One of my favorite events at the Driving Sales Executive Summit is the Best Idea Contest. Each year participants enter their respective ideas. For those who were selected as finalists, they present their ideas at the conference. This is by no means an easy task having done this myself. The very fact that you have to present in front of hundreds of people can be overwhelming, much less only having five minutes to coney your idea. 

The one idea that I was most drawn to was the tool “Monday.com,” which is an organizational tool. One that enables you to remove much of the endless email chains that take place on the dealer level, which often leaves you trying to manage email chains vs. moving the project forward. That said, the tool itself is extremely robust. And by using the tool, you can easily allow your vendors to be apart of the work-flow. In that when you assign them a project, and they can easily update the status by using the app. In which case, when they have made an update it lets every know what the status is - in turn, saving a lot of time! 

Here are some of the other key advantages of Monday.com 

Removes the need for endless back and forth emails, which often do not include everyone that is apart of the project. That alone can delay things from moving forward. 

• Keeps everything moving as it shows which projects have been completed, and those that are still waiting for feedback or the next steps 

• Can create an engaging dashboard (the presenter even went as far as using a TV screen to house the projects in their marketing office) 

• Removes repetitive steps as it houses everything thing under one app - no more logging into multiple vendors apps to update a project status 

Lastly, if anything, by centralizing all of the projects under one app, it can in a sense create more productivity. Especially if everyone knows where the project, itself, stands. In that, there is nothing more deflating than a project being stalled due to the waiting for feedback. And let's be real if you are constantly unsure as to when something will be launched and or completed, are you going to work as hard to move things along? 

Bottom Line: for those who handle their marketing in-house and have multiple dealerships this tool can potentially save you a lot of time. It also offers a clear picture as to what the current status of the project is vs. having to spend time emailing and speaking with multiple people. The tool also allows you to hold your team accountable in that if they do not complete their portion of the task, you can easily see where the breakpoint is within the project. As for the cost, it is less than $700 a year, and if it means getting an email campaign out in a more timely fashion, one or two-car sales can more than cover the costs of the campaign.