The dealership CRM is the most important tool in the dealership. For sales, lead follow-up, accountability, relationship management, identifying lost opportunities, time management, customer data, and information storage. Yet 90% of all dealership CRMs can be antiquated, set up incorrectly, loaded with the wrong content, not customized to reflect dealership specifications, misused, underutilized, or neglected. When set up and utilized correctly, a dealership’s CRM will amplify the efforts of the salesforce, drastically reduce manual efforts, increase productivity, increase CSI scores, increase units sold, and increase grosses. Below you will find the most common showroom sales challenges that exist in the automotive sales industry today, and if applicable to you and your dealership, we can assist in solving the challenges:
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The Top 6 Challenges Plaguing Dealerships' CRMs:
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Dealership Goals & Projections
No Automotive CRM Training Program
Most CRM companies provide some form of training whether that be virtual or onsite, however, this usually only occurs at the start of the program and is buttonology focused with no real focus on psychology and strategy. While many CRM companies do a nice job at the start, what happens when there is turnover and new hires? There should be a CRM new hire onboarding process, a new hire CRM training program, ongoing reinforcement training, and ongoing accountability.
Call Monitoring
No Accountability
Even if the dealership representatives are properly trained, who at the dealership is holding them accountable for the usage, accuracy, and processes? There should be someone monitoring and auditing the CRM on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for various activities such as proper notes, proper follow-up, proper statuses, lost productivity, communication, action plans, and content. What is expected should be inspected.
Phone Training
No Desire to Utilize an Automotive CRM Program
CRM at the dealership should not be a choice. Too many times we have witnessed CRMs being completely overlooked and considered optional, which basically means that there is a lack of respect for the CRM and its value. They may find it annoying, a waste of time, and/or a distraction that pulls them away from the sales floor and making money. They are working out of a false paradigm. The CRM should be looked at as a boatload of opportunities that will help build relationships and sell more cars.
Phone Training
Misused
A CRM is only as good as the people that use it. If it is used occasionally, it will produce occasional results. When it comes to CRM, garbage in equals garbage out. Productivity cannot be appropriately measured, follow-up cannot be appropriately measured, reporting is worthless, and customers are neglected. CRM needs to be a part of the dealership culture, and the abuse of the CRM should be addressed with a disciplinary program in place.
Phone Training
Antiquated
Some dealerships don’t realize that the CRM tool they have is antiquated and cannot live up to the follow-up and engagement systems and processes of the more cutting-edge CRM tools of today. The tool may be gifted by the OEM or co-oped, but like all good things, you get what you pay for, and that usually means an old and less than satisfactory CRM tool. Today’s dealerships need a CRM that has video capabilities, social media capabilities, text messaging capabilities, artificial intelligence, and automation.
Phone Training
Wrong Setup/Wrong Content
CRMs are only as good as the people that use them and the content within their CRMs. Some CRMs come with standard processes and content, however, the content should be customized to fit the goals of the dealership, represent the brand properly, and perpetuate the mission, vision, and values of the organization, while serving as an effective take for the customer through the car buying process and beyond. All action plans, processes, email templates, and phone and voicemail scripts need to be top-notch to differentiate your dealership from the competition.
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Your CRM is the lifeblood of your Dealership. Do you have all the correct processes set-up and in place setting up your Dealership for Success?