CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application (CIMA) that serves as an automated business development center (BDC) for dealerships, announced the hiring of Tom Austin as Regional Sales Executive to the Northeast region. In Austin’s new role with CIMA, his primary responsibility will be overseeing sales to all dealerships in the area. Bringing more than thirty years of experience with the Chrysler, LLC, Austin was the Five Star Manager at Chrysler’s Mid-Atlantic Business Center from 2003-2008, where he exceeded Sales Training Revenue targets during each year of his tenure.

Austin’s impressive record at Chrysler included overseeing all aspects of the Five Star Certification Program for the Mid-Atlantic Business Center’s 340-plus Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge dealerships. Austin also managed all planning, development, and promotion for new product launches and was directly responsible for administering training campaigns for the entire Mid-Atlantic Business Center management and field staff.

A graduate of Penn State’s Business Management program, Austin has extensive experience within the Chrysler Corporation. Prior to becoming a Five Star Manager he held the positions of Minneapolis Zone Dealer Development Manager and Zone Process and Training Manager, among others.
“I’m very excited to be a part of CIMA Systems,” Austin said. “While I was at Chrysler, we private labeled the CIMA System and I was so impressed I felt the need to get involved. Dealer feedback from the system has been extremely positive.”

“The addition of Tom to our team is a reflection of CIMA’s continued strong growth and expansion,” says Gary Nixon, President & CEO of CIMA Systems. “Tom’s extensive background in sales and management will help us expand CIMA further into the northeast region and we’re very honored to have him join our team.”

SOURCE: Dealer Magazine, VOLUME 3 ISSUE 42

CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application (CIMA) that serves as an automated business development center (BDC) for dealerships, today announced it hired Anne Rogers to manage and act as the liaison between CIMA and their manufacturer clients. Rogers main responsibility will be managing the relationship between CIMA and all domestic OEM clients, with a primary focus on the new partnership between CIMA and Chrysler, LLC.

Rogers joins CIMA with over 16 years of experience as an expert in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Development Center (BDC) operations for automotive dealerships. Most recently Rogers held the position of V.P. – Account Director for Aspen Marketing Services where she developed programs to drive dealership traffic at the retail level. Prior to this position, Rogers worked as V.P. CRM and Integrated Marketing Manager for BBDO where she lead the Chrysler BDC Task Force and implemented Dealer Advertising Association (DAA) strategies and mobile marketing initiatives for Daimler-Chrysler. She began her career at Ross Roy Communications as Account Supervisor/CRM Specialist where she worked with Chrysler to launch a new technology platform to deliver dealership training programs.

“After seeing CIMA in action, I am convinced it is the strongest virtual BDC currently on the market and I’m excited to help manufacturers bring it to their dealers, “said Rogers. “In my experience this is a product that can help dealerships begin recognizing additional revenue the day they implement the system.”

At CIMA, Rogers will be integral to managing the recent partnership with Chrysler LLC, whereby CIMA will provide its automated marketing and communications applications as a “private label” for the manufacturer’s Chrysler, Jeep® and Dodge dealerships. The CIMA system will help generate revenues and profits for dealerships, while also improving customer satisfaction. Rogers will also be responsible for establishing and managing new partnerships with additional domestic manufacturers.

“Anne’s strong background in Customer Relation Management, Marketing Services as well as her established relationships with manufacturers, makes her an incredible asset to our team,” said Gary Nixon, President & CEO of CIMA Systems. “I am confident that her skills will be invaluable in helping us to serve all of the OEM partnerships generated with CIMA.”

For more information visit: www.cimasystems.net

PLEASANTON, Calif. — CIMA Systems, a customer interactive management application serving as an automated business development center for dealerships, has appointed a new chief technology officer.

Named to the post is Christian McCarrick, who was previously vice president of technology at ParkingCarma.

In the new position, McCarrick is responsible for leading technology innovation, application development and working with various clients and CIMA alliances to ensure that CIMA’s system is fully integrated and utilized.

