Question
As background:
Our client is one of the leading international automotive brands based in South Africa with 50+ dealerships spread across the country. The dealerships rely on a very traditional ATL marketing approach relying heavily on the initiatives pushed from the holding brand. The dealerships don’t get involved in any digital marketing activities with a best case scenario of having their own website. None of the dealerships are involved in social media, email marketing or activations. They rely on leads being pushed from the holding brand’s website.
Our brief:
We’ve been tasked to develop or enhance new and existing sales channels. Some of the channels we’ll have more influence on that others being based in digital.
These include the following:
- Walk-ins
- Phone-ins
- Workshop
- Database – email
- Website
- Social Media
- Activations and community involvement
- New product launches
We need to be able to provide the centralised management of the above channels for the 50+ dealerships. Ideally the process needs some automation and a central distribution mechanism of content to the various channels.
Above all, the results needs to be measured and reported on.
I need to put plan / platform in place to manage the process. Where do I start?
Answer
Clearly, this is a job for Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). So the problem becomes selecting the best one. Unfortunately, this is no small task!
If you are new to CRM, Wikipedia has an excellent primer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management
There is a company in Toronto called Dashboard that specializes in CRM and Marketing Automation for the Automotive industry:
http://www.dashboard.ca/
I can introduce you to the owner if you like.
Good luck!
