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An Open Letter to Mark O'Neil - Chairman and CEO of DealerTrack
- By joe.pistell
Dear Mark O'Neil,
You are the Chairman and CEO of DealerTrack with a fascinating bio that includes being President of an Auto Dealer Group, you’ve worked at Intel, you co-founded CarMax and you're Director at DealerTire.com. It's quite clear you have a nose for opportunity and with your Harvard MBA, you know how to leverage it. I hope this information finds its way to your desk.
I would like to present to you comprehensive report of a gigantic opportunity that resides inside one of your existing companies. It is an undiscovered jewel that's waiting for you to roll it out. Once you do, your data marketing partner will become Google...Yes Google.
I have better news. Google’s management team needs you and is looking for CHROME.
What is this Google Opportunity and what does this have to do with DealerTrack’s CHROME? Google has a new product search feature called Google Products, and it requires extremely detailed product data that CHROME specializes in. Let’s see how it all fits…
Let’s look at a Google Products example for a Garmin GPS:
Google is slowly building out it’s Google Products platform. Here is another Google Products example, this time taken from the automobile accessories industry. See the link for “Jeep Floor Mats” (Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the “product attributes” that Google requires to make this work). If you swap out the Jeep Floor mats and insert ANY vehicle for sale (like a NEW 2011 Ford Flex or a USED 2008 Buick Enclave) Wow!
This digital marketing opportunity is not limited to Google. Here is Yahoo’s example of the same concept:
Bing has it also, but it’s not as fully developed.
WHY CHROME?
I saw this opportunity in 2010 and attempted to fill this void myself. I've had discussions with Google Products data vendors from other verticals (EdgeNet.com) and have come to the conclusion that it will require an automotive data specialist inside our space to make this happen. IMO, there are few companies in the automotive space that has what Google needs and I have been working with CHROME data so long, I felt you’d be best suited to it. This is confirmed by Google’s PR: “Going to the Source to Improve Product Data”
When CHROME takes on this new partnership with Google, what kind of nationwide impact am I talking about here?
Let look at the automobile accessories industry for clues to what could happen in our space, let’s look at Audi Q7 accessories and visualize a 2011 Audi Q7 in its place:
What happens is CHROME creates the attribute map for all automobiles and this information creates a path FROM Google Products to the Google Shopping system, and to the organic search results AND to the Google Adwords (Paid search) results. I’ve uploaded my inventory to Google Shopping and nothing happens because there is no Google Products for automobiles (yet). My Audi Q7 is highlighted below and it sits there all dressed up and no place to go!
The Google Products is a relatively new feature for Google, and Google’s roll-out is limited to the time consuming connections it makes with vendor attribute specialists. Google is looking for a solution partner in the automotive manufacturer/dealer space and they don't know you have the key to the attribute vault!
CHROME’s Revenue model? That’s up for exploration. I believe you'll need to build a new business model for the product as it's a data/advertising product with no peer (in our space). My research taken from www.Edgenet.com tells me that any retailer that wanted to be visible in the Google Products system needs to “participate” with the data vendors program. This makes the Google Products vendor the “gatekeeper” for all retailers! That being said, the Automotive model is completely unlike ecommerce retail so creative exploration will be required.
I do know, once it's launched, it's impact WILL dramatically impact our entire automotive retail internet marketing industry... forever.
Mr. O’Neil, your team’s contact at Google is Mr. Brian Lam, Strategic Partner Manager, Google Product Search. Mr/ Lam is a new hire (6/2010) and you two need to talk! The “Google Products” platform is built around ecommerce, so some joint creative thinking will be needed. Once you two conquer the details, the impact to consumer, manufacturer and retailer is going to be... epic.
I hope you and Mr. Lam found this report to be the beginning of a new product launch in the automotive retail space. If I can be of any service to you or your team, please feel free to contact me.
-Joe Pistell
SEO is Evolving ...into our world
Hopefully you're reading that title thinking "duh Alex, of course SEO is evolving." Google changes things in their algorithms so often it is almost a different animal every day. Staying ahead of things is a full time job. However, you're probably wondering how it crosses into the real world.
No, I don't want to get into the weeds of SEO, but I do want to point-out a very significant change that could drastically change our approach to SEO going forward.
