A vendor stack is not a marketing strategy for a dealer group.

Four decisions and a plan. Department and segment priority, meaning how new, used, finance and insurance, service and parts are funded across your rooftops; positioning and proof, meaning why a shopper should choose your store over the same model twelve minutes away; channel roles, meaning what search, the website, third-party listings, social, owner marketing and co-op programmes are each for; and budget and measurement, meaning owners, spend and the numbers leadership reviews weekly. The output is a written marketing plan, not a workshop summary.

An agency or platform executes a plan and is paid for the channels it runs. This engagement writes the plan, and because we take no media, website, feed or reselling work inside it, the plan can say that a vendor should be cut, that third-party listing spend is buying units you would have sold anyway, or that next quarter's money belongs in service and owner marketing. The deliverable includes a one-page brief written so any agency or vendor, including your current ones, can deliver against it.

Neither. We are not buy-sell advisers, we are not a dealer 20 group, and we give no accounting, valuation, floor plan, finance and insurance compliance or legal advice. This is a fixed-scope marketing strategy engagement that reads your own statements and operating data and produces one written plan, then ends. Where the question is the wider commercial constraint on growth, dealership growth advisory is the engagement.

No. The plan states what the website and each feed or listing account has to achieve, what merchandising and proof information belongs on it, and how it is measured, then hands that to whoever executes. Keeping the strategy separate from the platform contracts is the point: a plan written by a team that also bills for the platform tends to recommend the platform.

Because units and gross have separated. Q2 2026 benchmark data shows gross per new unit down 13.5% and per used unit down 10.0% year over year, with fixed operations now producing 52.8% of total dealership gross. A plan that funds vehicle advertising at the expense of service, parts and owner retention can hit every volume target and still deliver a worse year.

A fixed fee quoted after a scoping call, with deliverables and dates written down before you commit. It varies with the number of rooftops, franchises and departments in scope and the state of your data, so publishing a rate would mislead most readers. For context on scale, NADA Data 2025 puts average advertising expenses at $586,246 per dealership, and The CMO Survey puts marketing at 9.0% of company revenue across industries. Book a meeting for a scope and a number.

We set one standard and apply it. Sold units are reconciled from your own records, then lead sources are mapped to them once, so a single delivery is credited once instead of three times. Where the data cannot support a conclusion, the plan says so and states what must change. Implementation of that reporting layer sits with marketing operations consulting or your own team, not inside this engagement.

Yes, and usually as a priority rather than an appendix. NADA Data 2025 reports average dealership service and parts sales of $9,687,942 across 16,252 repair orders, at $494 per customer repair order. Retention, reminder and reactivation programmes, capacity and appointment availability, and how service customers become vehicle buyers are all strategy decisions, not shop admin.

Same structure, different mechanics. Powersports demand is more seasonal and more discretionary, unit mix moves with model year and used values, and parts, apparel and accessories carry a larger share of gross. February 2026 retail data showed an 11.65% year-over-year increase across new and used models, with new units up 4.08% against a 16.54% decline the previous February, so the plan is built around season shape rather than an even quarterly spend.

Yes, within the agreed scope. Recent buyers, shoppers who bought elsewhere and service-only customers are the fastest route to a positioning claim that survives the showroom floor, and they will tell you exactly which part of the process cost you the deal. Interviews are short and confidential, and findings feed the positioning platform rather than being published.

Different question. Dealership growth advisory looks for the commercial constraint on growth wherever it sits, including inventory turn, the vendor stack, lead-to-sold conversion and fixed operations. Marketing strategy consulting takes the commercial model as given and answers what marketing should do about it: department and segment priority, positioning, channel roles, budget and measurement. Groups that already know their constraint usually want this one.

Yes, and it treats them as a funding source with conditions rather than a strategy. The plan states which programme money is genuinely incremental, which compliance requirements shape creative and media choices, and where co-op is pulling budget toward channels your own data does not support. We give no guidance on your franchise agreements themselves.

Yes, and we will say plainly where it limits a conclusion. We work from the financial statements first, reconcile the dealer management system, customer relationship system, call tracking and vendor dashboards against them, and label which findings are solid and which are directional. That reconciliation is usually the first time a group sees one number per rooftop.

No, it is often the right first step, because the plan states what a group marketing leader would have to do and what stays with vendors. Where the question is really structure and sequencing of hires, marketing team advisory covers it, and where you need someone to lead the function while you build it a fractional CMO is the engagement. Both are quoted separately.

Your team runs it, and every workstream has a named owner on your side. Many groups book a review at ninety days to check the leading indicators and adjust the sequence, which takes half a day and is optional. Where you want a standing numbers habit instead, scorecard advisory sets one up and hands it back. The parent engagement is marketing strategy consulting, and execution, if you want us to do it, is scoped separately.