Before lunch, any OEM could find out which digital agencies really deliver. Just pick up the phone.

Good dealers continue to ask “How does my OEM select digital vendors who I am forced to use in exchange for COOP funds?” I love how great dealers think. If this were a real discussion, here is how the conversation would likely go. Imagine if dealers could be involved in the decisions that have such a big impact on their business…like selecting the best digital agencies to help them sell and service more cars.

Dealer: Am I speaking with the person who runs your automotive channel?

Google: Yes, how can we help you?

Dealer: I serve on our OEM Dealer Council and we are trying to select the best automotive digital agencies in the US. Do you keep track of any data that could help us?

Google: Yes, approximately 2/3 of all automotive digital revenue runs through 15 digital agencies. We call them Premier Auto Channel Sales Partners. We review them quarterly, review our best practices, train them on-site and share their key metrics (against their peer set) to steadily improve their performance.

Dealer: Great, how much money does our collective group of dealers spend with you?

Google: A GAZILLION dollars.

Dealer: OK, please send us over your top performers.

Google: Sure, what key metrics are you evaluating?

Dealer: Only the metrics you think will deliver our dealerships the best ROI…with you.

Google: Sounds incredibly logical.

Dealer: Also, we are about to hire a company that is also supposed to provide us with a selection of the leading vendors, best practices, and benchmark our key metrics to make sure we get the best return on our GAZILLION dollars.

Google: Really? We do that for free.

Dealer: I figured. Thank you and goodbye.

Dealer explains to the room: We just selected the top agencies based on their actual performance with Google. These companies can deliver our dealerships with the highest ROI and have a proven track record of doing so over a large portfolio, with Google. Also, I saved us a whole bunch of money that the “middle man” was going to get from us and the best digital agencies. We can now place those millions into digital media instead. Google has considerable automotive resources and already does the things this other “middle man” was going to charge for. Plus, Google has way more data and they play no favorites.

Also, please let the selected agencies know we have the right to exclude them from the OEM Mother-lode Program if they fail to continue to be a top performing company. That will insure they keep working hard for us, after they have been selected.

Dealer: Now, who’s buying lunch?