By Mark Vickery, Senior Director, Performance Management, VinSolutions

Superpowers, like the ability to read a shopper’s mind to know just what you need to say to get him/her to buy, might make life easier, but even without these superpowers, you have more at your disposal than you may think. In the auto retail business, most know CRM has tremendous potential, yet they don’t know how to unleash its full power in their dealership. The good news is that with the right skills and action plan, a CRM can give your dealership super-powered success, without the skin-tight suit.

What’s Holding You Back?
Before diving straight in, it’s good to do a little self-reflection. After all, if you don’t know your weaknesses, you won’t know where you need to grow. It’s sometimes hard to admit your sales numbers aren’t where you want them to be, for example, or that you have a great CRM system, but your staff just isn’t using it.

Does it feel like all sources of pain lead back to the CRM? That might be the case – but maybe not in the way you think. Many times, it’s CRM utilization (or lack thereof) that holds you back. From management on down, many dealers will find their staff isn’t using their CRM to its full potential. If this is happening, if you aren’t taking advantage of your CRM and its various capabilities, then what is the point in having one in the first place? How will you reach your sales goals? How will you improve the customer experience?

Activate Your Superpowers
So, you want to grow and work to your peak abilities? Then, let’s activate those superpowers!

Appointments at the Speed of Light: Identify CRM Processes That Improve Dealership Efficiency
The first step toward CRM superpowers is understanding what is happening on your sales floor and in your CRM. You set the standard. If you don’t know or trust the processes you have set up in your CRM, then why should your staff?

You can begin to get customer communications moving more quickly, and appointments set more efficiently, by auditing the processes currently firing in your CRM. Ensure they are realistic and account for every single step and person involved. When reviewing your processes, watch for and identify any red flags, whether it is overdue or incomplete tasks, too simple or too complex processes, or what your staff thinks about the system.

Just as each dealership is unique, so will their CRM usage be. No process is the same for any dealership, nor should it be. The processes should work for you, based on the size of your staff, the average number of leads you manage per month, and your customers’ communication preferences. The best CRM processes will be those your staff will use and trust.

Super Engagement Strength: Accountability and Continuous Training Keep Teams Productive and Focused on Tasks That Matter
Delivering a consistent and effective sales process is more important than ever for dealers. According to Cox Automotive’s 2019 Car Buyer Journey Study, today’s car buyers spend just under 14 hours researching their purchase (a decrease of 49 minutes since 2017) and visit only 2.3 dealerships before buying. On top of this, we know from this same study that car shoppers are spending more than half of their time (61%) in the car-buying process online.

Does your dealership have the right processes set up to address these evolving shopping behaviors? Does your staff know what you expect of them, and are they properly executing tasks to give shoppers the information they need, the way they need it?

The reality is that the answer is often no. Many dealerships are facing a surplus of overdue tasks in their CRM, impacting consistency, efficiency, and ultimately, profitability. This problem can only be resolved by holding your people accountable and equipping them with the training and tools they need to succeed.

Don’t just train the salespeople but the managers too. Only 54% of employees hired for customer-facing positions felt they had adequate training, according to the 2017 Cox Automotive Dealership Staffing Study. Your dealership culture should include expectations of training, so both groups are just as capable of tackling the CRM as they are selling the specifics of every car on the lot. It shouldn’t just be one-time training, either. People need refreshers, whether technology has changed or not.

Customer Telepathy with a Strong Plan for Capturing, Updating and Mining Customer Data
Do you have customer information on a notepad or just in your head? If it’s not in your CRM, it doesn’t exist. Leads outside the CRM will get lost. They will not be followed up on. Visitor logs are great, but only if they are put into the CRM and used.

Only by maintaining a thorough, clean database that is consistently updated and refreshed will you be able to use your CRM to better understand your customers’ needs. Data capture and hygiene won’t just happen though; Processes must be built and enforced. For example, you can consider forcing an email address to be entered to create a new customer record. Check your CRM settings and explore how you can customize them to fit your dealership.

You can also become a customer mind reader if you include notes about the customer in the CRM — more than just their contact information. These notes could include what the shopper said on the phone or when walking around the lot, and why they might have left without purchasing a vehicle. With this additional context, you’ll better understand their stage in the buyer’s journey. You’ll know their pain points or barriers to purchasing. You’ll get clues to help you reach out at just the right time with the right car/deal. You can’t leverage that information if it’s not in the CRM. Anticipate their needs; don’t react. That’s a superpower the CRM can provide.

Customers are out there, and they want to buy from you. Help them by using the CRM properly, and you’ll give customers a reason to purchase.

For actionable steps for unleashing new CRM superpowers, don’t miss Mark Vickery’s session at Digital Dealer 27 Conference & Expo (held this Aug. 19-21, 2019 in Las Vegas, NV). Mark will help you to:

• Keep customer communications moving quickly and get appointments set more efficiently by identifying CRM processes that will work for your store
• Develop a plan for capturing, updating, and mining customer data to gain a deeper understanding of what your customers want
• Understand how accountability and continuous training keeps your team more productive and focused on tasks that matter

About the Author

Mark Vickery joined VinSolutions in 2013 as Director of Performance Management, after serving as one of the early Performance Managers at sister company vAuto. Charged with implementing a true account management department, Mark has grown VinSolutions’ Performance Management department from approximately 30 people to more than 80. Mark brings a strong background in the retail car business with a focus on customer retention and leading and establishing teams.

Prior to vAuto, Mark spent a lifetime in the car business in one form or another. Previous roles have taken him from sales manager and director of marketing in the retail car business, to National Sales Manager at Starcraft Automotive and one of the first District Sales Managers at AutoTrader.com. Mark attended the University of Missouri.