Before I tell you what I'm seeing let's make some assumptions.
Those last two points are bigees. Google has been limited by technology and has had to rely on tags, links, and things of that nature to point their spiders in the right direction. He who understands these things, and plays to them, wins the SEO game. The problem here is that it is all a SEO game; it isn't real life. In real life a good product is a good product and when you have a good product people talk about it. When people solely turn to Google, a good product can be trumped by a superior SEO strategy if the inferior product knows how to play the SEO game. A "product" can be a website, it can be your business, it can actually be a product you purchase.
How can Google get around things that game their system?
They can bring the real world into the algorithm. Web 2.0 was all about giving individuals a voice and one of the results of this movement was a broader acceptance of social media. Some sites like twitter and facebook created standards for communication on their platforms that made it very easy for Google to see. Pair that with review sites like Yelp, DealerRater, and all the review engines there is another standard of information that is very simple for Google to crawl. If these social medias and review spots are representative of individuals mimicking "real life word of mouth voting" then Google has a very powerful new addition to their algorithm. Why has Google's Places with Reviews pages seen such real estate increases in SERPs?
To put this in plain English:
Right this minute, the old SEO game is still very much alive. Representatives from Google have even stated that traditional linking still has more weight than social media. Content and Links still apply.
I just want you to start thinking about how you're going to put more effort into your reputation management strategy as the SEO game (you might want to reread this article) could significantly change in the very near future.
No, I don't want to get into the weeds of SEO, but I do want to point-out a very significant change that could drastically change our approach to SEO going forward.
Before I tell you what I'm seeing let's make some assumptions.
- When I say "SEO" I'm talking about organic search on Google
- Google's mission in life is to deliver the most relevant results to its users
- SEO practices, as we define them today, are simply a gaming of Google's algorithms
Those last two points are bigees. Google has been limited by technology and has had to rely on tags, links, and things of that nature to point their spiders in the right direction. He who understands these things, and plays to them, wins the SEO game. The problem here is that it is all a SEO game; it isn't real life. In real life a good product is a good product and when you have a good product people talk about it. When people solely turn to Google, a good product can be trumped by a superior SEO strategy if the inferior product knows how to play the SEO game. A "product" can be a website, it can be your business, it can actually be a product you purchase.
How can Google get around things that game their system?
They can bring the real world into the algorithm. Web 2.0 was all about giving individuals a voice and one of the results of this movement was a broader acceptance of social media. Some sites like twitter and facebook created standards for communication on their platforms that made it very easy for Google to see. Pair that with review sites like Yelp, DealerRater, and all the review engines there is another standard of information that is very simple for Google to crawl. If these social medias and review spots are representative of individuals mimicking "real life word of mouth voting" then Google has a very powerful new addition to their algorithm. Why has Google's Places with Reviews pages seen such real estate increases in SERPs?
To put this in plain English:
Right this minute, the old SEO game is still very much alive. Representatives from Google have even stated that traditional linking still has more weight than social media. Content and Links still apply.
I just want you to start thinking about how you're going to put more effort into your reputation management strategy as the SEO game (you might want to reread this article) could significantly change in the very near future.
The Test Drive Conundrum - Has It Changed?
- Off Topic & Everything Else
- 18 Replies
Woah woah woah... not going on the test drive with a customer? YOU'RE FIRED!
I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em
), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).
Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.
I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em
), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.
The Test Drive Conundrum - Has It Changed?
- Off Topic & Everything Else
- 18 Replies
Woah woah woah... not going on the test drive with a customer? YOU'RE FIRED!
I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em ), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).
Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.
I believe 90% of the time option 1 should be executed, in the back seat if there's a spouse (if there's kids you get to play with em
), and you should make the test drive about THE CAR and not about the salesperson/dealership. This is a great time to show off how much better your brakes work than their old ones, how much smoother your suspension is than their older one, and make sure they spend some real time in the car and not just go around the block. Selling Nissans I was all about the test drive! Many customer wouldn't be comfortable doing the things I told them to do on the test drive without me there (like passing cops and honking horns at strangers).Now, I have the other 10% of the time let customers drive by themselves. You can get a sense of when someone would be better sold if they drove alone, and at times I've insisted they drive alone. Especially if it's a wife/husband.