Every sport has weekly Power Rankings so fans know who is currently the best in the league. They are also a great way for people to know who is improving and who isn’t. DrivingSales is bringing you Power Rankings in the form of quarterly updates. See what the most essential tools for your dealership are and stay ahead of the competition.

How It’s Calculated - 

Each product category is ranked in real-time. As new ratings come in they are ranked based upon the number of reviews, star ranking, percent recommended, as well as the sample size, to create a statistically accurate result. The rankings use an equation that takes into account the frequency, volume, timeliness, and star rating of every review. For example, if a product has great reviews, but hasn’t had a review in the last couple of weeks it will impact its ranking. This incentivizes vendors to get reviews from their customers. After all, people will willingly leave bad reviews but need to be pushed to leave good ones.

We have a team that verifies each review, so if a vendor is reviewing their own product it will be removed. We personally call every review, after doing research to ensure that they are indeed a real person at a real dealership. 

Without further adieu, here are the Power Rankings for the Vendor Ratings Categories for Q4 - 2019

2019 Q4 Power Rankings

Fixed Ops Tools

The tools utilized by the Fixed Ops department are essential to creating a positive experience for the customer as well as for the staff.

Revolution Parts sits in the number one spot currently. One parts manager said that Revolution Parts is "easy to use and build estimates for a customer. Reliable and profitable."

Online Scheduling

Online scheduling tools allow customers to conveniently schedule an appointment without having to talk to anyone in the store. That is exactly what today's customer wants. 

Elead Service Scheduler by Elead "saves time, money, and manpower" said one review by a salesperson.

Companies that treat their employees well are becoming easier and easier to come by. People can work anywhere they want. The current economy creates options for people to find better jobs with ease. What are you doing for your employees coming into work today? How are you making them feel welcomed and valued?

Meeting the consumer where they are at in their buying journey is expected today. From a dealer standpoint, you can’t afford not to go all-in on an omnichannel experience for your consumers. We sat down with Brian Skutta, Spireon's President of Automotive to discuss engagement through technology and it's importance on your ability to acquire new customers. Creating a car search, discovery, and deal process that is technology-centric will provide you with a leg up on your competition. 

Power Rankings Intro -

Every sport has weekly Power Rankings so fans know who is currently the best in the league. They are also a great way for people to know who is improving and who isn’t. Beginning in January, DrivingSales will start bringing you Power Rankings in the form of quarterly updates. That way you can see what the most essential tools for your dealership are so you can stay ahead of the competition.

How It’s Calculated - 

Each product category is ranked in real-time. As new ratings come in they are ranked based upon the number of reviews, star ranking, percent recommended, as well as the sample size, to create a statistically accurate result. The rankings use an equation that takes into account the frequency, volume, timeliness, and star rating of every review. For example, if a product has great reviews, but hasn’t had a review in the last couple of weeks it will impact its ranking. This incentivizes vendors to get reviews from their customers. After all, people will willingly leave bad reviews but need to be pushed to leave good ones.

We have a team that verifies each review, so if a vendor is reviewing their own product it will be removed. We personally call every review, after doing research to ensure that they are indeed a real person at a real dealership. 

Without further adieu, here are the Power Rankings for the Sales Categories for Q4 - 2019

2019 Q4 Power Rankings

CRM Sales

CRMs are essential to a successful dealership, and Elead has the highest rated CRM according to Vendor Ratings.  

Momentum CRMmoved up on spot in the quarter. “Support and service is the name of the game.” According to one general manager “The CRM works smoothly and is flexible, if CRMs are similar I will always go with the one rated as the best customer support and quick response to an issue. They got this.”

DMS

Another core category of any dealership is the DMS.  Here are the top five as rated by dealers on DrivingSales.

Autosoft edged up one spot from 4 to 5 this quarter. One Finance Manager said that Autosoft's “Live Help function is fantastic. Having somebody available to answer any problems is priceless.”

New Car Leads

New Car Leads has an interesting mix of products designed to help dealerships sell more vehicles.

Car Buying Service moved from the seventh spot in Q3 all the way up to the five spot in Q4. “Tons of leads” read one review by a Salesperson. They went on to say “ We get a lot of our leads coming in from here. They have always done a good job for us.”

Digital Retailing

Digital Retailing has started to become such an integral part of the customer journey. Using the right tools to increase that experience for your customer will sell more cars.

Dealer eProcess’ SARA Digital Retailing Solution has jumped up nine spots from Q3 to Q4 of 2019. One Marketing Director thinks: This is a must add to your website” and that SARA “creates more credit applications. Customers want to see monthly payments.”

Messaging

Messaging is a great place for you to stay engaged with customers. Whether they are looking for a car or getting service done, messaging is the best place to keep the customer informed.

