“Our brand is about tradition, but also this idea of being better, setting standards for our industry, and being trailblazers,” said Alison Izurieta, CRM Manager at Casabaca.

To power its innovation, Casabaca has long recognized that data is its most important asset. The business built a homegrown enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool early on for invoicing, inventory management, and government reporting. But never before had data been used to actually drive business.

As a leader in Ecuadorian business, Casabaca was ready for a digital transformation that would not only push the envelope, but allow representatives to sell smarter, while serving its customers with better, more connected experiences.

Taking action on data

Previously, Casabaca’s sales process relied on paper, phone calls, and manual workflows to create leads. In its first implementation of Sugar, the company was able to digitize these processes to conduct simple activities like collecting data and sending invoices.

But eventually, the Casabaca sales team wanted to know more analytics like how many times a buyer had visited a dealership, which products/services were offered to them, how long they were in the dealership, or if they scheduled a test drive or meeting.

The team engaged in a readoption of the CRM, which they dubbed “Sugar 2.0,” using it to house all of the company’s important data, making it easy for sales reps to find what they need, and ultimately sell smarter, not harder.

Yet, its sales process was still largely reactive, waiting on new customers to visit a dealership at their leisure and selling to them on the spot. And because Casabaca’s call center wasn’t yet integrated with its CRM, reps only had visibility of buyers that physically visited the store. When a prospective customer did call in, reps could only tell sales that someone was coming into the store—but not what the shopper was interested in, whether someone had already spoken to them, or if their interest was from an ad or elsewhere. All buyers were treated the same regardless.

But the pandemic changed that in 2020 as public places were closed and companies were forced to conduct business digitally. To stay afloat, Casabaca needed a way to interact with people online, especially when they couldn’t visit the dealership in-person. Using the data it already had, the company could build deeper customer relationships with better tracking, nurturing, personalized content, and lead scoring.

“We were sitting on a goldmine,” said Alison. “But we didn’t know how to use it.”

Taking the guesswork out of selling

Alison worked closely with the Casabaca marketing team to boost its online presence and traffic by connecting the website to the CRM and more closely tracking the data collected. The team also worked hard to implement a digital sales funnel of online leads at the beginning of 2021, combining it with the existing physical sales funnel to capture and monitor opportunities from all sources.

Whereas Casabaca previously didn’t have any information on a prospect visiting the dealership for the first time, the digital sales funnel now allows representatives to track where a new lead is coming from. Whether leads come from the website, advertisement, or other channel, sales can better understand what the prospect is looking for and even gather some preliminary information, taking the guesswork out of selling.

Casabaca also implemented Zoom meetings and live web chat to engage with interested parties no matter where they were. Though Casabaca was initially skeptical about conducting video calls and financing discussions over Zoom, its customers have loved seeing the brand’s changes and new digital presence.

Under the digital sales process, Casabaca is now able to capture information once instead of asking customers multiple times. Not only does this provide a better sales experience for customers, but it makes reps more efficient, saving time from digging for data or rekeying information. And with the data collected, reps can have more personalized conversations with prospects, moving through the sales cycle quicker.

A digital way forward

With the ability to talk to buyers before seeing them in-store and schedule meetings during the pandemic, Casabaca was able to sell almost its entire inventory by the end of 2021. And since implementing the digital sales funnel in June 2021, the dealership now converts 3% more leads, while creating loyal customers that keep coming back.

“We had this idea that people liked to visit our agency and touch the car, but people just like to be treated right, whether you’re chatting with them or they submitted a form,” said Alison. “We’ve learned a lot from the KPIs we’ve been measuring.”

Because the process is digital, Casabaca has opened doors to further-reaching sales communication, expanding its market to outlying areas like the Amazon and coastal region. The dealership is even willing to drive test models two to three hours to buyers’ homes, demonstrating a commitment to adapting to customers’ changing needs. The service is especially helpful to people with disabilities, an audience Casabaca takes special care to serve with tax-exempt vehicles.

Still, digital engagement has been about more than business results for Casabaca. It has also allowed the company to better serve the community in its time of need. Though automobile leasing isn’t typically practiced in Ecuador, Casabaca developed a program to allow customers to trade in their cars for a lesser value model and receive the cash difference to use as needed. Customers responded strongly to communications about the program, taking advantage of it to refinance their car while still keeping one to drive.

“CRM is software, but it’s also strategic and cultural,” said Alison. “It helps us create happy customers that are going to buy from us again. It helps us support our community and solve the problem of mobility.”

Going forward, Casabaca is working with Sugar’s Mexico-based partner Inteli-k to develop even more innovative projects. Already, Casabaca has plans to launch its own car appraisal system since its customers don’t have access to resources like Kelley Blue Book. Users will be able to give appraisals, take pictures, and render an initial offer, all from within the CRM. Casabaca also plans to incorporate its service and mechanics department (including support, maintenance, and parts) into the CRM solution, as the customer journey is much longer than initial car sales. “Sugar is so flexible, it allows us to tailor to whatever strategy we have and adapt it to the car industry and Casabaca’s needs,” said Alison.