Thanks to technology, people like to shop from the comfort of their homes.
Instead of strolling from one showroom to another, consumers today browse and compare their options online before buying a vehicle. Since selling remotely and online has become normal, auto dealers and automotive businesses have seen value in digitalizing their sales processes.
This is why you need automotive CRM software.
Using automotive CRM software, you can make the buying process really simple for your customers. This leads to customer delight, and that in turn always leads to a revenue boost.
This blog post will help you understand why your business needs an automotive CRM software, the benefits of using automobile CRM software, and how you can pick the best option for your business today.
We’ve done the research and shared the top 5 automotive CRM software here, so you need not put in any extra hours.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What’s an Automotive CRM?
An automotive CRM software, or customer relationship management software, is a suite of applications that integrates various aspects of your automobile business processes — including marketing, sales, and customer service — into a single platform.
It is designed to cater to the unique buying journey of car customers.
CRM for the automotive industry streamlines the sales processes to increase your overall operational efficiency, and accelerate sales.
EngageBay Sales CRM software captures every lead interaction and helps build strong customer relationships to convert more deals.
Why Do Car Dealers Need CRM?
Car dealers need CRM software because they must make great efforts to persuade customers to buy from them.
Options are aplenty and your business can lag if you don’t adopt cutting-edge technology today.
With the right automotive dealer CRM software, you can earn the trust of thousands of potential customers, even though you may never have interacted with them before.
You can do that by creating an omnichannel marketing strategy and interacting with your potential buyers across various touchpoints. Customers expect a frictionless sales experience and a CRM software can help deliver that consistently.
And that’s not all. Using an automotive CRM software can help you skyrocket your monthly sales figures.
Take a look at the many benefits of using automotive CRM software.
Read also: Sales Tips to Boost Your Business
Benefits of Automotive CRM Software
Automotive CRM software is a great way to help with lead management, deal management, marketing, and more.
The automotive CRM system provides a well-organized means of managing the various aspects of an automotive dealership using one central, cloud-based and secure system.
This allows automotive businesses to be as efficient as possible while also keeping track of customer data on individuals and groups.
1. Keep Your Contacts and Leads Organized
Almost every company has created an omnichannel presence to reach out to a wide range of audiences.
Thus, car dealers get leads from several platforms, including social media channels, website forms, online ads, offline ads, third-party lead providers, their OEMs, or just the old-fashioned walk-ins.
An automotive CRM software stores all your customer data in one place.
It also helps you understand which channel is generating the most leads. This way, your business can become much more efficient at lead management.
EngageBay’s contact management software empowers your sales team to have meaningful engagement with your prospects.
2. Win at Marketing Management
Another significant advantage of the automotive CRM software is its ability to run targeted, personalized marketing campaigns across various channels.
It segments users based on various factors, including demographics, buying behavior, and others.
You can run email campaigns in an effective manner to generate and nurture your leads.
Sales managers can also automate follow-up activities to maintain customer relationships post-sale.
An automotive CRM software produces real-time data about lost sales, closed deals, marketing campaign results, customer satisfaction, customer query response rates, and much more.
3. Helps With Deal Management
Automobile CRM solution ensures that you can leverage every touchpoint during your sales process.
You can create a standardized workflow that guides your leads through the sales pipelines.
The entire workflow process can be automated and streamlined to increase the productivity of your sales teams.
Additionally, CRM integration with cloud-calling systems can reduce the time that sales reps spend on manually calling customers. This helps increase the productivity of sales teams.
EngageBay offers complete visibility of your deals across various stages.
Related blog: What is Workflow Automation & How It Can Help Your Business
4. Establishes a Clear Line of Communication
An automotive CRM software can document every interaction with your leads from various platforms in a single place.
That includes email, text, calls, or walk-in — you can store every single conversation in one secure system.
In other words, it streamlines the communication process by giving you immediate access to all previous conversations with a lead.
Furthermore, for distributed sales teams, a CRM software can help in the automation of delegating and monitoring the leads assigned to each sales rep.
It also ensures that every sales rep is on the same page when interacting with a lead.
