Heavy Equipment & Truck Dealers: How A DMS Should Improve Sales, Service and Parts
You are only as strong as your weakest link. The weakest link in internal systems with heavy equipment dealers may be your DMS system.
As they say in sports, you are only as strong as your weakest player—even when it comes to internal systems. For heavy equipment dealers, sometimes the weakest player is the DMS system, which is missing functionality to successfully manage your teams and departments. Not only does this create barriers, but it also increases manual processes.
Is a Disparate DMS Impacting Your Business?
On average, heavy equipment dealers use 6+ systems to process a single deal and have been working with this disconnected process for years. When service menus, F&I menus, parts invoicing, CRM and reporting sit in different systems, dealers have very limited visibility into the true status of the organization and spend most of their time re-keying information. The most valuable asset of the business, the workforce, is detached from the process, creating lower engagement. In addition, workforce add-on systems are typically complex, highly customized, difficult to use, and expensive to maintain.
Benefits of a Cloud Based Dealer Management System
By replacing disparate systems with a unified, fully integrated DMS tool into the core infrastructure of your business, you equip your workforce with full visibility into all aspects of the business. Teams can complete tasks that matter to them and gain access to important role-based information. This removes departmental barriers— eliminating repetitive and manual processes. The leadership team can vividly see where the gaps are and equip the business with the right talent, skills and strategies, making sure nobody drops the ball.Â
Benefits to the Sales Department:
- Your sales team will be able to function at a higher level because they won’t have to run to management as often with questions.
- The sales team will see the same data that the manager is looking at—making informed decisions on their own without having to leave the customer waiting.
Benefits to the Service Department:
- The Service team will be able to work more efficiently through the service menu using the Service dashboard.
- Service Advisers will easily be able to see the allocation of jobs that the Technicians are working on, while also seamlessly scheduling and dispatching.
- Service Managers will enjoy the ability to easily report on the performance of each team member.
Benefits to the Parts Department:Â Â
- The Parts counter person will be able to improve the invoicing process with their customers by allowing the customer to e-sign invoices and receipts on-screen, which will instantaneously store the customer record without additional manual steps required
- Parts Managers will be able to quickly transfer parts between locations and order parts for each location using their Parts dashboard, in turn creating more time to focus on the success of the Parts team
- Parts Managers will be able to more efficiently track and control inventory counts and bin locations
The time saved by each team member in each department is invaluable.
To learn more about what a DMS should do for you and how to improve productivity and profits, join our webinar, Proven Ways Heavy Equipment and Truck Dealers Boost Sales and Profits, Aug. 28 11am – 12pm ET.
Nicholas Jones
Nick, a Velosio Heavy Equipment and Truck Dealer Specialist, consults with dealerships to design and implement innovative software solutions that meet industry requirements and achieve desired outcomes.