This is a guest blog by Jon Petron, Vice President of Advanced Services for Outsell.  

Jon and Paul Schnell, the Digital marketing Director at Wilsonville Toyota and Wilsonville Subaru will be presenting a breakout at DSES titled, Sleepers: How to Maximize the Hidden Value of Your Database.

Your most valuable shoppers may already be with you.

Dealers can make the most of their data and capitalize on all the information in their CRM and DMS but often hesitate to implement a plan to get started. A surprising amount of your databases are comprised of unsold leads and prior customers (even when dormant), who can yield more profit than you expect once brought back to life.

You ignore these sleeping consumers at your peril because your competition is already implementing the tools and strategies designed to help you know when customers and prospects are back in-market, re-engaging them at the right time with the right content individualized to them.

Taking advantage of your data, however, starts with keeping that data clean, both for reaching new prospects and for leveraging real-time sales data to improve retention tactics.

Outsell recommends mandatory  Data Appends as we’ve identified that less than 50% of our client databases have reachable records combining both CRM and DMS. An initial append can help increase that reach between 10-30%.

Once you are communicating regularly, leveraging the data behind engagements as well as activity across the web is what allows for relevant messaging. First, you need to ask: What do you consider a lead? And at what point do you move on to the next one?

Training your staff to communicate with potential buyers is also imperative, especially when using the data available about their behaviors and needs. One of the best ways to ensure accurate and relevant follow-up with prospects and customers is through marketing automation.

Marketing automation is software that provides more individualization and automated sending for email communications, while simultaneously letting the consumer drive the content they receive. Employing a marketing automation tool can give dealers a competitive advantage in retaining customers and unsold leads that blasting emails out of your CRM simply cannot.

But automation alone isn’t enough. Artificial intelligence allows for more robust lifecycle management, keeping you in front of consumers more relevantly with the least amount of hassle. Your dealership needs AI and automation that fits your specific needs to best utilize your existing data and go after the ‘sleepers’ you’d otherwise miss out on.

Learn more at my panel with Paul Schnell from Wilsonville Toyota and Subaru October 23rd during DSES where we’ll cover the secret value of data to drive more sales.