Sincro Alternative for Car Dealerships

Before you shop a replacement, be precise about which part of the relationship you are unhappy with. Most stores are unhappy with one of three separate things.

This is the comparison most likely to be made badly, so it is worth slowing down for a paragraph.

Sincro is publicly known as an automotive digital marketing and dealer website provider: sites, paid advertising, search and display, and managed marketing services, with participation in manufacturer digital programs. Packaging, ownership and program eligibility in this corner of the market change often, so verify current capability, program status and pricing directly with the vendor rather than relying on any comparison page, this one included.

LeadLocate is a different animal. It is a lead generation platform with a full CRM built around it, sold month to month to dealerships and to individual salespeople. We supply leads and the system that works them. We do not build or host full dealer websites, we are not an OEM compliant website provider, and we do not run manufacturer co-op advertising programs.

So a straight swap is usually the wrong frame. The useful question is which of your three problems you are trying to fix: the website itself, the advertising and who controls it, or what happens to a lead after it arrives. Those have different answers and only the last two are ours.

Give the category its due, because there are real reasons stores use it.

A full service digital marketing provider takes the website off your plate. Hosting, templates, merchandising of your inventory on your own site, page updates, and the compliance and brand requirements that come with a franchise point. If you are a franchise dealer, manufacturer website and advertising program requirements are not optional, and a provider that is inside those programs removes a category of risk and often unlocks co-op money you would otherwise leave on the table.

On the advertising side, you get managed campaigns rather than a console you have to run yourself. For a store without an internal marketing person, that is not laziness, it is the correct decision. Somebody has to write the ads, manage the budget and watch the placements, and a two person marketing department at a single point usually cannot.

Judge them on the things that matter in that category: what your site actually converts at, whether you can get a change made in a day rather than a month, how spend is reported, and whether you can see what you paid for. Features and program participation change, so confirm with the vendor.

We start at a different end of the funnel. The lead side delivers exclusive local leads inside a territory you pick, and they are not resold to three other stores. Two families: inbound buyer leads from in market shoppers, and opt in seller leads from local owners who filled out a vehicle offer request and asked to be contacted about selling. Leads are a mix of VIN specific and open shoppers. Nothing is filtered or scored. We ask pre screening questions at capture, deliver every submitted lead in the zone exclusively, and handle problems by post delivery replacement review rather than by a quality claim made up front.

The CRM side is where most of the surface area is: lead inbox and distribution rules, SMS and MMS with RCS and automatic SMS fallback, click to call with a VoIP softphone, call recording with transcription, voicemail drop, email with a real inbox and composer, bulk email, automations and follow up processes, drip campaigns, appointments and reminders, desking covering loan and lease with a fifty state tax matrix, deal jackets and customer facing deal pages with e-signature, and three layers of reporting.

There are tools most dealers do not expect a CRM to include: an email validator, a phone validator, document reading with VIN scanning, and IVR with call routing through AutoMail. See the CRM overview for the full picture.

Features, packaging and pricing change in this market faster than any page can track. Confirm anything that will drive your decision with each vendor directly.

We would rather tell you this now than have you switch and switch back.

• You are a franchise store and manufacturer website or digital advertising program requirements affect your money. That is a hard requirement and we do not meet it.
• You need a full dealer website with your inventory merchandised on it, hosted and maintained by somebody else.
• You have no internal marketing capability and you want campaigns written, managed and optimized for you rather than a console to run.
• Co-op reimbursement through an approved provider is a meaningful part of your advertising budget.
• Your site converts well and your problem is really what happens to the leads afterward, in which case you should be shopping for the CRM layer rather than replacing the website.

That last point is the one dealers most often get backwards, and it is worth a look at your own numbers before you spend anything.

The case is strongest when several of these are true together.

• You want a vendor to supply lead volume rather than only generating it from your existing traffic, and you want those leads exclusive to your store inside a defined territory.
• You want lead generation and the CRM on one bill instead of stitching two vendors together and owning the integration yourself.
• You want to run your own campaigns. The Leads Manager campaign builder with a zone editor lets you draw the territory and launch without waiting on an account manager.
• Contract length is a sticking point. We are month to month, so staying is a monthly decision.
• You are independent, used car, or buy here pay here, where manufacturer program requirements do not apply and you are free to buy on merit.
• You are an individual salesperson or a broker. A personal salesperson website plus the CRM works without a DMS integration or an inventory feed, neither of which is required.

