The Internet and 1998 with Jasen Rice

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Have we been looking at CRMs all wrong?

Jasen Rice, our guest on Auto Collabs, thinks so. Jasen is a veteran of the industry. He was selling 100% online at a time when AOL was still mailing Internet CD-ROMs to homes. Consequently, he’s helped launch Digital Dealer, vAuto and much more. In his conversation with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier, he dives deep into CRMs, conversion rates and a new way of thinking about leads.

What we cover in this episode:

4:00 Jasen started working in the industry in 1997 and was selling exclusively online by 1998. He shows the guys his Microsoft CarPoint Certification from back in the days.

18:13 CRMs aren’t looking at the right metrics. Jasen blows up some of the ways that CRMs use age of vehicle and age of lead in ways that simply don’t make sense.

24:37 In Jasen’s mind, the Used Car Manager and Internet Director are the same person.

“The Used Car Manager needs to be your Internet Director. They need to understand every lead and be just as responsible. I pull it up all the time. I said, “Guys, what would you do if a customer was in your showroom for 10 minutes and no one said ‘hi’? You would throw a chair through the window. But here's five leads that no one's called for 14 days, 10 days and 8 days. What do you do about that?”

27:10 The power of switches.

“A lot of times when you get a fresh car, we price it up 104-105%. We wait for photos to get done. So of course, we're not getting much activity on this car. But I'm showing dealers, you got a three day old car that you're at 105%. Fair enough, but you have no leads, but you got 10 switches, you got 10 Other people right now that you could call. They are interested in the segment in this price range, they don't need to know you're 105%. That Escape sold, will they take this Jeep Liberty? And even though it's 105%, it's still within their segment in their price point. So it's like your best salesman that sees the nice trade that came in yesterday, and he's on the phone with five people and he has it sold before it goes to the service department. Right? That's what you need to be doing with this too. There's opportunities here without having a race to the bottom and waiting till the pictures are done to get some eyeballs on this car.”

Listen to the full episode for more insights and context from our conversation with Jasen Rice

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