The Best CRM in the Business

Read on for The Best CRM in the Business at a dealership near you!

Bob met new customers on the lot, and he brought them inside the comfort of the showroom and sat them down for a friendly discussion about the car they wanted. Reaching the right point in the conversation, Bob logged Mr. and Mrs. Smith into the dealership’s CRM, including their cell phones and email addresses.

Up in the tower, Bob’s manager Fred noted the showroom visit as it popped up in his CRM screen, and he periodically kept his eye on Bob’s progress there. Bob also came to the tower to tell Fred some information about the Smith’s vehicle needs, and Fred notated the progress towards the sale inside the dealership’s CRM, all while giving Bob some tips on how to proceed. Which Fred also noted inside the CRM.

At another desk, salesperson Sue is making calls to her prospects and unsold clients, prompted by the CRM on her computer screen. Sue notates each call result and appointment set, and also follows up with calls and cards for anniversaries and birthdays this month for her existing clients. As well, social media interactions with her potential clients and sold customers are logged by Sue and tracked inside the CRM to provide an opportunity path for even more sales. CSI for her clients is through the roof!

The Internet Department is a humming spot at the dealership, full of activity by salespeople, with inbound leads, inbound and outbound emails, outbound and inbound calls, all zipping through but being tracked in the CRM. And all according to follow-up schedules in place inside the CRM that strongly help gather Internet sales to the dealership in a coordinated fashion. Appointments, calls, leads, texts, social media, sales, and unsolds are all logged by the salespeople inside the CRM, moving Internet interactions towards more sales and better online reviews and CSI—and these also lead to more sales, all tracked inside the CRM.

Back on the showroom, Bob and the Smith’s have started their test drive right after Bob left the keys for the Smith’s current car with Fred so he could arrange a trade evaluation. Bob noted the test drive in the CRM, and Fred also follows through with noting the trade evaluation inside the CRM. Everything about the Smith’s progress towards a purchase is available inside the CRM to help sell a vehicle, and later on in the day they will happily buy on a deal penciled with help from the CRM.

Across the dealership, many other salespeople like Sue and Bob proceed through their day, as well, logging customer visits, interacting with customers via leads, emails, calls, text, and social media. All these events are logged by the salespeople and their management team (like Fred) inside the CRM.

Prospects visit the dealership, some buy, some don’t; inside the sales team, calls are made, leads are answered, and some of their prospects visit and some don’t; however, every prospect and sold customer has a follow-up schedule in the CRM, and the salespeople make every effort at contact and sale. All this effort is logged, monitored, and tracked by the staff inside the CRM.

This all sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? What a great dealership! What a great CRM!

Notice something?

Before I reveal what that "something" is, think about this: Technology is a great thing. However, all “CRM” selling effort was once done with paper and pen, and much was lost and wasted, gained and won with that old system. Well, we also once ran an entire coast-to-coast nation with horses and buggies, but now we sell, rent, lease, and use motorized transportation.

For a dealership, if you missed it, this means cars and trucks.

Well, we don’t have horses and buggies any more as common transportation, and we also don’t have the pen and paper “CRM” any more that is their technology equivalent. We have a computerized CRM to match the technology of our cars and trucks.

Then why do we treat the CRM like a “horse and buggy”? Why do we ignore and NOT USE our CRM? And, in fact, seem so all in favor of not using it that we instead use ineffective methods so old that they might not need paper but could instead belong on a cave wall??

To be fair, even today the Best CRM isn’t really defined by technology. The Best CRM also isn’t defined by “usability”, which has as many definitions these days as CRMs have users. And the Best CRM isn’t defined by training or education, either. And certainly not by changing to a new CRM every year because That Is Going to Save Your Business Don't You Just Know It.

No. The Best Automotive Retail CRM in the Business For You is simply defined by whether YOU USE THE CRM OR NOT.

That is the revelation you can see in the description of salespeople above. Nothing was said there about technology. Scanners. Built-in Texting. Social Media buttons. Phone system integration. Website tracking. None of that. Nothing was said, either, about usability or training. Education. Field personnel. Support lines. Nothing.

Why? All the technology and services that any CRM company provides for you will actually come together for your success in one way. And one way only.

Because The Best CRM in the Business for you, ever and always, no matter what is...