For the acquisition side, car seller leads covers how the opt in seller side works.

Being specific here saves everyone a wasted demo.

What we would replace or reduce: a separate CRM subscription, a separate texting tool, a separate call tracking and recording tool, a separate chat widget, a separate landing page builder, and third party lead purchases if our territory volume covers what you need. We include lead pages with per page URL settings, a free live chat widget for your existing site, personal salesperson websites, a paid ads module with targeting, campaign tools and attribution reporting.

What we would not replace: your main dealer website. We do not build or host a full franchise dealership site, we do not handle manufacturer brand compliance on one, and we are not an approved OEM website provider. If your site is the problem, we are not the fix and you should keep shopping in that category. The website provider alternatives page is the more useful place to start for that.

Plenty of stores run both. Keep the website and program advertising where it is, move the lead generation and the CRM to us, and stop paying two vendors to do the same follow up badly.

The subscription difference is usually the smallest number in a marketing vendor change. The costs that hurt are the quiet ones.

1. Rankings and URLs. If a website move is involved, redirects are the whole game. A migration done without a mapped redirect plan can cost you organic traffic that took years to build, and getting it back takes longer than losing it did.
2. Creative and assets. Find out what you own. Photography, video, ad creative and page content are not always yours to take, and that question is much easier to ask before signature than during an exit.
3. Tracking continuity. Analytics, call tracking numbers and conversion tags all have to be carried across or your before and after comparison is meaningless.
4. Data. Customer records, form submissions and communication history. Ask what you can export, in what format, and whether the history comes with it.
5. Attention. The real cost. Somebody at your store has to run the change, and it is usually the person already doing three jobs.

The sequencing for a site move is on the website migration checklist.

These separate vendors faster than any feature list, and the answers should be written down.

What is the total monthly cost with everything I actually need, and what is it at renewal? What is the contract length and what is the cancellation process? Who owns the website, the creative, the phone numbers and the customer data, and what can I take with me? If advertising is managed, what percentage of my spend is fee and what reaches the platform? How is a lead attributed, and can I see the raw source rather than a summarized dashboard? If leads are supplied, are they exclusive to my store, how is the territory defined, and what happens when one is bad?

Ask us the same ones. Our answers: month to month with no long term contract, your data is yours, territory is drawn with you and leads inside it come to you exclusively, and lead problems go through post delivery replacement review. We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or sales results, and any vendor who does is selling something other than software.

If you want to see it rather than read about it, the demo is the fastest route, pricing is on the pricing page, and you can contact us if you would rather just ask whether we fit.

Is LeadLocate a direct replacement for Sincro?

Not usually. Sincro sits in the dealer website and digital marketing category. We are lead generation plus a full CRM. We can replace a separate CRM, texting tool, chat widget and landing page builder, and supply exclusive local leads, but we do not build or host a full dealer website.

Do you provide OEM compliant dealership websites?

No. We are not an approved OEM website provider and we are not an OEM certified CRM. If manufacturer program requirements apply to your store, that is a hard requirement we do not meet and you should keep a provider who does.

What website capability do you actually have?

Lead pages with per page URL settings, personal salesperson websites built from a template, a free live chat widget you can put on your existing site, and customer facing deal pages. That is a lead capture layer, not a full dealership website platform.

Can we keep our current website and still use LeadLocate?

Yes, and plenty of stores do exactly that. Keep the site and program advertising where they are, put the chat widget and lead pages to work, and move the lead generation and CRM across.

Who runs the advertising campaigns?

You do, through the Leads Manager campaign builder with a zone editor and the paid ads module with targeting. That suits stores that want control. If you want a managed service where somebody writes and optimizes the campaigns for you, an agency model fits better.

Are the leads exclusive?

Yes. You choose a territory around your store and leads inside that zone come to you and are not resold to other dealerships. Nothing is filtered or scored, and problems are handled by post delivery replacement review.

See exclusive local leads land in a CRM that texts, calls, records, transcribes and desks them. Month to month, no long term contract.