At NADA 2020 in beautiful Las Vegas, host Jim Fitzpatrick was joined by Greg Uland, Marketing Director for Reynolds & Reynolds, a household name in the auto retail industry.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Jim Fitzpatrick: Your booth is on fire over there, as it always is. Reynolds & Reynolds is such a household name in the auto industry. Talk to me about how the show’s going.
Greg Uland: Man, it’s been awesome this year. It’s the best one that I can remember.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Really?
Greg Uland: But the folks at NADA always put on a great show, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: They do. Yeah, for sure.
Greg Uland: And this year is no different. But I’ll tell you, the one thing that I’ve noticed that has been a little different is the grouping of the booths. So you have CDK and you have Cox and you have the Reynolds & Reynolds booth kind of all together.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s interesting.
Greg Uland: But it’s fantastic because it gives dealers a real opportunity to look at products and actually compare them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s true.
Greg Uland: So it’s been great. We’ve been packed since the bell rang on Saturday morning and it hasn’t slowed down.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s so cool. So I’m sure that there’s a lot out there going on with new products. Talk to me a little bit about the launch that you got here at the show.
Greg Uland: Yeah. So yesterday we launched our new CRM, Focus. And based off the feedback from customers, I mean, it redefines what a CRM is and what a CRM does. Over time I’ve had a chance to try to prospect out of a CRM as a B2C person-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Greg Uland: And to try to work out of a CRM as a salesperson and eventually try to manage out of a CRM as a sales manager and would even market out of a CRM as a marketer.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure, sure.
Greg Uland: And none of those things are easy, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: I know, I know, I know.
Greg Uland: It’s so tough because you’re cutting through so much clutter to try to get any value whatsoever.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Greg Uland: And once you find the information, because you’re still relying on manual entry from salespeople-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Greg Uland: A lot of times it’s incomplete or inaccurate. So it just makes it really tough. And that’s what we’ve really tried to tackle and address with Focus is taking care of all that and clearing it out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Greg Uland: Taking everything and automating a lot of the processes has made a huge difference.
Jim Fitzpatrick: What do you say to the dealers that are watching that says, “Does the automotive world really need another CRM?”
Greg Uland: Yeah, it does. And the reason is really at the heart of your question, right? Which is everything that’s out there is kind of the same. 40 years ago CRMs came around as kind of electronic Rolodex’s. And over time they’ve been built out-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Greg Uland: And they’re pretty powerful tools that at this point can get people into the store and can followup with them to try to get them back later.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Greg Uland: But pretty much everything out there is built on the same basic principles. So a lot of the functionality is really the same.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. How’s your Reynolds & Reynolds approach the CRM different?
Greg Uland: Well, when you look at what’s out there today, everything’s really cumbersome to use. So we’ve really just tried to simplify everything and make it easy.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. In fact, it’s so cumbersome that some of the others in this space will report back that their CRM is only used maybe 30% to its capacity.
Greg Uland: Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right?
Greg Uland: Yeah. And that’s a pain point for dealers obviously.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Greg Uland: So if you can automate a lot of that stuff … Because the reason that’s not utilized is because it’s tough. We expect a lot out of every person in our dealership, whether that’s somebody in the B2C, or a salesperson, or a marketer, or even a service advisor.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I know.
Greg Uland: Right? We expect so much out of them that they end up really actively avoiding the CRM because it’s so much work for them with-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Greg Uland: … minimal benefit, really.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right. We’ve spoken to other or personnel at dealerships and they report the same thing. It’s just, it’s too much. So they avoid it altogether. What else is Reynolds & Reynolds done to make this not just another CRM?
Greg Uland: Well, one of the really cool pieces is prioritizing a lot of the work for salespeople, right? So taking the onus off of them and looking at what should be done, not just chronologically, but what’s going to have the biggest impact on the store today, right now.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Greg Uland: Right? So salesperson, “Should I kind of handle those six birthday emails that I need to, or should I followup with the person who responded by email last night?”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, for sure.
Greg Uland: I mean, the short answer is both, but there’s an obvious–
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure, sure. But one’s got a little more priority than the other.
Greg Uland: Yeah, there’s obviously a priority.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, of course.
Greg Uland: So with Focus, you’re able to take that onus off the salesperson where they don’t have to prioritize their day the night before every morning or try to figure out what to do. It tells them what to do.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. What about sales managers? What’s in it for them on the CRM?
