Bill Playford, trainer and consultant for DealerKnows answers this month's question.
How can our dealership more fully utilize our CRM software?
To this day, a guiding principle of DealerKnows is that a well-utilized CRM is the most valuable piece of technology in a dealership. Some dealers bite off more than they can chew, while many others simply dont want to consume it as much as they should, regardless of how healthy it is for them.
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools of today serve countless needs, but moreover, must serve countless masters. While every single employee in your dealership should be well-versed and actively using the chosen CRM, every single different position at your store should be using it differently. Some positions require using it to the Nth degree, while others can use it in a much more basic role. But it must be used.
A good CRM should be like a selection of fruits. Here are the ways a CRM should be devoured by your team based on their role:
Internet Director/eCommerce Director For them, the CRM must be like an Edible Arrangement. Edible Arrangements are massively constructed bouquets of fruit baskets, whittled into extraordinary shapes. They must understand it three dimensionally. It must be able to be viewed in pieces, understood, crafted, and dined on as if it were art.
Dealership Owner/General Manager: For an owner or GM, the stores CRM should be a Fruit Cup. They are looking at macro-level information and will likely not need the more granular reporting approach. They can fill up easily on CRM and dont need a lot of it to make decisions. After all, it is the Internet Director likely sending them over small pieces of fruits to look at anyway.
Sales Managers: A great Sales Manager should be looking at a CRM as if it were a fruit salad. They need to be able to have an assortment of reports, be able to dive into all the pretty colors, sample many different pieces, and enjoy a menagerie of flavors. A great sales manager can pick apart the CRM, find the most important pieces, and use them to grow the sales numbers.
Salespeople: For the average salesperson, a CRM should be no more than a slice of watermelon. Many dont want to use it, but it needs to be simple, streamlined, and one flavor. They must know how to go in, execute their basic tasks, leaving notes behind, and eating it the same way consistently over and over and over. They dont need to know all the inner-workings of multiple fruit baskets. They just need to be taught the right way to eat it every time. Sure, there will be some things they dont like or understand, but they will just have to learn to spit out the seeds and keep eating, because it is their job and we dont ask enough of salespeople as is.
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