There’s been an interesting discussion going on over on DealerRefresh titled “Is Paying for an Award False Advertising?”

I’ve heard many opinions over the years from all perspectives – from vendors who have won them to vendors who have not, from consultants and from dealers.

My take is that an award is only meaningful if it is a significant factor in a potential customer’s decision to do business with you.

There aren’t a ton of awards for vendors in existence. The ones that do exist are, in most cases, given BY a vendor TO a vendor.

I don’t believe that most dealers have knowledge of, or give weight to, industry awards for a simple reason: they’ve never heard of either the award, the awarding “authority”, or both.

Until an award exists that dealers are aware of and give weight to, in my opinion, receiving an award only gives a vendor the ability to do one thing that their competitors cannot:

What do you think?

Are industry awards meaningful?

If so, which ones do you believe have authority and could influence a prospect’s decision-making and why?

[P.S. I’m starting the “Arnold Automotive Awards”. If you want to be considered for one of these prestigious awards, please contact me to make billing arrangements.]