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DEALERUPS HELPS AUTO DEALERS BETTER TARGET CUSTOMERS WITH POLK LEAD SCORING INTEGRATION AND DATABASE ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

February 7th, 2010 by sara callahan

Sara Callahan                                         Stanley Parayil Thomas
Carter-West Public Relations          Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 949-742-0477                      PMDS
scallahan@carterwestpr.com        Phone: 888-866-6999

DEALERUPS HELPS AUTO DEALERS BETTER TARGET CUSTOMERS WITH POLK LEAD SCORING INTEGRATION AND DATABASE ENHANCEMENT SERVICES

Collaboration and Integration Provides Auto Dealers with Competitive Advantage and Potential for Increased Sales Revenues


LEVITTOWN, New York – (February 8, 2010) - Parayil & Mann Dealer Services Inc. (PMDS), a leading retail automotive consulting and technology provider, today announced the integration of R. L. Polk & Co.’s Lead Scoring into its DealerUps Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. DealerUps has also added Polk’s data hygiene and appending services to its system, which allow DealerUps’ customers to have a more accurate customer database with regard to address, phone and email. Combined, these services are aimed at helping auto dealers better target customers and boost sales.

The integration with Polk provides auto dealers using the DealerUps system an additional tool to identify car buyers who are most likely to purchase a new or used vehicle. Internet leads are captured from within the DealerUps Internet Lead Management tool (Mailroom), which is fully integrated within its core CRM application. DealerUps then relies on Polk’s industry leading automotive intelligence and sophisticated analytics to help dealerships optimize their Internet lead mix by determining the likelihood and timeliness of a lead converting to a sale.

“Polk’s Lead Scoring solution combines predictive modeling and analytic capabilities with rich automotive intelligence to impartially determine which Internet leads are likely to result in a vehicle sale,” said Patrick Goodfellow, product director at DealerUps.

“With this integration, our auto dealer clients can easily qualify their Internet customers’ interest and readiness to buy a vehicle, providing them with a distinct advantage over their competition and increased sales revenues,” Goodfellow added.

“As a part of the scoring process, Polk Lead Scoring enhances Internet leads with a wide variety of proprietary automotive information and advanced demographic and lifestyle information before appending a score to the lead,” said Andrew Price, vice president, Polk Automotive Retail Solutions. “This ensures the most sophisticated and robust lead scoring available in the industry and also includes reporting and analytical capabilities and emphasizes our ability to evaluate lead performance at the lead source, make and dealer level,” he continued.

The agreement with Polk additionally provides DealerUps with a centralized source of services which will enhance the value of any auto dealer’s database by standardizing address information, eliminating undeliverable addresses, locating valid contact information such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and appending key market data. This enhanced database enables the auto dealer to build new or increased revenue opportunities and provides the resources to reach and market to customers and prospects more effectively.

“We are very excited to be working with Polk to provide our dealers with these services to help them better target customers, boost sales and improve the bottom line,” commented Stan Thomas, CEO DealerUps.

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About R. L. Polk & Co.
R. L. Polk & Co. is the premier provider of automotive information and marketing solutions. Polk collects and interprets global data, and provides extensive automotive business expertise to help customers understand their market position, identify trends, build brand loyalty, conquest new business and gain a competitive advantage. Polk helps automotive manufacturers and dealers, automotive aftermarket companies, finance and insurance companies, advertising agencies, media companies, consulting organizations, government agencies and market research firms make good business decisions. A privately held global firm, Polk is based in Southfield, Mich. with operations in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, please visit www.polk.com.

About Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc.
Parayil & Mann Dealer Services, Inc. (PMDS) is a privately held automotive consulting and technology company specializing in the optimization of dealership processes and customer relationship management (CRM). PMDS is lead by industry experts with more than four decades of extensive automotive retail experience. The company has headquarters in Long Island, New York and regional offices in Dallas, Texas. For more information visit www.dealerups.com.

