Hey wait a second a CRM solution suppose to make me money and keep my business organized and productive, how can it cost me money other than the monthly subscription fees. Plus I pay already a hefty amount per month to begin with for our system, it is suppose to be working well. If you are the general manager for your dealership, and what I just described above is something that just ran through your head then you should really, I mean really look into your current CRM solution and verify its usefulness.

CRM is acronyms for Customer Relationship Management, it is suppose to be a system that keeps your dealership running efficiently and help you organize your tasks, customers, appointments and inventory. But poorly designed or developed software can cost you business and money in real life. To design and develop an automotive CRM takes time and talent, with good understanding of the business. There are many providers out there claiming they are in business since the early 80s and they have the best system in the market (which is true back in the 80s, and their software has not progressed for almost 20 years). Don’t be sold into another useless solution again, you don’t have to pay $2000-$5000 per month to use some outdated, unintuitive, poorly designed and developed system, that in actuality can cause you money and business. You don’t get a better system because you are paying for a bigger price tag.  Read more...

Today’s business intelligence is not only about your competitors, it is also a reflection of yourself in the business world. Knowing what your competitor’s strength and weaknesses are not enough, but what about your own performances? Are you spending the right amount for advertising that is the most effective? Are you sending valuable leads to a bad sales person? Most of all are you losing out on business opportunities? All these mind boggling questions can be found in a well formed and developed CRM solution. Because after all it is all about good data mining and data manipulation techniques that can offer you the answer. With the help of a good automotive CRM solution you can truly maximize your business potential.

Let’s take for advertising spending for example. By asking your online customers the right question at the right moment, you can categorize your incoming traffic with the labels such as radio ad, Google, flyer drops, newspaper…etc. With good data integrity build into the CRM, your solution will be able to tell you which advertising avenue is generating the most amount of interest. Therefore you should increase your spending on Google, and drop your spending on newspaper ads. This data can be further sorted and viewed as a comparison chart on a monthly basis or yearly basis. Moving on to the next topic of are you giving leads to the right sales person? This is a crucial part of your daily operation, because a wasted lead can literally translate to wasted resources. After you spend thousands of dollars attracting your potential customer, the last thing you want to do is to waste that lead to a bad sales person.  Read more...

You have probably heard of the term CRM recently if you are in the automotive industry. It is heating up to be the hot topic for all the dealer principles and general managers. But if you were to ask few general managers how to define their CRM solution you will probably get different answers from all of them. So let’s take some time and really define the term CRM. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management software, it is not new as matter of fact these types of software have been developed for many different industries under many different names in the past. The most popular CRM software in the world is the Microsoft Outlook; in essence the emailing program keeps track of incoming emails, filters spam, organizes your contact information, and has a little calendar to remind you what is coming up in your life. In a nut shell that is a great CRM to use on a personal level. So why do these car dealerships need a quality CRM solution? Well the answer is really simple, without a proper CRM solution, how would a dealership keep track of its incoming leads from the web? Your dealership CRM supposes to capture your incoming lead, organize them in a timely fashion, and develop these leads into a sale in real life. Without it, how would your potential customers get in touch with you if they are interested in a particular vehicle? By email?  Read more...

Sub prime automotive business in a nut shell is a bad credit car loan service for people who is seeking a car loan. It is different from your traditional automotive financing practices in many ways. First of all your clients will be the individuals who have been turned down through the normal channels of financing, these types of clients are more inclined to accept higher interest rates, and will not haggle as much on pricing. Usually sub prime business if ran properly are very lucrative in nature. Many successful dealerships today are looking to open a sub prime division or office in support of their growing popularity. With today’s economy condition in North America it is no wonder many people out there are stranded without a car due to their credit history. A sub prime office is basically a bridge way between the clients and the lending institution. Often enough a sub prime office will not even required to carry any inventory, making the overhead cost for these types of dealerships very small. A successful sub prime business is the one that depends on the power of the internet. From a well designed, developed web site to search engine optimization, the competition today is certainly fierce. If your sub prime office has the dealer backing from a bigger dealership spending large amount of money to develop your web site is a good investment in the long run. But for a smaller independent sub prime office there is very little choice out there when it comes to web design firms, and CRM software that can support their business.  Read more...

If your looking to start a new business or just need a new truck to replace your tired-out old banger on it’s last feet to keep the company moving forwards, perhaps you should consider trying to get a new one at a repossessed cars auction.

  The real advantage of attending these public auctions is that you can pick up real bargain cars and trucks. People I know have saved thousands of dollars on their nearly new truck and it’s really helped them get their business back on course.

 Government agencies and banks are constantly repossessing properties and vehicles and if you know where to look for them you can get fantastic deals.   You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that with so many vehicles being repossessed, especially in the current economic climate, these agencies simply cannot afford nor have the manpower to store and manage these seized assets. They sell them off at public car auctions for ridiculously low prices so that they just recoup their costs, or even a small percentage of their costs.  

The trick to picking up one of these true deals on wheels is to know when the local car auctions are taking place in your area. You could try the old traditional routes of calling many agencies or credit unions, but why bother when you can have all of the latest information handed to you on a plate. The best websites, and the one that I particularly recommend, do charge a small sign-up fee, but every single person that I have recommended the best site to has made their money back many times over when they have bought their dream car or new truck from their first or second auction.    Read more...