Send Vehicles by Text: Inventory Insert in Every Message

Tap the car button, pick the unit, and the customer gets the photo, the price and the details in one message, from the inventory your store already keeps in Inventory Link.

The inventory insert puts a real unit from your lot into a text or an email with one tap: the photo attached, the price and details in the body, ready to send. That is the one sentence version. The button sits in every composer in LeadLocate CRM, a car icon whose tooltip reads Insert a vehicle from your inventory, and it opens a picker of the store's live inventory with a Photo, Vehicle, Stock and Price column for each unit, along with whether it is New or Pre-Owned, its mileage and its MSRP. Pick the car, and the composer fills in.

The inventory behind the button is Inventory Link, the dealer inventory software in the LeadLocate platform. It holds the store's units from a feed, or imports them from the dealer's own website when there is no feed, and it shows them in the CRM under the Inventory menu, on the phone app, and in this picker. The same unit a customer saw on the store's site is the unit the salesperson sends, with the same photo and the same price, because it is the same record.

This page is the product side view of one button. The automotive BDC text templates page covers what to say around the car, and the full features list shows where the insert sits among the rest of the texting and inventory tools.

A customer texts at 8:50 in the morning: still have the white one? The salesperson opens the thread in the SMS inbox, taps the car button, and the picker opens with the store's inventory. He types the stock number, or scrolls to the white pre-owned SUV the customer looked at on Saturday, and taps it. The composer now holds the vehicle's details with the photo attached. He adds a line, on the lot and washed, want to come see it at noon, and sends. The customer's phone shows the picture of the actual car with the price under it. That is a different message from the one that says yes it is still here.

At two, a different customer says the payment on the crossover is too high and asks what else the store has. The salesperson taps the car button again and picks two other units in two messages, each with its own photo and price, so the customer is comparing real cars with real numbers instead of a description. When she asks about the second one, the trackable short link on the listing shows she opened it, and he calls while she is looking.

At five, a rep in the service drive hears a customer say her lease is up in three months. She opens the LeadLocate mobile app, starts a new text, taps the car button, picks a unit from the inventory picker on her phone, and sends it before the customer's oil change is finished. No desk, no photo hunt, no typing a price from memory.

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.

In every composer. On desktop, the SMS inbox under the Messaging menu has the car button in the reply box of an open thread and in the new message box, next to the attachment button and the AI Writing Assistant. The email composer under the Email menu has the same button, and inserts the unit into an email with the photo rather than as an MMS. The deal view in DealTracker carries it too, so a rep working a deal sends the unit from the deal itself.

On the phone, the mobile app has the SMS composer with the same button and an inventory picker built for a thumb, plus an Inventory list with a detail sheet for browsing units before choosing one. A rep on the lot sends the same photo and price a rep at a desk would, from the same record.

The inventory itself is under the Inventory item on the main menu and the My Inventory tile on the dock, where a store sees its units, edits a vehicle and its photos, and marks a customer as In-Store Now when they are physically on the lot. The LeadLocate CRM product page walks through the menu if you want the map.

The picker lists the store's inventory with a Photo, a Vehicle description, the Stock number and the Price, with a New or Pre-Owned marker, the mileage and the MSRP where the feed carries them, and a filter to show everything or narrow down. While it loads it reads Collecting your inventory now. Tap a unit and the composer receives the vehicle's details as text and the vehicle's photo as an attachment, so the customer sees the picture in the message rather than a link they have to tap to see it.

If a unit has no photo on the feed, the details go out on their own and the composer says so, so the rep knows to add a picture from his phone or pick a different unit. Inventory Link also has promo photos and stock imagery for listings a photographer has not reached yet, covered on the stock photos for listings page, so a fresh trade can go out looking like a car rather than a blank.

What makes this different from attaching a photo by hand is the record. The unit came from the store's inventory, with the stock number and the price the store set, and the message is logged on the lead in the communications log with the rest of the conversation. A manager reading the thread a week later sees exactly which car was sent at what price, which is not something a photo from a personal phone can tell anyone.

The old way is a salesperson walking outside to take a picture of the car with his phone, texting it from his personal number, and typing the price from memory. The replacement is one tap. But the old way costs more than the walk. The photo lives on the rep's phone, not on the lead. The price he typed might be last week's. The text went out from a number the store does not own, which means the conversation goes with the rep when he leaves. And the customer who replies gets an answer only when that rep happens to look at his phone.

