Auto CRM habit #3 is Proactivity.
Proactivity is always being one step ahead. As yourself, "What would the competition do?" Whatever the situation or scenario is beat the competition to the punch, by getting their faster/smarter. Up to this point you have begun educating yourself and have taken ownership of your customer data. Now put that to work by using the CRM solution at your auto dealership to contact customers proactively so you can keep them for life! Autobase CRM will do a lot of the work for you, in terms of scheduling, but remember you have to actually make the contacts!
Think ahead to what your customer will need. Not today but tomorrow and put a plan together to get that accomplished. Each customer will be different. So get as much information from them as you can and document it in the customer’s notes within your CRM system. Without the proper information for your customers you may begin to confuse them and you won’t be able to stay proactive.
If you anticipate what your customer wants or needs before they have to ask for it they will think you are the best salesperson they have ever worked with. If you appear to be doing all of the work for them you are more likely building a relationship that allows you to keep a customer for life.
Proactivity takes time to figure out. It can be challenging figuring out how to use the ‘magic 8 ball’ when it comes to figuring out what your customers want, but once you do, life will be much easier. Congratulations, you have just moved on to habit #4.
by Sheena Lee
I was at an auto dealership the other week working with various Sales Consultants on improving their knowledge of the dealership CRM system. At this particular auto dealership, the Sales Consultants had been using auto CRM from Autobase for about 5 years. Their knowledge of the system was good, but as the saying goes you can learn something new every day (especially with CRM software).
I decided to show these CRM veterans how they can effectively see all of the upcoming service appointments for their customers. I also showed them how they could print a list of all of the service appointments scheduled for the next day. Most Sales Consultants frequent the service area in the hopes that they could potentially run into someone who may be in the market for a new vehicle. With a true CRM tool you should be able to research all of the service histories for each of your customers and know exactly when they are coming in for their next visit.
Sales Consults, the next time one of your customers comes into the service lane greet them with a cup of coffee and talk to them about their service history (that you have already researched). Maybe they are ready for a new vehicle. Maybe they have some referrals. At the very least you will be reminding your customers that you are the best Sales Consultant in the world.
by Kevin Smith
I was reading Automotive News this week and on the front page was an article lamenting that auto dealers are having a hard time keeping their dealership used car inventory stocked to acceptable levels. Cars at the auctions are scarce and prices are up to $2000 more than they were just months ago. Want an alternative means of going after cars for your used car inventory? YOUR OWN SERVICE DRIVE!
With the auto dealer CRM system from Autobase, you can see which customers are hitting your service department at what mileage point they and you can isolate marketing to go after these viable and potential clients to trade their vehicles to restock your used car lot.
Examples I have seen are: going after 2 to 3 year old, in warranty vehicles and the 70 to 80k vehicles for the budget lots. What's the down-side? Worst case, You'll drive floor traffic in this post "cash for clunkers" vacuum.
by Shawn Belles
Does your auto dealership have a permission-based email marketing strategy? If not, be careful that you are not a "Tarzan." In other words, let's say your dealership has 21000 customers in their automotive CRM database. You have been actively collecting data and your email capture is up to 40%. So you have 8400 customers that you can actively target with with permission-based digital marketing...
A “Tarzan” is the auto dealer or business development (BDC) manager or someone else in dealership sales management who does three mass emailers to these customers monthly because they can. So in essence, the are jumping up on the table, beating their chest, and screaming the Tarzan yell, hoping that customers will respond to their dealership marketing.
What you are really doing is “over-farming” your data and subsequently diluting your dealership advertising message. Your opt out rates will likely skyrocket and your WILL get blacklisted. When the time comes that you have a message the car-buying customer actually wants to hear, you will have “cried wolf” so many times, that he or she will have tuned you out.
Autobase CRM recommends a blended email strategy using an eNewsletter as a nucleus. eNewsletters are nice “soft” touches to your entire database of Service, sold and prospect customers. Incidentally, our newletter has less than 1% opt out rate.
We then recommend a more targeted or laser marketing approach. Go after smaller cross sections of your customers based on vehicle interest, where they are in their trade cycle and current programs. You will get a higher response rate on three email campaigns of 1000 to 1500 per campaign than you will blasting your entire databse three times a month.
by Shawn Belles
For years, we have asked our auto dealership sales consultants to check the service appointment log for their customers.
In theory, your sales person would then "happen" into the service waiting room and strike up a conversation with their customer. We would hope the sales person would gauge the customer's interest in a new vehicle or work the customer for a referral. Dealership marketing on legs, right?
As a sales manager, I used auto CRM from Autobase to tell me who was going to be in service within the next 48 hours and do "one on ones" with the sales staff regarding the opportunities walking into service. This way the salesperson was better prepared and we were able to cross-sell effectively from the service drive.
