It would be easy for me to attribute the success of DealersLink to simply hard work or the determination of my all-star team, but that just wouldn’t be honest. As I said in my last blog, I truly believe we’re all products of our environment, and the environment that DealersLink was born into is an extremely competitive one. From the get-go, we have faced competition from every angle, and it has been more than just a race for success. It has been a race for survival.
I couldn’t tell our story without mentioning vAuto, our biggest competitor. DealersLink and vAuto are like two siblings – constantly fighting for their parents’ attention, except their parents’ attention is the entire automotive industry. Since the inception of DealersLink, vAuto has always been alongside us, competing with our products and continuously innovating. With consolidation over the years, our competitors have become fewer and fewer, and DealersLink and vAuto have emerged as industry front runners.
Most great companies are forged by the R&D pressure of their most capable competitor. DealersLink is no different. Now, dealers benefit from vibrant competition between the two strongest tech companies in our space going head-to-head every day. When one of us does something, the other must one up it. It’s just what the industry expects at this point. While this situation can be frustrating at times, we’re grateful to have such a close competitor that has forced us to push harder and create a product superior to theirs.
So, all things considered, does tougher competition lead to a better product?
I’ll let you be the judge of that, but I can tell you that without a competitor like vAuto, it would’ve been much harder to understand what our competition was thinking and what our customers were expecting.
Do you think tight competition leads to a better product? Leave your answer in the comments!