The Life and Death of Customer Ownership

In CRMSuite, we introduced the concept of an ownerless customer to dealerships and the backlash from salespeople was fast and furious. Truth is, with every dealership having protection rules and the number of orphaned customers, this novel concept of owning the right to work a customer has been dead for a very long time. I get that nobody had a funeral or announced the changes, but the truth on the ground speaks for itself.

The Background:

The concept of ownership has roots in our long time beliefs and traditions that a customer is more likely to buy from someone they know and trust. It is at least partially based on salespeople also knowing how a customer buys, what their hot buttons are and the common bond that over decades’ builds between two people. In short, in the old days at least, salespeople and their customers were friends and that relationship would result in higher closing ratios and more gross.

Today’s Reality:

This will be a long area so I’ll break it into bullet points to make it more digestible (our mandate is to keep these blog postings fairly short)…

1. The concept of lifetime employment is pretty much gone and with it those decades’ long relationships disappeared too. Sure, we all have some old timers but for the most part when we look at 5-year-old sales, more salespeople are gone than still with us.
   
   2. The advent of aggressive OEM and BDC programs mean that many hands are touching the customer before and after the sale. The obvious benefit is that fewer prospects are falling through the cracks but it also dilutes this concept of one salesperson to one customer because information and relationships are being built by lots of different folks before the customers’ boots hit the lot.
   
   3. I’d be remiss if I didn’t blame the Internet like everyone else does, but in this case it’s true. The web is an information trove that allows customers to need to trust the dealer more and the salesperson less than ever. Armed with good information about pricing, warranties and rebates, the real benefit of today’s salesperson is to sell the car against the competition and not against each other. In other words, salesmanship has replaced gamesmanship and knowledge of the product has become today’s most important relationship factor.
   
   4. It’s 2016 and customer expectations about how they buy things have changed. From appliances to clothes, people are now used to getting what they want, when they want it and with complete and total transparency. I’m not suggesting the need for one-price stores but I am saying that they expect when they call, email or text that they get the answer quickly and honestly. A single point of contact with today’s workload and breadth of required disclosures is nearly impossible. I could go on and on if you want but I think you get my point. Team selling has replaced sole contact in almost every purchase and to be honest, we’ve been using team selling in car dealerships since they first opened. Managers, F&I, CSI, Service, BDC, dedicated Internet teams and owners have all touched customers during the sales process and done it with seamless ease. The real issue is when one piece, and only one piece, refuses to get with the program. Can you imagine if Finance folks felt the same way about ownership? I mean, in many stores they make more gross, have more personal discussions and are far more important to a customer long term than anyone in the front of the house. “I’m sorry Mr. Jones, we can’t do your paperwork because Dave isn’t here but he’ll be back Friday. What time would work for you 12 or 2?” It’s so ridiculous it’s not even funny, but many salespeople believe that because they test drove someone or sold them a car 3 years ago it’s a “skate” or theft if anyone else talks to them.

How CRMSuite Works:

So when I conceptualized how we’d change things and remove this entitlement called ownership, I started with the premise that I wouldn’t change things at all. I know, sounds stupid, like "Keith why do anything if you weren’t gonna change things?" Well, honestly, I didn’t change anything 
except the words and the mindset. Here are the facts Jack…


1. If you work or contact your owners and prospects they will stay linked to your name and you’ll be their main contact point forever. The key is it’s not a granted right, it’s earned and based on what I wrote above: Develop and foster a relationship and they are yours as long as you keep doing it.
2. There are no orphan customers because we now call them opportunities. A green pea on day one in this system has strong people to call and experienced salespeople have more prospects available to them than ever before.

1. The point person on a customer is not an owner and not who will get asked to make phone calls, emails or texts. CRMSuite has an infinite amount of ways that workflow can be created and each of these ask your managers for direction on who to direct the activity to. If they want you to call your five-year-old customers, they can get it on your MyDay but if they don’t, you won’t see it. It’s all up to them and can be changed at any time. Hopefully, and I’m way over my word count, this helps you understand what you haven’t lost: Your customers are still yours. What you have lost is the ability to assume or expect they are yours. In CRMSuite you have to work to keep them, contact them, build relationships with them and earn their trust.

I started this dissertation by saying I haven’t changed anything with ownership except the entitlement and the words and I hope you have a better understanding now. The power is not in CRMSuite to decide your rules, just like it wasn’t in your last CRM, the power rests with your management team. Workflow, responsibilities and who/what/where/when is just easier and more transparent now. With nothing hidden and no expectation that “he’s mine” everyone will be on a level playing field running to earn the business just like always.