Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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I
f ever there was a stable category, the Used Vehicle Internet
Lead Provider category
would be it. There have been few changes with only
After a fourth-place showing last year, HomeNet (now a wholly-owned sub- sidiary of AutoTrader.com) returned to the ranks of the top three this year by capturing the Gold Award.
Customer Relationship Management
This year's Diamond Award winner, ELEAD One, is trying to buck that trend by making it two in a row. The company earned the top score for a second consecutive year and achieved Double Diamond status. "It is our extreme honor to be recognized in the CRM category for the second consecutive year … We recognize that dealers have many choices in this space and we take a tremendous amount of pride in receiv- ing such a prestigious award," said Hugh Hathcock, owner of ELEAD One. "Over the past year, ELEAD One well exceeded our goal of providing dealers new monthly enhancements to improve overall retail operations. These en- hancements include a new SMS texting solution, more robust digital and service marketing platforms and a faster, newly designed Web-based interface."
ProMax Unlimited, which has always been known for desking software, became a first-time winner in the CRM category this year with the Platinum Award. "We are extremely excited about this honor!" said ProMax Unlimited Chief Operating Officer Shane Born. "About two years ago, we really listened to our customer base and started aggressively focusing on CRM/ILM. In return, we've been rewarded with our highest gains in retention and new business over the last six months. In 2012, you will see a continued focus along these lines, and we look forward to attaining Diamond Status next year."
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five providers ever being named, and this year's top two, AutoTrader.com and Cars.com, have maintained placement throughout the last five years.
After a two-year absence, the Higher Gear Group returned to claim this year's Gold Award. Achieving an above-aver- age score in fourth place was Dealer- Socket; the company is also only one of two winners from last year to score above average.
Direct Mail
The only company to score above the group average in the Direct Mail cate- gory was Strategic Marketing, which won its eighth straight Diamond Award. "We think creating strong relationships with our clients is a key to growing our business. Our goal is to treat each client as a business partner. Working side-by- side with the best dealer groups in the country is very exciting and rewarding," said Todd Strause, president of Strategic Marketing. "We are very excited about the momentum we are seeing in the automotive industry because we know the next few years are going to provide great opportunities."
Sales Trainer
Making its first-ever appearance in the Sales Trainer category is IPS Agency. "It really is amazing to receive such recog- nition in a field that is saturated with so many talented individuals and compa- nies," said Shari Vance, president of IPS Agency. "Sales training is not something new to our agency, but over the last year our dealers have really begun to focus on adding uniformity and effi- ciency to their training regimens, so our votes in this category really reflect a demand that was before us in 2011."
The Joe Verde Group received its
second consecutive Platinum Award this year. The company has now achieved either Diamond or Platinum status for eight years running.
Internet Trainer
After winning the Platinum Award last year, KainAutomotive.com reclaimed the Diamond Award this year, which the company also previously won in 2008, 2009 and 2010. "Our team … has a true passion for accelerating the Internet and BDC operational results for our clients. I think because we've all been in the same roles of the fine people we teach, it makes it easier for us to understand what is required to be successful. We truly love helping our clients," said David Kain, president of KainAutomotive.com. "As always, our team may provide the instruction, but the reason our clients do so well is that they execute at a remarkable level on a daily basis and make sure all the little things happen to create an exceptional customer experience."
In addition to being known for providing websites, Dealer.com has been recog- nized in the Internet Trainer category every year since 2010. This year the company won the Platinum Award for Internet Trainer. "Providing websites is and was an important part of our services and capabilities, but as the
year and was the lowest-scoring category. Over the life of the Awards, we have seen dealer sentiment ebb and flow in all three lead provider categories. The bottom line when dealers vote is whether they feel they are closing a sufficient number of deals from the leads provided based on the money they spend. This year in this category, unfortunately dealers didn't feel closing rates were high enough.
T
he New Vehicle Internet Lead Provider category took a hit in scores this
