As soon as the majority of consumers realize that they need a new vehicle, they instantly become immersed in various types of research — most of it involving dealership inventory and financing. In the early part of their research, most consumers will find themselves on a 3rd party branded website like KBB, Edmunds or AutoTrader. Not only are they often looking for a particular type of vehicle, but they’re using that site’s calculators to estimate the value of their current vehicle.

Throughout the last year, I’ve been a HUGE advocate for dealerships possessing their own branded trade-in tools. Obviously, I’m still an advocate for leveraging every aspect of your dealership’s brand; but there’s no denying that consumers (in those early stages) are still visiting 3rd party brands for a lot of this information. These websites have been around for quite a long time and they’ve established the reputation of having valuable and reliable tools that can get consumers the information they’re looking for.

While it’s true that, in an ideal world, your dealership could (and should) provide this same information to a consumer; that’s just not how it works out all the time. Despite this, however, your dealership should hold its brand up on a pedestal above all the others. Even though many consumers are encountering famous, 3rd party brands first, they’re usually following up that website visit with a visit to your dealership’s website. Although a vehicle can be found relatively easily off those 3rd party sites, the majority of those consumers still choose to do business with actual dealerships. Why? Well, on top of the fact 3rd party brands don’t sell vehicles, they have access to services and offers that they wouldn’t otherwise get through a 3rd party brand. Additionally, the ability to physically visit your dealership gives consumers a sense of comfort, when making a large purchase.

When consumers visit your website after visiting 3rd party websites and leveraging their tools, they aren’t necessarily looking to interact with the same tools or content they just did. They’re much more interested in tools, data or specific content tied to your dealership brand and inventory. Independent 3rd party brands do provide a high level of value and let me be clear, I’m  not saying you shouldn’t work with them. My point is that their data can only be so relevant or accurate to what is actually going to transcribe with a transaction at the dealership. That's why there is still tremendous value to visiting the dealership's site. It’s also why what you provide visitors to interact with MUST be unique to your dealership and brand.

What can offer in unique brand values and perks, along with your ability to assist consumers throughout the whole process, are many times what are the deciding factors on where to purchase. Many times, even overriding just price as a driving factor on where to buy.

When it comes to learning how to generate new sales leads, your dealership’s brand is arguably the most important aspect of your marketing strategy. Unfortunately, there are still a number of dealerships who aren’t focused enough on their own brand; leading consumers to go to 3rd party websites in order to complete a transaction. This is obviously something that we don’t want.

Here are 2 major things that your dealership needs to QUIT doing going forward:

Quit Intentionally Sending People Off Your Website

One of the biggest issues I've seen, and continue to see, are dealerships who send their consumers off their site to 3rd party branded websites. It might seem like I'm making this up, but I assure you that I'm not.

The reason many dealerships do this is that they think they're providing consumers with a resource. I mean, technically they're correct. They're providing consumers with a place to find more valuable information. The problem is it isn't on the dealership's website. It’s like sending them back out where they can find competitors and be marketed to by someone else after working so hard for their visit to your website.

It’s enough that many of the 3rd party branded tools dealers use are over-branded and cookie cutter. To actually deliver them off your domain, back into competitor territory, just does not make sense.

Take note that it doesn’t make sense for the consumer either. They’ve likely already been where you're sending them and have interacted with 3rd party tools or content already. They came to your site to learn about you or receive something that validates what they learned elsewhere.

Instead of sending these valuable consumers to a 3rd party website to learn more about a particular vehicle, fill out a credit application or appraise their vehicle, put all those resources on your own website. There's absolutely no reason why your website can't be just as credible and trustworthy as more well-known brands.

Quit Prioritizing 3rd party Brands Over your Own

Another issue plaguing dealerships is that they're completely unwilling to relinquish 3rd party tools and branding from their own website. Once again, I implore you to STOP!

There isn't anything wrong with these 3rd party trade-in and evaluation tools. However, like I mentioned before, most of your consumer base visits these 3rd party websites during the beginning of their research. If they've already gone  through the process of assessing their trade and going through additional experiences on that 3rd party website, what makes you think that they'll leverage the same exact tools on your dealership's website? They know the results won't change, so why would they go through it again? There's no point in putting a KBB or BlackBook tool if you know several of your consumers have already used those tools.

Instead of integrating these 3rd party trade in tools on your website, focus on integrating other types of experiences onto your website. Create a 1st party trade or retail reporting tool. It can still provide a 3rd party brand placed in the bottom corner that validates the source of information is legitimate. However, your brand should be the shining all-star at the top.

Custom build assessments and quizzes are a great way to engage with prospective customers while capturing valuable lead data. Instead of using another brand's logos and templates, custom assessments and quizzes allow your dealership the opportunity to put your brand on display. You can ask unique questions and offer experiences that many of the quintessential 3rd party tools don't have. Additionally, you can add branding elements to your price and your financing that make it uniquely yours. Think of these interactions as ‘self-service’ interactions that can also generate leads. Not obstacles that force website visitors to talk with salespeople. Not only does this add credibility to your dealership, but your dealership becomes distinguishable almost immediately.