Road to Sale Checklist on Every Deal

Nine steps on the deal view, the same steps on the customer's page, and a manager who can see at a glance where every deal is stuck.

The Road to Sale checklist puts the steps of a car deal on the deal itself, in order, so the salesperson knows what comes next, the manager knows where each deal stands, and the customer sees the same road on their own page. Every store has a road to the sale on a wall somewhere. The trouble is that the wall is not attached to any particular deal, so the question of where this customer is right now gets answered from memory. The checklist answers it from the record.

It lives at the top of the digital deal view under Desking, above the worksheet and the deal jacket, as a row of steps: deal type, vehicle selection, trade information, credit application, approval, final documents, stipulations, delivery and follow up. Each step opens a panel with the options and details for that step and a Mark Done action that saves the checkmark. The dealership desking software page explains why the money conversation belongs in the CRM; this page is about the steps around it.

It is the sales meeting and the manager has fourteen open deals. He opens each one from the deal list and reads the road before he reads anything else. Three deals show vehicle and trade done and credit application open: those customers have a deal page and no application yet, so the first task of the morning is three apply links. Two deals are at stipulations pending: the cockpit under the road shows which documents are still needed on each, a proof of income on one and a trade title on the other, so those two salespeople know exactly what to ask for and the customer sees the same request on their page. One deal is at ready for delivery with a delivery address on it, so the porter gets a name.

One deal has been sitting at approval for four days. The manager opens the panel, sees the lender note, and moves it forward himself. The next task panel under the road already says what the following action is. Nobody asked a salesperson to remember, nobody read a spreadsheet, and the meeting took ten minutes because the road did the reporting.

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The first step is the deal type: finance, lease, cash or acquisition. That choice does two things. It opens the matching tab on the EZ Desking worksheet, so a lease deal opens on lease math, and it sets the road. Finance and lease show the full path: vehicle, trade, credit, payment, documents, delivery and follow up. A cash deal hides the credit step, because there is no application to send. An acquisition deal, where the store is buying the customer's car outright, hides the sale vehicle, credit and payment steps and keeps trade or acquisition, documents, delivery and follow up, so a buying desk is not looking at a selling checklist.

The panels start collapsed and open when a step is clicked. Step specific options live inside each panel rather than in a separate status block, so the choice of pickup or home delivery is in the delivery panel and the approval note is in the approval panel. Deal statuses move with the road: vehicle selected, submitted to lender, approved, stipulations pending, ready for delivery, delivered, follow up and closed, and the same status shows on the deal list and in the LeadLocate mobile app.

Below the steps sit four panels that mirror what the customer has done on their page. The documents panel lists every document slot on the deal with its review status; the salesperson marks each one needed, uploaded, approved, rejected or requests it again, and the customer sees the change. The trades panel shows each trade package the customer has submitted, since a deal can carry more than one. The finance summary shows the path the deal is on and its stipulations. The next task panel names the next best action for this deal, which is the line a manager reads first.

Documents uploaded by the customer land on the deal for review and stay in the store's file library. Documents the salesperson uploads on the store's side attach to the same review list, marked as uploaded by the salesperson, so a license photographed at the desk and a payoff letter the customer sent from home sit in one list. The deal jacket and QR intake page covers the private folder those files also live in.

The customer's deal page carries the customer side of the checklist: vehicle, trade, credit, payment, documents, delivery and follow up. Each step can be checked off by the customer, and that progress is saved to the deal, so when a buyer checks the documents step at 9 p.m. the manager sees it at 8 a.m. The documents step lists the exact slots the store needs filled, driver license, insurance card, payoff letter, proof of income, proof of residence, trade title, co-buyer ID and any custom stipulation, and the customer uploads each from the phone camera. The trade step is where trade photos are added when the store has required them.

The road is what makes the customer page a process rather than a brochure. A buyer who can see that three of seven steps are done, and exactly which document is holding up the fourth, does not need a phone call to find out. A salesperson who can see the same seven steps does not need to guess. The customer deal pages page describes the page in full, and the deal chat card next to the road is where the customer asks about a step.

The usual substitutes are a whiteboard, a deal log spreadsheet the manager updates by hand, a stack of paper deal jackets with a checklist stapled to the front, and the manager's memory. All four go stale the moment the person maintaining them is busy, which is always. Separate deal management products fix that at a per rooftop price and then keep the checklist in a system the CRM cannot see, so the salesperson who owns the customer updates two records or, more often, one.

The Road to Sale checklist is part of the LeadLocate CRM subscription and sits on the same deal record as the worksheet, the customer page, the chat, the documents and the signature. It updates when the customer acts, not only when a manager remembers to. Plans are month to month and listed on the pricing page.

A deal file that only records the outcome is hard to defend. The checklist records the sequence: when the credit application step was opened, when the approval was marked, which documents were requested and which were approved, when a stipulation was requested again, and when delivery was marked done. Document review decisions are stored with a note. The customer's own checkmarks are saved with the deal, so the record shows what the buyer confirmed on their side, not only what the store asserted.

The credit step is a step, not a credit pull. The application itself is sent as a SecureWebX apply link and worked in SecureWebX, with its own consent capture, stipulations and adverse action notices; the checklist marks where the deal is in that process. Final contract paperwork, titling and the accounting entries stay in the finance office and the DMS. What the road gives the store is the timeline a compliance review or a customer dispute asks for, on every deal, without anyone keeping it by hand.

The road is on every deal in every LeadLocate CRM account. Pick the deal type when the deal is started and the matching steps appear. Marking steps done is the only habit to build, and the customer's own progress fills in the rest. The pre-recorded live demo shows a deal moving down the road from vehicle selection to delivery.

Pair it with the EZ Desking worksheets the payment step depends on, the trade in capture tools for the trade step, the deal jacket for the documents step, SecureWebX for the credit and stipulations steps, and the follow up processes that take over at the last step. The all features page lists everything else in the platform.

What are the steps on the Road to Sale checklist?

Deal type, vehicle selection, trade information, credit application, approval, final documents, stipulations, delivery and follow up. Each step is a panel on the deal view with a Mark Done action.

Does a cash deal show a credit application step?

No. The deal type sets the road. Cash hides the credit step, and an acquisition deal hides the sale vehicle, credit and payment steps and keeps trade, documents, delivery and follow up.

Can the customer see the checklist?

Yes. The customer's deal page carries the customer side of the road: vehicle, trade, credit, payment, documents, delivery and follow up. The customer checks steps off and uploads documents, and the deal view shows it.

How do I know which document is holding up a deal?

The documents panel under the road lists every slot with its status. Mark a document needed, uploaded, approved or rejected, or request it again, and the customer sees the same status on their page.

Does the checklist pull credit?

No. The credit application step tracks where the deal is. The application itself is sent as a SecureWebX apply link and worked there, and the store pulls credit through its own bureau account.

Is the checklist on the mobile app?

Deal statuses and the deal list are in Deal Tracker in the LeadLocate mobile app, with the deal jacket and customer chat. The full road with its panels is built for the desktop deal view.

The Road to Sale checklist is part of every LeadLocate CRM plan, month to month. Start a deal, pick the type, and see every step and every missing document in one place.

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