Blueprint Series: Automotive CRM Solutions

[Jason (blog)]

Yes, I just love how so many reps think we're stupid.. I used to be a software engineer and managed the development of custom multi-million dollar crm and sfa solutions for fortune 500 companies and the government.. needless to say, most vendors rub me the wrong way
The single biggest request I have - GIVE ME QUERY ACCESS TO MY DATABASE!!! Man, if I could run my own reports and build my own dashboards I would be tickled pink! I personally liked BDC Software inc's solution, as they are first and foremost a technology company - they get it. My DB would sitting on my server and I could do anything I wanted with it if I chose to! Even extend the app and build my own modules.. Too bad I was overruled when it came time to pull the trigger on selecting our vendor

 

[Jason W.]

What if CRM tools aren't even the right solution? Seriously how many people here are really database marketeers, or want to spend all day creating queries? What if the solution is you out source your CRM effort? Dealer's have outsourced the majority of their marketing and other services. Now, especially since a lot these tools are becoming commodities, why not just hire a team to run your email marketing, pulling queries out of the DMS and marketing your serivce opportunites? As many people here I'm really frustrated by most of these crappy clone of a clone not even beta products. I just want to sell cars and not be a beta test or a database marketeer.

 

[Jeff Larsen (blog)]

Jason W.- Great idea.

Even if we could create the most flawless, perfect CRM tool, how many dealerships would take advantage or pay an experienced ISM to maximize it? No time for creating customized bulk email or dealership e-newsletters for long term follow up... It's all about the next sold vehicle TODAY! What have you sold today?!

Most dealership management does not understand or want to take the time to learn the technology, hire-train-motivate BDC personel, or accurately track the results (or only track results of the internet dept, not fair!) of the money spent on internet advertising.

What if a dealership could out source these services? Is there such a company currently in the market doing this successfully?

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Jeff - reverse your thinking. What CRM solutions are appealing to the dealership mentality? Why does it seem the CRM is written and then how a salesperson enters a customer in is an afterthought? If I'm hearing you correctly, you want a CRM that is written for how a dealership operates in real life, not a CRM that forces a dealership to change principles. Is that it?

I think you're right Jeff. I think one of the reasons most CRM's fail to fully integrate into a sales staff is because it forces new processes without showing a sales staff the benefit of that new process. Trainers can tell us, over and over again, what the benefit of a particular CRM process is, but they're trainers for the CRM - they don't work with us. Most of the time those CRM trainers are car-sales ignorant on top of that.

The other side to the coin is that the wrong dealership personnel are typically the ones who buy the CRM.

You need to have a CRM champion within the dealership. There must be a *respected* dealership employee who has fully bought-in to the CRM who can sell everyone else on the tool, and the CRM vendor should cater to that person. This would be the person who sets the processes up and can explain what is going on after the CRM trainers leave . Pair that with a CRM tool that also is simple, good-looking & easily customizable and you have a tool that works.

 

[Brian T in Etown]

"CRM Champion" I like that! Could be useful to apply that thinking to several "Tools" around the dealership.

 

[Jason W.]

Jeff L.

I've found a few companies that get close. Email me jasonwentlerFOOcomcastBARnet and I'll send you what I know.

Alex

I agree that a dealership needs a CRM champion, but to my point usually this person is doing this out of necessity, not by choice.

CRM is more a philosophy than technology that takes time to reap the rewards of the effort put into it. Even if you talk to the CRM vender's they don't get this little but important ethos. They think its great you can do a reverse phone lookup. Ooh, yeah that's great CRM now isn't it?

 

[G_Harkin]

Great insights all the way around. I think the biggest key to a CRM tool, (and all software platforms) is the ability to integrate with all systems. We're in the process of shopping for a new DMS, and the headaches that transition will bring are countless. However, it will hopefully solve some of our current issues.

The buy in from sales staff and management are so important. It doesn't matter if a CRM can cure cancer and split the atom, if no one wants to use it, or it's too big of a hassle, it won't give the intended results. Alex'es point is well taken that the people who buy these systems hardly ever use them, and rarely consult those who do before buying them.

I never trust the old "Where did you hear about us" question. I've never seen a reliable system, or one that you could easily spot check for reliability. If anyone comes up with a foolproof system for tracking advertising ROI, let me know and we can make our millions.

One last thing, someone mentioned Homenet in an earlier post, and I will vouch for them. They are very good, easy to work with, and solved a boatload of our online inventory headaches. This is an unpaid plug, and I'm not affiliated with them.

Great comments...I love all the viewpoints, thanks.

 

[Brian T in Etown]

hate to be a thread derailer but curious (read:Important) of the integration between homenet and current ILM tool which is the bundled version that comes with dealer.com control center. Thinking about Imagiclab and I noticed they have a inventory manger as well, all these different logins could pose a issue I would think. That is why I was thinking imagiclab might be a better integration with ILM and inventory manager coming from the same vendor.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Brian,

Maybe it is time to get specific in this thread - it has been a bit quiet lately.

Dealer.com has both an inventory control piece and an ILM, so you already have those at your disposal. However, Dealer.com is mainly a site hosting solution and even though all of their products get better everyday, some other solutions only deal in certain areas. Specialists are always tough to compete against. HomeNet is an inventory control specialist, and iMagiclab is a CRM/ILM specialist - neither do what Dealer.com does with a dealer website though.

If your boss is not keen on spending more money, know that you already have some decent tools in Dealer.com's solutions. Unfortunately, in this day and age, there is no single company who does everything perfectly. It seems like the more they do, the worse they get.....*cough* *sneeze* ADP and Reynolds & Reynolds */excuse me*. Dealer.com rocks on site hosting, iMagicLab has the best ILM solution and an incredible CRM solution, and HomeNet does an amazing job with online inventory control. Maybe you should explore all three?

I think I'm going to be able to tell you a lot more about iMagicLab in the near future. I only use them as an ILM tool right now, but I'm hoping that is going to change!

 

[Joe Pistell]

Alex,
Looking forward to your iMagicLab findings.