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CRM Mobile Tools - The New Big Thing

August 13th, 2009 by Stanley Parayil Thomas

Mobile tools are the new big thing in CRM.  Why mobile?  These days, dealers can’t afford to miss any potential business opportunities.  Mobile applications that integrate with your CRM’s Internet lead management module (or even a standalone ILM) not only help prevent sales inquiries from falling through the cracks, they guarantee a quick response and complete customer records.

By adding mobile to your ILM processes, you’re creating a new channel to ensure that incoming leads are worked.  An email or phone lead that goes unanswered for any length of time is a dropped ball that can easily result in a lost sale.  With mobile, your sales staff can receive and respond to leads at anytime and from any location.

As we continue to reduce staffing, we also have to create ways for people to multi-task faster.  With mobile tools, you can have less people responding to leads more efficiently.

It won’t be long before your entire CRM can be accessed and managed from a mobile device.  In the meantime, make sure you’ve got mobile connectively built into your ILM.  The faster you get back to your customer, the more likely it is you will close the deal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is Your ILM Pulling from your DMS?

July 21st, 2009 by Stanley Parayil Thomas

An Internet Lead Management (ILM) solution is a critical tool for sales.  Most CRMs have at least a rudimentary ILM module.  But you can also buy standalone ILMs, ranging with basic to robust functionality.

 

A key feature for any standalone ILM is its ability to push and pull DMS data.  The ability to push incoming lead information to a DMS is relatively common, , but what you won’t often find is an ILM that can also pull information.

 

When your ILM doesn’t pull DMS data, you won’t know if the in-coming lead is from a previous customer, service customer or someone that has already been to the store shopping for vehicles. 

 

What problem does this create for the dealership?

 

Let’s say a walk-in is given a price quote of $20,000 for a vehicle.  The buyer leaves the dealership without purchasing the car, but visits the dealer’s website the following day and submits an online quote request for the same vehicle.  The lead comes into the dealership, but there is no DMS pull.  The sales rep working the lead, unaware of the previous quote, provides a new quote for $!9,500. Your customer will either take the lower gross Internet deal (lost income) or not do business with your store thinking it’s dishonest.

 

You can also have a situation where someone buys a vehicle form your store, then goes online and submits a quote request to verify the purchase price.  If your ILM isn’t attaching customer data to that incoming lead, just like in the example above, your buyer could end up receiving a quote for less then what he paid for the vehicle.  And again, you have an unhappy customer.

 

Having an ILM that integrates on the front end with your CRM, and both pushes and pulls data from your DMS, streamlines the sales process. It insures your sales reps have all the information they need to successfully work with customers.  You’ll always know who the lead is coming from, and have a complete history of that customer’s interaction with your store - including any previously issued quotes and sales.  This will give you more confidence and certainty in working with customers, and prevent losses on deals and gross. It will also insure a better shopping experience for the buyer and improve customer relations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Auto Dealerships Then and Now

May 31st, 2009 by Guy Manasse

I have a picture in my office of my father, with his foot up on a bumper of a ‘62 Chrysler when he was a manager for Trenfel Rambler in San Diego, California. That picture is a constant reminder to me of what was both really good and really bad about the car business. There are things I’ve heard the old car dogs and my dad use in closing deals that I still use today. Ironically there are a lot of things that should go away from the 60’s that I still see being used every day in stores today.  My favorite is, “If you have a system and you deviate, you no longer have a system.”

 

I do not know a dealer out there that has not cut back and is running leaner on personnel.  If a dealership is running leaner, it’s putting more work and more pressure on less people.  Sometimes these changes can cause important internal flow lines and processes to disappear.  When that happens, you end up saving money on one end, but start losing it on another.  

 

The other mistake that often occurs when cutting costs, is to get rid of technology that makes your employees more efficient and accountable.  Or, not invest in tools that will improve efficiencies and profits. 

 

If you are, like most dealers, looking closely at your budget, just remember to be smart about what you keep and what you get rid of.  And don’t deviate from your system.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

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