Automotive CRM: How it Helps

January 10, 2022| Zach Klempf

Automotive CRM, or customer relationship management, is a tool many automotive dealers use to keep track of leads, reach out to customers, and develop long-lasting relationships with clients.

In a time where a chip shortage has led to a decline in inventory available and an increase in vehicle acquisition costs, having a well-rounded CRM can boost efficiency in dealerships and enhance the sales process. Salesmen can monitor prospects with great efficiency and keep better track of where inventory is, where consumers are in the sales process, and more when tedious and time-consuming tasks are taken over by automotive CRM.

About Automotive CRM?

An automotive CRM is designed to help dealerships build relationships with customers, manage leads, and sell more vehicles. There are dozens of non-industry-focused CRM choices, but specialized automotive CRM software is unique because it provides industry-specific fields and can be integrated with dealer management software (DMS) and other products dealerships use.

A good automotive CRM system can help you with aspects of your business like:

    • Measuring and tracking sales leads and their attribution through CRM reporting

    • Creating a follow-up system within CRM to hold your sales team accountable

    • Reminding salespeople to contact potential clients

    • Strengthening relationships with existing clients

Lead Organization

When it comes to CRM software, the most important part is typically the automation of lead responses and other communications, freeing salespeople from needing to spend time on these tedious tasks. CRM software also stores data about clients and prospects that can help your dealership identify trends in your market.

An automotive CRM software can help you leverage data to better understand your leads, and help you manage the sales cycle of various customers, deals, sales, and even trade-ins.

Automotive CRMs can also help you store data and track the progress of each sale. It can be used to store important information like the date and time of the last contact, how long a sales call was compared to others, and even alternative methods to reach customers. In fact, it can even store the last date of contact and set a notification to tell you when it's time to reach back out.

Automotive CRMs can also help you store things like recorded calls for training, emails, text messages, conversations generated through social media, and voice messages.

Smart Texting

Smart texting gives users the ability to set up predetermined text responses to clients, potential clients, and people who land on a website. Smart texting helps dealerships in many ways. One example is how incoming messages from clients will be displayed on the homepage of the sales representative that made initial contact. This prevents salespeople from missing sales and messages from clients.

Smart texting can also be used to pre-draft messages to save employees time by eliminating tedious, repetitive work. You can then check to see how the pre-draft responses are doing and tweak them based on engagement. Smart texting can also send messages based on client behavior, which is driven by collecting as much data as possible.

With that said, let’s look through some other situations where smart texting can help.

Lead Generation

If someone lands on your dealership's website automated smart messaging can help you turn the prospect into a client. This occurs when automated messages are sent to prospects who browse for vehicles on your website, and the service can send many predetermined messages. These messages can even be influenced by the time of day, the vehicle they're looking at, and the cost of the vehicle.

Financing

Automated texting can also be used for the financing stage of the sales cycle. The automated CRM software can send a customer a credit app via text when receiving a specific lead type. For example, if someone wants to use special financing the automated software can send a message to help the prospect get started.

Following Up

Common sales metrics show that it takes 5-7 touches to turn someone from a prospect into a lead. An automotive CRM can help you accomplish this by tracking different parts of the auto sales life cycle and using automation to dictate when messages are sent (or should be sent). Automotive CRM software can also help you with the follow-up stage by showing you when the last contact point was and keep clients engaged after the sale.

While many people believe that the sales process is over once someone makes a purchase, that's not the case. Following up with clients can lead to selling vehicle add-ons, warranties, and even more vehicles.

Buying Trade-Ins

The chip shortages have caused the wholesale market to become highly volatile. The cost of cars continues to increase, even used cars, which has created an interesting market. With the lack of vehicle supply, vehicle prices continue to rise, so it's challenging for automotive dealerships to keep used cars in stock.

An automotive CRM that uses smart messaging can help customers trade-in their vehicles, which can bolster the inventory of a car dealership. Smart messaging can help by reaching out to clients who have had their vehicles for a few years. Messages can be customized to present clients with new vehicle options, sales, and incentives for trading vehicles in.

Wrapping Up

A good automotive CRM software can change the way your dealership operates. From start to finish, the sales process can be smoother, easier, and more efficient. Salespeople can perform better and you can hold them accountable when things fall through the cracks.

Overall, a good CRM software provides you with the data you need to take your dealership to the next level. You'll have everything you need to make adjustments, see where things go wrong during the sales process, and clever ways to connect with existing customers for more sales. With good CRM software you have the power to adapt, change, and overcome adversity–even during a global chip shortage.

User Guide

Tags: independent dealer crm used car dealer crm automotive crm

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