Internet Lead Manager (ILM) Tools, where are they?

[Jeff Kershner]

A list of affordable Internet Lead Manager tools

Here is a question I get a lot...

"Do you have a few Lead Management Tools that you can provide
to me off the top of your head?"

or

"My dealer currently doesn't have a full CRM but I need an ILM to work my Internet leads. Do you know of any affordable ($200-400.00 a month) Internet Lead Management tool available?"

Maybe I'm lost but I too have to ask "where are all the affordable ILM tools"? For many Internet sales representative having an affordable ILM tool is vital. Believe it or not, there are a lot of dealers that still do not have a full fledge Customer Relation Manager (CRM) tool and as you know, many of the CRM's have ILM features but are more of an after thought and lack what you really need.

Most of us have used or are still using either AVV Webcontrol or Cobalts LMCC. These 2 ILM tools used to be the only options available for dealers. Then after the initial offering from AVV and Cobalt, a few more ILM tools that cropped up.

iMagiclabs (then known as icarconnect) had a top shelf ILM tool that I believe eventually evolved into their full CRM. eLead also had an Internet lead management system that was quit robust but this too turned into a full CRM. Both of these vendors I believe still offer their ILM product as an a la carte but I'm not 100% sure anymore.

Since I get this question a lot, AND since I too have sort of lost touch with all the different ILM tools available, lets get a list going. I'll start off with the ones that I know..

1. Cobalt LMCC
   
2. AVV Webcontrol
   
3. iMagicLab ILM
   
4. MLM Dealer Sight
   
5. Dealerpeak E-Lead Manager
   
6. Dealer.com LeadMachine
   
7. AutoJocky Lead Manager
   
8. NetTrack Lead Management
   
9. VinSolutions MotoSnap ILM
   
10. CAR-Research

If you know of or are using an Internet Lead Management program that's affordable and a good fit for dealers looking for a lead management tool for a 1 person or small Internet sales department, SPEAK UP!! Let us know what you think and what you're paying.

If you're a vendor and you offer an ILM solution...let us know what you offer. Feel free to include your features and pricing. I'll be sure to add your link to this post.

 

[Richard (blog)]

Here is some more relevant info:

iMagicLabs does have two products last time I talked with a rep. One is the full blown CRM package with ILM. Runs for about $5,000 per month per roof top. The other is the basic ILM which i believe runs for $2500 per month.

Another alternative might be AutoJockey. www.autojockey.com - One of the dealers we support uses this product. While it has its own quirks like any CRM, it is robust and cost effective. On average $600 per month if you just use the CRM/ILM, but essentially unlimited users. We currently have an entire BDC staff and 25-30 sales people all using AutoJockey for one low fee of $600 per month. Mike or Everett will be happy to demo the system for you.

 

[mikedececco]

Hi everyone:

Well, this is an open opportunity to talk about Lead Machine from Dealer.com. Especially when coupled with a Dealer.com website, the possibilities with this product are endless...

Here are a few capabilities.
Anyone on our sales team can run you through a complete demonstration.

Lead Tracking
[automatically track incoming website and 3rd party leads]
• Track and organize leads from your own website, AutoTrader,
Cars.com, Autobytel, regional websites and more
• Monitor response times to these valuable leads

Email Tracking
[automatically receive + track all incoming and outgoing email]
• Respond faster with web-based email and email bouncing
• Create email template blasts with our PowerMail Broadcast
Email System
• Bring live inventory to customers
• Automatically track all archived email for each lead sales representative dashboard

Activity Tracking
[automatically track all correspondence for your contacts]
• Track all types of correspondence and activities for each
contact
• Monitor all activity in one place including email, 3rd party leads, notes, phone calls, trade-in leads and much more

Dealer Group Version
[manage multiple locations from one login]
• Manage all dealership leads from one login or several, you
choose
• Track each store’s sales process and create real accountability
• Sales Managers can assign and track multiple sales people » advertisement performance

Take Control Of Your Dealership’s Success
• Full sales person activity history and reports
• All activities are stored and time/date stamped for manager
review
• Track success and closing rates with our detailed sales
reporting system
• Track efficiency ratings for all sales reps

Sales Processes
[set up automated tasks, reminders & media-rich emails]
• Leave no customers behind
• Consider the power of advanced PowerMail email marketing
campaigns: Email media-rich, monthly, weekly or daily specials
to people who know who you are
• Schedule unlimited, calendar-based automated emails and
task reminders
• Offer virtual “Walk Arounds” to your customers with our
media-rich email content
• Convert your expensive third-party leads into qualified leads
on your website
• LeadMachineTM can market to your current and potential
customers for years to come

Thank you for this opportunity to post.

Oh, Lead Machine is included with all of our websites and can be purchased very inexpensively as a stand alone product.

Mike DeCecco
www.dealer.com

 

[Gerald]

Richard beat me to the punch- but I was exposed to AUTOJOCKEY a couple of years back, and it is a highly functional CRM that has the power you need to manage leads, set appointments, etc., and it is very affordable. I am not sure what our rate was, but I believe it was under $500/mo. Check them out at www.autojockey.com- they also have some other tools that can bring you more sales. They are also pretty responsive whenever you have a problem.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Richard - I think your prices for iMagicLab are a lot on the high side. I think they're priced a bit better than that, but you can package things up to get to numbers like you quoted.

