Every day of every week, among my other assignments, I make the initial response to all marketing inquiries and also handle the chat room on our web site. As such, I am in a unique position to assess the source of all requests for information, demonstrations or other such activities. It doesn’t take long to determine what the single most popular source of potential business is. It is in fact a group that I call, "The Autobase Alumni."
These dedicated men and women have used Autobase CRM at other auto dealerships and, when they relocate to a new dealership group, they are often quite aggressive with thier new dealer employers about getting Autobase CRM installed in their new store.
I have often seen that they have, as a condition of accepting employment at the new dealership, caused Autobase CRM to be acquired. Additionally, I have seen their recruiting ads after they are on board where they cite having auto CRM from Autobase as a benefit of employment. This growing legion of loyal men and women consider Autobase to be an essential element in their success and they are none too timid in voicing their support for this outstanding product.
Loyalty such as this is not born from weakness. It is forged in the strength of both the product and its people and the successful relationships that both create. If this keeps up (and it surely will) we will need a national organization and a football team ... and a corporate fight song. I can hear it now ... “Hail to thee, our dear old Autobase, CRM that’s true ...”
by John Champeau
A few days ago, I posted a blog on putting some creative ideas together with use of your Auto Dealer CRM software. Of course, if you're using Autobase CRM, it's got you covered for those days when your creative juices are flowing in abundance. Here are a few ways Auto CRM from Autobase can be used to "sell outside the box" ... and, yes, these are shameless plugs!
• Autobase Digital Marketing – Juice up your email correspondence with the components of our of hi-powered, digital marketing suite. Turn your old in-store "Why Buy Here?" presentation into a video email that drives traffic!
• Auto Sales Software - Use our Sales Center tool to track customer hobbies and interests and market toward these special interest groups. Then, have a car show, cigar bar party, or golf outing!
• Autobase Permission-based Marketing - Put our Business Solutions to work in concert with Sales Center CRM to create a targeted newsletter (or other customized webad), and track the deliverability of your message through detailed built in reporting within your Autobase Sales Solution!
• Business Development – Utilize the Autobase Loyalty Center or Virtual BDC (outsourced) to leverage your Autobase CRM solution further for lead management, follow-up, and appointment setting!
by Zach Thompson
Raise your hand if you are growing tired of listening to people blame some negative situation or scenario on the economic recession. Sure, it’s no secret that it’s a challenge out there right now (especially for auto dealerships), and moving your new and used car inventory isn’t as easy now as it has been in the past. So, it’s time to think (or should I say sell) outside of the box. There are a lot of placed to get great ideas ... here's one.
Every Saturday morning a group of automotive enthusiasts meet at a local coffee shop in Indianapolis (not far from the Autobase headquarters) and share stories and chit-chat over some breakfast. We call it Cars and Coffee. As it turns out Cars and Coffee isn’t something that is specific to Indianapolis, in fact, many cities around the U.S. have similar meetings where self proclaimed car guys can share their stories.
At this morning’s event, I arrive to see two gentlemen standing next to one of those new Camaros. I approach them and we have a great dialog about each other’s rides. We bantered for awhile, and the conversion turns to what each of us did for a living. As it turns out, both of these gentlemen are salesman at a local car dealership, who caught wind of Cars and Coffee, and came out to see what it was all about. More interestingly, the dealership they worked for use the auto dealer CRM software from Autobase to sell more cars, grow customer loyalty, and increase service revenues. What a great way to “sell outside the box” -- connecting with the local automotive enthusiasts! Let people know you are out there and market creatively!
by Zach Thompson
Every now and then I drop in and see what's going on with the guys at www.drivingsales.com. They've built a pretty good resource for dealers, whether it's the networking, their newsletter articles, or the vendor ratings.
Vendor ratings can be a tricky animal. There are those few dealership sales and service managers who can't give a bad review and perhaps a few more who couldn't give a good one if they tried -- these, of course, are the exceptions. One the whole, though, you have to look for the trend, especially when higher numbers of reviews have been posted.
I am so pleased to watch the number of reviews grow on this site. And though we have not yet broken down our dealership technology into automotive sales software, business development products, dealership lead management, marketing solutions, etc ... we have seen 58 auto dealer professionals reach out (48 more than the runner up!) to give their honest opinion about us. And what have they said?
With 95% recommendation, the original CRM (since 1988) is still by far the one helping more dealers to drive more traffic, sell and service more vehicles, build more customer loyalty, and make more money. Thanks, Autobase customers! We appreciate the loud vote of confidence in the middle of the marketplace!
