Best Sales CRM for a [small/independent] dealership - what's actually working for you?

[Dhruven]

I’ve been researching a few sales CRM and dealership sales tools recently because I wanted to understand what works best for smaller and independent dealerships.

Some of the names that kept coming up were VinSolutions, DealerSocket, DriveCentric, and eLeads. I also came across Callyzer, which takes a slightly different approach by focusing more on call management, call tracking, lead follow-ups, and sales team activity.

From what I found, there doesn’t really seem to be one “best” CRM for every dealership. A larger dealership may need a full automotive CRM with extensive integrations and automation, while a smaller independent store might care more about simplicity, affordability, lead management, and knowing whether sales reps are actually following up with customers.

For me, the important things to compare would be:

• Lead and customer management
• Call tracking and call history
• Follow-up management
• Sales team activity and performance
• Reporting and monitoring
• CRM/DMS integrations
• Ease of use and overall cost

I’m still comparing the options, so I’d be interested to hear from dealers here:

Which CRM are you currently using, and what made you choose it? What works well, and what do you wish it did better?

I’m particularly interested in feedback from small and independent dealerships that have actually used these systems day to day.