Dealer.com buys Dealerrefresh.com

We knew it was just a matter of time before it would become official, Vermont based Dealer.com has taken over full control of Dealerrefresh.com. Their recent cobranding efforts drive home the point that dealerrefresh.com is being used as a lead generation tool for dealer.com.

Insider Alex Snyder is denying the acquisition as well as the cobranding witnessed above.

While the financial details have not been made public at this point it is apparent the monetary value of this relationship will pay dividends to the founders of dealerrefresh.com. This goes beyond a simple media buy for dealer.com as they are getting the benefit of cobranding and their employees being leading contributors to the blog.

What is interesting is the report that dealer.com released in this cobranding effort does not contain an original idea from either dealer.com or the authors of the report. Industry insiders have said that the content in the report was taken from a long standing relationship inside of the industry that one of the employees of dealer.com had with a competing CRM provider who brings innovation to the marketplace.

***All content is satirical we have no idea if dealer.com really bought dealerrefresh.com***

Is it Really a Negative?

When you have had trouble in the past with trying to start a business that ultimately failed is that really such a bad thing? The truth is businesses that fail usually carry with them some bad experiences from the customers which in turn speak as loud as they can. This usually causes attention from other sources whose only job is to look for negatives to exploit and to hold people accountable.

Someone in Automotive technology has such a problem. Many people accuse Richard Keith Latman of being a criminal. His competitors use his failed business attempt against him to get people to search out his criminal past. The truth is his past is not that awful and he embraces it in his book "The Good Fail", where he discusses in intimate detail the failure and his transformation into CEO of his new company.

The real question to be answered is do you try to hide the past or meet it head on? For some that is a fine line they do not like to walk. For those that have had problems in the past it is usually best to meet them head on and drive forward. Let the naysayers be damned. People with no past usually have never taken a risk or ever had to overcome real adversity.

How Much is Enough?

To much technology gets bought up by other companies just to be shut down. We see it all the time Twitter buy Posterous and shuts it down, Google bought and shut down Wavii. It is not uncommon at all in technology for this to happen.  That is why it is surprising when you see a lot of buy outs in the premise of consolidating services in automotive.

There are two schools of though one is that Technology Consolidation is the way of the future and the other thought process is that if services are consolidated then no one does anything exceptionally well. The truth is both points of view carry valid weight but the question is why all the consolidation?

Automotive Technology vendors shutter services too.  We have seen CRM's and Data Management companies bought by bigger companies only to be shut down after acquiring the client base. In both of those instances the acquired companies only real value was the client base due to the fact the technology was not up to day.

What is funny is to see one of the companies opened after the buy out was as poorly conceived as the company that was sold. Just goes to prove that the technology for car dealers will always be a few steps behind the rest of the world..

Does Technology Improve Relationships?

As time passes we find more and more ways to stay connected with others.  I have friends all over the country that I have never met face to face and that is the product of technology. Technology has definitely made finding like minded individuals easier.  Whether it is via social networks like Twitter or forums like Dealer 20 connecting with others has never been easier.

Using technology for income producing activities has also been made easier the problem is many over use the opportunities presented to them ineffectively. To many times aggressive sales people will use tools and mediums to "over communicate" with potential customers and drive them further away from making a purchase from an organization.  When the communications should be to improve upon the relationship.

Just make sure your outreaches bring value to your relationships and that you don't let the frequency afforded via cheap technology drive wedges between you and your friends and customers.

New Software for Car Dealers

Customer management in the automotive space has always been a muddled mess.  The software has always been clunky and user adoption has always been slow.  As soon as everything is firing on all cylinders someone comes along and changes how automotive data is managed which starts a viscous cycle of bugs, disgruntled users, fixes and finally new buy in.

I love the analogy that Keith Latman did comparing current CRM solutions to a green box with index cards announcing his new CRM creation.  What iMagicLab is developing will be a game changer in Automotive CRM solutions, the real question is how long will it take for other companies to try to imitate the product and jump on the band wagon of innovation.  What we have seen is that the original ideas come from the least likely places and others try to absorb them as their own.  Then again imitation is the best form of flattery!!

Is Technology a Passion or a Means to an End

For many technology of any kind is something that is forced upon due to the fact that some things will no longer be supported.  Some of us have made it our passion to embrace and profit from technology, while like my parents some resist it with much futility.

Keith Latman is one of those unique individuals that has embraced technology and seen it as a mean to an end versus an interruption into our daily life.  He has experienced failure as well success and has written about the process of coming back from a failed enterprise and personal trials to build a successful enterprise.

His book "The Good Fail: Entrepreneurial Lessons from the Rise and Fall of Microworkz" is part business story and part guilty pleasure exploring Keith's very public missteps and painful lessons.  If you are wondering if there is light at the end of the tunnel its a must read.

Failure is just a step in the direction of accomplishing the impossible...  Paul Rushing

A New Automotive CRM

iMagicLab in Baltimore, MD has given auto industry leaders a look under the hood of their new CRMSuite.  Both customers of iMagiclab and well known respected consultants met at iMagicLab  headquarters on June 14, 2013 to review the new software and also to give strong feedback on iMagicLab's current offering DealerCRM.

It was met with great anticipation by many of the industry insiders present and current customers of iMagicLab were excited about what they saw.  In attendance was Ralph Paglia of Automotive Media Partners, Ralph has extensive background in CRM app development and dealership deployment of lead management tools.  He stated "I almost HATE to admit it, but Keith Latman and Chris Vitale got me more excited and eager to test drive the soon to be in limited release iMagicLab "CRMsuite" than I have been about any other CRM application in over ten years."  With this type of positive response from a well known antagonist in the automotive marketing niche it will seem that iMagicLab is on to something with CRMSuite.

The key standouts in this workshop were the redefinition of how data is processed to meet consumer expectations and to communicate with those consumers in the most logical medium.  Push will become pull and create a win for the consumer by elevating their dealership experience and dealers will be able to manage big data in a way that makes that makes the end users enjoy the process.

You can read Ralph Paglia's complete write up on CRMSuite at Keith Latman Creates CRM Think Tank Sessions at iMagicLab