My 75 year old father recently purchased a new car from the auto dealership down the road. He finally gave up his old Dodge Stratus and traded in for a brand new Jeep Compass. He loves the car – it’s easier for him to get in and out of and he likes how it drives in the cold, snowy winters.
I recently stopped by to visit and he was on the phone, chatting with someone about his car. I thought it was a friend of his, but when he hung up, he said “That was Jeff – car salesman I bought the Jeep from. Nice guy ... just called to see how the car was working out for me.” I had to laugh – I knew Dad bought his Jeep from a dealer that used auto dealer CRM software from Autobase!
There is something to be said for Automotive CRM. There is something to be said for following up with your customers regularly. And even more to be said for building a relationship with them. I know my dad has called Jeff several times in the past few months with questions. I also know it was Jeff who helped me buy the cargo net Dad wanted for his birthday. Without a process in place to follow up with my father, Jeff would never stand a chance at selling him another vehicle! I think Dad is eyeing a convertible next!
by Meg Martino
Dealership sales management can admit that sending communication via email is much more wallet-friendly then sending sales, service, or customer loyalty campaigns through the postal service ... but what we don’t know is how efficient it really is.
Of course you can try to calculate your return on your dealer marketing push through the Internet by how many people mention the ad once they step in the dealership, but that is assuming they do come in and they do mention it. Why not start pinpointing exactly what catches the eye of your consumer and watch the way different demographics navigate through your email?
With permission-based email marketing in the Autobase CRM you can easily achieve such a complex task. Every click of the mouse will be noted and you will easily be able to see who opened your email and the steps they took thereafter. Instantly you are able to fine tune your marketing efforts. Who is interested in what car? Where do they live? What did they click? How long were they inside the email? All of this can be at your fingertips, so ... why keep guessing?
by Allison Tanner
One of the more successful dealership sales people I knew in my days of auto retail gave credence to "the early bird gets the worm" theory and also clearly demonstrated the ability to farm every opportunity he could find. Now, you have to recall that this was in the days before computers on sales people’s desks, the Internet, cell phones, newsletters, blogs, tweets etc. (... you know, the Dark Ages!)
Most days when the auto dealership service lane opened at 7:00 AM, you would find him in that service lane with a huge five gallon jug of coffee, several dozen donuts, and his business cards. Now the dealership had coffee it provided, but somehow his seemed better to the customers, because they all stopped to chat with him and of course, got his business card while he got some information about them, made new friends and future clients. Every month, he would make about five sales out of the service line alone.
His entrepreneurship extended to the body shop, where like an ambulance-chasing lawyer, he seemed to show up right behind every flatbed or wrecker bringing a damaged vehicle in for repair or evaluation. Chalk up three more sales every month. I never saw him look for an “up” and he sold 20 or more cars ever month in a highly competitive market.
I often wondered what he could do in today’s environment with all of the tools that technology gives us. His ability to build and maintain relationships and customer loyalty on nothing more than hard work and his personality paid great dividends. If he had access to his service line every day via his automotive CRM system and used all of the tools that were available to maintain contact with this clients, had his own permission-based email newsletter, and a daily planner that organized everything on a grand scale he could have been the next sales giant in our industry! Autobase CRM gives every dealership sales person the ability to be organized and maintain contact (... now if we can just figure out a way to mass produce the right personality traits, watch out!)
by John Champeau
As every oak came from an acorn, every car, truck, and SUV on the road traces back to a sale ... somewhere. That point is especially driven home as I look out of my sixth story office window and down over the I-465 beltway surrounding Indianapolis. That's a lot of sales, but it makes me wonder, "HOW each vehicle was sold?"
Is that car passing by driven by someone who happened into an auto dealership, or by someone targeted by the auto dealer and the dealership's automotive CRM system?
Did the salesperson wait for the door to swing and phone to ring, or was he proactive in managing that contact through strong lead management and quality permission-based digital marketing over time?
Did that car come from a dealership that is passive regarding CRM (hoping to ride out this recession) or from a store that is actively attacking their database to find, sell, and keep customers with the help of true Auto Dealer CRM software?
Now that he IS a customer (of some dealership somewhere) will they wait for him to come in for service, or will they utilize service campaigns and loyalty marketing from their CRM to maximize the worth of that customer?
One thing I know: as time goes by, more and more successful auto dealers are seeing an incredibly strong return from CRM, which means more and more successful sales are made at their stores everyday.
PRESS RELEASE
originally posted on the www.autobase.net
Autobase, Inc., the leading marketing and sales CRM provider for car dealers nationwide, and a division of Dominion Dealer Solutions, today announced the release of the 7.4 version of its CRM solution, Autobase Sales Center.
