jimreidvehicle 255 Posted November 11, 2013 Are you fed up paying huge online classified costs? How would you feel about a classified website 50% owned by us the dealers? I'm sure the answer is yes! with so many classified portals now available wouldn't it be great just to use one? There are changes a foot! How about taking a 5 minute survey to help research www.automatch.pro Your thoughts please!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted November 12, 2013 Hi Jim - just in case you're wondering I moved this here as it's likely to be seen more. Topics like this need to be started in General Chat. The Today's Talking Points is designed for comments from the website. Thanks. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CarBuyingAdvisor 1 Posted November 12, 2013 Hi All!! Registered Dealers to CarBuyingAdvisor, have NO LIMIT to the number of cars they can upload to the system and with a 30day free trial to ALL of the functionality, then ONLY £50.00 + VAT per month registration fee, the savings are astronomical compared to other classified adds you may pay for and you get SO much more for your money - just a thought 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gavin@Rousdon 137 Posted November 16, 2013 Same old story i'm afraid. Autotrader dominates because it works. I would like to hear from any small dealer selling £5000 - £25000 cars who doesn't used AT and still does the numbers. I would also like to see these new advertising portals put their money where there mouth is and give us 12 months advertising for free so we can see it for ourselves. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimreidvehicle 255 Posted November 16, 2013 Same old story i'm afraid. Autotrader dominates because it works. I would like to hear from any small dealer selling £5000 - £25000 cars who doesn't used AT and still does the numbers. I would also like to see these new advertising portals put their money where there mouth is and give us 12 months advertising for free so we can see it for ourselves. Gavin, the whole point is, as long as you keep feeding AT they will continue to grow and continued growth means more cost from you to feed it, it's like taking home a small cat then feeding it until the point that you find out that's actually a lion and it continues to require more and more feeding! We are a 'small dealer' retailing cars between £5000- £25000 and stopped advertising with AT in November last year and guess what? WE ARE STILL DOING THE NUMBERS! The problem with all these portals giving away free 12months is the fact that they have no money coming in to promote their website with, so an ever decreasing circle! Yes I agree that AT works and they know it, that's why they are much, much more expensive than anyone else! You forget however that AT need dealers more than dealers need AT, so with that in mind, if ALL dealers stopped advertising with them, then surely their share price would plummet, their investors would stop funding and the giant would start to shrink or even fall! Now I'm not anti- AutoTrader but I do object to getting ripped! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreenGiant 287 Posted November 16, 2013 You're right, Gavin. Had Exchange & Mart reps in yesterday, telling about how they're the new greatest thing and would guarantee us more enquiries and prove it works etc etc It's never ending they can't all be right. We spend a truckload with Autotrader and we sell cars because anyone looking to buy a car will look there. I'm certainly not changing just because a sales rep tells me I should, I'll stick with what works. ...For now... as you may have a point, Jim. I just don't think I'm brave enough to take the leap yet. Besides, I learned many, many years ago that you don't advertise in the Dandy, if all your potential customers read the Beano. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimreidvehicle 255 Posted November 17, 2013 Great points guys....GreenGiant, what if the Beano started asking so much for their advertising space that no one advertised in there anymore, does that mean that people would continue to read the Beano or would they have a glimpse at the Dandy or may even somewhere else? The advantage of having a large number of car dealers and cars for sale on one website is weighted heavily towards the customer, it makes it easy for them to compare cars like for like, side by side without even leaving their house, the problem is that if you car is identical to the car advertised next to it on AT but £500 more what chance have you got of selling it until the cheaper one is sold? and often the one thats £500 cheaper is being sold by a private, which means they have not only paid less for the advert but also don't have to HPi, mileage check or even give a warranty, but it's for sale right next to your car, £500 cheaper (sounds fair????NOT) Gavin, thank you for the compliment, we have been in business for just over 10 years and pride ourselves in providing the very best in customer care and due to this, between 60-70% of our sales each month are a mixture of repeat and referral business, the other sales & enquiries come from local people normally who can see the physical building and pitch, and a mixture of local advertising , sponsorship and social media, not only this but our website is very strong with most website referrals coming from Google, AA Cars(formerly V cars) & Motors.co.uk. Now if you total ALL my advertising activity during a month I bet it's still less than you advertising 15 cars with AutoTrader! As I say I'm NOT anti-AT i just think that the MotorTrade have to look at things differently before it's too late! As an analogy, if the price of petrol went up to £2.00 per litre , the country would come to a standstill, people would refuse to buy petrol until the price came down, there would be a major outcry, now we can't do without petrol, I agree,because there is no alternative, however you have just stated that your business cannot survive without AutoTrader, so what happens when they increase your price to an unacceptable amount? We all need an alternative, we cannot continue to have all our eggs in one basket! Things must change! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sparky 274 Posted November 18, 2013 Morning chaps, my first post on here so go easy on me The only advertising I do now is on AT and ebay, having stopped advertising in the local paper many moons ago and having found motors to be a complete waste of money for the results, or lack of them, that it achieves. We all know that AT works and whilst it is criminally expensive IMO I'm another one who has not quite got the balls to cancel it, yet. When the job is busy I don't tend to worry about the monthly bill of circa £1200 but when it goes quiet like it has now then I do seriously question if things could be done differently and whether or not I could depend on ebay and passing trade. I know ebay has it's faults but at £200 a month for 40 cars it is fantastic value for money. I look at other garages who only advertise on ebay and have done for some time and they still sell plenty of cars. My heart says that I should give it a go without AT for a couple of months and see what happens, my head on the other hand says I would be mad to. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
