Richard Keith Latman - The Blog

iMagicLab to Acquire Higher Gear - Industry Old Guard to be Absorbed into Fast Growing Auto Dealer CRM Leader

For the past 7 years I have dreamed about that headline, dreamed about the promise and, well, it's still just a dream. To fully understand you have to transport yourself back to 2004.... transporting....

In 2004 iMagicLab was iCarMagic (until the good folks at i-car.com got a little testy) and we were the golden boys of Internet Lead Management. Our first customer was Rafi Hamid at the Napleton Auto Group (who are still customers) and some of their stores used the Cadillac of CRM's at the time: Higher Gear. Now Higher Gear, or HigherGear or The Higher Gear Group or whatever they are called, had no Internet lead capacity to speak of. They were, and are to the best of my knowledge, server based and brilliantly designed to monitor the showroom with ease. Higher Gear in my estimation didn't (and doesn't today) do anything else but the showroom floor well, but at the time they were the best in town. So I, being the enterprising mind, sent their CEO Robert C. Gruen an email that said, and I am paraphrasing here, "lets work together and merge our ILM with your CRM to rule the World!". Well after feigning interest for a bit to both Rafi and I, Gruen sends an email which kills the integration and announces he has a "web based system in beta". Has anyone seen it yet? Sorry, I digress

So lots of time passes, iMagicLab builds the strongest CRM technology on the planet, completely web-based and Internet/Service/Pencil enabled and we literally convert Higher Gear clients at will. 2010 relegates Higher Gear and AutoBase to the old guard (pioneers none the less) and companies like iMagicLab, VIN Solutions and DealerSocket take the mantel. There is really no contest here, iMagicLab and DealerSocket compete for every deal while VIN, well, VIN, um, help me lawyers, well, VIN kinda is creative in its outright lies (with Doug Kinney gone maybe Sean Wolfington will bring honor back).

With this background I see a press release, pinged to me from my old friend Troy Smock over at izmo cars, that Higher Gear has just received an investment from a VC. Yes, you heard that right, an "investment" from a VC. After reading this I instantly have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and email the VC "what are you thinking?". OK, bad move, I apologize and move on.

My next email is to my old friend Robert C. Gruen who is the newly installed CEO of the company he founded (how does that work?). I say "Robert, let's get busy: your client list with our technology and we own the market". I can feel the dealers collectively sing a joyous hymn while they throw out the old and move into THIS century's technology. Oh, it will be win/win/win/win and even the VC will be happy.

Um, No, you kidding? Here's the response I get: "your technology SUCKS" hahahahaha

I could go on to tell you the rest of the email exchange but besides calling me a criminal and scum bag many times in his best Blagovich impression (with bad grammar I might add) its not worthy of much. I, of course, ended up challenging him to a CRM Bake Off for $50,000 and the line went dead. 

However many dealers they still have in their declining roster are out of luck for now... My dream is not dead though, I just have to wait another 7 years or until the beta Higher Gear promised us in 2004 gets released: Whichever comes first (bet on the 7 years)

How Do You Know You Build Good Technology? Who Cares?

Today was the kind of day that every entrepreneur hates: System hardware failure by fire, massive usage and some frayed overworked nerves combined to produce chaos. My life experience really benefits me here because there is very little that can unnerve me. For those of you trying to get a clue how to build companies just remember my living creed: At the core of every technology, every complicated system and each chained process is the foolproof system that can fix any problem: Your patience.

I always design and engineer systems to push the envelope and to make complicated problems seem easy. No doubt that folks who work with me understand the rule is to find solutions, not problems, and on days like today it really shows. ANY other small company would have wilted on the vine and died today with the challenge of rerouting tens of thousands of users, rebuilding a data center and moving 12 TB's of mirrored data in 9 hours. Team iMagicLab did not flinch, we saw what needed to get done and we got it done.

Oh, so back to my original question: How do you know when you build good technology? Who cares, it's the team that supports the technology that matters. Any problem can be solved with the right team and the right team can make the impossible seem easy. Today I am proud to lead iMagicLab, proud owner of the best technology team in our business.

Keith

P.S. Did I mention websites were coming soon? First look at http://www.nissan1.com for the product of the largest website company in our space. See stuff that needs to be fixed? :) Oct. 1 baby... Oct 1...

