The new year is a great time to review how you are managing leads and ensuring that your dealership is doing everything it can to take advantage of every enquiry received.  The Sales Pipeline allows dealerships to improve accuracy, efficiency and productivity…. but it doesn’t do it on its own.  At the end of the day your sales team need to use it to effectively manage their leads.  Below are 3 key things that dealerships can do to get better at using the Sales Pipeline.

1.  Use the calendar effectively
At AutoPlay, we have thousands of users who are effectively using the Sales Pipeline to manage their road to a sale.  And whilst almost every user is taking full advantage of our built-in Test Drive and Appraisal Forms the pool of users who really get the most out of the built-in calendar is much shallower.
 
This has always surprised us as the users that get the best results are those that take full advantage of the calendar to self-manage.  These types of users are typically the “go getters” who invariably use the calendar for the right reasons – because they see value in it and not because their manager makes them.  Correct usage of the calendar allows users to let the system take care of managing leads.  Users that utilise the calendar routinely to schedule the next action every time they interact with the lead can feel safe in the knowledge that the lead will automatically resurface in the Now +/- date range when they need to follow up – instead of scrambling to remember when they last spoke to the customer and what they need to do next.

2.  Send Live Leads eDM
Every dealership that utilises the Sales Pipeline is entitled for AutoPlay to send one Live Leads eDM per month on their behalf (and if you want to send yourself you can send as many as you like).  Live Leads eDM’s are completely free and are extremely effective and re-engaging with potential customers. 
 
Live Leads eDM’s allow you to send an email with 9-12 vehicles each with their own video.  With the improvements made in late 2016 these videos are now more user friendly for mobile, and enable dealerships to re-prospect customers that they may have previously discounted as “lost”, or those that are floating without making any conclusive progress towards a sale.
 
To find out more about Live Leads, watch the short video below.

3.  Check for existing open leads
One of the hardest things for dealerships to do well is to keep their customer databases clean.  At AutoPlay, we work hard to provide salespeople with full transparency over who is coming into the dealership, whilst at the same time ensuring they have the freedom to use the tool as they require.
 
One thing that sometimes get missed in the rush to move faster, is the fact that users need to search the database for the customer’s information BEFORE proceeding away from the new lead screen.  This serves two purposes – not only does it minimise duplicate customers in the database, but it also enables salespeople to identify whether the customer has recently been in the dealership and dealt with someone else, and also what vehicles they previously were interested in.  This helps salespeople deliver a better customer experience that is tailored to each customer.

To recap.

1. As soon as you complete the current follow up with a customer, immediately schedule yourself an appropriate follow up using the NEW EVENT option found in the + action menu
2. Send monthly Live Leads eDM’s to leads recently closed as lost.  It’s easy, it’s free and it works!
3. Check for existing customers and existing open leads – it helps keep your database accurate and provides customers with a better and more personalised experience.
   

Of course, these are just three of the many features you can take advantage of when using the AutoPlay Sales Pipeline.  If you have any questions about any AutoPlay features, or want to organise additional training please email support@autoplay.co.nz for more information.

​NOTE - This article was originally published in January.  Drivers Licence scanning is live now!

One of the more common requests we receive is to be able to scan drivers licences to automatically populate the customer’s name and licence details.  To date we’ve had difficulty scanning licences reliably, so we’ve restricted scanning to business cards.  NO MORE!  Over the Xmas break, Santa’s elves finally cracked the code and in our Q1 release you’ll now be able to scan drivers licences.  This will automatically populate the appropriate fields AND store the customer’s drivers licence photo.

When the new function is turned on there will be a simple, swipe-able switch that will appear when you access the camera (as pictured below).  This switch will allow users to flick between whether they want to scan a business card OR a drivers licence.

Once scanned the customer’s name and licence details will be automatically populated when completing a Test Drive.  The Sales Pipeline will also store the licence photo so you still have a copy for insurance purposes.

This functionality will help improve the accuracy of captured details, as well as further streamlining the process for maximum efficiency and productivity!

At present this function is being tested and is on track for inclusion in the Q1 release (approx. March 31st).  This functionality does have costs to AutoPlay so unfortunately, we may need to charge additional to recoup these costs, however we are still working through these details.  We will provide more information on release date and costs as soon as it is available.

If you have any questions about this functionality please email matt@autoplay.co.nz