Conversica moved from the eighth spot in Q3 up to the sixth spot in Q4. One Service Manager said: “The virtual assistant allows our service writers to concentrate on the guest rather than being on the phone. We have closed over 330 ro's from our assistant in the last quarter.”

Tune in next month when we will release the 2019 Q4 Marketing Power Rankings.

We sat down with Clint Pulver, from The Center for Employee Retention, and asked him about how to retain employees in today’s ultra-competitive climate. His advice is to focus on the employee experience or you will lose your people. The amount of options available to today’s workforce is unprecedented. They can choose their payscale, schedule, co-workers and even more. It makes it difficult for employers to retain their teams when there are so many amazing options. Make your culture something people want to be a part of. 

We sat down with Eliave Moshe, CPO of AutoLeadStar, to understand how data can be used more effectively. Finding the connections in the data to complete it so you can actually do something with it is essential to leveraging your current data. Too often we see people not making connections with their data to explain why it is or isn't scaling. When you train your data to be the exact type you want will enable you to trust your data more. Good data won’t just fall on your lap. You need to utilize the data you get to make decisions moving forward. But that data needs to be the cleanest data possible. Check out the video to learn more.

Mark Brown, former Director of Sales at Grappone, talks about the effect of Expeditionary Leadership. It has been said that the next 5-10 years will have more change than the last 100. Change is the best way to grow any company. You need to focus on individual and collective development. It can’t just be about results. You need to focus on the people and make learning and safety part of it. When employees have the autonomy to fail and try new things, it can create positive change in your store. Mark’s book, Outward Bound Lessons to Live a Life of Leadership, will show you how to apply a unique leadership style to help you create more effective teams, organizations, and communities.

Electric vehicles are nothing new.  In fact, the first mass-produced electric car was a Studebaker released in 1902.  In the past few years, electric vehicles have been gaining steam. But are they scalable?

A recent Deloitte study explored consumers’ changing automotive expectations and the evolving mobility ecosystem. Their main finding for their 2019 global automotive consumer study found that consumers in many global markets continue to move away from traditional combustion engines.

Consumer interest in EV’s has grown. In the U.S. 26% of people would prefer an EV as their next car. This interest increased from 18% in 2018.  Although interest in electric vehicles is trending up, it represents the lowest interest across all global automotive markets. For example, China represents that largest market at 65%.

Electric vehicles are starting to scale in Europe and Asia.  One of the reasons they haven’t scaled at the same pace in the US is gas prices.

In addition, the study finds that consumers are starting to slow their interest in autonomous vehicles over safety concerns and have become reluctant to pay more for connectivity. 

With shifting consumer interest into the EV market, it represents an opportunity for dealerships, and they will need to prepare to scale alongside the consumers’ interest. Demand is increasing, and Tesla has experienced a drop in consumer trust, according to AMCI’s Trust Study, due to their OEM pushing volume over customer experience.  Dealers who can scale and meet increased demand will have an advantage.

With all global markets slowly moving away from internal combustion engines and into EV’s it is clear that the U.S. is the slowest to adopt the trend. With the consumer beginning to scale into the EV market time will tell when that will be the majority of new vehicle sales in the U.S. but that time is not coming anytime soon.

Electric vehicles are nothing new.  In fact, the first mass-produced electric car was a Studebaker released in 1902.  In the past few years, electric vehicles have been gaining steam. But are they scalable?

A recent Deloitte study explored consumers’ changing automotive expectations and the evolving mobility ecosystem. Their main finding for their 2019 global automotive consumer study found that consumers in many global markets continue to move away from traditional combustion engines.

Consumer interest in EV’s has grown. In the U.S. 26% of people would prefer an EV as their next car. This interest increased from 18% in 2018.  Although interest in electric vehicles is trending up, it represents the lowest interest across all global automotive markets. For example, China represents that largest market at 65%.

Electric vehicles are starting to scale in Europe and Asia.  One of the reasons they haven’t scaled at the same pace in the US is gas prices.

In addition, the study finds that consumers are starting to slow their interest in autonomous vehicles over safety concerns and have become reluctant to pay more for connectivity. 

With shifting consumer interest into the EV market, it represents an opportunity for dealerships, and they will need to prepare to scale alongside the consumers’ interest. Demand is increasing, and Tesla has experienced a drop in consumer trust, according to AMCI’s Trust Study, due to their OEM pushing volume over customer experience.  Dealers who can scale and meet increased demand will have an advantage.

With all global markets slowly moving away from internal combustion engines and into EV’s it is clear that the U.S. is the slowest to adopt the trend. With the consumer beginning to scale into the EV market time will tell when that will be the majority of new vehicle sales in the U.S. but that time is not coming anytime soon.

What type of 'Why Buy Here' messaging are you using to drive in customers? Watch the video to learn more.