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Looking for feedback on various CRM products

Biggest issue, they are not certified with our OEM, so they have some sort of third party work around. Additionally, I will lose a large amount of client notes with the conversion. Apparently, they also use my email domain for outbound emails, which could accelerate our domain getting blacklisted as a spam source. That being said, there are also some very cool features and reporting looks better/easier.

I always loved the custom reports I could build, I also loved the ROI report! I had it set up where my sales floor was paperless, only thing we printed was 4 square or proposal, everything else was printed in F&I office. No lost credit apps, or reports, DL etc. Everything was done in the system and saved! We cut out paper bill down by 80%.
 
So, we're getting down to the wire, I want to get another demo in so I have my due diligence, it's a much bigger project than I expected. DealerSocket and ELeads are looking good.


Hi Bill,

I am one of the Territory Managers at VinSolutions. Would you like to see a demo of VinSolutions? If you want I can set up a demo for you. My email is [email protected].

I hope to hear from you!
 
Hi Bill,

I am one of the Territory Managers at VinSolutions. Would you like to see a demo of VinSolutions? If you want I can set up a demo for you. My email is [email protected].

I hope to hear from you!

Welcome to the forums.
You should take a trip to the welcome forums and introduce yourself and maybe take a read through the rules - especially the part about self-promotion ;)
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/mistakes-not-to-make-here-on-dealerrefresh.2491/
 
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Reactions: JessicaRuth
First, if expense is your main issue you've screwed up already. These are your customer records you are dealing with; tracking, follow-up, and more. So you pay $1000 extra per month. If that saves you even 1 deal it pays for itself.

Disregard price to start, and make that a final decision maker if you are on the fence about two competing systems. Take each CRM product and match it to your wants and needs. Do you want in-depth reporting? Skate alerts? Do you have strong desk control where every customer gets logged? If so, are your salespeople unable to cope with complexity? Small store, large store? Integration with your DMS? Integration with your phone systems? Accesses? Platform stability

My recommendations. We had Vinsolutions but once they were purchased by Dominion they went straight downhill in all aspects. The Dealertrack CRM? Not robust in any way. Dealer.com? Overly complex for a system that doesn't do all that much. e-Leads? Good system when used properly but an absolute disaster if not. Dealersocket? I like it. In fact, our last CRM changeover I voted for that product but I was over-ruled and we went to e-Leads (which is okay. But again, complex and it MUST be used properly).

Anything from Reynolds and they lay claim to your customer data (I worked for them; I know. Read the contract. They own your customer information). ADP? That is based on the old Cobalt Prospector system and hasn't been majorly updated. Plus, with that on must look at overall cost because most of the useful features are ala carte and get majorly expensive.

The smaller ones? You may come across something that works great for you, but you need to investigate them carefully.

On any CRM, have them send you a list of referrals of similar size stores in similar market areas. You will find out exactly what you need that way.
 
First, if expense is your main issue you've screwed up already. These are your customer records you are dealing with; tracking, follow-up, and more. So you pay $1000 extra per month. If that saves you even 1 deal it pays for itself.

Disregard price to start, and make that a final decision maker if you are on the fence about two competing systems. Take each CRM product and match it to your wants and needs. Do you want in-depth reporting? Skate alerts? Do you have strong desk control where every customer gets logged? If so, are your salespeople unable to cope with complexity? Small store, large store? Integration with your DMS? Integration with your phone systems? Accesses? Platform stability

My recommendations. We had Vinsolutions but once they were purchased by Dominion they went straight downhill in all aspects. The Dealertrack CRM? Not robust in any way. Dealer.com? Overly complex for a system that doesn't do all that much. e-Leads? Good system when used properly but an absolute disaster if not. Dealersocket? I like it. In fact, our last CRM changeover I voted for that product but I was over-ruled and we went to e-Leads (which is okay. But again, complex and it MUST be used properly).

Anything from Reynolds and they lay claim to your customer data (I worked for them; I know. Read the contract. They own your customer information). ADP? That is based on the old Cobalt Prospector system and hasn't been majorly updated. Plus, with that on must look at overall cost because most of the useful features are ala carte and get majorly expensive.

The smaller ones? You may come across something that works great for you, but you need to investigate them carefully.

On any CRM, have them send you a list of referrals of similar size stores in similar market areas. You will find out exactly what you need that way.

Baron
VinSolutions was purchased by AutoTrader.com/Cox Automotive in 2011 with the consensus that they got better after the sale. Autobase was the CRM that purchased by Dominion and the big difference between it and most of the other tools on the market is that it was/is server based. I wanted to clear up any confusion.
 
First, if expense is your main issue you've screwed up already. These are your customer records you are dealing with; tracking, follow-up, and more. So you pay $1000 extra per month. If that saves you even 1 deal it pays for itself.

Disregard price to start, and make that a final decision maker if you are on the fence about two competing systems. Take each CRM product and match it to your wants and needs. Do you want in-depth reporting? Skate alerts? Do you have strong desk control where every customer gets logged? If so, are your salespeople unable to cope with complexity? Small store, large store? Integration with your DMS? Integration with your phone systems? Accesses? Platform stability

My recommendations. We had Vinsolutions but once they were purchased by Dominion they went straight downhill in all aspects. The Dealertrack CRM? Not robust in any way. Dealer.com? Overly complex for a system that doesn't do all that much. e-Leads? Good system when used properly but an absolute disaster if not. Dealersocket? I like it. In fact, our last CRM changeover I voted for that product but I was over-ruled and we went to e-Leads (which is okay. But again, complex and it MUST be used properly).

Anything from Reynolds and they lay claim to your customer data (I worked for them; I know. Read the contract. They own your customer information). ADP? That is based on the old Cobalt Prospector system and hasn't been majorly updated. Plus, with that on must look at overall cost because most of the useful features are ala carte and get majorly expensive.

The smaller ones? You may come across something that works great for you, but you need to investigate them carefully.

On any CRM, have them send you a list of referrals of similar size stores in similar market areas. You will find out exactly what you need that way.

Hi Baron,

Thanks for the input, It's definitely a value, not cost approach. I have a pretty clear view of what we want, there are some nice products out there. If you could expand on your comments about ELeads being a disaster if not used correctly. Of course, these are all "garbage in, garbage out".

Bill