All of my DealerRefresh articles are inspired by something I have come across recently. This one is certainly no exception.  As most dealership employees whose job focuses around “the Internet” I too wear quite a few hats. One of those hats screams I am the CRM Dude at my dealer group. It is actually one of my favorite responsibilities because it is a never-ending cycle of developing better process, and I find that fun! In my travels from store to store, I come across the same question from frustrated sales people again and again:

Why hasn’t this CRM stuff helped me sell any more cars?

Many of the conversations we get on the DealerRefresh forums are about dealership CRM choices and practices.  With all the different conversations cycling around this topic, I have to assume that many dealers are changing or signing up with a new CRM company.  I’m very glad to see the industry taking this extremely important technology more seriously, but I wonder if we might overlook some things during a change.

When changing CRM or ILM companies, you have to change your Internet lead address.  It is a seriously major pain in the ass if you have a lot of lead providers (OEM’s, third-party, freebies, classified sites, your own site, etc.).  If you’ve made a change, did you forget a lead provider?  Did you remember to inform CarFax, Vast, Google Base, or one of those other sites that you don’t pay directly for leads?

I have a suggestion that will make this change only take 5 minutes and open up many more opportunities for your leads:

A list of affordable Internet Lead Manager tools

Here is a question I get a lot…

“Do you have a few Lead Management Tools that you can provide
to me off the top of your head?”

or

“My dealer currently doesn’t have a full CRM but I need an ILM to work my Internet leads. Do you know of any affordable ($200-400.00 a month) Internet Lead Management tool available?”

Maybe I’m lost but I too have to ask “where are all the affordable ILM tools“? For many Internet sales representative having an affordable ILM tool is vital. Believe it or not, there are a lot of dealers that still do not have a full fledge Customer Relation Manager (CRM) tool and as you know, many of the CRM’s have ILM features but are more of an after thought and lack what you really need.

Most of us have used or are still using either AVV Webcontrol or Cobalts LMCC. These 2 ILM tools used to be the only options available for dealers. Then after the initial offering from AVV and Cobalt, a few more ILM tools that cropped up.

iMagiclabs (then known as icarconnect) had a top shelf ILM tool that I believe eventually evolved into their full CRM. eLead also had an Internet lead management system that was quit robust but this too turned into a full CRM. Both of these vendors I believe still offer their ILM product as an a la carte but I’m not 100% sure anymore.

Since I get this question a lot, AND since I too have sort of lost touch with all the different ILM tools available, lets get a list going. I’ll start off with the ones that I know..

1. Cobalt LMCC
2. AVV Webcontrol
3. iMagicLab ILM
4. MLM Dealer Sight
5. Dealerpeak E-Lead Manager
6. Dealer.com LeadMachine
7. AutoJocky Lead Manager
8. NetTrack Lead Management
9. VinSolutions MotoSnap ILM
10. CAR-Research

If you know of or are using an Internet Lead Management program that’s affordable and a good fit for dealers looking for a lead management tool for a 1 person or small Internet sales department, SPEAK UP!! Let us know what you think and what you’re paying.

If you’re a vendor and you offer an ILM solution…let us know what you offer. Feel free to include your features and pricing. I’ll be sure to add your link to this post.

One of the toughest jobs these days is picking the right technology for the job, so we’re going to take a different approach with something called the “Blueprint Series”.  The idea behind this series of articles is to tell our vendors what we want.  Hopefully they’ll take our ideas and put them into a product we can buy!

For the first Blueprint Series we’re focusing on automotive CRM solutions.  ADP, Reynolds & Reynolds, AutoBase, HigherGear, iMagicLabs, DealerSocket, eLeads, and all other CRM vendors please pay attention…but please do not come in here with comments saying “we do that”, “I am the solution for you”, etc.  WE DO NOT WANT VENDOR SPAMMING IN THIS THREAD.  If you have a selling message, please email Alex Snyder:  axsnyder@checkeredflag.com and he will point you in the right direction.

