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Provider Exchange Network Alternative for Car Dealerships
Keep PEN connecting your F&I office to product providers, and put a lead, CRM, desking and credit application platform in front of it so more customers reach that office ready to buy.
What Provider Exchange Network is known for
Provider Exchange Network, usually called PEN, is known in the F&I world as an electronic data exchange between aftermarket product providers and the systems a dealership uses at the point of sale. Providers publish their products and rates through the network, and dealer systems, including dealer management systems, F&I menu applications and specialty tools, connect to it. The F&I manager selects products, gets rates back, produces contracts and registers the sold contracts with the provider, with paperless contracting for participating dealers.
For most stores, PEN sits behind the F&I menu or DMS they already use rather than being something the finance manager opens on its own, so which providers and features a store sees depends on the systems it runs. Confirm current connectivity, pricing and terms with PEN and with your menu or DMS vendor directly.
When a dealer searches for a Provider Exchange Network alternative, the question underneath is often not about product rating at all. The store wants more customers reaching the finance office, deals that arrive complete, and a record of every conversation that led there. That is the front of the business, and it is exactly where LeadLocate is built to lead.
Keep PEN for product rating and contracts, run LeadLocate beside it
Product rating, contract forms and registration with providers are a specialized job, and a finance office that has its menu and provider connections tuned has real value in that setup. Keep PEN, and the menu and dealer management system you run on top of it, for rating, contracting and remittance with your product providers.
Run LeadLocate beside it for everything that happens before the customer sits in the finance office and for the relationship after delivery. LeadLocate brings the shopper in, answers first, keeps the conversation going, desks the deal, collects the secure credit application and supporting documents, and hands the finance manager a complete picture of the customer. The two meet at the deal, and each keeps doing the job it does best.
Nothing in that plan touches your provider setup. LeadLocate goes live without DMS access or an inventory feed, the account is set up for you, usually the same day, and the finance office keeps every provider connection it uses today.
Questions? Request a Call Back
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 F&I office can only sell to customers who reach it
Product penetration gets most of the attention in F&I meetings, but the number that moves finance gross the most is simpler: how many buyers walk through the door. Every service contract, GAP policy and appearance package starts with a lead someone answered, a call someone picked up and an appointment that showed.
That is the work LeadLocate does every day. A lead from your zone lands in the inbox with answers to the prescreening questions you chose, and validity results from the built in phone validator and email validator show right on the lead. Distribution rules put it on a named salesperson with a clock running, Automated Templates send the first text right away, and Follow Up Processes carry a quiet customer through a multi step drip by lead type. RCS messaging with automatic SMS fallback, MMS, email and a VoIP softphone run from one inbox, and every call is recorded and transcribed so managers coach from what was actually said.
The phone system built into the CRM covers the rest: tracking numbers per source, an IVR call flow builder, business hours routing, a Forward Calls To ring list, and a text back when a call is missed. Read F&I software for car dealerships for how the whole finance stack fits together.
Provider Exchange Network and LeadLocate side by side
| Job | PEN | LeadLocate |
|---|---|---|
| F&I product rating, contracts and registration | Its core, through your menu or DMS | Stays with PEN and your F&I menu |
| Remittance to product providers | Its core, confirm with the vendor | Stays with PEN and your DMS |
| Exclusive leads in a zone you choose | Outside its focus | Included with every lead plan, delivered to you and only you |
| CRM, texting, email and calling | Outside its focus | Built in, one timeline per customer |
| Desking with a fifty state tax matrix | Outside its focus | DealTracker EZ Desking |
| Secure credit applications and apply links | Outside its focus | SecureWebX with versioned consent and OFAC screening |
| Customer deal pages with e-signature | Outside its focus | DealTracker, brand skinned to your store |
| Contract | Confirm current terms with the vendor | Month to month |
Features and packaging change on both sides. Confirm anything decision critical with each vendor before you sign.
A cleaner deal arriving at the finance office
Finance managers lose time when a deal arrives half built: numbers that changed twice on the floor, a missing insurance card, a trade with no photos. DealTracker keeps the deal whole from the first pencil.
EZ Desking builds cash, finance and lease structures with a multi pencil grid and goal seek bays, a fifty state tax matrix, semimonthly payment frequency, trade credit caps and three lease tax methods, with centralized deal defaults so every desk starts from the same rules. The trade-in form takes photos and a trade VIN scan. The identity scanner reads a driver license or insurance card straight into the customer record, and Deal Jacket collects documents from a phone camera through a QR intake. The Road to Sale checklist on every deal shows at a glance what is done and what is still open, and OEM incentives appear at deal level in the Incentives Showroom.
The customer sees the same numbers on a customer deal page, brand skinned to your store, with PIN access, e-signature, revision view and deal chat, plus digital retail steps for build, document review, deal review and a shipping quote. The desking tool page shows the engine in detail.
