Accountability or Confusion

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Why a SubPrime Specific CRM can add value to your business…

How many times have you purchased leads either from an Internet lead provider, or direct mail vendor, only to wonder…

What Happened to them?
Were they followed up properly?
Did we sell cars?
Are there any referrals?

In essence you bought leads and you had more questions than answers. This is also repeated each time an Lot-up walks on the lot as it relates to follow-up and closing opportunities. What about the phone calls that come into the dealership responding to an advertisement, where a sales rep is working with a customer and jots a note on the back of a matchbook to call the prospect back?

Obviously it is important to be able to track the various sources of leads, calls and Lot-ups that come into a dealership. How you do so is a bone of contention for many dealers. True accountability comes at a price, both a financial price as well as a commitment to process, technology, and additional work at the outset to put the pieces of the program together.

Every dealer and GM talks about accountability for its sales, finance, and management staffs, but very few are actually willing to pay the price to establish and institute the plan. Many dealers listen to a sales pitch and see how the software works and then have unrealistic expectations of implementation. If you are not willing to mandate and enforce compliance with the system, don’t buy it! Even if it is free!

Since you must change work patterns the effort necessary will be significant, however the results will be exponential. Do you remember when you first implemented Dealer Track, it was a bear, but now it is part of daily life.

In today’s computerized world everyone is promoting some type of CRM
(Customer Relationship Management) System. This was evidenced by the nearly 200 different vendors representing some type of system at the 2006 NADA Meeting in Orlando.

Not all CRM systems measure the same things. All of them will gather basic data and some will allow you to look at that data in some fashion or another, however if you are running a SubPrime department the things you are looking for are unique to the specific tasks required to do SubPrime correctly and efficiently.

The ability to manage your Look to Book ratios, Stip Management and Contracts in Transit (CIT’s) are just a few things you would want to track for your SubPrime Department. Additionally it is important that you can track not only who called in on your various media and advertising, but more importantly, who bought a car!

The process by which your team works leads through a system should be considered. You want the system to be able to mirror how your dealership should handle customers working them backwards, keeping them in a credit decision as long as possible, getting approvals and landing cars on customers! Quite simply this preserves your gross profit!

The ability to quickly inspect and measure the appointment ratios and shown appointment ratios are paramount to success. Your ability to quickly access the success or failure of your people’s efforts in making and confirming appointments is a worthwhile tool. Having readily available Business Intelligence that gives you the tools to “inspect what you expect” and to be certain your marketing dollars are returning the gross they should. It is also important you can track your Lenders and things like Look to Book, and be able to quickly know what Lender is serving you best. The key is having a CRM that can quickly produce what you need with the least amount of aggravation to get there. In short it must be user friendly, otherwise your people won’t fully implement or worse they will try to short-cut the system.

The technology issues of the CRM are also paramount, especially for dealerships that do not have their own IT departments. You should be wary of any system that requires software and resides on a computer locally in your office. Doing so will require additional maintenance locally that may be beyond the dealerships ability. You don’t want any solutions that require software or updates , thus you focus on doing the job of Hanging Paper, rehashing deals and landing cars on customers, not being a software engineer!

Look for a solid program that is Internet based, and ask the vendor about their REDUNDUNCY plan. This is the plan that the vendor uses should there be a problem with the server your data is sitting on. You will want to know how they plan on backing up your data and how often they do so.

This is not a simple process but if you are armed with the right questions you should be able to decipher the right answers and choose the correct system. The key is beginning with the end in mind! Know what you want a system to do, what you are willing to sacrifice both financially and effort, and then research the process to see what vendor will supply those things. There are no quick-fixes, but there are solutions that stand out above the rest.


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