Related blog: What Is Restaurant CRM Software & Which One Suits A Small Business?
5. Maintains Compliance
The job of sales reps requires them to call several leads in a day to nurture and convert them into paying customers.
You can imagine how many customers get unwanted calls daily, disrupting them from whatever they were doing.
Thus, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was passed to regulate telemarketing calls, pre-recorded calls, and text messages.
You need to have your customer’s consent to keep communicating with them via phone calls, emails, or text messages.
An automotive CRM can ensure that all your dealership-customer communication is TCPA compliant. This way, your business can avoid penalties at no extra cost.
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Key Features of Automotive CRM
The best CRM for automotive industry are those that help you manage your business with efficiency and consistency.
You don’t want a system that backfires with complexities. When it comes to choosing the right CRM for your business, it helps to understand what your goal is.
Not every CRM software is the right fit for your business.
Here are some key features to look for while evaluating a shortlist of auto dealership CRM systems:
Contact Database
An essential feature of a good CRM is a searchable database that can store a client’s information and all relevant documents.
A step up from a database is a contact management system that can give you real-time access to all the customer data and the complete customer journey, and help you make informed decisions.
EngageBay’s contact management system notifies your team to get in touch with high potential prospects at the right time.
Interaction Tracking
Your CRM system should be able to track all customer interactions across various channels.
Interaction tracking can help you learn more about your prospects, convert leads, and increase revenue.
Your automotive CRM solution must also be thoroughly collaborative — a customer will deal with several of your employees in the buying journey; it’s important to keep all sales reps on the same page.
Reporting
CRM tools can help track your sales rep’s performance and that of the entire department.
It checks the overall productivity based on activities logged in the system.
A CRM solution can also monitor various KPIs, including the number of cars sold monthly, identifying the hottest model that is selling fast, and more.
Furthermore, these reporting tools also help run an analysis to help with forecasting and tracking commissions.
Task Management
An automotive CRM software makes it easy to organize all your tasks and assign them to your team members.
It can, in fact, automatically create recurring to-do lists and activities.
You can set up workflow-specific tasks, enabling you to achieve more in less time and maximize the profit.
Moreover, you will never miss out on important tasks.
Inventory Management
An advanced automotive CRM software can offer inventory management that allows dealerships to keep track of their stocks.
It becomes easy to manage a large fleet of vehicles, especially if there is more than one lot at multiple locations.
If you have business at multiple locations, inventory management is one of the most important tools to have in your CRM system.
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Best Automotive CRM for the Automobile Industry
Digitalization has increased competition in the automotive industry. If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, you need the right CRM for your dealership.
Whether you are a small entity or a large corporation, using an automotive CRM can change your sales experience.
The following section will discuss the five top CRM for the automobile industry that you can consider for your business.
1. EngageBay
EngageBay’s free CRM offers an extensive list of features.
That includes real-time reporting and analytics to help with market demand forecast, and deep performance insights to help business owners and managers make informed decisions.
Trusted by over 30,000 customers, EngageBay has served some of the top companies in the industry.
What Does EngageBay’s CRM Include?
EngageBay’s CRM can capture all your leads and prioritize them thanks to its powerful lead scoring.
It helps your sales agents deliver perfectly every time on every call using EngageBay Call Scripts.
You can make calls to your contacts, assign lead scores, and integrate with other marketing tools without ever leaving your CRM.
The best part is that the solution is completely free, forever.
Summary
EngageBay is the best automobile CRM software you can find, especially if you’re a small business or car dealer.
It is backed by a dedicated support team to provide immediate assistance with any technical issues.
Read also: 7 Secret Dealership Marketing Tactics By The Top Guys
2. Salesforce
Salesforce offers a cloud-based, AI-driven CRM that helps with the next best actions for your sales agent to take.
Its AI-powered Sales Cloud Einstein prioritizes opportunities by predicting their chances to turn into a car buy and notifying your team immediately.
It provides full-fledged digital workplaces for everyone in sales, including sales reps, customer success reps, and sales managers.
What Does Salesforce Sales Cloud Include?
