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Just signed the contract with Vinsolutions

ghen

Boss
Oct 14, 2009
260
2
First Name
call me Jason
After a huge ordeal getting our new website up and running, I just signed up for another huge ordeal getting a CRM functional. Why do I do this to myself???! Oh well.


Any tips or suggestions changing CRM's? Anyone been through the process with Vinsolutions and have tips?
 
Congratz!

First thing...read this post and change your email address with ALL your providers, lead generators, etc NOW to an email address YOU control, something like [email protected] .

Dealership lead routing procedure for CRM and ILM

Then once you get the new CRM email address from VinSolutions, it will be a simple change.

Also, make sure you can EXPORT your current customer base (and emails) from your current CRM to VinSolutions, find out now what the export process is and make sure to do it within a couple of days AFTER changing CRMS's/

--Drew
 
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After a huge ordeal getting our new website up and running, I just signed up for another huge ordeal getting a CRM functional. Why do I do this to myself???! Oh well.


Any tips or suggestions changing CRM's? Anyone been through the process with Vinsolutions and have tips?

Send me a message if you ever need anything and I'll make sure it gets taken care of!
 
Actually I'd rather have the pain in the ass of changing my lead emails in all locations and just better document those lead providers. Going through my email system will not only mean slower response time but also one more thing that could go wrong. Since I don't control my own email server that's not something I'm willing to mess with.
 
My first experience with VinSolutions live

The program runs great, and everyone seems happy with it! We had 5 days of training with 3 trainers across my 7 departments and we needed all of that time. Friday morning I was pretty sure we wouldn't be able to finish, but somehow it all worked out by the afternoon.

Implementation still isn't done which I'm told is normal. I have to send over the last month of prospect data still so that one is on me, and we requested a PBX connector for our phone system which is unfortunately being installed by a 3rd party so it costs a lot :mad: but other than that everything seems functional.

I've already submitted 3 feature requests and I plan on submitting a ton more as I start to slow down and actually dig into the product! VinSolutions STILL isn't certified for nissan/infiniti direct leads which I should have guessed, but all along the process I was told it was "coming soon" so I guess I let my hopes get up too much.

So the sky hasn't fallen and its way better than Higher Gear. The general mood around the office is that it is a much easier product to use and faster too even though HG was server based on site, it's programming is awful. I feel that vinsolutions is still the best answer for my auto group currently and I'm excited to see how fast they implement changes because their enhancements come out every two weeks in a nice big list. Much better than HG's one update per year policy (seemed like!)

This post was not endorsed by anyone and is my personal feelings on the subject. I like to talk.
edit:: Thanks for combining threads admins :)
 
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Ok, 2 weeks with the program and I'm starting to find the holes ;)

1) The program seperates by sales groups. This is by design. I'm used to separating by department though with Higher Gear. So if a Hyundai salesman sold a Chevy, it would show under Chevy on the desk log and sold log. Instead, with this system, it shows under the Hyundai sales group. This screws up my month end numbers for each department. I don't know how to fix this and I don't know how to word it in a feature request yet.

2) Much harder than HG to see at a glance on your desklog which customers are hot and other category indicators. (already submitted a feature request)

3) Impossible to separate by brand on the desk log, mainly because of point 1 above. I can seperate by sales team, but if a hyundai guy sells a chevy again I can't see just chevy sales. (already submitted a feature request I think)

4) Salespeople can complete phone tasks without actually calling the customer. I thought that the PBX integration would add some accountability like it does with Higher Gear... In higher gear if a salesperson makes a phone call the system is the one that removes that task. Vinsolutions seems to be a lot more lenient in this area, where the system will log a phone call under that customer but it won't affect the task at hand, especially if the task is already cleared. (I hope I'm wrong?)

5) One manager complained that the desk log was too small.. I think I should get him a bigger monitor.

6) Can't select multiple visit types or users on the desklog, like say showing showroom visits + phone calls at the same time without choosing "All" ( submitted feedback as of right now)

7) The difference between Sold - Pending finance (which used to be called Sold-Deposit in HG) and Sold - Delivered is not very concrete. The sold log shows only the first one. I'd love to see Sold - Delivered update the sold log as well with a "delivery only" message of some type. ( submitted feature request as of right now)

8) A bunch of other small things that I've submitted feature requests on that don't affect business. These are to be expected switching from one program to another since it just does things differently.


edit: @DrewAment

Hey I took your advice anyway! Vinsolutions is now controlling my email as well which means it integrates into the system. So my leads go to leads#@porterauto.com depending on store. Speed and control :) Love it.
 
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Ok, 2 weeks with the program and I'm starting to find the holes ;)

1) The program seperates by sales groups. This is by design. I'm used to separating by department though with Higher Gear. So if a Hyundai salesman sold a Chevy, it would show under Chevy on the desk log and sold log. Instead, with this system, it shows under the Hyundai sales group. This screws up my month end numbers for each department. I don't know how to fix this and I don't know how to word it in a feature request yet.