I started with AVV's Webcontrol before they were bought-out. It was a fantastic tool until support went down the tubes almost 4 years ago (haven't used it in years, so I can't say much about it today). It was Webcontrol's demise that got me looking around. Rafi Hamid (formerly of Napleton - now vAuto) introduced me to Keith Latman over 3 years ago, and I started using iMagicLab ILM at that time. I was so happy with the ILM that I eventually convinced our entire auto group to adopt their CRM platform earlier this year.

We also have Dealer.com's Lead Machine on the backside of our website and that is a very good tool as well. It doesn't have the advanced features iMagicLab has, but you can certainly get the job done with it. If I had to get rid of iMagicLab tomorrow, I'd use Lead Machine.

----About our CRM search in early 2008-----
Before switching to iMagicLab CRM (previously AutoTown (1997-01) > AutoBase (2001-06) > ADP CRM (2006-08)) we looked at DealerSocket and eLeads heavily. DealerSocket has a fantastic CRM and service piece, but are seriously lacking on the ILM (not nearly as bad as AutoBase is lacking though). We had a very rough time with ADP CRM, and also felt DealerSocket had a look and feel too similar to it, so buy-in would have been more difficult. eLeads is a good looking tool! At the time, we heard too many horror stories about downtime and ruled them out. eLeads is the current leader in third-party BDC calling paired with a CRM...and they have some good cookies!

One thing to keep in mind with all CRM/ILM vendors is that they all have problems. The automotive industry is very demanding of these vendors because we have so many departments that are structured completely different (Sales, Service, Parts, Accounting, Bodyshop, Rental, Inventory) and stale DMS systems that complicate absolutely everything. I can't wait till someone builds a modern DMS, and shows us that DMS is not central to dealership technology - it is just a vault for clean information. When we shed that old "DMS is King" propaganda, we'll be able to do some amazing technological things! Getting back on topic...CRM/ILM providers have to code things to work with so many other parts and that is where these problems stem from. Just be aware of it, ready for it, and not afraid to call support in a patient manner.

 

[Daniel Ice]

As a programmer, I looked at a lot of different CRMS at NADA last year. They all seemed to have too much data. It has lead me to ask the question, what features are most important in a CRM? Is there a market for a personal CRM? I think it would give the high performance sales guy the ability to purchase leads for personal use and ensure they remain in his control. I know it is common practice in the real estate industry, but haven't seen it in the auto industry. Are there any personal CRMs out there?

 

[Frank Davis]

Microsoft outlook works well for one person. Drawback is you have to manually enter them in. But setting appointments and future to do lists are an easy setup.

 

[Pat Hayes]

for a personal crm for automotive, Joe Verde Personal Sales Assistant. It's perfect.

 

[DigitalRalph.com]

There are more decent, low cost ILM tools today than ever before... Heck, a lot of them are free if you are at a dealership of a particular brand. Ford dealers get SalesPoint, one of the first ILM's ever released at no charge to the dealership... Well, let's just say it's buried in something else any FLM dealer has to get anyways. Personally, over the last 4 years I have grown very fond of the various NetTrack/BuzzTrak variations from the company in Houston that started with NetTrack about 10 years ago. They have over 2,000 ISM's using their tool, and I personally used it for a couple of years while working at Courtesy Chevrolet and really was amazed at how easy it is to use, yet how powerful the automation and template builders can be. A lot of ADP dealers use NetTrack and they pay less than $500 for all the users in the dealership.

When it comes to Lead Management Tools (LMT), everyone has an opinion, and it is usually most influenced by whatever that person is most recently used to using. I was a big fan of AVV WebControl for many years, and managed a team of people that put it into 322 Mercedes-Benz dealerships as "StarLeads". WebControl is another oldie but goodie.

Yet, when I think of what it was like to manage over 5,000 leads a month coming in to a single-point Chevy dealership... I still like the way i could get a new ISS up and running in less than an hour with NetTrack, while at the same time myself and a couple of other people on the team were able to add to, and customize a lot of the automation tools based on the status changes of each lead so that we did not have to click and type as much every day, instead we focused on phones and let the NetTrack tool do a lot of what we probably should have been doing... Anyways, we went from selling about 1,200 cars a year to web and phone leads to selling just over 4,000 cars to web and phone leads in 2006 while using NetTrack to organize, control, manage and measure everything... Oh yeah, and the reporting functionaility is hard to beat with customized configurations any way you want to look at stuff, along with a drill down function that gets to the facts very quickly.

I used to like WebControl's reporting functionality the best and when i worked for Reynolds I was always showing webControl's reporting to the Contact Management CRM team to try and get the reporting in CM to be more useful... But, the reporting in netTrack is so easy to use it is deceptively simple until you want to open the hood... And then you can configure just about any time range, and set of comparison parameters you want to see.

Yes, i work for ADP and ADP bought NetTrack last year after i went to work for them... Pure coincidence? You figure it out!

 

[DigitalRalph.com]

Ooops, i forgot to put in the URL if you want to check out NetTrack... it is www.LeadCRM.com