umesh 336 Posted November 18, 2013 Think we keep going around in circles and beat ourselves up ! I am still with AT ..Just about having cancelled once and get enticed back with their retentions team! Like everyone else I keep looking at the invoices that keep coming in for advertising.. AT the biggest one for only 12 cars ! I do sell cars off it but its a very close call amount sold to amount spent ! ( I'm NOT the cheapest and never will be - don't want to be!) Motors simply doesn't bring in enough leads in , eBay I've trialled it a few times - doesn't work for me! We also have to think , when we ask customers where they saw the advert, they cannot always remember or do they simply say AT Due to 'brand' memory/ recall ? A few years ago there were two very similar 'free car mags' in the area , so very difficult to always get the right feedback as both were similar name 'Auto- Exchange' ' Auto-weekly' so when you asked they would say 90% of the time " the free one I picked up at the supermarket. Auto something" Not good to get accurate feedback - so I had a green & blue ad - I would simply ask after them saying the above - what colour please ! I got my information! and it was surprising how many times after saying i.e. auto-exchange - it was actually auto-weekly ! So who's going to have the best platform that offers real value, lots of leads at that price that will stop us moaning but actually shouting how good it is! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreenGiant 287 Posted November 18, 2013 The difficulty is also that, no matter what each different website rep tells you, your customers will look on AT whilst searching for cars. I know that I can send my sales data to each other website and they will tell me what enquiry came specifically from them, but they can't tell me that the enquiry came EXCLUSIVELY from their site - and I wouldn't believe them if they did. IMHO as it stands, AT is WAAAAAY too expensive, but there is no credible alternative. Yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 13, 2013 I'm fairly new to this trade (well to sales) and where I work we only use eBay and it gets us half decent interest. My boss won't pay AT prices any more, he reckons they've had enough of his hard earned after 25 years of trading. I'd love us to use it for three months to see if it makes any difference but alas that won't happen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted December 13, 2013 Why don't you try a few cars on there without telling him. Make sure they're also advertised on eBay but out your mobile number instead so you can accurately track the sales. That will show you where the sales lead came from and help make the argument with the boss easier... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 13, 2013 He holds the purse strings James, so no can do! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 18, 2013 Gumtree? I know little about that but thought it was for individuals? Is it free for traders? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 18, 2013 That's way too expensive, blimey crikey! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 18, 2013 Pennies make pounds and all that. Depends on ROI I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 18, 2013 Oh the gaffer's tried 'em all before now. Gumtree though...I'll enquire. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
used car seller 8 Posted December 19, 2013 i occasionally ask a walk on customer how they found out about the car, they may have just been driving past so i ask them in a way so it doesnt seem like a "survey" for example " are you local?" if so we could like we after you in future ? if the answers ebay, then i know they mean autotrader, as i dont use ebay ! [ have tried]. But it does show they have looked on ebay as well when searching, tell you what i do, play the customers part,look myself, a/trader, ebay, gumtree, all the usual including local papers, see how hard it is to find a lets say focus, that looks good, localish and well presented advert, and i find myself back on a/trader, yes theyre exspensive [ how much have i spent over 20 years ? gulp! ] but they move stock, and if they dont i reappraise my vehicle, but a funny story is sometimes you can be asking too low a price, i have sold better when ive raised my asking price but thats another story for another day, sorry rambling, what was the question, too exspensive YES! but, if the price was lowered would we get even more competion from other dealers jumping on the lowered price? one to be considered ? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 20, 2013 Motors.co.uk rang today offering a £30 per month package for less than 20 cars...still a no from my gaffer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Baggott 227 Posted December 21, 2013 £30 per month for all cars? That sounds like a bargain to me. Surely it's got to be worth a trial for three months. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gavin@Rousdon 137 Posted December 21, 2013 £30 a month, even I would take that offer up!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimreidvehicle 255 Posted December 21, 2013 that's surely a mistake £30 per month????? all cars! if it is I will have to call them, cause that's certainly not what I'm paying! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sparky 274 Posted December 21, 2013 £30 a month is probably all that Motors is worth IMO. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 21, 2013 That's what we were offered. I put it to my gaffer and "been there, done that". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ian 15 Posted December 22, 2013 OK...I've floated a couple of free Gumtree adverts out there. Here's hoping. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
