Automotive CRMs help dealerships, OEMs, and garages connect with and organize leads and prioritize prospects ready to buy or service a vehicle. The top automotive CRMs offer general tools such as lead generation and pipeline management, plus industry-specific features like inventory management, license and VIN scanning, and dealership management system (DMS) integration. We’ve evaluated the top six automotive CRM software to help you choose the right one.
Here are the six best automotive CRMs in 2022:
- Salesforce: Best overall CRM software for features and pricing (30-day free trial)
- Zoho CRM: Best general CRM for omnichannel marketing tools (free starting price)
- Elead CRM: Best automotive CRM for customer service management (free demo)
- VinSolutions Connect CRM: Best CRM for advanced lead data insights (free demo)
- AutoRaptor: Best automotive software for automated lead distribution (free demo)
- Selly Automotive: Best automotive software for onboarding support (free demo)
How We Evaluated the Best Automotive CRM Software
In our evaluation of the best CRM software for automotive businesses, we divided our scoring into six major categories, each of which included several weighted subcriteria. We then assigned subcriteria scores and tallied up each category, which resulted in an overall score out of five for each CRM. Using our research, we assigned a primary use case to each CRM that scored highly enough to make our list.
Evaluation Criteria
Our scoring prioritized the features dealerships and other automotive companies need — including general tools that come with any quality CRM, plus automotive-specific tools — and their cost. We also looked at ease of use to ensure that each software can be used by anyone. App integrations and customization came next, followed by customer support.
We considered setup fees and tiered pricing flexibility, especially with paid features tailored to auto companies’ specific needs.
We looked at general features plus industry-specific tasks like lease tracking, equity mining, texting automation, and desking functions to streamline the buying process.
This measured the convenience, simplicity, and practicality of each CRM to ensure it can be used by the entire team.
Auto businesses must be able to connect to third-party integrations, such as a DMS, to improve their data.
Dealerships use various processes to sell various vehicles to different customers at different price points, so the CRM should be easily customizable to fit their unique needs.
We evaluated the types of support and service provided to users of each CRM, including email, chat, and phone.
Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless noted.
While all general and industry-specific CRMs performed well in various categories, a winner emerged after we totaled the results. Salesforce scored best overall and also placed first in the Core Features, Integrations, and Customization categories. None of the industry-specific CRMs list pricing on their website, which affected their scores, but all six software on our list are worthy options. Read below to understand how each CRM fared in each category.
Top 5 Automotive CRM Features
The best automotive CRM software have these features in common:
With these scanning tools, you can scan customers' license and their car’s vehicle identification number (VIN) and save it within their contact record in the CRM.
Bottom Line: Best Automotive CRM
Automotive CRM software helps automotive companies efficiently manage their interactions with existing and new customers. By giving dealerships the industry-specific CRM tools they need, these platforms can support dealerships and similar businesses to close more deals. The top six auto CRMs highlighted on our list provide useful features and resources to sell and engage with clients; check them out and choose the one that will serve you best.