Credit applications and the lender handoff
Before any product gets rated, the deal needs a secure credit application, and SecureWebX handles that inside the LeadLocate platform. Branded apply links go out by text or sit on your website, each customizable with extra sections, custom fields, document uploads and disclosures. The five step application supports co-applicants and ITIN as well as SSN, and captures e-signature and consent against versioned terms.
In the dealer console, the application inbox tracks status, assignee and notes, stipulations are fulfilled by upload, OFAC screening runs on the application, adverse action notices are generated from the application record, and state specific disclosures are managed in one place. Worksheets in SecureWebX match the CRM desking engine, and a desk can push its worksheet from DealTracker into SecureWebX. Send to Lender shares an application with the lender you choose through a code gated, expiring, revocable, watermarked link, and SecureWebX exports applications to your lender or DMS in the format it expects, including STAR XML, CSV and fixed width.
Every sign in uses two factor authentication, application data is encrypted at rest, and a full audit log records activity. The online credit application software page covers the applicant side step by step.
Leads in your zone, delivered to you and only you
Every LeadLocate plan with leads includes the CRM that receives and works them. In Leads Manager you choose the zone in the zone editor, review zip level stats, pick the campaign type, write the prescreening questions each shopper answers, and preview sample ads with See Samples. Our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections on the webXintel Ads Network, included with every plan.
Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with your questions, and backed by a replacement review through Quality Control Requests, so a bad lead costs you nothing. Shoppers arrive as a mix of people who named a vehicle and people still deciding, and stores that want acquisition inventory add car seller leads as well. We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or results, since those depend on your market and your follow up.
After delivery: the next deal and the next F&I opportunity
The customer who bought a service contract today is the trade-in and the next finance deal in a few years, and the relationship in between decides whether they come back. LeadLocate keeps that relationship alive.
Bulk texting and bulk email reach your sold customers with service reminders and trade-in offers, Email Automation and Text Automation run drips on their own, and voicemail drops reach a whole list in minutes. Missed service calls get a text back so a customer with a question does not become a customer at another store. The Referral Program gives customers a shared referral code and real rewards for sending friends, and Design Studio prints referral cards and business cards ready for the glovebox.
Every one of those touches lands on the same customer timeline as the original deal, so the next salesperson who picks up the phone knows the whole story.
Adding LeadLocate beside PEN in four weeks
Week one. Your account is set up for you, usually the same day. Add users and roles, import contacts, record voicemail greetings, and connect your website forms so every form creates a lead with the fields mapped.
Week two. Build distribution rules, Automated Templates, Follow Up Processes, the IVR call flow and the Forward Calls To ring list, and set Call Alerts on words such as "payment" or "warranty".
Week three. Set DealTracker deal defaults, customize SecureWebX apply links and disclosures, and send the first customer deal pages. Your finance office keeps rating and contracting products through PEN and its menu exactly as before.
Week four. Compare response time, appointments and applications against the month before in the activity, company and management reports. Training is included with every plan. Watch the recorded demo or review pricing for every plan, month to month.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we have to stop using PEN to use LeadLocate?
No. Keep PEN and your F&I menu for product rating, contracts and registration with your providers, and run LeadLocate beside them for leads, the CRM, communications, desking, customer deal pages and SecureWebX credit applications.
Where does product rating happen if we run both?
Product rating, contracts and remittance stay with PEN and the menu or dealer management system you run. LeadLocate delivers the customer, the desked deal, the documents and the secure credit application to your finance office.
Can a credit application taken in LeadLocate reach our lender or DMS?
Yes. Send to Lender shares an application through a code gated, expiring, watermarked link with the lender you choose, and SecureWebX exports applications in formats such as STAR XML, CSV and fixed width.
Does LeadLocate need DMS access or an inventory feed?
Neither is required. When you want inventory on your pages and in your messages, Inventory Link imports it from your website or from a feed.
Are leads shared with other dealers?
Never. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review.
How is LeadLocate priced?
Every plan is month to month and includes the CRM. The pricing page lists every plan, from CRM Only to plans with exclusive local buyer and seller leads.
Send more ready buyers to your finance office
Keep PEN on product rating and contracts and let LeadLocate bring in the shoppers, desk the deal and deliver a complete credit application. Call 844-376-2274 or book a demo.
Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.
LeadLocate™ All rights reserved. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Answers to your questions:
LeadLocate is an all-in-one lead generation software and CRM platform. We generate in-market sales leads and provide you with all the tools necessary to sell that customer. All of your leads, texts, calls, emails, deals, and files are available in one place, accessible with a single login.
LeadLocate™ All rights reserved. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Answers to your questions:
LeadLocate is an all-in-one lead generation software and CRM platform. We generate in-market sales leads and provide you with all the tools necessary to sell that customer. All of your leads, texts, calls, emails, deals, and files are available in one place, accessible with a single login.