The opportunity
Caldwell had managed the dealership’s online presence since permanently joining the family business in 2017. His role included oversight of the third-party lead sites the dealership employs, with the CRM’s Internet ROI and Marketing Channel ROI reports giving him insight into the effectiveness of those investments.
That role allowed Caldwell to learn the technical aspects of DealerSocket’s CRM, which came in handy when he added internet manager to his responsibilities. He says it was while learning the CRM's extensive audience targeting and campaign automation tools that his eyes were open to the possibilities.
“The biggest thing is just really staying connected to your customer database and keeping tabs on all of our previous sales and what we could do for the future,” he says. “Because if you use the tool the right way, you should have no problem generating repeat business every month.”
The process
As part of his effort to improve CRM utilization, Caldwell also tightened up the sales team’s lead-management process. His expectation for the sales team is to follow up with every lead until it's "completely dead." For his part, Caldwell assumed oversight of all opportunities that land in the CRM, setting appointments and managing lead distribution. The exception is when he’s asked to fill in as a sales manager. That's when he leans on the CRM.
“If it gets busy and I don't have time to respond to a lead, I'll hand it off to someone. But I don't let that fall through the cracks,” he says. “I create alerts in the CRM to remind me to check on those leads every couple of days to make sure the salesperson is taking action and inputting notes. If they haven’t done that, that’s when I take over.”
The volume of customer data in the CRM has grown as a result of Caldwell’s efforts. And the more it does, the more effective he’s become at using the CRM’s audience targeting and marketing campaign tools. That’s especially true when he creates campaigns based on current manufacturer pricing and incentives.
“For new vehicles, I’ll build lists of people who bought a specific model of Jeep two or three years ago — maybe a Pacifica or Gladiator — and send them information about the newer models with current incentives," he says, adding that such campaigns have been incredibly helpful in bringing in more trade-ins.
DealerSocket’s CRM has been particularly useful when Burger Chrysler has a surplus of a particular model or stocked a specialty vehicle like a Dodge Charger. "Right now, we have quite a few used Ram 2500s, so I'm putting together a list of people who bought Ram trucks three to five years ago," Caldwell says. He has used this same technique with Chrysler Pacifica vans with good results.
“I’ve sold close to a couple hundred vans in the past couple of years.”