Need a few Specific CRM functions

[johnnyfs]

Hey All,

Sorry of this is another couple noob questions.

1. OK, we have a CRM but its a bit gimpy. I would like to be able to add leads (well, auto imported would be best) and have their vehicle selections labeled so that every time new inventory comes in instantly a list pops up of people who are interested in a particular vehicle. The reason being that there are certain models we get that sell instantly - though there may be 5-10 leads on it. I'd liek to be able to contact the ones who missed out when we get another one in.

Also, for that contact I would like an email system where it's point and click, so I don't have to send the same email out x amount of times. That should be ok as their initial email will be individually replied to, so our mailing address should be fine.

Is there anything I'm missing here (rules and regulations, best practices etc...)? need more info, or do you know what I'm after?

2. How do you track sales from internet leads? I ask as I'm not physically in the dealership...not much anyway, maybe once a month. So if they don't tell me, I have no idea. Is there a more statistical method than the honour system?

Thanks in advance-

Aaron

 

[NLorenzo]

Which CRM are you using, specifically?

The last couple of CRM we used here (Autobase and now VIN Solutions) have had a "Want List" or "Wish List" function attached to a customer, where we can designate make, model, year, price, etc.

The VIN Solutions "Wish List" function lets us specify to have the salesperson and/or manager notified whenever a match is found. I would not be surprised if most of the others you'll come across have a similar function.

As for "point and click" emails, are you referring to being able to knock out an email with a template and not type each one out, send out certain followup emails automatically or just blast a list of customers with a specific email? All three of those are pretty common among the few CRM tools I've observed, so depending on which CRM you have you might already have those functions.

As far as tracking which internet leads result in sales, that one's a two-fold battle. For one thing, you've got have salespeople in your CRM not creating duplicate records and distributing your customer history across several leads/customers. If they don't follow a constant practice, your data will lose integrity over time and tracking becomes a tangled mess instead of a tidy web of customer history. Got to do it right the first time every time or it's eventually useless as a measuring tool.

The second portion is just staying up to speed. If you're expected to be able to keep on top of this data -particularly if your pay is tied to it- then you should have access to your CRM "high enough" to let you check in on customers you've set to be in, regardless of whether they are in your name or not. Even with the best equipment and systems, there's still going to need to be that due diligence to keep tabs on every customer you can - a good tool just helps to make that part easier and less time consuming.

If your CRM supports none of this, I suggest getting very comfortable with spreadsheets and making your own tidy trail of data to follow. I'm still in possession of our year-over-year trending data and lead distribution curves from when our former CRM did not support these functions, for that very reason.

Hopefully some of that answers your questions.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Hey All,

1. OK, we have a CRM but its a bit gimpy. I would like to be able to add leads (well, auto imported would be best) and have their vehicle selections labeled so that every time new inventory comes in instantly a list pops up of people who are interested in a particular vehicle. The reason being that there are certain models we get that sell instantly - though there may be 5-10 leads on it. I'd liek to be able to contact the ones who missed out when we get another one in.

A lot of the better CRM tools have this.

Also, for that contact I would like an email system where it's point and click, so I don't have to send the same email out x amount of times. That should be ok as their initial email will be individually replied to, so our mailing address should be fine.

Most good CRM have the ability to send a mass e-mail to a client list that can be very specific. For instance, let's sat you want to search for all customers who own a 2007 Accord and you want to tell them about a trade-in program, you can do that. When they reply, the e-mail will go to the person who has ownership of that lead.

2. How do you track sales from internet leads? I ask as I'm not physically in the dealership...not much anyway, maybe once a month. So if they don't tell me, I have no idea. Is there a more statistical method than the honour system?

Most good CRM's can notify a rep if a duplicate customer is entered that matches yours. Or they'll have a duplicate customer report. Worst case, you run a sales report and then start comparing it to your leads.

Basically, if you can imagine it, somebody probably has it.

 

[johnnyfs]

Thanks for the replies.

I figured that would be basic capability. As for the email, I would prefer sequential mailing, as I think that has a higher deliverability into their inbox, but a blast is fine if that's what there is.

I have administrator access already, but that is a moot point as this CRM is crap...no one besides me uses it.

The situation is a little more complicated as that CRM is tied to our host...so a new CRM means a new site. We do have another one, and we were discussing last week that we should only have 1. This seems like a prod in that direction.

I guess it's time to go CRM shopping.

And thanks for the support - you guys really go out of your way to give quality answers. It is appreciated.

 

[Alex Snyder]

[T]his CRM is crap...no one besides me uses it.

That's a strong statement.

I certainly agree with you that there are definitely some crap CRM's out there. I'm curious as to why you say you're the only using your current CRM? Do you mean you're the only person putting it through its paces, or you're the only employee logging in?

 

[Shawn Morse]

Aaron
No matter how good and/or easy to use any CRM is it can only be as effective as the people using it. What I am trying to say is that if you are the only person in the dealership using the very best CRM it still wont be effective unless you have universal buy-in from the rest of the team. It sounds like you are using 2 CRM systems, I cant imagine how much trouble that must be. Is there one or the other that gets used by others in your store? I think the first step would be to chose one of the systems you currently have in place and than reaching out to that vendor and getting some training for the entire staff. I would think your GM/DP would back you on this plan as you are probably going to end up saving them $$$ by moving to a single system and often times that goes a long way towards making sure everyone in the dealership "buys-in". There are a number of really good trainers that frequent this site and I am sure they would be happy to help as well.