Dealer Refresh crowd – here’s your chance to put all your wishes on the table!  Please use the comments link to add your thoughts.

Starting with Alex’s first CRM wish:  Coming from a dealer group with competing franchises all on the same stretch of road we are prone for duplicate leads.  I’d like to have a single customer base, inside our CRM solution, that allows for a separate salesperson, salesmanager, BDC agent, service writer, service manager, etc to be attached to a single customer record for each store.  I’d also like vehicles of interest and vehicles owned to be unlimited for each customer record.

My Honda and Toyota stores are less than a mile apart, so I’d like to have a customer be able to have an interest in the Accord and the Camry….and have a different salesperson for each car.  I’d like to be able to send marketing messages on both the Camry and the Accord to that customer.

Yes, I understand this could get messy in the database, so we’ll have to figure out a way to clean things up.  However, I’d rather have my CRM cater to the real world than have to make the real world cater to the CRM.

"Our dealer is considering Higher Gear group and Autobase for our sales and service CRM program. Can you provide some insight to the pros and cons of each of these two CRM providers?".

These 2 CRM’s are frequently compared to each other. Both are server based and many dealers like the idea of having their CRM and customer information "in house" rather to the web based CRM programs.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used Autobase and it’s been over a year since I booted Higher Gear out of my current dealer. Therefore it’s not really fair for me to compare the 2 since I’m sure both have made changes and hopefully improvements since I have last used them.

I know there are a lot of readers using either Higher Gear or Autobase CRM and if you are one of those readers. Why not share some of your personal pros and cons for each CRM provider?

Share your pros and cons…

First off, I must admit this article is purely speculation based on rumors – it is about the future, and not set in stone.

Two things have come up this week, which are major concerns for me. One deals with the two big DMS providers: Reynolds & Reynolds and ADP. The second is something I heard about Toyota. We all know privacy laws have become more stringent than ever and continually evolve to encapsulate wider venues almost daily. It was simply a matter of time before the DMS providers had to jump on the privacy band-wagon by creating their own set of requirements.  This should be nothing new for a Reynolds & Reynolds dealer. Mostly this will affect third-party vendors. As an ADP dealer I am beginning to become familiar with their upcoming process. It seems as though they are offering vendors two steps: 1) The vendor has to purchase an API to gain DMS access (about $80,000) and 2) become certified through ADP (about an 18 month process…currently). Fortunately, dealers will be able to send out some information to vendors, but the more DMS information a vendor interacts with the harder it will be for that organization. I foresee the next few years being difficult in working with DMS information and vendors. We will have a short list of approved vendors to choose from.

To further shorten that list is the second part: our manufacturers. This part fully comes from the rumor-mill, but I heard Toyota is considering a new mandate. The mandate will require dealers to only use approved CRM/ILM vendors. This will be more stringent than what Honda currently does. Honda only wants to monitor certain areas of how Internet leads are handled, so they require a dealer to use a pre-approved list of vendors or offer dealers to pull leads through their own Honda Interactive Network. From what I heard about Toyota, they are considering only passing leads to dealers who use one of their pre-approved CRM/ILM vendors, and not offering any other alternatives to access Toyota leads. Speculation on the rumor vine, also states Toyota will take things even further by requiring the whole dealership use one of these vendors. Toyota is interested in not only how Internet leads are handled, but showroom traffic as well. Typically Toyota sets the franchise premises, so it is only a matter of time before other OEM’s move in the same direction.

If speculation becomes fact, this could mean dealers have an extremely short list of vendors to choose from. And dealer groups could be even more limited as one manufacturer requires a particular CRM/ILM that another manufacturer may not.

Can you see what a mess all of this could put all of us in?

P.S. One more time, this is purely speculation from the rumor-mill. I mention it on DealerRefresh to give everyone a heads-up on a potentially difficult future.

5 quick reasons why I hate CRM software for automotive dealers.

