“Using a professional, robust CRM is one of the ways we can play bigger than we are,” says owner and general manager Chris Spears. “It lets us successfully compete in our market and sell more cars than dealerships with two to three times the inventory.”
According to Spears, DealerUps has helped Prestige Auto become the county leader for independently owned and operated dealers for the past two consecutive years. For 2007 and 2008, the dealership retailed over 1300 units with an average daily inventory of just 75 to 85 vehicles. Other independents, with similar business models had fewer sales despite having 50 to 100 more vehicles in stock. Prestige also out-sold 60-70% of the area's franchised dealers in pre-owned cars during that period.
Prestige Auto was first introduced to DealerUps four years ago. At the time, the dealership was using a large pad at the front desk to manage incoming leads and sales opportunities. Spears immediately recognized the potential of the comprehensive CRM to more effectively track customers, minimize lost business opportunities and increases sales and profits. But when he discussed implementing the solution with his staff, he ran into several resistive sales representatives who “knew how to sell” and didn’t want to make any changes in the methods they were using.
“I realized these were the same guys who would allow me to be understaffed and miss calls and walk-ins if it meant they would get one more a day,” said Spears. “Most of them were surviving off of the daily fresh ups, and did little or no follow-up. The ones that did would only keep at it for a week or two at best. At the same time, our statistics showed that a large number of people were taking 45-60 or more days to purchase. We were losing a lot of opportunities.”
Spears decided to implement the CRM tool despite the negative feedback from his sales team. “As soon as my income generators began using the system’s daily task list, call backs to prospects and customers increased from 3-5 people to 18-25 people each day,” says Spears.
DealerUps has also helped the dealership get maximum ROI from its marketing budget by providing better lead control and management for existing advertising campaigns.
Customer service is another area where Spears says DealerUps excels. “It has been such a pleasure to deal with the same people over the years when a question arises, or we need to train a new employee. In contrast to other companies, their customer support staff really knows their product.”
What advice does Spears have for other dealers who want to improve their customer relationship management? “In today’s market, you can’t leave anything to chance, or put your financial future into somebody else’s hands without the proper processes in place to help them succeed. As owners, we have a choice of catching fish for sales, or teaching sales how to fish. By implementing a CRM solution like DealerUps, you’re teaching them how to fish. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
About Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc.
Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc. (PMDS) is a privately held automotive consulting and technology company specializing in the optimization of dealership processes and customer relationship management (CRM). PMDS is lead by industry experts with more than four decades of extensive automotive retail experience. The company has headquarters in Long Island, New York and regional offices in Dallas, Texas.
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