Is there room in automotive for another CRM?

[Shawn Ryder]

Started down the path - and before I get too crazy and far - is there room for another CRM in the industry? If so - some questions as thought starters - please let me know.

• Current Challenges: What challenges are you facing with your current CRM?
• Feature Wishlist: What features or functionalities would you like to see in a CRM tailored for the automotive industry?
• Integrations: Which tools or platforms would you want a new CRM to integrate with seamlessly (e.g., inventory management, digital marketing tools)?
• User Experience: How important are ease of use and mobile compatibility to your team?
• Customer Communication: What communication tools (texting, emailing, follow-up reminders) are must-haves?

Just some early steps and have a demo environment in progress - contact me directly if you want.

 

[TomLaPointe]

Challenging road, but organic multimedia capability and integration into EVERYTHING is key

 

[Shawn Ryder]

Challenging road, but organic multimedia capability and integration into EVERYTHING is key

Thanks much Tom - when you say "organic multimedia" can you just clarify - adding own content to the crm?

 

[jon.berna]

Wow what a big question Shawn. I'll think about from a 10+ year old CRM's perspective who is looking forward and how they see it.

They are focused on adding layers on top of their infrastructure to make it easier to use. They are polishing services like chat, email, customer outreach recommendations, etc. by leveraging 3rd party usage-based priced AI products. They are trying to pass these off as new products to increase revenue to pay for the dev labor and 3rd party AI costs but the reality is they are features. They are features because they will quickly be the standard and the price will need to reflect that.

So now flip this and think if they could build without this burden what would they do differently. How would the infrastructure look, what are features that are standard and where is the real innovation. Take DR embedded coms with vehicle media and AI, this is standard. What becomes interesting is how to build empowering user experiences that engage dealership users rather than alienate them, I think that's where the innovation comes in. If you are building this fresh you are able to think about human in the loop design versus human has to click all these buttons and that's pretty exciting especially when you think how light your application can be.

 

[Alex Snyder]

The biggest problem with building a CRM: the feature chase.

No matter how innovative you are, dealers are very comfortable with certain features (at least they think they are). You're going to have to develop much of what dealers already have in decades-old tech that will allow your sales team to get 5 minutes into a demo.

This is one of the many reasons I say FUCK CRMs! They only serve three purposes: printing paperwork, desking deals, and doing last-minute email blasts. You won't change dealers' CRM utilization; you must change the technology genre. Or play the feature chase and duke it out with the old guard.

 

[jon.berna]

haha Alex that is great -

 

[Shawn Ryder]

There will always be the debate with the evil CRM - but with more folks submitting leads online - there needs to be a way to obviously manage them. Believe it or not I think integration is getting easier now... but sure some will throw up roadblocks.

 

[Brian Tucker]

Yes, there’s room for another CRM—especially a unified system that combines CRM, DMS, and CDP functionality. Name it CReMPDaMpS, because we love acronyms. Might need to shorten that up a bit.

Why It’s Needed:​

Current systems are fragmented. A CReMPDaMpS, with one customer household record, could streamline operations, reduce errors, and personalize experiences. By integrating CDP capabilities, it could consolidate data from multiple sources (sales, service, marketing) into a single view, enabling better insights and customer engagement.
ROI Integration: Works seamlessly with advertising platforms to track true ROI.
Nationwide Compliance: Handles registration and title work across all 50 states.
Trade Data Integration: Pulls trade values and generates compelling descriptions automatically.
Inventory & OEM Connectivity: Aggregates inventory and aligns with OEM requirements.
So this would be one system with the features of Vauto, Fullpath, Blink AI, etc.

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

 

[Dan Sayer]

No. @Shawn Ryder Not in the traditional model of CRM. DriveCentric flipped the old guard on its head a bit in the way they approach tasks and engagement and UX. They're still limited though by partnerships and integrations with the puzzle pieces they don't posses (DMS, etc). Tekion's goal of a single integrated system seems to be stalling even though they're growing in accounts, growing in features, but seemingly not improving satisfaction, performance, or value of tools. I think the largest area of opportunity for someone with a new CRM wanting to move quickly is in the independent space. Subscription based $199-$399 price point with basic features, mobile, and customer management with even 5% of the market is $3M+ in annual revenue. And with that said, every entrepreneur on here is going to say I'm an idiot LOL. The other issue is going to be the increasing OEM lock down of tools and required partnerships and integrations for franchise dealers. For instance, just to get FordDirect integrations I had to move our four Ford stores to "FordDirect CRM" aka DriveCentric which we were already using. My FD rate on DriveCentric is going to add a considerable expense to our Variable Department expense BUT gotta play if we want those private offer and inventory integrations...

 

[jon.berna]

For independents you are competing against free. Many companies have died at the hill of CRM/web to independents. The price point you mentioned is totally realistic if the value is there and the non-automotive freemium CRMs with super low entry points have taken up this space but they aren't making any money. It's definitely a tough nut to crack. I have also seen a dealership in a box type of offering with website, crm, messaging, taking payments, inventory management in one service be the trend at 250-500.