Wow... Dealer Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a Popular Topic for Auto Dealers

So I post a little note about website SEO and a firestorm of responses and emails appear. You would think that I attacked a house of worship or maybe even criticized the Red Sox. Look, there are plenty of fine SEO experts that I believe in but my question remains: Why do car dealers get fleeced by website companies for Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

I already mentioned the basic tenants of what I consider good SEO in my previous post so I don't feel the need to repeat it. What is fundamental is that any company claiming to be a website company should provide these services at NO additional charge. Heck, as long as I am at it, let's go over what I feel any legitimate reputable website company should provide included in the lowest priced offering they have:

1. Embedded Google Analytics with the Username and Password. Without independent metrics and without the administrative password how do you know what you are REALLY buying? I'm not saying folks inflate the numbers of visitors you get (or am I) but since this is a free check and balance why should you not have it? Also if you run ANY paid AdSense program YOU should own the account and see the exact bids etc. It just common sense

2. Complete integration with your CRM tool.It's your website isn't it? You need one pile of data when this is all said and done so your website company cooperating with your CRM company is critical. If I have to hear one more time that a website company won't frame in a form or send traffic data to a place where it can be best used....

3. Dedicated Mobile Versions.It's cool to standardize for 1024x768 and a normal desktop screen but mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe just maybe your website company, who makes a living doing this, should include mobile versions that play well on the small screen?

4. Realtime Chat and Profiles.The website is the front door to your car dealership on the web so it needs to be knowledgeable about the customer, his service history and her buying needs. A web site without intelligence is just, well, it's just dumb. Make sure your website company connects all the dots without any additional charges.

5. A Dedicated Person to Make Changes for You.In 1999 it was cool to make your own changes to a website from the dealership. In 2010 you need that done for you, professionally and quickly. Don't give me some complex backend with scripting and a PHD required, give me a person to do it for me.

6. Deliver Results. Need I say more? Random visitors are not results, sales are. If that company can't track it end to end and show measurable results you should find another Dealer website company. This isn't magic folks...

More to come folks, send your emails :)

Richard Keith Latman

How Long will Website Companies Fleece Dealers with Fake SEO Products?

So as many of you know iMagicLab is about to enter the car dealer website business and as expected I surveyed the landscape pretty hard. There are many companies that "build" auto dealership websites like Dealerskins, Reynolds and Reynolds, ADP, Buzz Trak, TKCarSites, DealerFire and others. Notice I put the word "build" in quotes? Well, thats because most are just templates that masquerade as custom sites and there is really nothing unique.

Nevermind that, I am on my soapbox about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization products that dealers pay huge dollars for and get virtually nothing. There, I said it, Dealers are getting ripped off again by technology companies selling SEO features that should be standard on any product claiming to be a website. I am not saying that all companies in our space rip people off for SEO, but most provide nearly NO measurable value for the money they charge.

For free, no charge, I am going to give away my 3 point secret to better search engine performance. Just do these three things (which will be included in our website product for free) and I PROMISE you will get more real measurable sales from better leads:

• Keyword-focused text. Use the words and phrases that your target audience types into search queries.
• Information architecture and page layout. Give both search engines and searchers easy access to content while providing a sense of place and clear scents of information.
• Link development. Increase the number and quality of objective, third-party links pointing to a Web page.

Can't believe I just did that, I just gave you the secret sauce of just about every credible SEO expert in the World. Don't trust me? Call anyone outside of the car biz and ask, ask them the way to get better SEO and ask them if I am right. It's not hard, it's not expensive and it's just a lot of common sense.

Now I know a lot of people are gonna say "oh Latman's a Felon, he doesn't know" but the truth is difficult to hide. Oh, wait, these companies can't actually provide complete end-to-end reporting so that you can measure real ROI from these SEO "programs" (there I go with the quotes again)? All they can tell you is how many leads or how many "hits" you get? Keeping you in the dark is the best way to sell this kind of smoke and mirrors...

The veil is about to be lifted folks... stay tuned

ObamaCare Finally Revealed - Amazing Reality

Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,"a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March. 

Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.  

"For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,"said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. "If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all."

Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, "This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law.  It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy."

Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare "a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families."
 
In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:

• $569 billion in higher taxes;
• $529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
• swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
• 17 major insurance mandates; and
• the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.

Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. "This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this."

Download Obamacare_Chart