“Christian has an incredible background in technology innovation and development, and we are extremely pleased that he is joining our team,” stated Gary Nixon, president and chief executive officer of CIMA. “As CIMA continues to grow and form new partnerships with OEMs and dealers, Christian will be indispensable in helping to design new solutions and processes to address our clients’ business development needs.”

Prior to his time with ParkingCarma, McCarrick was vice president of technology at EscapeHomes.com and TotalMove.com.

Additionally, McCarrick has led a variety of technology teams, started and sold various start-ups and been honored with several technologically related awards, officials indicated.

For more information, visit www.cimasystems.net.

By Gary Nixon for Dealer Marketing Magazine

Embrace a dealership-wide marketing approach that meets your customers’ needs and allows you to reap the maximum profit from every part of your business.  

We all know the current market situation. A decline in consumer confidence, along with high fuel prices, and the worry that the weakened market could turn into a full blown recession has hit the automotive industry hard.

According to Reuters, auto sales dropped 12 percent in March alone and predictions are that they will continue to decline through the second quarter of this year. Experts counsel that a strong focus on promoting your parts and service business is the way to keep your profits up during this down time. I’d like to offer a different perspective to ensure you focus on your entire dealership.

Although individual promotions for parts and services, vehicles sales, or any other aspect of your dealership are an integral part of your marketing plan, sending communications that promote specific departments to the exclusion of others sets you up for a roller coaster ride. For example, a marketing promotion that only touts a $9.99 oil change may make your service business rise briefly, but it may soon go right back down again, leaving you in a constant state of peaks and valleys, scrambling to come up with even better promotions.

Instead, focus on promoting your entire dealership. This approach gives you room to highlight a particular department, for instance your service department, while still tying in all the services and products you offer that meet the full gamut of customer needs. Marketing your dealership as a whole sets you up for a steady stream of revenue, so your business remains strong even during the most difficult economic conditions.

To see what this type of communication would look like, let’s take the example of a service special. A dealership creates a June promotional email offering half off of a spring vehicle tune-up. Most dealerships would throw this offer into their basic dealership communication template (i.e. mailer, phone, email, text, etc.) and shoot it off to their entire customer database. They would get some business and then as that drops off, go to work brainstorming a new offer.

Using a dealership-wide approach, you would send the service offer above via email, but would also include direct links to ‘new vehicle promotions,’ ‘accessorize your vehicle,’ ‘schedule service,’ and all the other departments of you dealership. Suddenly your communication go from attracting one business stream of revenue—service—to more than three. This type of approach allows your customers and prospects to view all aspects of your dealership and easily access the information they need at that time…not just the specific item you are promoting.

Let’s look at another example. You send a ‘thank you’ or ‘congratulations’ email to new vehicle owners with details about your service department, such as hours and contact information. This is a missed opportunity! Instead, this email should include not only the ‘thank you’ message, but an introduction to your service department with staff photos, a personalized message and Website link, and a link to your parts and accessories department. Now the customer can get complete service information with one click, and explore a full list of accessories for their new vehicle. There are even on-demand communication systems in the space that allow customers to log in and then accessorize an interactive image of their vehicle, change their communications method, view their vehicle history, and more. Adding these links for one-click access to your complete dealership is an easy and effective way to boost your business.

With any type of marketing plan it is imperative that you reach your customers in the way they want to be reached. This means asking customers if they prefer phone, email, or text message contact, and then communicating with them through their preferred channel. Just as important is making it easy for them to access the information they want and need. If you are only sending one-off promotions for individual dealership departments, you may be cheating yourself out of a lot of business. By adding information about your entire dealership in every message, you are embracing a dealership-wide marketing approach that meets your customers’ needs and allows you to reap the maximum profit from every part of your business, in all market conditions.

Gary Nixon is president and CEO of CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application that helps serve as a 24-hour, automated BDC for dealerships. He can be reached at 925-461-4600 or email gnixon@cimasystems.net

PLEASANTON, Calif. – Feb. 4, 2008 – CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application (CIMA) that serves as an automated business development center (BDC) for dealerships, today announced it has partnered with Chrysler LLC to provide automated marketing and communications applications to its  Chrysler, Jeep_® and Dodge dealerships. Under the new program, Chrysler has privately labeled the new system Chrysler Interactive Management Application (CIMA). It’s available immediately through Chrysler’s “Dealer Connect” Web site. 

