How to Send a Vehicle in a Text in Inventory Link

The inventory Inventory Link holds for your store is one button away in every text composer. Pick the unit and the photo, price and details go out with the message.

1. Make sure inventory is connected

   Open Inventory in the CRM main menu, or My Inventory on the dock. If the list shows your units with photos and prices, you are ready. If it reads Inventory is not connected yet, contact our team; Inventory Link connects your feed or imports the units from your website.

2. Open the text composer

   From the lead record, open the text conversation, or click Send a Text in the top bar, or open Messaging and click New Text Message. On the phone app, Text is on the bottom dock and the same vehicle button is in the composer.

3. Click the vehicle button

   Click Insert a vehicle from your inventory next to the message box. The picker opens on the store's inventory with a photo, year, make, model, stock number and price on each unit.

4. Find the unit

   Type in Search year, make, model, stock, VIN to narrow the list. Stock number or the last digits of the VIN gets you to one unit fastest when the customer asked about a specific car; a make and model shows every match when they asked what you have.

5. Pick it and write one line

   Click the unit. The composer fills with its details and the photo attaches. Type a short line above it, such as the answer to what the customer asked, and keep the vehicle details as they are so the price the customer sees is the price in inventory.

6. Send and watch the status

   Press Send Text or Send (Enter). The message shows as a bubble with the photo, and the status moves from sent to delivered. The customer sees the picture and the details in their messaging app and replies in the same thread.

You need a LeadLocate CRM login, a customer with a mobile number, and inventory flowing into Inventory Link for your store. A store with an inventory feed connects it in the Inventory Link portal; a store without one gives our team the address of its website, and Inventory Link imports the units from there, covered on the import inventory from your website page. A feed and DMS access are not required to use the platform. Any user can send a vehicle once inventory is connected; there is nothing to enable per user.

Check that the unit is in inventory before you promise it. The picker shows exactly what Inventory Link holds, with the photo and price from the store's record. A unit that just landed and is not in the feed yet can be added by hand in the Inventory Link portal with Add vehicle, with a photo from your phone, and it appears in the picker on the next refresh. Units without a photographer's shots can use the promo photos and stock imagery tools in Inventory Link so nothing goes out as a blank card.

In the composer, after you pick the unit: the vehicle's year, make, model, trim, stock number and price in the message body and the photo attached above your text. In the thread, after you send: a bubble with the photo and the details, with a delivery status that moves to delivered. On the customer's phone: the picture, the details and the price in their normal messaging app, as an MMS or in the richer format if their phone supports it, with nothing to download and no portal to log in to.

The message is logged on the lead in the communications log with the unit named, so the next person who opens the record sees which car the customer was sent. The same picker serves the email composer, and on the LeadLocate mobile app the inventory list opens a detail sheet for the unit and the picker sits in the text composer.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

The picker says inventory is not connected. Inventory Link has no units for the store yet. Contact our team; we connect the feed or import from your website, and the picker, the Inventory menu and the app fill from the same record.

The unit is not in the picker. It is not in inventory yet, or it sold and dropped out of the feed. Check the Inventory menu; if the car is on the lot and missing, add it in the Inventory Link portal with Add vehicle, or if the store uses a feed, ask whoever manages it to include the unit.

The photo did not go through but the text did. The customer's line blocks MMS, or the number is a landline. Check the validity dot on the lead and run the Phone Validator. Send the store website's page for the unit as a link instead.

The price in the message is wrong. The price came from inventory. Fix it in the Inventory Link portal, or in the feed if that is where prices come from, and resend; editing the price by hand in a text is how a customer ends up quoted two numbers.

The full description of the button, what goes out and what it replaces is on the send vehicles by text feature page. The texting side, thread view, pictures and status is on the two way texting inbox page. Guides for texting a customer, sending a picture message and working the lead inbox are in the LeadLocate Help Center.

A store that wants shoppers to find units themselves points them at the vehicle finder or the inventory website Inventory Link builds; a broker with no lot gets brand offer pages instead. Anything beyond that is available on request, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Send the car the customer asked about first, then one alternative, not five. Search by stock number when you are looking at the car; it beats scrolling. Let the details in the message stay as inventory wrote them, so the customer's screenshot matches the window sticker. And send it while the customer is still on the phone or texting; a vehicle that arrives during the conversation gets opened, one that arrives an hour later gets scrolled past.

Where is the button to send a vehicle in a text?

In every text and email composer in LeadLocate CRM, on desktop and in the mobile app: Insert a vehicle from your inventory. It opens the picker on the units Inventory Link holds for your store.

Do I need an inventory feed to send vehicles?

No. A feed and DMS access are not required. Inventory Link connects a feed if you have one or imports the units from your website, and you can add a unit by hand in the portal.

What does the customer receive?

The vehicle's photo attached to the message with the year, make, model, trim, stock number and price in the body, in their normal messaging app, from the store's tracking number.

Can I send more than one vehicle in a text?

Send one per message so each gets its own photo and the customer can reply to a specific car. Send the best match first and the alternative in the next text.

Inventory Link and the vehicle insert button are part of every LeadLocate plan, with no feed required to start. See it in the pre-recorded demo or start month to month.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.