For additional information Contact:

Mike Esposito, President & CEO
Auto/Mate Dealership Systems
Phone: 800-371-3970
Email: mesposito@automate.com
Auto/Mate in Pilot Program with Toyota Motor Sales USA to Integrate DMS

Clifton Park, NY (February 12, 2010) – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems,
(www.automate.com) the highest ranked DMS in the 2009 NADA Annual Survey of Dealership
Satisfaction, announced today that it and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc (TMS) have successfully completed the first phase of a pilot program that’s purpose is to prove the feasibility of a new TMS portal to be used for integrating Dealer Management Systems with TMS systems through the web based portal.

During this first phase, the parties successfully integrated six pilot Interfaces between Auto/Mate’s Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) and TMS through this new web-based portal. This integration electronically transmits items such as warranty claims, parts orders/parts returns an...

One of the best ways to close a deal is offering customers a bi-weekly payment plan.  Not every F&I menu has a bi-weekly payment calculator, but for those that do, it’s a great way for dealerships to increase gross.
 
By-weekly payment plans are becoming increasingly popular as a faster way to pay off credit cards, mortgages, autos and similar type loans.  Instead of making monthly payments on the loan, the buyer pays half of the monthly payment every two weeks – or 13 monthly payments each year.  How does it work?  There are 12 payments a year on a regular monthly payment schedule, or 24 half payments.  On a bi-weekly payment program (every two weeks) the buyer makes 26 annual payments throughout the 52-week year, which results in the extra monthly payment.
 
On a bi-weekly payment plan, auto loans can be paid off 6 to 8 months faster.  For example, a five-year auto loan that would normally take 60 months to be paid off, can ...

Wooed by the fancy capabilities, and perhaps prompted by a grumbling Internet sales manager or other salespeople who complain about the current system, many dealers become convinced they need the latest, greatest CRM features to stay competitive. But do they really?
 
Before investing large sums of money to implement a new CRM, a dealer should ask the following: Is the current CRM system really the problem, or is it the process that has resulted in the CRM not being utilized to its full capabilities?
 
Process does not have to involve advanced technology. One of the most successful car salesmen I ever knew worked in the late 1980’s, before computer systems in dealerships had CRM capabilities.  When any customer walked in the door, he took their name and information and entered them into his own database on his own computer. The minute the prospect walked out the door, the salesperson printed out a letter and mailed it to them. Then he followed up on every lette...

F&I has a unique ability to add to a dealership’s revenues.  This is done by working the F&I “Book of Business”.  It requires that the F&I office use its book of business like a portfolio manager, mining the data it contains to bring customers back into the showroom.  In this way, profitable relationships with customers are developed and maintained over time.
 
DMS F&I reports that can track the details of multiple items within a single sale such as incentives, service contracts, warranties and accessories, are the key to making this happen.  When your DMS can provide this kind of data, it makes it easy for F&I to locate potential aftermarket prospects, market and sell add-on parts and services.
 
Here are some of the ways the F&I office can use its DMS to generate more business:
 
Service Contracts – Use your DMS to extract the names of people who have previously bought a car.  Merge these na...

Not too long ago I was in a meeting with the Sales Manager, Office Manager, Fixed Ops Manager, and IT Manager of a dealership.  During the meeting, the IT manager asked me when we were going to update our Dealer Management System (DMS) manual.  I paused for a minute, considered the question and then asked each of the other managers if they had ever read the current manual.  Not surprisingly, the answer was no.  I then asked if any of them had ever read the manuals for their previous DMS system, which they had used for over 10 years.  Same answer.

Let’s face it, when it comes to software training, the likelihood of any of your employees (excluding the occasional techno-centric IT Manager) reading lengthy and admittedly boring technical manuals is slim to none.  They simply don’t have the time or inclination to plow through pages and pages of data to learn how to execute the handful of tasks needed for their specific job.

So they learn th...

I have always felt that government regulations within our industry can be used as a sales advantage. "How so" do you ask? Take the issue of full disclosure in the F&I office. What GSM hasn't pulled his or her hair out when looking at penetration rates for their F&I products. You ask your F&I manager what's happening only to find out that they are not showing all of the products to the buyer. How do you as a GSM handle this (after they unscrew you from the ceiling)? The first thing I would do is to make sure my F&I office had the tools that they need to correctly sell the products and this starts with an F&I Menu. Not something such as a spreadsheet or a piece of paper with products on it but a system that will allow the F&I Manager to smoothly move from the deal to additional products on the deal and back to payment. So where do the regulations come in? Well I would have a statement on the wall in the F&...