In the highly competitive automotive market, dealerships depend heavily on third-party vendors to help drive sales, generate leads, and enhance the customer experience. These vendors play an essential role in the dealership’s growth, whether they provide digital marketing services, lead generation, or CRM solutions. However, to ensure that these partnerships deliver tangible results, dealerships must establish clear expectations, track the right performance metrics, and focus on long-term outcomes.
Key Metrics for Evaluating Vendor Performance
To maximize the impact of third-party vendors, dealerships must measure their performance using data-driven metrics. Understanding how well a vendor contributes to sales and overall growth is essential for making informed decisions. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on include:
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VDP Total Engagement: Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) Total Engagement measures how often customers interact with your vehicle listings. This metric indicates a vendor’s ability to generate interest in your inventory and drive traffic to your website. Vendors that consistently increase VDP engagement help attract more leads and create more opportunities for sales.
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CRM Data: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data is vital for tracking how vendors contribute to the sales funnel. By analyzing initial customer interactions, follow-up communications, and lead responses, dealerships can evaluate a vendor's effectiveness in moving prospects through the sales journey. This data allows for informed adjustments in strategies to optimize conversion rates.
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Soft vs. Hard Conversion Events: It’s essential to differentiate between soft and hard conversion events when evaluating vendor performance. Soft conversions, such as VDP views or click-to-call interactions, show early-stage customer interest. Hard conversions—like finalized sales or signed financing agreements—directly translate to revenue. Tracking both types of conversions gives a complete picture of how vendors impact the customer journey and where they may need to improve.
The Importance of Long-Term Performance Evaluation
Evaluating vendor performance shouldn’t be based on short-term fluctuations. In the automotive industry, it's normal to experience ups and downs, but reacting impulsively to temporary setbacks can harm valuable vendor relationships. Dealerships should assess performance over a longer time frame, typically 90 days, to get an accurate sense of a vendor’s consistent value.
Avoid making snap decisions based on short-term results. A vendor's performance should be assessed in the context of their long-term contribution to the dealership's success. By taking a steady approach and reviewing data over time, dealerships can avoid overcorrection and make decisions that are based on reliable, long-term trends.
The Role of Transparency in Vendor Accountability
Transparency is key to ensuring that vendor accountability is upheld. Dealerships must communicate clearly with vendors about expectations and performance goals while using accurate data to track progress. When both parties are aligned on objectives and performance standards, it becomes easier to assess whether the partnership is delivering the desired results.
Accurate, transparent data enables dealerships to make well-informed decisions about their vendors. Regularly monitoring key performance indicators ensures that any issues are addressed proactively, leading to better outcomes for the dealership.
Data-Driven Decisions for Vendor Success
Measuring vendor success is about more than just tracking short-term results; it’s about using data to make informed, long-term decisions. By focusing on key metrics such as VDP Total Engagement, CRM data, and conversion events, dealerships can gain clear insights into how their vendors contribute to growth.
It’s essential to stay steady, avoid overreacting to temporary performance dips, and look at results over a longer period. With the right metrics and a focus on long-term growth, dealerships can ensure that their vendors remain effective contributors to their success.
Accountability and trust are key, and at Edifice, we prioritize transparency with our partner dealers. The primary goal is to show exactly who we are targeting, who is stopping into your dealership, and who is purchasing vehicles or servicing their car. Click the link below to get an up-close walk-through of how our data surpasses all vendors you've worked with before.
