Good morning automotive world.......

As a performance consultant for Proactive Dealer Solutions I travel around North America helping dealerships contact their customer base and help them grow their business. These same dealerships ask my advise on a regular basic on CRM's and which one they should select to maximize BDC and make it easy for their staff as well.

This is always a challenging question, but I never back down from a challenge in my life. Here are some "Best Practices" when choosing a CRM for your automotive dealership.

One: Ask the best questions you can when speaking to a CRM company or representative

Two: Understand that every software product on the market has it's pro's and con's

Three: Think proactively in terms of features, and put together a wish list of features before you speak to the many companies who make CRM's.

Four: Web based solutions are very handy and applications that can be used on a mobile device are great to, but don't sacrifice "key" features for ease of use alone.

Five: Speak to people in the industry on Dealer Elite or friends and associates that you know well and get thier opinion before you select the software.

Six: Make sure the software in easy to use and integrates well with your sales, service and internet department as well.

Seven: Ask about cutting edge features like email automation and social media and web integration.

Eight: Make sure that accounting and pricing is reasonable.

Nine: Use the software first and make sure that thier tech support and training are first rate as well.

Ten: If you are an ADP store or a Reynolds and Reynolds store make sure it works with these systems and data won't be lost.

Eleven: Make sure you ask about the software's ability to work with the needs of your dealership and the ability to customize it to best suit your team's needs.

Twelve: Ask about the software's ability to search your database and create campaigns for your sales and service team. Data is great, but the ability to leverage that data is "Very Important" as well.

There are of course many other area's to discuss here, these are just a few to start with. The other thing to remember when speaking with CRM companies is there are no "stupid" questions. These solutions are not cheap and look before you leap every time you business and staff will thank you.

In addition ask everyone you know what they like and don't like about the solution they have now. In addition Dealer Socket and Quorum have just merged and this merger should result in some great new products, stay tuned.

If you have questions, comments or feedback please contact me anytime at 604 240 7642 or via email at inethercott@bdcexperts.com

Make it a great day and remember to turn "Problems into Opportunities" every day!

Ian Nethercott

Performance Coach

Proactive Dealer Solutions

Your BDC Experts

1 888 452 2753

http://www.bdcexperts.com