Greg Uland: Well, first of all, there’s actually information in there they can coach from. That’s the biggest thing.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay. Imagine that.
Greg Uland: Yeah, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Greg Uland: And you can do a lot as a sales manager for your team when you can both reactively coach. So to help your team get better longterm, but also proactively coach where you can make sure you’re not losing the deal in the first place.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Greg Uland: You think about that sales manager role, when they’re not forced to the sidelines where they’re only getting to play when the salesperson says, “Come help.”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I know. I know, right.
Greg Uland: But instead they can monitor in real time what’s going on.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s nice.
Greg Uland: Right. With every prospect, every step of the sales process, how long it’s taken.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow.
Greg Uland: So somebody’s back from a test drive and it’s been 40 minutes and you haven’t penciled a deal yet, you should probably go introduce yourself to that conversation. So Focus enables that and alerts you to go do that without you having to have a clock on everybody-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s nice. That’s really nice.
Greg Uland: … in the store. Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So also a sales manager can then work with 10 sales people in real time at any given … Just by managing that tool.
Greg Uland: Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. That’s a beautiful thing.
Greg Uland: Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So, you started showing it off at the booth yesterday. What’s the reaction been? What’s the reception been to the dealer community?
Greg Uland: It’s been overwhelmingly positive.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Has it really?
Greg Uland: It really has. So, I’ve been to a lot of these and some years are better than others.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right. That’s right.
Greg Uland: But this year we’re standing on that corner, we’re showing this tool, and you can literally see the light bulbs going off for people.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I bet, I bet.
Greg Uland: It’s so fun because they’re sitting there and they’re going, “Wow, so that means I don’t have to do this. And that means I can do this.” And frankly, it’s what we expected.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right. That’s right.
Greg Uland: But you’re always a little anxious when you’re launching a new product. But for us, we’ve been testing it with dealers for a few months, really fine tuning it and making sure we’re ready to roll.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And it all boils down to creating a better experience for the dealer’s customer. Right?
Greg Uland: For sure.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I mean, that’s what it’s all about is to have it much more seamless, much more streamlined than what it’s been thus far. And I spoke to one of the dealers that took a look. He’s with another CRM company right now. He’s going to move over to yours. He took a demonstration from one of your associates over there and it blew him away. And he said, “What we’re looking forward to do is to streamline the process.” And he saw it as really a better management tool, more than anything else.
Greg Uland: That’s great to hear. That’s great to hear. Yeah, that’s a lot of the feedback that we’ve been seeing. It’s been fun because we already have really a queue lined up of installs ready to roll. And it’s great to be able to leave the show and go, “Okay, let’s go.”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure. And how quickly, if a dealer wants to get on board, what’s the ramp up time to get them up and running?
Greg Uland: Yeah, we’ll get them rolling as quick as we can, which will be … It’ll be fast.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Greg Uland: And one of the cool parts as we’ve seen as we’ve been rolling this out and testing with dealers, is there’s not a ton of training that needs to be done.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s great.
Greg Uland: CRMs usually, right? You have a ton of setup and you have amount of training.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Oh my God, I know. There’s no question.
Greg Uland: But everything is so intuitive from a user interface perspective-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s great. That’s awesome.
Greg Uland: That you get a weekend with it and sales people were like, “Please don’t take it away.”
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s what you want, right?
Greg Uland: Exactly.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah. It’s like they’re addicted to it.
Greg Uland: Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s awesome. Greg Uland, Marketing Director for Reynolds & Reynolds. Go see this guy if you’re at the NADA show right now, he’d love to talk to you. If you’re not able to make it out to this year show, as some of you dealers were not able to make it, go onto Reynolds & Reynolds, check it out or maybe even give Greg a call, right?
Greg Uland: Absolutely.
Jim Fitzpatrick: They can contact you directly.
Greg Uland: For sure.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And you are one of your associates will help them through it. But you want a CRM that works. CRM companies have been telling me for the last eight years since we’ve been on CBT News, their clients don’t use them to the full capacity, some as little as 30%. Reynolds & Reynolds is going to change that in the CRM community. And I would take them up on the offer to take a look at it. So again, thanks so much. It’s always a pleasure having you on the show.
Greg Uland: Thank you, Jimmy.
Jim Fitzpatrick: This is great. So thanks.