The CRM that you actually USE.

by Keith Shetterly, VP of AutoLoop Engage Call Center
former eComm Director and Internet Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com

Good Post Keith. I find it profoundly disappointing that this challenge still exists today now, nearly 15 years since the very first CRM tools started making their way into dealership showrooms. In a single post you may have captured both how far the industry has come with understanding the uses of CRM and also how very far it has to go. I worked in support of a CRM tool nearly ten years ago, it performed the base functions necessary for success and it also had its share of glitches. The challenge early on and one which was well addressed by the company is the fact that CRM tools rarely fail because of the technology. In fact technology is way down the list in reasons why a CRM is unsuccessful. It has nearly everything to do with the dealerships adoption of the tool and how it integrates into the processes in place. When we set out to install a CRM we made sure the processes in place were solid enough to support the installation of a tool that would, by design, reveal any weakness and highlight opportunities for change. The installation process had so little to do with how the technology worked and a lot more to do with how the business would use the technology to become more efficient. Ultimately the CRM should make everyone's life easier and enable the entire team to work a little smarter. In many cases it did, in the cases where a CRM install was unsuccessful or a results did not improve it ultimately always boiled down to adoption of the technology and in nearly every case the technology was blamed for the fail. years later I was working for another company that was launching a new CRM tool which was supposed to revolutionize the industry with its "whiz bang" technology and finally solve the above mentioned challenge with easy to use technology. I was asked because of prior experience to help develop an implementation model for this product. I suggested a model that was similar to the one I had used successfully before, not because I didn't have other ideas but because I knew an effective installation was always going to require more process coaching than button pushing training. I was told I wasn't thinking far enough outside of the box. The product, at least for now is a fail. There are many opinions about CRM but the reality is Keith is spot on on this one, all CRM tools pretty much do what they are supposed to it is the level of adoption and integration that causes the failure. The dealership does not adopt the product, the results do not happen and the dealership replaces the CRM with another product. The technology is blamed once again. Sadly it seems this is still happening. The point of my long comment is this, think about why the CRM is not being used. The approach of selling the dealer or GM and having them push the usage down through the middle management usually does not work, getting the sales department to star using the tool because it is best for them doesn't either. So where does a CRM install break? Think about the fundamentals of CRM. They are only as good as the information that is fed to them and that is a main break point. The salespeople have to log information into the system 100% of the time. Ask yourself, who manages that process? The second touch point is working the customer management plan during 1 on 1's with the sales team. Every CRM produces some kind of a work plan and these plans are designed to review what the next actions a salesperson should take with a client. They are produced by the CRM based upon pre determined intervals and the purpose is to allow for coaching and to assure no customer slips through the cracks. So who is responsible for the 1 on 1's who is the coach? What I am driving at is in order for success a CRM must have customer data as accurate and complete as possible and once the data is collected the management of the customer relationship makes the whole thing work effectively. CRM's have may purposes but if you want them to work the GSM and the Sales Manager absolutely have to constantly manage the logging of customers and religiously follow the work plans created by the customer data. If these things happen success is inevitable. Pretty simple formula really, a few caveats I have mentioned before. The GSM and Sales Manager and their processes will be exposed if steps are missed and they will have to work the plan consistently because the CRM tool does not know how to define whether a customer is "real" or not. The CRM tool also does not consider opinion or work ethic when it creates a plan, it requires every client to be addressed and every outcome to be explained. Th CRM creates an atmosphere of complete accountability or at least one where it is possible. Accountability is, by definition, doing the right thing when no one is watching or being answerable. The CRM creates a trap for those that have inconsistent work habits. The only way out for those that do not like this is to blame the technology and push back because taking steps within the CRM "take too long". So many CRM tools are replaced because of this when in fact the issue is not technology it the application of the technology. As I started this it is a shame we haven't come further here. The technology has made it easier than ever to log a customer and to manage them. Reminds me of a statement I heard a while back. It was said you can have a system that would allow a salesperson to collect data simply by waving their phone in front of a customer and they still would find a way to not log them. The middle management is the key; expect the CRM to make things easier and harder for them at the same time. If you work through this you will likely be more successful in the end that is why CRM tools are utilized. If you get a lot of complaints about technology before you fire your CRM company, see how it is being used around the technology. In some cases what you find may surprise you.