“The economic slowdown is forcing today’s dealer to save money by marketing more heavily to customers already in their database,” said John Hardacre, product director for Autobase, Inc. “Therefore, it was important that this release focus on providing dealers with even stronger data mining and ROI reporting. This enhanced functionality translates into more effective campaigns which drive more traffic to the showroom and service drive. Ultimately, it increases a dealer's bottom line by month's end."
Beyond new reporting and search capabilities, Sales Center 7.4 delivers additional features to the existing service campaigns and the Autobase ILM (Internet Lead Management). ILM enhancements include an all-new Internet Opportunity Report for users of Loyalty Center, the in-house call center application from Autobase.
Also released in 7.4 is integration with CARFAX, which allows Autobase dealers to view existing CARFAX Reports and purchase new reports from the Autobase inventory or appraisal screens. Users can quickly determine which vehicles in their inventory have a CARFAX Report available, know when that report expires, and utilize vital information from the report, such as the CARFAX 1-Owner designation, without ever leaving the Autobase application.
The concept of a dealership "door hog" would never have been created if the your sales staff didn't have to count so heavily on floor traffic to make a living. Want in on a little secret? They don't have to.
How many customers does a salesperson need to be successful in automotive sales? How big does the town need to be? How many franchises do you have to have under one roof or on one campus? When does floor traffic no longer interest the career-minded sales professional?
If you consider a three-year trade cycle and two vehicles per household, one thousand customers (or five hundred households) will produce an average of twenty-seven renewal opportunities each month ... perpetually! This means that almost any town with any dealership selling any line of cars can have salespeople that don't rely on advertising and fresh ups for their next meal.
As an auto dealer, can you imagine hiring a sales person under the premise that after five years he would be cut off from floor traffic? Someone selling just 12 units a month could do just that, relying exclusively on referrals and repeats. The biggest reason this rarely happens is because the dealership has yet to fully engage with a true CRM -- specifically, a dealer software solution that offers strong sales (ex. lead management) and marketing (ex. customer loyalty follow-up) capabilities.
There's more to say about how different sales staff might work these 1,000 customers. We'll revisit the idea tomorrow...
Check out our YouTube channel by clicking here
Autobase will be back in Las Vegas this weekend for the 6th Digital Dealer Conference. Looks like a decent line-up of speakers and seminars, as well as a fairly good turnout from vendors who are ready to show off their various automotive software and services.
Vegas is always a draw for these kinds of events, but the poor showing in New Orleans for NADA 2009 as well as the fact that Mr. Roscoe and his crew have these shows twice a year has everyone asking, "Will the dealers show up?" I am optimistic.
There are a few important areas where the average dealership requires evolution in today's market, and harnessing the power of technology for sales and marketing purposes is at the top of the list. Those who (are able to) attend this conference get it.
Of course, our sales solutions (Autobase CRM with its fully-integrated Internet lead management (ILM) and business development (BDC) solutions) will be on display alongside of our marketing solutions (digital marketing, permission-based voice and text messaging, and service/ loyalty marketing solutions to name a few). And our neighbors will be our friends at Dealer Specialties and Dealerskins -- both from the family of brands under Dominion Dealer Solutions.
If you plan on being there, stop by and see us (and the latest offering of true customer relationship management for auto dealers) at Booth #61.
"How many engines does a car need?" Obviously, one. It drives everything the vehicle does. Two engines (or six) would complicate a process that can (and should) be handled by one, capable engine.
It's the same with Automotive CRM. How many CRMs does an Auto Dealer need? Dealer CRM drives everything that dealership does in terms of growing business by creating customer relationships and maintaining customer loyalty. Like the engine in a vehicle, two CRMs (or six) complicate the process that can (and should) be hanlded by one, capable CRM.
So even if an auto dealer's website provider, digital marketing provider, ILM provider, lead management provider, and phone lead provider each give that dealer some level of CRM with their individual product, has the dealer won? Or is he complicating the process... and losing??
Just ask the Top 125 auto dealer (large, multi-store dealer group in the upper midwest) who spoke with me at NADA... "Steve, we have six different programs we use to sell a car -- one for this that houses these customers and one for that and it houses those customers. Six different programs and I can't get them to talk to each other! Can you help me?"
The answer to his question was TRUE CRM. He realized that he needed only one, capable engine at work -- one solution to drive business, sell more cars, and to house and mine his data. I pointed him to an Automotive CRM that could serve as the central nervous system for ALL his customer management (including digital marketing, Internet Lead Management, loyalty marketing, website leads, permission-based marketing, etc.). It made sense to him...
So, how many CRMs does a dealer need? One.
Powered by Compendium Blogware