Some of its capabilities include allowing sales reps to call a client directly from the browser.
Its reporting and analytics functionality helps keep track of your sales agent’s performance and overall productivity.
The system allows you to customize the dashboard based on your car dealership’s needs.
It offers four plans: Essential ($25 per user per month), Professional ($75 per user per month), Enterprise ($150 per user per month), and Unlimited ($300 per user per month).
Summary
Salesforce’s Essential plan is good for small car dealership businesses.
However, it has a drawback — once you start expanding, you don’t get the option to integrate with other applications.
That means you would have to either completely shift to a new automotive solution or upgrade to its expensive plans.
3. Leadsquared
Leadsquared offers a suite of integrated tools to help meet car dealers’ needs specifically.
Its key capabilities include lead capturing from different online channels and auto-distributing them to the right consultant and showrooms.
Some of the top names in its clientele list include OLX Cash My Car, Zoom Car, Bollinger Motors, and more.
What Does LeadSquare’s CRM Include?
LeadSquare CRM helps market and sell your car dealership business more profitably while improving your customer’s experience.
The system can track each interaction that you have with vehicle buyers — including phone calls, email or text interactions, test rides, or communication through any other channel.
It gives you an opportunity to increase efficiency with lead qualification, scoring, and guiding you about required sales actions.
LeadSquare Sales CRM offers four pricing plans starting at $1,250 per user per month.
Summary
Leadsquared can be a good option if you have car showrooms at multiple locations.
It can distribute your prospects based on the prospect, agent, or dealership/showroom attributes – like the location or zip code of the buyer.
4. Freshworks CRM
Freshworks Sales CRM is equipped with a variety of features to streamline your entire sales process.
It includes tools to help attract visitors and convert them into leads by turning your website into a lead generation machine.
Companies like Dunzo and PharmEasy use Freshworks CRM to run their operations.
What Does Freshworks’ CRM Include?
Freshworks CRM is powered by an AI bot named Freddy, and it helps your sales team focus on the right lead to close more deals.
It gives you insights across various stages of your sales pipeline.
The best part is that it analyzes every deal to guide you with the next best actions.
However, its forecasting functionality is only available with the Enterprise plan.
Freshworks CRM offers three pricing plans: Growth starting at $15 per user/month, Pro at $39 per user/month, and Enterprise at $69 per user/month, for 1,000 contacts.
Summary
Freshworks is a great CRM software but it is not very affordable when you go for its all-in-one suite. For true business growth, you need all CRM features, and that’ll cost a lot with Freshworks.
The product does come with a free plan, but you will not get AI-based insights.
5. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM empowers car dealership businesses with a power-packed CRM software that helps in engaging with your leads and converting them into customers.
Related blog: Law Firm CRM: Why Every Lawyer Needs One? The Complete Guide
What Does Zoho CRM Include?
Zoho CRM streamlines your lead nurturing process and provides real-time reports and insights to help you make smarter business decisions.
Similar to Freshworks CRM, its AI-powered sales assistant Zia helps with advanced lead and deal predictions. However, AI-based lead scoring is only available in advanced pricing plans.
It sends out intelligent alerts when it’s the best time to contact your leads based on your past successful interactions.
Zoho CRM has four pricing plans: Standard Edition at $14/user/month (billed annually), Professional Edition at $23/user/month (billed annually), Enterprise Edition at $40/user/month (billed annually), and Ultimate Edition at $52/user/month (billed annually).
Summary
Zoho is also a great CRM software, but it doesn’t come with a free plan.
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Wrap Up
To conclude, using an automotive CRM software can increase your car sales and boost your business growth.
With an automotive CRM, you can track new customers, current customers, and unmet customer needs. It can also help you identify new and hot prospects, develop a follow-up plan for them, and track their entire buying journey.
With an award-winning, free CRM solution like EngageBay, you can maximize customer value and increase profitability while saving dozens of hours every month.
If your business is looking for an affordable all-in-one solution, contact us today.
We can give you a call to explain how our software can help accelerate your sales, improve customer relations, and supercharge your daily productivity.