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Comments

Chris Spensley December 18, 2014 at 4:16pm

Good Post Keith. I find it profoundly disappointing that this challenge still exists today now, nearly 15 years since the very first CRM tools started making their way into dealership showrooms. In a single post you may have captured both how far the industry has come with understanding the uses of CRM and also how very far it has to go. I worked in support of a CRM tool nearly ten years ago, it performed the base functions necessary for success and it also had its share of glitches. The challenge early on and one which was well addressed by the company is the fact that CRM tools rarely fail because of the technology. In fact technology is way down the list in reasons why a CRM is unsuccessful. It has nearly everything to do with the dealerships adoption of the tool and how it integrates into the processes in place. When we set out to install a CRM we made sure the processes in place were solid enough to support the installation of a tool that would, by design, reveal any weakness and highlight opportunities for change. The installation process had so little to do with how the technology worked and a lot more to do with how the business would use the technology to become more efficient. Ultimately the CRM should make everyone's life easier and enable the entire team to work a little smarter. In many cases it did, in the cases where a CRM install was unsuccessful or a results did not improve it ultimately always boiled down to adoption of the technology and in nearly every case the technology was blamed for the fail. years later I was working for another company that was launching a new CRM tool which was supposed to revolutionize the industry with its "whiz bang" technology and finally solve the above mentioned challenge with easy to use technology. I was asked because of prior experience to help develop an implementation model for this product. I suggested a model that was similar to the one I had used successfully before, not because I didn't have other ideas but because I knew an effective installation was always going to require more process coaching than button pushing training. I was told I wasn't thinking far enough outside of the box. The product, at least for now is a fail. There are many opinions about CRM but the reality is Keith is spot on on this one, all CRM tools pretty much do what they are supposed to it is the level of adoption and integration that causes the failure. The dealership does not adopt the product, the results do not happen and the dealership replaces the CRM with another product. The technology is blamed once again. Sadly it seems this is still happening. The point of my long comment is this, think about why the CRM is not being used. The approach of selling the dealer or GM and having them push the usage down through the middle management usually does not work, getting the sales department to star using the tool because it is best for them doesn't either. So where does a CRM install break? Think about the fundamentals of CRM. They are only as good as the information that is fed to them and that is a main break point. The salespeople have to log information into the system 100% of the time. Ask yourself, who manages that process? The second touch point is working the customer management plan during 1 on 1's with the sales team. Every CRM produces some kind of a work plan and these plans are designed to review what the next actions a salesperson should take with a client. They are produced by the CRM based upon pre determined intervals and the purpose is to allow for coaching and to assure no customer slips through the cracks. So who is responsible for the 1 on 1's who is the coach? What I am driving at is in order for success a CRM must have customer data as accurate and complete as possible and once the data is collected the management of the customer relationship makes the whole thing work effectively. CRM's have may purposes but if you want them to work the GSM and the Sales Manager absolutely have to constantly manage the logging of customers and religiously follow the work plans created by the customer data. If these things happen success is inevitable. Pretty simple formula really, a few caveats I have mentioned before. The GSM and Sales Manager and their processes will be exposed if steps are missed and they will have to work the plan consistently because the CRM tool does not know how to define whether a customer is "real" or not. The CRM tool also does not consider opinion or work ethic when it creates a plan, it requires every client to be addressed and every outcome to be explained. Th CRM creates an atmosphere of complete accountability or at least one where it is possible. Accountability is, by definition, doing the right thing when no one is watching or being answerable. The CRM creates a trap for those that have inconsistent work habits. The only way out for those that do not like this is to blame the technology and push back because taking steps within the CRM "take too long". So many CRM tools are replaced because of this when in fact the issue is not technology it the application of the technology. As I started this it is a shame we haven't come further here. The technology has made it easier than ever to log a customer and to manage them. Reminds me of a statement I heard a while back. It was said you can have a system that would allow a salesperson to collect data simply by waving their phone in front of a customer and they still would find a way to not log them. The middle management is the key; expect the CRM to make things easier and harder for them at the same time. If you work through this you will likely be more successful in the end that is why CRM tools are utilized. If you get a lot of complaints about technology before you fire your CRM company, see how it is being used around the technology. In some cases what you find may surprise you.
Sean V. Bradley December 18, 2014 at 1:58pm

AWESOME Post Keith!!

This reply was deleted.

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