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.