The other old way is a link to the store's website, which asks the customer to leave the text, load a page, and find the car. Some do. A photo in the message with the price under it asks nothing; the customer sees the car the moment the phone buzzes. Inventory Link is what makes that possible without a feed: it imports the store's units from the dealer's own website when there is no feed, and an inventory feed and DMS access are not required to use the platform, which is why a broker or a solo salesperson can send cars by text on the same day the account is created. The import inventory from your website page covers how.

The inventory insert is part of every LeadLocate plan, from CRM Only at $199 a month to the lead plans, with Inventory Link included. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.

Sending a car by text touches two things a store cares about: the price it advertises and the number it texts from. The insert pulls the price from the store's own inventory record, so the customer sees the price the store set rather than a number a rep remembered, and the same price they saw on the website. When the price changes in Inventory Link, the next insert carries the new one. That consistency is what keeps a store out of the conversation that starts with but your text said.

The text goes out from the CRM, on the store's own tracking number, with delivery status on the bubble and the message logged on the lead. Opt outs and the DNC Blacklist apply to it the way they apply to any text from the CRM, and consent to be texted is the store's responsibility before any car goes out; the do not call scrub and blacklist page covers that side. The photo that goes with it is one the store put on its own inventory record, not one pulled from anywhere else.

And the record stays with the store. A rep who leaves takes his personal phone and its photos; the CRM keeps the thread, the car, the price and the customer, assigned to whoever picks the lead up next.

The button is in every composer from the day the account is created. What it needs is inventory behind it. If the picker opens and reads that inventory is not set up for this account yet, that is the cue: contact our team, and we switch on the inventory feed for your dealership. A store with a feed connects it in Inventory Link; a store without one gives our team the address of its website, and Inventory Link imports the units from there. A broker with no lot gets brand offer pages connected instantly instead, covered on the auto broker inventory mode page.

Once inventory is flowing, the picker fills, the Inventory menu fills, and the mobile app's inventory list fills, all from the same record. A store that wants photos on every unit before the first send uses the promo photo and stock imagery tools in Inventory Link. If you want to see a car go out by text before you sign up, the pre-recorded live demo shows the picker, the tap and the message arriving on a phone.

Pair it with the AI Writing Assistant in the same composer, so the words around the car are drafted in the time it takes to pick the unit. Pair it with trackable short links, so a listing link sent alongside the photo reports back when the customer opens it. Pair it with the vehicle finder in Inventory Link when a customer describes a unit the store does not have on the lot, and with the OEM incentives showroom so the message about a new unit carries the offer that goes with it.

Pair it with Bulk Texting and Text Automation when a manager wants a unit in front of a list rather than one customer, and with the deal pages in DealTracker for the moment the customer says yes, when the car in the text becomes the car in the deal. Pair it with In-Store Now so the floor knows the customer who got the text this morning is on the lot this afternoon. Everything here is part of the same subscription, which is why the car button is in the composer and not in a separate app.

Do I need an inventory feed to send vehicles by text?

No. Inventory Link imports the store's units from the dealer's own website when there is no feed, and an inventory feed and DMS access are not required to use the platform. A store with a feed connects it; a store without one gives our team its website address.

What does the customer receive?

A text with the vehicle's photo attached and its details and price in the body, sent from the store's own number through the CRM. In email, the unit is inserted into the message with the photo.

Where is the vehicle button?

In every composer: the reply box and new message box of the SMS inbox on desktop, the email composer, the deal view in DealTracker, and the SMS composer in the mobile app, where the inventory picker is built for a phone.

What if a unit has no photo?

The details go out on their own and the composer tells the rep, so he can add a picture or choose another unit. Inventory Link also offers promo photos and stock imagery for listings a photographer has not reached.

Is the price in the text the same as on my website?

Yes. The insert pulls the price from the store's inventory record in Inventory Link, which is the same record the website inventory uses. Change the price there and the next insert carries the new one.

Is the inventory insert an add on?

No. It is part of every LeadLocate plan, from CRM Only up, with Inventory Link included.

The inventory insert and Inventory Link are part of every LeadLocate plan, month to month. See a unit picked in the composer and arrive on a phone with its photo and price.

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