Cell Phones. Who do you know that doesn’t have a cell phone?
Cell phone companies are everywhere to, radio, TV, billboards. You can’t drive past a strip mall without seeing a cell phone store in it. And, in that store, you will see a lot of customers. No matter where you are, you are guaranteed to see someone talking or texting on a cell phone.
As shown by their auto dealer CRM system from Autobase has understood this trend of the communication age and applied it to our dealer CRM. With Autobase CRM, you can reach out to your customers through email, phones, ‘snail mail’, and many other options. You can even send a SMS message inside the Autobase system to any of your customers with a cell phone.
With so many people using cell phones today, our auto dealership software provides yet another way to stay in contact with the most important people to your business, your customers.
by Jason Solida
A "Dead deal" is one of the most misunderstood terms in the auto dealership world -- at least as Autobase is concerned. So many times while visiting clients I hear them refer to a dead deal as someone they could not get a deal done for. They used this knowledge and updated the client in the Autobase CRM system to a "dead deal."
With a true CRM, a dealership customer should never be given up on (exactly what happens when you mark a customer a "dead deal"). A "dead deal" in Autobase CRM will prevent any future follow up from taking place to a customer, including email and newsletter marketing. One of the many reasons this is so important is that by updating a customer to a "deal deal", the system will put a block on their email address.
Most auto dealerships are moving down the path of doing some sort of consistent email marketing. If a salesperson is in the habit of updating every customer he cant get a deal done for as a "dead deal", their email address will no longer show as a valid email address and prevent future email campaigns to go to that customer.
A "dead deal" in Autobase is someone who has actually died, moved out of the area, or lied about their contact information. “Died, Flyed, or Lied” Make sure you are putting the correct status on the customer so we can continue to market to them and follow up with them down the road.
by Justin Marquardt
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
Trip Advisor and similar sites have done wonders to enable guests of hotels, resorts, and other vacation locations to rate these establishments and document their experiences. Likewise, community sites for automotive dealerships are popping up more and more where auto dealers and other dealership sales management can offer their input on various technology vendors in the automotive retail market.
Autobase and its automotive CRM, Internet Lead Management (ILM), and other products/services show up from time to time on such sites. We are ecstatic over the (currently)
94% vendor rating Autobase CRM has achieved on one particular community blog.
Following is one of the many dealer testimonials we have enjoyed reading ...
"I have been an Autobase user for quite some time and have experience using other CRM tools, by far Autobase is the best CRM product I have used. Being able to utilize the Save a Deal log has generated renevue for us that did not exit before Autobase. The ability of the system to keep my sales team in touch with their customers and actually "know" their customers is priceless. Our Regional Manager always providses support and provides us new ways of making money on each visit, by far the best Regional Manager I have dealt with. He is truly dedicated to making us a better dealership."
Got to love it!
by Steve Lausch
Several times a week I am struck by the response that I get from auto dealers that have recently discovered the benefits of a managed Dealer CRM product and what it can do for them. Given that the concept of Automotive CRM has been around for about 21 years (and, yes, the fact that the dawning of CRM in auto dealerships coincides with the establishment of Autobase CRM is no accident), it amazes me that dealers still continue to "discover" it.
I've seen this happen numerous times as I serve in the sales and marketing world for Autobase CRM, specifically as dealers read our books, Floor Traffic is for Green Peas and Seven Months to CRM Greatness -- both of which are included in our informational packet. Hidden in the pages are obviously the secrets of how to be a successful dealer in any market based upon the responses that I get and the requests for more books to share with the dealers managers or sales staff.
Dealership sales management are truly excited after reading the books, and I have to wonder how they handled things to this point. Have they been keeping notes on matchbooks? Conducting save-a-deal meetings by pouring over old desk logs? The fact that some dealers have come to the banquet late still excites me in that they have now arrived. In many cases, most have waited too long and have missed out on stronger sales and greater market share in the meantime, but at least they are here now and the product that we have to offer is more robust than it has ever been. In that regard, they have arrived just in time.
Now, let’s get to work. Just like in the Good Book, they now know the truth, and the truth will set them free!!!
by John Champeau
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
Yesterday, we looked at how solid auto dealer CRM (such as Autobase CRM) provides the visibility needed to take immediate action on any deal marked as "lost." We saw how it's an opportunity to second voice the customer. Another opportunity exists.
Second, this gives you the chance to drive this customer to your service department. Let the customer know that although they purchased elsewhere your dealership can still service their vehicle. With automotive CRM and permission-based email marketing from Autobase, you can follow-up with a "why service here" email. If you can capture their service business, you stand to capture their future sales.
Finally, when calling these "lost sales" you will find that a percentage of these customers did not actually buy or did not take delivery. Now you can roll up your sleeves and try to sell them a car.
I have auto dealers utilizing these techniques to generate more sales and drive more service traffic. Just remember: a lost sales is not actually a lost sale, but a future opportunity.
by Shawn Belles
I noticed that automotive consultant Jim Ziegler recently encouraged automobile dealers to drop the fear factor and get back to their processes. Certainly good advice at anytime, but certainly most important now.
Of course if your auto dealership uses Autobase CRM, your dealership sales management would have been exposed to this push to process from the earliest stages of your involvement with us. Our insistence on process begins with the sales contact at which time we spend considerable effort to learn how the dealer does business. In short, what are their processes? We then work to weave them into the fabric of our product where we can show that everything from the road to the sale, the Daily run, literally hundreds of settings that trigger events that reflect their schedule for everything from post visit contact to renewal contact. Along the way, we build a Save-a-Deal process, a managers review process, letters and forms library, an Internet Lead Management process, service scheduling marketing plans and reports , reports, reports and much more.
On top of that, our Dealer Services teams continue to process map for the auto dealer and our deployment, installation and technical support team’s work to keep the processes on track. Integral to this concept are the account managers and account analysts that keep the dealer focused on processes and the correct application of the same.
One of our earliest dealers once told me that when he hit his first patch of rough economic times, he immediately realized that our insistence on process was what recession-proofed his business. Sounds like good advice the current times doesn’t it?
by Phil Barras
If you are like most auto dealerships, the answer to the above question is “not very well”.
Besides being expensive, it’s near impossible to measure results. With the recent consolidation of dealerships, many service departments are bursting at the seams. Now more than ever there are valuable prospects visiting your service department that did not buy their vehicle at your store. What a perfect opportunity to properly start a sales cycle with these orphaned customers.
Many of the auto dealers using our automotive CRM system have found the best way to find some of these hot leads is to do a search of their customer database. For example, try a quick search of your entire database using these parameters:
1) Service customers who did not buy their vehicle at your dealership
2) Visited your Service department within the last 30 days
3) Over 75,000 miles on the odometer
4) Repair Order bill over $250.00 out of pocket
You might be surprised to see this number is larger than first thought. Why not have a “new model” introduction e-mail automatically generated when these customers get back home (using a strong permission-based email marketing solution, of course). Better yet, what a great time to drop these folks a well timed call. They already know who you are. Know where you are. They are a customer already. They have a high mileage vehicle. And repairs are starting to cost them out of pocket.
As a New Car Salesperson, I would much rather make a well timed, well informed call to these prospects than to follow up on a mailer. And by the way, these leads don’t cost a penny.
by Mike Niebling
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