1. Lack of strong ILM utilities – Most CRM software fail to include a strong ILM (internet lead management) utility.
2. Workflow never works right -€“ when I say “€œworkflow”€ I mean your pre-determined automatic scheduled follow-up that you set up in your CRM tool. This might be a scheduled phone call on day 1, 3, 5 etc. or
   scheduled emails and/or letters. I have yet to find a CRM that is able to change its follow-up on the fly according to where a sales person determines what phase the customer is in.
3. Sold deals get LOCKED – If your CRM updates your Sold customers by pulling from your DMS, many CRM’€™s “€œlock”€ the Sold opportunity, making it impossible to make necessary changes to the customer or vehicle information.For example; you title the car in the business or company name and this overwrites the customer’s name that you have entered into your CRM. Now your “after sold” follow up letters are addressed to the business name rather the customer. Another example; a front end or back end gross changes but the CRM doesn’t  allow you to edit this since the opportunity has already been updated by the DMS.
4. They allow dealers to SPAM! – Yes..it’€™s SPAM. If you’re using your CRM to broadcast email specials to customers that inquired about a vehicle from your website or a 3rd party lead you bought from Dealix, AutoUSA, Cars.com, etc. and they have not opt-in for your specials email, you ARE SPAMMING! Remember, SPAM is the customer perception. (I’€™ll write more about this later).
5. Too much maintenance – You almost need a full time person to handle the administrative duties and the phone calls to tech support.

I could go on with another 5-10 more reason why I hate most CRM’s software. I’€™ll keep that for another continued post someday.

I need some help from my readers. Who is using or has used ADP web CRM and desking tool?

Fill myself and other readers in with the good and the bad.

• What features do you like and/or dislike?
• How would you rate their customer service?
• What ongoing issues have you had with ADP web CRM?
• How strong are the Internet Lead Management features?
• Would you recommend their CRM and Desking tool to other dealers?

Whatever information you would like to share would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance to anyone that has some information to share.

Share your comments.

Are you a Mercedes-Benz BDC Manager?

If so, I have put together an exclusive website just for us!

MercedesCRM.com – this is where you can go to voice your opinions and share your comments about the “Mercedes Qualified” CRM Vendors that Mercedes-Benz USA allowed you to choose from and are now currently using.

I took it upon myself to put this site together after attending the MB-BDC meeting in Philly. While I was there, someone had suggested that Managers should be supplied a list of dealers corresponding to each CRM Vendor. This would allow the Mercedes BDC Managers the ability to Network and “Team Up” with other Mercedes BDC Managers in order to help get enhancements features added or changed to their CRM Software. I thought it was a great idea! (if that person ever reads this..please send me an email!).

So, IF you are indeed a Mercedes BDC Manager, please visit MercedesCRM.com or link directly to your corresponding CRM Software Vendor page below.

• Higher Gear CRM
• UDC – Universal Dealer Consultants
• ADP web CRM
• Reynolds & Reynolds Contact Management
• AutoBase CRM
• NCompass CRM
• Elead CRM
• ReckonUp CRM

If you are not a Mercedes BDC manager but are using one of the mentioned CRM Vendors, please feel free to express your comments as well.

In this article, David Kain suggests how your dealers email Auto Response should be formated. David writes.."Unfortunately, most auto response emails are not an effective greeting for the dealership, and fail to arouse or motivate their audience." This is SO TRUE.

David reviews:
1. Decide who you want to sign the auto response
2. Use a subject line that is relevant to the customer
3. Use your logo
4. Keep it brief
5. Describe your process
6. Provide a link to your website
7. Sign it with complete contact information

Remember not to get too wordy when you describe your process. Keep it simple!

I would also like to add something to step #7. IF your a photogenic person, Include a photo of yourself. Now…I have heard and have read about some consultants not agreeing with this action. However, from my own personal experience, including a photo of yourself really adds a personal touch to your emails/auto responder and can increase your response rate. Plus, I have found that your customer is more likely to ask for you by name when they visit the dealership.

Read the entire Article :: Dealix Dealer Newsletter: Create an Effective Auto Response Email.