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Looking for some CRM user feedback - which one?

Tony Howard

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Aug 8, 2019
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We are currently looking at potentially replacing our DMS (Reynolds) which would also allow us to replace our CRM (Reynolds). The CRM systems we are looking into are eLeadOne, Dominion Vision, DriveCentric, Momentum, and OpLogic. As we are going through the demos (haven't gone through demos with Momentum or OpLogic yet), it seems as if there are plus and minuses for each system. I am looking for some feedback from anyone who has spent any time actually working with any of the systems. I would also really appreciate anyone who is able to give me some talking points as we get into more in depth demos of each system. The team we have going through the process with each of the vendors includes myself (partner/GM), our GSM, Internet Sales Manager and 2 of our longest tenured Sales Professionals.

Any guidance and/or suggestions on vendors, demo process and questions to ask would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Tony Howard
Dale Howard Auto Center
Iowa Falls, IA
 
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@john.quinn and I have been looking at pretty much all of these systems A LOT over the past few months for integration purposes. He can speak to some of them more than me, but I am really liking DriveCentric at the moment.

Allow me to color what I like in a CRM system:

#1 is it simple enough for my people to work in every day?
#2 can I have at least some small measures of what looks like a quality job (just telling me how many calls were made or emails sent is not a measurement of quality)
#3 is it simple enough for my people work in every day ;)

Never forget that if your people are not communicating with your customers you are wasting your advertising spend and you're also not selling cars. All that fancy reporting and pencil tool and credit application connection and AI and texting capabilities are all B f'n S if your people don't use the basic bits. DriveCentric puts the basics out front.

P.S. I do not work with DriveCentric. I do not know anyone over there. We only have mutual clients.
 
@john.quinn and I have been looking at pretty much all of these systems A LOT over the past few months for integration purposes. He can speak to some of them more than me, but I am really liking DriveCentric at the moment.

Allow me to color what I like in a CRM system:

#1 is it simple enough for my people to work in every day?
#2 can I have at least some small measures of what looks like a quality job (just telling me how many calls were made or emails sent is not a measurement of quality)
#3 is it simple enough for my people work in every day ;)

Never forget that if your people are not communicating with your customers you are wasting your advertising spend and you're also not selling cars. All that fancy reporting and pencil tool and credit application connection and AI and texting capabilities are all B f'n S if your people don't use the basic bits. DriveCentric puts the basics out front.

P.S. I do not work with DriveCentric. I do not know anyone over there. We only have mutual clients.
Alex,

We have been making it clear to each of the providers that the best CRM system for us is the one that our people will actually use. This aligns perfectly with comments #1 & #3. It's also the reason we're including a couple members from our sales team in the process. In addition to help with buy in from the rest of the team, we are actually looking for their feedback.

Thank you for your input. Really appreciate the insight.

All the best,

Tony Howard
Dale Howard Auto Center
 
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@Tony Howard I've looked several of the systems you mentioned over the last few years. And when selecting a new CRM it is typically not which is the best solution available but which has the fewest amount of compromises to how we do business. What worked for the dealer group I managed might not work for the group you work with.

Outside of the obvious is it easy to use for sales consultant I would take a deeper dive into:

1. Can internet leads be distributed the way we want them distributed? @Alex Snyder I miss the DDC lead distribution that I worked with you guys on best I ever used.
2. Are tasks able to be scheduled and execute the way we want them? You can create tasks / workflow in every CRM, but CRMs differ in the way they fire and may not be optimal based on the expectations of the dealer.
3. Do the reports available contain or format information important to the dealer?
4. Is texting / click to call functionality compliant with my state laws?

These items are many times overlooked and Dealers have an expectation that every CRM can do these things they way they want them done.

Dominion was the most recent CRM that I had interest in. From what I saw it could be configured to fit the needs of the dealer group I managed. They would not grant me sandbox access and that ultimately ended consideration.

I was personally not a fan of Elead or Momentum but refer back to my original statement of what works for one dealer might not work for another.
 
Jeff,

Thank you for pointing us in the right direction. Do you personally have any experience with any of the solutions I've mentioned, and if so, would you be willing to share any insight?

All the best,
Tony Howard

@Tony Howard, I've been using elead for years now. I've had the opportunity to mess around with the others.
 
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@john.quinn and I have been looking at pretty much all of these systems A LOT over the past few months for integration purposes. He can speak to some of them more than me, but I am really liking DriveCentric at the moment.

Allow me to color what I like in a CRM system:

#1 is it simple enough for my people to work in every day?
#2 can I have at least some small measures of what looks like a quality job (just telling me how many calls were made or emails sent is not a measurement of quality)
#3 is it simple enough for my people work in every day ;)

Never forget that if your people are not communicating with your customers you are wasting your advertising spend and you're also not selling cars. All that fancy reporting and pencil tool and credit application connection and AI and texting capabilities are all B f'n S if your people don't use the basic bits. DriveCentric puts the basics out front.

P.S. I do not work with DriveCentric. I do not know anyone over there. We only have mutual clients.
@john.quinn Anything you would be willing to add?
 
We are currently looking at potentially replacing our DMS (Reynolds) which would also allow us to replace our CRM (Reynolds). The CRM systems we are looking into are eLeadOne, Dominion Vision, DriveCentric, Momentum, and OpLogic. As we are going through the demos (haven't gone through demos with Momentum or OpLogic yet), it seems as if there are plus and minuses for each system. I am looking for some feedback from anyone who has spent any time actually working with any of the systems. I would also really appreciate anyone who is able to give me some talking points as we get into more in depth demos of each system. The team we have going through the process with each of the vendors includes myself (partner/GM), our GSM, Internet Sales Manager and 2 of our longest tenured Sales Professionals.

Any guidance and/or suggestions on vendors, demo process and questions to ask would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Tony, all of those choices look great, the tech is all pretty close, the partnerships of the people, training & ongoing support behind the platforms are very important too. There are some very knowledgeable CRM experts out there on DR, @john.quinn @Alex Snyder and more with great insight into the choices out there in 2019.

I can say we've used DriveCentric since 2015, yeah like forever ago! And it just keeps getting better over the years. Great people as well!

It was an exhaustive search back then for our group, every stores management team had a vote, and we dug into every aspect of features, the priority being easy communication for sales/BDC and detailed desking. Back then they did not have a desking tool like they do now, our Kings toyota store wanted something new for leasing that DriveCentric developed for us, as well as an enterprise platform for our BDC. The launches went well, and the support was incredible.

Plus you get the legendary live with drive guy Steve Roessler! BTW Steve got in a little trouble for the expense of this after training entertainment but it was worth it!

live-with-drive-guy-steve-roessler-drivecentric-kdg-mike-sayre.jpg
 
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