ROCK HILL, SC — Feb. 4, 2007 — Insignia Group, a leading provider of dealership Accessory Sales Systems, announced an integration alliance with CIMA Systems, a customer interactive management application. Through the alliance, Insignia and CIMA Systems will offer mutual dealership clients special pricing on the combined systems. The integrated solutions will provide tools to leverage communications with retail customers while capturing increased profits through accessory sales, promotions, and regular dealership service visits. The combined systems will enable dealers to efficiently track and maintain accurate customer data; manage multi-faceted customer communications programs; and evaluate response.  

 “We are excited to be working with CIMA Systems to further simplify the sales process,” said David Copp Stringer President of Insignia Group. “Our joint solution will give dealers the latest technology based tools to reach and engage their customers.“ 

By joining together, Insignia and CIMA Systems will provide dealers a powerful marketing platform for staying in touch with customers. Dealerships will now be able to leverage CIMA’s powerful marketing platform to link directly to the Insignia accessory sales system.  This allows customers to see dealer pricing and accessory promotions specific to their vehicle and place accessory orders immediately. If the accessory is special ordered, CIMA will automatically notify the customer once the accessory arrives and allow them to immediately schedule an on-line service appointment to get it installed.

 “We at CIMA are excited to provide our customers yet another valuable integration which will drive business into their dealership. The integration between CIMA and Insignia will result in dealers selling more accessories while meeting our motto of “Make it easier for your customers to do business with you””.   – Gary Nixon, President & CEO of CIMA Systems, Inc. 

See the systems demonstrated together in booth 3133W at the NADA Expo February 9-12, 2008.

About Insignia: Insignia provides over 1400 automotive dealerships nationwide a complete low-cost accessories sales system to maximize dealership profits on every new and serviced vehicle. From accurate data to useful sales tools, services, and training, Insignia simplifies the accessories sales process so orders can be fulfill quickly and easily. To learn more about selling accessories in your dealership, visit our website at www.insigniagroup.com or contact a sales representative at 888-579-4458 or sales@insigniagroup.com.

About CIMA Systems: CIMA Systems patent-pending solution was founded in 2001 with the goal of creating an automated customer interaction tool for the automotive Industry. After years worth of development time, CIMA Systems, a Customer Interactive Management Application (CIMA), was born. The application helps serve as a 24 hour, automated BDC for dealerships. Developed exclusively for the automotive Industry, CIMA helps dealers communicate with their customers in the way the customer wants to be contacted, via telephone, mail, email or text message and analyzes the success of those communications with reporting and mapping tools. To find out more about CIMA, visit http://www.cimasystems.net or call 925-461-4600.

Determine the pros and cons of each of your marketing methods for maximum success.
by Gary Nixon for Digital Dealer

Determine the pros and cons of each of your marketing methods for maximum success.
by Gary Nixon for Digital Dealer

Determine the pros and cons of each of your marketing methods for maximum success.
by Gary Nixon for Digital Dealer

Dealers often ask us, with the many ways to reach out to customers which channels work the best for communicating important dealership promotions/recommendations to drive customers for life? Mailers, business development centers, emails, automated calls, enewsletters and blogs are just samples of various communication possibilities. In this series I’d like to help demystify some of the more common forms of marketing communication and share with you the pros and cons of each. There’s a variety of ways to bring in customers, all of them with good and bad points. Regardless of which way you choose to pull in customers, sending the right message at the right time and in the right way is your best bet for pulling in additional leads and sales.

This month’s article will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of direct mail and email. In future articles we’ll focus on: automated phone calls, live phone calls (or Business Development Centers-BDC’s) and newer technologies such as text messages and Blogs (or timely two-way enewsletters).

Direct Mail: Is it Working for You or Against You?