How to Use Car Dealership Software to Streamline Your Operations

From keeping track of customers and employees to your running your website and ads, if you’re an auto dealer, you have a lot to manage.

Here are four types of car dealership software you should use to streamline your operations, saving you time and money.

1. Dealership Management Software (DMS)
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
3. Vehicle Listing Photography
4. Marketing Automation Software

1. Dealership Management Software (DMS)

The first piece of software every dealership should have is Dealership Management Software or DMS. A DMS is a sales management platform built specifically for auto dealers. Here, dealers can perform necessary business tasks like running credit reports, managing deals, tracking finances, and managing parts and inventory all within one place.

Combining all these business functions into one system can reduce costs and save time for the dealer. There are many types of DMS systems for different types of dealerships. For example, CDK Drive is built for multi-location dealerships while vAuto Provision serves used car dealerships and vAuto Conquest is for new car dealerships.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In addition to a DMS which manages dealership operations, a Customer Relationship Management or CRM platform can be very useful for keeping track of and managing leads. A CRM is designed to manage all customer (and potential customer) activity. Within these platforms, dealers can keep track of all their leads, what stage each lead is in, and where they are spending advertising dollars.

This can also be used to plan and track salesperson activities related directly to those leads such as emails, calls, and meetings they complete. Many CRMs can also integrate with advertising platforms, making it much easier to target your leads. A great example of this is HubSpot, a user-friendly yet extremely powerful CRM platform.

3. Vehicle Listing Photography

A crucial part of every auto dealer’s operation is the vehicle listing pages. Here, potential customers see a photo of the vehicle along with details like year, make, model, price, and the most important features and specs. In order for these pages to be effective, clear, high-quality photos are essential. However, taking these photos yourself can be difficult and time consuming.

Consider investing in a photo taking and management system like Dealer Image Pro. Companies like this provide the resources and software to make sure your photos are consistent and professional. If you want to take it a step further, you can also consider 360-degree video. This way, consumers can look around the entire car as well as the interior without having to step on the lot.

4. Marketing Automation Software

The DMS and CRM systems are great for running day-to-day operations of a dealership, but they often leave out one critical area of running an effective business: marketing. Designing, optimizing, and running paid advertising can be costly and time consuming.

For that reason, dealers should consider utilizing marketing automation software that dynamically aligns your live inventory with an active shopper who is interested in a similar vehicle. This type of software can create, run, and optimize your ads in real time, so you are always serving the right ads to the right people (and getting them to come to you vs. your competitors).

ZeroSum can fully manage and optimize inventory-based paid advertising for your dealership, so you know you are always getting the most from your ad spend. ZeroSum’s MarketAI knows how much advertising it will take to move each vehicle, and it continuously updates your live inventory feed so you are never spending money on cars that have already sold. Book a demo today to see how it works.