NEVER tracked BUT the increase in revenue was.
Hmmm… priorities??
As I tell anyone, autoTRADER’s problem with the NPV market can be broken down into 3 issues:
- They spend SO much time putting a story together to use to sell and defend their value to a dealer, they don’t take the time to do analysis on what the immense amount of money a dealer is spending with them and PROVE their value – partly because in MOST cases, it is minimal. But that is the nature of a money making marketplace in general (as they are built to work fairly to really well for the very top percentile spenders and nobody else).
- Won’t spend the money on the core changes required to make the experience what it NEEDS to be for shoppers and then have the trickle down to the products they are selling to dealers. Something as simple as changing the categories/options within a specific inventory type. I went through 3, yes 3 starts in cleaning up some NPV categories. In 9, and now 10 years, not a single one of those attempts have been completed… which is a direct result of…
- Plain and simple, the NPV side of the business accounts for something like 12% of their overall revenue so it simply isn’t worth investing what is required. You may think that 12+% should be enough incentive, but if you think about the fact that 88% is a single category (automotive), a single change to that category would need to be replicated at an almost equal cost, in each of motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, snowmobiles, heavy trucks, heavy equipment, agriculture and boats. Since TRADER has been owned by an equity firm as owned since early 2011, the likelyhood of the right changes being made is almost next to none.
The NPV team was in existence for around 4 years during my tenure at TRADER. The team varied from 11-15 dedicated employees and when I left September of 2018, I was the 48th person to leave the team.
Just let that sink in.
Have you ever wondered why you keep getting a new rep for what seems every 6 months? Well it takes about that long for reps to realize what they are trying to sell doesn’t work yet management still hammers, and I mean hammers, them to increase specific accounts by specific amounts. Funny thing is, if an upper manager was dragged to one of those targeted accounts and received significant pushback from the dealer, the post-meeting debrief usually ended with a decision to back off on that customer for a bit and then move their targeted increase to another client.
In some cases the rep isn’t to blame for the incessant selling attempts. Sure it’s their job but to continually keep pushing ‘great opportunities’ that don’t work simply isn’t the way to grow their book of business. Either is never seeing them in person or pawning customer service onto other departments or…
For all of these reasons and more, I started Smarter Business Solutions. Even the name was created from the gap that I saw every day with dealers across Canada in relation to marketing and the associated gaps dealers have in achieving proper business success in the ever changing marketing landscape.
Take a look around, give me a call or email me to have a discussion to talk about any specific marketing needs your business may have as I’d be more than willing to help you out with doing the work myself or developing the short/long-term strategy to be fulfilled internally… for a small fee! I mean, I’m in business just like you!