2) Much harder than HG to see at a glance on your desklog which customers are hot and other category indicators. (already submitted a feature request)

3) Impossible to separate by brand on the desk log, mainly because of point 1 above. I can seperate by sales team, but if a hyundai guy sells a chevy again I can't see just chevy sales. (already submitted a feature request I think)

4) Salespeople can complete phone tasks without actually calling the customer. I thought that the PBX integration would add some accountability like it does with Higher Gear... In higher gear if a salesperson makes a phone call the system is the one that removes that task. Vinsolutions seems to be a lot more lenient in this area, where the system will log a phone call under that customer but it won't affect the task at hand, especially if the task is already cleared. (I hope I'm wrong?)

5) One manager complained that the desk log was too small.. I think I should get him a bigger monitor.

6) Can't select multiple visit types or users on the desklog, like say showing showroom visits + phone calls at the same time without choosing "All" ( submitted feedback as of right now)

7) The difference between Sold - Pending finance (which used to be called Sold-Deposit in HG) and Sold - Delivered is not very concrete. The sold log shows only the first one. I'd love to see Sold - Delivered update the sold log as well with a "delivery only" message of some type. ( submitted feature request as of right now)

8) A bunch of other small things that I've submitted feature requests on that don't affect business. These are to be expected switching from one program to another since it just does things differently.

I think a lot of the things you are trying to do can be done in other places besides the desk log. Our software isn't designed to be one giant desk log like HG is.

1 and 3 would be best done in custom reporting on sold leads to slice the data just how you want it and group by make of the car.

1, 2, 3, 6 - You can also do custom reporting on showroom visits and leads to get more specific reports you are looking for. So you could actually set these up and have the system automatically email them to you and/or the managers every morning. Some of the advanced filtering and multiple filtering you are looking for can be done in custom reports I believe. I can help you make those reports if you need some help.

4 - Interesting point about the PBX integration. The PBX integration is not real time so the tasks would never remove instantly. We could do something where they removed but it would be delayed a couple hours I believe. Perhaps a better idea is to compare in a report how many calls they really made versus how many they say they did?

7 - we have sold pending and sold delivered. The DMS integration will mark it delivered when we pull it from the DMS so you can just mark it pending in our system. Then use and monitor the sold log to make sure that process is working correctly.
 
Ghen,

Have you ever had a full head of hair and you went to the barber and you got it all cut off? You look in the mirror for the first time and you're like, "what the #%@ did I just do?" Well it sounds like you're going through this initial shock phase with your new CRM. People become accustomed to what they have and change can be difficult. Give it time and I am sure you'll find the path to success. A lot of what you explained could just be learning how to do something different in your new system.

Good luck!
 
We will be jumping on board with VS asap. We are getting our ILM setup as we speak. I have 8 stores and we are making a giant leap from our current CRM/ILM.

These next few weeks should be very interesting. I too will keep everyone updated on our happenings.
 
4 - Interesting point about the PBX integration. The PBX integration is not real time so the tasks would never remove instantly. We could do something where they removed but it would be delayed a couple hours I believe. Perhaps a better idea is to compare in a report how many calls they really made versus how many they say they did?



Even if it's a couple hours later (does it really take that long? I upload every 10-15 minutes worth of data) the PBX data could be used to "verify" a salesperson's task as truly completed. That would be a nice feature.

Our software isn't designed to be one giant desk log like HG is.
Nah, but the suggestions I made through "feature request" wouldn't increase the size at all.. just add a hot icon next to their name on the desk log if they're hot. And instead of saying Bad - lead source, say Bad - reason why bad

Ghen,

Have you ever had a full head of hair and you went to the barber and you got it all cut off? You look in the mirror for the first time and you're like, "what the #%@ did I just do?" Well it sounds like you're going through this initial shock phase with your new CRM. People become accustomed to what they have and change can be difficult. Give it time and I am sure you'll find the path to success. A lot of what you explained could just be learning how to do something different in your new system.

Good luck!
That is it exactly :)

Best part about vinsolutions? No one tells me they hate using it. I'd get that about twice a month with HG.


We will be jumping on board with VS asap. We are getting our ILM setup as we speak. I have 8 stores and we are making a giant leap from our current CRM/ILM.

Marc I cannot stress this enough. Make the online training sessions mandatory before the on-site trainers come out!! Holly Huff at VS can also keep a running tally of all the salespeople and managers that do the online training. 1 week before the on-site trainers make your sales people take Sales 1 and Sales 2. Also make your managers take Basic CRM Overveiw (its misspelled lol) and Beginner CRM Manager.

My managers thought they didn't have to take the training and suddenly most of their problems are stuff covered during those courses. Salespeople did very well though and they haven't had issues.
 
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