Be proactive! Turn your dealership sales managers into money-making coaches.
by Shawn Belles
Yesterday I was the recipient of my mother’s first text message. My mom is likely the least tech savvy person on the continent, and for her to be sending text messages, well that is quite impressive, not to mention a sign of the times. When you stop for a moment and think about how communication has changed and evolved over time it is quite staggering. Everyone is texting now, and it has become part of our daily lives, but more importantly for Automotive Dealerships it’s a promising new sales tool and outlet medium for marketing and notification.
Using text messaging in conjunction with Auto CRM is an innovative way to drive sales and lead notification. I’m hard pressed to find an internet manager who doesn’t think there is a direct correlation between weblead response times and sold internet ups. I’m sure this is why Autobase CRM customers are so passionate about their weblead response times and SMS reminders! How can Auto Dealer CRM be used to deliver text messages as timely weblead reminder, or marketing message?
Here are a few ways Autobase (as the leading Automotive CRM solution) can deliver a timely text message reminder or marketing message:
- Sending out a text to tell a service customer their vehicle is read for pickup
- Sending an SMS when a new lead has been assigned to you
- Dispatching an SMS with customer information (email, vehicle of interest, etc..) when a new lead has been assigned to you
- Sending an SMS to notify you when you have not accepted a lead quickly enough, and it has been roundrobined away from you
- Sending out a text when a lead hits your weblead email account before it even comes into Autobase
- Any many marketing messages to come in “Project X” (Don’t worry, the cat will be out of the bag soon)
by Zach Thompson
I am thinking of purchasing a new vehicle. It has been awhile since I have looked at someone's new car inventory, and have to admit that I have never really done so the ‘traditional’ way. Sure, I have gone through the steps with an auto dealer, but have never bought from one directly. The sales process seemed too drawn out and painful to participate in. I have never met someone that enjoyed buying a vehicle -- aside from test driving :)
So I found a way around it. It just so happened that my husband had a friend who bought vehicles at auction. Problem solved. No trudging to the dealership only to sit for about 2 hours while a salesman ran back and forth to talk to a manager. No feeling uncomfortable because you didn’t know if what you were being told was truthful. And finally no pressure to make a decision right now!
What is wrong with this picture is that the attempts to buy a vehicle prior to finding my auction buddy were all done at stores WITHOUT Autobase or any Automotive CRM for that matter. Since I ate, drank and slept using Autobase CRM at dealerships for about 2 years, I found that the process became stream line and fun when used properly. It was the first step in starting a relationship with someone that you may come to rely on over the course of your life.
In today’s market, technology, primarily Automotive CRM, has helped ease the pain of a car buyer. CRM is making the car buying experience enjoyable instead of dreaded. Oh and did I forget to mention it makes the sales process faster, efficient, and easy for the salesperson, manager and dealership as a whole? You can’t afford to live without Automotive CRM in today’s market. If not for your customers for yourself!
by Sheena Lee
Autobase CRM gives you instant visibility when your dealership sales consultant marks a customer as a "lost sale". We know we aren't going to win them all, but all is not truly "lost."
First, immediately second voice the prospect. Once a lost sales is flagged in your auto dealer CRM, someone other than the sales consultant should call and do some fact finding. This deal is still warm and could be revived. Find out if they actually took delivery from someone else's new car inventory after all. If so congratulate them. See if they have time to answer one simple question; "What was the one reason you did not purchase a vehicle from us?". As you make these calls you may find a pattern that if corrected could help you sell more vehicles. Common answers are: "I did not receive enough for my trade" or "You did not have the vehicle in stock."
Surprisingly, you may find out your sales consultant did not follow up or did a poor job of qualifying. I had one sales person that did not present lease options and insisted the customer only needed purchase numbers. That same customer leased a vehicle from a competitor. The sales person was ashamed to tell me. I could now work to skill-elevate this sales person so we could learn from our mistakes.
We'll consider another way that "lost sales" are truly opportunities tomorrow. Stay tuned!
by Shawn Belles
As a trainer, I travel all across the United States working with all kinds of people. Normally, I only train auto dealership sales management (and their staff) on the most basic functions of their new auto CRM, but every so often, I get to work with an automotive dealership that’s been using the program for months or years. Before my first trip to train a long-time customer, I wondered what I could possibly show them. After all, they had been using the program as long as I had. Surely, they would know just as much. I was wrong.
In my years of training, I’ve seen similar trends from Connecticut to California. Even with a great amount of onsite and online training available, I'll find most of automotive CRM users haven’t moved beyond a basic understanding of the most rudimentary features of the program. They haven’t explored the program or learned any new skills. They’ve only tapped a fraction of the potential contained within this amazing tool. When we show them how we turn the number of unassigned Service customers the dealership sales management is amazed by this newfound potential revenue stream.
The integration with Service is just one of dozens of great features that dealerships never find. It’s not because these features are locked away, hidden from view. It’s because dealerships fail to avail themselves of the training that automotive CRM providers offer. Sure the training takes time out of the day, but when you break down the numbers, those 30 minutes (or less) could add THOUSANDS to your monthly gross profit each month. It’s like playing the lottery one time and winning every month for the rest of your career.
by Nick Mulichak
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