 

[johnnyfs]

Ok, some background.

First, I worked at the company that developed the CRM, so I know the guy who developed it (in fact, he remains my programmer to this day). His description of it is even more strongly negative than mine. He can't do much though as he's pulled in a million directions.

In terms of issues, the big one I have is being able to search leads by vehicle, so when you add new inventory, you can go back and search through the leads and see who has been interested in that vehicle and send them off an email. That is not possible. It's actually weird as most info is auto imported from trader or the site (our 2 big sources of leads) yet the vehicle is not one of them. You have to manually add that. There is no email functionality whatsoever.

Plus, there are some huge sync issues. The CRM in integrated with the inventory on our site. That inventory is pulled from a feed from trader, so theoretically the trader inventory should be the same as the site inventory. But that is not the case. I've had leads come in from the site that I deleted from trader literally a week (or weeks) earlier, and then when I search for them in the backend of the site I can't find them. Or when I search the inventory on the front end. So i have no idea how they found these cars. I can get there with an exact link though.

Plus there are other tabs within the CRM that remain useless....3years later (I worked there when it was launched). Meaning there is still a fairly high manual element. Its because of this and the other shortcomings that no one uses it.

I got the job cuz I made their website - my "day job" these days is affiliate marketing - which means 1. I know my way around software, 2. this position isn't my bread and butter, which means I'm a little more relaxed and have freedom in terms of what I say and do, and 3. know a thing or two about persuasion and conversion. All of that, that, plus the fact that I used to teach college English (meaning good spelling and grammar, quickly typed forum posts excluded) is why he offered the position to me. I am officially tasked with developing the internet department. And I have to say...I don't really know what I'm doing.

Sorry for the tangent. I wanted to give the full picture of where I'm coming from.

Anyway, there is only 1 CRM, but it is so integrated with the inventory that he is hesitant to change. Plus, we get the whole shebang for $300 a month. I don't know what other CRMs cost, but I'd think it would be more. Perhaps if it was in the $500 a month range maybe. How much do decent ones cost?

Any other thoughts? Please let me know!

 

[Alex Snyder]

It sounds like the CRM solution is provided by your website provider and it is basically an "upsell" CRM. Just to put things in perspective: innovative CRM's cost anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000 per month per store.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

It sounds like the CRM solution is provided by your website provider and it is basically an "upsell" CRM. Just to put things in perspective: innovative CRM's cost anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000 per month per store.

I think that may be a thread ender right there. Great to see a Canadian posting on the forum.

This is a great place to get some valuable information, a lot of the products (all basically) are U.S. but for the most part it's all the same s___. There is days or reading in these forums and using the search tab can usually answer most questions.

I'm pretty sure Trader has a crm you could look into as well.

 

[Shawn Morse]

Aaron
It sounds to me like the biggest issues you are having could be taken care of with a good ILM. Sounds like the pain is being able to respond to internet leads from Trader and/or your site. A good ILM would probably fix these issues and you can an ILM in the price range you mention. I can think of a few that might work, AVV, Imagic, VinSolutions, and several others. It might be worth your time to investigate a few and see a demo or two to determine if an ILM might cure the problem.

Ok, some background.

First, I worked at the company that developed the CRM, so I know the guy who developed it (in fact, he remains my programmer to this day). His description of it is even more strongly negative than mine. He can't do much though as he's pulled in a million directions.

In terms of issues, the big one I have is being able to search leads by vehicle, so when you add new inventory, you can go back and search through the leads and see who has been interested in that vehicle and send them off an email. That is not possible. It's actually weird as most info is auto imported from trader or the site (our 2 big sources of leads) yet the vehicle is not one of them. You have to manually add that. There is no email functionality whatsoever.

Plus, there are some huge sync issues. The CRM in integrated with the inventory on our site. That inventory is pulled from a feed from trader, so theoretically the trader inventory should be the same as the site inventory. But that is not the case. I've had leads come in from the site that I deleted from trader literally a week (or weeks) earlier, and then when I search for them in the backend of the site I can't find them. Or when I search the inventory on the front end. So i have no idea how they found these cars. I can get there with an exact link though.

Plus there are other tabs within the CRM that remain useless....3years later (I worked there when it was launched). Meaning there is still a fairly high manual element. Its because of this and the other shortcomings that no one uses it.

I got the job cuz I made their website - my "day job" these days is affiliate marketing - which means 1. I know my way around software, 2. this position isn't my bread and butter, which means I'm a little more relaxed and have freedom in terms of what I say and do, and 3. know a thing or two about persuasion and conversion. All of that, that, plus the fact that I used to teach college English (meaning good spelling and grammar, quickly typed forum posts excluded) is why he offered the position to me. I am officially tasked with developing the internet department. And I have to say...I don't really know what I'm doing.

Sorry for the tangent. I wanted to give the full picture of where I'm coming from.

Anyway, there is only 1 CRM, but it is so integrated with the inventory that he is hesitant to change. Plus, we get the whole shebang for $300 a month. I don't know what other CRMs cost, but I'd think it would be more. Perhaps if it was in the $500 a month range maybe. How much do decent ones cost?

Any other thoughts? Please let me know!